The Splendid And The Vile

The world thinks Seraphina is the luckiest woman alive. A famous supermodel and married to Maximilian Thorne, the richest man on earth. She lives in a mansion and wears diamonds every day. But behind closed doors, her life is a nightmare. Her husband treats her like a toy he can break. His two brothers and sister treat her like a servant. Even his mother joins in on the abuse. She has no one. No way out. Until the new bodyguard walks in. His name is Killian Cross. Six years ago, Seraphina was his whole world. Then she ran away, leaving him alone to raise their baby daughter. He spent every day for six years hating her. He didn't take this job or hide his identity to protect her, he took it to get even. He wants to make her cry the way he did. He wants her to pay for abandoning their child. But Killian didn't expect to see her like this. He expected a cold, gold-digging queen. Instead, he finds a woman who is bruised, broken, and scared for her life. The hate is still there, but seeing another man lay a hand on her makes his blood boil. Now, a war is starting in the Thorne mansion. Maximilian is a monster who won't let his "property" go. He starts to notice the way Killian looks at his wife, and it makes him even more obsessed and dangerous. Killian came for revenge, but now he has a new rule: If anyone is going to punish Seraphina, it’s going to be him. And he will kill any man who tries to touch what belongs to him.

Alexander Volkov is known as the most dangerous man in the world. Cold, ruthless, and wealthy beyond measure, he rules the underworld with an iron fist. To everyone else, he is the Devil himself—heartless, cruel, and unstoppable. But behind his mask of darkness lies a man broken by a tragic past, who witnessed his family’s murder and swore revenge on those who betrayed him. His life of violence and solitude changes completely when he meets Isabella Grace, a simple and innocent doctor. Unlike everyone else who trembles in his presence, she looks at him without fear. She sees the man behind the monster, and she becomes the only light in his dark world. Alexander claims her as his own, bringing her into his luxurious but dangerous life, determined to protect her at all costs. However, their love is tested when old enemies resurface, and the worst betrayal comes from the people he trusted most—his own blood. Alexander discovers that the war he is fighting is not just for power, but for survival. He must face his treacherous uncle and his own biological father, who used him as a pawn in their deadly game. As war erupts and bullets fly, Alexander will stop at nothing to defend his Queen and his future. He will burn down the world to keep her safe, proving one thing: He is the Devil to everyone else, but he is only hers.

After running afoul of a vengeful former lover, an 18th-century aristocratic artist finds himself on the receiving end of a cruel and never-ending curse. Doomed for all eternity to rome the world as a savage beast every full moon and never see an end to his miserable life, distant and embittered he struggles with the nature of his own humanity in the ensuing years and the many women who had taken it upon themselves to love him despite his apparent curse even with little good their influence had on him following a series of tragic ends.

Lady Nicole Bradshaw was born to one of the wealthiest families in England and had an arranged marriage since before she was born. She had never laid eyes on Lord Francis Ravenport but she was assured he was a handsome fellow. He had recently moved his company to the West Indies and she wouldn't see him until the wedding. When she gets to travel to London with family friends, she knows she will never lay eyes on the Marquess as her husband. Austin Duncan was not a special man. He was the third son to an Earl and gave everything up to be in His Majesty's Army. He never dreamed of marriage or finding a young lady due to him being a soldier. In 1789, it was a questionable time and he could never marry to just leave a woman widowed. While in London on assignment, he knows he will throw everything out the window. One glance at Lady Nicole and Austin knows he will never be the same. Nicole sees him and thinks for sure being an only child is surely unfair and she would risk her reputation for a few moments alone with him. Could a Scandalous Love bring them closer together or tear them worlds apart?

The dagger goes in before she understands her consort is the one holding it. ——— My consort is the one holding the blade. I fall into the Forbidden Zone with his voice in my ear — *You were never going to be the queen this kingdom needed, Rose is everything you are not* — and every stroke downward the Hollow drinks my color, my voice, my breath. As I sink through the dark I understand, in a rising tide of memory I can no longer outrun, what I refused to see: my cousin Rose has been his lover for three years. My uncle Rick has been my father's killer for seven months. I hit the Hollow's floor among the skeletons of seven women who came before me. I should die there. A black pearl pulses in the dark and asks me one question. I say yes. What rises from the Forbidden Zone is not the princess they pushed. My scales burn blood-red shot through with molten gold and piercing teal, edged in obsidian. My voice shatters coral when I choose. I can drain a merfolk's power until their scales grey to driftwood, and I can shift any being between human and merfolk form. But the pearl hungers. Black veins creep across my chest with every life I take. And the throne I want back? It was never the prize. It was the trap. ——— Will Irene become the villainess her kingdom fears? Or will she remember the girl they buried long enough to choose what kind of queen to be? And the older sister who has been waiting two hundred years to use her — what happens when Irene decides the family she was born into is not the one worth dying for?

Feared by the world and worshipped by none, Empress Halrem Vaelith has spent ten glittering years ruling the Silver Empire with unmatched brilliance, merciless vanity, and a cruelty sharp enough to ruin men without ever staining her hands with blood. Then the Beast Emperor came for her. Draevor Kaine, the war-born sovereign of the Black Dominion, has crushed kingdoms beneath his boots, slaughtered monsters with his bare hands, and bowed to no living soul. Yet the moment he stood before Halrem’s throne, he did the impossible. He knelt. What should have been a scandal soon becomes the continent’s most dangerous legend. He lays empires, victories, and treasures at her feet. She answers him with cold disdain. He worships her with a devotion that borders on madness, and Halrem finds herself intoxicated by the one man powerful enough to destroy the world and foolish enough to love only her. But long before he ever touched her hand, Draevor was cursed. The day he willingly kneels for love, the woman he worships will die. Now Halrem is slowly dying, Draevor is unraveling before two empires, and a love built on pride, obsession, and ruthless devotion is forced into a battle against fate itself. For the Beast Emperor can burn kingdoms to ash. But he would sooner set heaven on fire than lose his wicked empress.