Sondheim

Sophie Beckett was the perfect wife. Quiet. Devoted. Unremarkable. Or so her husband believed. When Sophie discovers Adrian's affair, she doesn't cry. She doesn't beg. She simply smiles, pours herself a drink, and starts making plans — because Sophie Langham didn't spend three years playing a role just to fall apart when the curtain dropped. Adrian Beckett thought he married a simple girl. He has no idea who he actually married. And by the time he finds out, it will already be too late.

Beneath the opera house...indeed, someone is there. Watching and musing as he watches the theatre he loved and hated. Noelle is a talented dancer but is pushed aside in favour of the ballerinas. Until one night, he hears music and encounters the origin of many ghost stories; Julian is an enigmatic loner whose only companions are the rats. In Noelle, he sees the spark of talent and knows he can kindle it. And the story begins. Genius and passion are a painful mix...

Behind velvet curtains and gilded balconies, the opera is more than a performance. It's a hunting ground, a court of monsters disguised as patrons and benefactors. When a masked nobleman claims her talent as his own, Lyria is drawn into a world where music is power, restraint is survival, and desire is the most dangerous temptation of all. The longer Lyria remains under his protection, the more she awakens. Her body responds to hungers she does not yet understand and her are dreams invaded by a silver-eyed predator who promises freedom instead of restraint. As the opera's beauty curdles into something predatory, Lyria must decide what she is willing to become to survive it. The stage is watching. The city is listening. And once the blood sings, it cannot be silenced. TRIGGER/CONTENT WARNING: This story contains mature themes and content intended for adult audiences (18+) Reader discretion is advised. It includes moments of violence, sexual content and dark erotic elements, manipulation, obsession, and emotional power dynamics.

Everly’s family is unique. Her father is a demigod of Death and her mother is a lycan, making Everly and her siblings unique hybrids with intense abilities. Eighteen doesn’t mean much for an immortal, but it does mean freedom. Everly finally gets to leave her coven’s realm and explore the human realm on her own. Determined to prove herself worthy of her family’s name, Everly sets off on a simple mission. Go to the music academy and reap the soul of the phantom that haunts it. It should be simple, but things are far from simple when Everly gets paired with the dark, mysterious, and good looking Sebastian for a performance. Things heat up between them as they rehearse for their roles to perform two songs from a beloved musical that hits closer to home for Sebastian than Ever realizes. What happens when Ever discovers Sebastian is the phantom and a hybrid that should not exist? As their slow burn of desire ignites into burning flames neither can ignore, new challenges come their way. They must work together to save the other spirits being trapped by Sebastian’s wicked half-brother, who is hell bent on revenge.

Years ago, an “accident” arranged by street-level thugs left her with a permanent limp and a permanently smaller life. Now she survives in the shadows of the underworld, pouring everything she has left into midnight songs at a bar nobody important is supposed to notice. Until a lieutenant with an agenda drags her onto center stage at a closed-door gala where two rival syndicates sit close enough to kill each other over a wrong glance. She should be terrified. Instead, she opens her mouth to sing, and the room of murderers goes silent. Two men are undone by her that night. One is the arrogant heir who once humiliated her for the very limp she can’t hide, a man used to owning everything he wants. The other is his own underboss, quiet and lethal, the one who hunted down and buried the men who crippled her, and never said a word.Now she’s a prize in a war she didn’t start, a piece both sides want to claim. But she’s done being anyone’s victim, anyone’s pawn, or anyone’s quiet girl in the corner. If they want her, they’ll have to survive her first and neither of them is prepared for what she’s capable of when she stops hiding what she truly is.

In a world ruled by power, blood, and unbreakable alliances, Alexander King Costello, the ruthless Italian Mafia don known as the Ice King was promised a bride to seal a vital empire building deal. But on the day of the arranged meeting, the chosen daughter, Emily Havard, vanishes without a trace. Desperate to save their family from Alexander’s wrath, the Havards offer the only thing they have left: their hidden, unwanted son Aiden. A quiet, overlooked young man who has spent his life in the shadows of his own home, Aiden is thrust into a nightmare. Forced into a marriage he never asked for, he becomes nothing more than a temporary replacement. “You are just the replacement till we find her. Know your place,” his mother hisses. His father’s words cut even deeper: “We are doing you a fucking favor.” To Alexander, the swap is an insult. “What do you mean my bride is gone?” he growls, his cold blue eyes promising retribution. Yet as the reluctant union begins, the dangerous don finds himself inexplicably drawn to the soft spoken man who fears him… and somehow sees him. What started as a mistake, a forced marriage built on lies and desperation slowly turns into something neither of them expected. In the dangerous underworld of power and betrayal, falling for each other might be the most dangerous risk of all. "The marriage was a mistake." "But falling for you wasn’t."