She waited at the altar. But he never came. The flowers wilted before the vows. The whispers started before the tears could fall. She stood there alone, wrapped in lace and disbelief, while the man she loved hid behind silence and shame. He couldn't marry a girl with a burnt face-not when his reputation bled so easily under scrutiny. Not when her scars told a story he didn't want written beside his name. He didn't even come to say goodbye. What followed was not heartbreak. It was humiliation. A broken wedding. A family that looked away. Eyes that pitied her like she was the ruin, not the survivor. So she left. Being alone felt kinder than staying where love came with conditions. Then she met him. He was quiet when the world was loud. Calm, though the storm lived in his eyes. A man with hands that didn't flinch at her scars, who spoke to her not like she was broken, but like she was still becoming. He wasn't the man anyone sent to save her. In fact, he was the one everyone warned her about. The disgrace. The black sheep. And yet, it was his voice that steadied her. His strength that carried her through hospital hallways, plastic surgery rooms, and sleepless nights that left her gasping. He never asked for her past-he only offered her a future. He loved her without flinching. Not for her beauty. But for her fire. With him, she didn't just heal-she rebuilt. Not into the girl she once was, but into a woman with steel in her spine and grace in her silence. when she returned-when her skin had mended and her eyes no longer begged for kindness-the man who left her at the altar came crawling back. Suddenly, he could see her again. But it was too late. Because standing beside her was the man who never left. The one who gave her his soul when she thought she had none left to give. And when their eyes met, she finally understood: She was never his to lose. She had always belonged to the other brother. Cover photo courtesy of Vecteezy.com

Alessia had rules. She didn't do drama, didn't take nonsense from any man. Until him. For Cassian, she broke every one. A cliché, impossible mother in law? She handled it. Missed dinners because of work? She served herself double and waited anyway. Too tired to spend time together? She embraced the quiet hours alone. She forgot her limits, abandoned her rules. All for him. Until her. The one rule she couldn't break, the limit she couldn't cross. She saw him with her. Broken, she left and whispered a wish she never thought would come true: that she had never met him. The wish was granted. Alessia woke up and didn't remember him. But now Cassian is the one waiting. Running against time to be near her. Chasing every moment, following every rule, just so she might remember him again. And if she can't... Can he remember it all for both of them? © IcecreamSundae5. All rights reserved.

Wahida Dalva never planned to fall in love with him. It happened quietly, for her love was not a shelter but a demolition. It stripped her bare, humiliated her, and left her exiled from the guarded life she'd curated for her. But ruin has a way of shifting the ground beneath you, of rewriting the rules you thought were permanent. Out of that chaos stepped a man who should never have noticed her. Older, colder, untouchable, he existed in a space of quiet power, a man who seemed impossible to claim. And yet, when he reached for her, when he touched her, the world seemed to ignite and burn clean, leaving only the stark, undeniable clarity of what she had always needed. He taught her that love doesn't have to be pure to be real. That safety doesn't always come from good men. That sometimes, the only thing left to do with what's broken is to set it on fire and start again. For All That Burns is a dark, intricate romance about survival, devotion, and the extraordinary danger of being chosen by someone you were never meant to have, a story where ruin and desire coexist in a single, combustible flame.

Isabella learned too late that love is the most dangerous currency of all. As Queen of Mayhern, she ruled through restraint, not fear choosing compromise over conquest, mercy over suspicion. Every alliance cost her something. Every promise demanded a sacrifice. She gave until there was nothing left but the crown and the quiet ache of everything she had denied herself. The betrayal came from the hands that touched her daily. Those she trusted most sold her death as necessity, wrapped in loyalty and whispered justifications. Isabella was erased carefully, efficiently her blood spilled not in war, but in silence. Her crown passed on before her body was cold. She dies believing love made her weak. Death returns her broken and changed. Isabella rises bound to power that does not forgive and does not forget. The woman who believed in peace is gone, replaced by something sharpened by rage, grief, and the memory of betrayal burned into her bones. She no longer seeks mercy. She seeks control. And then there is him. A man who should have been her enemy. Dangerous. Unyielding. Everything she was taught to fear. He stands at the edge of her revenge, tied to her fate by blood, power, and a truth she is not ready to face. He does not ask for her trust. He does not offer redemption. He offers understanding the kind forged through shared darkness. As Isabella dismantles the lies built over her grave, she finds herself drawn to the one man capable of matching her fury and surviving her wrath. Loving him would be reckless. Trusting him could destroy what remains of her. But some bonds are born in ruin.

I promised to take care of him until he didn't need me anymore. I made a mistake. I was twenty-two. Just a broke artist with a pair of scissors and a flashlight, hired to be his nanny. I did my best. I built him a sky out of cardboard boxes. I held his hand when the thunder was too loud. I taught him that he didn't have to be alone in the dark. But children grow up. And Silas Vane grew up... different. As the years passed, I started noticing things I couldn't explain. My dates getting cancelled. My debts mysteriously paid off. The feeling of eyes watching me while I slept. I thought I was raising a lonely boy. I didn't realize I was becoming the center of a dangerous obsession. Now, he is a man. A genius who controls everything around him. And he has finally solved the only equation that matters: How to keep me forever.

On the morning of her third wedding anniversary, Charlotte Wilson learns the truth-her husband, David Jones, has been betraying her for years with her best friend, Morecea Hale. The betrayal cuts deeper when she discovers her stepsister, Anna Wilson, has been helping them, eager to seize the inheritance her mother left behind. Stripped of her shares, framed for fraud, and left to die in a staged "accident," Charlotte's final moments are filled with one bitter truth: the people she trusted most were the ones who destroyed her. But death is not the end. Charlotte wakes up five years in the past-two years before her doomed marriage-armed with the knowledge of every betrayal, every deal, and every face that smiled while stabbing her in the back. This time, she will not be the woman they ruined. She will be the storm that topples their world. With her foresight, she builds an empire untouchable by lies, dismantling her enemies piece by piece. Her path unexpectedly collides with Warren Solomons-her former childhood friend turned bitter rival, now one of the most dangerous businessmen in the city. In a game where trust is a currency no one can afford, Warren becomes both her greatest challenge and her most unlikely ally... if she dares let him in before the final reckoning.

UNEDITED Between his semi-committed addiction to smoking and his role as CEO of Elemental Coffee, Cassian Russell has spent the majority of his life running one of the most popular coffee shops on the Island with his best friend, Jake Swift. After an initial decision to expand their business, Cassian and his fellow investment partner, Penelope Montgomery, stay in West Kelowna to promote their business to a new winery. While Cassian's aware the head of the management team of Utterly Uncorked is someone he was madly in love with when he was a kid, he's not prepared for the unfathomable relationship that follows their reunion. Penelope Montgomery has been working double time to expand the horizons of Elemental Coffee since Jake and Cassian hired her, so when she's presented with the opportunity to help them open up shop in West Kelowna, with new responsibilities and additional incentives, she jumps on the job. Working with Cassian, the man she's been crushing on since they met during a business trip, is supposed to be easy, right? No. When Cassian reunites with an old friend and she sees the smouldering flame between them, things get harder for Penelope. How long can she watch the man she loves fall for another woman? After feeling out of place for decades, Penelope is more lost than ever. As time goes on, Cassian begins to realize the calamities of having a relationship with another big-corporation business person. Relationships come with a price, and he doesn't know if he's ready for the one he has to pay. And when a shocking new revelation comes to light, he's forced to make a choice between his company and the broody, cynical attributes of love.

Charlotte Hevemeyer. At twenty-two, Charlotte Hevemeyer is a gifted civil engineer with a bright mind, a passion for travel, and a deep love for timeless romance novels. Raised under her father's protective eye, Charlotte has lived a life sheltered from the world's harsher realities. Despite her brilliance and independence, she still dreams of a love that mirrors the stories she reads, unaware that her life is soon to be rewritten by an arranged marriage she never saw coming. Jude Leland Balfour. At thirty-four, Jude Leland Balfour is the disciplined and sharp-minded heir to the vast Balfour conglomerate. Devoted to his work, Jude has little patience for emotional entanglements and views marriage as an unnecessary distraction. To him, success is earned through grit, not sentiment, and tradition is an obstacle, not a guide. Their worlds collide in a union neither wanted, bound by duty but tested by desire. Beneath the surface of appearances lies a story of clashing upbringings, contrasting love languages, and the thin line between resentment and connection. At its heart, Elites explores how lies can both destroy and create beauty in unexpected ways.

𝐈𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐚 𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫.