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The Match, Set Down: A Novel Of Betrayal, Dark Romance, And The Quiet Work Of Becoming Unbreakable
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Apr 7 2026
Pages: 322
Weight: 0.95
Height: 0.67 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Two years of unyielding loyalty. One phone call that destroyed it all. And a calculated vengeance that will burn his world to the ground.
Shay Donovan is a professional fixer. As a high-burn digital marketing strategist in Chicago, her entire life is dedicated to holding up the collapsing structures of everyone around her. For two years, she has been the sole emotional and financial scaffolding for Bryce Talbot, her long-distance boyfriend in Denver. She has wired him rent money, managed his panic attacks, and written the corporate scripts that saved his job, all while clinging to the fragile promise of a future together.
She thought her boundless empathy was the cure for his brokenness. She was wrong.
When a devastating confession shatters the illusion, Shay discovers the horrifying truth: Bryce isn't a tragic victim of circumstance. He is a predator. He has been weaponizing his trauma to siphon her life away, all while carrying on multiple affairs-including one with a married mother.
But Shay Donovan is done being the shock absorber.
Instead of breaking, she pivots. Enter Grant Mercer, the terrifyingly still, razor-sharp founder of a boutique reputation-management firm that specializes in corporate ruin. Grant doesn't offer Shay pity; he offers her an apprenticeship in the dark arts of consequence. Together, they map the exact architecture of Bryce's life, preparing to systematically dismantle his career, his finances, and his toxic safe harbors using a bloodless, flawless strategy known as the Doctrine of Friction.
As the slow-burn, agonizingly tense partnership between Shay and Grant deepens from mentorship into a suffocating, electrifying dark romance, Shay must navigate the perilous line between justice and cruelty. She is no longer the soft girl waiting for a rescue. She is the architect. And the match has just been struck.
Perfect for readers who crave psychological suspense, intricate revenge plots, and a fiercely independent female protagonist. The Match, Set Down is a gripping contemporary dark romance about the shattering pain of infidelity and the terrifying, intoxicating power of reclaiming your own life.
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