Hilarina and the Ogre (Hilarina Ever After, #1)

2026 | Contemporary | LGBTQ+ | Romance

Hilary Davis knows how to disappear.

After years of being mocked as "Hilarina Ballerina," he's perfected the act. He has a popular girlfriend he can't stand, friends he doesn't trust, and a strict rule never to dance where anyone can see. It's a brittle kind of safety, but it's all he has.

Then he meets Trenton Wells.

Massive, solemn, and the school's most devoted outcast, Trenton doesn't play by anyone's rules. He reads through every class, speaks with unnerving calm, and sees straight through every mask Hilary wears — including the ones Hilary himself doesn't know he's wearing.

What starts as a simple trade (calculus tutoring for ballet lessons) becomes something neither of them can walk away from. Choosing Trenton means losing every shield Hilary built to survive. But as the town's cruelty sharpens from slurs to violence, Trenton is willing to become any kind of monster to keep Hilary safe, and Hilary will tear his own world apart to stay at his ogre's side.

What they don't know yet is that some devotions outlast memory itself — and some damage can only be undone by the people brave enough to keep choosing each other.

Spanning youth and adult trauma, Hilarina and the Ogre is a dark, fiercely tender queer romance exploring the scars of first love, the fragile hope of second chances, and the unyielding weight of an absolute love.

October Arden (Author)