concrete flowers 🥀
30 stories
✎ Dirty Work (18+) by lemonheadd
lemonheadd
  • WpView
    Reads 2,273
  • WpVote
    Votes 195
  • WpPart
    Parts 15
❛❛I foresee terrible trouble, and I stay here just the same.❞ 「TW: Dark themes. Death, SH, abuse, addiction, age gap, childhood trauma.」 ❛❛I wonder what it'd feel like if you cleaned up the mess I just made with your mouth, Ash. I've pretty much been a dripping, desperate mess for you since I was sixteen. You knew that though, right?❞ 「You're stubborn as hell and you hate confrontation and you pretend things don't hurt when they do. But you saved me. Not because I deserved it. Just because you couldn't stand the idea of me drowning. You're a good person, Jules.」
✎ Peach (18+) by lemonheadd
lemonheadd
  • WpView
    Reads 1,562
  • WpVote
    Votes 94
  • WpPart
    Parts 21
𝘿𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙢𝙮 𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚? 𝘼𝙣𝙮𝙬𝙖𝙮, 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙖 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧. ⋆⭒˚🍑。⭒⋆ 𝙋𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝘾𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙 swore she'd never come back. Not to the cracked sidewalks and creaking porches of a town that watched everything give up. Not to the ghosts that still lingered in the house her mama left behind. And definitely not to... 𝙏𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙮 𝘾𝙪𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙝𝙖𝙢 - the boy who knew every inch of her heart before she ever learned how to guard it. But grief has a way of calling you home. Now, years later, Peach is back where it all started: sorting through her dead mother's things, drinking too much of her good wine, and pretending she doesn't notice the way Tommy still looks at her from five houses down. He's not the same golden boy she left behind. His shoulders are heavier. His smile - when it shows at all - never reaches his eyes. He spends his days fixing other people's things and taking care of a sick mother in the same house that's slowly falling apart. And still, somehow, he shows up. To fix her railing. To fix her roof. To remind her of everything they used to be before the world got too hard. She broke his heart once by leaving. He's breaking hers now by staying exactly where she left him.
If You Forget | ✓ by ninaisawip
ninaisawip
  • WpView
    Reads 2,742
  • WpVote
    Votes 579
  • WpPart
    Parts 18
"r. p. if you forget" When she wakes up in the hospital with no memories of who she is, Elainne has no idea what to expect from her life. Fortunately for her, everything seems just perfect: her parents care about her a lot, and all of her classmates support her. But that still doesn't explain how she got kidnapped and lost her memories. Or that strange tattoo that pushes her to start her own investigation. From hidden notes to looking for clues on her bookshelf, Elainne realizes there's much more to her amnesia than she initially thought. As the perfect facade starts to fall apart, and everyone around her shows a different face every day, she will have to work quickly to recover her memories. Because someone made them lock themselves up inside her brain. And they will make sure she doesn't get them back. ⁂ PUBLISHED: 9/9/2022 COMPLETED: 10/23/2022 Word count: 24.6K Cover made by @ninaisawip #1 in yamystery - 9/13/2022 #1 in yathriller - 9/15/2022 #198 in ya - 10/24/2022 #143 in amnesia - 10/24/2022 #318 in mystery-thriller 10/26/2022
Exit Wounds by violadavis
violadavis
  • WpView
    Reads 13,763
  • WpVote
    Votes 1,106
  • WpPart
    Parts 23
Harley had a bright future ahead of her, but that dream died a long time ago. ***** Harley vowed she would never return to the city that broke her heart, but old wounds never stop hurting if you keep poking at them. When the phone rings, the city stops, and she's summoned back, she discovers some doors are better left closed. Those you open might never be locked again. ***** WARM HANDS #0.5 Open Novella Contest 2023 -- prompts 42, 45, & 69 [[OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2023 ROUND 2 WINNER]] © 2023 caterina george // all rights reserved
Gaslighter by violadavis
violadavis
  • WpView
    Reads 46,373
  • WpVote
    Votes 2,904
  • WpPart
    Parts 45
Penn Romero is a smart girl. Smart girls don't get involved with their professors. ***** It begins with a casual meeting at a speakeasy. It begins with a drink. It begins with a stolen stare. It begins with the not-knowing, the secrecy, the sneaking around. Penn Romero hardly knew what she was getting into when she was drawn in by Chase Steele's magnetism, and she hardly knew he'd be her new Film Theory professor. Against everything she's ever known, against everything she should do, she stills falls into a dark spiral of manipulation that keeps her trapped in a spider web, losing sight of who the real Penn is--all that's left is what he has made of her and all he's taken. It ends with him taking and taking. It ends with the should've-knowns. It ends in ruin. ***** THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE. DON'T ADD THIS TO ROMANCE READING LISTS, PLEASE. [[THE AMBYS 2024 TOP PICK IN CONTEMPORARY]] © 2021 caterina george // all rights reserved
The House Always Wins | Mafia Romance by manhattansunset
manhattansunset
  • WpView
    Reads 2,832
  • WpVote
    Votes 125
  • WpPart
    Parts 38
"You keep me on my toes but God, you have me on my fuckin' knees sometimes."
Bloodbath  by s00gifted
s00gifted
  • WpView
    Reads 555
  • WpVote
    Votes 181
  • WpPart
    Parts 14
A baby thief he was, living by the beach with his wife and little daughter. A sweet father to Diana. An angel of death to teen mothers. So when she is no longer little, people ask Diana, "How was he like?" But no one asks of her story, its beginning, and how it seems to be ending. No one except one man. A man who gifts her with a family in the most unlikely, bloodiest of ways.
1.1 ʟᴏᴠɪɴɢ ᴍᴀʏʜᴇᴍ | ✓ by luxiferase
luxiferase
  • WpView
    Reads 269,102
  • WpVote
    Votes 12,804
  • WpPart
    Parts 66
[ featured @mystery @romance @dangerouslove ] Caprice del Fuego is the untouchable queen. She is rich, smart, and fierce but what she wants the most is freedom. When her grandmother offered her a deal, she accepted. And she will do anything to win. Nothing can stop her, not even love. Colt Luciente is the god of death. With a bloody past and the mark of an ex-convict, he has nothing to lose except his freedom. But as he feared, the past returned to drag him back to the shadows. And this time, it won't let go. When these opposites attract, the world catches fire and burns at their feet. But as the secrets trickled one by one, their goals clash. War ensues and each one must pick a side. In a world where love is weakness, is self-preservation the answer? ===== "I'm too enormous for your kindness. I'm too monstrous for your love." ===== ROMANCE | ACTION | CRIME | MYSTERY | ANGST | GANGS | LOVE-HATE | • REVIEWED by ROMANCE 06/15/20 • FEATURED in MYSTERY TRENDING LIST • FEATURED in ROMANCE DANGEROUS LOVE READING LIST • FEATURED in MYSTERY PARTNERS IN CRIME READING LIST • FEATURED in DANGEROUS LOVE READING LIST • FEATURED in #PROJECTBADASSGIRLS READING LIST • 3RD PLACE in ROYALTY AWARDS GENERAL FICTION CATEGORY • NOMINATED in THE FICTION AWARDS 2019 BEST MYSTERY • #4 on MYSTERY • #1 on NEW ADULT • #1 on DRAMA • #1 on HEIRESS • #1 on BADASSREADS [ book one of the mayhem trilogy ]
1.2 | embracing misery by luxiferase
luxiferase
  • WpView
    Reads 46,593
  • WpVote
    Votes 413
  • WpPart
    Parts 5
[ #3 HIGHEST RANK ON ACTION ] SLOW UPDATES | REWRITTEN People say that the del Fuego's always has a plan. This was proven true by how Caprice del Fuego's life had played out. Caprice will get what she wants: Colt Luciente. But there is no perfect plan. Plans fail. Contingencies exist. The manipulations continue. When a marriage born out of love and hate takes place, secrets are revealed and emotions overflowed. Masks were torn off and misery flowed. Syndicates, corporates, and a past filled with agony. Who said loving mayhem was easy? ===== "The greatest grief are those we caused ourselves." ===== | ROMANCE | ACTION | CRIME | MYSTERY | ANGST | DRAMA | # 3 on ACTION #10 on ACTION #145 on MYSTERY [ book two ] [cover picture not mine]