7575 Book(s) Related to free murder on the orient express

They both realize they’re falling in love, but having the courage to go there is a whole other matter. When, at sixteen, Zoey Beckett lost her parents in a plane crash, her aunt took her in. More than a decade later, Zoey still suffers from the resulting anxiety. Besides a fear of flying and travel, she has protected herself from the pain of loss by keeping relationships distant. Now a teacher, she fills the emotional void by devoting herself to her students. But when the school board implements changes that negatively affect the school children, she refuses to be a part of it and resigns. Tyler Farrington knows no fear. In his ten years as a foreign news correspondent, he has rushed into places most people would flee from. Years of covering violence and suffering are taking a toll, but when the facts he reports are suppressed, he resigns. Desperate to recharge, he buys a mountain cabin in the charming small town of Cedar Creek and takes some extended time off. When Tyler volunteers at the town’s historic theater, he and the owner’s niece work together to repair the crumbling plaster. From the start, their chemistry is undeniable. But so are their polar opposite lives. The two broken souls could complete one another if they dared. But it will take a leap of faith, and that might be one leap too many.

She needed a place to stay. He needed to save his ranch. Together they just might make a home. Sgt. Dylan Banks lost more than just his leg in the war. His fiancée and family turned their backs on him as well. Now, he’s determined to create a safe place where wounded warriors like himself can heal. But a hidden zoning law requires all residents of the Purple Heart Ranch to be married. To save his dream, Dylan and his men will have to tie the knot—but can a man with such deep scars inside and out believe in love again?   Maggie Shaw lost both her job as a veterinary technician and her apartment on the same day. Who knew her unreasonable landlord would kick her out for being four dogs over the one pet limit? Now, she and her gang of special-needs dogs are in trouble. Then fate puts her in Dylan’s path with a proposal that seems too good to be true—but can her heart bear a loveless marriage of convenience?   Dylan yearns to reach out for Maggie’s healing touch, but he keeps his distance, convinced his wounds are too deep for her embrace. Maggie sees past Dylan’s injuries, but if she fails to capture his heart they both could lose it all: her beloved animals, his ranch, and each other.   Find out if love can truly heal all wounds in this light-hearted, sweet romance of convenient arrangements that unfold into lasting love. On His Bended Knee is the first in a series of marriage of convenience tales featuring Wounded Warriors who are healed with the power of love.

During our first month at university, my half-vampire boyfriend, Darien, claimed he couldn't adapt to the human campus. The bright lights gave him vertigo, the sensory overload wrecked him, and even a drop of a classmate's blood pushed him to the brink of losing control.
For him, I promised to drop my elite program so we could transfer to a dreary, isolated northern town together. To keep him stable, I—a pureblood vampire—slashed my own wrists to feed him.
Thursday night, standing outside the gym locker room, I heard him tell his teammate: "It's all an act. She's like a leech I can't peel off, and I’m sick of it. I tricked her into moving north so Cassira can study here in peace."
Everything he did was just to disgust me out of his life, all for another girl.
I stood there for a long time, then turned and walked away.
On my transfer application, I crossed out checking the northern town and changed my destination to London.

"I'll make her fall for me and then abándon her!"

A daring bet--Who falls for who?

Scarlett Kingston is an actress with a promising career. However, Scarlett doesn't believe in love. For her, it's a big waste of time ...until she meets the CEO of an entertainment company, Ryder Thompson.

Ryder is a playboy who plays around with the feelings of women...He is enraged when he finds a woman who isn't affected by his charm...He sets out to win her heart but Scarlett proves more though than he imagines. He then gets into a bet with her. In six months, he'll make her fall for him. However, there is a condition. For that six months, they have to live as a married couple.

But who falls for who?

She is his girlfriend's sister, and the rival he must defeat.
Xavier Kesh, England's hockey star, is sharp on the ice and untamed off it. With a girlfriend like Katrina by his side, everything is perfect—until he signs a "couples contract" with her sister, Melissa.
Melissa Brown, the only female star on the ice and a fresh face determined to make her mark in fashion. Pretending to be with him is just a shortcut to the top.
In front of the camera, he murmurs, "You're blushing." Behind the scenes, she warns, "Don't call me baby."
Then their "date" video explodes online, capturing the moment he gently tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear. A performance meant to be fake is now burning through three real lives.
In a game that started with ambition, who will be the first to pay the price in truth?

"If you want a shot at the Olympics, and if you want that NHL draft, you will announce that you’ve been quietly dating," the Dean ordered, sliding the fake contract across the desk. I looked at Reid Carter, the arrogant hockey captain who had sabotaged my skates, the man I had despised for ten years. Now, I had to pretend to be deeply in love with him for ninety days. I grabbed the pen, my fingers trembling, and signed my name. "Perfect," the PR manager smiled. "Tonight is the bonfire. Act like you actually like her. Iris, try not to look like you're plotting his murder."

We walked into the dark parking lot, the scent of burning wood filling the air. "Ready to sell our souls?" Reid murmured, his massive hand suddenly wrapping around mine. An unexpected jolt of electricity shot up my arm. His skin was rough, calloused from years of gripping a hockey stick, but his heat melted right through my cold fingers. We stepped into the firelight, surrounded by a hundred whispering athletes and flashing cameras. I leaned my head against his broad shoulder, playing the perfect, obsessed girlfriend. "She's worth the trouble," he told the crowd, his voice dark and unreadable.

But when the cameras were gone, the lines began to blur. In the empty locker room, he pinned me against the cold metal lockers, his chest heaving. "You're squeezing too hard," I whispered, my heart hammering against my ribs. "You're the one shaking, Ice Queen," he growled back, his face inches from mine. We were supposed to hate each other. We were supposed to be a PR stunt to save our funding. But as his gaze dropped to my lips, the fiery tension between us felt dangerously real. Would the world find out we were a fraud, or would this fake contract destroy us both?

She was killed by her mate and was dumped in the forest for bird to feed on but was saved by a soccerrer who turned her into an hybrid with a black magic.... How cruel must fate be when she got mated to the same man in her new body?

They chose her. They always chose her.
For eighteen years, I was the ghost in my own family while my adopted sister was the star. So when the ransom call came and they had to choose which daughter to save, I knew the answer before they spoke.
"Save her," they told the kidnappers, nodding at my sister. Then they turned to me. "She's strong. She can survive."
They were right. I was strong enough to survive the warehouse. Strong enough to disappear. Strong enough to come back.
Now I’m stepping onto the nation’s most-watched reality show, right alongside the people who left me for dead. They’re here to polish their perfect image for the cameras. I’m here to strip it bare—one live scandal at a time.
The problem? The show’s most powerful investor isn't playing their game. He’s a cold, record-breaking F1 champion​ who shuts down my sister’s tears and backs my play every single time. When my family tries a live ambush, he steps in front of the lens and makes it clear: I’m under his protection.
They called me strong because they thought I was disposable. Strong is the last thing they should have made me.

When Lyla's fated mate is revealed as Alpha Kaiden—her sister's ruthless ex-husband—the only thing he offers her is public humiliation and a brutal rejection. Heartbroken and branded as unworthy, she flees her pack, determined to uncover the truth behind her sister's mysterious disappearance.

Her escape leads her to Alpha Rowan, the commanding leader of the Blackwood Pack, who offers shelter, protection, and an unexpected chance at a new life. But Rowan’s fierce and jealous fiancée sees Lyla as a threat, and the pack’s charming Beta is drawn to her quiet strength.

As a dangerous attraction simmers between Lyla and Rowan, they begin to unravel a dark web of secrets that implicates Kaiden and threatens both their worlds.

With her hidden power awakening, Lyla must navigate treacherous loyalties, face the alpha who shattered her, and decide: Will she follow the destiny fate forced upon her, or claim the love and strength she has chosen for herself?

I'm sorry, Sophie." Janet Morrison, her now ex-boss, shifted uncomfortably behind her polished mahogany desk. "The merger means consolidation, and your position is redundant."

Redundant. Sophie had always hated that word.

"When Sophie Chen loses everything, a chance encounter with billionaire Alex Blackstone sparks a marriage of convenience. She needs money to save her father; he needs a wife to secure his inheritance. Sophie agrees to the idea, but Alex secrets run deeper than she could have imagined. Haunted by a tragic past, he’s bound to his inheritance and his demons. As their fake relationship ignites into real passion, dark secrets threaten to destroy their future. Will love conquer all, or will the truth tear them apart? One year. One lie. One chance at something real."

On the day I gave birth to my daughter, Iris, my husband Hollis pushed open the hospital room door, dragging a four-year-old boy by the arm. Eyes red and welling with tears, he said, "Look who I brought home."
My mother-in-law wept tears of joy. My son, Felix—who supposedly died in the winery fire five months ago—had returned "from the dead."
The whole room was crying over this miracle, but my blood ran cold: since the second he walked through that door, Hollis hadn't spared a single glance at our newborn daughter.
I secretly collected a DNA sample from the boy and sent it for expedited testing. The results confirmed it: this wasn't my son at all. He was Hollis’s illegitimate child with another woman.
That same night, I pulled up the nursery's hidden camera footage and watched with my own eyes as this man injected poison into Iris’s breast milk. Soon after, he brazenly moved his mistress—my personal assistant—into my home.
A towering wave of hatred consumed me. I swore I would make them pay in blood...

DISCLAIMER:
Rated 18+
Contains Graphic Violence, explicit sexual contents, vulgar language and mature psychological themes.



Zia West had one goal: ruin the wedding of her backstabbing sister and the childhood sweetheart who traded her in..the plan was simple- fake a romance with the one man they feared the most: The Lethal, Grey Eyes Roan Vance.

"Try to look like you're in love," Roan whispered, his breath hot against her skin. "It's the only lie I won't forgive you for falling."

But Roan didn't play by the rules. On the night of their greatest performance, he didn't just break the contract. He broke her by piercing her blade to her heart with a warm smile. And just like that, Zia west was dead before the gala's champagne stopped bubbling.

Until....Six Months Later, She woke up.

But Zia was gone, in her place is Lady Eris Hamilton- a ginger haired heiress with emerald eyes and a family empire on the brink of ruin. She now had a new face, a new body, and a burning hunger for vengeance.

"I want him, Father," Eris said, her eyes fixed on her murderer's face on the news. "I want Roan Vance....As my husband."

She was walking back into the lion's den with a ring on her finger and a dagger in her mind. Roan doesn't recognize the fallen tiger had risen back, but he's about to find out that some ghosts don't haunt- they hunt.

The game was back on. But this time, who will bleed first? And what other secrets are buried deep in the vaults in the precious hearts of their empires?
COPYRIGHT©️ TILDAROSS 2026.

Strict Warning: 18+ only.

20 EROTIC SHORT STORIES DRIPPING WITH ALL THE DIRTY, HOT ACTION, ALPHA KING, ONE SMART, SASSY, STOLEN BRIDE BOX SET YOU'VE BEEN CRAVING!! Are you seriously still reading this? Like, seriously? It's FUCKING FILTHY EROTICA STORIES!!!

This book contain explicit and mature content.
If you are not up to 18 years, this book is not for you.
Don't say I did not warn you.

“You shouldn’t have disobedyed me, Hazel.” His voice came out hard and husky and she thril at the soothing undertone that sent chills down her spine, her py, already gaining lots of wetness. “I am sorry Daddy,baby girl needed some alone…” she tries to explain, but his next action shut her up. He flung her over the bed like she weighed nothing, her facing pressing into the pillow, while her ass position into the perfect doggy style he craved for. “I am going to punish you so fg well, momma. I am going to fk you hard till you no longer feel your legs, momma. Hazel gulps down the hitches in her throat at the thought of his 9 inches-thick, ck riding her tight cunt, to pleasure. Without any warning, Hazel felt his dk tearing throw her, as he made one rough thrust. “Oh my f*****g goodness….” her words thrailed into a moan, while his hands found his most adore part of her body, her waist, Pulling her backward, he began to thrust hard, with each thrust he got rewarded with moans that made him want to do more! Hazel had just gained admission to her favorite university in the city of Washington, she is forced to live with her fathers most trusted young friend all in the name of protection. Hazel eventually finds herself in the bed of the man she claims she hate, the one whom is to protect her from the outside world, after one foreplay, Hazel and Axel had refused to keep their eyes off each other. However, it didn’t end up as just a Lustful feeling. Will their love stand the test of time, in a world where fans criticize whoever goes intimate with their idol?

"Now I'm going to bend you over and fuck you."
"Right now.. Hard.. And I'm not pulling out until I'm satisfied."
He didn't give her a second to think. He spun her around, her ass up, leg spread, pussy soaked waiting.
"Fuck!!!" He growled behind her, one hand grabbing her hip, the other spreading her legs wider.
"Look at this pussy.. Begging to be ruined."
She was rejected by the mate she loved… and now she's his brother's pawn.
Kaelen Veyr, cursed and feared, buys Sylvara Rynne… not for love, but to make his step-brother angry.
She's stubborn, fiery, and refuses to be tamed…but every clash with him sparks a dangerous desire neither can deny. A game of revenge. A storm of lust. And a fire that could destroy them both.

Blaze shoved Carlo hard, his breath ragged. “Get the hell out of my way! I don’t need your help.”

Carlo caught his balance, his lips curling into a taunting smirk. “Really? Because it looks like you’re drowning without me.”

"And no matter where you go, I'll be the only man you'll come back to" Carlo slurs.


Blaze is a street racer trying to pay off his father’s debt, desperate to win his freedom. Carlo is a rich son of a powerful family, living a life of luxury that Blaze can only dream of. But there’s one thing Carlo can’t buy—true passion.

When the underground racing scene throws them into competition, their rivalry heats up. But after an unexpected one-night stand, a new kind of tension sparks between them. Suddenly, Blaze and Carlo find themselves drawn to each other in a way they never imagined.

Now, they have to decide if they can put their hatred aside and risk everything for a love neither of them saw coming. But what happens when Blaze finds out Carlo's secret?

"You walked into my room, Astrid. No ba, no paties. What did you expect me to do? pray?" "I expected you to look away." "Look away?" His voice drops, dark and rough. "Baby, I've been looking away for five damn years."
Astrid Cole comes home for a quiet summer, no drama, no complications. Until Rhett Rivers, her brother's best friend, moves in. He's no longer the reckless boy she once knew. He's older, hotter, and completely off-limits. One party. One mistake. One night they can't take back. But what was supposed to be a one-time lapse turns into something far more dangerous. Because Rhett isn't looking away anymore and Astrid might not want him to.

BLURB

Vivienne Laurent publicly kissed the wrong man to escape a forced blind date, only to discover the stranger is Raphael Moreau, Marseille’s most powerful, most untouchable billionaire who now needs a fiancée in three days to save his empire.

One reckless kiss turns into a city-wide fake engagement, ten hypercars of betrothal gifts, and a war with her scheming stepmother who will sell Vivienne’s future to the highest bidder.

She wanted revenge on the world that tried to cage her. He wanted a temporary wife. Neither counted on the moment tiptoe kisses stopped being pretend and started feeling like forever.

In three days they have to marry… or lose everything, including each other.

“He-he, Gideon! You are so sweet. I am 18 now. I can kiss anyone I want!” Isla kept giggling under the influence of alcohol.
“You were not supposed to drink; you know that, right?” snapped Gideon.
“Shut up and kiss me!” giggled Isla and smashed her lips over Gideon's lips, who was caught off-guard. His heart jumped out of his chest, and a jolt ran through his spine.


Isla Harrington, a teenager and a star swimmer, had her life turned upside down when her father, Desmond, married Charlotte Henderson. She had to leave her town and move to a new city. A new school, new friends, new teachers and a new family. Isla didn’t know how to navigate all that. On top of that, the first man who made her heart skip a beat turned out to be her step-brother, Gideon Henderson.
Gideon, the captain of the hockey team, is a cold, manipulative, calculative asshole. No girl dares to approach him. But his teammate, Jasper Montgomery, is the stark opposite. Highly popular, extremely polite, and charming.
Navigating through her high school and her career as a professional swimmer, Isla also has to deal with matters of the heart. Should she fall for the charming boy or the asshole captain? Should she fall for someone who is not related to her or for her stepbrother? How is she going to forgive her father for leaving her mother behind and marrying someone else? How will she accept a stepmother? So many questions! What to do?

After surviving three years of kidnapping, I finally escaped—only to find my boyfriend engaged to my younger sister.

My parents' reaction? "They are in love. As the older sister, you should step aside."
My ex's excuse? "Cordelia, you're the one I truly love."

"Go to hell," I sneered. I dumped him and walked away from the toxic Fox family forever.
Furious, he shouted behind me, "You'll regret this! Don't come crawling back!"

Oh, I didn't.

But when he finally came crawling back to me, he was in for a rude awakening. He didn't find me crying. Instead, he found me pinned against a wall, sharing a breathless, heated kiss with the most powerful, untouchable man in the city—his almighty uncle.

Seeing us, my ex lost his mind. "Cordelia! You said you loved me!" he roared in absolute jealousy.

With a wicked smile, I leaned against his uncle's chest and hooked my finger at my pathetic ex.

"Be a good boy," I smirked. "Call me Auntie."

I came across a viral local post while scrolling through my phone.

LIVE: My fiancée is cheating on me. I’m in her house right now. Should I end her for good?

When I tapped into the post, what I read made the blood in my veins turn to ice in an instant.

I put a monitoring app on her phone. I’ve been listening for almost two weeks, and every single day she’s on the line with some random guy, flirting and talking dirty. She says yes to marrying me to my face, but she’s been cuckolding me behind my back. Tell me, bros—does this bitch deserve to die?

The comment section below had completely spiraled out of control. Hundreds of replies were all outright egging him on, not a single person telling him to stop. Every line oozed with the vicious glee of people who lived for drama and cared nothing for the consequences.

Hell yeah she does. You got cucked this hard, why keep her around?
Bro, stop all talk and no action. Go live, we’ll send you gifts. Rape her first, then kill her if you’ve got the balls.
You in Haicheng? Drop the address. Me and the boys will come over and help you out. My fists are itching for a fight anyway.
Pfft, and I thought you were tough. You’re already in her house and still dragging your feet? I bet you don’t even have the guts to kill a dog.

My fingers were shaking violently. Driven by a sick, twisting dread, I tapped into the poster’s profile—and with just one glance, every hair on my body stood on end.

This account belonged to Xiao Ming, the blind date my relatives had forced on me when I went home for the Lunar New Year.

His entire profile was filled with posts about me, spanning a full two weeks, starting the very day we’d met for that blind date.

He’d taken secret photos of me, paired with captions full of disgusting, delusional ramblings:

My fiancée went on a date with me today. She wore a white blouse with the neckline open so low, it’s obvious she was trying to seduce me.
She told me she works the front desk at a hotel. That’s her way of hinting I should take her to a room for the night. All women say one thing and mean another.
She says she has a boyfriend, but it’s just playing hard to get. She’s been dying to marry me this whole time.

But I’d said it loud and clear, right in front of the matchmaker, on the very day of that blind date: I’d been in a committed relationship with my boyfriend for three years.

That blind date was nothing more than a way to appease my family. I’d been polite but distant the entire time, and I hadn’t even accepted a single glass of water from him.

As for that nonsense about a hotel room? It was complete and utter garbage. I’d only casually mentioned that my job was working the front desk at a hotel, nothing more.

Just as a bone-deep chill washed over me, the post refreshed. A new line had been added to the main post, timestamped just three seconds earlier:

Truth is, I’m hiding in her house right now. She’s lying in bed scrolling through her phone, and she has no idea she’s already dead meat.

The very second that line finished loading, a clear, soft rustle of fabric came from the wardrobe right behind me.

I had been Lucan Ferretti's wife for five years. I had also been the woman who took a bullet meant for him.
Four years of fertility treatments. Four years of empty rooms where a nursery should have been. Then, the day I finally get a positive test, I find something else: two secret sons, funded by my husband's money, waiting in a house I was never supposed to find.
Their names? The ones Lucan and I picked out together, years ago, in a hospital parking lot.
That night, I sat alone with the positive test still in my hand, memorizing the names he'd already given to someone else's sons.
I could have confronted him. I could have screamed, thrown things, demanded a divorce.
Instead, I find a text message. His mistress has already ordered a hit — on me, timed for our anniversary, dressed up to look like enemy retaliation.
She wants me dead before I can tell anyone I'm carrying his child.
Fine.
She can have exactly what she asked for.

I straighten up after three back-to-back all-nighters, my stomach aching so badly I can barely stand up straight. At one in the morning, I head to the twenty-four-hour diner below my studio for a bowl of soup, just to keep myself going.

Steam rises off the bowl, and when I look up, my blood goes cold.

Beckett Wexford, my husband, head of the Wexford Group and a man with a serious germ phobia, sits right there, completely out of place in this greasy late-night diner.

He patiently picks the onions out of her burger, one piece at a time, while the girl next to him laughs, bright and carefree, her profile eerily close to what mine looked like at twenty.

"Beckett, you're so bad at this. It's just an onion."

The man who's been ice cold to me for years has a look in his eyes I've never seen before, soft, doting, like she's something precious to him.

"Hold on, almost done."

Eight years of marriage, and I turned myself into some neurotic housekeeper. Turns out all that tenderness was just going somewhere else.

I pull out my phone and open the divorce agreement I drafted a while ago.

Eight years. It's time to get myself out of this.

Five years ago, Eric took the fall for his fiancée’s brother and was thrown into the notorious Saint Paul Mountain Women’s Prison.

Little did the world know, this hell on earth became his ultimate training ground.

Enduring brutal training under seven legendary masters, he emerged as a supreme martial artist and a divine healer, eventually taking over as the prison’s absolute warden.

But when he steps out, his world shatters: his three general brothers were ambushed and killed in action, his grandfather is on his deathbed, and his family empire has been reduced to ruins by wolves.

Now, the King of Saint Paul Mountain has returned to the city.

To those who betrayed his family and brought shame to his name—prepare to pay a hundredfold!

My husband often made me suffer for the sake of my younger sister, even divorcing me because of her.
My parents gave all their love to my sister and neglected me.
My husband and parents even had my sister perform surgery on me.
But they didn't know that my sister had no idea how to perform surgery.
It didn't matter though, because I no longer cared.
On Christmas Day, when they were celebrating, they finally remembered me.
But I was already dead.

"Stay in the apartment," he said, straightening his tie as I fixed his collar. "I'll be back tonight." Then he walked out the door — straight to his wedding. What he didn't know was that my flight was already booked.
For three years I was his canary: locked in a penthouse, the only woman he let close when he bled, forgotten the moment another woman entered the room. I watched him let her wipe the blood from his face. I lost our child alone on a cold floor. I apologized to the woman who destroyed my mother's watch.
I was done waiting.
When the bells of Saint Patrick's rang out across Manhattan, he was welcoming his bride — and I finally flew out of my cage.

“You look soft, Pretty Boy. Like one hard hit on the ice would break you in half.”
“Then don’t hit me, Captain.”
A slow, dangerous smile curved his lips. “Who said anything about hitting you?”


My twin brother lived for hockey.
He was the university’s star winger, and the boy everyone expected to go pro but then he died.
Everyone called it an accident. I didn’t.
The last person seen with him was the university’s hockey captain.
The same captain everyone worships and the same captain I know is hiding something.
So I did the only thing I could.
I cut off my hair, bound my chest, buried my identity, and transferred to the same university disguised as a boy, determined to uncover the truth behind my brother’s death and expose the captain for the monster I believe he is.
No one can know who I really am, not my teammates, not the coaches.
And especially not the captain who watches me like he already knows I’m lying.
Living with twenty hockey players is a nightmare.
Becoming roommates with the one man I came to destroy is even worse.
He calls me Pretty Boy, pushes every button I have and protects me when no one else does.
And with every passing day, the man I swore murdered my brother becomes harder to hate… and impossible to stop wanting.
But someone knows why my brother died.
Someone is willing to kill to keep the truth buried.
And if I don’t uncover it before my disguise falls apart…
My brother won’t be the only one who never makes it off the ice.


…
A hidden-identity MF hockey romance.

Self-made CEO Angela Vale dies in a high-speed car crash, only to wake up on an 1800s execution block. Trapped in the body of a low-ranking maid framed for poisoning the royal princess, she has zero voice to defend herself.
When the terrifyingly handsome Emperor Alexander spares her neck at his daughter's request, Angela thinks she survived the worst. But the palace is full of vipers. That very night, the evil Queen Mother gives her a deadly choice: seduce the cold-hearted Emperor in thirty days, or be quietly strangled.
Without a voice, Angela has to use her sharp corporate brain to navigate lethal court politics, play the icy King like a violin, and survive a world trying to kill her, again.

I was at my favorite artist's concert, phone up, recording the Kiss Cam segment. My boyfriend Mason said he was three hours away having dinner at his parents' house and couldn't make it, even sent me a selfie as proof.

Then the Kiss Cam found him.

On the giant screen, Mason wore the exact same gray vintage rock tee and black ripped jeans from his "family dinner photo," his arm around a blonde girl with her head on his shoulder.

The arena erupted: "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"

He looked like he'd seen a ghost, frantically trying to block the camera.

My phone's location alert read: "Mason is nearby (0.1 miles)."

Three years of us, exposed as a massive lie in front of thousands of cheering strangers.

This was the most miserable Christmas I had ever experienced.
On Christmas Eve night, my husband brought his mistress home and demanded that I, his pregnant wife, leave with nothing.
On this day, I lost my husband and also lost the child in my womb...

I boarded The Elysium, thinking it was just another job.

A luxury cruise ship. A floating paradise for the world’s elite.

Private. Untouchable. Unregulated.

I was wrong.

Within hours, I was accused of a murder I didn’t commit.

And on The Elysium, innocence is not something you prove.

It’s something you lose.

That’s when I met him.

Silas Voss.

They call him the Sovereign of the ship.

He didn’t ask if I was guilty.

He asked how much I was worth.

I was given a choice:

Death… or a ninety-day contract under his control.

His physician.
His property.
His possession.

I signed it.

Because I had no other way to survive.

I told myself I could endure him.

I told myself I could outsmart him.

But The Elysium doesn’t break people through violence alone.

It breaks them through permission.

And Silas Voss never takes what he can’t make you agree to give.

Every attempt I made to escape only brought me closer to him.

Every rule I broke only made him calmer.

More patient.

More interested.

Until I realized something I never should have felt in a place like this—

Fear wasn’t the worst part anymore.

And what he was turning me into… might be worse than what he did to me.

⚠MATURE READERS ONLY⚠ DARK ROMANCE | MORALLY GREY HERO | OBSESSION | FORCED PROXIMITY ⚠

Jessica Howard was Ridgeview Homecoming Queen.

She smiled for the cameras, accepted her crown... and disappeared before the after-party. No body was found. No ransom. No answers.

The next morning, every student's phone lit up with the same notification. ‘A new app has been installed.’ No one downloaded it. No one can delete it.
It's simply called NEXT.

At midnight, NEXT chooses a name. The next day... Someone dies. Or something even worse happens.

The police call them accidents, the students call it a curse. I call it impossible.

I was never supposed to be part of this. I’m Sabrina Markson. The scholarship girl nobody notices. I came to Ridgeview to earn a future, not become part of its darkest mystery.

But somehow I ended up with the final piece of Jessica’s puzzle. The one clue that could blow the whole thing wide open.

Now the whispers are turning into threats. And the only person who’s willing to help me is the last person I should trust, Luke Carpenter. The school’s notorious bad boy. Trouble with a capital T.

We started out hating each other. But late nights chasing clues turn into shared moments. Stolen glances in empty hallways turn into him walking me home when NEXT starts targeting people close to me.

With every secret we uncover, it gets harder to tell if I’m falling for him... or falling into a trap.

As Luke and I dig deeper, it gets harder to tell who’s hunting who. And to figure out if what’s growing between us can survive when everyone around us is dropping.

Together, we need to unmask the culprits, and stop the stupid app from sending any more death notifications.

Because if we don’t find them first…
We’re next on the list.

I kept a list. Ninety-eight times my husband chose another woman over me.

Missed birthdays, ruined anniversaries, broken promises—all for his "patient" Sophia, who seemed to have a medical emergency every time we had plans.

"It's just my job, Emma," he would say. "You understand."

Ryan thought he could have his cake and eat it too. He was wrong.

After an incident, I was determined to leave him, and before I left, I gave him an unforgettable "gift."

During the SATs, someone in the exam room went completely mad, screaming about a freezing apocalypse and ghouls eating everyone in the world. Everyone laughed at him, but I was the only one frozen in shock.
Because the pendant on my chest, which could warn me of danger, was emitting an unprecedented, blazing alarm...

When he was alive, Owen loved me so much he’d give his life for me. Yet, as for his death, I was as cold as a mere bystander.
At the funeral, his family slapped me, clawed at my throat, called me a man-eating black widow. Every last one of them turned on me, eyes red, demanding the same thing: Who killed Owen?
I didn't say a word.
My ten-year-old son went into cardiac arrest right there and was rushed to the ER — and still I said nothing.
Not until that voice cut through the crowd.
"I killed Owen."
I slowly raised my eyes.
After staying silent for so long… maybe it was finally time to tell the truth.

There are no unmated males in our pack.
Every she-wolf in Hollowfen is promised to someone when she turns eighteen. We just don't get to know who until we walk into the Choosing Hall.
Girls go in wearing white. They come out flushed, shaking, barely able to stand. Some laugh. Some cry. None of them talk about what happens inside.
My sister Thessaly turned eighteen this spring. Gran told her she couldn't attend the Choosing.
She went anyway. She came back on shaking legs, with blood between her thighs and a smile she couldn't wipe off her face.

Six months ago, my parents started fostering a girl named Lila Mercer.
Six months ago, Mom repainted the guest room and strung fairy lights over the bed. My room still has the same furniture I've had since I was twelve.
Six months ago, Dad started coming home for Sunday dinner. Not for me. I'd been eating alone at the counter for years by then.
Six months ago, Mom posted a photo of the two of them at the farmers market. Caption: our family is growing. I saw it during third period and locked my phone hard enough to crack the case.
So when I picked up the family iPad tonight and a notification popped up from an app I didn't recognize, I wasn't shocked. Just tired of being right.
The app was called Beacon.

Did you slaughter your roommates?" the detective sneered. "No!" I screamed. The polygraph technician stared at the flawless readouts confirming I told the absolute truth. I was innocent. But if a human didn't tear those girls apart in our locked dorm... then what exactly is hunting me now?

Married for five years, my husband, Reid, constantly played the poverty card. He’d blame crashing company revenues, claiming we couldn't even afford to upgrade to a house with a small yard. His favorite excuse was that we had to subsidize his chronically ill, adopted sister, Vivienne.
Yet, he frequently went out late at night, his phone practically glued to his hand. I suspected he was having an affair, but I couldn't find a single shred of evidence.
So, for our fifth anniversary, I gifted him a custom leather belt with a micro-GPS tracker hidden inside.
At 2:00 AM, the tracker pinned him at a private suburban farm—while he claimed to be pulling an all-nighter at the office.
Furious, I drove out to the middle of nowhere, my head full of scenarios where I’d catch him in bed with another woman. But when I arrived, the entire farm was locked down by the police.
A grim-faced detective stopped me and asked coldly, "Ma'am, are you the family of the deceased?"

To save my sister, my husband carved open my chest with his ice blade and ripped out my phoenix heartblood.
He doesn't know the true phoenix bloodline runs through my veins, not hers. Doesn't know I was the one who threw myself into the abyss to pull him from death's grasp.
He doesn't know I am the First Phoenix—the Fire God who descended from the celestial realm for one purpose: to survive this mortal trial.
After my body crumbles to ash, when he finally watches the truth unfold in that memory crystal, madness will consume him. He'll prostrate himself before my fading remnant and beat his head bloody against the stone.
But the divine grant no mercy to betrayers.

"She doesn't even have a place to stay. She’d never dare to divorce me," my husband sneered, reassuring his mistress.

On the day of the horrific car crash, I was trapped inside a burning vehicle, screaming for help. My husband ignored my cries, picked up his mistress, and walked away without looking back.

That was the moment my heart died. I signed the divorce papers and vanished from his life.

But a month later, the very man who had treated me with absolute coldness was on his knees before me, his eyes bloodshot with tears.

This time, it’s his turn to beg.

“The perfect romance or beach read, with a difference: its enthusiasm and beautiful descriptions offer an unexpected attention to the complexity of not just evolving love, but evolving psyches. It's a delightful recommendation for romance readers looking for a touch more complexity from their romance reads.”--Midwest Book Review (For Now and Forever)THE WITCHING PLACE: MURDER BY MANUSCRIPT is book #2 in a charming new cozy mystery series by bestselling author Sophie Love, author of The Inn at Sunset Harbor series, a #1 Bestseller with over 200 five-star reviews.When Alexis Blair, 29, is fired from her book publishing job and breaks up with her boyfriend on the same day, she wonders if life is urging her to make a fresh start. She decides it’s time to pursue her lifelong dream of opening a bookstore of her own—even if that means leaving Boston and accepting a job in a curious bookstore in a small seaside town an hour away.When Alexis is dispatched to scout out some books in an estate sale in a gothic mansion, she finds something she does not expect: one book is incredibly rare, the only one of its kind in existence, worth millions of dollars.She also soon finds something else she does not expect: a dead body.Thrust in the middle of the crime, will Alexis be able to clear her name?And will she discover the mystery at the heart of her very own store?A page-turning cozy, rife with the supernatural, mystery, secrets and love—and centered around a small town as odd and endearing as its shop—A CURIOUS BOOKSTORE will make you fall in love and keep you laughing out loud as you turn pages late into the night.“The romance is there, but not overdosed. Kudos to the author for this amazing start of a series that promises to be very entertaining.”--Books and Movies Reviews (For Now and Forever)Book #3 in the series—A PERILOUS PAGE—is now also available!

Seventy-two hours before my wedding, I stood in front of the fitting mirror at a bridal shop.

My best friend sent me a social media post, and the red exclamation mark in the message box stung my eyes sharply.

The post’s title read: Guys, my boyfriend is getting married to his current partner. What should I do?

The comment section had already erupted into chaos.
“Dude, are you out of your mind? You’re the other woman here!”
“You’re the homewrecker and you dare post this to get roasted? Where’s your shame?”

The poster was firing back furiously, every word oozing unapologetic madness:
“We’ve been inseparable since we were kids! His first love, first kiss, first time—all mine!”
“He doesn’t even like that old hag; he’s only marrying her out of obligation!”
“Who’s the real mistress, anyway?”

I should have swiped past it like a silly joke, but my gaze was locked onto the poster’s profile picture.

It showed two hands laced together. Peeking out from the man’s wrist was a dark green watch dial—a Richard Mille Valentine’s Day limited edition. It was the seven-figure engagement gift I’d bought him by selling my mother’s last precious heirloom, the only one of its kind in the world.

My heart was squeezed tight by an icy hand, plummeting to the bottom in an instant.

I tapped into the account’s homepage. The second my finger swiped open the photo album, a dizzying, world-spinning sensation crashed over me.

In the photos, the man holding the girl closely was none other than Lu Yanchen—my fiancé, who was supposed to marry me in three days.

I stared at the screen. All the wedding hopes and love I’d saved up over three years shattered into nothing but dust at this moment.

I couldn’t believe it, yet I had to. The man who’d loved me for three years and sworn to protect me forever had been lying to me from start to finish.

Ever since she was a little girl, Avery had a secret crush on her father’s best friend, Ethan. There was something captivating about him: his tousled caramel hair, those piercing blue eyes that held a hint of mischief, and a smile that could make her heart skip a beat. But there was one undeniable obstacle that stood between them—a considerable age gap of twenty years.

As Avery grew older, her feelings for Ethan intensified, making it increasingly difficult to keep her desire hidden. She desperately longed for his touch, his kiss, but the societal norms and the marked difference in their ages placed an invisible barrier that seemed impossible to dismantle. Yet, whenever Ethan would visit, Avery couldn't help but find reasons to be near him, to feel the barely-there brush of his arm against hers, sending electric currents up her spine.

Until one day, a sleek envelope arrived in her mailbox. Avery’s world came crashing down when she found out that Ethan, the man she had loved so fiercely, the one who had occupied her heart for years, was about to marry someone else. Bitterness surged within her; a tempest of emotions she struggled to contain.

Determined not to silently endure this heartache, Avery hatched a reckless plan. Ensnared by jealousy and fueled by her unrequited love, she convinced herself that if she couldn’t have Ethan, no one could.

BLURB:

Wren Davis is the school's favorite target…plus-size, nerdy, invisible except when someone needs a punching bag. When she becomes the live-in babysitter for star quarterback Cole Hensley's family, she walks into enemy territory.

Cole watched her get bullied and did nothing. Now they share a house. At school, his cheerleader ex Jade makes Wren's life hell. At home, Cole defends her in ways that confuse everything she thought she knew about him.

Their deal was simple: ignore each other at school, stay civil at home. But deals break when feelings get involved. And when Cole looks at her like she matters, Wren realizes the most dangerous thing isn't Jade's cruelty. It's wanting something she was taught she could never have.

Before Lauren Jones's hand touched the bedroom door, she had heard the sound of people having sex in the room. A woman's deep moan was mixed with a man's low gasps that she couldn't be more familiar with.

Lauren frowned, held back her hand, and kicked the door open.

The two entangled bodies in the room made her feel nauseous, so she turned her head in disgust, covering her mouth and nose.

The lean and handsome man on the bed stopped, glanced coldly at the uninvited guest at the door, and slapped the woman under him on the plump buttocks, "Get out."

My water broke on the coldest night of winter.

My fated mate, Alpha Cassian, wrapped silver chains around my wrists and threw me into a freezing dungeon.

"Lucian's son must be born first," he snarled, forcing wolfsbane down my throat as I screamed through contractions.

Above me, his sister-in-law Sienna rested in silk sheets, surrounded by healers and warmth. She was carrying his dead brother's heir—the future of the pack. And I? I was nothing. Just the Omega he'd been forced to mark, the one his pack blamed for Lucian's death.

As silver burned through my skin and ice water rose past my chest, I felt our baby's heartbeat flutter. Then slow.

"Please," I begged. "Our child—"

"You owe him this," Cassian said coldly.

When the chains finally came off, he'd lost us both for good.

I spent eight months making hit content for Halo Digital. My mentor Sienna Blake spent eight months putting her name on it.
I thought she was looking out for me. The big sister every new girl dreams of. Shielding me from tough meetings, "polishing" my scripts before they went to the CEO.
Then one morning, her beauty blender started talking.
It said her skin was a disaster. That she couldn't come up with a single idea on her own. That she'd been stealing my work and posting it under her name for months.
Her lipstick said worse—about the married investor buying her jewelry with company money, and the deal they'd made to bury my career for good.
Her setting spray said she couldn't even hide her own dark circles anymore.
They told me everything. And once I knew, there was no going back.
In this industry, your face is your career. Sienna was about to lose both.

“The perfect romance or beach read, with a difference: its enthusiasm and beautiful descriptions offer an unexpected attention to the complexity of not just evolving love, but evolving psyches. It's a delightful recommendation for romance readers looking for a touch more complexity from their romance reads.”--Midwest Book Review (For Now and Forever)THE GHOSTLY GROUNDS: MURDER AND BREAKFAST is the debut novel in a charming new cozy mystery series by bestselling author Sophie Love, author of The Inn at Sunset Harbor series, a #1 Bestseller with over 200 five-star reviews.Marie Fortune, 39, a successful dog groomer in Boston, has had enough of catering to the wealthy and their pampered dogs. Realizing it is time to make a change, she quits and heads to a small coastal town in Maine where she remembers fond summers as a kid. Marie expects to go for a brief getaway—and is shocked to learn that her great-aunt left her an inheritance: a dilapidated, historic house high up on a hill overlooking the harbor. Marie feels an instant connection. Although the locals tell her it would be folly, Marie decides to renovate and give it a second life as a B&B.But there is one thing she couldn’t have planned for: the house is haunted.Two things, actually: her great-aunt also left her a dog—and he is far from a typical dog.When an unexpected death occurs soon thereafter, solving the crime will be more than just a matter of curiosity for Marie—her very future may depend on it.A page-turning cozy, packed with mystery, love, hauntings, travel, pets and food—anchored around a small town and a B&B in need of renovation that will capture your heart—THE GHOSTLY GROUNDS is an un-putdownable cozy that will keep you turning pages (and laughing out loud) late into the night.“The romance is there, but not overdosed. Kudos to the author for this amazing start of a series that promises to be very entertaining.”--Books and Movies Reviews (For Now and Forever)Books #2 and #3 in the series—DEATH AND BRUNCH and MALICE AND LUNCH—are now also available!