First Time

"How did you capture his majesty's heart?" This is the question that everyone wishes to ask the newly hired eunuch to serve the emperor. Xu Zhengming, also known as Eunuch Xu, the great Casanova in town. His looks aren't inferior to Pan An's, and he knows it. This beautiful man knows all types of women and mastered the ways to get them. He experienced being chased many times but successfully gets away every single time. On that one fateful night, while running away from a group of women he bumped on his majesty the emperor. And with that, the ruler of an empire took him to his palace. Now that he's back to the imperial palace, previous relationships won't remain in the past. First friend, first love, first heartache. Connections that got severed by the sharp blade of fate. Will the once parted and now finally reunited be separated for the second time?

When Alyssa's boyfriend dumped her after a five-year-long relationship, little did she know that she was in for a toe-curling slow burn romance that turns into a wild ride with another guy from another time. Through a bizarre phenomenon, she wakes up as Allena, a Celtic tribe chief's daughter in ~200 BCE. With secrets to keep, adventures to go on, and a man to love, a timeless heartwarming love story spanning tens of centuries unfolds as the tides of destiny bring two fated, star-crossed lovers together.

With a heavy heart, in order to fulfill the wishes of her father who was terminally ill and would not survive long, Clarabelle Aimee decided to join the reality show At the First Time I Meet You in the city where she lived, Sydney. Clarabelle was sure, with the help of love experts, she would find the right man, who would be her life partner. Jordan Gerald, was desperate to join the At the First Time I Meet You event because he wanted to win a bet with his friends. In order to be accepted by the experts, Jordan played a joke about himself in the reality. Meeting for the first time at the altar, Clarabelle was stunned by Jordan. Jordan was fascinated by Clarabelle's beauty. Jordan's sweet attitude during the introduction period in the reality show they participated in, made Clarabelle begin to fall in love with Jordan. Unfortunately, after the event, living a real life, Jordan's cover began to be exposed. Surprise after surprise Clarabelle met and made her heart disappointed again. Stay or separate? Which would Clarabelle and Jordan choose? Was marriage in At the First Time I Meet You just a game?

There has never been a female Alpha until Amani Constantine. She was once the future Alpha of the Bloodmoon pack—a pack that was completely annihilated under the order of the Alpha King. In one night, Amani lost her parents and entire pack, spared only for being the fated mate of Prince Malakai, the son of the Alpha King and heir to the throne. She despises the Alpha King and harbors equal animosity towards Malakai, who is determined to mold Amani into the most obedient mate. However, submission goes against Amani’s very nature; she is an Alpha through and through, but she is a wolf-less Alpha, unable to shift. Branded as a defect, a flaw, and an abomination to their kind, Amani struggles with her identity. When the wolf inside her finally awakens, will she stand by her mate’s side and ascend as the next Luna Queen? Or will Amani step into her role as the Alpha she was destined to be and seek her revenge for the slaughter of Bloodmoon?

Stella Clinton accidentally discovers that her best friend and the man she loves the most have had an ambiguous relationship with each other during the time they are preparing to get married, but is a woman who is not blind to each other. love. So, Stella frankly ended this relationship to continue developing her career. But then, her peach blossom luck just like that. Not only did she find the true destiny of her life, but she was also greatly helped by her mother-in-law in love affairs. Will this be the turning point for Stella's life? Read my story to know more.

Natalie is ecstatic to be mated to her childhood crush but after two years in a loveless union, her love morphs into hatred. Two years of being bound to a man who neither loves nor cherishes her is enough for her to make up her mind. She is done. She prepares for her divorce, expecting Kian to happily let her go but his reaction is unexpected. Kian Zephyr is more than just an Alpha – he is a force to be reckoned with, a man ruthless on and off the battlefield. A man who is wealthy and powerful, Kian has the world at his feet. When his grandfather forces him to take the starry-eyed girl who has chased after him from childhood as his mate, he does so with reluctance but when said girl decides she no longer wants him, hell breaks loose. When Kian wants something, he takes it and when he claims someone, they stay his. And he has claimed Natalie. To Kian, Natalie is a constant, a person who will be by his side until death but Natalie is done with him. She spent years believing she meant nothing to him but the moment she decides to leave, she realizes Kian would never let her go without a fight. Yet, she is not one to lose. Natalie is determined to escape Kian and with her mind set, even a man like Kian has trouble holding on to her. Desperate and filled with regret, Kian would do anything to win back his mate but the harder he tries, the harder she pushes him away. With blades aimed at their necks and enemies disguised as friends, will Kian’s love reach Natalie or is he destined to lose her forever?

My mother-in-law, Eleanor, was having a heart attack, and my husband, Ben Dover—a heart surgeon—was the only one who could save her. Did I call him? Nope. I just stood there, watching her gasp like a fish out of water. In my last life, I'd begged Ben to come save her. He brushed me off, accusing me of interrupting his time with his mistress, Ima Schit. No matter how much I pleaded, he wouldn't come. Eleanor had died in the hospital. And when Johnny, my father-in-law, demanded answers, Ben flipped the script, saying I'd never even called. He made Eleanor's death my fault. Johnny, blinded by grief and fury, killed me. But plot twist—I woke up. Right back to the day this circus started.

Elena Adiningrat adalah definisi dari keanggunan old money. Namun, dalam satu malam, dunianya yang berporos pada galeri seni dan pesta eksklusif runtuh ketika kerajaan bisnis ayahnya dinyatakan bangkrut. Dengan sisa martabat yang ia miliki, Elena memutuskan untuk terbang ke Paris menggunakan tiket First Class terakhirnya—sebuah pelarian mewah untuk meratapi hidupnya sebelum ia harus menghadapi kenyataan pahit. Di kursi 1A, ia bertemu dengan Aiden Valerick, CEO dari Valerick Group yang dikenal sebagai pria berhati baja dengan selera yang sangat mahal. Aiden membenci gangguan, terutama dari wanita yang tampak rapuh. Namun, selama belasan jam di atas awan, dalam ruang privat yang intim dan mewah, percakapan intelektual serta ketegangan yang tak terjelaskan mulai meruntuhkan dinding es di antara mereka. Bagi Aiden, Elena adalah teka-teki estetika yang sempurna. Bagi Elena, Aiden adalah predator bisnis yang akan melahap apa pun yang tersisa dari keluarganya. Takdir membawa mereka lebih jauh dari sekadar teman satu penerbangan. Sekembalinya mereka ke daratan, Aiden menawarkan sebuah kesepakatan: Elena harus menjadi kurator seni pribadinya untuk memulihkan citra perusahaan—sekaligus menjadi tunangan sandiwara untuk memadamkan pemberontakan di dewan direksi. Dari gemerlap lampu penthouse di Jakarta hingga lantai dansa di Monaco, Elena dan Aiden terjebak dalam permainan kekuasaan yang elegan. Di balik balutan gaun sutra pesanan khusus dan jam tangan bernilai miliaran, ada rahasia masa lalu dan pengkhianatan yang mengintai. Di dunia High Society yang kejam, mereka harus memilih: mempertahankan takhta masing-masing atau menyerah pada takdir yang telah mempertemukan mereka di kelas utama.

Dimas pria sukses diusianya yang terbilang cukup muda. Namun, ketampanan, kepopuleran, pun kekayaan tidak lantas membuatnya merasakan kebahagiaan. Terlebih tuntutan sang ibu yang selalu menjodohkannya dengan putri rekan bisnisnya membuat Dimas semakin tertekan. Lelah dengan semua tekanan membuatnya memilih menenangkan diri beberapa hari di rumah peristirahatan keluarganya, tapi saat akan kembali, Dimas mengalami kecelakaan dan ditolong serta dirawat oleh Andrea karena hilang ingatan. Tinggal dengan Andrea membuat Dimas merasa nyaman dan merasa mengenal Andrea di masa lalu hingga akhirnya ia menyadari siapa Andrea, tapi ia masih menyimpannya untuk sendiri karena Andrea yang ia kenal dulu dan sekarang berbeda. Ada sesuatu yang terjadi hingga Andrea tidak mengenalnya atau memang Andrea tidak menyadari kehadirannya dulu. Entahlah! Kejadian demi kejadian terjadi hingga sesuatu mengharuskan keduanya terikat dalam sebuah pernikahan dan seiring berjalannya waktu cinta tumbuh di antara mereka. Namun, semua tidak berjalan semudah yang mereka harapkan. Perpisahan keduanya harus terjadi karena Andrea dijemput paksa oleh sang kakak sebelum Dimas bisa mencegahnya. Bisakah Dimas menemukan dan membawa Andrea kembali padanya? Atau justru harus menerima keinginan ibunya untuk menikah dengan wanita pilihan ibunya tersebut? Saat keadaan tidak mendukung, jarak dan waktu memisahkan, bisakah Dimas dan Andrea mempertahankan ikatan di antara mereka? Sementara banyak orang yang menginginkan keduanya berpisah.

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing