What Is Toil & Trouble About?

Life isn't all roses, but it's also not all thorns; it's what you make it and the result of some decisions and steps you take along the way. Thorns & Roses is a coming-of-age story about Leila Adams, a high school student who experiences true friendship, terror, first love, abuse, betrayal and heartbreak while trying to find herself. Verbally abused constantly by her father, her self-esteem plummets drastically and she consequently puts up with a toxic relationship with her crush, Ackleth, and makes some poor decisions about her future. With the help of her best friend, Ella, she is able to fight her demons, dump her toxic boyfriend, get her self-esteem back on track and find true love again.

Charlotte has loved baking since she was a young child, and now, at 20, all she wants to do is settle down and work toward saving up for her own establishment. Unfortunately for Lotte, she has baggage in the shape of her dear (crazy) Auntie, who can't settle down to save her life. As much as Charlotte would like to cut herself off from a woman who attracts trouble like ants to sugar, Romy is the only family she has left. Now, three weeks before her 21st birthday, Lotte is presented with a big surprise - A man who actually wants a serious relationship with her Aunt. Packing up for the 'millionth' time, Charlotte thinks she is once again ready to face a new adventure... Little does she know, this one will have her howling at the moon and begging for a 'beastly' good time. David is a Doctor from a small town in Colorado. A family man and widower, he appears to be a perfectly safe option for Lotte's Aunt... However, Lotte can't help shaking the feeling that David would be perfect for her, too. Following him home, her infatuation only grows as she meets his odd family, many of whom can't seem to keep their hands to themselves.

Eliza Ward does not fall through time. Time bends toward her. Pulled from the present into Revolutionary America, Eliza becomes trapped in a landscape where history repeats unevenly, battles restart with variations, and memory functions as both anchor and weapon. She is not a chosen heroine, but a constant: a woman whose awareness destabilizes the moment itself. She meets Mercy Hale, a midwife and witch who understands time as a negotiation rather than a force to command. Mercy aids Eliza’s survival while refusing the role of savior, having already learned the cost of standing too close to history’s center. During a looping battle, Eliza saves Thomas Reed, a Continental soldier who does not shift when time does. Thomas is an anchor: steady, observant, unchanged across iterations. Their bond deepens in an almost-normal village where time briefly behaves. Eliza’s intervention triggers time’s response. Rather than immediate destruction, time collects interest. Mercy bargains to spare Eliza and Thomas, sacrificing her own future to stabilize the present. Time extracts payment from Eliza as well, stripping away her voice, the very tool she uses to name and hold moments in place. Silenced and unmoored, Eliza is violently displaced back into the original battle. Unable to anchor the moment, she watches Thomas die in the version of history that was always waiting beneath her defiance. Told in rotating perspectives between Eliza, Thomas, and Mercy, The Hours That Refused to Behave is a lyrical time-travel novel about revolution, restraint, and consequence, asking not whether history can be changed, but who pays when it is.

Grace Hammond lost the most important person in her life, her grandmother, Juliet. Left with little beyond a failing farm and not much clue how to run it, she's trapped-- either she gives up three generations of roots and leaves, or she finds some help and makes it work. When a mysterious letter from Juliet drops a much needed windfall in her lap, Grace knows she has one chance to save the only place she's ever called home and posts a want-ad.The knight that rides to her rescue is Robert Zhao, an Army veteran and struggling college student. A first generation Korean American, Rob is trying desperately to establish some roots, not just for himself, but for the parents he's trying to get through the immigration process, a secret he's keeping even from his best friends. Grace's posting for a local handyman, offering room and board in exchange for work he already loves doing, is exactly the situation he needs to put that process on track.Neither is prepared for the instant chemistry, the wild sweet desire that flares between them. But life in a small town isn't easy. At worst, strangers are regarded suspiciously, and at best, as profoundly flawed-- and the Hammond women have a habit of collecting obscure and ruthless enemies. Can their budding love take root in subtly hostile soil and weather the weeds seeking to choke them out?

Charlotte Hartwell built Hartwell Industries from the ground up. Every late night, every sacrifice, and every success made the company more than a business—it became her life’s work. So when the powerful Blackthorne Global offers to buy her company for the fourth time, Charlotte is prepared to do what she’s always done. Say no. Darrien Blackthorne isn’t used to hearing that answer. As CEO of one of the world’s most influential corporations, he’s convinced Charlotte’s company deserves the resources to become something even greater. He isn’t trying to destroy her dream—he wants to help it flourish. But the more time he spends with the brilliant, fiercely independent entrepreneur, the less certain he becomes about where business ends and something far more personal begins. Caught between them is James—a man whose connection to Charlotte is deeper than either of them realizes. As long-buried secrets begin to surface, strange coincidences become impossible to ignore, and an unseen force quietly weaves their lives together. What began as a corporate acquisition soon unravels into something far older, far more dangerous, and far more magical than any of them could have imagined. With betrayal hiding behind a trusted smile, loyalties tested at every turn, and destiny refusing to be ignored, Charlotte must decide whether protecting the company she built is worth risking the future she was never meant to face alone. Some lives are changed by choice. Others were Entangled by Design.

Sage Whitmore’s world is turned upside down when her beloved Bluebird Café—her late mother’s legacy and the heart of her hometown—falls into financial ruin. Desperate to save it, Sage finds herself making a dangerous deal with billionaire Damian Cross, a man as ruthless as he is enigmatic. The terms: work as his personal assistant for one year, and she’ll earn the chance to reclaim her café. Damian is a master strategist, a man who rules New York’s corporate empire with unrelenting control. To him, Sage is a puzzle—unpolished, stubborn, and brimming with passion. As Sage steps into his high-stakes world, she discovers that behind Damian’s cold, calculating exterior lies a man haunted by secrets and driven by more than just power. Their undeniable attraction sparks a battle of wills as Sage refuses to be a pawn in Damian’s games. But with each passing day, the line between business and desire begins to blur. When betrayal and long-buried truths come to light, Sage is forced to decide: trust the man who could ruin her, or walk away from the one thing she can’t deny—her heart. Beneath the Steel and Silk is a story of ambition, redemption, and a love powerful enough to shatter walls—or build something unbreakable.