The Ritual (2021) by Shantel Tessier is the first installment in the American romance author’s L.O.R.D.S. series, which charts a violent secret society and its members, including their sexual relationships. A dark erotic romance, The Ritual explores themes of The Price of Power, Familial Expectations and Individual Autonomy, and the Desire to Feel Desired, primarily through sex.

This guide refers to the 2021 KDP/Amazon Publishing edition.

Content Warning: This guide describes and discusses the source text’s treatment of sexual offenses and sexual violence, sexism and sexist slurs, stalking, graphic gun violence and torture, and drug and alcohol use disorders. This guide also refers to the novel’s explicit depictions of sexual practices, including ones that mimic acts of sexual violence. Examples include consenting nonconsent or prearranged “rape” fantasies (the text uses the term “forced sex” fantasy, which is replicated in this guide), breath play/erotic asphyxiation, and degradation during sex. In addition, The Ritual features scenarios that it frames as “dubious consent” or “dubcon,” which are controversial terms developed in fanfiction communities to refer to supposed instances of questionable consent.

Plot Summary

The novel begins with college student Ryat Archer’s multiyear initiation into the Lords, a powerful secret society at Barrington University. Initiation tests are violent and dangerous. During his junior year, Ryat and fellow initiate Matt Winston are assigned to kill a man (later revealed to be the husband of Blakely’s biological mother, LeAnne Mayes, who requested the assassination). Matt attempts to rape the man’s wife, knocking her over a banister when she flees and presumably killing her. Ryat, following the Lords’ demands of secrecy, refuses to report on Matt’s misconduct during the assignment.

After Ryat is fully initiated, a fellow Lord (later revealed to be Blakely’s father) instructs him to “choose” Blakely Anderson during an upcoming ritual that assigns newly appointed Lords “chosen ones” as a “reward” for their hard work and sexual abstinence during their initiation. Blakely, who has been dating Matt for several years and assumes she will marry him, knows little about the Lords but is intrigued by Ryat. Though Matt discourages it, Blakely and her best friend, Sarah, decide to attend “The Ritual” party at the house of Lords. There, Blakely learns that Matt has been cheating on her with a woman named Ashley. She breaks up with him and, while intoxicated, has a sexual encounter with a masked man (who she later learns is Ryat).

Blakely becomes increasingly intrigued by the idea of becoming Ryat’s “chosen,” seeking the unknown in a life she feels her parents have predetermined. She takes unknown drugs when Ryat leaves them for her and goes to a strange cathedral when told this is where the “chosen” will take their vows. As soon as Blakely undertakes the ritual, Ryat exerts his “ownership” over her (per Lords rules) via various sexual encounters. Ryat exerts control over various aspects of Blakely’s life, including forbidding her from wearing certain revealing clothing. When Matt tells Blakely that Ryat is set to marry a woman named Cindy Williams, Blakely grows upset and goes to a club called Blackout with Sarah. There, she avoids the attention of two men (whom, she later learns, Ryat and his friend Gunner kill for attempting to drug her and Sarah).

Ryat and Blakely become closer as Blakely admits her sexual fantasies, which Ryat enacts—something she appreciates, as Matt made her feel as though her taboo fantasies indicated something wrong with her. Ryat meets with his father, who reports that Matt’s family has offered to “buy” Blakely from Ryat. Ryat refuses, leading Matt to attempt to kill Ryat during a Lords assignment. At Ryat’s insistence, he and Blakely marry, which they both consider a way to keep her away from Matt. When Matt tells Blakely that Ryat paid to marry her (something she later learns is false), Blakely is upset at being controlled and runs away. She lives away from Ryat and Barrington for several weeks, working as a bartender. When a customer (later revealed to be the friend of the two club goers Ryat and Gunner killed) attacks Blakely, Ryat arrives just in time to rescue her.

Ryat offers Blakely divorce papers, which he later admits is a test of loyalty. She refuses, burning the papers instead. Cindy arrives as Blakely does this, claiming a sexual relationship with Ryat while Blakely was absent. Blakely doesn’t believe Cindy and attacks her. Ryat returns learns that Cindy intended to drug and abduct Blakely on Matt’s behalf. He kills Cindy and later, at the cathedral, tortures and kills Ashley after she reveals how she colluded with Matt to kidnap Blakely.

Blakely and Ryat temporarily relocate to apartments above Blackout while the Lords search for a missing Matt. Blakely anticipates her initiation as a Lady, or the wife of a Lord, but Matt attacks her on the night of her initiation, causing a severe head injury. As Blakely recuperates in the hospital, her father, Phil, reveals that his wife is not Blakely’s biological mother. Blakely’s birth mother is LeAnne, who was Phil’s “chosen” while at Barrington. Phil admits to ordering Ryat to “choose” Blakely to keep her away from Matt.

Blakely and Ryat enjoy several weeks of peace until Matt suddenly appears in their home. He shoots Ryat (Blakely thinks fatally) and abducts a pregnant Blakely. Phil’s wife, Valerie, is working with Matt; she intends to wait until Blakely gives birth and then steal her child as a “second chance.” Ryat wakes in the hospital, horrified to find Blakely gone. Though his doctor warns him against leaving, Ryat insists on finding Blakely, which he does using a tracker he has embedded in her shoulder without her knowledge. While Ryat and Phil apprehend Valerie, Ryat’s friend Ty pretends that he agrees with Matt’s plan to rape Blakely but then uses his proximity to Blakely to let her escape. Ryat and Ty fight with Matt and his father, Jake. Jake dies, Ryat is reinjured, and Matt is captured.

Ryat recuperates for several weeks while Ty guards Matt. When Ryat can leave the hospital, they go to the Lords’ cathedral, where Valerie admits to the crimes she and Matt planned, including killing LeAnne and forcing Blakely to marry Matt in exchange for Matt’s silence about the murder. LeAnne enters, shocking everyone with the revelation that she is alive. Blakely kills Valerie in revenge for threatening to abduct her future child. Ty kills Matt. In the novel’s dual epilogues, Blakely and Ryat settle down in their cabin home and, 18 years later, discuss the possibility of one of their children joining the Lords, even though Blakely is against the idea.