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C.S. Straid
writes dark romance for readers who want the obsession, not the apology.
Author of The Evidence Trilogy, a love story that comes with a content warning. Book One is free when you join the reader team.
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Book One · Out now
Evidence of Desire
She pressed record. He never stopped.
Read it free →Free when you join the reader team. You'll also get Book Two before it's out.
Or get it on AmazonThe story
Margot Dunn has a bet, a microcassette recorder, and nine weeks to win.
Seduce Matthias Valenti. Get him on tape at Winter Formal, in front of two hundred witnesses. Walk off the stage clean. Lose, and the next voice on record will be hers.
Matthias is barely older, a quiet spring transfer who lives off campus and reads like a ghost. He does not flinch when she points the recorder at him. He waits. He watches. He lets her think she is leading.
In a rain-soaked Pacific Northwest college town, 1998, two people are building the same kind of proof for very different reasons. By Winter Formal, someone will have to speak into the microphone. Not everyone will walk off the stage the way they planned.
Book One of The Evidence Trilogy · 475 pages · released 2026.
If you love
Beautiful Disaster meets Gone Girl.
For readers of H.D. Carlton and Navessa Allen.
Tropes
Heat & discretion
Spice 4.5 / 5 · explicit, control-focused.
Not a safe or redemptive love model.
Content warnings
Stalking and covert surveillance, psychological manipulation, engineered relationship sabotage, explicit sexual content, power and financial imbalance, public humiliation, betrayal by a close friend, parental emotional abuse and financial control, academic power abuse, class shame, and alcohol in college settings.
The Evidence Trilogy
Book Two · Pre-order · Jan 1, 2027
Evidence of Intent
His father built the cage. He walked back in for her.
Getting out was supposed to be the hard part.
Book Three · Pre-order · Jul 1, 2027
Evidence of Reckoning
She pressed stop. The past never did.
Some debts do not die with the men who owe them.
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Reader team
Book One free, Book Two early
Join the reader team and download Evidence of Desire free today. You'll get Evidence of Intent before it comes out on January 1. If you enjoy them, an honest review helps the next reader find them. There's no obligation.
Get the free book →Bonus story
The Regular at Table Seven
A story from the margins of Evidence of Desire: the regular at table seven and the girl whose coffee he pays for, told by the barista who poured it. Yours when you join the list, along with Book One free, and you'll hear first when Evidence of Intent comes out.
Get the free story →About C.S. Straid
Their books pair obsessive men with heroines who have plans of their own, and they don't stop when being watched starts to feel like being chosen.
They have a weakness for 1998, rain on glass, analog tape, and the small red light that means someone is still listening. They keep their own life offline and their characters' secrets on the page.
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