The city of Mnemonic runs on stolen memories. The wealthy buy happy threads from the poor, and the poor walk around in a haze of second-hand grief they cannot name. Elara Voss is the best memory Forger in the Underlayer, a Master Stitcher who can build false memories indistinguishable from real ones. She has one rule: never touch your own past.
When the Silver Guard arrests her on charges that carry execution, she is offered an alternative. Perform a Soul-Write on the Thorne heir, the man they call the King of Echoes, whose mind has been destabilized by a curse that forces him to experience every death in his bloodline. Stabilize his architecture, and she lives. Refuse, and she dies.
Kaelen Thorne has spent four years protecting a door in his memory space. He does not know what is inside it. He only knows that it is precious, that something has been trying to take it from him, and that he has sealed it shut thirteen times. When Elara enters his architecture, the door responds to her. The resonance between their minds is immediate and undeniable.
As she peels back the layers of the door, she discovers fragments of memories that belong to her. Moments she does not remember. A market corridor. A palace garden. A library late at night. A rooftop overlooking the city. She was there. He was there. They were together.
Someone has been erasing them. Systematically, thoroughly, for four years. The Archivist, the anonymous administrator who controls Mnemonic's memory archive, has been removing Elara from Kaelen's mind and Kaelen from Elara's mind. Thirteen times they have found each other. Thirteen times they have been erased. The love has survived every time.
But the Archivist did not bring them back together out of mercy. The oldest layer of the door contains the documentation of the curse itself, the key to a technique that could bind any practitioner to the Gilded Tier permanently. Enslave them architecturally. The Archivist needs Elara to open the door. And when the door is open, she will have no further use for either of them.
With a former court administrator, a reluctant Silver Guard commander, and an army of Stitchers from the Underlayer, Elara and Kaelen must race to recover the full history of their love and expose the Archivist's conspiracy before the door closes forever. The cost is Elara's own memories, lost to the accelerating blur. The prize is a future where love is not a weapon and no one has to forget.
The Memory Thief is a complete standalone YA romantasy in the same universe as Starshattered and A Court of Borrowed Bones. Perfect for readers of Divine Rivals, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Forced proximity. Erased love. A slow-burn bond that survives everything. And a girl who refuses to let the system take her past, her future, or the person she has loved through thirteen erasures.
Autorentext
Sophia Hartford is a contemporary romance author who writes about ambitious professionals finding love in the most unexpected places. Her debut novel, MEASURED RISK, centers on the beautiful collision between career ambition and matters of the heart?exploring what happens when two driven people refuse to choose between success and love.
Sophia is fascinated by stories of transformation. She believes that the best love stories are the ones that challenge us to be braver, stronger, and more authentic versions of ourselves. Through her writing, she explores the complexity of modern relationships, the power of vulnerability, and the courage it takes to build something meaningful with another person.
When she's not writing, Sophia can be found:
✓ Exploring NYC neighborhoods for inspiration ✓ Enjoying vanilla lattes and good conversation ✓ Reading everything from literary fiction to romance ✓ Researching architecture and urban development ✓ Dreaming up the next meet-cute
MEASURED RISK is her debut novel and the first in what she hopes will be a long career of writing stories that celebrate ambition, romance, and the beautiful risks we take for love.
She is currently working on her next contemporary romance novel and would love to connect with readers.