Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program Novels & Stories

Billionaire CEO Killian Blackwood was looking for the perfect genes. He offered a massive reward for a surrogate mother. Ten billion dollars for a baby. But the 77 women before me had all vanished. Drowning in debt, I had no choice. I gritted my teeth and became number 78. I carried his child for ten months. I gave birth. And I didn't disappear. But as I reached for my baby, ready for my ten billion dollars, I burst into tears of terror. My newborn wasn't human. It was a litter of three wolf pups.

What if an omega servant can hear the inner wolf of the ruthless Alpha King—when no one else can, not even the king himself? Will it be a secret that save her life… or destroy her?

After three years of living with my wife’s family, everyone thought they could treat me like a pushover. Me? I’m just waiting for her to hold my hand before I can give her the world.

I paid the ultimate price in my last life for being too polite to refuse others. During a summer vacation, four children ended my life. "Talia, we’re already on the way to your place. We should be there in about two hours. No need to prepare anything special. Just keep things the way you normally do. Don’t fuss." I stared blankly as the voice came through my phone. The agony of my skin being scalded raw by boiling-hot stew was still vivid in my mind. When I had struggled and begged for help, those children had dragged me back together. In the chaos, I had fallen from the seventh floor and died with my eyes wide open. I glanced at the calendar on the wall. I had been reborn. In my previous life, my sister-in-law, Vanessa Mercer, had dumped her four kids at my home for the summer and left. I was forced to care for six children alone and was pushed to the brink of collapse. Simply because I wouldn’t let my nephew, Jaxon Mercer, play on his tablet for hours on end, and because I told him not to wander around the house in nothing but his underwear, the conflict escalated until it led to that horrifying death. My whole body trembled at the memory. I rushed into the bedroom, grabbed my identification documents, and fled toward the high-speed rail station with my two daughters, Kaia and Nova Mercer. "Mom, where are we going?" "I'm taking you on a trip. We’re going to have as much fun as we want!"

A random transmigrator, Rosanna Lacewin, finally gets fed up after living as me, Roxanne Lovelace, for five years. She then ups and leaves this world with her system, leaving behind my extremely spoiled son, Theo Sterling, and my unusually cold husband, Austin Sterling. Before I can even process my thoughts, I suddenly see a barrage of comments flashing before my eyes. "What kind of a disastrous start to a story is this? This is the first time I've ever seen such a stupid transmigrator! She arrived five years earlier, made a huge mess, and now, the original owner has to clean up the mess she left behind!" "That's right. All she had to do was just correct Theo's ways, warm up to Austin, and stop her family from bothering the actual main characters of the story. But she did none of that and only spent all her time enjoying herself and avoiding death!" "Theo's all spoiled now, and Austin is very distant from her. I'm feeling so annoyed just by looking at this family. I wish they'd just die." So, as it turns out, I'm just the cannon fodder in this story plot who dies young, and both my husband and my son will be the main antagonists later on.

Ava never expected one summer to change everything. At eighteen, shy and fresh out of high school, Ava plans to spend a quiet summer at her older brother Davis’ apartment in Pasadena before college begins. But everything changes when she meets Christien, Davis’ mysterious best friend. Cold, unreadable, and dangerously attractive, Christien is the kind of guy Ava knows she should avoid. With black eyes, tattoos climbing his neck, and a silence that unsettles everyone around him, he hides behind a reputation that keeps people at a distance. Yet the more Ava is around him, the harder it becomes to stay away. What Ava doesn’t know is that Christien’s life is far darker than it seems. Born into one of the world’s richest oil empires, he lives under the control of a cruel father who sees love as weakness and perfection as survival. Beneath the wealth and intimidating image is a broken young man carrying years of abuse, scars, and secrets. As summer passes, the tension between them becomes impossible to ignore. Christien fights his growing feelings for Ava, especially after Davis asks him to protect her like a younger sister. But jealousy, stolen moments, and dangerous emotions slowly destroy every boundary between them. And when Ava uncovers the painful truth about Christien’s world, she realizes loving him may come at a price. Because in Christien’s world, weakness gets punished.

Who killed Sunny Sweeney? During Sunny’s very LAST summer days, she experiences unusual paranormal happenings all around her as she indulges in desire, has adventures with her friends, and experiences forbidden love. Her angelic face once lit up the room now smothered in blood, desecrated, her beautiful life stolen! The ultimate betrayal!

A cabin by a lake for the summer with barely a soul in sight sounds like the perfect place to disappear to for eight weeks. Just me and my laptop, writing my next bestseller. Away from the city and the drama. My plans soon change on my first day here, all because of a handsome stranger who turns out not to be as much as a stranger as I thought. Sound's complicated, right? I didn't come here to get involved with anyone, the opposite really, but Kyson has a way to get to me easily, one which isn't so easy to fight especially when he is next door for the entire summer. I could resist, I should resist, but it is hard to fight chemistry, lust and connection, all things we seemed to share. I didn't think when I came here my summer would change everything and not all for the best.

Part One: I Dare YouShannon Gregory never thought she’d actually meet in person the man she connected with online, leading her step by step into the world of BDSM and the role of the submissive. Now he wanted to meet her in person, on a treasure hunt that he promised would end with the most erotic, sexually fulfilling night she could imagine. Did she dare take the challenge?Part Two: Journey to the PearlMiranda Fox’s latest loser one made off with a perfect pearl she bought and she wants it back. Then a Chinese fortune cookie tells her “Find the perfect pearl and you will find the perfect lover.” But was her hot, sexy friend BJ McNamara, a man she never took seriously, the one to show her where the perfect pearl is and what makes the perfect lover? Part Three: Hot to TrotBuying a ranch on eBay was the wildest thing Autumn Kelley had ever done. But then she discovers the ranch comes with a foreman who makes her pulse pound and could give her an orgasm just by looking at her. And then she meets his friend. But what happens when Autumn inevitably has to come down from the orgasmic high?Part Four: Take a Chance On MeZoe Fortunato is getting married. Tomorrow. But for her wedding gift from Brad she wants one forbidden night as part of a threesome. Will it help the wedding or call it off?Hot Summer Nights is created by Desiree Holt, an EGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

Matthew Walsh, a young pickpocket, saves Arabella, a spirited young lady who's been kidnapped by the gang of thugs he's just joined and helps her escape. Soon they fall in love with each other, only to be too quickly separated by her aunt's wicked scheme. Being hunted by his former gang, Matthew flees to London, where he accidentally saves the life of Mr. Goddard, a notorious gaming club owner. The man recruits him to be his employee and bequeaths him an obscene amount of fortune. When Goddard draws his last breath, his final wish is for Matthew to marry his daughter Marguerite, who has been loving him from the first time they met. Unable to forget Arabella, Matthew is caught in a quandary. Just as he is ready to settle down with Marguerite, he comes across his long-lost love, Arabella, at a party. Obliged to marry a woman and desperately wants another, Matthew finds himself at a crossroads. Should he choose the woman he always dreamed of, or the one who's been there for him the whole time?