Booktok August 2025

The things we want are so very rarely the things we need. Clifton Heights, a modest Adirondack town, offers many unique attractions. Arcane Delights sells both paperbacks and hard-to-find limited editions. The Skylark Diner serves the best home-cooked meals around, with friendly service and a smile. Every August, Mr. Jingo’s County Fair visits, to the delight of children and adults. In essence, Clifton Heights is the quintessential small American town. Everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is treated like family. It is quiet, simple, and peaceful. But shadows linger here. Flitting in dark corners, from the corner of the eye. If you walk down Main Street after dark, the slight scrape of shoes on asphalt whispers you're not alone, but when you look over your shoulder, no one is there. The moon shines high and bright in the night sky, but instead of throwing light, it only seems to make the shadows lengthen. Children disappear. Teens run away. Hunters get lost in the woods with frightening regularity. Husbands go mad, and wives vanish in the dead of night. And still, when the sun rises in the morning, you are greeted by townspeople with warm waves and friendly smiles, and the shivers pass as everything seems fresh and new... Until night falls once more. Handy's Pawn and Thrift sits several blocks down from Arcane Delights. Like any thrift store, its wares range from the mundane to the bizarre. By daylight, it seems just another slice of small town Americana. But in its window hangs a sign which reads: We Have Things You Need. And when a lonely traveling salesman comes looking for something he desperately wants, after normal visiting hours, after night has fallen, he will face a harsh truth among the shelves of Handy’s Pawn and Thrift: the things we want are rarely the things we need. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Vassilia Auva, harus menerima fakta bahwa dirinya tiba-tiba bertransmigrasi ke tubuh Nona Clarence Divn Rivas, tokoh novel favoritnya, tepat di hari pernikahan. Tidak ada jalan lain. Meski dia tidak mengenal calon suaminya -sang Pangeran- dan sama sekali tidak mengerti dunia baru ini, pernikahan politik ini tetap harus berlangsung. Jika tidak, nyawanya adalah taruhannya. Tapi sebagai gantinya, Clarence mengajukan permohonan kepada Pangeran tepat sebelum mereka melakukan prosesi ciuman. "Aku akan memberikan apapun yang Yang Mulia mau. Aku akan membantu anda naik tahta. Tapi, ceraikan aku setelah satu tahun. Posisi Ratu sama sekali bukan yang aku inginkan, Yang Mulia." Seharusnya itu mudah. Mereka tidak saling mencintai. Bahkan menurut bisik-bisik para pelayan, sang Pangeran juga membenci August Rivas, Pamannya yang tidak mau mematuhi aturan Kerajaan. Menyulitkan posisinya. Secara otomatis, Pangeran seharusnya juga membenci Clarence. Tapi mengapa... "Cerai? Gila, gila, gila. Itu adalah hal paling gila yang pernah aku dengar. Jangan katakan itu lagi. Aku tidak ingin menjadi gila karena mendengarnya." Apa maksudmu? Anda telah berjanji! Bukankah ini adalah kesempatan terakhir untuk lepas dari wanita yang kau benci? "Yang Mulia... apakah anda gila?" Pangeran, yang telah naik tahta menjadi Raja, justru mengiyakan tanpa beban. "Setelah dipikir-pikir... ya. Aku telah menjadi gila karena memiliki istri segila kamu." Yah... mau bagaimana lagi? Yang bisa Clarence lakukan sekarang hanya menciptakan insiden besar untuk membuat Raja menceraikannya.

Before my boyfriend, August Cadwell, marked me, we went to register our mate bond at the Pack Affairs Department. Without a word of explanation, he unexpectedly had someone throw me out of the office. Then he walked in with his childhood sweetheart. He didn’t even blink when he saw me sitting there on the ground, shaking with disbelief. "Hailey's pup needs to be part of the Aurelis pack. The best and quickest method is for her to register a mate bond with a werewolf from the Aurelis pack. As soon as we sever the mate bond, I'll form a mate bond with you." Everyone assumed the lovesick version of me would wait just one more month for him. After all, I'd already waited seven long years. But that night, I did something unexpected too. I accepted my parents' arranged mate bond and quietly left for the Lymerian pack, disappearing from his life entirely. Three years later, I returned to my original pack to visit my family. My mate, Ryder Weyland, was now the lycan chairman. Because of an urgent council meeting, he arranged for someone to collect me from the airport. I never imagined that “someone” would be August. The moment he spotted me, his eyes immediately landed on the sparkling bracelet on my wrist. "Isn't this a knockoff of the bracelet Ryder Weyland, the lycan chairman, spent two million dollars on for his mate? Didn't expect you to turn this vain after just a few years. "You've caused enough chaos, haven't you? It's time to return. Hailey's pup is now of school age. You can take on the responsibility of pick-ups and drop-offs." I gently ran my fingers over the bracelet on my wrist. Little did he know that this was the cheapest one Ryder had ever given me.

Grace Monroe was a supermodel who walked away from the runway to build something real… her own sustainable fashion line. When billionaire hedge fund manager Carter Vaughn pursued her relentlessly, she believed she'd found a partner who saw beyond her face. Three years into their marriage, she discovers sex videos of Carter with multiple women, including her former best friend Stella. But the real devastation comes when she finds a contract: Carter married her as part of a bet with his elite boys' club… the first to stay married to a "perfect 10" for three years wins fifty million dollars. She was never a wife. She was a wager. Grace takes the scorched-earth divorce settlement and disappears. What Carter doesn't know: she's pregnant with twins. Grace returns as the founder of GRACE, a feminist fashion empire built on her viral campaign exposing "trophy culture." She's on magazine covers with her twin boys, August and James, refusing to name their father. She's wealthy, powerful, and untouchable. Carter's reputation is destroyed, his boys' club dissolved in scandal, and his fortune is crumbling from boycotts and bad investments. But when Carter discovers the twins are his… through a morally questionable secret DNA test—everything changes. He's not the man who made that bet anymore. Prison time for securities fraud, the loss of everything he valued, and watching Grace become the woman he prevented her from being has broken and rebuilt him. Now he wants his family back. Can a man who treated her as a commodity learn to truly love? Can she risk her sons' hearts on the father who didn't know they existed? And when Carter's former friends try to destroy Grace's empire to punish Carter, will she let him fight beside her or will she prove she never needed saving?

Sumpah demi apapun, aku jadi istri di umur 17 tahun dan masih KELAS 2 SMA. Baru kemarin ulang tahun dibeliin mobil baru, eh hari ini malah disuruh nikah. Parahnya lagi, calon suami yang dalam hitungan minggu bakal jadi suami aku itu... kakak kelas paling nyebelin, tengil, dan manusia yang hobi banget bikin hidup aku sengsara: Muh. Alif Shadiq. — Nazilla Atsira Chandra Dosa apa di umur semuda ini, aku bakal jadi suami? Diumur 18 tahun udah nikah, bagus kalo calon istri aku anak baik-baik. Lah ini, otaknya geser, cerewet, bawel, manja, dan hobinya bikin hidup gue ribet. — Muh. Alif Shadiq Nazilla—cewek imut, ekspresif, dan selalu jadi pusat perhatian di sekolah—harus menerima kenyataan pahit: hidupnya berubah 180 derajat setelah orang tuanya menjodohkan dia dengan Alif, kakak kelas dingin, kaku, dan anti-sosial yang bahkan nggak pernah diajak ngobrol di sekolah. Dua dunia yang bertolak belakang dipaksa bersatu dalam ikatan pernikahan dini. Nanas yang ceria dan penuh warna, harus belajar menghadapi Alif si “manusia kulkas” yang nyaris nggak pernah menunjukkan emosi. Awalnya, mereka cuma saling menghindar dan saling sindir. Tapi, perlahan, mereka mulai menemukan sisi lain satu sama lain: Nanas yang ternyata nggak cuma cerewet, tapi juga tulus dan setia; Alif yang di balik sikap dinginnya, diam-diam perhatian dan protektif. Di tengah drama sekolah, geng sahabat yang super heboh, dan keluarga besar yang penuh ekspektasi, Nanas dan Alif harus belajar menerima, memahami, dan—siapa tahu—mencintai. Tapi, mampukah dua remaja yang bahkan belum lulus SMA ini bertahan menghadapi dunia yang terlalu cepat memaksa mereka dewasa? Menikah muda bukan akhir cerita, tapi awal perjalanan penuh tawa, air mata, dan kejutan yang nggak pernah mereka bayangkan Terima kasih banyak udah menunggu dari 2016 sampai 2025 ini, novelnya aku edit lebih baik lagi dari awal banget. Mohon dukungan dan masukannya yaa.

年末のこの日、音楽アプリが私、篠原茜（しのはら あかね）の「2025年度リスニングレポート」をポップアップで通知してきた。 キーワードは、「共鳴」 今年、私自身の再生時間はそれほど多くない。このアカウントはずっと、恋人の橘奏太（たちばな そうた）が使っていたからだ。 その下には、小さな文字でこう記されていた。 【12月1日午前4時、あなたはまだあの人と、同じ曲を共有していた。曲名は『愛とは、眠れぬ夜を共にすること』】 私は息を呑んだ。 12月1日は私の誕生日だ。だがその日、私は早々に眠りについていた。 奏太はケーキを切り分けるやいなや、「会社に戻って残業がある」と言って慌ただしく出て行ったはずだ。 何かに取り憑かれたように、震える指で、頻繁にインタラクションのあるその見知らぬアイコンをタップした。 相手の年度キーワードは「独占」 心臓が跳ねる。詳細を開く。 【今年、あなたはこのユーザーと深夜に688回、同じ曲を聴きました。その一回一回が、魂の囁きです】 その直後、奏太からラインの通知が届いた。 【今夜も残業になりそうだ。待たなくていいから、先に寝ててくれ】 一方で、あの見知らぬアカウントはたった今、タイムラインを更新していた。車の中で、二つの手が恋人繋ぎをしている写真だ。 【奏太さんと一緒に残業するのが一番好き。私たち、一生同じ歌を聴いていこうね】