253 Book(s) Related to cassie staring through window

"Come see our wedding invitations!" I excitedly held up the document folder I'd grabbed from ,my fiancé, Lorenzo's study, showing it off to his men in his private safe house on the Upper East Side.

Lorenzo and I had been running ourselves ragged this month preparing for the wedding.

Lorenzo's guys raised their glasses, waiting to see our custom-designed invitations. I eagerly turned the folder upside down—

Marriage certificates, wedding photos, and a property transfer document came tumbling out onto the floor.

Dead silence.

"Oh, these aren't our invitations..." I was still grinning foolishly. "Must be the wrong folder."

"Let me see which lucky lady is about to become a happy bride."

I looked down at the wedding photo. A beautiful brunette woman in an elaborate white gown smiled from the center of the picture, looking so blissful, so content.

When my eyes shifted to the groom beside her, my world collapsed.

It was Lorenzo. He wore a perfect black tuxedo, but he was tenderly embracing a woman I'd never seen before.

Eleanor Vance thought she had married for love—until she saw it on her husband's Instagram "Close Friends" story: a photo of him with his first love and their "family of three" on a Hampton yacht.
As one of the world's top art restorers, Eleanor could repair any damaged masterpiece—but she could not mend her own broken marriage.
In the world of Arthur Sterling, Wall Street financier, marriage was nothing more than a contract, and a wife nothing more than a flawless PR asset. When his first love, Selina, returned to the country with "his child," Arthur did not hesitate to choose to protect them—yet he trapped Eleanor in a gilded cage, using his family's power as a chain.
Ten million dollars for a divorce. Her father's mounting medical bills. Her brother's tuition fees. Each one was a meticulously designed shackle.
But what Arthur did not know was that Eleanor was his only emotional anchor. The cool scent of turpentine on her skin. The way she lost herself in restoring a painting. The way she interpreted the humanity behind every brushstroke for him—these were the only sensations through which he could still perceive "peace."
When Eleanor finally scraped together enough money for the divorce, when she began to flinch at his touch, when she used industrial solvent to destroy a masterpiece she had spent five years restoring—and told him, "This is what your soul truly looks like. A forgery that can never be restored"—only then did Arthur realize: losing her meant losing the only way he knew how to feel the world.
But some wounds, like a painting washed away by solvent, can never be undone.

I don't dance because I love it. I dance because I'm a debt collector for my own soul.
My sister hasn't walked in twelve months. That's my fault. I was the one behind the wheel, and I was the one who walked away without a scratch while Lumi lost the use of her legs. Now I spend my days mopping the floors of the elite Vance Academy, watching rich kids complain about their stress while I calculate the cost of my sister's next surgery. I smell like bleach and old sneakers. I dance in dark alleys until my toes bleed, because it is the only time I don't feel like I'm suffocating.
Then Coach Elias sees me. He calls it an opportunity. I call it a paycheck.
If I can survive one semester and win the Winter Gala prize money, I can get Lumi the surgery she needs. But the Academy's golden boy, Caspian Thorne, wants me gone before I ruin something he has never had to work for in his life. He thinks I'm a joke. The girl who learned to pirouette on cracked concrete, playing dress-up in his world.
He's right that I don't belong here. He's wrong about everything else.
I don't know how to play by their rules. I don't know how to smile through the silk ribbons and the trust funds and the inherited grace. But I know how to survive. And in a world where everything shines because I’m the one scrubbing it clean, I’m ready to leave a permanent stain. If I have to break every heart in this building to save my sister, I will. Starting with his.

For questions contact Author
elaravinenovelsnack@gmail.com

She was his rival's sister.
He was the captain she was supposed to hate.
Working together was never part of the plan.
Falling for each other was even worse.
Between bitter school rivalries, campus scandals and a
game where every secret comes with a price, Imani and
Mika find themselves skating toward something neither of
them can stop.
But in hockey, one wrong move can cost everything.
And some games are played far beyond the ice.

Betrayed as a child and forced into a world of exploitation, Kosi's life was forever scarred by those who were supposed to protect her. But with the guidance of a mysterious mentor in Hong Kong, Kosi has honed her skills and is now driven by an insatiable hunger for revenge. As she takes down her enemies one by one, she'll confront the darkest corners of her past and fight for justice not just for herself, but for all those who've been victimized like her. But when she reencounters a childhood friend who still holds a special place in her heart, Kosi must navigate the blurred lines between loyalty, love, and vengeance. Will she find closure, or will the ghosts of her past consume her?

Claire Agnesia was forced to accept her parents' request to continue studying abroad. She really didn't want to, because he didn't want to leave Nickolas, aka his girlfriend, who was about to get ready to marry him.

However, everything must still happen, there is no other choice. Until that also made the relationship between Claire and Nickolas really shaky and she got harsh words from her boyfriend before breaking up with her.

Four years later, Claire returns home after graduation. And she got her first shock from the CEO guy the night she went to the bar that took her chastity. When she found out that the CEO man was Nick, her ex, Claire who was still broken and hurt at that man really hated him while Nick instead trying to melt his woman's heart in as many ways as he can to get back together with the girl he adores.

What next? Can they be together?

I’m a billionaire heir, and I used to say yes to my girlfriend no matter what.

She swiped my card like it was hers, partied until sunrise, and while I lay in a hospital bed, I was still cleaning up her messes.

She never visited me once—yet I couldn’t let her go. I would have given her everything.

Until an accident made me realize the truth: my love wasn’t real. It was hypnosis.

Her father wanted control. He bribed my psychiatrist and rigged my treatment—so the moment I saw her face, I’d lose control, give in, and hand over whatever they wanted.

All that devotion was manufactured.

Now the hypnosis is gone. She thinks I’ll keep being her ATM.

She has no idea that the first thing I did after waking up was make her—and her father—pay.

When Cory's father suddenly dies, his entire perfect world is torn apart.
Gone is the loving mother, doting sister, lovely house, and the huge allowance. Instead, Cory needs to deal with the bank auctioning off the home he gave his first steps in, an illness that befalls his little sister, and the depression that's eating his mother alive.
Just as it can't get any worse, Patrick with the golden-brown eyes, the infectious laugh, and the rich life eventually showed interest in Cory. The thing that Cory believed would have made his once almost-perfect world completely perfect now becomes his biggest fear as he tries to keep his new life a secret.
With juggling his depression, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm; Cory just doesn't know if the boy with the infectious laugh has a place in his life anymore.

"Out in the Wind"is not just the story of a teen who is forced to grow up sooner than any kid should. It is also a real story that happens to lots of people around the world on a daily. This is a story full of tears, sadness, hope, loss, faith, and love.

King Tus III is anxious to find a bride for his son and heir - Prince Kyan. But the defiant Prince insist on having a wife "who's thoughts move the Earth."

The King and Queen search the Kingdom and yet do not find such a girl, so they invade other Kingdoms and conquer them in search of a befitting bride for their son.

Isla is the first child of a peasant family in the Kintil Kingdom. All her life, she has been suppressing herself because of the strange powers she possesses. Her world crumbles when her Kingdom is raided and her family is separated.

She is sold as a slave to a goldsmith but when she plans an escape which she uses her strange abilities, she is captured and sent to the King to be the wife of the Prince.

Can Isla escape from a forced marriage and re-unite with the people she loves?

Are her strange abilities a blessing or a curse?

A terrible, world-changing curse.
When Jack Sylvan and his best mate Nolan are unwittingly manipulated by an evil mastermind, a horrible, undead curse is unleashed upon the entire continent of Northern Aldoria.

Forced to flee their lifelong home, the city-state of Lazaras, Jack and his friends must lead a group of terrified survivors to safety. But soon, powerful forces beyond Jack’s understanding, and a mysterious young woman, compel him toward a grand destiny for which he feels entirely unprepared.

Can he fulfil his destiny as the hero of mankind? Can he restore hope to a once beautiful, now ravished land? Can he ensure the survival of his friends and loved ones? Only time and an unwavering resolve will tell.

Recommended by eGlobal

Ivy Hart thought surviving Northbridge University on a full scholarship would finally give her life a clean slate, until she opens the hockey club door on her first day and comes face-to-face with Asher Hayes, the golden boy captain who made her high school years unbearable; now he’s everywhere she turns, and when her biggest secret slips into his hands after a single reckless moment, he doesn’t expose her—he traps her in a fake relationship that starts as leverage but quickly turns into something far more dangerous than either of them planned, because in a game built on lies, control, and buried history, Ivy is beginning to realize the real threat isn’t losing her scholarship… it’s losing her heart to the boy who once broke it.

If you don’t stop looking at me like that,I'll do the same… and I won’t stop at just looking.”
He was danger, desire—and hers, whether she wanted him or not.

Esmarie never meant to find the dying beast by her treasured lake—let alone touch him. But when golden eyes lock onto hers, everything fractures.

He’s a monster. But he would burn the world—including himself—to keep her safe.

Ciro is an omnipotent werewolf king, cursed with a power that devours him every full moon. And as Esmarie is dragged into his world—one of ancient magic, forbidden prophecy, and unbearable heat—she begins to wonder if she’s the one who’s truly cursed.

How does a girl who’s never even been given a place in life become the only one with the power to save him?

My name is Junie. I'm six years old, a half-werewolf. My mom Juliet is a human witch, the gentlest woman alive.

A month ago, Mom was eight months pregnant. We were walking by the river when Dad's childhood friend Melody shoved her straight into the rushing current. The cold water took my unborn brother. When they pulled Mom out, she was covered in blood, her magic all but gone.

Dad, Maxwell, is the youngest Alpha of the Silver Wolf pack and runs a family conglomerate. That day in the hospital hallway, his eyes went red and he swore through gritted teeth that whoever did this would pay for it, hard, in front of the Tribunal.

Mom believed him.

Then came the trial. The second Dad saw that the woman sitting in the defendant's seat was Melody, he went quiet.

Right there in front of the judge, he took it back. He said Melody never meant to push her, that Mom's magic had gone haywire from the pregnancy and she'd slipped into the river on her own.

Melody walked free. Mom got community service.

The day we left the courthouse, Melody buried her face in Dad's chest and sobbed, but the second no one else could see, she shot Mom a cold little smirk. Dad kissed her forehead like her tears were breaking his heart.

Mom just watched them, one hand over her empty belly. Those eyes that used to be so full of love were calm now.

She let out a slow breath. "Maxwell, let's break the mate bond."

"Love doesn't hurt, Adrian. You did. I'm leaving to become someone you can't destroy. And when I return, you will learn what it means to lose everything."
Five years ago, Arabella Sterling disappeared without a trace, carrying disgrace, heartbreak, and the label of a billionaire's hidden scandal. What no one knew was that she was also his wife. The woman he once claimed to love. The one he abandoned when it mattered most.
Now she is back.
No longer the fragile woman he betrayed, Arabella has reinvented herself as The Reformer, a world-renowned business strategist known for reviving collapsing empires. Powerful, untouchable, and unstoppable.
Her next target is The Sterling Group. His empire.
Adrian Sterling has spent years trying to bury his past mistakes, but nothing prepares him for the moment Arabella walks into his boardroom. Colder. Stronger. Completely out of reach.
He wants redemption. She wants revenge.
Because this time, Arabella is not here to save him.
She is here to make him lose everything.

He knelt in the dirt, begging to see the daughter he abandoned, but I pointed to the man beside me: "She calls him Daddy now."

Ryan looked like a ghost. Stomach cancer had eaten away his arrogance, leaving only skin and bones. He stared at Grace—the baby he thought was dead, the baby he tried to replace with an orphan. "Zoey... I'm her biological father. Please."

I held Chris's hand, feeling his warmth, so different from Ryan's cold betrayal. "Biological?" I scoffed. "You're just a sperm donor who chose his sister over his wife."

Grace hid behind Chris's leg, looking at Ryan with fear. That look broke him more than the cancer ever could.

"You have Lucy," I said, turning away. "And her child. Go enjoy the family you destroyed us for." I watched him vomit blood into the grass, realizing too late that he had traded a diamond for a stone. He would die alone, while we lived happily ever after.

“You're not doing this on my birthday, are you?” I asked Ethan, my eyes covered in tears as I watched him glare at me with disdain. “You aren't leaving me dejected after sacrificing three whole years of my life with you!”

“And I'm giving you a life to be free, isn't that way better?” he asked in return, stretching the dreadful file towards me. “Consider this a birthday gift and leave. I'm going to specifically make sure you get all the benefits associated with the divorce.”

“You’re...”

“Leave Marinette,” he interrupted mildly. “Leave now and say nothing else. You can have the Ferrari or any of the estates in Paris as part of the compensation. Just go.”


**

Marinette Monroe thought she had found her happily ever after when she married the successful and charismatic Ethan. But five years later, her dream life is unravelling. Her husband’s attention is elsewhere, and his heart seems lost to a ghost from the past—his first love, Veronica Rodriguez.

On what should have been a day of celebration, Marinette’s birthday becomes a nightmare as Ethan comes home late, drunk, and distant. When he hands her divorce papers, her world shatters. Left with no choice but to pick up the pieces, Marinette discovers a strength she never knew she had. As she rebuilds her life and carves out her own success, she becomes someone that even Ethan can't ignore.

But just as Marinette rises to prominence, Ethan realises too late what he has lost. Now, he is desperate to win back the woman he once took for granted. But can he rekindle a flame that he extinguished, or is he too late to mend the heart he broke?

"Love doesn't hurt, Adrian. You did. I'm leaving to become someone you can't destroy. And when I return, you will learn what it means to lose everything."

Five years ago, Arabella Sterling vanished without a trace, disgraced, heartbroken, and branded her billionaire benefactor’s dirty secret.

What the world never knew was that she’d also been his wife.
Or that the man she loved—and the son she gave everything for—chose another woman over her.

Now, she’s back as The Reformer, a world-renowned business strategist celebrated for resurrecting dying empires.
Her newest client? The Sterling Group.
Her ex-husband’s empire.

Adrian Sterling has spent years trying to atone for the lies that destroyed them both.
But when Arabella walks into his boardroom, colder, sharper, untouchable...he realizes redemption may come at a cost he can’t pay.

Because this time, she’s not here to save him.

She’s here to ruin him.

They gave him 24 hours to hand over the girl.
He gave them 30 seconds to regret .

Jack Cole was supposed to be nobody—just another quiet college student.
No records. No past. No trace he ever existed.

But when a powerful family tries to take his cousin as part of a dirty deal…
and a billionaire heiress becomes the target of a professional kill team…

Something buried comes back.

The campus?
Just his cover.

The truth?
He’s a weapon trained for war—
the kind governments deny, and enemies never see coming.

Now the richest family in the city wants him dead.
A private army is moving in.
And a global biotech empire is pulling strings from the shadows.

They think they’re hunting him.

They’re wrong.

Jack isn’t running.
He’s choosing who dies first.

After two years of marriage, I finally got pregnant. I rushed to my husband's office with lunch to share the news, but his assistant mistook me for a sugar baby trying to trap the CEO. She dragged me into a back room and dumped scalding coffee on my head. When I tried to explain I was the wife, she laughed and called security. They stripped my clothes, kicked my stomach repeatedly, and destroyed my ultrasound photo. I begged them to call my husband, but they smashed my phone instead. By the time he found me, our baby was gone.

From the heat of summer nights to the quiet of winter mornings, each book in The Seasons of Us series follows a journey of first love, heartbreak, and the fragile hope of starting over. With every season comes a new chapter, new beginnings, painful goodbyes, and moments that linger long after they’ve passed.

ORIGINALLY ON AMAZON

“A dynamic story line that grips from the first chapter and doesn't let go.” --Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan (regarding Once Gone) From #1 bestselling mystery author Blake Pierce comes a new masterpiece of psychological suspense: CAUSE TO HIDE (An Avery Black Mystery—Book 3).Bodies are being found in the outskirts of Boston, their corpses burned beyond recognition, as the police realize a new serial killer is roaming the streets. As the media converges and the pressure is upped, the Boston Police Department must turn to its most brilliant—and controversial—homicide detective: Avery Black.Avery, still trying to pick up the pieces of her own life—her budding relationship with Ramirez, her reconciliation with Rose—suddenly finds herself thrown into the most challenging case of her career. With scant evidence to follow, she must enter the mind of a psychotic killer, try to understand his obsession with fire, and what clues that offers into his personality. Her trail leads her deep into Boston’s worst neighborhoods, to confrontations with its worst psychopaths—and finally, to a twist she could never possibly imagine.In a game of psychological cat and mouse, a frantic race against time, Avery is led too deep into the maze of a killer’s mind, and to places darker than she’d ever wish to see.A psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, CAUSE TO HIDE is book #3 of a riveting new series—with a beloved new character—that will leave you turning pages late into the night. Book #4 in the Avery Black series will be available soon. “A masterpiece of thriller and mystery. Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side, so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. The plot is very intelligent and will keep you entertained throughout the book. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)

“A dynamic story line that grips from the first chapter and doesn't let go.” --Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan (regarding Once Gone) From #1 bestselling mystery author Blake Pierce comes a new masterpiece of psychological suspense. In CAUSE TO RUN (An Avery Black Mystery—Book 2), a new serial killer is stalking Boston, killing his victims in bizarre ways, taunting the police with mysterious puzzles that reference the stars. As the stakes are upped and the pressure is on, the Boston Police Department is forced to call in its most brilliant—and most controversial—homicide detective: Avery Black.Avery, still reeling from her last case, finds herself up against a rival precinct and a brilliant, cunning killer who is always one step ahead of her. She is forced to enter his dark, twisted mind as he lays clues for his next killing, and forced to look into places in her own mind she would rather not go. She finds herself compelled to seek the counsel of Howard Randall, the twisted serial killer she’d put behind bars years ago, all while her new burgeoning life with Rose and Ramirez is falling apart.And just as things cannot get any worse, she finds out something else: she herself may be the target.In a game of psychological cat and mouse, a frantic race against time leads Avery through a series of shocking and unexpected twists—culminating in climax that even Avery could not imagine. A dark psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, CAUSE TO RUN is book #2 of a riveting new series—with a beloved new character—that will leave you turning pages late into the night. Book #3 in the Avery Black series will be available soon. “A masterpiece of thriller and mystery. Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side, so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. The plot is very intelligent and will keep you entertained throughout the book. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)

“A dynamic story line that grips from the first chapter and doesn't let go.” --Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan (regarding Once Gone) From #1 bestselling author Blake Pierce comes a new masterpiece of psychological suspense: CAUSE TO SAVE (An Avery Black Mystery—Book 5)—the final installment in the Avery Black series.In the epic finale of the Avery Black series, serial killer Howard Randall has escaped, and the entire city of Boston is on edge. Women are turning up gruesomely murdered, and everyone suspects Howard is at it again. When Boston’s most brilliant and controversial homicide detective—Avery Black—is herself stalked—and when people close to her are brutally killed, one by one—it seems the city’s worst fears are confirmed.But Avery is not so sure. The murders remind her of something she once saw in her past. They remind her of something too close to her heart—something that had to do with a secret she thought she had buried long ago….The most riveting and shocking book of the series, a psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, CAUSE TO SAVE is the finale that will leave you turning pages late into the night. “A masterpiece of thriller and mystery. Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side, so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. The plot is very intelligent and will keep you entertained throughout the book. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)

If there is one person Josie hates more than her aunt Beth, it's Richard Kingston. The boy who tortured her growing up. But she thought she'd seen the last of him years ago. So, why the hell is he showing up now to ruin her life? Why is he demanding she marry him, when she was planning on marrying her boyfriend James? And why does it seem like he's keeping secrets she doesn't want to unlock?

I was reborn. My younger brother stole the woman who had lost her leg and was blind, thinking he had seized the throne of the apocalypse.
He didn't know that her power in her past life stemmed from the pendant on my chest—which contained a fountain of life.
This time, I'm not a savior. I'm handing the spring over to the nation.
The Pentagon has given me a new designation: National Assets.
While the younger brother was being beaten up by his neighbor for a half-empty can of cola, the National Guard's superhumans had already begun clearing out the infected.
He called, his voice hoarse: "Her superpower is only enough to chill a glass of cola... You tricked me?"
I hung up the phone and went into the lab.
"What's the extraction rate of the spiritual spring water today?"

I was a scholarship student with thirty extra pounds. Del Ashford had two hundred thousand followers and her family's supplement brand on every wall of the athletic center. First week of school, she decided we were going to be best friends.
She said she wanted to help me get in shape. What that actually looked like: I carried her product shipments up three flights of stairs, drafted her emails, and picked up her lunch from the place across campus that didn't deliver.
My roommates started calling me her errand girl behind my back. I let them.
She also introduced me to Beckett Hale. After that, things went the way they went.
She knocked my protein shake over and said I'd burned her. She planted her limited-edition earphones in my bag and told everyone I'd stolen them. The school opened a conduct review. My roommates stopped talking to me.

Beckett said I was the kind of girl who got a little attention and started thinking she deserved more of it.
I couldn't prove any of it. By spring, I was gone.
Some people just aren't built for this, Wren. You know that, right?
Del hadn't even been looking at me when she said it.
Then I opened my eyes and I was back at the party. The night she introduced me to Beckett.

“A dynamic story line that grips from the first chapter and doesn't let go.” --Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan (regarding Once Gone) From #1 bestselling author Blake Pierce comes a new masterpiece of psychological suspense: CAUSE TO FEAR (An Avery Black Mystery—Book 4).When a body turns up floating beneath the frozen Charles River, the Boston Police summons its most brilliant and controversial homicide detective—Avery Black—to close the case. It doesn’t take Avery long, however, to realize that this is no isolated murder: it is the work of a serial killer.Other bodies begin to turn up, all of them sharing one thing in common: all are trapped in ice. Is it all a coincidence—or the signature of a particularly deranged killer?As the media converges and Avery suffers pressure from her bosses, she struggles to crack the inexplicable case, too bizarre even for her brilliant mind. At the same time she tries to keep her own depression at bay, as her personal life spirals to a new low. And she does it all while trying to enter the mind of a psychotic and elusive killer.What she will find will shock even her, and make her realizes that nothing is what it seems—and that the worst darkness may sometimes be closest to us.A psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, CAUSE TO FEAR is book #4 in a riveting new series—with a beloved new character—that will leave you turning pages late into the night. Book #5 in the Avery Black series will be available soon. “A masterpiece of thriller and mystery. Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side, so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. The plot is very intelligent and will keep you entertained throughout the book. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)

“A dynamic story line that grips from the first chapter and doesn't let go.” --Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan (regarding Once Gone) From #1 bestselling mystery author Blake Pierce comes a new masterpiece of psychological suspense.Homicide Detective Avery Black has been through hell. Once a top criminal defense attorney, she fell from grace when she managed to get a brilliant Harvard professor off—only to watch him kill again. She lost her husband and her daughter, and her life fell apart around her.Trying to redeem herself, Avery has turned to the other side of the law. Working her way up the ranks, she has reached Homicide Detective, to the scorn of her fellow officers, who still remember what she did, and who will always hate her.Yet even they cannot deny Avery’s brilliant mind, and when a disturbing serial killer strikes fear into the heart of Boston, killing girls from elite colleges, it is Avery that they turn to. It is Avery’s chance to prove herself, to finally find the redemption she craves. And yet, as she is soon to find out, Avery has come up against a killer as brilliant and daring as she.In this game of psychological cat and mouse, women are dying with mysterious clues, and the stakes could not be higher. A frantic race against time leads Avery through a series of shocking and unexpected twists—culminating in climax that even Avery could not imagine. A dark psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, CAUSE TO KILL marks the debut of a riveting new series—and a beloved new character—that will leave you turning pages late into the night. Book #2 in the Avery Black series will be available soon.“A masterpiece of thriller and mystery. Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side, so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. The plot is very intelligent and will keep you entertained throughout the book. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)

“A dynamic story line that grips from the first chapter and doesn't let go.” --Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan (regarding Once Gone) From #1 bestselling author Blake Pierce comes a new masterpiece of psychological suspense—the AVERY BLACK SERIES—which continues here with CAUSE TO DREAD (Book #6), also a standalone novel. The series begins with CAUSE TO KILL (Book #1)—a free download with over 200 five star reviews!A woman turns up dead in her own apartment, locked in her closet, her body crawling with poisonous spiders, and the Boston police are stumped. As all of their leads collapse, they are dreading the killer will strike again. Desperate, the police have no choice but to turn to Boston’s most brilliant and controversial homicide detective—Avery Black. Now retired, Avery, in a low point in her own life, reluctantly agrees to help with the case. But when other bodies start turning up, murdered in grotesque and unusual ways, Avery can’t help but wonder: is there a serial killer on the loose?With the intense media pressure and the stress of having a new, inexperienced partner, Avery is pushed to her limit as she struggles to crack the bizarre cases—and to keep herself from falling into the abyss. Avery finds herself falling deeper and deeper into the twisted mind of the killer, who holds more secrets than Avery could imagine.The most riveting and shocking book of the series, a psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, CAUSE TO DREAD will leave you turning pages late into the night. “A masterpiece of thriller and mystery. Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side, so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. The plot is very intelligent and will keep you entertained throughout the book. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)

My husband, Marco, in his bid for the position of Don, was forced to marry the young widow of the previous Don, Claudia.
Every night, after returning from Claudia’s place, he would hold me and swear, "You’re the only woman I love, Elena. Claudia has the connections I need. Once I have real power and secure my position, I’ll make you my wife in name and in public."
But as I waited for him to rise to power, what started as a political act turned into nights where he simply never came home.
Then, on Christmas, I was dragged to their engagement party—where I was beaten in front of everyone.
Our six-year-old daughter, Sophia, knelt on the floor, crying and begging him, "Godfather, please, let my mommy go..."
But Marco stayed silent.
"It’s okay," I whispered, picking up my wounded daughter. "Mommy’s going to take you somewhere that truly belongs to us."
What Marco never knew was this: I never cared about being the Donna of this small city.
I am the only heir of the Rossi family—the most powerful Mafia family in all of Sicily.

He Thought I'd Wait Forever. I Wore White for Someone Else.

Nora canceled the wedding venue on a Tuesday. The deposit was nonrefundable. She let it go.
Eight years she'd held that stretch of coast — the cliff, the white tent, the January date they circled and let slide every spring. She slid the ring off at the kitchen counter and dropped it in the drawer with the dead batteries and old takeout menus. It didn't feel like heartbreak. It felt like setting down something she'd carried too long.
Adrian would find out. Not tonight. He still thought her silence was a thing to be coaxed out of. He still thought she'd always be there.
She'd already decided she wouldn't. By the time he understood, she'd be on that coast in a white dress — and the man beside her wouldn't be him.

"What kind of sick game are you playing?" my husband, Mark, snapped through the phone.
I stared at my heavy plaster cast and said nothing.
In my previous life, distant relatives brought a bag of cash to my clinic, begging me to bump my cousin up the surgery waitlist. I refused.
By morning, the money vanished.
Security footage showed someone in my scrubs, with my exact face, stealing it.
My colleague, Sarah, and my husband accused me of taking the bribe. They destroyed my career. My cousin died waiting.
Driven mad by grief, her parents ran me down with their truck.
Reborn, when I saw the new surveillance footage, I finally understood who she was.

I spent three years in the squad — three years carrying them to the top of the S-rank hero league. And their reward? They decided my B-rank rating wasn't good enough, and brought in an A-rank support to replace me. Fine. I'm done pretending. The truth is, I'm S-rank.

I run the group. She was a college student I once sponsored.

Because I liked her, I gave her extra help—tuition support, an internship, a place to stay, and quiet access to my world. But we were never official, and nothing inappropriate ever happened.

I thought she understood boundaries. She thought I couldn’t walk away.

At an alumni speech, she built her “survivor” image by hinting she’d been gently controlled and kept on a leash by someone with resources. The clip was edited to perfection and went viral overnight—framed as me “preying on young women.”

Deals froze. A seven-figure contract got shelved. Reporters started circling.

I expected her to stop. On the phone, she laughed: “Attention is opportunity.”

That afternoon, I cut off her card, changed the locks, terminated the internship, and had counsel serve the letter.

She thought I’d soften. I simply made one thing clear: some attraction ends at the line—and some consequences never come with a warning.

For five years of secret marriage to Sebastian Hawthorne—one of New York's most powerful attorneys—he still refused to let our son Quinn call him "Daddy" in public.
At the firm, I was his on-call senior associate, the invisible workhorse cleaning up his messes and handling his impossible cases. At home, I was the single mother who stopped waiting up for a husband who never came home for dinner.
Everyone knew the new intern, Delilah Vance, was his favorite—a federal judge's daughter, his hand-picked "rising star."
I used to believe that if I worked hard enough, if Quinn behaved perfectly, the heart beneath all that arrogance would eventually soften.
Until that rainy night when he threw his wife of five years and their son out of their own home to comfort Delilah over some fabricated stalker scare.
And while Quinn collapsed in my arms, gasping through a severe allergic reaction, Sebastian was raising champagne with that woman at an impossible-to-book French restaurant, celebrating her win in a pointless mock trial.
Watching my son's pale face and the hope slowly dying in his eyes, five years of one-sided devotion finally reached its verdict.
The case is closed, Sebastian. I'm done.

I was married to Vera for three years.

In those three years, every time we fought, I was the one who backed down first. She got used to being indulged, and she got used to using the silent treatment to make me fold.

Then a blizzard grounded my flight. I didn’t make it back for her birthday. She filed for divorce out of spite and left the country.

Three years ended without dignity.

A year after the divorce, Vera returned with a new jewelry brand and a high-profile comeback. Everyone assumed I was still waiting for her—she assumed it too.

At dinners, she hinted at reconciliation, using our old story to build hype for her brand. The circle started whispering that I’d end up back by her side.

I corrected it, again and again. She ignored every word.

What she didn’t know was that I already had someone new—and we were preparing to get engaged.

When she saw the engagement planning booklet, she convinced herself it was my signal to take her back.

I explained. She insisted.

Until the day of the engagement, when she stormed into the venue…

"I absolutely love your huge, thick cock, James. Just let me ride it tonight, and I'll pay you to be my secret whore," my wife's sister-in-law purred, climbing into my bed completely naked, her wet, dripping pussy grinding against my thigh.

I threw her naked body onto the floor like trash. For three years, I played the pathetic, submissive househusband to my arrogant wife, Emily. I endured their endless humiliation, hiding the fact that I was the billionaire heir and lethal ex-special forces agent keeping their pathetic family alive.

But today, the three-year contract hit zero.

When a rival mafia boss kicked down our door, threatening to massacre everyone, my wife's sister Rhea desperately ripped her dress open, exposing her heavy, bare breasts, begging the boss to fuck her raw right there on the floor if he spared her life.

I’d had enough.

I stepped forward, snapping the necks and shattering the bones of a dozen armed guards, leaving them choking on their own blood. As my fleet of twenty armored Rolls-Royces surrounded the villa, my true identity was finally revealed.

Seeing my unimaginable power, Rhea crawled to my feet, shoving her massive tits against my leg, begging to suck my cock and share my bed with my wife.

I slapped her across her slutty face, tore up the marriage contract, and walked out.

Behind me, Emily collapsed, sobbing hysterically. "If I had just spread my legs for him... if I had just let him breed me and fill my womb with his heir, I would be the queen of the world..."

She's begging for my seed now, but should I lock her in my basement and make her pay for the last three years?

The apocalypse is not a natural disaster, but a man-made one.

When the T-virus swept through London like a curse, and when my former love and brothers tore off their disguises at the last moment, I realized that the most terrifying thing in this world has never been zombies, but the human heart.

They thought they had tricked me, that abandoning me would get them a ticket to the safe house.

They don't know that I was reborn.

In my past life, my kindness became a weapon in the hands of demons; in this life, I will make the betrayers send themselves to hell.

In my last life, the city became a locked-down apocalypse zone.
My “family-first” elite father shoved my older brother into a raider’s shotgun just to survive.
My pampered socialite mother thought I was dead weight—and personally threw me into a tide of infected.
When I opened my eyes again, it was the third day after the world collapsed.
Watching my mother still dilute her luxury face cream with the last half case of water—while my father lectured me about principles—
I drew my tactical knife and pinned it clean through the solid oak table.
“From now on, supplies are split. Rot here and prove it to me.”

He's the golden boy of Kansas City hockey. He has the trophies, fortune, women, and a life where he always gets what he wants.

She's the Special Agent who has spent ten years hunting the monster that murdered her father, waiting for the day its signature appears again.

Zane Chandler's perfect life shatters when he comes home to find his younger sister brutally murdered, her eyes gouged out and a five-pointed star carved between them.

For Island Meyers, that star isn't just a killer's signature. It's the ghost that has haunted her for a decade.

Determined to solve the case that destroyed her, Island takes charge of the investigation, only to face the victim's furious brother.

Zane dismisses her as a rookie, demands she's removed from the case, and insists she isn't capable of finding his sister's killer.

What he doesn't know is that Island isn't a stranger. Their families are connected by a betrayal neither of them has forgotten, and a secret buried for ten years.

Island refuses to walk away. This investigation is her only chance to uncover the truth she's spent a decade chasing, and no grieving hockey superstar is going to stop her.

But when another body appears and the killer's twisted game grows deadlier, Zane and Island are forced into an uneasy partnership where every clue exposes another lie, every discovery brings them closer to the monster, and every argument makes their attraction harder to ignore.

Because Zane's sister wasn't chosen by chance…She was a message.

Now Zane and Island must trust the one person they swore they'd never need before the next victim wears the star.

Because whatever murdered the people they loved isn't finished.

And this time, it's watching them fall for each other.

Noah Martin is the most handsome physics instructor at his college. Of course, being an ex-model helps a bit in that department. He is engaged to a beautiful and talented designer, Olivia Wilson. They have a newborn daughter, Amelia, and are extremely busy with both of their careers. With the stress of everyday life and their newborn baby… they begin to just live together and not really be together. They skirt around the main issue between them and find excuses to not talk about it. When Noah’s coworker, Lea, and Olivia’s main male model, Adam, show up to tempt them… they are forced to deal with their relationship problems head on.

Warnings: Sexual Content, Cheating, Manipulation.

Suggested Age: 18+

Tell Me it Gets Easier: When a Relationship is Worth Saving is created by Minette Enfers, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

When the zombie apocalypse hit, my girlfriend called me weak and hypocritical. She said only the strong deserved to survive, then handed the map of the base I had spent two years building to a warlord and watched me bleed out in the dirt.

Then I opened my eyes and woke up four months earlier.

The warlord had not arrived yet.
I did not expose her. I did not beg her to stay. I quietly reinforced the walls, emptied the warehouse, and dug traps beyond the fence.

She passed the intel like before. She opened the gate like before. She thought she would win again, and she thought I would be softhearted again.

She only realized the truth after leading them into the warehouse and finding an empty cage.

She dropped to her knees in the mud, begging the warlord to take her with him. But the strong man she chose kicked her off the truck and left her for the dead.

At last, she tasted the rule she worshipped.

Destiny is not your ordinary girl.
Besides the fact that she straggles two world’s.
She is also the spirit the powers that be have been waiting for.
That’s right.
Destiny is a spirit. Not born on this plane of existence.
She hails from beyond the veil. Where a soul goes when the vessel can no longer hold it.
Spirits like Destiny are called shadow agents.
A shadow agent hunts down and returns the souls that flee back to the mortal side of the veil. Where these souls start to cause trouble.
The Powers that be have sensed uneasiness for a while now and need Destiny to accept. Well. Her destiny.
All Destiny will have to aid her in her task is a sassy best friend and a talking, scruffy white cat.
Destiny will need all her skills, all her courage and wits if she is going to prevail and bring the missing souls home.

Silver poisoning struck, and my mother's life hung by a thread.
I knelt and begged my partner Selene to use the 100,000 gold coins from our war spoils to purchase Moonlight Holy Water, but she coldly refused with a sneer: "An ordinary silver poison patient isn't worth wasting resources on." She then turned and spent 80,000 coins on a necklace for her male lover.
My mother died in my arms as I ground my teeth and swallowed my tears of blood.
But when the patrol came to collect the body, she finally discovered—the one sent to be buried deep in the mass grave wasn't my mother at all, but her own biological mother.
She had personally buried her own mom!

At a family party my husband suddenly announces that another woman is pregnant with his baby and I, in turn, is falsely accused of meeting a strange man in the garden .... I have to end my marriage of eight years. Even though I am diagnosed with a cancer, I start working out, getting in shape and working hard. I don't expect the strange man from that night to come into my life. He is a billionaire and the hockey coach of my childhood crush! I am caught up in a love triangle with him and his famous model ex-wife. And even more surprisingly, we have a wonderful night at my best friend's party, drunk. A month later, I, considered infertile by my ex-husband, is pregnant with the billionaire's triplets .... I can't believe I get everything I has longly dreamed of, but I only have less than six months left?!

When Hannah finally marries the love of her life, Noah, she never imagines it marks the beginning of a nightmare. The return of Noah's ex, Zoe, to their pack ignites gossip and brings unseen chaos into Hannah's life. Noah's coldness and Zoe's threats shatter everything Hannah holds dear, culminating in the loss of her life and her unborn child.
But then, the Moon Goddess grants Hannah a second chance, sending her back to the day before Zoe's return. Armed with the knowledge of what's to come, Hannah is determined to change her fate. She vows to reclaim her father's pack with her child, but leaving Noah won't be as easy as she thinks...

When your fiancé cheated the night before your wedding and called you a boring bi**h.
Under the influence of alcohol, you said to the hot stranger: Marry me tmr, will you?
Him: I will, if you show me how much you wanna be mine.
You melted into his kiss and it's a crazy night.
Next day, Your EX showed up and called your new husband, "Uncle…"
Uncle? The youngest billionaire uncle that your ex kept bragging about?