It's been months since Earth supported a pro-Purity coup on Baldwin, and Laith Ritter is settling into his new home on Europa Station. He's a hit at work, he's building a life with his boyfriend and Dom, Dorian Vidales, and he's found a family, one that he would do anything for. He's even caught the eye of his handsome coworker, Omar. On the surface, it would seem Laith's star is on the rise and still climbing.

But in reality, he's struggling. And so is Dorian. He's desperately trying to find his boyfriend, Kenny, and figure out how to help his coworkers who got arrested the night of the raid. And unlike Laith, Dorian's not as big a hit as he used to be, which is hurting his already fragile ego. With their relationship already shaky, the last thing they need is to get swept up in more chaos. But some always manages to find them...

When a client is found murdered, it's up to Laith to figure out who really killed him and why. But the list of suspects is long-and some of them are people he cares about. As he and Omar work together to clear an innocent man's name, Laith uncovers secrets that he'd rather not know, ones that throw what he believed about some of the most important people in his life into question. Can he find the murderer before it's too late? And can Dorian and Laith's rocky romance survive the chaos?

The Lion and the Dahlia continues the epic queer erotic sci-fi romance series that began with The Orchid and the Lion and sends Dorian and Laith hurtling towards a fierce battle to reclaim the home they lost.

CWs: This book is sexually explicit, and contains profanity, kinks, and fetishes that may not be everyone's cup of tea. Some of these characters use drugs and/or alcohol, and several of them smoke. This book deals a lot with relationship issues and mental health struggles, and some of the characters are dealing with anxiety, depression, PTSD, alcoholism, drug addiction, and trauma. Due to the overarching fight against Purity Culture in the series, the characters also discuss and deal with transphobia, homophobia, whorephobia, etc., none of which are presented positively. The following content may also be upsetting to some readers, though some of these are more prevalent than others: death, mentions of suicide, mentions of unwanted groping, blood, dead body, murder, war, hospitalization, unsupportive families, therapy, dysphoria, coming out, police being douchebags, judging people because of their addictions, loss of partner, vomiting, guns, fascism, violence, and injury. I tried to approach each of these topics with respect and use them only as the story required them.