I thought I knew who I was. Gabriel Alvarez. Twenty. Son of a poor family in Albuquerque. Big brother. Protector. Future cop. My life had been built on long nights of work, endless study, and the unshakable promise that one day I'd wear a badge strong enough to keep my family safe. But then the threads started unraveling. Whispers of a world I wasn't meant to see. Names spoken like curses. The Caruso family. The Sicilian Mafia. Everyone in the city knew they ruled from the shadows. What no one knew, what I could never have imagined, was that I carry their blood. I am the brother they lost fifteen years ago. Every step I take now feels like a betrayal. To the family who raised me, who trust me with their lives. To myself, who swore I would fight men like the Carusos. But when the moment comes, when the truth tears everything apart, I don't know which side I'll stand on. The law I've devoted my life to... or the brothers who claim me as their own?

A once happy family, now drifting apart. People who hate him with a burning passion but love his twin. Just what happened to make them drift apart and why do they hate him? Aren't they supposed to love each other? Aren't they supposed to be family? Join Leonardo on his journey of abuse and suffering at the hands of his own family, who despise him with every fibre of their being. What happens when they cross a line? Will they be able to fix what has been broken? Disclaimer, I personally think there's a lot of cringe moments here, including dialogue and minor plot holes. Will edit at some point... Enjoy TT

DISCLAIMER: This book contains mature subject matter and triggering topics that may not be suitable for every reader. • • • "What is it that I always tell you, Winona? You'll always come back to me. A bird never forgets its home." Winona Horton has only ever known one home and one man, and she's never strayed from her simple life on an orchard in Homestead, Iowa. But the introduction of a boy from California and the uncovering of unsettling truths begin to shatter her illusions of the past, present, and future.

cover by @summerafterglow 𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥 It's so much easier to spread lies about people than it is to spread the truth. That's what Gabriel knows to be true, at least. According to everyone in his town, he's a monster. He doesn't deserve to be walking among the rest of them. That's far from the truth, though. He was never good at being alone, but it became something he was used to. After everything he'd gone through, he craved solitude. Until she showed up. She wiggled her way right into his heart and now all he craved was her. 𝐀𝐥𝐲𝐧𝐚 Moving to a small lakeside town in Washington was not where Alyna saw her life taking her. She also didn't expect that she'd fall so hard for the brooding mechanic who lived there. Everyone tells her that she should stay away from him. All of the rumors say that he's dangerous, but all she ever feels with him is safe. With obstacles at every turn, will their love be enough to endure even the worst challenge they'll face? Or will they fall apart under the weight? started: 12/15/2023 published: 05/18/2024 completed: 07/11/2026 highest rankings: #2 bwwm #4 ongoing

Scarlett Sovanna doesn't have time for nonsense-especially not the kind that wears a backwards cap and throws parties on Tuesday nights. As a dedicated ballerina at a top-tier arts college, her world revolves around perfect pirouettes, brutal rehearsals, and keeping her spot in the program. There's no room for distractions. Especially not him. Elliot Sinclair is college royalty-the star quarterback with a devil-may-care attitude and a line of admirers trailing behind him. He lives for the game, the thrill, and the spotlight. He and Scarlett couldn't be more different... except for one inconvenient truth: their families are practically intertwined. When Scarlett's dorm situation turns into a nightmare, the Sinclairs offer Elliot's guest room to her. Sharing a space with the person she finds most insufferable on campus? Not ideal. But as the walls come down, so do their assumptions about each other. What starts as chilly silence turns into heated banter. And somewhere between late-night talks and stolen glances, feelings develop. She's all discipline. He's all chaos. Together? They just might fall into something real.

𝐄𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐘 has mastered the art of being invisible. At home, it keeps her out of danger. At school, it keeps the bullies at bay-or so she hopes. But when a cruel prank forces her into the boys' changing room and into the spotlight, her carefully built walls start to crack. 𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐍 has everything: money, popularity, and a future already mapped out. He shouldn't care about the quiet girl with the tired eyes and secondhand shoes. But the moment he sees her, he knows there's more to Eve than silence. Thrown together by chance, drawn together by something neither of them fully understands, Eve and Ace come from two different worlds. And yet, in each other, they might just find the one thing they've both been missing. But some secrets aren't easy to outrun. And when the truth comes to light, it might just tear them apart. 𝐇𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐰 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝. 𝐓𝐖: Violence Abuse Smut Very sensitive topics

A SEQUEL TO SPOKEN IN SILENCE After Edward Whitcombe's tragic suicide, preceded by the loss of his mistress and illegitimate son, his legacy falls to his elder son, Miles, now burdened with the family estate and law firm. As war breaks across Europe, Toronto becomes both battleground and backdrop, and Miles enlists in the Canadian Army, stationed at home, striving to forge a life separate from the shadows cast by his father. Francis Whitcombe, younger and unapologetically himself, navigates a world that refuses to see him clearly. His queerness, a quiet rebellion in a society gripped by conformity, entwines with the social upheaval of war and family expectation. In the haze of underground clubs and whispered defiance, Miles meets Anya-Francis' radiant friend with secrets of her own. Their love, fragile and fervent, blooms away from prying eyes. Yet fate places Miles on a path toward a marriage arranged for wealth and stature, binding him to a woman he cannot love. As the war intensifies, so does the pressure to uphold the Whitcombe name. History looms, duty beckons, and the echo of past mistakes threatens to drown the possibility of a different future. In stolen hours and hidden places, Miles and Francis each fight for the right to live-and to love-on their own terms.

In the bitter winter of 1942 Saskatchewan, Ruby MacInnes and her husband Richard live on the edge of town, of acceptance, of survival. She's a Black woman from Halifax, disavowed for marrying a white man. He's a WWI veteran, quiet and scarred, clinging to the love that gives his life meaning. Together, they've built a fragile sanctuary in a place that barely tolerates their existence. But when a local soldier goes missing, the town's simmering prejudice erupts. Ruby becomes the target of suspicion, and the truth she carries-about what Caleb Hartley did to her-threatens to destroy everything. As Richard stands by her, the couple faces escalating threats, isolation, and the brutal weight of injustice. Their home is vandalized. Their names smeared. And the sheriff, led by Caleb's powerful father Elias, refuses to believe them. What follows is a devastating reckoning, one that costs Ruby everything and leaves the town forever changed, though never truly repentant.

Toronto, 1954. The city hums with neon, jazz, and whispered secrets, but for Selina Carter, a young Black woman trapped in the polished confines of her respectable life, it is suffocating. Married to a well-meaning but distant husband, Selina carries the unspoken grief of a childless marriage and the ache of desire that goes unmet. When her car breaks down on a quiet summer evening, a stranger comes to her aid-a man of rough hands, quiet authority, and a dangerous, magnetic presence. Reed Sullivan owns a small mechanic shop in the city's shadows, and from the moment they meet, sparks fly that neither can ignore. What begins as polite gratitude quickly turns to stolen moments, lingering glances, and a hunger neither has felt before. Their affair is intoxicating, charged with erotic tension, secret laughter, and the thrill of the forbidden. In his arms, Selina discovers a passion and tenderness that her marriage has never given her; in her, Reed finds a vulnerability and longing that unsettles him entirely. But Toronto is not kind to women like Selina. The affair threatens not only her reputation but everything she has been taught to value-respectability, family, safety. And Reed, brooding and fiercely protective, demands a reckoning: a choice between the life she knows and the love that could destroy them both.

In the autumn of 1916, deep in rural Ontario, Clara DuBois, a young Black woman, spends her days tending to her aunt's modest farm and working as a nurse's aide at a military hospital overflowing with wounded soldiers. She keeps her head down, works hard, and knows better than to expect kindness from a world that has rarely offered it. Still, she finds purpose in her care-until a single encounter shatters the ground she's built her life on. When Lieutenant Edward Whitcombe, a well-born, sharp-tongued soldier from a wealthy Toronto family, is brought in with a shattered leg and a sharper temper, Clara is assigned to tend to his wounds. What begins as a clash of class, race, and stubborn wills slowly softens into something neither of them expected: understanding. And, perhaps, something even deeper. But as rumours stir and the shadow of separation looms ever larger, Clara and Edward must decide whether the emotions between them is strong enough to endure the forces determined to tear them apart.