WATTYS 2023 SHORTLIST Sarah Kennedy's life has fallen to pieces. Her family is broken, she's growing apart from her only friend, and it's been a while since she's stopped dreaming about anything better. She embarks on a trip to Latin America, joining a retreat she hopes will mend her dwindling friendship and escape her miserable day-to-day life. Bad turns to worse, and her hopes are shattered when she is kidnapped by a cartel. While her life is miraculously spared, she's kept captive by a daunting and narcissistic drug lord, Pablo. As his obsession with her grows, so do his favors and promises. Sarah soon finds herself in a gilded cage, living a life more lavish than anything she's ever imagined. But all that glitters isn't gold, and this luxury has a price. If Sarah wants to escape the violent, treacherous, and cocaine-fueled world of cartels, she'll have to fight the demons that keep her captive, as well as the monsters in her head, armed with nothing but a dry sense of humor and a fragile strength. But as she and Pablo both know- it's a long journey home when you don't have any home to go to. _____________________ DTOD is marked as mature for strong language, drug use, violence (and also dark humor) and the occasional steam/smut. Trigger warnings are included before sensitive or explicit scenes. _____________________ "Drugs, Treasons and Other Demons, a niche erotica for people who like men who keep their socks on." "A book that will make you cry whenever you hear a Pitbull song." "By the time I finished reading this whole book, I could have read the entire Hunger Games saga. But I would have had a lot less fun." "I went to read a few chapters of this book one night, and all of a sudden a whole weekend went by on me."

Warning: Explicit/Mature content. Nerd, check. Desperate, check. Horny as f*ck, double check. Somewhat obsessed with Prescilla Richards, the popular cheerleader who gets me hard with a single glare? Painful CHECK. Arnold Harris has gone through high school wearing the label of 'Nerd' ever since he can remember. He's never been bothered by it, at least not until she transferred in. Prescilla is hot, prissy, and popular within seconds--way out of his league... until his first ever party invite and a kinky game that paves the way to something he never could have imagined he'd possess. Sneak Peek inside The Nerd's Diary: Dear Diary, You know how today started. I was anxious, and worried as f*ck that the girl I want more than anything in the world just didn't feel the same. I couldn't have been more wrong...

Scorned after being left at the alter, Rachel Hall swore to never again let a man into her aching heart. Nine years later, she's forced into confrontation when she's hired as a mathematics professor - a dream come true, but there's a catch. The university's dean is none other than Caleb Ryker - the man who scorched her heart and shattered it into a million pieces. When the flames between the two burn hotter than ever before, they're at each other's mercy. Love and hate is a fine line to gamble with, but they can't seem to stray away. You know what they say... play with fire and you'll be burned.

Running from hell isnʼt easy. Especially when someoneʼs dragging you back down into it. Belligerent, brash and always in shades of black, Freya is hardly a lady. Hidden away by her father, sheʼs lived a normal life despite being born into the dark waters of New Yorkʼs underworld. Heʼs cold, cruel and calculating, with a proclivity for destruction. Feared by even Made Men, Torren is the boss of the stateʼs most leachorous crime syndicate. Freya hates his crudity and possessiveness, but she canʼt deny the way her breath hitches at his rough touch, the deep timbre of his voice, and his dark, heated gaze. Torren hates her disobedience, her recklessness, and her chaos. To him, sheʼs only something to be tamed. And after he slips a ring on her hand, snatching away her future, she makes only one vow---to become his biggest torment.

" W-what are y-you we-wea-ring?" Luca's deep trembling voice made me smirk. I looked down at the baby pink lace bra and matching panties that adorned my body. Luca's gaze was stuck to my chest at then it tavelled downwards. "Are you done staring?" I asked, my voice low and husky. The bag in his right hand dropped as he looked away , blushing madly. The blush that tainted his cheeks made me all the more turned on. Fuck. I slowly, made my way towards him and placed my hands on his chest. His eyes followed my every action. "Eleoner..." He whispered hoarsely, making me cream my panties. "Don't worry, baby. I'll make it go away..." I trailed off, biting his earlobe seductively. _____________________________________ When Eleoner was sent to military school at the tender age of sixteen by her gold digging whore of a mother, instead of improving herself, she turned worse. She drank , played around, swore like a sailor etc. She was the kind of girl your parents warned you not to hang out with. Tired of her careless mother and her innumerable man sluts, Eleoner decides to move out. When she decided to move to New York to study in NYU, the least she expected was sharing an apartment with another guy, Luca Marino. Luca is the boy your parents encourage you to hang out with because he is a complete nerd. He surrounds himself with books only. El was always into the hot bad boys in her hometown but this Italian nerd has her fantasizing. She will not stop until she has him in her bed. But along with Luca comes drama. Will El be strong enough for the heartbreak to come? Will she continue being the bad bitch or will Luca tame her? **************************************** Guys, this book is for mature audiences as it contains Sexual content (shitload of that) , swearing, etc..... So please , 18+ readers only. If ya nasty and you're not 18, try not to go ahead. But if you do, don't sue me for destroying your innocent soul. I warned you.

Silva wants what he shouldn't have and takes what he can't desire. He should've known. Irisa offsets the brittle balance of diabolical cruelty, but it's a forgivable transgression that he's willing to make an exception for. She's a simple girl with a special smile; something opposite of him as it burns into his skin with regret. Regret that he doesn't have her. He doesn't know if he wants to kiss the smile away or wrap his hand around her fragile neck until the light fades to black. He's a nightmare wrapped in visceral ink, a frighteningly obsessive man with missing morals. Silva would rip his heart out if she asks; he is selfishly generous to her whims. *** This contains sensitive material that will be triggering to some, reader discretion is advised. Mature contents. Copyright © 2020 by Celia Crown

To create. That's what Gianna Alexie wanted to do ever since she was a little Gia. After graduating college, the woman vowed to create a book for the world to love, though she knew she'll be needing help. Help came in the form of her mentor, Keenan Travino, a man more than a decade her senior with thin patience, a love for cigarettes and bourbon, and as many issues as the clever tricks up his sleeves. - COMPLETED BUT UNEDITED - 1ST DRAFT - PAPERBACK NOW AVAILABLE

BOOK ONE OF THE BLACK SERIES -- "Well, behalf of my dick, who cannot speak for himself," Kade said simply as he watched over my face, one of his eyebrows risen, "I would like to say for him that he doesn't care about my brother's feelings at this current moment - or his reaction to the photo." "Well, I do," I muttered, my sentence coming out muffled in my hands as they covered my face. "Do you know how this makes me look to the public eye? To be sleeping with my boyfriend's older brother?" "Look on the bright side, Em." I didn't even spare him a glance as I shook my head, grunting. "Emara, look at me." My hands were pulled away and Kade stared at me, his vibrant blue eyes twinkling and his dirty blonde hair covering his eyebrows. The sight of his effortless beauty made my hard glare slightly soften. "You know I won't tell him if he finds out, you know me," he mumbled to me, "but I'm not going to lie to him when he finds out and say that if I had the chance to change what we've been doing, I wouldn't - because I would do it again without a second thought."

There is no heart colder, no lust stronger, than that of a demon. ROMINA lived a docile life inside of her father's massive estate. With only her mother and the maids to keep her company, she grew up on the principle of solitude. Naïve, young and quiet, she was hidden from all eyes but one. AZIEL was a brooding man with a job to do. Invited into his colleague's home, he encounters a young woman. So sweet, so beautiful, so innocent...she was ripe for the picking, and Aziel was ready for a taste. Romina's father had always set rules in place to protect her from men. But Aziel was no man. MATURE UNEDITED COMPLETE 1 million reads December 1st, 2021. #1 in seduction #1 in sexscenes #1 in incubus #1 in demon #1 in kinky #11 in tragedy #11 in protective ib: your next door incubus, Jane Eyre, Beg For It

"I want to defile you, destroy you, corrupt you in the most sinfully beautiful way. Break you until you're completely mine." "And then?" "Then I'll piece you back together, of course." He took another step in her direction, closing the distance between them. "Love can be holy." He said but the look in his eyes promised anything but. "It can be kind and gentle. It can be the flutter inside your chest when you feel someone touch you, the blush staining your cheeks when someone brushes his knuckles over them." To prove his point further, he took his knuckles and brushed them over her sharp jawline, all the way to her lightly dusted cheeks and sharp cheekbones. "However, love can also be vile. Dark and all-consuming. The kind of love that makes you want to fall to your knees and let it destroy you." He let his palm rest on her soft skin and felt the warmth she provided so carelessly travel to him. "That's all I can offer you." Nathaniel Russ is a man devoid of passion. Cold, stern, a tragedy with skin. A wreckage just seconds before the crash. A writer. He spends countless hours teaching philosophy at the local university, waiting for something to make the words crawl out of him with the same vigorous appetite they once did. And he finds it, at the most unexpected moment. Guinevere Westbrook is a woman haunted by the sins of her past. And she just happens to be the muse he had been waiting for, even though she refuses to accept it. So, he orchestrates a game meant for two. A game. That's all it was. Until it wasn't. Adult themes, proceed with caution. All images belong to their respective owners. Source: Pinterest.