When you touch, the bond awakens, but only for a chosen few.In this world, you're a settler or a searcher. Settlers pick a partner of their choosing, but the searchers spend their lives seeking out the person made for them. Most die without finding the one.Emry Crowe's a settler, and happy in her life with Sebastian. When a chance encounter causes Theo's hand to graze her skin, destiny has other plans.Theo's neither a searcher nor a settler, knowing his journey will be shorter than most... moreWhen you touch, the bond awakens, but only for a chosen few.In this world, you're a settler or a searcher. Settlers pick a partner of their choosing, but the searchers spend their lives seeking out the person made for them. Most die without finding the one.Emry Crowe's a settler, and happy in her life with Sebastian. When a chance encounter causes Theo's hand to graze her skin, destiny has other plans.Theo's neither a searcher nor a settler, knowing his journey will be shorter than most. When the bond brings him to Emry, he has a second chance at life.Emry's devotion to her husband never sways, but the pull between her and Theo may be too much. The three of them battle the laws of nature, wanting a happy ending on their own terms. When challenges arise that threaten everyone's future, both men decide their love for Emry might just change the rules.The Fate and Flame duet releases back to back, on 10/01/23 & 10/13/23***There is no cheating in this duet***★★★★★ Liz has such a way with her writing style that makes you not want to put the book down and I honestly couldn’t get enough.★★★★★ Liz’s books always have so many layers to peel back.★★★★★ Liz Hambleton does a great job of creating people that you can't quite trust.★★★★★ If you haven’t read anything by Liz yet, what the heck are you doing?!★★★★★ The way Liz writes keeps you connected and creates a want in you to keep reading and see how the story plays out. The Bond It was spontaneous, the discovery of the bond. One couple first and then a dozen, all of them granted youth and health because they touched the skin of their one true person. Their love for each other was immediate but true, and once bondmates found each other, they were never apart. As the world watched in awe, two groups formed amongst its inhabitants. Searchers and Settlers. Searchers spent their lives looking for their bonded, and since the only way to find their fated partner was by skin-to-skin contact, everyone within reach was a candidate. It became the norm, people brushing against your body everywhere you went, but the bond was rare, and very few were granted the spark of its existence. Settlers opted for a traditional life, finding a partner and settling down to enjoy their family. Wedding bands were replaced by tattoos, symbolizing the permanency of their choice in the face of a world obsessed with bonding. Years went on and the business of the bond became the most lucrative enterprise. As greed often does, it bred sinister endeavors. The Genome Theory fronted as a research facility, capturing and holding lost youths, using them for torturous scientific research in desperation to find the key to the bond. After years of going undiscovered, a competitor, NeXus, uncovered the kidnappings and infiltrated Genome’s operation, rescuing hundreds of children who had undergone years of abuse. To this day, no one knows why bondmates exist or how they find one another. less