The Last Blackmere. The Meridian Ruins, #1

For ten years, Liora Blackmere believed the cabin was her prison. Her uncle Severin kidnapped her as a teenager and hid her deep in the northern woods, claiming the world beyond the trees was collapsing. He taught her how to survive winter, build fires, read maps, set traps, treat wounds, and trust no one. Liora hated every lesson. Then she escaped. But the road beyond the pines does not lead back to civilization.
It leads to abandoned towns, burned banks, empty police stations, armed survivors, barter markets, and settlements struggling to survive without governments, money, or law. The world really did fall. And her family helped break it. Liora discovers that House Blackmere was part of the Meridian Trust, a secret network of powerful families that planned for the collapse and now intends to return as the rulers of what remains.
To them, Liora is not just a missing daughter. She is a bloodline heir, a symbol of legitimacy, and a key to Phase Three: Reclamation. As Meridian closes in, Liora must decide who to trust: the survivors who fear her name, the uncle who stole her life to save her body, or the family waiting behind Meridian walls to welcome her home. Dark, atmospheric, and tense, The Last Blackmere is Book 1 of The Meridian Ruins, a dystopian suspense series about survival, inherited guilt, elite power, and the terrifying cost of being useful to the wrong people.