One lesson I learned very early in life was to be cheerful, to be agreeable, to do as I was told and ask for nothing, and to never ever complain. Smile Maddie. Be happy Maddie. Don't make trouble and maybe they'll love you. I grew into an adult who took care of others and never expected that those I loved would take care of me in return. I gave and never asked, never expected, never demanded. Smile Maddie. Be happy Maddie. Don't make trouble and you'll find someone that will love you. And then one day, a Dragon walked into my workplace and turned my world upside down with a single wink. Having grown up watching his father treat his men like they were disposable, just meat bags to be fed into the grinder, Dragon was determined to be different when he became president of the Dragon's Inferno MC. He cares about his people. He takes care of them. He was upfront with me, taking care of his MC and those he considered to be his would always be his priority. And I agreed to that, I joined him in that mission, throwing myself into becoming the perfect old lady of the prez. Smile Maddie. Act happy Maddie. Take care of them and maybe they'll love you. Smile Maddie. Be happy Maddie. Don't complain and maybe he'll love you. I told myself I was independent. I was strong. And I didn't need my Dragon to take care of me. And I almost believed it. Almost. But now I'm watching him with her. I'm watching him comfort her. I'm watching him listen to her, support her, reassure her. I'm watching him take time from his day to check in with her. I'm watching him worry about her. I'm watching them become closer right in front of my eyes. I'm seeing every thoughtful gesture he does for her. And me? I'm not happy. I'm not smiling. I'm done being agreeable. Fuck not causing trouble. I'm about to set my Dragon's world on fire. And then I'm walking away. She can have him. For the first time in my life, I'm choosing myself.

For years, Kate has been defined by her illness. Through every diagnosis, flare, setback, and disappointment, her husband Kevin was there beside her. So when he suddenly announces that he's accepted a months-long overseas assignment, Kate finds herself feeling conflicted, abandoned, and alone for the first time in over a decade. Realizing she'd lost herself somewhere between tracking good days and bad days, Kate sets out to reclaim the parts of herself she left behind-her dreams, her confidence, and her independence. With her brother Mike's return from military service on the horizon and an unexpected reunion with his longtime best friend Tom, Kate begins to imagine a future that looks very different from the life she was living. With Tom's help she even tackles something she thought she'd never do when she signs up for a running club. But the more she changes, the harder it becomes to ignore the growing cracks in the life she built-and the possibility that some relationships survive only as long as the people inside them aren't growing. When she and Kevin are reunited and the future she thought she had begins to unravel, Kate discovers that the hardest part of a race isn't learning how to keep going-it's figuring out where you're supposed to stop running.

An incredibly shy librarian who finds it almost impossible to talk with people unless it's about books. A dominant who comes into the library and is captivated by the shy woman behind the circulation desk. The minute she says Yes, Sir to him, he knows she's his. He just needs to convince her of that.

After many years of trying...and the pain of loss, I was finally pregnant. The night my sister got married, my husband drunkenly confessed to me that he had been in love with my sister for two years. I divorced him without talking to him. Now, two years later, I'm ready to listen.

We were friends with benefits. Reed would stop by every time he was in Anchorage, and that was the extent of things, although I started to want more. Then he ended our arrangement, and I suspected there was another woman, but it wasn't until I overheard a conversation that I understood completely. He thought I was calling and texting because I couldn't take no for an answer. That wasn't my problem at all. Two blue lines were.

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.

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

Eleven years after his life shattered in Chicago, Chris has rebuilt himself carefully in San Francisco: controlled, independent, untethered. He teaches ethics and law. He boxes too hard. He keeps people at a distance. And he has absolutely no interest in anything that looks remotely permanent. Then a work trip to Mexico drops Marisol into his life. Within days they're tangled in hotel sheets, trading insults in two languages, and making the kind of reckless decisions that are only supposed to exist far from home. The problem isn't that Chris wants her again the moment he gets home. The problem is he assumed she lived two thousand miles away-not twenty minutes across the city. What begins as something casual quickly becomes impossible to contain, forcing Chris to confront the very thing he's dedicated years to avoiding: the possibility of staying. And just when he and Marisol finally stop pretending they haven't built something real together, the past Chris buried long ago comes looking for him.

Before Marlowe Ackerman goes away to Brown University, she does the bravest thing she's ever done. She confesses to her best friend, Oliver Abbott, that she is in love with him. And Oliver breaks her heart gently. To him, Marlowe is his safe place. His best friend. The one person who has always been there for him. His feelings for her have never changed, and he is certain they never will. At eighteen, Oliver is desperate for a fresh start after years of being the awkward, gangly dork. Parties, girls, fraternity life, reinvention-he wants everything he thinks college is supposed to give him. But once he gets there, nothing feels right without Marlowe. While she thrives at Brown, Oliver falls apart. He fails classes, wakes up hungover, surrounds himself with the wrong people, and slowly realizes the reason his feelings for Marlowe never changed is because he has loved her all along. But he's too late. When he goes to tell her, he finds her in bed with her boyfriend, Sam. Jealousy and heartbreak make him spit ugly, cruel words he will regret for the rest of his life. Marlowe ends their friendship for good. Ten years later, Oliver has changed. He is a history teacher at their old high school, a wrestling coach, and a man who has spent a decade learning from the worst mistake of his life. When he hears that Marlowe Ackerman is coming back to town for their high school reunion, Oliver knows better than to think he deserves a second chance. But he wants one. Not just to tell Marlowe he still loves her. To show her he has become someone worthy of loving her the way she deserves. He was her almost. Maybe now, he can be her always.

She came home early. She shouldn't have. Noa Reevse is a therapist. She spends her days sitting across from people in the worst moments of their lives, holding their pain with both hands, and sending them home better. She is very good at it. She is also, it turns out, very good at not looking too closely at her own. Until the afternoon, she opens a door she was never supposed to open. Fifteen seconds. That's all she records. That's all she needs. And then, a week later, she puts on a burgundy dress, walks into her husband's televised political forum, and raises her hand. She has the video. She never has to play it. His silence does the work for her. "Hurricane Season" is about what happens after the worst imaginable betrayal, after the divorce papers are filed, after the woman who taught everyone else how to survive the unsurvivable has to figure out how to do it herself. For readers who need their protagonist to be the storm.