'Solitude' Philosopher Philip Koch defined it as "A stretch of experience disengaged from other people in perception, thought, emotion, and action" Solitude is an experience that can exist regardless of physical location, defined by the "absence" of other people, internally otherlessness, a spiritual/philosophical concept regarding the dissolution of self and a literary/existential term for extreme isolation. At forty-five, Professor Loredana Dove has built her life on control. Keeping her colleagues at arm's length and her students at a distance. At home, her marriage to an absent, quarrelsome wife is crumbling, leaving her to raise their five year old daughter in quiet isolation. She has convinced herself she needs nothing more until Romina Maple crashes into her classroom. Nineteen smart, and reckless, Romina is the youngest in her year. To her classmates she's the loud, infuriating party girl; to herself, she's struggling with mental health, taking care of her three year old brother and the only responsible adult in a house run by aging grandparents, her defiance masks hunger, her insolence disguises fear. Their lives should never touch. Yet hunger recognizes hunger. What begins as irritation morphs into fascination, into a closeness neither woman knows how to resist. Boundaries blur. Rules splinter. And both must face the truth: some desires do not starve quietly, and some silences can undo a lifetime of control. Our Shared Solitude is a story of two women who should have walked away yet found themselves consumed by the one thing they were never meant to want.

Before everything fell apart, there was Irina Ivanova and Isabelle Rossi. ||1989. Ravenswood.|| Irina arrives in town during the middle of autumn with her parents and a suitcase full of things that still don't feel like home. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and already knows what it's like to grow up feeling invisible. Then Isabelle Rossi notices her. Everybody knows Isabelle. The girl with the loud laugh, the pretty smile, the music always playing somewhere around her. The type of person who makes a place feel smaller the second she walks into it. Irina doesn't expect someone like Isabelle to look at her twice. But she does. And somehow, the two of them become inseparable. Late-night drives. Rooftops. Cigarettes passed between freezing hands. Teenage summers that feel like they'll last forever until suddenly they don't. Above Zero is a story about first love, growing up, and the people who leave fingerprints all over your life without even realizing it. Some relationships end. Others find their way back into the world in different forms. 𝗣𝗦: 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗭𝗲𝗿𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲. 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲, 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗢𝗻𝗲. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝟬 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗭𝗘𝗥𝗢 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀.

Every woman before Blair could step into both roles effortlessly. Except her. People love telling stories about ballerinas becoming their Black Swan like darkness suddenly appears the moment someone finally lets go, but Blair Lockwood has spent her entire life knowing it doesn't work that way. In the Lockwood family, dancing both the White Swan and the Black Swan is practically inherited, and Blair has everything she should need to pull it off. She has the technique and the discipline and the control, yet every time she performs the Black Swan, something still feels missing, like she's reaching for a version of herself she can never fully touch. Then Lovina Ander arrives at the academy and suddenly everybody's attention shifts. Blair thought Lovina was coming for the role. She didn't realize Lovina's attention had been drifting toward her the entire time. And somewhere between rivalry and obsession and the pressure of becoming the dancer her family expects her to be, Blair starts discovering parts of herself she was never supposed to touch.

Stephanie Walker is eighteen, moving across the country from Los Angeles to New York to begin her dream: law school at NYU. A new city, a new home, new friends, new everything. She's excited, but sleepless nights, old wounds, and quiet struggles follow her everywhere. She wants to live like any other college student, to blend in, to feel normal, but life hasn't been simple, and surviving on her own is harder than she expected. Every late night, every study session, every solitary drive home reminds her that life doesn't come with easy answers. Some nights, she leans on quiet habits she'd never tell anyone about, just to make it to morning. Elena Shay is thirty-two, NYU's Dean and a respected law professor. Her life is built on control, precision, and endless responsibility. At work, she's commanding, elegant, untouchable. Outside it, she's soft, warm, and human, but never careless. Elena doesn't date casually; she doesn't waste time or energy on anything that isn't worth it. She's deliberate, certain, and careful... Until Stephanie. Stephanie isn't just another student. She's sharp, captivating, and unafraid to be herself in a way that draws Elena in deeper than it should. Suddenly, the carefully maintained line between professional and personal life begins to blur. The rules, the expectations, the life Elena's worked so hard to control all scream that nothing between them can ever happen. And yet, the pull becomes impossible to ignore. As their worlds collide, Stephanie discovers a side of life she's never dared to touch: warmth, comfort, attention, and desire from someone who sees her fully, not as a girl with a "rough" childhood, but as a woman. Together, Elena and Stephanie fall into chaos, vulnerability, and longing they didn't know they were missing. Every glance, every touch, and every moment carries risk. Risk of exposure, of judgment, of everything crashing down, all shaped by the choices resting in their hands.

Elowyn Gray likes her world quiet, predictable, and safe. As an autistic young woman who builds her life around routine, she's never expected-or wanted-anything to change. But when a chance encounter with the enigmatic CEO Ms. Monroe sends a flicker through her carefully guarded calm, Elowyn finds herself crossing paths with the woman again and again. Warmth becomes confusion. Distance becomes awareness. And every accidental brush of hands sends an unfamiliar thrill through her, making her unsure if she should explore it a little further... or run away completely.

❝𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝑰 𝒌𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒕 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆.❞ __________________ Esmeralda doesn't just steal your freedom . She takes your breath, your mind...𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴. Ashleen knows she should hate her. But what's the fun in that?

Twenty-four-year-old Clementine Bailey has spent her whole life working sunup to sundown on the Bailey farm. Feeding animals, fixing fences, harvesting crops, doing the work everyone expects her to. The dependable farmer's daughter with dirt on her boots, a soft smile, and a secret she's carried since she was sixteen. She's been in love with FinLeigh Drayton, pastor's daughter, town sweetheart, and her best friend, for eight long years. FinLeigh has spent her entire life trying to be perfect. The perfect Christian, the perfect daughter, the perfect fiancée. Courting Everett Bishop, the golden boy from one of the founding families should feel right. Everyone says it is. But every kiss leaves her cold, every touch makes her flinch, and every whispered prayer begging God to make her "normal" goes unanswered. Because the only time she's ever felt anything real- was with Clementine.

"𝑫𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓." "𝑫𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒖𝒃𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏." 𝐄𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐋𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞 was never supposed to be chosen. Yet, out of sixty thousand models, she was. Now under the control of StarCorp's cold and untouchable founder, 𝐓𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐨𝐫 𝐕𝐨𝐬𝐬, Ella finds herself pulled into a world of luxury, lust, and the impossible standards of fame. But Taylor plays a slow game. And Ella? She's determined to prove she's not as easy to break as the girls before her. [DISCLAIMER: The intended audience for this book is 18+.] © Tear Me Down may not be reproduced, copied, reposted or translated in any way unless explicit permission is given directly from the author.

Zora Sterling has everything, she is beautiful, she is rich, her parents own the school everyone would kill to get in to, the only thing that makes Zora tick is Jade Winslow, the low life no one who shouldn't even be there, Zora has to break her, ruin her and destroy everything still alive inside her until she runs back to where she came from, far away from her sight. Jade Winslow was lucky enough to get in a school like this with a scholarship, because this way she'll most likely get into her dream school Crownridge in England, that's the only thing that keeps her going that she only needs to survive one more year, only needs to survive one more year with Zora Sterling, who represents everything she hates. It's one more year, everything will go smoothly without any complications, right?

Living under the same roof was the last thing Maya and Grace wanted. But when Maya's dad and Grace's mom decide to move in, there was no way around it. Maya is an impulsive, reckless, extremely rich girl who hates being told what to do. Grace, on the other hand, is simple, reserved, and seemingly perfect. They are polar opposites in every way, constantly clashing and challenging each other. As their differences make things worse, new feelings start to grow: jealousy, attraction, vulnerability. The lines between hate and something more start to blur. As their feelings grew, the undeniable desire and passion between them became impossible to resist. Neither of them was ready for it.