8099 Book(s) Related to the summer i became pretty

Ariella Hayes was seventeen years old when she learned that grief had a taste.
It tasted like burnt sugar. Like the batch of croissants she’d left in the oven too long the morning after the funeral, too numb to hear the timer, too broken to care. Like the coffee, she drank black now because adding cream felt like a luxury she didn’t deserve. Grief tasted like everything and nothing.
Mostly nothing.
She was thinking about this at 4:47 a.m., lying in bed and staring at the water stain on her ceiling that resembled a reaching hand. She’d been awake since three. She was always awake from three, that gray hour when the world was silent enough to hear all the things she tried not to think about during the day.
Like how it was her fault.
How she should have been the one in the car.
How her mother hadn’t really looked at her in six months.
The timer screamed, and Ariella dragged herself out of bed, moving through the apartment like a ghost, past her mother’s bedroom door, down the narrow stairs to Hayes & Daughter Bakery. The name felt like a lie now. Her grandmother was gone. Ethan was gone. Soon the bakery would be gone too, and it would just be Ariella and her mother in an empty building, haunting the space where their family used to be.

She is about to embark on a life-altering journey as she enters a contract marriage with billionaire heir Aiden Frost, all in a bid to rescue her family’s struggling bakery. As they step into this pretend union, neither of them anticipates how their arrangement will evolve into a haven, where they might uncover feelings that challenge their initial intentions.

His lips grazed her neck, slow and hungry, trailing lower until his mouth closed around her breast like he’d done it a thousand times. His hands gripped her bare waist, firm and trembling, like he needed her just to breathe. She didn’t even know his name.

One night. One wrong door, and everything changed.

Amelia Raine never meant to sleep with a stranger, let alone one that is a billionaire. But when your sister’s life hangs by a thread, desperation doesn't leave room for dignity.

She thought it would end that night.
He didn’t even know remember her name. Until she realized she was pregnant for him.
While she’s a struggling reporter.
He’s a ruthless billionaire.
And she’s carrying his child.

Now, to save both their lives from media destruction, there's only one way out; a marriage neither of them wants.

What happens when the one night you swore to forget becomes the one thing you can’t escape?
And what if pretending to love each other… becomes the most dangerous truth of all?

The aliens invaded. A toxic fog rolled in. New York turned into a living hell.
But I was forced into a tight spot. A strict Mother Teresa System bound itself to my soul.
I had to save everyone. Betrayers, killers, enemies—it didn't matter. If I didn't help them, the system would execute me on the spot.
Everyone mocked me.
They thought I was soft. The shelter captain stripped my weapons and threw me out into the dead zone.
They thought I was a dead man walking.
They were wrong.
They didn't know my system rewarded me with the ultimate Light ability.
So, get behind my blade.
I am going to save New York, whether it likes it or not.

From #1 New York Times Bestselling author Vi Keeland comes a new, sexy standalone novel.The first time I met Max Yearwood was on a blind date.Max was insanely gorgeous, funny, and our chemistry was off the charts. He also had the biggest dimples I’d ever laid eyes on.Exactly what I needed after my breakup.Or so I thought…Until my real date arrived.Turned out, Max wasn’t who I was there to meet. He only pretended to be until my real date showed up.To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.Before he left, he slipped me a ticket to a hockey game a few blocks away, in case things didn’t work out on my actual date.I tossed the ticket into my purse and went about trying to enjoy the man I was supposed to meet.But my real blind date and I had no connection.So on my way home, I decided to take a chance and stop by the game.When I arrived, the seat next to me was empty.Disappointed again, I decided to leave at the end of the period.Just before the buzzer, one of the teams scored, and the entire arena went crazy.A player’s face flashed up on the Jumbotron. He was wearing a helmet, but I froze when he smiled.You guessed it: Dimples.Apparently, my fake blind date hadn’t invited me to watch hockey with him, he’d invited me to watch him play.And so began my adventure with Max Yearwood.He was everything I needed at the time—fun, sexy, up for anything, and only around for a few months since he’d signed with a new team three-thousand miles away.Max proposed we spend the summer helping me forget my ex. It sounded like a good plan. Things couldn’t get too serious when we had an expiration date. Right?Though, you know what they say about the best-laid plans.

He doesn’t ask. He takes.
And now... I’m his bride.

I never planned to marry a man like Nico Moretti—ruthless, powerful, and feared by everyone in this city.
But my father’s debt has a price, and Nico came to collect.

Cold kisses. Dangerous vows. A wedding dress stitched with secrets.

To the world, he’s a mafia king.
To me, he’s a captor in a custom suit.
And yet every time he touches me, I forget to hate him.

He says I belong to him now.
Heart, body, and soul.

But in this deadly game of power and blood, the most dangerous thing I could do... is fall in love with my husband.

“Mafia’s pretty payment” is a dark, steamy, enemies-to-lovers romance with an obsessive antihero, a forced marriage, and a heroine who just might break the don’s heart—or lose hers trying.

They threw him in the river like garbage.
They should have made sure he didn't swim back.
Cain Devereaux gave ten years of his life to the Devereaux crime family. Ten years of loyalty, blood, and silence. He trained their soldiers. He buried their enemies. He kept their secrets even when keeping them meant destroying his own soul. And the moment he became inconvenient, his boss who was the man he called brother, put a bullet in his chest and tossed him into the river like a used cartridge.
He woke up in the dark with water in his lungs and a voice in his head.
The Ledger of Debts has been activated.
Every name. Every betrayal. Every humiliation logged and catalogued, waiting for collection. The System doesn't ask Cain to become a hero. It doesn't demand redemption or righteousness. It demands payment. And Cain is more than willing to be the instrument of collection.
One by one, the people who wrote him off will learn the truth they buried with him: that the most dangerous man in any room is the one you already think is dead.
The debts are due and Cain doesn't negotiate

During bright and sunny summer holidays, a group of incredibly wealthy teenage friends embark on a lifestyle filled with luxury and unforgettable adventures. Staying in a stunning beachfront villa, their days and nights are a perfect blend of fun, relaxation, and excitement but filled with conflicts and drama.

The story revolves around six friends: Jake ( Jaxon), Maddie, Oliv (Olivia), Ethan, Liam, and Ruby, Together, they create a summer full of extravagant and memorable moments.

Their days are spent indulging in the finest things life has to offer. They host private yacht parties along the beautiful Hawaiian cost, take spontaneous trips to exclusive destinations in their private jets, and relax by their luxurious infinity pool. They savor gourmet meals prepared by world-class chefs and embark on high-end shopping sprees at prestigious boutiques. They find themselves at glamorous parties, exclusive club events, or enjoying intimate gatherings under the starry sky each night.

Despite their opulent lifestyle, the friends face the complexities of their relationships, personal ambitions, and the constant scrutiny of the public eye. Amidst the glamour, they navigate issues of trust, loyalty, and the search for true happiness.

Summer Kills is a vibrant and glamorous tale of friendship, fortune, and the limitless possibilities that come with immense wealth. This story offers a dazzling portrayal of the ultimate summer, where every day is an adventure and every night is a celebration.

"Eighteen point eight centimeters," I said, pushing my oversized tortoiseshell glasses up the bridge of my nose. "According to your anatomical data, that is the estimated length of your private parts, Matteo. I can get results without entering a laboratory."

The soaking wet, shirtless, and absolutely furious mafia boss standing before me was rendered utterly speechless for the first time in his life!

Nova was a genius cybersecurity programmer who suffered from social anxiety, despised human touch, and perceived the world solely through mathematical formulas.Her only dream during her vacation in Crete was to lie down and sleep on the calm waters inside her pink strawberry inflatable tube. However, the sea surface currents had drafted a fatal algorithm for her.

Drifted out into the open sea, Nova found herself aboard the luxury yacht of Matteo—a mafia boss notorious for his cruelty in international waters, possessing a V-taper physique that was illegally flawless.

Was she to hold the hand of this ruthless man to avoid drowning, or become shark bait?

This was exactly how one became the fake wife of a billionaire mafia leader!

Everyone at Ravenwood Academy fears Raiden Vane.

The dark prince rules the school with a crooked smile, a violent reputation, and enough power to make monsters bow.

Girls throw themselves at him.

I'm the only one who tried to break his ribs.

Instead of hating me, he becomes obsessed.

Now he's watching me. Following me. Getting far too close for comfort.

Every warning sounds like a promise.

Every threat feels like temptation.

The more secrets I keep, the harder he hunts.

The problem isn't that Raiden Vane is dangerous.

The problem is that I can't stop wanting him anyway.

When twins Clara and Daniel spot their missing (feared dead) mother, they're elated that Ahd has returned after vanishing three years ago. But when Ahd frames the twins for their father’s gruesome murder and disappears again, Clara and Daniel realise their mother isn’t itching for a reunion—she’s out to destroy them.

Not only were Clara and Daniel the only people in the house with their father when he died, but they also both have devastating secrets and misdeeds their father was close to sharing with the police. According to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. And worse, the person they claim did it can't be found. It is the death knell.

With Ahd in hiding again, and no one else having seen her, trying to prove she's alive and that she's the real assailant drops them down a rabbit hole of deceit that raises chilling questions about those around them. They must decide if the risks are worth justice for a father who'd betrayed them. And when the drastic threads start to culminate in a treacherous showdown with Ahd, they realise why she wanted her husband dead... and worse, Daniel agrees. Clara doesn't.

She wakes up with a hole in her memory and a name she can’t stop hearing in her head.
River was supposed to be a stranger. A steady presence. A safe place to land.
But secrets don’t stay buried in small towns, and the truth about the night that ruined her life is tied to the one man she’s starting to trust… and crave.

Synopsis:
Chevelle “Chevy” Daniels wakes in a hospital weeks after a brutal crash with a hole in her memory and a grief that won’t let go. Her best friend is gone, her family is terrified, and the only calm in the chaos is River, the quiet volunteer who seems to know exactly how to steady her. The problem is River has secrets, and one of them is tied to the night that shattered her life.
As Chevy heals, sparks turn into something deeper… until the truth rips them apart. Then Chevy vanishes, and the man who broke her heart becomes the one racing to bring her home. Because the danger stalking her isn’t new, it’s been waiting.
In a town that loves to whisper, Chevy and River have to decide what love looks like when trust comes with a body count, and the prettiest lies are the ones that almost feel true.

Eight years of marriage — she thought she'd married love itself.
Until the day she watched her husband's Bentley rocking on the roadside, and knew exactly why.
She played it cool. Maneuvered him into signing the divorce papers without a clue, then waited for her billion-dollar exit.
But before she could walk free, someone poisoned her drink and staged a crash that nearly killed her.
The man who saved her wasn't the husband who swore he loved her — it was Erwin, cold, dangerous, and ruler of a business empire.
The untouchable, legendary Erwin — shielding her, risking himself, again and again.
When Levi finally woke up to what he'd lost, he came back red-eyed and desperate: " I was wrong. Can we start over? I can't live without you."
Erwin simply tilted his head and kissed her — eyes cutting straight to Levi's ashen face:
"I don't think you understand. The moment you let her go, she became my wife."

Emily Fields never meant to become a killer.

She was twenty-two when she stabbed a man eleven times behind the bar where she worked. She remembered the first strike. She never remembered the other ten.

Seven months later, the victim suddenly withdrew the charges without explanation.

With nowhere to go and only forty-one dollars to her name, Emily accepts an offer that sounds too good to refuse: become the live-in maid and companion of a wealthy widow at an isolated estate.

The job is simple.

Take care of the old woman.

But the Holloway estate is full of things that don't make sense.

Emily starts waking in parts of the house she has been forbidden to enter, with no memory of how she got there. She finds old photographs that leave her with a strange sense that she has seen them before. The widow watches her with an unsettling familiarity, as though Emily's arrival has been expected for much longer than she realizes.

Then there are the widow's three sons.

Max likes to watch her.

Will can't stop touching her.

And Finn avoids her so completely that Emily begins to wonder what he is afraid will happen if he gets too close.

Emily has spent most of her life believing her story began when she was found and taken into care. No family she could remember. No real answers about where she came from.

But someone inside the Holloway estate seems to know.

And as Emily begins digging into the family's secrets, she realizes everyone around her has been hiding something... including herself.

Because the greatest mystery isn't simply what happened before she ended up in the orphanage.

It's why she can't remember any of it.

As the only daughter of a mafia family, I learned early that trust doesn't come cheap. When my father got sick, he gave me an ultimatum: if I want to take over the family, I have to get married first.

Everyone assumed I'd pick my childhood friend, Vincent Moretti—son of my father's right-hand man. Hell, even I thought so. Until my last life, when he left me to burn.

Father died in an ambush. I was trapped in a metal cage at an abandoned dock warehouse while flames swallowed everything. I begged Vincent for help. He stood thirty feet away, the cage key right by his feet.

"Cat, as long as your father's alive, he'll never give me the family. This isn't personal. It's business."

Sophia was wrapped around him—my so-called best friend. She smiled at me and said she'd take good care of everything.

Before I lost consciousness, I saw a figure in black charging into the flames—Elijah, the bodyguard I'd called "trash" and "a dog."

Then I opened my eyes and woke up a month before my birthday party. This time, I'm giving that position to someone who actually deserves it.

But why is Vincent on his knees at my engagement party, crying and begging me to marry him?

When my boyfriend of three years won the student body presidency, I rented out the entire bar to celebrate. But when I came back with the cake, I heard deafening jeers from the private room.
"I bet ten grand I can get her to ditch the engagement her family arranged and elope with me before graduation."
"That uptight bookworm? Sweet-talk her a little and she's wrapped around your finger."
"Guess what would happen if she found out—even the money for my off-campus apartment with Marie came from her part-time jobs. Think she'd go ballistic?"
The cake box slipped from my hands. Cream splashed onto my white sneakers—the ones I'd worked three part-time jobs to afford, the ones he said he loved because I looked so "pure" in them.
Turns out what he loved wasn't my purity, but how cheap and controllable I was.
I didn't storm in and confront him. I simply turned around, stepped over the mess, and walked away.
Everyone seemed to forget—Calvin and I were never equals.
I am Athena Stavros, only heir to one of Europe's old money families.
And this three-year charade of being just another student was about to end.

I once believed that if I was obedient enough, my birth family would finally love me. Instead, they gave everything to Anna, the fake heiress—my competition spot, my reputation, even my kidney.
Then I opened my eyes and returned to the year it all began.
This time, I won’t beg. I won’t yield. My achievements, my dignity, and my life belong to me.
When everyone called me vicious, Damian Sterling draped his jacket over my shoulders and asked in a low voice, “Am I an outsider?”
I leaned into him and smiled. “Of course not.”
But soon I discovered he was being slowly poisoned—and the culprit might be someone closest to him. Worse, the truth behind my death in my previous life may be darker than I ever imagined…

Ava married him to save him from his vicious girlfriend, but at the altar, he whispered: "Just as you ruin me, I promise to ruin you beyond repair."
What followed was hell—his girlfriend in their bed, hot soup on her face, and a name she never thought she'd call herself: bitch.
When she couldn't endure anymore, she did what he always wanted. She threw her ring into the rain and signed the divorce papers.
Four years later, she's back. A Zillionaire. With three gorgeous sons who have his eyes.
Her husband knelt before her at the airport, flowers in hand. "Please forgive me, wifey."
She adjusted her sunglasses. "Ex," she remarked. "Get ready. Things will get messier from now on."

After my eighth trip to the psychiatric ward, I finally became the perfect, obedient wife my husband always wanted—even when I caught his childhood friend giving him a handjob in our living room.

"Ever heard of knocking?" Eric snapped, his eyes dark with irritation. "If those hands are useless, might as well chop them off." Without a word, I grabbed a kitchen knife and raised it toward my wrist. He kicked it away, screaming at me to stop being dramatic. So, I turned and charged headfirst toward the floor-to-ceiling window.

When I woke up, I heard him laughing with her. "She's fine. Just another attention stunt." He didn't know that the "treatment" he authorized had broken my mind into a million jagged pieces. He didn't know about the shock collars, the waterboarding, the dark cells. He thought I was finally "cured" of my jealousy.

It wasn't until a rafting trip, when his friend pushed me into the rapids and my prosthetic eye popped out and rolled across the deck, that his world shattered. As he stared at the empty black socket where my left eye used to be, he finally realized what those facilities had done to me. He dropped to his knees, screaming my name, but the woman who loved him was already dead.

Will his tears be enough to bring back the wife he destroyed, or is this just the beginning of his hell?

"Sh*t, you weren't supposed to see this,"

He pulled the woman up, his shirt barely covering what he'd left on her behind and she grumbled, "What the hell Rico?! I haven't-"

She saw me and her eyes turned to slits.

"Whose whore are you?"

I'm going to be sick, what kind of nightmare is this.

"It's business, Sofia baby, go to the bedroom. I'll be done in a minute,"

Lenny Willow has given enough chances to the men in her life, from her drunk of a father to her slimy college boyfriend who tricked her into taking the fall for his crime wasting five years of her life in prison, she released to catch him cheating with her life savings-her only safety net. Now she's done, her walls of steels are built and nobody can get through not even her charismatic and insanely hot next door neighbor everything she shouldn't want and he can't seem to stop staring at her, he offers her a job just as she's short on rent and she's too cornered to say no. When her past comes to haunt her she finds herself running into his arms but as buried truths unravel and lies crumble as she's left to question if he was the danger she should have been running away from in the first place.

On my wedding day, I ran, still in my wedding dress not because I wanted to, but because my mother had a car accident.
By the time I got to the hospital, Lucia Vitale, Finn’s mother, threw a five-million-dollar check at me and told me to leave her son.
Before I could even respond, the door was kicked open.
Finn stood in the doorway.
He raised his phone and played a forged recording.
“My mom needs the money… I know I’m not good enough for him… I’ll leave him…”
He didn’t listen to my explanation.
He dragged me out of the hospital room, shoved me into a car, and took me to the Vitale estate on Long Island.
The room he locked me in had bars on the windows.
There were listening devices hidden in the walls.
“You’re my wife,” he said coldly.
“What’s the difference between a wife and a prisoner?”
For six months, I endured his imprisonment and endured him bringing women to the room next to mine.
The women he brought home.
Every night, their moans echoed through the walls.
Meanwhile, Finn was on a private island, celebrating his mistress Isabella Moretti’s birthday.
A forty-million-dollar island.
A heart lit up in the sky by drones.
Isabella said,“he never loved you. You were just a mistake.”
I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold on.
But I knew one thing: escape, or face death.

I lost my child the night my mate chose another woman.
He stayed by her side his first love, the one who was “dying.”
I stopped loving him.
I asked for a divorce.


Luna Ivy spent years giving Alpha Noah everything—her loyalty, her love, and the strength that helped build his pack. But on the night she needed him most, Noah chose Amy, his dying first love, over her. While he rushed to save another woman, Ivy lost the baby she had nearly carried to term. In that moment, something inside her finally broke.
Done being second choice, Ivy demands a divorce and walks away from the life she sacrificed everything to protect.
Then Liam returns to her life. The Alpha King is powerful, cold, and utterly in control—the one man strong enough to stand between Ivy and the mate who broke her. What begins as protection soon becomes something far more dangerous, because the more Ivy rebuilds herself at Liam’s side, the more she realizes the future she once begged for was never the one she was meant to have.
As Amy’s lies begin to unravel and Noah’s world starts collapsing without the Luna who held it together, Ivy must decide whether to keep running from fate… or claim the king who may have been meant for her all along.
Perfect for readers who love rejected mates, divorce and revenge, possessive Alpha heroes, powerful second male leads, pack politics, true mate reveals, and a heroine who never goes back.

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

Warning This book contains explicit content and it's rated 18+. They can be read as standalone as they are all age-gap romances.
Hope y'all are ready for a pleasant ride.

xoxo.

"Oh, please, sir. Please, fuck me!" I screamed in delirium.

The heat from him disappeared for a moment, and I was sad and scared. Where did he go? What had I done wrong now? But he returned, sheathed and ready to plunge into me.

"Oh, thank God," I said breathlessly.

He chuckled a little; slowly he slid in, adjusting me on the sink, aligning me to his dick. Each thrust sent me further into a manic need to come. Perhaps I was screaming, because his hand covered my mouth. For a brief moment, I was frightened. I was panting so hard it blocked my need to breathe, but then his voice was in my ear.

"Come for me, bluebird."

Warning!!!!! This book contains strong language, BDSM, possessive ex and an abusive boyfriend. And not suitable for readers younger than 18!

Rated-18 Smut Smut Smut!!!!

“Jesus,” she breathes out, tossing the lolipop to the side. “You really don't fuck around.”

I nod like she can see me, I fuck around just not when it comes to her.

She shifts back on the bed, knees bending then parting wide enough for me to see her freshly shaven pussy, glistening under the light.

"Did you want me like this, Tamer?" she asks, voice low and rough.

She hooks her fingers parting her pussy lips, enough to expose her clit for me. "Or would you like me to fuck myself, while you watch me?”


Gianna Ramirez has three rules:

Don’t fall in love again.


Don’t get caught on girlgonewild.com.


Don’t let Dmitry Orlov back into your life.

But the universe has other plans.

Five years after ghosting her, Dmitry returns to New York—handsomer, hotter, and more possessive than ever.

When her brother falls into a coma, Dmitry takes her under his roof… right where he wants her.

To escape the pull of the man who broke her, Gianna turns to the one person who could erase him from her mind: Kevin Greyheart, the senator’s son who’s been chasing her from day one.

Caught between her brother’s best friend and the man who refuses to let her go, Gianna must decide… who will have her heart, and who will ruin it completely?

She has loved him all her life, she married him to save him from his vicious girlfriend but all she got in return was hatred and mistreatment from him and his girlfriend, when she couldn't endure anymore she did what he has always wanted, she signed the divorce papers

Two years later, she's back with three gorgeous sons and was now a Zillionaire, her husband knelt before her at the airport

"Please forgive me wifey"

"Ex.." She remarked.

I meet his gaze steadily. "You are a helpless jerk." His face hardens, jaw tight, fists curled at his sides. He grabs the front of my shirt, drags me deeper into the garage, and slams me back against the cool metal of the Ferrari. For a split second I think he is actually going to hit me. I don't anticipate the next move.
His mouth crashes into mine aggressively, nothing like a scripted kiss. His hand fists tighter in my shirt, his body pressing me against the car. I taste frustration and yearning, his tongue electrifying mine. My brain short circuits.


Kai Lawson has always been too curious for his own good.
He was only supposed to clean the pool at the Whitlock estate and leave. Instead, one wrong door lands him inside the family's beach house, and face-to-face with the Whitlocks, the kind of people no one is foolish enough to cross.
Instead of calling the police, they offer him a deal--- spend the summer pretending to be their son Sebastian's boyfriend. The paycheck is impossible to refuse, and saying no isn't really an option.
Sebastian hates the arrangement from the moment Kai moves in. Cold, gorgeous, and radiating pure disdain, he wants nothing to do with the trespasser now living down the hall. But Kai? He is having way too much fun pushing every button Sebastian has.
As summer slips by, fake dates, stolen moments, and a relationship built on a script begin to blur the line between what's expected and what's real.
Pretending to be in love was the deal. Actually falling for each other never was. And neither is ready for it.

Gianna Ramirez has three rules: 1. Don't fall in love again. 2. Don't get caught on girlgonewild.com. 3. Don't let Dmitry Orlov back into your life. But the universe has other plans.
Five years after ghosting her, Dmitry returns to New York, handsomer, hotter, and more possessive than ever. When her brother falls into a coma, Dmitry takes her under his roof… right where he wants her. To escape the pull of the man who broke her, Gianna turns to the one person who could erase him from her mind: Kevin Greyheart, the senator's son who's been chasing her from day one.
Caught between her brother's best friend and the man who refuses to let her go, Gianna must decide... who will have her heart, and who will ruin it

They thought that by forcing me to my death, they could devour everything.

My father jumped off a building, and I became a destitute young master whom everyone could bully. To pay off debts, I married into the Hawthorne family and became their sharpest knife.

After my father-in-law died suddenly, my wife immediately brought her childhood sweetheart into the house and forced me to divorce him.

My resistance resulted in a murder plotted by 928 × 213.

When I opened my eyes again, Chloe, who had been watching over me for three days and three nights, was beside me.

She said, "I'll take you away."

Three years later, I returned as a mysterious investor. The first thing I did was to buy the family's bankrupt old factory for 1.5 billion.

My ex-wife and I bumped into each other on the street; it was like seeing a ghost.

I smiled and stuck a 30 million yuan check on her forehead: "This is to repay the divorce fee you gave me back then. Keep the change."

The real revenge has only just begun.

"Everyone in Cedar Hollow can tell you exactly what I did. I just can't."

Twelve years ago, Vanessa Dalton walked out of Larkspur Quarry alone, covered in her best friend Jo Calloway's blood. Jo's body was never found. Vanessa never remembered what happened. The evidence disappeared with the storm, but the town reached its own verdict long ago: she was guilty.

Now a renowned forensic genealogist who solves decades-old cold cases using DNA, Vanessa is forced to return home when her dying mother leaves her no choice. She's spent years helping strangers uncover the truth, while refusing to investigate the one mystery that destroyed her own life.

Sheriff Scott Bradley wants her gone. His father ruined his career trying to prove Vanessa murdered Jo, and Scott inherited both the badge and the hatred. But when someone steals a hidden box of evidence from the Calloway case, and Vanessa begins remembering fragments that contradict everything Cedar Hollow believes, a second car at the quarry, another voice calling her name, and Jo alive long after the moment she was supposed to have died, they're forced into an uneasy alliance.

As Vanessa and Scott reopen the town's darkest secret, every new clue exposes another lie. Someone has spent twelve years protecting the truth, and they'll kill to keep it buried.

Because Jo Calloway wasn't the only person who disappeared that night.

Mike Costa was supposed to be the sole heir to the Mafia, but he was betrayed and “abandoned” by his own brother Lucas in a yacht explosion, and everyone believed he was dead.
Five years later, he returns—cold-blooded, powerful, and unshakable. The entire underground world of New York is reshaped beneath him.
Just as Mike is about to settle everything once and for all, Lucas forces him into a political marriage with Chicago’s top family, using the secret of his true identity as leverage.
And when Mike first meets the woman at the top of that power hierarchy, she completely changes the rules of this marriage contract—this time, hunter and prey are no longer clearly defined.

To help my girlfriend climb the ranks, I handed over my life's research and propelled her into the inner circle of power.

Her repayment? To secure her status, she threw my thirteen-year-old sister outside the city gates to feed the zombies.

When I uncovered the truth, she showed zero remorse. Instead, she knocked me out herself, tossing me into a metal transport truck to serve as zombie rations.

She thought dead men tell no tales.

What she didn’t know was that the moment the zombies bit me, I swallowed my newly developed serum.

When I opened my eyes again, I hadn't lost my mind. Instead, I had become the Zombie King, commanding an endless horde of the infected!

Half a year later, Eden City’s energy is depleted, and the city is besieged by a massive army.

Dressed to the nines, my girlfriend steps out of the city to beg and negotiate with the rumored "Zombie Boss of the Wasteland."

Sitting across the negotiation table, looking at her hypocritical face, I slowly take off my gas mask...

She was my best friend — until she used a soul-swapping potion to steal my body, my face, and my man.
In my past life, I was trapped inside her fat, ugly shell and drowned in the freezing depths of the sea.
Reborn on the day before the swap, I didn't expose her.
I smiled and drank the tea.
After she left, I picked up a knife and carved two deep gashes across my own face.
Then I threw myself from the second floor.
The next morning she woke up giddy with excitement. The moment she looked in the mirror, her screams echoed through the entire hospital.
Meanwhile, I opened my eyes in her Mafia Godfather father's estate — and walked straight into the family council.
She wanted my beauty? She could have it.
The power she was desperate to throw away? I'll take it.

"Call me brother," he whispered, pressing me against the wall, his erection hard against my stomach.
For twelve years, we played this dangerous game. By day, I was his obedient foster sister. By night, I was his obsession.
He never went all the way—saving me for marriage, he claimed—but he did everything else. His fingers knew every wet corner of my body. His mouth had tasted my pleasure a thousand times. He groomed me to be the perfect toy for his bed.
"You're mine, Julie. Only mine."
But then Lena came back.
Suddenly, the bedroom door was locked. Suddenly, I heard her screams of pleasure instead of mine.
He didn't touch me anymore. He looked at me with cold, dead eyes and said, "You're just a sister. Stop acting like a jealous lover."
He threw away twelve years of intimacy for a fresh body.
I packed my bags, leaving behind the lingerie he bought me, the toys we used.
When he finally realized Lena was a fake, he came running back, eyes wild, wanting to claim what he thought was still his property.
"Spread your legs for me, Julie," he begged, reaching for me.
I slapped his hand away. "Go fuck your sister, Daniel. I'm done."

She baked his pack to perfection for five years, only to overhear she was just the “cheaper version” of his fated mate.

When Alpha Brian slaps her, abandons her in flames, and chooses the villainess who faked everything… Angela walks away, rejects him forever, returns home as the hidden heiress of a powerhouse pack, marries the Lycan King who worships her and watches her ex spiral into madness.

Turns out, for five years, all Callum ever saw when he looked at me — the wolfless one — was a stain on his Alpha reputation.
Everyone knew he was about to marry Elvira, the pureblooded heiress of the Silverfang pack. The entire Blood Moon pack was already gearing up for their bonding ceremony.
My best friend Tessa, a Beta, fed them updates on my every move in their group chat, laughing along as I made healing broths for Callum like I was a joke to them.
They figured as long as they dangled my brother's medical care over my head, I'd swallow my pride and stay their dirty little secret forever.
Until the day Elvira decided to prove who was in charge, and threw my brother into a pit lined with silver spikes.
Watching Callum shield blood-soaked Elvira behind him, I didn't cry. I didn't scream.
I just pulled a knife and drove it into the bond mark on my neck.

For the third time, Kael fled before the wedding—this time to deliver medicine to the neighbor girl he grew up with.
As compensation, the pack elders offered me two chests of rare ore and the deed to an island.
Someone, still hopeful, called Kael on speakerphone.
His careless voice echoed through the hall:
“Why bother with compensation? Ella loves me so much; she’ll come around as soon as I go back and sweet-talk her a little.”
“Sophia’s health is what matters now. Once she recovers, I’ll just hold another ceremony for Ella.”
The elders tried to explain, but the surrounding werewolves were all waiting to see the show—waiting to see how much humiliation I would swallow.
Just like the first two times.
But I’d had enough. And I’d lost all interest in Kael.
I kicked over the chest of ore and let my gaze fall on Kael’s uncle.
Then, I smiled.
“I heard the old Alpha left a will: whoever can claim me… becomes the next Alpha.”

For two years, Serena believed she was the luckiest woman alive. Her husband Leo worshipped her—he was tender, protective, and swore he'd never let anyone hurt her. He even refused to touch her, claiming she was too precious.

Then, on their wedding anniversary, she walked into his private club and heard him whisper to another woman: "Take care of our baby."

The woman was his brother's wife.

Everything—the gentleness, the restraint, the so-called love—had been an elaborate performance. And when Serena demanded a divorce, Leo didn't beg. He didn't apologize. He smiled and said: "Your grandmother wouldn't want that."

Now Serena must fight her way out of a marriage designed to cage her, a family that wants her silent, and a past that still has teeth. But the man who appears from the shadows to help her… is the same one who abandoned her years ago.

And he has secrets of his own.

Three years barren, and Jessamine walked on thin ice in the elite household. Her mother-in-law spat venomous curses daily, calling her a "worthless waste of space" and threatening to force her son into divorce.

She could still remember when Damien had severed all ties with his family to marry her—kneeling outside their door in the pouring rain, begging his parents to accept her: "Jessamine is my one true love! I can't survive without her!" Back then, she was the only woman who existed in his eyes.

But now, for the sake of family inheritance, he had the audacity to demand her consent for his childhood sweetheart Celeste to bear their child. Jessamine endured the soul-crushing agony of watching her husband entwined with another woman, night after torturous night.

Even more devastating—after Celeste delivered a daughter, Damien had the shameless nerve to declare: "The family still needs a male heir."

In that shattering moment, Jessamine finally saw the brutal truth.

"Give birth to my child, then get out."

With those words, Sean’s kiss fell brutally, ripping Susan’s nightgown open.

His fingers pressed against her clitoris. Sean flipped her over, pinning her under him. His swollen, turgid member quickly found her secret path. He thrust in violently.

Susan broke into a cold sweat. Sean nipped her ear. "Does it feel good? Is this what you like? I’ll make you pregnant, but you can’t stay by my side—this position is reserved for Victoria."

——

Years ago, Susan saved Sean and earned the chance to marry him. But she was damaged in that accident and couldn't conceive. She took countless hormone injections, losing her figure and becoming ugly. Finally, she could get pregnant, only to catch Sean cheating with the young, hot Victoria.

"In that case," Susan said, "let’s divorce."

Susan was bloated and had been a housewife for three years with no skills. Yet, she chose to divorce, even though she couldn't take her own child with her...

After the apocalypse, I joined my girlfriend and her friends as a makeshift team. I cleared infected, scavenged supplies, and stood guard at night so they could sleep.

I thought we were all each other had.

Then, for a single dose of antibiotics, they handed me to the warlord who slaughtered my entire family.

When she said, “Just endure it—I’ll find a way to bring you back,” I didn’t even have the strength to be angry. She knew exactly what stood between me and that warlord, and what would happen once I was taken.

That’s when it hit me: to them, I was always just a tool.

If she chose to deliver me into my enemy’s hands, I’d settle the three-year-old debt right there.

When we met again, she demanded to speak to the warlord chief—hoping to trade for me once more. Because without me, they couldn’t even find food.

What she didn’t know was that by the third day after she traded me away—

the warlord had a new owner.

In my past life, my twin Phaedra and I were both married off to the Dragon Clan on the same day.
I was given to the eldest son Magnus, while she went to the second son Drakon.
A year later, Phaedra gave birth to a small white dragon with scales like fresh snow. Meanwhile, I delivered nine children—all of them deformed monsters, bearing not a trace of dragon lineage.
Dragon King Typhon, a tyrant obsessed with bloodline purity and beauty, immediately stripped his eldest son of the inheritance rights and decided to pass the throne to his second son, Drakon.
Consumed by rage and humiliation, my husband Magnus descended into madness.
He ordered my nine children dragged into the Shadow Abyss and thrown into boiling blood pools as sacrificial offerings. Then he bound me tightly to the frozen altar pillar.
As the crimson winds howled from the blood pool, he mercilessly cut open my chest and carved out my nine-tailed heart while I was still breathing. I drew my last breath drowning in endless despair and blood.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back in the Dragon Clan's towering hall—at the mate selection ceremony that had sealed our fates.
In my daze, Magnus walked straight past me. His eyes brimmed with disgust as he unhesitatingly reached for Phaedra's hand instead. The same woman who had birthed that perfect white dragon in my past life.
But the fool had no idea my children's deformities had nothing to do with me—they came from his own cursed, rotting bloodline.

At the scene of the car accident, my parents frantically scooped up my sister—who only had a scraped knee—then kicked me aside as I lay there dying.
"Don't be a burden to your sister. Just wait by the roadside and croak!"
They drove off without a second thought. In that moment, my heart turned to stone.
What they didn't know was that I didn't die. Instead, I got adopted by a top-tier professor and became a math prodigy worth tens of millions.
Two years later, when my birth parents went bankrupt and got on their knees begging me for a handout, I smiled coldly and played the recording of their attempted murder...

As he got closer to climax, he was more aggressively gripping my hair, "you're mine and no one will ever take you from me," he whispered as my heart beat faster and faster in a panic.


Vivienne Layley lost her husband in a car accident. Over and over again she keeps running into Officer Aaron Jansen. Officer Jansen is not who he claims to be, a sinister motive is lurking just beyond Vivienne's view. She feels herself drawn to him, and something about him just made her couldn't stop thinking about him. Will Vivienne be able to escape his possessive and obsessive ways, or will Officer Jansen ultimately get what he wants?

Natalie swore she would never come back to Blackwood Ridge.
Not after the memories. Not after the abandonment. And definitely not after the mother who chose ambition over her own daughter.

But when her estranged mother—now the powerful CFO of Sterling Crest Bank—asks her to return home for the summer, Natalie reluctantly agrees. Years ago, after her parents divorced, Natalie left town with her father and never looked back. While her mother built a new life with a wealthy husband and a stepson Natalie has never met, Natalie spent years trying to bury the hurt that small town left behind.

From the moment she arrives, Blackwood Ridge feels suffocating. The whispers, the memories, the people who still remember her family’s scandal—it all makes Natalie desperate to escape. So when an old acquaintance drags her to a local frat party on her very first night back, she throws caution aside and drinks far too much.

The night should’ve ended in disaster.

Instead, a mysterious stranger pulls her out before things spiral completely out of control. He had striking heterochromia—one eye a vivid emerald green, the other an icy ocean blue. The contrast was sharp and almost hypnotic. He takes care of her when no one else does. But when Natalie wakes up the next morning tangled in his sheets with almost no memory of the night before, panic sets in. Certain she made a terrible mistake, she prepares for the worst.

What she doesn’t expect is him.

Cold, guarded, and hiding secrets of his own, the last thing he wants is Natalie disrupting the carefully controlled life he’s built. Yet the more they collide, the more impossible it becomes to stay away from each other.

Madeline Quinn was supposed to spend the summer tracking whales—not falling for the two rugged, infuriating brothers who run the research boat.

Jake is steady and silent. Reid is sharp and impossible. They’re both off-limits.

And yet… the deeper she goes, the harder it is to come up for air.


“You should’ve stayed on the boat,” Jake said, voice quiet but firm.

“I’m not made of glass,” she snapped.

Reid pushed off the wall with one boot. “No, you’re made of trouble.”

“Reid—” Jake warned without looking at him.

“What?” Reid said with a shrug, moving a step closer. “Look at her. She knows what she’s doing.”

Madeline lifted her chin. “And what exactly am I doing?”

“Turning this into something dangerous,” Reid said, almost too calmly. His eyes didn’t waver.

Jake finally looked at her. “It already is.”

She swallowed. Her pulse thudded in her throat.

“You think I don’t feel it too?”

Reid’s lips twitched like he almost smiled. “Oh, she feels it.”
He stepped closer—just enough to make her catch her breath.
“But I don’t think she knows what to do with it.”

Jake stood now, his movements slower, more deliberate. “That’s enough.”

“No,” Madeline said, softer now. “He’s right. I don’t know what this is. With either of you.”

Reid’s voice dropped. “Then let us show you.”

A long silence. The kind that doesn’t feel empty—just heavy.

Jake’s gaze didn’t waver. “Together.”

Her breath hitched. Rain hit the windows. Her towel slipped an inch lower on her shoulder.

“God help me,” she whispered.