Commonwealth Ann Patchett Novels & Stories

Brooklyn Lawson never thought her biggest enemy would become the person she couldn't stop thinking about. When a nannying job forces her to move into Emerson Weston's luxury penthouse, their war follows them from school hallways to home. But living under the same roof changes everything and fighting her feelings might be the hardest battle Brooklyn has ever faced.

"She came for the $10,000 paycheck. She didn't expect to bargain for her life." Serenia Buenavista is having the absolute worst day of her life. She just got evicted from her apartment, her bank account is down to five dollars, and she just caught her boyfriend cheating on her—while his new girl is wearing Serenia's favorite hoodie. Desperate for quick cash, Serenia applies for a suspiciously high-paying anonymous job online: a nanny position for a "high-stress environment" paying $10,000 a month. But when she arrives at the heavily guarded mansion, she doesn't find a normal family. She finds Matteo Alcantara—a cold, ruthless, and terrifying underground boss who is currently losing a war against his orphaned four-year-old nephew. While other professional nannies run out of the house crying, Serenia sits on the floor and negotiates with the toddler like a tiny criminal, promising to teach him how to picklock doors if he eats his broccoli. Matteo is speechless. He needs her. But just as Serenia signs the deadly contract, gunshots shatter the mansion's windows. Now, locked in a world of danger, secrets, and a very grumpy, dangerously handsome boss, Serenia realizes she didn't just sign up for childcare... She signed up for the mafia.

Nicola Rhymes’s dream is to live happily near her husband and have many children. Unfortunately, life hits her hard and her dream turns into ashes: first, the heartbreaking news she can’t have children… then, a bitter divorce. In the end, Nicola decides to become a nanny. She will take care of other people’s children. So, when she accepts the role of nanny for Blake Echols’s little girl, Nicola thinks it will be a walk in the park. Just another job. She soon learns how wrong she is. Blake Echols is obsessed with his work, has a lot of trust issues, and has a greedy ex-wife he wishes would disappear from the face of the Earth. The only bright spot in his life is Iris, his little girl. When Iris’s mother sues for full custody, Blake vows to do everything in his power to keep his baby girl with him, even if it means getting married again to do it. He realizes that not just any woman will do. He needs someone who will love little Iris almost as much as he does. What he needs is gorgeous, sweet, curvy Nicola. Blake convinces Nicola to marry him for Iris's sake. Will they be able to make this marriage of convenience work? Or will their marriage fall to pieces?

[This month’s property management fee is $1,500. Please make the payment on time.] My wife, Grace Anderson’s phone screen lit up. I glanced at it and then took the phone. “Did the management office miscalculate this? Our management fee should only total up to $28 a month.” Grace stood up abruptly and tried to snatch her phone back. “He must’ve miscalculated! Let me talk to him.” However, I had already clicked on the link and read the page. [Cloud Mansion, property owner: Ken Smith.] The young male nanny cooking in our kitchen had the same name. Something snapped in my brain. The three of us were living in a very small house, but Grace had bought a mansion for our manny!

At the ceremony where my fiancé, Mattew, was to be crowned Alpha of the Riverdale Pack, he publicly rejected our mating bond. He chose Claire, who was already carrying his child. “Claire and her family can help me secure my Alpha title,” he said, without a hint of shame. “And I need her to give me an heir.” As for me? “Just wait a year. The Luna title will still be yours.” Everyone thought I’d just accept it. After all, I’d been hopelessly devoted to him for seven years. But that very night, I left to find my Second Chance Mate. Three years later, I returned to the Riverdale Pack, accompanying my mate—the Alpha King—on his tour of the territories. He had some last-minute business and sent someone else to pick me up. But at the airport, I ran into Mattew. He looked at me with pity. “Done with your little tantrum? Claire’s son needs a nanny. You can come back and be his caretaker.”

On our wedding anniversary, I get shot by a rival family during a crossfire. When I'm brought to the hospital while drenched in my own blood, I come across Don Marco Lombardi, my husband, who's supposed to be negotiating a business deal in Asterra right now. Apparently, he's supporting his ex-girlfriend, Lucia Santoro, as they wait for her medical check-up. The moment we come across each other, I gaze at Marco calmly. "What a coincidence." Even though there's panic crossing his eyes, he makes no move to approach me. As I stumble out of the operation room while leaning against the wall for support, I hear Lucia telling Marco, "You should go check on the Donna. I think she's badly hurt." But Marco sounds extraordinarily confident. "It's fine. I'll accompany you through your check-up first. She loves me too much to ever leave me anyway." I let out a cold chuckle at his words. Is he that confident that I will never leave him, hmm?

Annabel, the daughter of Alpha Nicholas is falsely accused of attempting to poison her stepmother’s cup. She is forced to drink of the same cup she is accused of poisoning. As she drank from the cup, she kissed the world goodbye. But this goodbye was just the beginning for Annabel as she woke up in another girl’s body in a new town. She had been reborn. But what town was she reborn into? Whose body was she inhabiting? What will she do with her new life? What role will Leonard play in her new life? Will she find out the truth about her mother and seek revenge on those who betrayed her, including her once mate?

Christine Channing has never had it easy in life. After being abandoned to a foster home at a young age, she struggles through life on her own. She runs into debt and her only hope of paying is in the form of one of the most intolerable assholes she has ever met. Desperate for a better-paying job she becomes a live-in nanny to the kids of Lucas Maxwell. She decides that all she has to do is focus on the kids and ignore him for the next year, but that proves to be more difficult than she expects it to be, or maybe it's because she cannot control the way her body goes crazy around him. Lucas is cold-hearted and a mean jerk, but he loves his twins more than life itself. He'd do anything for them, even if it means employing the one person that reminds him of a past he so badly wishes to forget. He has no other interest in women until he meets the beautiful and daring Chris. He directs all his focus on his company and his kids. But the only problem is the new nanny is as hot and beautiful as she is annoying and infuriating but she offers his twins more love than their own mother ever could. She proves to be a major distraction and it doesn't help that despite everything he dislikes about her, he still wants to sleep with her.

An angel's face once graced Amira Angelyn Fabian. The greatest suit for a holy living lady is her, but only until her ex-lover transforms her into someone she is not. She developed more grit as she focused on what would benefit her the most. She rose to the status of becoming the most significant entrepreneur, surpassing her ex title. In the line of her successful career, Amira encountered him again: Giovanni Rossi, her ex-lover who broke her heart three years ago. Amira doesn't want to take revenge, but seeing how he was still like in those old days, Amira is ragingly seeking a way of getting the table turned.

As I'm unable to get a ticket for my return trip after the Thanksgiving holiday, I specifically booked a first-class seat home. Just as I find my seat, I see an unruly child jumping around on it. I patiently smile and say, "Kid, this is my seat. Where is your seat?" He makes a face at me. "It's mine now, old hag!" I grab him by the collar of his shirt, wanting to lift him out of the seat. At that moment, a woman's piercing voice sounds behind me. "What are you doing? Let go of my son!" I release my grip and say as gently as possible, "Please control your child. This is my seat." Suddenly, she raises her voice. "He's just a child! Can't you, as an adult, give way to him? You're young and dressed decently. How can you have no compassion at all?" I'm so angered by this distorted reasoning that I laugh. "If you're so compassionate, why didn't you spend the money to buy your child a first-class seat?"