Sophia has sacrificed everything for her younger sister, Lucy. She has removed them from the only home they ever knew, taken on the care of Lucy's illegitimate son, George, and even assumed the role of a widow and mother in order to erase all hint of scandal from the boy's birth. But rumor continues to follow them like the darkest of clouds, and Sophia must adapt to her new existence as a false widow with no prospects beyond the doors of her small cottage. Lord Haughton - "Finn" to those close to him - will stop at nothing to prevent the slightest whiff of disgrace from tainting his family's name. When he learns of his younger brother's latest indiscretion-one that leaves a bastard child in his wake-Haughton rushes across the country to offer the boy's mother a comfortable living in exchange for her silence about the child's true parentage. But he arrives only to have his generous offer thrown back in his face by Sophia Brixton, a sharp-tongued and sharper-witted woman who proceeds to toss him out of her house. But just because he is banished from her home does not mean he is so easily banished from her life.

The characters are highly complex and they exist in a world that values strength over compassion, only the strong survive. The life inside the pack mimics that of a real wolf pack with a strict hierarchy that is established through fighting and power. It is also comparable to a medieval court, the king holds his divine right to rule and the queen exists solely to please and support the king. Throw in scheming courtiers with the ability to change into wolves with sharp claws and fangs and you have the pack construct. As the characters are basically wolves housed in a human skin and the story is laced with animalistic references and traits displayed by all. We first meet the main characters Meela and Grey it is on a bloody battlefield where they recognize each other as their soul mate, and Grey takes Meela as tribute for his pack's help in her brother's fight. From this point on Meela belongs to Grey, and in this world, a highly spirited female with a propensity for impulsive actions matched to a dog stubborn, self-assured, dominant male is going to cause problems. We follow Meela in her journey to become the pack's Luna, a pack who are even more wolf than the one she comes from, and with a mate who has set the highest standards for her to reach as his Luna(female Alpha) and will accept nothing less than perfection. In the midst of all this and the struggle they face to form a personal and public relationship, there is one incident that will change them both and the fate of the pack completely. From that point on both Meela and Grey are inevitably changed and for them to be together, either one or both needs to change, but when you live in a world where you are taught that weakness is easily exploited and to admit defeat can potentially lead to your destruction. Thank you @chortle for the great summary

This time around the story concentrates on Fin and Victoria and their ill-fated mate pairing. Unaware of Fin, Victoria suffering under a father who hates her very existence and starved of affection, Victoria has a dalliance with another male and Fin discovers this. The male in question was his twin brother Grey. This led to Fin abandoning his pack, rejecting Victoria and embarking on a path designed to punish her by sleeping carelessly with as many females as possible. Events in Grey's Tribute have brought them together, and Fin claims Victoria as his mate while still hating the very essence of her being. However, the Moon will have her way, and she wants these two together whether they will it or not. Victoria is forced to confront every demon she buried deep down in her fight for survival since birth. The main one being that her wolf is more feral than others, unwilling to bend to any and with a hunger to rule more territory. Her wolf's disrespect to his authority will force Fin to remind her of her place. Fin himself struggles with the past Victoria shares with his twin and the fact that it forced him to denounce his full potential as the most dominant alpha of the four packs around. Her wolf's challenge to his status will push Fin into accepting all that he is and could be, and in turn what they can be together. Unfortunately, his feelings for her are harder to change, and his struggle to forgive and forget will impact heavily upon their relationship. An emerging empire, omens of death and the two most dominant wolves compelled by fate to be together with or without their permission leads to an absolute rollercoaster of a story. I did not think I could feel more than I did reading this book. These characters are complicated and while they project an image of indestructibility to those in their world, reading this will show you that those who appear strong may have the hardest battle against their own weaknesses. Thank you @Chortle for the great summary.

2016 Watty Award Winner for Most VORACIOUS Read Sample only. This book is PUBLISHED! How do you tell yourself not to breathe? He is my mate, and she is his everything. But he chose her, against every single instinct that we both know. For that, I have been whipped, shunned, shamed, disgraced, and broken. All for one moment of madness, I could not control. After two years, I left, unable to bear the pain and loneliness anymore. That was then. This is now. I am back, and I am not the juvenile I was. I am now a fully grown female. I feel his eyes on me, but I can't. I won't. I shouldn't. Time has healed my wounds, but not the deep scars the whip seared into my flesh or his indifference to my heart. Each breath is a pain, and his scent overwhelms me. But I can smell her in it. He still will not give her up, despite his own body crawling with a deep, physical desire that only a mate can satisfy. I breathe: I exist, barely. I am a midwife. I bring life into a cruel world that haunts me every day, and the Doctor I work with is the only one in this pack who holds faith in me. He is the one person who stands up for me - and I feel light again when I am with him. What kind of life is this when two mates cannot be together, yet every part of their primal soul yearns for it infinitely? What kind of cruel moon would torture a she-wolf like this? I can't go on, but I must. Whatever happens, I must attend to my purpose and give my miserable life some meaning; perhaps I can snatch some joy in pieces, but now I see that he needs me - but he also wants her too. How do you tell yourself not to breathe?

"You'll be fine?" I shrieked. "You just got freaking stabbed! You're letting out more blood than a girl on her period! You are not going to be fine! I have to call the police. No wait, I have to call an ambulance! Oh my God, why didn't I think of that before? Stupid, Genevi-" "Stop talking!" he growled, turning away. I wrung my hands together in panic, trying to calm myself down. "I can take care of this, kitten. Leave me alone. It's just a small wound. Not like I haven't been stabbed before." he muttered the last part. "What?!" "Leave." he growled. I stared at him, unable to close my mouth. I had never seen someone get stabbed before. Heck, I had never seen someone get into a fight before. Ever. The only violence I had experienced was in movies. It was unfortunate for me that I found out how I would react in a danger situation like this. And by react, I mean completely flip the hell out. *LANGUAGE WARNING*

18 year old Florence Remy has three things that mean the world to her: Twizzlers, her best friends Ade and Clancy, and her parents' coffee shop the Espresso House in downtown Brooklyn, New York. As a small business amongst huge corporations, Florence and her parents struggle to make ends meet. However, they remain optimistic and happy. The coffee shop may not bring in much, but it's enough to keep them on their feet. But what happens when a group of dangerous Brooklyn mobsters force Florence's parents into giving them co-ownership of the shop? Crime boss and leader Wolfe Sterling takes a great interest in the tunnels that lead past the Espresso House cellar. Dirty business is what he's best at and dragging people into his dangerous (and illegal) activities are no bother. But things go sideways when he also takes a strange interest in Florence. And it really doesn't help that he's hotter than freshly brewed coffee...

"I have been shot at by people today, been chased around by people wearing hazmat suits, I overheard my boss saying he wants to kill me, and I'm now stuck with a vampire-turned-human that is cranky 24/7. All I am asking is that I get one night of sleep. One night. So, for the love of all that's holy, let me sleep in peace." Warren stared at me for the longest time, and then finally blinked. "I tuned out after you said you were shot at, you mind repeating that again?" Alexa Kay Hazelwood was on the brink of discovery. She was going to reveal to the world that the monsters that haunted little children's dreams were real. She was also going to reveal that she had a weapon to stop them. An antidote. She was going to turn every vampire in the world back to a human again. But everything started to go the opposite way. Her boss wanted her research all to himself and the vampire she found had problems of his own. She was caught between the middle of it all. She had to teach this vampire how to be human again. "All I knew about Warren was that he was born in the 1700s. He had a sister and a father. He was one of the first vampires created. His best friend betrayed him (on what, I don't know) and that his name was Ryan Caine. That's all I knew about my dear friend Warren. That, and he was moody all the time."

Set in Victorian Poland is a tale about a stubborn young woman named Elsa whose father runs a society solely for vampyre hunting. Elsa does not believe in such tales, until she comes across a mysterious man at a ball interested in her mother's old pocket watch... and possibly her blood. When Elsa wakes and finds herself in an enchanted mansion and is not able to leave, she realizes that the man she'd danced with was no man at all, but a vampyre. Elsa is desperate to escape, but what she'll discover out in the world might just be darker than the mysterious, manipulative vampyre who has captured her... perhaps even darker. She could just discover herself, and not all discoveries are full of light. ~Had been selected and promoted by Crimson Peak Movie's sponsored reading list ~The perfect spooky, cozy Halloween novel you won't be able to put down

"It is your choice," he said, stepping so close to me that our lips were almost touching. "Either do what I say - or get another job." My heart stood still as I gazed up into his deep, dark, dangerous eyes... In a world where women's only role in life is to sit at home and look pretty, Lilly is determined to fight for her freedom. There's only one problem: a powerful man blocking her way.