Grayson County Library

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

Anna Brookes thought she was getting the perfect life she wanted; a marriage with the man she loved and freedom from her adoptive family. But when she woke up in bed with a stranger with no memory of what happened the night before, that marked the end of the perfect life she longed for Eight years later, Anna is struggling to be a good mother to three children, juggling meager jobs while searching for the truth about her real family Meanwhile, Mark Grayson, CEO of the world’s most luxurious cars is in need of a maid, offering a pay that can solve all her problems. She takes the job only to realize that her previous meager jobs were better and the billionaire CEO is the same stranger she slept with eight years ago, which leaves her wondering if Mark could be the father of her triplets But in an interesting turn of events, Anna’s ex-fiancé Luke returns, begging for a second chance with a promise of a better life. Caught between her unresolved feelings for Mark and her rekindled love for Luke, Anna is torn between the man whom her heart is constantly yearning for or the man from her past

While preparing for the SATs at the library, my brother is accidentally shot and injured, causing him to bleed profusely. I pass by this scene but turn a blind eye and quicken my pace to leave. This is because in my previous life, when I saw him, I rushed him to the hospital in a panic. He had intracranial hemorrhaging, and he urgently needed surgery. I quickly called my mom, the top neurosurgeon in the city, begging her to come to the hospital as soon as possible. However, she thought I was jealous that she had taken my adopted sister to the beach instead of spending time with me. She also believed I had fabricated the story about my brother's injury, and thus refused to return. By the time my dad and the rest of the family hurried to the hospital, it was too late for rescue efforts—my brother had passed away. The whole family blamed me for his death. They were convinced that I had deliberately misled my mom and delayed his critical treatment. When my mom returned from out of town, she lost her composure and pushed me down the stairs, watching coldly as I bled to death. After opening my eyes again, I had returned to the day my brother was shot at the library.

By the fifth year of my marriage to River Grayson, I had stopped checking his call logs and chat records. Instead, I spent my nights drinking and partying with my girlfriends at the poolside bar. When his ninety-ninth missed call lit up my screen, I let out a cold laugh and tossed my phone straight into the water. It didn't take long before he came storming in. The moment he pulled the strawberry-scented condom out of my pocket, he turned grim and banned me from leaving the house after 7:00 PM. "Joanne, you weren't like this before." I thought back to last month, when I had run into him at the hospital. He had lied about being on a business trip out of town, but there he was, holding Yvonne Sinclair's hand. I still remembered his words. "You lost your uterus from saving me back then. My sperm is perfectly fine. I'll give you a child—with your mother's help." Now, staring into his furious eyes, I said coldly, "Don't worry. There's no going back for us anymore."

🔞ONLY FOR MATURE AUDIENCES TW Amelia Grayson had 'apparently' spent two years pinning over a man who loved another and wanted nothing to do with her and had spent three years married to him. Then she wakes up and all of those memories are gone, she’s in a mansion, with a man who she doesn’t remember, who is just as sexy as he is cruel to her. He is Roman Wellington, and he is the most dangerous, powerful Tycoon on the continent, sex, sin, dark…dark desires all wrapped in one irresistible package. He demands a divorce. She gives it to him without hesitation. Until they both realize their marriage contract requires them to spend six more months as a married couple. In their story, friendship, dark, twisted desires and love clashes as it blooms in the most unexpected way. Roman will battle the sudden desire to have his once boring but now spitfire of a wife. Amelia will battle falling all over again for a man who had supposedly changed her and ruined her. What happens when the secrets of his even darker past comes to light? And what happens when Amelia realizes…she should’ve never wished her memories back? Will their desires trump every challenge or will they eventually lose everything? Including themselves…

Thalassa Cross gave up everything for love — her dreams, her career, even her pride. Once celebrated as the “Queen of Ice,” she melted her ambition for a man who swore he’d protect her. But love, she learned, could be cruel. On the night of her third wedding anniversary, Thalassa walked in on her husband — the Beta she’d defended and adored — tangled in bed with her sister. Their betrayal shattered her, but what broke her even more was their laughter. Their arrogance. Their belief that she’d stay silent. They were wrong. When the world turned its back on her, Thalassa turned cold. If her husband can cheat, then she knew she could do better. Her rebellion began the night she met the Grayson Twins — Kael and Kieran — the Alphas of the rival BlueMoon Pack. Powerful. Merciless. Everything her husband wasn’t. What began as revenge soon spiraled into something darker… something real. Now, trapped between the past that betrayed her and the men who would burn the world to keep her, Thalassa must decide: Will she destroy the pack that broke her? Or let love destroy her again? Because this time, she’s not playing to survive — she’s playing to win and show everyone that not only men deserves loyalty in marriage—woman do too.

Ambelyn did something terrible six years ago. She willingly gave her virginity to the college bully who had been tormenting her because she was forced in an arranged marriage by her family to marry the son of their biggest investor. Now stuck in a loveless marriage, where she watches her husband parade his first love and their second child hurting her and her miracle baby. Her husband hated her after divorcing she wasn't a virgin, which was the main requirement for their marriage and decided to show her how worthless she was. She swallows the insult for the sake of their child, but when her husband refuses to sign the papers for their son to get surgery or loses his life, and their second child bullying her and his elder brother and wishing for a new mummy, she decides to do what she never thought and divorce her husband, granting him slow custody of the second child, while she takes sole custody of the first child. The only issue was, she started working for the Heartless Cruel CEO who returned back home after six years abroad and it was the same man who pinned her against a library shelf and deflowered her. Would Ambelyn be able to survive working under the bully who once made her life a living hell, or would she be able to find her happily ever after in the hands of someone unexpected.

STEAMY MYSTERY ROMANCE *** # Billionare fake Identity wife # Fake marraige Elaine Rivera's world shatters when a heated argument with her husband, Ethan Rivera, ends with her returning home to find him murdered. Before she can grieve or process the horror, she's framed and thrown into prison by the powerful Rivera family, who take everything from her—including her beloved daughter, Autumn. Desperate and broken, Elaine stages a daring escape, vowing to unearth the truth about Ethan's death and reclaim her daughter. But on the run from the FBI, she finds herself at the mercy of Lucas Grayson, a cunning detective with his own agenda. Lucas offers her a lifeline: a contract marriage to protect her identity and gain access to the high-stakes world she needs to infiltrate. Under a new identity and armed with relentless determination, Elaine dives into a web of deceit, danger, and betrayal. The deeper she digs, the more she questions everyone around her—including Lucas. As sparks ignite between them, Elaine must navigate a minefield of lies and emotions. When love blurs the line between ally and enemy, and betrayal threatens to derail her mission, Elaine faces impossible choices. Can she trust Lucas with her heart and the truth? Or will her quest for justice destroy them both?

Seven years ago, Emily Hart poured her heart out to Cole Grayson, the school’s golden boy. But instead of a kind rejection, Cole publicly humiliated her, leaving her heartbroken and vowing never to let anyone see her vulnerable again. She transformed herself, gone was the shy, sweet girl. In her place stood a confident, successful woman determined to chart her own destiny. Now, her father, a self-made billionaire, strikes a major business deal, sealing it with an arranged marriage for Emily. The groom? None other than Cole Grayson. The shock of facing the man who once shattered her lingers, but Emily refuses to let him dominate her life again. Cole isn’t happy either, he’s already engaged to his glamorous fiancée and despises the thought of marrying Emily. Forced into a loveless union, their hatred burns hotter than ever. Yet, as circumstances conspire to keep them together; living under one roof, attending public events as the perfect couple, they begin to see the cracks in each other's facades. Old wounds resurface, fiery clashes turn to unexpected sparks, and Emily wonders: is hate truly the opposite of love? In a wide range of betrayal, longing, and second chances, Emily and Cole must decide if they can rewrite their story.

“I hate you…” my words, intended as a curse came out as a filthy moan as he plunged into me so hard that I saw stars. “I don't, Dani. Because you're mine!...” he murmured hotly against my skin. “Your every breath” “Every moan” “Every tears” “Every. Single. Inch. of your Body” he spelled, each word following a deeper thrust as he claimed me over and over yet over again. * After being rejected twice by her first two mates, Danica made a vow to herself never to let herself go through another similar humiliation. Not even when she finds out that the Alpha was her third chance mate. She had no believe in the mate bond and she only took the Alpha's kindness towards her as another approach to the humiliation he planned to make her face so she never planned on admitting to being his mate. But Alpha Alexander wasn't one to give up on what he wants and right now, it could be either Danica Grayson or Danica Grayson. Will Danica give in to the relentless Alpha eventually? Or will she take her little secret to her grave? Was there a chance that she finds the love she'd always wanted or was there a chance that she'll be rejected a third time?