{"product_id":"piecework","title":"Piecework","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e★ PRE-ORDER. Your eBook is delivered November 19, 2026, direct from the author, a week before every other bookseller.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAt a glance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nBook 1 of the Ask Me Again trilogy. All three books are written and on sale now, so there is no waiting for book two.\u003cbr\u003e\nSlow-burn historical paranormal romance. Boston, 1913 to 1921. 399 pages.\u003cbr\u003e\nSteamy: open door, explicit, and it takes a war to get there.\u003cbr\u003e\nSlower and closer than the Fallen Response Unit books: a love story first, with the magic underneath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShe won't ask. He can't lie. And someone is keeping score.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBoston, 1913. Vivienne Morrow steps off the boat with sixteen American cents sewn into her cuff and a letter promising her brother will meet her at the pier. He doesn't. The address is wrong. The only door open to a girl with a carpetbag is the one on Kneeland Street, past a picket line of women who spit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSeven years of piecework will teach her how to survive on arithmetic. It cannot teach her what to do when a stranger offers the one thing she's sworn never to ask for.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePhelan has been tending South Boston since before the street was paved. He pours a fair pint, keeps the regulars out of trouble, and walks the old wards at night, patching the places where something dark leaks through. He is not what he looks. He cannot say a false word without it costing him blood. He has built a life with exactly one rule: nobody gets close.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eVivienne gets close.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBetween a ledger and a lamp, through a strike, a war, a plague, and the long reach of the law, they build something that has no business lasting. But love in this city always comes with a price, and Vivienne is the sort of woman who has always known to the penny what things cost.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReaders on the Fallen Response Unit series\u003c\/strong\u003e (Piecework delivers November 19, so it has no reviews yet; these are readers of the same author and the same Boston)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"S.D. Maynard has written a series that I am more than happy to fall back into each time a new book is released.\"\u003c\/em\u003e Heather L., Amazon review, Crimson Tides\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"It's not often you get to meet a black male character that is so vulnerable and has the patience of time itself. I loved the relationship between Emma and Azrael. This was a story of love, redemption, and forgiveness.\"\u003c\/em\u003e Jenelsia Parham, Goodreads, Broken Chains\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"I have never read S.D. Maynard before. What a wonderful discovery! I was grabbed by the detail and the almost poetic descriptions of her characters.\"\u003c\/em\u003e lisa, Amazon review, Broken Chains\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTropes \u0026amp; content include:\u003c\/strong\u003e slow burn · second chance at love · he pays for every lie · immigrant heroine · old Irish magic in a new world · found family · Death as the friend at the end of the bar · historical Boston, 1913 to 1921\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eContent notes:\u003c\/strong\u003e on-page sex (open door) · serious illness and the 1918 flu · labor violence and police brutality · death · alcohol and Prohibition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet all three.\u003c\/strong\u003e The \u003ca href=\"\/es\/products\/ask-me-again-ebook-bundle\"\u003eAsk Me Again eBook Bundle\u003c\/a\u003e is $12 for all three eBooks, $2.97 less than buying them one at a time. Prefer paper? \u003ca href=\"\/es\/products\/piecework-paperback\"\u003ePiecework in paperback\u003c\/a\u003e is $18.99 and ships now, and the \u003ca href=\"\/es\/products\/ask-me-again-paperback-set\"\u003epaperback set\u003c\/a\u003e is $49, $7.97 less than the three separately.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSeries note:\u003c\/strong\u003e Vivienne and Phelan first appeared in \u003cem\u003eBroken Chains\u003c\/em\u003e (The Fallen Response Unit, Book 4), but you can start here. Ask Me Again stands on its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePIECEWORK is the first book in the Ask Me Again series: a slow-burn historical romance with old magic, found family, and a love worth earning twice. For readers of The Night Circus, A Discovery of Witches, and anyone who has ever done the sums on the back of a pay envelope.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"S.D. Maynard","offers":[{"title":"eBook","offer_id":46076400107589,"sku":"AMA01-PIECEWORK","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0728\/0269\/7285\/files\/piecework.jpg?v=1792512895","url":"https:\/\/shop.sd-maynard.com\/es\/products\/piecework","provider":"S.D. MAYNARD BOOKS","version":"1.0","type":"link"}