Slow Burn

Denson Bowing is hard at work on the farm when an unexpected and unwanted visitor arrives, throwing a monkey wrench in all of his plans. Plum Dahling, a photographer from California, shows up on his door step, not wanting to cause trouble, but seems to be the thorn in his side. Only time will tell how the their lives innertwine in this sweet country love song come to life.  This story was inspired by rural Mississippi, where I live, and the sweet country love songs I heard while growing up. I hope this story gives you the cozy souther comfort of a warm homemade apple pie and tall glass of iced sweet tea.

WARNING: This story contains themes of domestic abuse, loneliness, torture, and love.     Life must go on when Ariana Vernan's parents pass away, even if it means moving to a new country and leaving old memories behind.   Unaware of the monsters in disguise she calls family, Ariana begins to suffer abuse from her three brothers behind closed doors.   Whether at school, where no one knows her, or at home, where she's abused, Ariana lives under a fake identity, Apple Rye, and leads a lonely life.   But when she has to share a room with Roman Vault, the principal's son and her brother's best friend, on a school trip, could it change her life forever?

This story came from a contest for an epistolary short story (which is the prologue). What continues is their story.

THE SPOKEN WORDS OF PATRICK SARAK SANG  Written in the land of California, in the Americas, in the year two thousand and twenty-six, being the forty-first year of the life of Patrick Sarak Sang, son of Sarak Sang and Vannareth Sam Sang, of the Khmer and American peoples, a witness of these things  THE FIRST BOOK & SECOND BOOK    Book 1 - God Book 2 - America, The World & A God Who Keeps His Promises

There is a moment in every race when the waiting ends. The gates open. The field breaks. And everything that came before—training, fear, mistakes, hope—has to meet the track. After years away, Reese returns to Lincoln, New Mexico with her two young daughters and a ranch she can barely afford to keep. Her father is gone, the debts are worse than she knew, and the horses he left behind may be the only thing standing between her family and losing everything. Reese has survived a marriage that nearly emptied her, and she knows how to read a horse, rebuild one, and bring back the ones everyone else has written off. Trusting people is harder. Then Wade steps back into her life—steady, quietly capable, and far more connected to the racing world than Reese realizes, a man who remembers the girl she once was and sees the woman she fought to become. As their friendship begins to shift into something neither of them expected, Reese’s return draws the wrong kind of attention. A powerful ranch owner with ties to the bank sees her debt as an opportunity to take the land her family built, while a jealous woman at the track watches Reese reclaim her place among the horses—and notices exactly how Wade looks at her. With bills still coming due, old damage refusing to disappear, race day approaching, and her blood-bay stallion Rocky carrying the hope of a future Reese is almost afraid to believe in, she must decide how much she is willing to risk to save the life she came home to rebuild. Because Reese knows how to fight. What she doesn’t know anymore is how to trust. In racing, once the field breaks, there is no going backward. You ride what comes. And Reese is about to learn that starting over is not about returning to the woman she was before everything went wrong—it is about becoming the woman who can ride out the race. **When second chances run deeper than bloodlines.**

Dr. Mariah White is a gifted trauma surgeon accustomed to saving lives in the controlled chaos of an operating room. Victor Flemming has spent his life saving them in the unforgiving Adirondack wilderness. When Mariah steps away from medicine to train in search and rescue, their worlds collide. What begins as a clash between two stubborn professionals becomes something neither expected as danger, survival, and the mountains themselves force them to depend on each other in ways that could change both their lives forever.

Syrena Lakewood and Warren Clarke are literally polar opposites. She from the aristocratic Spellcasters, the Lakewood Family and he from the nomadic tribes of the Tear'ani. She is meant to be a bargaining chip to obtain some beneficial marriage. He is the next Cavino of his tribe, specifically chosen by his predecessor and the Shevaros. Even their magic is considered incompatible... she being the strongest water elementalist and he the strongest fire elementalist in their respective families and academy houses. They are both in their final year of classes, too.  And this year will be their most difficult yet as they discover they are expected to get married, even while still in school. Where they will be watched like vultures by enemies that want to see them fail.

Tori Michaels knows how to handle a PR disaster. As a successful public relations specialist, she's built her career cleaning up the messes celebrities leave behind. But her newest client, star quarterback Jaxon Reid, might be her biggest challenge yet. Jaxon is talented, arrogant, irresistible—and notorious for making headlines for all the wrong reasons. With his reputation threatening his career, Tori devises the perfect strategy to convince the public he's changed: charity appearances, carefully managed press, and a steady girlfriend who can tame his bad-boy image. There's just one problem. Jaxon thinks Tori should play the girlfriend. What begins as a strictly professional arrangement quickly becomes anything but. Staged dates lead to lingering touches, heated kisses, jealous moments, and an attraction neither of them can keep pretending isn't there. The more time Tori spends with Jaxon, the harder it becomes to remember where their carefully constructed romance ends and something real begins. Falling for her client could jeopardize everything Tori has worked for, but resisting Jaxon may prove impossible. Because somewhere between repairing his reputation and convincing the world they're in love, Tori and Jaxon stop pretending. Now Tori must decide whether protecting her career is worth walking away from the one relationship she never planned for—and the man who may finally be ready to prove that some risks are worth taking.

## SHE WASN'T LOOKING FOR A BREAK. SHE WAS RUNNING FROM A STALKER.  Sloane Mitchell has everything. Wealth, success, a picture-perfect life. But beneath the surface, she's suffocating. When she meets Harper Grey, a woman who looks uncannily like her, Harper makes an irresistible offer: swap lives for three weeks. No strings attached. Just a chance to escape.  What begins as a thrilling adventure becomes a descent into terror. Because Harper didn't tell Sloane the truth. She wasn't looing for a break from her boring life - she' was running from a stalker who has been watching her every move for almost a year. A man named Jared Mills who doesn't just follow his victims. He owns them. ###  She's The Stranger She Became.

Blood Written in Moonlight   Rachel Morrison prefers dusty books to dangerous adventures.   The curvy, copper-haired owner of The Crooked Candle has built a quiet life among rare editions, occult mysteries, and more cardigans than any sensible witch should own. But when a feral grimoire awakens and shadowed enemies descend upon her bookstore, Rachel discovers she is no ordinary witch—she is a living threshold capable of opening doors between blood, memory, and worlds.   Then Marco Verrelli steps out of the rain.   Towering, tattooed, and terrifyingly beautiful, Marco is a thousand-year-old vampire carrying an ancient hunger beneath ninety-eight living seals. He recognizes Rachel as his mate immediately, but fate cannot grant him what he wants most.   Her willing choice.   As a ruthless vampire court and a treacherous circle of witches close in, Rachel and Marco must uncover a prophecy deliberately rewritten to turn love into imprisonment. Their bond could save them both—or open the final doorway for an entity that devours names, memories, and souls.   Surrounded by danger and bound by a desire neither can deny, Rachel must decide whether to trust the monster waiting outside her door.   Marco has wanted her with everything he ever was.   But he will not cross her threshold until she says:   Come in.   Blood Written in Moonlight is a dark, atmospheric paranormal romance featuring a powerful bookworm witch, an ancient tattooed vampire, fated mates with genuine choice, gothic secrets, modern magic, dangerous enemies, and a love strong enough to rewrite destiny.

Facing a failed relationship, Vania Taylor put an ad on an online dating site, where she meets a man who is hiding a criminal past. At first, she allows herself to get drawn into his mysterious life like a moth to a flame, but leaves him after he reveals one of his secrets. Now, years later, she looks him up on social media out of a moment of curiosity, and once again, this darkness starts to erode away at her new life. Will she sever ties once and for all or will the mystery lure her into a world of danger? No one's intent is clear and maybe not even her own.

Elias Ward is hired by a shady firm to watch his neighbor, Meret Linwood. He isn't told why.  The watchlist system is designed to: - Add names quickly - Remove names slowly - Avoid admitting mistakes  The problem is that she seems like an ordinary citizen and he is starting to fall for her. Is there a way out of this nightmare? If he protects her, he becomes a threat to his employers. If he keeps doing his job, he becomes a threat to her. If he quits, someone colder replaces him. He had never been in this predicament before. But now he needs to make a decision and fast, especially now that she has begun to trust him.

Princess Gràís D’hè MàcBhàtàr was born billions of years ago in a universe long since collapsed. Marked by prophecy as the Eternal Heir, she is destined to rule for a thousand years, then be reborn again and again, carrying her power and memory across countless worlds and ages.\ But even immortals must learn to lead.\ As a teenager in the kingdom of Llamda, Gràís D’hè is sent to the borderlands to hone her skills. Amid smoke, steel, and endless threat, she discovers a rare gift for command—bold gambits, unshakable resolve, and the ability to inspire loyalty where others would yield. Defending a besieged Valorian town against impossible odds, she proves that prophecy alone is not enough. Her destiny must be earned through sacrifice.\ In Valoria, she finds not only her purpose but her heart, in Princess Elara, whose courage awakens a love as fierce as any battle Gràís D’hè has fought. Their union promises to bind kingdoms and challenge enemies, setting the stage for the thousand-year reign foretold at her birth.\ But shadows gather. King Fergus of Dùn Breagha stirs unrest on Valoria’s northern border, and whispers speak of his daughter—ambitious, ruthless, and raised to claim more than her share of power. For Gràís D’hè and Elara, love and alliance will not be enough. They must prepare for the storm Fergus is only beginning to unleash. ​

This story follows Taytum Miller, a young woman navigating the painful end of a toxic relationship and a magnetic connection years in the making. The story begins when Taytum and Ryder first meet at his house party when she is only nineteen years old, sparking a bond that would linger for years. Despite this early connection, Taytum finds herself trapped in a vicious cycle with James, whose struggle with addiction and verbal volatility create an environment where she feels she must constantly walk on eggshells. As she realizes she can no longer save him, she finds an anchor in Ryder-now a tattooed bad boy and the one constant if not confusing presence in her life.

Mira Thakur has spent most of her life learning how to make herself small. Orphaned young and raised in her uncle’s home in the hill town of Shimla, she divides her days between college, family obligations, and the tiny bookshop she loves. Her parents left her an inheritance—but an old-fashioned condition keeps it beyond her control: **She cannot take charge of it until she marries.** Then a violent storm sends Kian Dutt through the bookshop door. Kian is heir to one of India’s most powerful industrial families—brilliant, charming, wealthy, and dangerously accustomed to solving problems his own way. Mira doesn’t recognize him. For once, Kian likes it that way. One rain-soaked evening becomes walks through Shimla, cups of tea, private jokes, long conversations, and a slow-growing intimacy neither of them expected. Then Kian discovers something Mira doesn’t know. The land his development project desperately needs belongs to her. And marriage is the one condition that would finally give her control over it. **He wants Mira.\ She wants her freedom.\ His project needs her land.** To Kian, one impossible idea begins to look almost elegant: marry the woman he already wants, give her the freedom she has been denied, and negotiate for the land afterward. The problem is not that his feelings are false. The problem is that the secret is real. What begins as an intimate slow-burn romance in the mountains becomes a story about love, ambition, betrayal, separation, growth, and whether two people can ever find their way back to each other after the truth changes everything they thought they knew.

Kenny: My dad chose his job in the Navy over his family. My mom died before my eyes. Jase was due to leave me as well. Jase was the only one I thought I could ever love; but instead of waiting, I ran. Declan was older, but fill the space left by Jase. Deciding to be like my father, I chose to have a career most women would never attempt to achieve. When it came down to it, there was always one thing that was missing in my life. Jase. Jase: Raised by my dad, uncle, and their best friend, I always knew what direction I was destined. The Navy, just like the rest of the men in my family. My best friend, my partner in crime, was the girl who had lived in the room right next door since I was a child. One night she was asleep in my arms, only to wake to an empty bed. Looking back, she was the one I should never have let get away. Kenny. Together: Now, ten years later, here we are. Staring into each other's eyes, seeing old feelings resurface and new feelings boiling over. Fate, destiny; whatever you want to call it. We were brought together again for a reason. Now, with our eyes and hearts open, will this be an epic love story or a tragedy?

A broken-down van. A hollow that's not on any map. A family that doesn't let strangers leave. When their van breaks down deep in the Appalachian mountains, five electricians stumble into Craggy Dean Hollow looking for nothing more than a spare hose and a way back to the road. What they find instead is a wedding, a shotgun, and a father who's decided one of them is about to become his son-in-law - whether they want to or not.   New Chapters Saturdays at 4pm EST.

"If you insult a god, he'll probably curse you for life". "Prove it".   Genessa Till has been shipped around like a good all her life. From thriving kingdoms to simple towns to refugee camps and places many don't even venture. At 19 years old, she is sent to Marin, one of the riverine areas in her country, a place her owners promise her is the last one. Genessa is ready to spend her life peacefully there, till she sees something so surreal it's hard to decide if she will do the logical thing and tell, or enjoy this little bit of attention?

“***<u>Little girls, this seems to say,\ Never stop upon your way.\ Never trust a stranger-friend;\ No-one knows how it will end.\ As you’re pretty, so be wise;\ Wolves may lurk in every guise.\ Handsome they may be, and kind,\ Gay, or charming-never mind!\ Now as then, ‘tis simple truth-\ Sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth!</u>***”\ *CHARLES PERRAULT* - ***Little Red Riding Hood*** ALL WHO LOVE stories come and gather round, and I shall tell you a tale; you hold in your hands a door to an alternate world. Do you dare open and walk through the door? Come; the story is about to begin!

They were supposed to be rivals. They were never supposed to become each other’s weakness.   Mateo is everything football expects him to be: disciplined, controlled, talented—and careful. As the golden captain of Argentina’s U20 team, his future is already mapped out by coaches, sponsors, family, and a world that expects him to never make the wrong move.   Noah is the opposite. Brilliant, reckless, and unapologetically difficult, the German prodigy has built a reputation for saying whatever he thinks and playing like the rules were made for someone else.   When Argentina and Germany collide at the U20 World Cup, their rivalry ignites instantly.   But after the cameras disappear, something neither of them expected begins between them.   What starts as one unforgettable night becomes a secret carried across continents, clubs, championships, and years. Because on the pitch, Mateo and Noah know exactly how to play against each other.   Off it, neither knows how to resist.   And when the world starts watching, Mateo must decide how much of himself he's willing to sacrifice to keep the perfect life he's been taught to want.   Some lines are meant to be crossed. Others are meant to be erased.

**The Hollow Bond Series** is a dark, seductive romantasy series where ancient magic, supernatural bonds, and dangerous love collide. Deep within the mysterious Hollow, the forest is more than trees and shadows—it is alive, powerful, and it remembers. Witches, wolf shifters, ancient guardians, forbidden magic, and forces that should have remained buried become tangled in bonds shaped by fate but tested by choice. As old secrets surface and the boundary between worlds begins to fracture, love may prove to be either the greatest weapon of all—or the most dangerous weakness. Filled with fierce heroines, protective and powerful heroes, found family, fated mates, dark secrets, supernatural danger, passion, and plenty of magic, **The Hollow Bond Series** explores what happens when destiny chooses you before you're ready to choose it. *The Hollow is watching.* *The bonds are awakening.* *And some magic refuses to be denied.*

Wren has never needed a five-year plan. She has a hometown she loves, more jobs than any reasonable person should have, a stake in the local coffee shop, and an uncanny ability to know exactly who needs a casserole, a favor, or a swift kick in the pants. Her life may look a little chaotic from the outside, but it works just fine for her. Then Daniel arrives. Award-winning architect Daniel believes in clean lines, careful plans, and things behaving exactly as they’re supposed to. When an old friend brings him back to town to design an ambitious new shared-work center—one that could bring jobs, entrepreneurs, and desperately needed economic growth—Daniel sees an opportunity to build something extraordinary. Wren sees a very expensive stranger trying to turn the town she loves into someplace it was never meant to be. Unfortunately, they need each other. With state funding hanging in the balance and half the town suspicious of Daniel’s modern vision, Wren becomes the reluctant bridge between the architect and the people whose trust he needs. Soon Daniel finds himself being dragged into coffee-shop conversations, community meetings, unexpected errands, and the strange orbit of a woman who seems to belong everywhere at once. Wren, meanwhile, begins to discover that beneath Daniel’s immaculate shirts, impossible standards, and insistence that everyone call him by his actual name is a man considerably warmer—and funnier—than he wants anyone to know. Somewhere between arguments over architecture, compromises neither expected to make, and the quiet moments neither can quite explain, their carefully established positions begin to shift. Daniel came to town believing good design could solve almost anything. Wren is about to teach him that the best things in life aren’t always built according to plan.

**Power has a price. Love makes it deadly.** In the **Lawless Empire**, dangerous men rule through blood, fear, money, and consequence. They are killers, kingpins, heirs, enforcers, and monsters hiding behind expensive suits and untouchable names. Men who don’t forgive betrayal. Men who don’t surrender control. Then they meet the women they were never supposed to want. Women who challenge them, defy them, uncover their secrets—and become the one weakness their enemies are willing to exploit. With criminal empires at war, old debts resurfacing, betrayals closing in, and bodies piling up, love becomes more than dangerous. It becomes a liability. An obsession. A reason to kill. Each interconnected standalone delivers a new couple, a new threat, and a darker kind of devotion—where protection borders on possession, enemies become lovers, and choosing the wrong person could cost everything. **Because in this empire, love doesn’t save monsters.** **It gives them something worth destroying the world for.**

You are tired in a way that sleep cannot fix.   You are the woman who handles things. Who shows up. Who figures it out. You carry the career, the family, the household, the community — often all at once, often without anyone noticing, and almost always without anyone asking how you are doing.   You are extraordinary at all of it. And you are exhausted in a way that has stopped feeling temporary.   Holding It All is for the woman who has been holding everything together — and is finally ready to hold it differently.   Drawing on real research and deeply personal experience, bilingual community advocate and author Luz Molina takes you on an honest, warm, and deeply personal journey through:   Naming the invisible load — the cognitive, emotional, and physical labor that falls disproportionately on women and goes largely unseen Understanding where your roles came from — the family patterns, cultural expectations, and inherited beliefs that shaped who you became Releasing guilt, setting limits with love, and learning to say no without losing the people you care about Reclaiming your body, your rest, your voice, and your sense of self — not someday, but now Building the community, financial independence, and sustainable foundation that makes thriving possible Defining what thriving actually looks like for you — on your terms, in your life With bilingual tools and boundary scripts in both English and Spanish, Holding It All speaks to every woman who has ever said "Estoy bien" when she was anything but.   You don't have to put it all down. You just have to stop carrying it the same way.

Defense attorney Adam Reed believes in the system until he's recruited into Themis Lodge—a 400-year-old shadow government controlling judges, senators, and policy worldwide. When Adam refuses to join, the Order systematically destroys him: his cases fail, his license is suspended, his marriage fractures as his wife believes he's having a paranoid breakdown. His pastor is revealed as an Order member. His best friend Marcus is the Architect coordinating everything. Only Isaiah Cole, a disillusioned security guard, believes him. As Adam tries to rebuild and reconnect with his family, a mysterious fire traps his son Leo in a burning bedroom. The novel ends with Adam losing consciousness, Leo's fate unknown, and everything Adam fought to protect consumed by flames. A devastating exploration of how the most dangerous power is the kind nobody recognizes.

Jake Miller is living the best morning of his life. Pancakes, laughter, his wife's hand in his, his daughter buckled safely in the back seat. He has no idea it's about to become the worst.  When tragedy strikes on an ordinary Wednesday, Jake wakes up the next morning to find it's the same Wednesday again — 6:12 a.m., the same golden light, the same choices waiting to be made differently. He's the only one who remembers. And no matter what he changes, the day seems determined to take something from him before it lets him go.  The truth, when it finally surfaces, is worse than anything supernatural: someone built this. Someone patient, brilliant, and devastated — a woman whose life's work Jake's own hands helped destroy, and whose grief has spent years hardening into something with a plan.  As the walls close in — a stranger's car parked down the street, a note left in the dark, a friend who pays a price for helping — Jake has to face not just what's coming for his family, but what he's already done to deserve it.  Some debts don't get canceled. They just wait for the right Wednesday.

Sixteen-year-old Melanie Howard's world is fractured on her birthday when she discovers her magical angelic bloodline and processing her brother, Eli, gets dragged into the shadows of danger. Thrust into Bloodbound Academy, a pre-Civil War institution for the descendants of the Angelic Realm, Melanie discovers that she possesses the rare talent of psychometry, a gift that allows her to catch glimpses of her kidnapped brother. Desperate and struggling against time, Melanie has only one priority: to bring her brother home safely.

# **The Last Thing to Die** Twenty years ago, Lillian Ashcroft watched the world collapse—and left the man she loved behind. On the first morning of the outbreak, Thomas Blackwood sacrificed himself so Lillian could escape a city overrun by the infected. She saw him bitten. She heard his final command to run. Since then, she has survived by becoming one of the deadliest hunters in the Eastern Settlements, burying her grief beneath duty, discipline, and the certainty that Thomas died long ago. Then, during a mission inside the abandoned city, an infected man looks into her eyes and speaks her name. Thomas is still alive, though nothing about his survival should be possible. His body belongs to the infection, but fragments of the man Lillian loved remain trapped within it. He remembers their engagement, the life they planned, and the promise he made to protect her. Yet every day, another memory disappears, and every moment Lillian spends beside him risks awakening the hunger he can barely control. Hiding Thomas could cost Lillian her freedom, her reputation, and her life. The settlement’s leaders would destroy him. Its scientists would cut him apart to learn what makes him different. Worse, another intelligent infected is gathering an army and believes Thomas represents the beginning of a stronger species—one destined to replace humanity. When Lillian discovers that Thomas may hold the key to a cure, she is forced to confront an impossible choice. Saving the world may require her to lose him a second time. In a world where death is no longer the end, love may be the last piece of humanity left alive.

In Frostfang territory, the mate-bond doesn't ask permission. It doesn't negotiate. And it definitely doesn't care that you had other plans. Storm of the Silver Wolf follows two parallel bonds forged the same chaotic midsummer morning — Crystal and Aiden, shoved together by a pull neither of them asked for (and both are handling with the emotional maturity of two people who'd rather fight a bear); Halvard and Violet, caught between duty, desire, and a kingdom that picked the worst possible moment for a crisis. As their stories collide, one truth surfaces that neither pack saw coming: the disappearances haunting their territories trace back to the same woman — and she's been sitting at the table the whole time. A slow-burn werewolf romance series full of claiming, trust issues, and men who communicate exclusively through growling and grand gestures. Love isn't simple here. But it is very, very worth it.

A mature lawyer, Tonya Russell, develops a hot fling with boy toy Dakota Barrings. The two share a hot summer, but things get out of hand when Dakota develops another love interest and tries to push Tonya to the side.

A debt unpaid is a burden. A debt enforced with relentless mercy is a trap. On a struggling farm in the heart of rural Tennessee, relief arrives not through honest work, but through cold, unexplainable mending. A fractured tractor runs like new by morning. A collapsing barn stands rebuilt by dawn. For Frank and a family built on hard-scrabble dignity, every unasked-for repair feels less like a blessing and more like an invasion. But the entity behind these acts isn't a savior. It is a presence bound by an ancient, unrelenting obligation—a ghost obsessed with balancing a physical ledger that was closed long ago. As the mortgage looms and the financial pressure tightens, the ghost's interventions reach deeper: into Martha's kitchen, into a child's bedroom, and into flesh and bone itself. The boundary between gratitude and horror erases as the family realizes the terrifying truth:

Alanis August went to bed on the night of her 18th birthday and awoke to a battle between her pack and Alpha Raymond. Her parents were both murdered by the ruthless Alpha, and Alpha Raymond takes her prisoner. Alanis is terrified after being kept in a small cage for over two years until Alpha Sebastian defeats Alpha Raymond and rescues her. After being caged, alone, and afraid for two years, she has no idea what the new Alpha will do to her or what awaits her outside her cage. Alanis embarks on a journey of finding herself with the help of Julian, the Alpha's sister. Alpha Sebastian takes an interest in helping Alanis find herself as well. As the two spend time together helping her put her life back together, they find themselves falling in love.

Mia loves her freedom. She isn't interested in pack duties. She wants to support her brother and his future as Alpha, but things take a dramatic turn. Mia's life is changed forever by a vampire and her father's dying wish for her.

An Ongoing Saga Following the exploits of Zakary Sevendust and his found family on a hostile violent world known as Jistoa.

When a Detective falls into a paralyzing trance, he discovers he's trapped in his own mind with only his broken past to help him escape his coma and clear the smoke. Every step taken is a step down memory lane as the Detective races against a clock he can't see, a woman he doesn't remember and a past stuffed so deep it may actually kill him if uncovered. Journey through the mind and past of the Detective as he takes on a case with a unique victim: Himself.

It's never easy getting home for the holidays, but especially this year for two strangers whose paths keep crossing on their way from Miami to New York. After their plane is rerouted to Chicago due to an intense and growing storm, Drake and Lulu become unlikely partners in an attempt to get home. But there's just one problem (on top of all the forces of nature seemingly against them), Drake is a bit of a perfectionist prude, and Lulu gets by in life by making adult content. Will their clashing personalities and perceptions of each other make it through to New York, or, more immediately, the night they're forced to spend together in a one-bedroom hotel?

Jasper Van Terra and her team of superpowered criminals seek revenge on the governor of city-planet Kronos.

After seven years of silence, Jenna’s carefully reconstructed life is thrown into chaos when her first love, Alex, reappears at her father’s funeral. Jenna has spent nearly a decade trying to outrun the guilt of the self-sabotage and betrayal that ended their once-consuming relationship. Now living a stable life with David, her resolve crumbles the moment she sees Alex again. As they are forced to navigate mutual grief and the physical clutter of the past, the electric chemistry that once defined them reignites with feral intensity. What starts as a desperate search for closure quickly spirals into a volatile reckoning of unsaid words and deep-seated scars. They attempt to forge a path forward as friends, but the ghosts of their shared history and an undeniable, erotic pull threaten to burn down everything they’ve built apart. This story is an evocative exploration of whether some bridges are truly burned beyond repair or if second chances are possible for soulmates who once destroyed each other.

Kelly and her tactical team are Briefed in Lies and are sent out to hunt and dangerous cryptid but soon discover the suits lied to them. Confused she soon discovers they are being hunted by a Skin Walker. Will Kelly be able to keep herself and her team alive? Find out by reading Briefed in Lies.

Investigative journalist Mara Reynolds has built her career on uncovering the truth, but she's about to discover that her own life is built on lies. When Mara interviews billionaire tech entrepreneur Elijah Williams about his revolutionary energy project, the Prometheus Initiative, she's drawn to his charisma and vision. As their professional relationship evolves into something more intimate, Mara begins experiencing disturbing fragments of memories she can't explain—nightmares about guns, blood, and a murder she witnessed as a child. But every time Mara gets close to remembering the truth, something pulls her back. Therapy sessions with Dr. Catherine Reeves seem to help at first, but soon Mara realizes she's been manipulated in ways she never imagined. The "random" mugging that traumatized her wasn't random at all. Her mother's early-onset dementia may not be natural. And the gaps in her own memory aren't accidents—they're erasures. As Mara digs deeper, she uncovers a horrifying conspiracy: twelve years ago, she witnessed the murder of Elijah's parents by his younger brother David. To protect his family's reputation and his brother from prosecution, Elijah hired a pioneering neurologist to erase Mara's memories. But this wasn't a one-time intervention—Elijah has been manipulating her memories for over a decade, erasing and rewriting her reality every time she gets too close to the truth. The Prometheus Initiative isn't just about clean energy. It's a cover for something far more sinister: a facility where Elijah has perfected the technology to manipulate human memories on a massive scale. Mara is just one of seventeen victims whose lives have been systematically erased and rewritten. Now, as fragments of her true past surface, Mara must race against time to expose Elijah before he can erase her again—permanently. But with her best friend compromised, her mother's mind destroyed, and powerful forces aligned against her, Mara faces an impossible question: How do you fight someone who can rewrite your reality with the touch of a button?

**A queen destined to rule. A king driven by destiny. A mate bound by love.** Deeana has spent her entire life trying to outrun the destiny waiting for her. As the next Chimera Queen, she is destined to unite the Therians and Supernaturals beneath one crown. But becoming Queen comes with an impossible price. The moment she claims her throne, every Alpha will have the right to pursue her, hoping to become the king at her side before the Chimera King claims what fate has promised him. Only one man has only wanted her heart. Malcolm, the Wolf Shifter Alpha, is the only man who wants Deeana's heart, not her crown. He has watched over Deeana since childhood. Though fate marked them as mates long ago, he has never demanded her heart. Instead, he has spent a lifetime standing beside the woman he loves, believing that one day she will choose him, not because destiny commands it, but because she wants him. Chosen by fate to become the Chimera King, Dorin carries a legacy stained by generations of Mad Kings, men born to serve their Queen but consumed by the desire to rule instead. Determined to break the cycle, Dorin asks Deeana for the chance to prove he is different. But a Chimera Queen isn't allowed to follow her heart, like her mother did, who chose love over duty and lost her throne, risking the fragile peace between Therians and Supernaturals. Desperate for a new Queen to restore the balance, every hope rests on Deeana choosing her fated king, even if it means denying her heart. As Deeana steps into the role she has spent her life trying to escape, she must choose between the love that has always been hers and the crown that could save them all.

Deeana has spent her entire life trying to outrun the destiny waiting for her. As the next Chimera Queen, she is destined to unite the Therians and Supernaturals beneath one crown. But becoming Queen comes with an impossible price. The moment she claims her throne, every Alpha will have the right to pursue her, hoping to become the king at her side before the Chimera King claims what fate has promised him. Dorin, the fated Chimera King, is determined to prove he can overcome the dark legacy of the Mad Kings and rule beside Deeana without repeating history. But Malcolm, the Wolf Shifter Alpha, has loved and protected Deeana since they were children. Though fate marked them as mates long ago, he has never demanded her heart, believing love means letting her choose him freely. But a Chimera Queen isn't allowed to follow her heart, like her mother did, who chose love over duty and lost her throne, risking the fragile peace between Therians and Supernaturals. Desperate for a new Queen to restore the balance, every hope rests on Deeana choosing her fated king, even if it means denying her heart. As Deeana steps into the role she has spent her life trying to escape, she must choose between the love that has always been hers and the crown that could save them all.

Copyright 2026 D.M. Jordan. All Rights Reserved. Cover Art by Mohsin Afridi  A novel in 64 parts published daily.  Synopsis: Dr. Aubrey Prentice is a rising psychiatrist with ambitions of writing a groundbreaking self-help book for women trapped in destructive relationships. But her methods are anything but conventional. Rather than observing from a clinical distance, Aubrey immerses herself in the lives of her male patients—crossing ethical boundaries in pursuit of deeper insight. Through intimacy, she believes she has uncovered what drives men, both emotionally and physically. The question is no longer what she has learned—but what it has cost her. At the center of her most dangerous case is Ian Henshaw III: a brooding, powerful billionaire whose influence extends far beyond the therapy room. What began as a professional relationship quickly evolved into something far more entangled—first patient, then lover, and now fiancé. But Ian is not a man who shares. Possessive, commanding, and accustomed to control, he demands absolute loyalty—even as Aubrey’s current marriage remains unresolved. Drawn into his world of wealth and power, Aubrey finds herself facing a chilling realization: the life she has pursued may come at the price of her independence. In a high-stakes collision of ambition, desire, and control, Aubrey must confront the consequences of her choices—and decide whether she is the architect of her own destiny, or merely another piece in Ian Henshaw’s carefully constructed empire.

For eighteen years, the Fae wanted her dead. She never knew why.\ When Aryis crosses the boundary into the human realm, she expects to find safety. Instead, she finds a red-haired man with mismatched eyes who speaks her language and asks too many questions. She finds a tavern full of secrets. And she finds something stirring inside her that she cannot name.\ Something ancient. Something powerful. Something they were right to fear.

A saga following a mercenary who is being hunted by people who keep telling her Celentra must stay frozen. She doesn't know what this means until she meets a cloaked stranger who tells her that she is carrying the soul of a dead Empress from another world. That she must revive this Empress to save a world frozen in time.

Sapphyra used to have it all. Great super-genius husband, great job as a superhero. She even got along with her dragon side. Really, nothing could go wrong for her. Until it did. When the world faced a threat she couldn’t punch, she tried to make the ultimate sacrifice so everything and everyone she ever loved could flee. But Wyatt, her husband with plans for his backup plans, wouldn’t allow it. He trapped her inside a digital coma, intent on waking her up when everything settled down. That was 100 years ago. When Sapphyra finally rips herself free from the nightmare, she finally sees the extent of the damage done to her city. Not just her city either. Her body has been twisted, her powers and dragon side locked away behind a Class System—something Wyatt placed inside her. It only gets worse from here. Guy, a charming labrador-energy man she met inside her coma is in the real world, with real feelings she’s returning. Oh and Wyatt? He separated his mind from his body, and now his consciousness follows Sapphyra around the broken city like a bad hangover. He’s less than thrilled to have competition for his wife but without a body, he’s screwed. As if an awkward love triangle and rebuilding a city weren’t enough on her plate, Sapphyra has to deal with a familiar face. Rupert Domingo, the madman who also escaped her digital nightmare now taunts her with all the answers she’s asking for…as long as she plays his game first. Sapphyra will have to navigate her new powers, her growing list of lovers and her grief with Wyatt if she wants to stand any chance of winning Ruperts game and fixing her city once and for all.

Who killed the Kings son? Where is the Princess? Secrets concealed and revealed.

King Ragus Harbeth, ruler of all Estinolla, has died and his queen is now in charge, She has vowed to make the kingdom hers. by any means possible.

**THE DAY I STOPPED BEING INVISIBLE** is a contemporary romance about emotional neglect, self-reclamation, and the quiet, radical courage it takes to be fully seen. Thirty-year-old Celia Ortiz has built a life that looks perfectly fine from the outside: a steady job, a comfortable apartment, and a long-term boyfriend who is dependable, successful, and safe. But inside her relationship with Brian Callahan, Celia is slowly disappearing. Brian never yells, never cheats, never makes a scene. His cruelty is quieter than that. He half-listens when she speaks, dismisses her feelings as overreactions, and treats her needs like inconveniences. Over time, Celia learns to ask for less, say less, and want less, convincing herself that stability is love and silence is peace. Then one afternoon on the crowded Newport Beach boardwalk, everything shifts. After enduring another joyless outing filled with Brian’s complaints and indifference, Celia wanders away alone through the farmers’ market, drawn toward the bright fruit stands, salt air, and a version of herself she can almost remember. There, she quite literally collides with Aiden Mitchell, a local surf instructor and boardwalk shop owner whose warmth and attentiveness catch her off guard. When a woman from Aiden’s past confronts him aggressively, he blurts out a desperate request: will Celia pretend to be his girlfriend? On impulse, she says yes. The moment is brief, awkward, and almost absurd. But afterward, Aiden thanks her with a level of sincerity that unsettles her more than the fake-dating stunt itself. He listens when she speaks. He looks at her as though what she says matters. He notices her in a way Brian hasn’t in years. For Celia, that fleeting encounter does not ignite instant romance. It ignites something far more dangerous: recognition. Once Celia has experienced what it feels like to be seen, she can no longer ignore how invisible she has become. When she finally tries to voice her loneliness, Brian dismisses her as insecure and needy, forcing Celia to confront the truth she has avoided for years: she is not asking for too much. She has simply been asking the wrong person. Their breakup is not explosive, but devastating in its calm. Brian is less heartbroken than inconvenienced, and his reaction confirms the deepest ache of all—he never really knew her. Alone for the first time in years, Celia moves into a small beachside apartment and begins the fragile work of rebuilding her life. She pours herself into her career, reconnects with neglected friendships, and starts learning how to occupy space without apologizing for it. Then fate intervenes again: Aiden turns out to live in the same building. What begins as a coincidence slowly deepens into a connection. Unlike the relationship Celia left behind, the one that grows between her and Aiden is patient, tender, and grounded in mutual care. Their intimacy is built in quiet moments rather than grand declarations: shared meals, morning walks along the shore, surf lessons that become unexpected lessons in trust, and long conversations where vulnerability is met not with dismissal, but with kindness. Aiden is steady, whereas Brian was indifferent, attentive, and absent. He asks permission. He checks in. He gives Celia room to choose. And for Celia, that kind of love is both healing and terrifying. Because being truly seen means risking loss. As Celia begins to believe she may finally be worthy of a love that does not require self-erasure, life delivers a personal crisis that cracks her open. Grief stirs the old instincts she thought she was leaving behind—the urge to withdraw, to endure in silence, to disappear before anyone can leave her first. Aiden, burdened by his own wounds and his fear of emotional chaos, struggles to reach her as the distance between them widens. Their relationship is tested not by betrayal, but by the raw vulnerabilities both of them are still learning how to survive. Celia must choose between the false safety of invisibility and the terrifying possibility of remaining present in a love that asks her to be fully known, even in pain. In the end, Celia chooses visibility. She allows herself to grieve out loud. She allows herself to be witnessed in her fear instead of hiding from it. She allows herself to lean on someone rather than disappearing into solitude. In doing so, she breaks the pattern that has defined her adult life. She no longer mistakes silence for strength or emotional absence for safety. She learns that real love is not dramatic or consuming, but steady, attentive, and brave enough to hold the truth. By the novel’s close, Celia stands fully in the space she once abandoned—a woman who no longer shrinks to keep the peace, who no longer confuses being tolerated with being loved, and who finally understands that the greatest transformation is not simply falling in love, but learning to exist fully within it.

Beyond the walls, nothing is as they told her.  More than a century after global eruptions plunged the climate-fragile world into chaos, seventeen-year-old Barrett is destined for a Noble life in the coastal stronghold of Nuevo Leben, until Ronan, a dangerously perceptive rogue, shows her evidence that her mother is alive and captive in Old North America. Barrett's perfect future shatters. She must cross a deadly wasteland to find her, guided by the last person she should trust. As they face a forgotten world of hostile tribes, vicious predators, and unexpected allies, Barrett questions everything, including her growing feelings for Ronan and her place in this fractured world. But the further she travels from Nuevo Leben, the more she wonders whether its walls kept the world out, or kept her in.

Nora Bliss moves into a rental on a picture-perfect suburban street in **Harwick, Connecticut**. On her first night, she notices that the upstairs window of the house directly across the street (the **Hargrove residence)** glows at exactly 3am, every night, without fail. The neighbours say the Hargroves are lovely, their daughter Celeste moved to Portland months ago, and that light is just a timer lamp. Nora almost believes them. Then, one night, the silhouette in the window presses a hand against the glass. And waves back.

--- What if everything you thought you knew about sex, love, and intimacy was just the beginning? This book is funny. It is crude. It is psychologically precise and occasionally so direct you will feel personally called out — because you probably should be. We are going to talk about pussies, cocks, scrotums, licking, sucking, and the kind of lovemaking that lasts nine hours and leaves you permanently ruined for anything less. We are also going to talk about childhood wounds, generational trauma, the chakra system, plant medicine, Tantric philosophy, and why so many grown adults are still operating with an eight year old's emotional toolkit. At the center of it all is a love story. A real one. A man named Seymour who was brilliant, quietly charming, and a prisoner of wounds he didn't know he was still carrying. A woman in the middle of her own becoming who thought she was just dating and ended up in the most profound classroom of her life. This book is the map she built from that experience. From the dating field through the blockades and the wounds, through the chakras and the sacred body, all the way to the other side where Tantric lovemaking sessions last twelve hours, orgasm is not a moment but a sustained state, and two people who have actually done the work discover what connection was always supposed to feel like. If you are tired of the same old patterns producing the same old outcomes, this book is for you. So, buckle in buttercup. Let's go for a ride.

Ten years after escaping a life of servitude behind the Veil, Wren is dragged back into the shimmering, cruel world of the fae. Her captor is Fionn, a silver-tongued bastard prince from her past who remembers the magic in her blood better than she does herself. Fionn is crafting a masterpiece of manipulation to usurp the throne, and he needs Wren’s rare, touch-based mind-reading to harvest the secrets of his treacherous brothers. Forced into a secret coven of gifted women, Wren must master forgotten, ancient magic to survive a world where every smile is a snare. Caught between her hatred for the monsters who stole her life and a growing, dangerous desire for the prince who promises to change everything, Wren must decide if she is Fionn’s greatest weapon, his equal partner, or merely the latest sacrifice in his climb to the crown.  *For fans of ACOTAR and The Cruel Prince.*

Sportswriter Bish Weatherly writes the story of Harry "Cotton" Purcell, the most talented ball player who never made the majors, and Grace, the wife who followed him across Prohibition-era America. Spring 1922, Indianapolis. Bish has been in love with Grace since he before he introduced her to Harry years earlier. Now, with Harry at spring training and Grace pregnant and alone in a new city, Bish positions himself as the reliable friend—helping her find housing, buying gifts, being there when Harry isn't. Harry, son of ruined Alabama aristocracy, hits like Babe Ruth but can't control his "surly disposition." Each success fuels his conviction he deserves the major leagues; each setback confirms he's been cheated. As his career spirals through brilliant performances and self-destructive collapses, Bish documents it all on the pages of the newspaper while growing dangerously close to Grace. The crisis comes in Nashville, 1925. Harry is hitting .357 alongside Lou Gehrig. Gehrig goes to the Yankees. Harry doesn't. When Grace—exhausted and desperate—finally offers Bish the love he's claimed to want for years, he discovers things about himself that he didn't want to know. Decades later, Bish lives on, telling himself he did the right thing—until writing the story reveals he was never the man he pretended to be. *The Great Gatsby* meets *Remains of the Day*, set in 1920s minor league baseball.

In a world of gaslit opulence and rigid etiquette, Blythe is a haunting anomaly—a brilliant spiritualist whose soul is trapped between life and death within an automaton body. Her only link to the living is Tarn “Madcap” Carrigan, a sorcerer-alchemist extraordinaire whose penchant for scandal is always one bad day away from another fatal mystery. With otherworldly secrets and new magic to discover, Blythe and Tarn are bound by an inseparable partnership.

This was not the vacation Rachel had bargained for. 10 years ago when the KPop group Hydra debuted, Park MinJae saw a girl leave her spot in line to help someone. Over the years since then he's seen her on every concert tour, but he's never had the chance to get to know her, until now. 3 years ago Rachel ran away to Korea, after her fiance swapped her for her cousin. Now, on a work vacation, she has to return for her mom's 50th birthday. Upon arrival in Chicago, she discovers her Kpop celebrity crush being mobbed by fans. After assisting with a timely escape, she invites him to go with her planning to give him a normal vacation.  But why does all the attention he's giving her feel like more than just appreciation for rescuing him? As things heat up with her family situation, Rachel tries to keep MinJae out of the drama. But MinJae is Korean, and Koreans are good with drama.

On a fictional Greek island, Anastasia Livanitis solves murders and other crimes with her ghostly sidekicks, and her journalist best friend, Nikos.

“Your lips have a flavor reminiscent of mango.” “Wait, what?! How do you even know that?” “Isn't it obvious?. While you were sleeping, I—”   Dove is fed up with playing the role of the Damsel in Distress. Now that she has the chance to pick a mentor, her dreams feel much closer than ever.   Yet, she’s at a loss for words when the very essence of the night, draped in blue, suddenly decides to choose her.