mattkristina's Reading List
163 stories
Bought by the Billion  by FictionFlutters
FictionFlutters
  • WpView
    Reads 9,952
  • WpVote
    Votes 458
  • WpPart
    Parts 32
Tesla Vitale is twenty-three and tired of surviving. Her life has been shaped by poverty, sacrifice, and the crushing weight of her parents' mistakes. Desperate for a way out, she listens to her friend's reckless advice: go to a club, find a rich man, and sell the only thing she has left-her virginity. She expects regret. She doesn't expect hundred thousand dollars. But fate isn't done with her. Tesla soon discovers her mother owes five million dollars to one of the most dangerous Mafia bosses in the country. When the money disappears-stolen by her mother's runaway boyfriend-her mother offers up the only thing she has left to give. Her daughter. And the man who accepts her? Rafaele Esposito. The stranger from that one unforgettable night. He remembers her. He wants her. But this time, not just for a night. Now, Tesla belongs to him-until the five million is repaid. As his servant. His property. Trapped in a world of luxury, violence, and power, Tesla swears she'll escape. But Rafaele always gets what he owns. And she's starting to wonder if escape is what she really wants.
ANNA  by LiteraryLoveAffair_
LiteraryLoveAffair_
  • WpView
    Reads 407,771
  • WpVote
    Votes 24,818
  • WpPart
    Parts 40
Anna Rafferty left New York two years ago to find herself. Not because she was running. Not because she was afraid. But because somewhere between the violence, the secrets, and the trauma that changed her life, she'd lost herself. For two years, she built a life on her own terms. She traveled. She healed. She learned to preserve things most people considered beyond repair, restoring rare books and forgotten stories while trying not to think about her own. Because some trauma isn't dealt with. It's buried. Returning to New York was supposed to be simple. Be closer to her family. Purchase the rare bookstore she'd fallen in love with years ago. Continue building the future she'd fought so hard for. The only complication... Julian Mercer. The powerful, devastatingly handsome and infuriating Don of New York, a man she should stay far away from. A man her sister can't stand. A man she hasn't seen since the night she left the city. Unfortunately for her, Julian Mercer has never forgotten a debt or Anna. What starts as a favor quickly becomes stolen moments, lingering glances, and a connection neither of them seem capable of walking away from. The problem? Julian is a man built from secrets and Anna has spent the last two years burying her own. When a string of brutal murders rocks the city-random, violent, and seemingly unconnected-every road somehow leads back to one person. Anna. As detectives begin circling, asking questions she can't answer and digging for secrets she can't share, Anna finds herself caught between the life she's carefully built and a past determined to drag her back. And the closer the danger gets, the harder it becomes to ignore the man she's spent two years trying to forget. Because Julian Mercer has always been dangerous. The difference is that now Anna has something to lose. Not her safety. Not her freedom. But her heart.
Amongst the Shadows by LiteraryLoveAffair_
LiteraryLoveAffair_
  • WpView
    Reads 186,143
  • WpVote
    Votes 6,713
  • WpPart
    Parts 62
Six months have passed since Olivia Donahue Romano returned from the dead. Once the hidden American mafia princess, she lived in silence-trained, protected, forgotten. Now the underworld knows her name. The lost Romano daughter. The survivor. The girl who came back. But fame in their world is just another form of exposure. Every move is watched, every word twisted, every truth she thought she knew turning into something sharp enough to cut her. Delicate relationships hold her world together, yet new enemies are already stirring beneath the calm, waiting for their chance to strike. Delicate relationships hold the fragile peace together, yet new enemies are already moving in silence. Declan's silence has become its own kind of terror. No attacks. No messages. No trace. But his shadow lingers-in the halls, in her dreams, in the way she still looks over her shoulder. Every whisper feels like a warning. Every secret another crack in a reality already broken once before. Olivia knows better than anyone that peace is a beautiful lie- Her reality was shattered once before. And this time... it might not survive being broken again.
Out of Darkness by LiteraryLoveAffair_
LiteraryLoveAffair_
  • WpView
    Reads 508,233
  • WpVote
    Votes 17,006
  • WpPart
    Parts 75
Out of Darkness They thought she was gone forever. Buried. Forgotten. A ghost of a girl who never made it home. But Olivia Romano didn't die. She was forged in violence, raised in shadows, sharpened into something unbreakable. And now she's back in a world that would rather she stayed dead. Her family wants her loyalty. Her enemies want her blood. And one man-dangerous, magnetic, impossible to ignore-wants all of her. He's the fire she shouldn't touch, the temptation she swore she would never give in to. Yet every glance, every stolen moment, pulls her deeper into a bond that could save her shattered soul... or destroy them both. Because in the world she was born into, love is a liability. And falling for him may be the one weakness she can't survive. Completed 10/15/2025
The Unmasked Queen by LiteraryLoveAffair_
LiteraryLoveAffair_
  • WpView
    Reads 565,364
  • WpVote
    Votes 15,767
  • WpPart
    Parts 63
Book 1. "The unknown princess" This is book 2! Five years ago, Aria Castellano learned the truth that destroys most people: innocence is the easiest weapon an enemy can use. So she cut hers out. Piece by piece. She left New York to sever every tie that made her vulnerable-family, friends, and the boy she loved enough to become a liability. She traded softness for strategy, hesitation for violence, and the girl she used to be for a woman who understands that survival requires dirty hands and an even dirtier conscience. Now she's back. Not for forgiveness. Not for closure. But to finish the war that began long before she knew she was part of it. Her return exposes traitors, rattles alliances, and forces her to face the one person she swore she'd never see again. And the worst part? It hurts. It shouldn't- but it does. Still, pain is a small price. Because Aria isn't in New York to feel. She's here to win. And she stopped fearing the monster inside her the moment she realized- monsters survive longer.
The Unknown Princess by LiteraryLoveAffair_
LiteraryLoveAffair_
  • WpView
    Reads 422,457
  • WpVote
    Votes 12,456
  • WpPart
    Parts 43
Seventeen-year-old Aria Castellano thought she knew who she was - a scholarship student, a good daughter, a girl with simple dreams and a mother who made the world feel safe. But when her mother dies in a car accident, the life Aria knew unravels overnight. A letter. A name. A father she's never met. Now she's flying across the country to New York - to a mansion with guards at every gate, brothers who don't know what to make of her, and a father still struggling to accept the daughter he didn't know existed. Her stepmother is kind, her new home beautiful... but nothing about it feels right. At St. Augustine's Academy, power hums beneath every smile and secret. The students there were born into legacies - families bound by alliances older than the school itself, until betrayal tore them apart. Those old rivalries still live on in the halls she walks now, and Aria's arrival is stirring them all back to life. One boy in particular seems to hate her most. He's untouchable, cruel in that effortless way only someone raised in power can be. But behind the sharp words and colder eyes is something else - something that pulls her closer even when she knows she shouldn't look twice. As Aria begins to uncover the truth her mother died protecting, she learns that some secrets were buried for a reason... and that even in a world built on bloodlines and betrayal, the most dangerous thing of all might be the way he looks at her. "Some secrets don't stay buried forever. And Aria Castellano's name might be the one that brings them all back to the light"
The Twin They Erased by LiteraryLoveAffair_
LiteraryLoveAffair_
  • WpView
    Reads 5,346,078
  • WpVote
    Votes 166,878
  • WpPart
    Parts 95
QUEENS OF CHOAS SERIES PREQUEL!!! Once upon a time, a girl was sent away. No trial. No second chance. Just a story everyone believed because it was easier that way. Five years later, she comes back. This is the part where, in a Disney movie, she'd forgive everyone, hug her family, and learn the power of love. Instead, Gianna De Santis learns how to break bones, keep secrets, and survive rooms that were never meant to be safe. The family expects a villain. The kingdom expects obedience. And some Princes are not always charming . There are no fairy godmothers here. Only men with power, women with knives, and lies that refuse to stay buried. And while everyone's busy wondering if Gianna is still dangerous- They forget to ask the real question: What happens when the girl they tried to erase comes back sharper... and finally decides to stop being nice? Because this isn't a Disney movie. And the girl who survived the tower doesn't believe in happily ever after- She believes in consequences.
 ISA by LiteraryLoveAffair_
LiteraryLoveAffair_
  • WpView
    Reads 2,198,368
  • WpVote
    Votes 87,591
  • WpPart
    Parts 99
(BOOK 1 Of the QUEENS OF CHAOS SERIES) Isa Valen doesn't believe in restraint. Two weeks ago, she did champagne, a sinfully accented stranger, and a night so consuming she ran before sunrise. She doesn't remember his face. She doesn't remember his name. But her body remembers the way he made it burn. When her sister runs to New York, Isa follows without hesitation. New city. New job. New distractions. Then she meets her boss. Erik Orlov. Billionaire. Bratva Don. A devastatingly gorgeous tattooed man built from control and violence wrapped in tailored suits. The first time he looks at her, something tightens in her chest. The first time he steps close, her pulse betrays her. She doesn't recognize him. He recognizes the curve of her mouth. The sound she made when he touched her. The way she ran. The night she can't remember is the one he hasn't stopped replaying. Now she works beneath him - in his office, in his space, in his world. Every glance lasts too long. Every accidental touch feels deliberate. Every breath between them feels charged. And Erik Orlov does not chase. He claims. Enemies circle his empire. Loyalty fractures. Power shifts. But none of it unsettles him like the woman sitting across his desk, pretending she doesn't feel it too. Until two pink lines appear. Because the only thing more dangerous than their chemistry... Is the secret growing between them. And this time, he won't let her run.
Three's a Crowd by xREDHOTREADS
xREDHOTREADS
  • WpView
    Reads 19,643
  • WpVote
    Votes 508
  • WpPart
    Parts 62
Aidan and Zayden had never known a life without each other. Their mothers were best friends who were pregnant at the exact same time, which led to the boys being born just one week apart. Aidan came first, earning the "A" in their lifelong partnership, while Zayden followed to complete the set. From that moment on, they were inseparable-they never fought, they agreed on everything, and they moved through life in perfect sync. Their junior year of college started just as smoothly as the rest, until three weeks into their statistics class. Everything changed when Aubriella walked in. For the first time in twenty years, the peace between the two best friends was shattered. They both found her perfect, and for the first time, they began to fight over the same girl. Aubriella didn't just watch the conflict; she noticed it and used it to her advantage. Noticing their obsession, she manipulated the tension, convinced it was the easiest way to secure a nice, free place to stay. Soon, she was living in their off-campus house rent-free. While Aidan and Zayden were certain she was there because she wanted one of them, the truth was she couldn't have cared less about either boy. She just wanted a room. The only question was: would the boys find out she was manipulating them first, or would Aubriella actually fall for both of them?
Unforbidden (book2)  A Whispering Pines Western Romance by KerryKennedyAuthor
KerryKennedyAuthor
  • WpView
    Reads 3,083
  • WpVote
    Votes 183
  • WpPart
    Parts 48
"You dye your hair with that wild blue streak to scare me or the horses, Harley?" Teasing my sister's best friend is one of my favourite things to do. Harley has been working as the riding trainer at Whispering Pines Ranch long enough to know one rule- stay away from Wes McCoy. Too bad he's everywhere. Tall, tattooed, and wearing that cowboy hat like trouble was tailor-made for him, Wes just happens to be Lily Mae's older brother... which means avoiding him is impossible. The tension between them has been building for years-quiet glances across the stables, arguments that spark a little too easily, and a chemistry neither of them wants to admit. Harley knows better than to cross that line. Wes knows better than to want her. But in Whispering Pines, some lines were made to be broken. And once they do... there may be no going back