Virgin River Avis

Richard Franklin has left his Midwestern roots behind to live on the coast of Maine with his family. But in the autumn of the year 2000, he must return to his Illinois birthplace on a sorrowful journey. His wife Michelle has been killed in New England by a hit-and-run driver who is never found, so back home he comes with her cremated remains, to fulfill a final wish and on her birthday scatter her ashes in the park along the river in Blackwater Valley—simply Blackwater Val to locals—the small town where they both grew up and fell in love. With him he brings his six-year-old daughter Katie who still grieves for her lost mother: Katie, who can sometimes guess who’s going to be on the phone before it rings. Who can stop all the clocks in the house, and break up clouds in the sky with her mind, and heal sicknesses, and who sometimes sees things that aren’t there...people who are no longer alive. All gifts she inherited from her mother. Only something isn’t quite right in the Val. Sinkholes are opening up, revealing the plague pits the sleepy hamlet was built over in the 1830s, when malaria and cholera outbreaks ran riot. Mysterious bird and fish die-offs begin to occur, and Katie can see ghosts of the dead gathering all around. But what she can’t see is the charred, centuries-old malevolence which has been waiting for her, and wants her for its very own. Or the pale Sallow Man who haunts the town’s nighttime streets...or the river witch—another Blackwater Val, of sorts—each of whom will be drawn one by one into the nightmarish bloodletting about to take place. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Victoria Bura is the deadliest kept secret in the criminal underbelly, her father's legacy is cleaning up after the wealthiest and deadliest families in the world under the guise of being a modest hog farmer. When her father dies, leaving Vic and her sheltered, inept, contradictious younger brother to pay his debts it places her right in the path of Alexander Volkov a man more infamous for his ruthlessness than his name, and he makes it perfectly clear he knows the ghost in Victoria Bura's closet. Now Vic's life is turned inside out as she finds herself not only employed to the head of the most dangerous family in history, but she is left at the mercy of his three most trusted mercenaries. She soon finds that the Volkov family may not be the villains in her story, that title may just be claimed by someone much closer to home.

--- River Witch Some bloodlines are bound to water. Some debts are never paid in full. When Evelyn Blake returns to the remote riverside village of Elowen after fifteen years away, she expects grief and silence—but not the whispers that rise from the mist-covered water. As bodies resurface and ghostly lights drift through the fog, Evelyn uncovers a buried legacy: a pact made generations ago between her family and a nameless spirit that haunts the river. With the curse's final reckoning approaching, Evelyn must confront the sins of her bloodline, unravel the truth behind her ancestor’s forbidden ritual, and decide whether to escape the fate written for her—or embrace it. In a village where no one speaks of the drowned, the river never forgets. And it always collects what it’s owed.

The first man who ever made her feel wanted turned out to be her mother's husband. At her mother's wedding reception, heartbroken Ivana shares a scorching encounter with a stranger in the bathroom. He claims her completely, awakening desires she never knew existed. Then she discovers the truth. He is Harrison Voss, her new stepfather. Now forced to live under the same roof at the luxurious Voss Estate, the 23-year-old Ivana is trapped with the 45-year-old ruthless billionaire. He is cold, controlling, and obsessed. She is everything he should resist, yet he can't stay away. Their secret relationship ignites with jealousy, betrayal, and dangerous family secrets. A vengeful stepbrother and manipulative mother threaten to destroy them both. What begins as forbidden lust slowly becomes something deeper and far more risky. He says she is ruining him. She knows she should run. But she lets him ruin her right back. A dark, addictive stepfather romance full of passion, power, and forbidden love.

Mara Vale is a literature teacher with a secret: she’s The Velvet Abyss, an adult content creator with millions of subscribers, specializing in alien-themed erotica. Her double life stems from a traumatic childhood — a mother who shamed her, a father who frightened her, a sister who reinforced her prudish exterior. When the Veyr invade Earth, Mara survives fourteen days trapped in her dungeon before escaping. Captured and assigned as a servant in the Spire of Avarra, she secretly catalogues the Veyr language and builds community with fellow humans. Assigned to clean Prince Xyren Vossk’s quarters, she discovers a copy of Paradise Lost — and a silent conversation through folded pages becomes something neither expected. Xyren hides his own secret: secondary arms bound since childhood by a queen who called them shameful. When Mara accidentally touches a sacred Genesis Sphere, Xyren claims her through an ancient bond to save her life. Their connection deepens — physical, chemical, emotional. Mara confesses her Velvet Abyss identity. She becomes pregnant with hybrid offspring. And when the queen moves to destroy them, Xyren challenges her in single combat, using the arms he was taught to hide as weapons. He wins. The old law falls. Mara becomes Queen of the Velvet Spire. A story about desire, identity, and the bonds that transcend species

She wanted to be free, but did that mean surrendering everything to Damien and his whims? Tired of her domineering husband, Valerie Tanner decides it's time to start a new life somewhere else. However, when she moves to Live Oak, her brother's friends show her a life of total abandon where someone else calls the shots, and she has no choice but to obey. Once she gives in, Valerie descends into a dark morass of exploits that leaves her reeling and craving more, even though she fights each order she's given. Her mind screams at her that it's wrong, but her body pleads for her to continue. The question now is: how far will she fall before she loses herself? Or, is this the path to show her who she truly is?