Forced into marriage by duty and obligation, The Duke and Duchess of Rothbury parted ways a week after saying their vows under the explicit understanding that theirs was a marriage in name only. There would be no expectations of love, fidelity, or romance. The Duke hates the American Heiress who married him only for his title, completely unaffected by the senseless tragedy that had made their marriage necessary in the first place. When an illness forces him to retire to the country, he makes sure to choose the property where his wife wouldn't be. Except that she is, and she is still as insufferable as ever. The Duchess resents the man who killed her youthful dreams of love and abandoned her to live his bachelor life unencumbered. When she is jilted by her lover, and faced with inevitable ridicule, she decides to retire to her beloved estate in Cornwall, where she runs an orphanage. Never once does she expect to run into her cold, selfish, insufferable arse of a husband! Forced into each other's company by circumstance, the couple begin to unravel their individual prejudices. Resentment turns into respect and friendship. Respect and friendship soon turn into attraction and affection. Was love closer than either one of them could ever have imagined? And that begged the question; can the Duke win his wife's favor, or is it far too late to make their marriage a love match? Cover by MuniWilliams.

In emergency medicine, the golden hour is the crucial sixty-minute window after a traumatic injury-the brief span of time when the right care can mean the difference between survival and loss. Dr. Mason Carpenter lives for that hour. At St. Mary's Trauma Center, he is the golden boy of the Emergency Department. He's brilliant and calm under pressure. He's addicted to the adrenaline, the thrill, the absolute rush of saving patients knocking on death's door. At home, he's a devoted husband to his high school sweetheart - the love of his life - Honey. Or, he used to be. Honey Carpenter has loved Mason since they were fourteen, since he was the gangly boy with hearts in his eyes who stumbled through asking her out for ice cream. She stood beside him through medical school, residency, crushing debt, sleepless nights, and every sacrifice it took to build the life they dreamed about. Now she is pregnant with their first child. And Mason is married to his work. He's missing ultrasound appointments, the gender reveal, the baby shower, and, most importantly, he's not there to support Honey - who's having an incredibly difficult first pregnancy. Honey feels her husband is drifting farther and farther away into the ED, and no matter how many times she tries to tell him she is lonely, exhausted, and afraid, Mason gives her the same answer. "They need me." But Honey needs him too. As her pregnancy progresses, her loneliness twists into something darker, but her doctor dismisses her symptoms as "first-time mom jitters." And her husband is too busy saving strangers to see his own wife fading away. Until Honey collapses at home and is rushed into Mason's emergency room, fighting for her life and their daughter's. Now Mason has to reckon with what he was chasing, what he ignored, and what it may cost him - the woman he loves more than anything. And he can't lose Honey. He won't survive it. 💛 Second Chance 💛 Marriage In Trouble 💛 No Cheating

Divorce lawyer Atticus Pierce has known Saskia was his since the day she moved in next door. He was twelve years old when he saw the quiet, strange girl with watchful dark eyes, and even then, his soul knew what they were before his brain did. Meant to be. Now, at thirty, Saskia has been his wife for ten years, and Atticus loves her with a devotion so deep it's madness. Tracking her location keeps her safe. Memorizing her routines is his duty as her protector. Noticing every subtle shift in her expression is his honor as her husband. But he keeps this hidden from Saskia, terrified at the thought of her discovering his obsession and being scared of him. She might leave him. And that is inconceivable. But Saskia is keeping secrets. Private phone calls she claims are work. Late-night meetings. Hushed conversations with the president of Iron Vow, the local MC. Already stretched thin by a brutal case against a violent ex-husband, Atticus begins to spiral beneath the weight of suspicion, jealousy, and the one fear he cannot survive coming true. That the love of his life belongs to someone else. When his control finally snaps, he says things he regrets the moment they leave his mouth. But Saskia is not cheating. She never was. She never would. And when Atticus uncovers the truth, he realizes his wife is not afraid of his obsession. She has been matching it all along... TW: stalking, blood and gore, unhealthy obsessive relationship behaviors that I'm shamelessly romanticizing. Reader discretion is advised.

Lady Eleanora, the dutiful eldest daughter of a duke, accepts a marriage of alliance to Crown Prince Anthony without protest. Graceful and admired, she is everything a future queen should be. But Anthony falls for her younger sister-the one who wants no crown, no court, no throne. Bound by an uneasy agreement, Duty and Desire bind them together while pulling them apart. When Duty and Desire collide, Eleanora must face whether her devotion will cost her the one thing she was never meant to want-love.

Elara Scott believed love was something you built, steady, patient, earned. After a childhood defined by chaos, Jonah Sterling's calm attention feels like oxygen: the quiet check-ins, the small touches, the safety of being wanted. But Jonah, heir to an old money East Coast dynasty and CEO of a powerful tech and security empire, only ever loved one woman. Sofia is the ghost his family still worships, the future he never stopped craving. When the board demands a "settled" image, Jonah chooses Elara not with devotion, but with convenience. In the Sterling world, Elara is an outsider in every room, enduring polished cruelty, public humiliation, and a husband who watches in silence. Even when an unexpected pregnancy gives them a daughter, Isla, Elara remains the wife who was never truly chosen. When Sofia returns and Jonah's attention begins to slip, first from Elara, then from Isla, Elara makes a decision that shatters the perfect façade: she leaves. But divorce doesn't erase Jonah's past. It exposes it, and forces Jonah to face the damage he allowed, the family that enabled it, and the woman who learned to live without him. A devastating, angst-filled story of second choice love, quiet cruelty, and a father fighting to repair the bond he nearly destroyed, after it's too late to save the marriage.

He forgot their love. She never could. Now she has to watch him choose someone else. _______ He woke up thinking he was still in love with the woman he lost. He didn't remember the one he chose. Seth Sterling has everything-a powerful name, a future set in stone, and a love story that was supposed to end in forever. Until an accident erases five years of his life. Now, the last woman he remembers is his first love. The one he walked away from. The one he once swore he'd never leave. But the woman waiting for him- the one wearing his ring, the one who knows every version of him- is a stranger. Juliet "Jules" Hagen was supposed to marry him in a few weeks. She loved Seth through every version of himself-the guarded man, the broken one, the one who learned how to love again. Now she's face to face with the only version she never prepared for- the man who doesn't remember loving her at all. As Seth searches for answers in a past he no longer understands, Jules is left with a choice: fight for a love he doesn't remember... or let him go before he breaks her all over again. Because sometimes, forgetting is easy. Remembering is what hurts.

When Emi's husband forgets his phone one morning, it only takes a few messages for everything to fall apart. She returns the phone in the middle of a board meeting and walks away from the life that she thought was happy and secure. But after the fallout comes reality. The money isn't there. The stability wasn't real. And starting over with two kids in her mother's one-bedroom apartment is a lot harder than leaving was. As Emi rebuilds from nothing, turning a quiet passion for ikebana into something more, she begins to understand that just like the flowers, she needs space, support, and patience to come into her own. Her husband thinks she'll come back because there's no way she can do it all alone. But, he's wrong, about more than one thing.

This story contains major spoilers for Sneakers, Cocktails, and Friends - read that first. (It also likely won't make sense if you don't. Edward Colin Keane came back to North Ridge to build a life that asked nothing from him. Work. Routine. Distance. Always distance. It was enough. Until a storm, a stubborn friend, and a community that refuses to stay on the sidelines force him to confront something he's spent years avoiding: You can't rebuild everything around you without eventually facing what's broken inside. This one is quieter. Heavier. But will complete Eddie (Colin)'s journey.

He broke her once. She survived losing him. Now he's back like nothing ever happened-and she's not sure she can survive that. Laura Hayes thought divorce would end the heartbreak. Instead, it only changed its shape. A year after walking away from the man who broke her, whom a part of her still loves, Laura is surviving rather than living, carrying loneliness like a second skin. And Adrian, buried beneath pride and regret, is discovering far too late that losing her hurts more than admitting he was wrong. When life keeps pulling them back into each other's orbit, old wounds reopen alongside something far more dangerous: hope. Because some loves do not disappear when a marriage ends. Some hearts never really leave.