Credence

Description

The explosive, multi-million-copy global bestseller, BookTok sensation, and undisputed masterpiece of dark contemporary taboo romance! From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Penelope Douglas comes Credence—a brilliantly written, fast-paced, and intensely atmospheric New Adult novel. Merging the raw, unforgiving wilderness of the Colorado mountains with a scorching, high-steam narrative of isolation, survival, and complex human dynamics, this unputdownable book delivers a spectacular mix of psychological depth, boundary-pushing tension, and unforgettable emotional intensity that will keep you glued to the page.

Tiernan de Haas doesn’t care about anything anymore. As the only child of a high-profile Hollywood film producer and his glamorous starlet wife, she has grown up surrounded by immense wealth, luxury, and social privilege—but completely starved of real love, warmth, or basic parental guidance. Shipped off to distant, highly structured boarding schools from a very early age, it was entirely impossible for her to escape a suffocating sense of loneliness or carve out an authentic life of her own. The inescapable shadow of her parents’ towering global fame followed her everywhere she went. When both parents suddenly and tragically pass away, Tiernan knows she should be entirely devastated. But as she looks at her new reality, she is forced to wonder: has anything truly changed? She has always been completely alone anyway.

Enter Jake Van der Berg, her father’s stepbrother and her only living relative. Jake steps in to assume legal guardianship of Tiernan, who is still two months shy of her eighteenth birthday. Upending her isolated life, he brings her to live deep in the rugged, snow-locked mountains of Colorado alongside his two grown sons, Noah and Kaleb. Far away from the flashing cameras of Hollywood and the expectations of society, Tiernan enters a completely different, high-performance world. She quickly learns that these three rugged, fiercely protective men now have a definitive say in what she chooses to care about.

As the winter storms roll in, cutting them off from civilization, the three men take Tiernan under their wing. Together, they teach her how to work, adapt, and physically survive in the remote, unscripted woods. Within this tight-knit, isolated domestic structure, Tiernan slowly sheds her emotional numbness and finds her true place among them—and eventually, as an inseparable part of them. In the quiet of the wilderness, away from the judgment of the outside world, traditional lines begin to blur, and rigid societal rules become incredibly easy to break when no one else is watching. One of them has her heart. The other one desperately wants her. But he… he is going to permanently keep her.

Masterfully executing the dark contemporary romance, forced proximity, small-town/isolated cabin, forbidden/taboo love triangle, and survivalist tropes, Credence delivers a beautifully structured and deeply provocative narrative. Brimming with raw emotional healing, intense psychological warfare, and an unforgettable protective possessiveness, this premium Berkley paperback edition is an essential, mandatory masterpiece for mature contemporary romance collectors.

Note: This is a full-length, complete standalone novel intended strictly for mature readers aged 18+ due to explicit content and dark themes.