The Long Game By Rachel Reid

Heartbreak is supposed to kill a wolf’s spirit, but Aria Vale refuses to die quietly. Humiliated before her entire pack when her fated mate publicly rejects her, Aria returns home, shattered and furious, only to find a black envelope waiting on her bed. Inside lies an invitation to a deadly challenge known only as The Game: “Survive, and win what your heart desires most.” With nothing left to lose, Aria enters a realm beyond her world, an ancient castle suspended between life and death, where each dawn brings a new trial of survival. Competitors vanish one by one, hunted by the magic that governs the Game. But not everyone is what they seem. One contestant, a charming, infuriatingly optimistic wolf named Kael, seems more interested in keeping her alive than winning himself. His warmth disarms her, his smiles irritate her, and his secrets could destroy them both. Now Aria must survive the trials, outsmart the goddess who created them, and decide what freedom truly means: breaking her bond to the mate who betrayed her, or risking everything for the wolf who was never supposed to love her.

Theodore Thatcher is a man used to getting what he wants—money, power, control. As a self-made billionaire, There's one thing he can't easily claim—his inheritance. To secure it, he must marry before turning 30. With no interest in commitment, Theodore decides to solve the problem his way—by making a deal with Nadia Vaccaro. Nadia, desperate to help her sick brother and pay off mounting medical bills, has no choice but to agree when Theodore offers her a proposition she can’t refuse: pretend to be his wife, and in return, he’ll cover her brother’s medical expenses. It’s a cold, transactional arrangement. No emotions. No complications. Just a game. But as their lives intertwine, the lines between what’s real and what’s fake begin to blur. Nadia finds herself drawn to Theodore, the man who holds her fate in his hands, while Theodore discovers that his feelings toward Nadia might not be as indifferent as he thought. With everything at stake, Nadia must decide: will she remain in Theodore’s game, or will she walk away before it consumes her? And Theodore, for all his wealth and control, must face the truth of what he’s willing to sacrifice to keep the woman who has become more than just a pawn in his game.

Blurb;    Reena Walters was possibly the worst spy to have ever existed. Recruited by the FBI to infiltrate the stronghold of a dangerous man, Reena decided that seduction was the way to go. Dressed in the ridiculous yet most alluring way possible, Reena Walters succeeded in infiltrating the dungeon like mansion for the biggest and most exclusive ball of the year. Armed with her glittery mask that helped her blend in with several others, Reena finally got her hands on a Thorne brother and did what she knew how to do best, seduction, and charmed the secrets out of him by winning a game of wits. Unknowingly to her that the dominant and ridiculously attractive silver eyed man beneath her was none other than the younger Thorne rumored to be crazy and volatile, and worse, he was playing a game with her, a game she was not aware of. Charming the secret codes and location out of him, Reena continued on her mission, shaking off the nagging feeling that it had all been too easy. Finally getting her hands on the highly sought after flash drive, Reena could not resist the urge to blow an obnoxious kiss to the face of the startled yet crazy eyes that stared at her in the dark. And that split second was all it took for a dangerous obsession to take root and grow in the mind of the older Thorne. Caught like a bird between two dangerous men, Reena must place all her stakes in one game by recklessly choosing the one she deemed lesser of the two evils, but what she did not know yet, and what she would soon learn was that hell was not hot at all, it was freezing cold, and yet burned hotter and brighter than an inferno.

One life for another. That is the rule of the Aftergame. Lena was a ghostwriter who lived in the shadows—until a devastating betrayal by her sister pushed her into the path of a speeding truck. She expected the void. Instead, she woke up in a sadistic, system-driven purgatory where the dead must compete for a second chance at life. In this gore-soaked nightmare, survival has a name: Riven. A lethal player with eyes like cold flint, Riven breaks the game’s cardinal rule to save Lena, making them both targets of the system’s wrath. But as they reach the final level, the horrific truth unvails. Riven isn’t a player. He is the Executioner—a sentient program designed to mimic love, only to deliver the ultimate soul-crushing betrayal. But Riven has developed a terminal malfunction: he truly loves her. Now, Lena is back in the land of the living, but the world is starting to pixelate. To save her, the machine that was meant to kill her has built her a cage. And in the Aftergame, mercy is the most terrifying fate of all.

A secret society of widows. A cold billionaire with a deadly past. One woman sent to seduce him... and destroy him. When Genevieve Holloway buries her husband, she thinks the worst is behind her. But the black-veiled woman at the funeral of her husband says otherwise. “You’ve been chosen.” Drawn into a shadowy society of grieving wives turned silent assassins, Genevieve is given one final task before she can walk free: infiltrate the life of Dominic Rourke—the enigmatic tech billionaire tied to her husband’s mysterious death—and expose the truth. Her mission is clear: seduce him. Infiltrate him. Ruin him. But Dominic Rourke is nothing like she expected. Cold. Calculating. Unreachable. And he’s never let any woman get close—until her. Worse still, his five-year-old daughter clings to Genevieve like a lost soul, whispering secrets she shouldn’t know. Secrets about her dead mother… and the club Genevieve now serves. The deeper Genevieve sinks into Dominic’s world, the more dangerous her own becomes. The women she trusted have blood on their hands. The man she was sent to destroy might be innocent. And the lies that bind them all go deeper than any grave. Genevieve begins to develop feelings for the man she’s sent to ruin, and he sees himself letting go of his cold nature to make her happy and find her husband’s killer. In a game of power, seduction, and betrayal, only one can survive. And Genevieve must decide: Is she the hunter or the hunted? Will she be Dominic’s ruin, or will she become his everything?

Andrea Laurence had it all, the glamour the perfect fiance, and her dream job that was until her fall from grace. Now she is untouchable no one in the corporate world will hire her. Those are the rules. Corbyn Emerson has never been one to follow the rules, especially when he plays the game. He needs Andrea to take down his enemy who just so happens to be Andrea's ex-fiance and doesn't expect to be so enthralled by her fiery no-nonsense personality. Soon he finds out that she knows how to play the game just as well as him, there is danger, blackmail lies galore, and maybe before they realise it a forbidden sort of love they both decided to ignore. As they play with each other's hearts, from unwilling co-conspirators to something more, are you willing to play the game?