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Cortherstone by Janessa Burt


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Escorted


Claire Kent - 2012
    Still a virgin at twenty-six and increasingly frustrated by her inexperience, she decides to take matters into her own hands. She hires a talented, sexy male escort to take care of her inconvenient virginity.She assumes one time with Ander will be enough, but she never dreams how much pleasure he can make her feel. Once isn't nearly enough. Twice isn't enough either. Soon, she becomes one of his regular clients.Lori knows that nothing would be as foolish as falling in love with her paid escort, but she's never been wise with her heart. And, despite his professionalism, he doesn't seem entirely immune either.

The Wrong Heart


Jennifer Hartmann - 2021
    I shouldn't be contacting the recipient of my husband's heart. I don't even expect him to reply...But there's a desperate, twisted part of me that hopes he will.No names.No personal details.Just a conversation.The only thing I have left of my husband is inside him.***'The Wrong Heart' is an angst-filled contemporary romance standalone. This book deals with heavy themes, such as loss of a loved one and self-harm/suicide.

Snapped


C.M. Sutter - 2017
     Former sheriff’s department sergeant Jade Monroe has just graduated from the FBI’s serial crimes unit in homicide and is called to Houston with her partner, J.T. Harper, to take on her first assignment—apprehending the person responsible for these gruesome crimes. With victims piling up and the clock ticking, Jade and J.T. need to intensify their search because there’s no sign the killer is slowing down. After a late-night epiphany while she’s alone, Jade suddenly comes face to face with the killer, and now Jade is missing. The clock continues to tick—but this time it’s for her. Note: All Jade Monroe books are standalone stories but since characters carry over, they are best read in chronological order. Series One - Detective Jade Monroe Crime Thriller Series #1 Maniacal #2 Captive #3 Fallacy #4 Premonition #5 Exposed Note: The Jade Monroe FBI Thriller books follow on the heels of the conclusion of Exposed, Book 5 in the Detective Jade Monroe Crime Thriller Series. Series Two – Agent Jade Monroe FBI Thriller Series #1 Snapped #2 Justified

Beauty and the Beast


Vivienne Savage - 2016
    Prince Alistair isn’t an ordinary dragon. He’s a shifter afflicted by a curse, unable to become human again until he finds his true love. When a mortal king’s adventurers trespass in Alistair’s territory to steal a rare flower, the prince decides to steal a valuable prize of his own. (Author's Note: This is a magical retelling of the beloved tale written for an adult audience. Reader discretion is advised.)

Hunter


Eden Summers - 2018
     I've been running for ten years - fleeing my past and clawing my way toward an inescapable act of vengeance. Until he walks into my life, sure and strong and full of secrets. He dilutes my thirst for retribution with his touch. He obliterates my need for solitude with his kiss. But it's his hidden agenda that makes the hair on the back of my neck prickle. He wants something. Something that doesn't revolve around sweaty skin and tangled silk sheets like he'd have me believe. I have to stop falling for him, otherwise the last ten years will all be for nothing. I need to keep running, keep fighting for vengeance, even though I know he will track me down. But trying to escape him is just another problem. Because now I crave the hunt.

Falling Fast


Kaylea Cross - 2017
     Having grown up in a household of elite, overprotective male Marines, Charlie Colebrook is savoring her hard won independence and avoiding a serious relationship that could tie her down. As a computer forensics expert for the DEA she might be a civilian rather than an agent, but she’s far from helpless, and she’s hungry to prove herself. So when her boss asks her to take on a dangerous undercover assignment that could expose the key money launderer for the biggest, and most lethal drug cartel in the Western hemisphere, Charlie seizes her chance. There’s just one catch: the man assigned as her partner is the only man she wants…and he won’t settle for less than everything she has to give. Now he’s the only one who stands between her and a ruthless cartel. DEA Special Agent Jamie Rodriguez has tried like hell to ignore the explosive chemistry he has with Charlie. Not simply because she’s his best friend’s sister—but because with her, he wants all or nothing. As a member of the agency’s elite FAST Bravo unit, he’s got the skill and experience to keep her safe. Now that he’s assigned to protect her on this op, he’ll do it at all costs, even if she tempts him as no other woman ever has. But the final op tests them both to the breaking point, and when things go to hell, it will take everything they’ve got to survive the deadly trap set for them.

As Long as We Both Shall Live


JoAnn Chaney - 2018
    They start a search, but they aren't hopeful: no one could have survived that fall. It was a tragic accident.But Matt's first wife also died in suspicious circumstances. And when the police pull a body out of the river, they have a lot more questions for Matt.Detectives Loren and Spengler want to know if Matt is a grieving, twice-unlucky husband or a cold-blooded murderer. They dig into the couple's lives to see what they can unearth. And they find that love's got teeth, it's got claws, and once it hitches you to a person, it's tough to rip yourself free.So what happens when you're done making it work?

Scent Of Obsession


Shanen Ricci - 2022
    I was the woman who believed in fairy tales; he was the monster of them.The Devil of Ravencliff Manor. The Phantom. Radcliff.Escorted by a prince, my obsession led me to the villain’s lair, with no hope for rescue.Trapped inside his greenhouse, our once upon a time began with a flower. More accurately, with a scent that captivated me. I signed my soul over to the man who represented my sinister nightmares. The one known to belong to the cruel shadows, who offered me my perfumer’s dream. He demanded the impossible: the missing piece of his kingdom of sins. I stalked the impossible: his humanity. This is our dark tale. When beauty met ugliness.When light met darkness. When heaven met hell. A tale of obsession.

In the Dark


Mark Billingham - 2008
    A gun is fired into a car which swerves on to the pavement, killing the person standing at a bus stop. It seems that a chilling gang initiation has cost an innocent victim their life. But the reality is far more sinister.

Marrow


Tarryn Fisher - 2015
     In the house there is a girl. In the girl there is a darkness. Margo is not like other girls. She lives in a derelict neighborhood called the Bone, in a cursed house, with her cursed mother, who hasn’t spoken to her in over two years. She lives her days feeling invisible. It’s not until she develops a friendship with her wheelchair-bound neighbor, Judah Grant, that things begin to change. When neighborhood girl, seven-year-old Neveah Anthony, goes missing, Judah sets out to help Margo uncover what happened to her. What Margo finds changes her, and with a new perspective on life, she’s determined to find evil and punish it–targeting rapists and child molesters, one by one. But hunting evil is dangerous, and Margo risks losing everything, including her own soul.

The Princess and the Bully


Tiffany Ransier - 2021
    I was fine with the way my life was – partying all day and night. But my parents weren't.Now I'm a student at Southern Goldsworthy University. The best for the rich and elite.Heath Goldsworthy, campus heartthrob and oldest son of the Dean, came into my life as the first true friend I've ever had.He gave me a new start. Something that I was very grateful for.Now he's missing...And I'm the top suspect responsible for his disappearance.His sister hates me, but his brother hates me more.He wants to make my life a living hell until I confess what happened that night.But I can't confess what I don't remember.And why does he keep messing with my emotions? I hate playing his games.The Dean's son doesn't just go missing.Someone is responsible and they don't want me to remember.I have to find out who before it's too late.Please be advised, this is a dark romance with possibly triggering content, including dub/noncon and a suicide attempt.

The Lies we Steal (The Hollow Boys, #1)


Monty Jay - 2021
    All of us were dressed to the nines, one of us wearing a wedding dress, a day that was supposed to mark the beginning of a new adventure. It marked the bitter end of our vengeance. We have done things that have marked our souls for eternity.But before we get there, we have to go back.Back to where it all started. The place I could find in my sleep. Hollow Heights University in the macabre, somber seaside town of Ponderosa Springs.A college for prestigious, wealthy children to receive the highest education. A town drowning in treachery and secrets that became our damnation.But it wasn’t the forest surrounding the grounds or even the mysterious hidden mausoleum that haunted me. It was them. The ones that lurked in the night, things so wicked, so twisted, so evil, they would become the rulers of my nightmares. The Hollow Boys. One wrong move and I landed myself directly in their line of fire. This is not a story about love, it is not a story of happy endings. Love just happened to blossom in our sorrows, in our pain, our fear, our blood. Every terrible thing they ever did, we watched, we helped, we loved them anyway. Some run from their monsters, we fell in love with ours.

Curses


Lish McBride - 2021
    She will be forced to live as a beast forever, unless she agrees to marry a man of her mother's choosing before her eighteenth birthday.Tevin Dumont has always been a pawn in his family's cons. The prettiest boy in a big family, his job is to tempt naïve rich girls to abandon their engagements, unless their parents agree to pay him off. But after his mother runs afoul of the beast, she decides to trade Tevin for her own freedom.Now, Tevin and Merit have agreed that he can pay off his mother's debt by using his con-artist skills to help Merit find the best match . . . but what if the best match is Tevin himself?

When the Cypress Whispers


Yvette Manessis Corporon - 2014
    Caught between her family's old-world traditions and the demands of a modern career, she cannot seem to find her place.Only her beloved grandmother on Erikousa, a magical island off the coast of Greece, knows her heart. Daphne's fondest memories are of times spent in the kitchen with Yia-yia, cooking and learning about the ancient myths. It was the thought of Yia-yia that consoled Daphne in the wake of her husband's unexpected death.After years of struggling to raise her child and pay the bills, Daphne now has a successful restaurant, a growing reputation as a chef, and a wealthy fianc?-everything she's ever wanted. But across the ocean, Yia-yia can see through the storybook perfection of Daphne's new life- and now she is calling her back to Erikousa. She has secrets about the past to share with her granddaughter- stories from the war, of loyalty and bravery in the face of death. She also has one last lesson to teach her: that security is not love, and that her life can be filled with meaning again.

The Unheard


Nicci French - 2021
    Maybe Tess is overprotective, but passing her daughter off to her ex and his new young wife fills her with a sense of dread. It's not that Jason is a bad father--it just hurts to see him enjoying married life with someone else. Still, she owes it to her daughter Poppy to make this arrangement work.But Poppy returns from the weekend tired and withdrawn. And when she shows Tess a crayon drawing--an image so simple and violent that Tess can hardly make sense of it----Poppy can only explain with the words, "He did kill her."Something is horribly wrong. Tess is certain Poppy saw something--or something happened to her--that she's too young to understand. Jason insists the weekend went off without a hitch. Doctors advise that Poppy may be reacting to her parents' separation. And as the days go on, even Poppy's disturbing memory seems to fade. But a mother knows her daughter, and Tess is determined to discover the truth. Her search will set off an explosive tempest of dark secrets and buried crimes--and more than one life may be at stake.