Flock

Kate Stewart’s novel Flock (2024), a contemporary romance that blends dark romance and erotic suspense, is the first installment in Stewart’s Ravenhood trilogy. 

Written in the first person point of view from protagonist Cecelia Horner, the novel is set in Triple Falls, a fictional town in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. When Cecelia is 19 years old, she leaves her life and mother in Peachtree City to move in with her wealthy father, Roman Horner. She hopes that if she works for his company Horner Technologies for a year, he’ll relinquish her inheritance so she’ll be able to support herself and her mom. However, her fraught relationship with her father, her difficult working conditions at Horner Tech, and her love affairs with the mysterious Sean Roberts and Dominic King, who are part of a secret society called the Ravenhood, complicate Cecelia’s life. Her attempts to navigate these conflicts inspire the novel’s explorations of the Entanglement of Past and Present, the Challenges of Protecting Identity in Relationships, and the Costs of Forbidden Love. 

This guide refers to the 2024 Kensington Books paperback edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain descriptions of sexual violence, emotional abuse, and substance misuse. 

Plot Summary

Twenty-six-year-old Cecelia Horner is driving back to Triple Falls, North Carolina, seven years after she lived in the town with her father, Roman Horner. On the way, she reflects on her recent breakup with her fiancé and considers everything that happened to her the last time she was in Triple Falls. She silently acknowledges her complex beliefs about love and intimacy and decides that it’s time to make sense of everything she’s gone through in her relationships.

The novel flashes back to Cecelia at 19 years old. Cecelia has decided to move in with her father in Triple Falls and leave her life in Peachtree City because her mom moved in with her boyfriend. Cecelia hopes that if she works for Roman’s corporation Horner Technologies, Roman will hand over her inheritance so she can support her mom and enroll in college classes. Cecelia, who has never had a close relationship with Roman, tries to connect with him when they have their regularly scheduled meals together. However, Roman is cold and does nothing to reciprocate.

Feeling alone, Cecelia is relieved when she meets Sean Roberts, her new supervisor at Horner Tech. Sean is attractive and friendly and invites her to spend time with him and his friends. While hanging out at their house, Cecelia realizes they’re a found family and wonders if she might join their group. In high school, she didn’t party and kept to herself. She tried to be responsible so she could support her mom, who has depression and has moved from one relationship to the next. At Sean’s house, Cecelia studies Sean’s friends and realizes she can reinvent herself.

Cecelia and Sean start spending all their time together. They take swims in Cecelia’s pool every morning before work or go on hikes. Sean hates technology, time, schedules, and rules and demands that Cecelia be present when they’re with each other. They start dating and having sex.

Meanwhile, Cecelia develops feelings for Sean’s best friend and roommate Dominic King. Whenever she sees Dominic, she feels attracted to him. However, Dominic is often distant and hostile. Then one day, Sean invites Dominic to spend the day with him and Cecelia on the water. Beforehand, Sean suggests to Cecelia that the three of them should enter a relationship. Out on the water, the three have sex.

In the weeks after this sexual encounter, Cecelia begins seeing both Sean and Dominic. She initially feels confused as to how she should navigate their relationship. However, Sean and Dominic assure her that she’s doing nothing wrong. Over time, Cecelia falls in love with both men. She doesn’t tell her best friend Christy from home about the relationships and stops keeping in touch with her mom. She’s afraid they won’t understand her new lifestyle and is also so immersed that she can think of little else besides Sean and Dominic. The three spend their days having sex, lying in bed, reading, racing cars, smoking cannabis, and eating.

Meanwhile, Cecelia gradually discovers that Sean and Dominic are involved in a secret society known as the Ravenhood. The members of the group take money from corporations and banks and give it to struggling businesses in the area. Cecelia is initially skeptical but comes to support their efforts.

Then one day, Sean and Dominic inform Cecelia that someone has exposed their work and that they’re under threat. Not long after, Sean and Dominic break up with Cecelia by humiliating her in front of their group. 

Hurt and angry, Cecelia takes two weeks off from work to spend time with Christy and her mom. While away, she realizes that she’s let herself get caught up with Sean and Dominic. 

When her two week break ends, she returns to Triple Falls and decides to get her revenge on Sean and Dominic. Both men confront her for running away. They insist that she belongs to them, that they love her, and that they are only trying to protect her. They have reason to believe that Roman killed Dominic’s parents, former Horner Tech employees. They don’t want her getting involved in the investigation and getting hurt. Still skeptical, Cecelia tries to orchestrate another meeting with them. However, instead of Sean and Dominic, a mysterious man appears at Cecelia’s house.