The Manipulator

I can manipulate the emotions of anyone who lets me.
I will make you hurt, make you cry, make you laugh and sigh.
But my words don't affect him. Especially not when I plead for him to leave.
He's always there, watching and waiting.
And I can never look away.
Not when I want him to come closer.

The Shadow

I didn't mean to fall in love.
But now that I have, I can't stay away.
I'm mesmerized by her smile, by her eyes, and the way she moves.
The way she undresses...
I'll keep watching and waiting. Until I can make her mine.
And once she is, I'll never let her go.
Not even when she begs me to.

While not required, it is highly suggested to read the novella, Satan's Affair, first.

Author's Note: This book ends on a cliffhanger. For CWs, please check the author's website.

Everly Plum is a Bridesmaid for Hire: whatever you need her to do on your special day, she'll be there to do it. So when Hardy Hopper, a billionaire, approaches Everly for help with his friends' wedding, she's more than happy to step in.

But Hardy has an extra assignment for her: his ex-girlfriend will be the maid of honour opposite his role as best man, and Hardy wants Everly's help to get her back.

There's only one problem: Everly may just have a tiny crush on her businessman employer. She knows there are rules about this, she knows her clients are off the table. So why can't she stop thinking about him?

Lane is in the middle of an identity crisis. Her friends are all partnered up, her career is leading nowhere, and she’s just not happy. So, after a night out celebrating her birthday, she makes one hell of an impulse purchase: a giant yellow forty-eight passenger school bus that she intends to make a home.

With little-to-no renovation experience, but a large sum of inheritance money, Lane enlists the help of her friend Matt – mechanic by trade, handyman by practice, and hottie by nature.

While their mutual attraction is undeniable, Matt’s a total family guy with ‘settle down with me’ tattooed across his forehead, whereas Lane is entirely commitment averse. Matt and Lane have silently agreed that friendship is the only thing that can ever exist between them. So when Matt offers to help her with the bus, and in the bedroom, Lane’s sure it can never work… can it?

A rugged mountain town seemed like the perfect escape from a life in shambles.

But on day one, she ran full tilt into the world's hottest single dad, and now all her plans are ruined.

As a chart-topping country singer with a recent streak of bad press, it's hard for Skylar Stone to find any peace. But she finds it in Rose Hill. With a little boy and a little girl who steal her heart just as thoroughly as their dad.
Weston Belmont.

The man is a shameless flirt. He oozes confidence and masculinity in a way that's downright distracting. And in bed? He's addictive.

Everything with him is wild and impulsive, and Skylar is desperate to regain some control.

But no one has supported her like West does. And no one has ever made her feel as loved as he does either.
So, while Skylar's brain says settling down with a small-town horse trainer is impossible...her heart says she's right where she belongs.

Still, her life as a celebrity haunts her. It has the power to pull she and West apart.

She can see in his eyes that he wants her to stay. And she wants that too.

But she knows better than anyone that you don't always get what you want.

Twenty years as an army brat and Ember Howard knew, too. The soldiers at the door meant her dad was never coming home. What she didn't know was how she would find the strength to singlehandedly care for her crumbling family when her mom falls apart.

Then Josh Walker enters her life. Hockey star, her new next-door neighbor, and not to mention the most delicious hands that insist on saving her over and over again. He has a way of erasing the pain with a single look, a single touch. As much as she wants to turn off her feelings and endure the heartache on her own, she can't deny their intense attraction.

Until Josh's secret shatters their world. And Ember must decide if he's worth the risk that comes with loving a man who could strip her bare.

Feyre is a huntress. And when she sees a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she kills the predator and takes its prey to feed herself and her family. But the wolf was not what it seemed, and Feyre cannot predict the high price she will have to pay for its death ...

Dragged away from her family for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding even more than his piercing green eyes suggest. As Feyre's feelings for Tamlin turn from hostility to passion, she learns that the faerie lands are a far more dangerous place than she realized. And Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

Sarah J. Maas is a global #1 bestselling author. Her books have sold more than nine million copies and been translated into 37 languages. Discover the sweeping romantic fantasy for yourself.

A forbidden, secret affair proves that all's fair in love and science - from Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on; the financial stability she yearned for as a kid; and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through - and he's a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can't stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business - one that plays for keeps.

The first in a spicy and unforgettable rom-com duology from #1 New York Times bestseller and tik tok favorite Tessa Bailey, in which a Hollywood "It Girl" is cut off from her wealthy family and exiled to a small Pacific Northwest beach town... where she butts heads with a surly, sexy local who thinks she doesn't belong. Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father's dive bar... in Washington. Piper hasn't even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won't last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can't do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She's determined to show her stepfather-and the hot, grumpy local-that she's more than a pretty face. Except it's a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there's an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn't want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan-and this town full of memories-may have already caught her heart. As seen on E!Online, PopSugar, CNN, EliteDaily, Vulture, Buzzfeed, Bustle, the Nerd Daily, PARADE, LA Magazine, Country Living, USA Today, and more!

Hudson Wilde is just as fun as he is fierce. The wild card of the Redville Saints, that runs through women, leaving a pile of broken hearts in his wake. His best friend’s little sister is completely off limits.

From the moment they meet, Hudson and Molly clash. She doesn’t appreciate his partying ways, and he’s annoyed by how much she’s around, constantly looking down on him. What does she care about the things he does?

Forced to spend time together while on the road, Hudson and Molly’s hatred soon morphs into something unexpected. A spark ignites and one drunken night changes everything.

Hudson sees Molly in a new light. A forbidden fruit he wants to taste. A line he’s willing to cross. A challenge he wants to accept.

Because one thing is for certain, Dane would never approve. Engaging in a secret relationship with your best friend's sister will undoubtedly lead to trouble.

Dishonestly Yours is the hotly-anticipated new gritty romance from TikTok sensations and authors of the Addicted series Krista and Becca Ritchie.

Living honestly isn’t in his DNA. Just like it’s never been in mine . . .

The Graves and Tinrock families live life from one con to the next. Phoebe Graves has grown up in a world where stealing and seducing are as natural as breathing.

When a job goes horribly wrong, though, she and her best friend, Hailey Tinrock, decide to leave their life of crime behind. They head to a small college town in Connecticut to start anew. But Hailey’s older brother, Rocky, catches wind of their plans and refuses to let them do this alone.

Phoebe's past with Rocky is downright messy: he’s everything she wants, but nothing she can have. And the longer she stays in town, the more Phoebe has to lose . . . can love survive a web of lies?

Every book in the Dream Harbor series can be read as a standalone.

Kira North hates Christmas. Which is unfortunate since she just bought a Christmas tree farm in a town that’s too cute for its own good.

Bennett Ellis is on vacation in Dream Harbor taking a break from his life in California. And most importantly, taking a break from his latest run of disastrous dates.

After a run in with Kira in her fields, Ben has no intention of offering to help the grumpy owner set up her tree farm, despite the fact she’s clearly got no idea what she’s doing.

Kira knows she should stop being so stubborn, but her farm is not all cute and cozy like people always show on social media, it’s borderline dangerous with no heating, and she’d rather no one saw it.

But somehow fate finds Ben at Kira’s farm once more, and as Kira watches him swing an ax at the first tree, she finds herself appreciating his strength and questioning why she refused help in the first place…

The Christmas Tree Farm is a spicy romantic mystery with a HEA guaranteed!

Perfect for fans of Emily Henry and Ali Hazelwood, this “sweet and funny” (Kerry Winfrey, author of Waiting for Tom Hanks) teen rom-com is hopelessly romantic with enemies to lovers and grumpy x sunshine energy!

*Get your limited edition purple copy now, to match the September release of Nothing Like the Movies, available to pre-order now!*
 
Liz hates her annoyingly attractive neighbour but he’s the only in with her long-term crush …

Perpetual daydreamer and hopeless romantic Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really saw her before he moved away. Now that he’s back in town, Liz will do whatever it takes to get on his radar—and maybe snag him as a prom date—even befriend Wes Bennet.

The annoyingly attractive next-door neighbour might seem like a prime candidate for romantic comedy fantasies, but Wes has only been a pain in Liz’s butt since they were kids. Pranks involving frogs and decapitated lawn gnomes do not a potential boyfriend make. Yet, somehow, Wes and Michael are hitting it off, which means Wes is Liz’s in.

But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz noticed by Michael so she can have her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must re-examine everything she thought she knew about love—and rethink her own ideas of what Happily Ever After should look like.
 
Better Than the Movies features quotes from the best-loved rom-coms of cinema and takes you on a rollercoaster of romance that isn’t movie-perfect but jaw-dropping and heart-stopping in unexpected ways.
 
Don't miss out on The Do-Over and Betting On You from Lynn Painter!

Winner of the TikTok Shop Book of the Year 2024, Sunday Times and USA Today bestseller.

A spicy small-town romance and TikTok phenomenon, perfect for fans of Hannah Grace and Stephanie Archer.

When Jeanie’s aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job.

Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor’s gossip at all costs. But Jeanie’s arrival disrupts Logan’s routine and he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl, except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her.

Will Jeanie’s happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won’t fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes

Grumpy cowboys and steamy romance . . . Welcome to Chestnut Springs: the big-hitting, small-town series from TikTok sensation Elsie Silver. Perfect for fans of Devney Perry, Lucy Score and B.K. Borison.

Working as a nanny for the world's grumpiest single dad should have been simple.
Except I can't keep my eyes off him. And he can't keep his hands off of me.

Cade Eaton is thirteen years older than me and barely looks my way. Until I get him in the hot tub one night for a game of truth or dare. Then all bets are off - and so are our clothes.

He's gruff, a little rough around the edges, and it turns out broad-shouldered ranchers with filthy mouths are this city girl's kryptonite. So who am I to resist?

But in our quiet moments together, he softens, and I start to realise his hardened exterior is just a façade. Someone once convinced him that his best wasn't good enough. Yet I've never felt more cherished than I do in his arms.

My contract may say this arrangement is only for two months .

But my heart says this is forever.

When a secret message turns up hidden in a book in the Cinnamon Bun Bookstore, Hazel can't understand it. As more secret codes appear between the pages, she decides to follow the trail of clues… she just needs someone to help her out.

Gorgeous and outgoing fisherman, Noah, is always up for an adventure. And a scavenger hunt sounds like a lot of fun. Even better that the cute bookseller he's been crushing on for months is the one who wants his help!

Hazel didn’t go looking for romance, but as the treasure hunt leads her and Noah around Dream Harbor, their undeniable chemistry might be just as hot as the fresh-out-of-the-oven cinnamon buns the bookstore sells…

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store is a Sunday Times and USA Today bestselling cozy romantic mystery with a HEA guaranteed!

Grumpy cowboys and steamy romance . . . Welcome to Chestnut Springs: the big-hitting, small-town series from TikTok sensation Elsie Silver. Perfect for fans of Devney Perry, Lucy Score and B.K. Borison.

Two childhood best friends. Two broken hearts. One impromptu road trip to get away from everything.

I've been living in the friend zone for years now.

To Jasper Gervais's fans, he's just the hockey heartthrob on TV. But to me, he's still the lost boy with sad eyes and a heart of gold. The man I've loved in secret for years.

So when my life falls apart on my wedding day, it only makes sense that he's the one to swoop in and save me. And when his world comes crashing down around him, I'm there to return the favour.

But the more time alone we spend together, the more I start to realise that Jasper isn't looking at me like a friend anymore. And he isn't touching me like one, either.

He acts like he wants me.

But after years of turning me away, he's going to need to prove it . . .

"Mrs. Cass, we were hoping your son could answer a few questions about the girl who disappeared last night..."

Erika Cass has a perfect family and a perfect life. Until the evening when two detectives show up at her front door.

A high school girl has vanished from Erika's quiet suburban neighborhood. The police suspect the worst--murder. And Erika's teenage son, Liam, was the last person to see the girl alive.

Erika has always sensed something dark and disturbed in her seemingly perfect older child. She wants to believe he's innocent, but as the evidence mounts, she can't deny the truth--Liam may have done the unthinkable.

"We're way more than friends, Jessie."

"Blake--"

"But no worries. I'll just sit tight until you figure that out."

Hosting her brother's wedding for an MVP guest list is the challenge of Jess Canning's life. Already the family screw-up, she can't afford to fail at this, too. Especially after the colossal mistake she made with the best man during a weak moment last spring. Nobody--absolutely nobody--can find out about that, and there will not be a repeat. Absolutely not. No matter how devastatingly sexy his smile, he's a giant manchild who's never been serious in his life. And if Jess wants to prove herself to her family, serious is what she has to get.

For Blake Riley, this wedding is a gift from fate itself. The girl he has his eye on is the maid of honor, and he's the best man? Let the games begin. So what if Jess is giving him a little--fine, a lot--of resistance? He just needs to convince the stubborn blonde that he's really a good boy with a bad rap. Beneath the flirty jokes and goofy smile, he's got layers--even if Jess doesn't want to see them.

Luckily, every professional hockey player knows that you've got to make an effort if you want to score.

And Jess is just the girl he wants to win.

Ocean Vuong returns with a big-hearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing – formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.

My brother's best friend broke my heart... what happens when his new teammate wants to put it back together?

For years, I've dreamt of what college life could bring and while some things changed, there was always one constant. It didn't matter how wild I allowed my imagination to run, my future was clear, and he was it. Until suddenly, he wasn't.

Now there's a new man in my life, one who isn't afraid to go after what he wants, and what he wants ... is me.

They say first loves last forever... I hope they're wrong.

From the author of the Madison Kate series comes the next in the dark and delicious interconnected Hades series, another biting "why choose" romance in Shadow Grove.

“I wasn’t fighting this war with Chase alone. I never had been, with Zed at my back. But this time I also had Cass and Lucas, and goddamn if we weren’t a force to be f***ing reckoned with.”

They say to keep your enemies close, and mine are all around me. At the heart of it are four dangerously gorgeous men: The man who wants to light my darkness and has already paid the price for loving me. The man who can handle my power and loves every dark inch of me. The man who has been my closest companion, and now threatens to upend our carefully balanced world in pursuit of me.

But the fourth man is probably the most terrifying, because he wants to take the others away from me. He wants to tear the spinal column out of the empire I’ve built. Destroy my businesses. Destroy me.

Why? Because this man should have stayed dead, but he didn’t, and now he wants revenge. He will stop at nothing until he’s carved out my bloody, beating heart and left me broken.

But he should remember who he’s dealing with.

I’m not the girl he knew anymore, and I will never let him have what’s mine.

A steamy chance encounter between a professional hockey player and the manic pixie dream girl he just can’t seem to forget takes a turn when the pair realize that their parents are engaged—in an all-new rom-com by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey.

When professional hockey player Sig Gauthier’s car breaks down and his phone dies, he treks into a posh private country club to call a tow truck, where he encounters the alluring Chloe Clifford, the manic pixie dream girl who captivates him immediately with her sense of adventure and penchant for stealing champagne.

Sparks fly during a moonlight kiss and the enamored pair can’t wait to see each other again, but when Sig finally arrives to meet his dad’s new girlfriend over dinner, Chloe is confusingly also there. Turns out the girlfriend is Chloe’s mother. Oh, and they’re engaged.

Sig’s dream girl is his future stepsister.

Though the pair is now wary of being involved romantically, Chloe, a sheltered harp prodigy, yearns to escape her controlling mother. Sig promises to teach her the ins and outs of independence in Boston—but not inside his bedroom. They both know there can never be more than friendship between a famous hockey player and his high-society, soon-to-be stepsister. But keeping their relationship platonic grows harder amid the developing family drama, especially knowing they were meant for so much more…

All the twisted games are back as Devil's Night returns in this dark romance from New York Times bestselling author Penelope Douglas.

Buried in the shadows of the city, there's an abandoned hotel called The Pope, surrounded by a mystery about the hidden twelfth floor and the guest who never checked out. Banks knows the local legend, but Kai believed the myth around the hotel. He and his friends think they know her, think they can scare her, but Banks knows something they don't. Even though she struggles to hide everything she feels when Kai looks at her, the person he seeks is much closer than he'll ever realise.

She'll never reveal her secret. This Devil's Night, Kai will be the hunted one.

But Banks doesn't understand what Kai had to turn into to survive three years in prison. He wants the hotel, its guest and his life back. But the more he's around Banks, the more Kai realises this new version of himself is exactly who he was meant to be.

Kai's seen her hideaway. It's time for Banks to see his.

**Hideaway is a STANDALONE dark romance with no cliffhanger. It is suitable for ages 18+**

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND TIKTOK SENSATION SOON TO BE A NETFLIX FILM 'Riveting, heart-wrenching and full of Old Hollywood glamour' BuzzFeed 'This wildly addictive journey of a reclusive Hollywood starlet and her tumultuous Tinseltown journey comes with unexpected twists and the most satisfying of drama' PopSugar From the author of Daisy Jones & The Six in which a legendary film actress reflects on her relentless rise to the top and the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine. Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career. Summoned to Evelyn's luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the '80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn's story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a mesmerizing journey through the splendour of old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means and what it costs to face the truth. Don't miss the new novel from Taylor Jenkins Reid, Carrie Soto is Back, out now

Dreams might be a heart's desire, but nightmares are its obsession in the first novel of a dark romance series from New York Times bestselling author Penelope Douglas.

Erika Fane's boyfriend's older brother is handsome, strong, and completely terrifying. The star of his college's basketball team gone pro, he's more concerned with the dirt on his shoe than he is with her. But she saw him. She heard him. The things that he did, and the deeds that he hid . . .

For years, Erika bit her nails, unable to look away. Now, she's in college, but she hasn't stopped watching him. He's bad and the things she's seen aren't content to stay in her head anymore.

Because he's finally noticed her.

But Michael Crist knows the hold he has on Rika, how much she fears him. She looks down when he enters the room and stills when he's close. He knows she thinks only of him. When Michael's brother leaves for the military, leaving Rika alone and unprotected, he knows the opportunity is too good to be true.

Three years ago she put Michael's friends in prison, and now they're free.

Every last one of her nightmares is about to come true.

**Corrupt is a STANDALONE dark romance with no cliffhanger. It is suitable for ages 18+**