LANDON LUNA: College is finally over, and I get to go on a road trip for one month before I enter the real world. Yet, I never expected to see Everest signed up, and more than that, he requested me to be his partner for the trip. I've known Everest since we were thirteen, but he doesn't remember it. That's okay. I suspect the night we met wasn't a good one for him, and maybe it's best he doesn't remember. But now we are scouring across the east side of the U.S., and I'm starting to wonder if everything I did for Everest was in the name of something else. Something more meaningful. Something I should have understood sooner. Damn my brain. It takes me far too long to understand the proper context and even longer to grasp the meaning of my feelings. I might be in love with him. Oh, and I was diagnosed with autism a year ago, and I never told anyone. So, there is that. EVEREST PIERCE: I love him. I love Landon Luna without conditions. Without expectations. Without the need for more. And I love him with my entire heart. I wasn't the nicest person in high school. Not to anyone except the ball of bubbly sunshine. The one who waved at me every single day. But I was a goner the moment he said hello to me in my Junior year of high school when he was partnered with me on a project. Now, I need to figure out how to keep my feelings on lockdown through this trip. Because I find myself wanting. I want him, and I don't know that I am worthy enough to have him.

LANDON LUNA: Someone is directly targeting me-making me out to be Elijah Moon's stalker. I'm not. And in an attempt to combat against the person who accused me, I also make choices I immediately regret. Elijah has been instructed, by me, to stay out of it. I can handle this. Choices are a funny thing when they're made in the name of protection. I needed to protect him. Then GlimmerOfHope pops back up, and they're defending me against the madness. Who is Glimmer? Should I just tell everyone the truth? Wait, don't send me to Vegas with Everest while I'm drunk. Mistakes aren't made, but we definitely make some choices this time. EVEREST PIERCE: When I told Landon I loved him without limits and expectations, I saw the glint of uncertainty. And how could I blame him when the world is attacking him so brutally? My softhearted, compassionate, loving ray of sunshine has a dark cloud looming over him. Landon kept trying to convince me everything is fine when it clearly is not fine. No matter. I promised him I would stand beside him. And I don't go back on the promises I make. I waited too long to give up. Every time I look at him, I see our happy future together. I'm a man who's remained silent for far too long, though. So, when Landon hits his breaking point quickly because the world refuses to leave him alone, I know what I need to do. I might have been a man who remained silent... But maybe it's time I break my silence. And fight for and beside the one I love.

LENNOX HART: I understand that my impulses get the best of me sometimes. I tend to regret my actions after everything is said and done. But I do not regret quitting as Elijah Moon's manager. Whatever dark and twisted entity lives within Elijah, it's clear I can't exorcise it. After he yells at me in front of the world, I choose to raise my white flag and run. Landon welcomes me with open arms, except he has a devious plan brewing. I see it forming and taking shape when Elijah shows up on Landon's doorstep carrying suitcases full of animosity. I refuse to bend; I refuse to break. But when I'm made to play house with the mini Devil, I start to realize there are more ways to break than I initially thought. ELIJAH LUNA: There has been a dark cloud over my head since I found out what fame could really do to my family. My brother suffered at the hands of my fans, and I haven't figured out how to forgive myself. I made a vow never to let another person fall victim to the cruel nature of my fame. I didn't want to push him away, but if I let him any closer than our metaphorical ten-foot distance, they would hurt him. Lennox is far too precious to me and I won't watch the world tear him apart, too. Then he quits in the middle of a heated argument, and suddenly, it feels like the sun fell out of the sky. I recluse. Until I get an angry phone call from my brother. Now, I'm decorating Christmas trees and playing house with Lennox. Every single one of his words has a bite, and he's made it perfectly clear that he won't forgive me. But that was said before we both broke apart into a million shards of our past.

Book One of Five in the New Beginnings Series. **You do NOT have to read Inhale, Exhale, & Breathe to enjoy these stories** #1 in bxb tag: 09/21/2024 #4 in friendstolovers tag: 9/21/2024 CYRUS PIERCE: I'm content in my almost soundless world. I prefer to live through the romance stories I weave and post online. Hardly anyone reads my books, even if they're free, but I do have one fan, and he's supported me since I started writing two years ago. Except, my writing started to take a depressing dive when I realized that you simply couldn't prevent nor protect your heart from falling for someone. For him. For the one who had no interest in me. When I fell in love with him, I thought we had a chance. It was an accident. Turned out, I couldn't be more wrong. He doesn't want me, and I wasn't supposed to have him. It didn't matter if he showed up in the bookstore every day, talking to everyone else except me. Nor did it matter at all because he didn't know sign language. He couldn't learn. We couldn't communicate. But after I go on a date and it ends in putrid disaster, he makes his appearance known, and he's angry. Then he's doing things for me that confuse me. My stories are filling up with pages of content, dreams that I want to come true, and my mystery commenter encourages me to continue-to reach my happiness. To take what I want. But the activities planned start sparking familiarity-like I lived it before, or maybe dreamed it. Or maybe, just maybe, I'd written it before? My mind is spiraling, but I can't stop myself from getting closer and closer to him. I'm not supposed to have him, but my heart craves him. Sage Monroe, I'm in love with you, and I'm scared now because I have a feeling that you've been communicating with me in more ways than one.

Book Two of Five in the New Beginnings Series. **You do NOT have to read Inhale, Exhale, & Breathe to enjoy these stories** SALEM LUNA: Does anyone ever feel like they're riding a mechanical bull that is never ending? No matter how many times you get thrown off the thing, you appear right back on it? No? Just me then? See, I have this best friend. Former. Best. Friend. It's taking my brain a while to get used to it. Whatever. I'm hopelessly in love with him, and I tried desperately to admit my feelings out loud. So, I did. Raven Fox told me not to love him, and the look he seared into my skin when he said it was now branded into my brain. Now we're on the university book club Christmas retreat. Who did I get roomed with? Raven because of course I was given the bird. The damn bird that didn't love me in return. Which would have been fine had he not looked like the idea disgusted him. Six months have gone by since that day, and our tension is growing with more animosity each second. Now, we're doing activities together, and Christmas is my favorite holiday. He's not screwing this up for me. After a snowstorm starts hitting, though, I end up stuck in the middle of nowhere, out of gas in my snowmobile. I'm terrified as the wind starts picking up and snow starts whipping my face. I thought he wasn't listening. That he didn't care. So, why did he become the one to save me? Why does he look so distraught? His words say one thing, but his eyes are telling me his words are lies. Raven is lying to me. He loves me. But he doesn't want me to love him. All I want to know is why because I can't breathe without him anymore.

Book Three of Five in the New Beginnings Series. **You do NOT have to read Inhale, Exhale, & Breathe to enjoy these stories** AUGUST LUNA: Fake dating my nemesis, what a twisted web we have weaved, isn't it? I want to get under Davis Adler's skin, and what better way to do that than by feeding the media about my secret romance with his son, Kayax Adler? Shiny, glittery, superstar-Kayax Adler. Something is going on with Kayax, and the more time I'm forced to spend around him, the more it gets harder for me to ignore. He was supposed to perish, and now I wonder if I was too focused on the wrong Adler. Kayax needs my attention. More than I realized. When Davis gets arrested after an anonymous tip sent in to the police station, I close in on the sassy superstar. There's darkness under his gaze. Heaviness. Hatred. And it's not for me. He's not the one who needs to perish. KAYAX ADLER: I don't mind my fake relationship to a Luna. Not at all. Not when he starts mindlessly... caring about me. I'm supposed to hate him, I know. My Dad drilled that in my head ever since the forced me into the industry the moment I turned eighteen. But I'm hiding a lot of secrets, and they don't all have to do with the abuse of my father. The one who didn't even raise me. But when someone-my father-leaks a video of my eighth grade talent show, I'm shoved into the spotlight even more. Because it was never about the fact I had an impeccable singing voice for as long as I could remember. It was the song choice. An Elijah Luna song. August is confused. I'm losing myself in August and getting confused myself. I can't fall in love with him. But it's too late. I fall in love with August Luna, and I can never have him for real. Only for fake.

Book four of five in the New Beginnings Series. VALENTINE PIERCE: My dearest cousin is going on his honeymoon, leaving me jobless for two weeks. Maybe that's a little dramatic, but it left me open and needing something to do. Allison Yates, the CEO of the label August works for has tasked me with helping Vesper Quinn adapt to the changes in his life. Which means, I have to be his temporary manager until they can find him one. Normally, I would have jumped for joy at the opportunity, except, Vesper decided I'm nothing but a snobby rich kid, who does whatever he wants. If I want it, I get it. It stemmed from Vesper finding out that I showed his videos to the company. He was signed, and he wasn't the least bit appreciative. See, I followed him for years. I was once intrigued by him. We even... went on dates. I thought he liked me, and I even thought we were headed somewhere. But then he vanished for almost two years. He stopped making music. He changed his number. He didn't contact anyone. Until he finally showed up for his audition, and he was signed. Sure, I thought, maybe we still had a chance. Until it evaporated that night in the stairwell. So, why is he being kind to me? I'm not falling for his tricks. I won't let him in again. I tried twice. I even gave him a chance after he vanished on me-but then I saw the way he looked at me when he not only found out what I'd done to help him, but who I was related to. But something is going on with him. I see it in his eyes. The mistrust. And then I find out he's suffocating, and he's been alone. It's dangerous to fall after the soon-to-be superstar, but I want him. I desperately want him, and I have for years. Hey, it's Christmas-anything can happen, right?

Book Five out of five in the New Beginnings Series. OLIVER PIERCE: I've always waited for the darkness to consume me. Every day, I open my eyes, and I wait for it to hit. It never does. I cry for hurt animals, mourn the loss of life, and hurt in the name of others. Empathy is something I have, and it's stronger than I thought. There wasn't any kind of darkness in me, but I still feared it would pop up. Five years ago, my girlfriend of three years completely abandoned me when she found out about my past. And I made the vow to never open myself up to anyone romantically again. It was better this way. But there is this irritating "bad boy" who thinks the world owes him. I've known him for the last four years, and he won't leave me alone! He made a bet to win my heart. Our friend group is going on a road trip, and I'm stuck with him as a roommate. I'm straight. I'm closed off. I don't like him! I swear! Shit, I might have been wrong about that because why does he feel so right? MALACHI REEVES: The bet is to win his heart. That's the prize. I'd have his heart. I'd have him. And he's all I've ever wanted. However, Oliver swears he's straight, but I noticed the way he looked at me through college. The curiosity in his stare. So, I want to show him what I have to offer him during this damn road trip across the United States. Things don't go at all how I planned. Something dark and haunted lives within Oliver Pierce, and I want to help him through it. The sweet smiles, the soft laughter, and everything in between-I want it to be mine. I have two months to prove to him that we're meant to be. No matter what darkness lingers behind him, I'll help him battle it all. I'll keep him safe. Protected. But only if he lets me.

Book one of six in the Chaotic Hearts series. BOOKS MUST BE READ IN ORDER. - RIVER MINTZ: Listen, I need you to hear me out. I'm a little bit impulsive, and I don't think anything through enough before I'm implementing my next plan of action. And it's because of my impulsiveness that I even ended up in this heartbreaking situation. See, I was falsely engaged to a man-a straight man named Louis-who did some awful things in his lifetime. You don't even want to know. But my parents had sent me to college and told me to discover life outside my wealth. I needed money. But when I found out what Louis had done, I immediately left. I didn't want anything to do with him. He was a vile human being. I should have known better. However, I didn't want my parents to know that I was someone's pet, so while they knew nothing about Louis, I also never told them we broke things off out of fear of my Mother's hound nose discovering what I'd done to make money during college. It's been five months since I ended things with him, and my Mom begged me to come home for Christmas this year and to bring my fiancé. And I couldn't very well say we were no longer together out of thin air, right? I had to figure something out, or my Mom would know I was lying. So, why did my ex-boyfriend, Seven Knight, appear in Chicago when he lived in Vermont, last I heard? Why did he agree so easily? Why was he so willing to go along with this? Mom found out my "fiancé" is Seven, and now she is begging us to get married on Christmas! What do I do?! We haven't seen or spoken in years because we... had to discover life outside of one another. But what I never told him? I never wanted that. And now, I have to pretend we're happily together, and it's confusing my brain. I still love him. I crave him. I need him. But I have doubt that he feels the same. It's been too long. I don't have much to offer. How could he still want me? Ha. What a fun Christmas holiday this will be, right?

Book two of six in the Chaotic Hearts series. MUST BE READ IN ORDER I'm usually level-headed, I swear. But when it comes to Maverick Asher, he makes me lose all my sanity, and all he has to do is open his mouth and let his putrid words spill out. Maverick has been friends with my brother for thirteen years, and I've been around him just as long. Over the last few years, he's taken to seeking me out to get a rise out of me. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate his stupid motorcycle. I hate his stupid leather jackets. I hate his attitude. I hate his sarcasm. I hate his sharp tongue. And I hate that he doesn't care about anyone except himself. I try to ignore him, but he lights me on fire, and I can't stop myself from firing back at him. Now, I can't ignore him because it's February, and my family has come up with a fun game. We have to pick a partner and work with them until Valentine's Day to plan platonic dates for one another. Which means, we have to spend time with our partner to learn what they might like for a date. No one picked Maverick, and that left him with me. I'm nothing if not a perfectionist, and even if that means competing with Maverick to make my platonic date for him perfect. He's battling against me to make his date perfect. We are at each other's throats. I start to get confused. Then, when it's time for the dates, my brain spirals into further confusion. I don't expect what he has prepared, and I start realizing there is far more I had failed to notice about Maverick Asher. The man who claims romance and love is nothing but failure has me falling into the trap that he believes love is. But is he falling with me, or am I being played?