Ann Patchett's "52 All-time Favorite Books From The Year I Turned 52"

At twenty-eight, I held the dubious honor of being the last unmarried socialite on New York's Upper East Side. Everyone around me was growing increasingly anxious about my single status. In my previous life, my mother arranged a matchmaking cocktail party, where I was told to choose a husband from ten handpicked elite bachelors. I bribed the event planner to place Mark West's profile at the very top—and as I had hoped, I chose him. After we married, Mark treated me with what seemed like tender affection. He even bought me an oceanfront villa in the Hamptons, making me believe I had finally found true love. But that illusion shattered the day I was nine months pregnant, just hours away from giving birth. Mark drove a scalpel straight into my abdomen—then, right in front of me, hurled our newborn onto the floor. "If you hadn't forced me into this marriage with your family's power, Sofia wouldn't have been heartbroken enough to go drinking and get drugged and assaulted. This… this is what you owe her!" He tossed the scalpel aside, then calmly let his private doctor pin down my blood-soaked body. I fought through excruciating pain for six agonizing hours, until I finally bled to death. Afterward, Mark dumped my corpse into the Hudson River. But for Sofia, he hosted a grand funeral—funded with my money, under my name—and paraded himself to the world as a grieving, devoted widower. Given a second chance at life, I refused to step foot in that cursed matchmaking event. Instead, I went straight to my mother with a demand: marry me to Robert Black—the most ruthless, cold-blooded titan of Wall Street, whose scarred face was feared by all. In the end, stripped of my financial backing, Mark's hedge fund collapsed. He became a disgraced fraudster, spat on by everyone on Wall Street.

"W-what are you doing?" I stammered, my eyes widening as he closed the distance between us. "Weren't you doing all that—biting your lips—just to get my attention? To seduce me?" His hot breath fanned against my face as he leaned in closer. I instinctively shifted back, but before I could react further, his hand wrapped firmly around my waist, pulling me impossibly close as his gaze dropped to my lips. "How about I bite them for you?" Before I could process his words, our lips met in a . It was too fast, too sudden. He started to pull away, but I couldn’t let him go. Something deep inside me clung to him, and before I knew it, I was deepening the . I didn’t understand why I couldn’t let him pull back—I only knew that I didn’t want to. ....... Klein has three talents: finding trouble, running his mouth and driving his infuriating hot yet ice-cold boss, Silvio Alvarez, completely insane. But when Silvio starts paying him unusual attention—watching him a little too closely and asking questions that feel a little too personal—Klein begins to suspect that his boss is hiding something far bigger than a bad temper. Klein is determined to crack the stone-hearted CEO. But the more he learns about Silvio, the stranger things get. His boss doesn’t just seem otherworldly—he might actually 'be' otherworldly.

After I finished the Luna training that every she-wolf dreamed, I went to my Alpha, Damien, with a request. To break our mate bond. "All this, just because I missed your ceremony to help my late brother's mate, Lilith, with the rogues in her territory?" A smirk twisted his lips, his voice a low rasp. I nodded, silent. "I gave my brother my word before he died. I swore I would protect Lilith. I can't break that vow! Why can't you understand?" he whispered, sighing heavily. "Stop being so childish! Why can't you be reasonable, like Lilith is?" I pushed him away with a chilling calm. Ten years. For ten years after our bond was confirmed, I gave up everything. Every hobby, every dream… all to learn how to be his Luna. Everyone in the pack thought I was helpless without him. That I couldn't even survive without his protection. But this time, I was done. He didn't know I'd already contacted the neutral packs in another land. I was going somewhere his Alpha scent could never reach me.

When I was waiting for Theodore at City Hall from dawn to dusk, he was accompanying his first love on a hike. I called him dozens of times, but he rejected my calls instantly each time. He finally picked up on the twentieth call. "Why are you blowing up my phone when you simply didn't see me for a day? Why are you acting so desperate? Sammy's feeling unwell because of her heart and I still need to take care of her at the hospital. We'll talk later about registering our marriage." Ten years of love. This was the 100th time Theodore had left me alone in front of City Hall for his first love. I hung up and calmly tossed the wedding ring away. This marriage? I was done with it.

Before the final match of the national championship, I received some devastating news. As the team captain, I was accused of having stimulants in my water. I was immediately disqualified from the competition and faced severe penalties, including the possibility of a lifetime ban. Amid the overwhelming boos and jeers from the audience, all I wanted was to prove my innocence to my girlfriend. When I called her, she said in mockery, “It’s just 300,000 dollars. You aren’t that broke, are you?” “You’ve already earned more than enough honors. If you’d let Ethan play earlier, I wouldn’t have had to pull this move. “He’s been diagnosed with cancer. He doesn’t have much time left. I had to make his last wish come true.” She had no idea that this match was not just any competition for me. It was my last before retirement. I wanted to win the championship. I wanted to propose to her. I also planned to reveal my identity as the heir of Everglory Group.

Pain and anger buried deep can turn even the most innocent of creatures to a monster souring the earth. Numbing so deep that emotions once easy to cling to the heart, realy exist anymore. Humanity they say, is not not taught but is inbuilt. What if you've lost your humane side, gone so deep, that you feel like it never really existed? Leaving you with a nothing but emptiness and despair buried deep inside your soul? Lucien Edrei Karmicheal, a man with looks that does not match his age at all. A recluse he was, forbidding himself from interacting with neither clan— His species, and worse the humans. They were so weak and everything Lucien couldn't bring himself to tolerate. He was sophisticated and acted with a dash of elegance. After years of abiding by his imposed rule and isolation, a night of enjoying a walk alone changes it all. Can he endure to let go and see things differently, in a new light? Or would old grudges and hatred burn his empty soul till all that is left is just absolute nothingness? When two worlds collide, there is bound to be collateral damage.

That night when our heartbeats synchronizes to the candence of music. As the glint of the moon reflects on your scintillating eyes, you grant me a gift. Carmel Loran, she has everything. Fame, beauty and luxury life. But a night ruin her life. What would she do if destiny play with her fate? Will she be able to run away from the chaos that's always running after her? Or she alloted herself to another misery?

He lives through lifetimes waiting on her to come back to him. He lost her in 1821 during childbirth. He lost in her 1921 when she was killed in a train accident. Who knew in this lifetime he would find her in a Mexican restaurant in the middle of Alabama, sipping on margaritas, surrounded

When Yelton Group tanked, their CEO and his wife showed up at our door, begging for a marriage alliance. My dad, thinking I was still head-over-heels for Rosie after ten freaking years, threw a million into their sinking ship and signed me up to marry Rosie. Wedding night? She blindfolded me and kept whispering how bad she wanted it. A month later, I tested positive for an STD. Then I caught her bragging to her friends. "Quinn got wrecked by, like, a dozen girls," she laughed. "Wanna guess who gave him the infection?" Her friends were cracking up. "I scouted all the grossest red-light spots," one said. "Each one's got a different flavor." "Just wait," another giggled. "When the symptoms hit hard, we'll know who wins." Rosie added, "Prize money's ready. Soon as we figure it out, she gets paid." That's when it hit me. It wasn't Rosie in bed that night—it was a lineup of strangers she set up. I lost it. Went straight to her, demanded answers. She didn't even flinch. "Mad? Please. If you hadn't dangled that million to force me into this marriage—or scared Caleb off—do you think I'd waste my time on you? "Once Caleb forgives me, you're done." I asked for a divorce. She locked me in the basement. "Chill," she said. "We're still placing bets on who gave you the STD." Six months later, I died down there. Just rotted away. Then I woke up—right back on the day her parents came begging for that deal. Only this time, on the wedding day? She was the one crying.

Maren ’s ex invites her to his wedding just three months after their breakup, she almost spirals back into depression. Then her best friend who works for the Seattle Icehawks offers her job to date the star Goalie Gideon Patton who happens to be her ex favorite player and which sounds like the perfect revenge plan against her Ex. Pretending to date him is supposed to be payback. But somewhere between staged kisses and stolen glances, the line between pretending and real emotions begins to blurred.