Booktok Made Me Do It: The Evolution Of Reading

As the quality control supervisor of an import company, I need to finish up the storage of the final batch of king crabs before the Independence Day festivities. Just after entering the subzero freezer, the door is immediately locked shut. The alarm system also fails. When I realize I'm starting to lose body heat, I immediately take out the hand warmers from the emergency kit. However, the moment I apply them, a chilling sensation makes me instantly realize something is wrong. I scream from the cold, and the walkie-talkie transmits the boisterous laughter of my fiance, Martin Clay. "We're live-streaming and challenging the company's 'Ice Queen' to be locked in the freezer. Let's see how long she lasts!" The flirty voice of his female colleague, Lilian Saunders, also comes through, "Sierra, smile for the folks in the live stream! The number one donor wants to see it!" I instantly understand that they're live-streaming a prank on me. Not only did they lock me in the freezer, but they've also replaced my life-saving hand warmers with cooling patches meant for fevers! I grit my teeth, trying hard to stay calm as I call out to them for help. "The spare… spare hand warmers… Give them to me!" My fiance's voice rings out from the walkie-talkie, sounding unconcerned, "Oops! Lily gets cold easily, and it's her time of the month. The spares are all being used to keep her belly warm! "You're so healthy that you can just jump around a little and you'll warm up! You might even get some tips from the number one donor!" I stop arguing with them. With frozen hands, I pull out the signal flare gun and aim it at the most valuable and mysterious cargo in the freezer—a tube of frozen sperm worth 200 million dollars.

Years after graduation, someone suddenly tags me in the class group chat. "Mr. Warren is gravely ill, Mira. Aren't you going to do anything? You really are heartless!" I only realize what's going on when I click on the fundraising link in the chat. Our high school homeroom teacher, Joseph Warren, has late-stage cancer. Thus, Lyra Fairfield, the class belle, is leading a fundraiser and patient-donor matching process. "I'll donate ten thousand dollars. My husband is the director of Waverly General Hospital, and I've already asked him to arrange a VIP ward for Mr. Warren." Right after I send that message, the group pounces on me. "Mira, you contracted an STD back then and tried to pin it on Lyra. She didn't even hold it against you, and now you're trying to steal her thunder? You're unbelievable!" "I can't believe you're still lying through your teeth during such a serious situation. You never change, do you?" Lyra immediately defuses the tension. "Mira, I don't blame you for what happened in the past, but you really shouldn't impersonate the director's wife. I've already arranged the ward and surgery, and I'm donating another 100 thousand dollars to Mr. Warren!" I'm this close to laughing out of sheer anger. She's the one who scratched her name off the diagnosis report and framed me for having an STD all those years ago. I never even confronted her about it, and now she's playing the victim? Lyra soon posts a photo in the group chat, showing off her husband's car. Yet, when I see the man in the passenger seat, I guffaw. Isn't that my husband's driver? When did he start running a hospital?

It was not that he wanted to hurt the woman whom he loved from afar for a long time. Thalem, who kidnapped Eris, whacked the high-ranking mob and turned his back against the mafia boss, Dominique, his stepbrother after Eris made him realize that it was not yet too late for him to be righteous.

The police placed Martina in the path of Italy's most sought drug dealer. She confronted him in a pub and tampered with one of his operations to get his attention. She finally got his attention but was at the cost of her own life and that of her sister. She was compelled to sign a contract that stated that, she had to devote the rest of her life to Roberto Galante, the drug lord.

A year into our marriage, Timothy Grant suddenly turns abstinent. He builds a private chapel in the villa and always carries a rosary with him. No matter how I tease or tempt him, he stays cold and distant. My seduction attempts don't move him. One night, I stand outside the bathroom door and watch as he releases himself to a photo of another woman. So, Timothy isn't heartless. His heart just doesn't beat for me. I trick him into signing the divorce papers and vanish from his world completely. And yet, I later hear that he is going mad searching for me! The next time we meet is at his uncle's wedding. I wear a white wedding gown, and he looks at me with tear-filled eyes. He just can't bring himself to think of me as his aunt!

My girlfriend, Elsa Smith, always avoided meeting my parents. Yet, she had no trouble turning around and playing the role of her ex-boyfriend Leo Quinn’s fiancée, happily meeting his relatives instead. And the meeting took place in the apartment I had prepared for us to live in after the wedding. What she did not realize was that I happened to be Leo’s distant cousin. She pretended not to know me and clung sweetly to Leo, saying, "This apartment was bought by my hubby, fully paid for." All the relatives were praising them as a loving couple. To keep me from exposing her, Elsa came over to warn me, "I’m just helping a friend deal with marriage pressure. If you mess this up, we’re done." So, I sincerely offered my congratulations. "Since Leo and I seem to have the same taste in houses and women, I’ve got some wedding supplies that I’m sure he’ll like. I’ll gift them to you both." That was when Elsa finally started to panic.

Elena thought she would never mate with anyone in her life because she didn't trust men: her pack's Alpha possessed her twin sister at a very young age of her, and her father ran a business selling other girls including her best friend. All the men in the world were dirty, cunning, selfish, violent bastards to her, until she met Alpha Archer. But just when she was finally able to trust, he cut off their mate bond.

I'm seven months along with my second pregnancy when a truck almost hits me. My husband threatens the doctor like a maniac. "I'll make all of you retire prematurely if anything goes wrong with my wife!" Before I enter the operating theater, I can't help thinking he's being too anxious. The truck merely brushed past me and made me fall. He doesn't need to be so panicked. However, when I open my eyes again, I find that my belly is flat. I crawl out of bed in a panic and head to the door, where I overhear Lucian Jacobe talking to the doctor. "Mrs. Jacobe wasn't in a major accident, sir. The child could've been saved. Why did you insist on aborting it? It was a baby boy, too." "Jenny will cry if she finds out about me having children with another woman. How can I bear to see her upset? It's not my first time doing something like this, anyway."

I returned home after studying abroad for three years, only to find that my brother’s girlfriend had brought her entire family to live in my mansion. The moment they saw me, they pinned me against the floor. "How dare you! Call him your sweetheart, spend his money, and now you're here to take my mansion? " When I saw the girlfriend’s crazed antics, I was shocked. “Who did you say owns the mansion?” “It’s my boyfriend’s, but it’ll be mine sooner or later. It has nothing to do with you.” With her parents, she yanked off the ancient pendant on my neck and crushed my heirloom bracelet. They even tied up my limbs, put me on the table, and positioned me in a humiliating pose to post online. Her brother pinned my legs down and reached under my shirt…

Anita Richardson, a top model in New York City, got entangled in a scandal that threatened to end her career. She had to seek refuge from none other than the famous, Mr. Rivers, CEO of Opulence Entertainment. What happens after she made a deal with him even though several details weren't made clear to her? Something that had to do with her being a substitute mom for his twin kids, aside from her being a substitute for his runaway wife... With a past as dark as night she was desperate to keep hidden and protect, how was she to take care of others when she wasn't really doing well in taking care of herself? When love's shackles threatened to stand in the way of her plans, Anita finds herself caged between her past and present. Was she going to ignore the hurt of the past with its scars, and let love guide her? Or would she make good use of her situation to avenge her broken self and get back what had been originally hers?