Key Lime Pie

Mi esposo, Alejandro Ruiz, cayó del tercer piso, no solo se rompió las dos piernas, sino que también se lastimó en su parte íntima. Y yo, lejos de preocuparme, lo llevé al hospital más alejado. Todo se remontaba a mi vida anterior: Alejandro se había lastimado a propósito con tal de que su amiga de la infancia, Sofía López, quien realizaba sus prácticas en el hospital, pudiera acumular suficiente experiencia práctica y consolidar su puesto. Para lograrlo, eligió lanzarse desde el tercer piso. Luego, deliberadamente evitó el hospital más cercano y me obligó a conducir tres mil kilómetros para que Sofía lo atendiera. Al considerar que ella solo era una estudiante que había entrado al hospital por contactos y no tenía las credenciales para operar, rechacé su propuesta. Pero él me abofeteó con fuerza y dijo: —¡Solo quiero usar mis heridas para ayudarla! ¿Acaso no tienes ni un poco de empatía? Ante su terquedad, temí que el retraso arruinara sus piernas para siempre. Llamé a su madre para convencerlo. Sin embargo, Sofía, al no obtener el puesto, avergonzada y llena de rabia, se suicidó saltando en el hospital. Alejandro, gracias a la atención oportuna, salvó sus piernas. Pero el día del alta, cuando fui a recogerlo con alegría, él me atropelló con el auto, matándome en el acto. Antes de morir, le cuestioné con rabia, pero él me miró con desdén: —Si no hubieras impedido que ayudara a Sofía, ¡ella no habría muerto! Al abrir los ojos de nuevo, me encontré de vuelta en el día en que mi esposo se rompió las piernas.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Imani whispered, her voice trembling more from want than from fear of her brother barging in and catching her leaning in to kiss his ex-best-friend now turned enemy. “Then stop me,” he murmured back, his fingers brushing her jaw, his breath hot against her skin. But neither of them moved. The distance between them had already disappeared, along with every rule she’d promised not to break. *** When Imani Grayson, a quiet psychology major, is assigned to mentor the university’s star hockey captain, Nicolas Jameson, she expects arrogance not the kind of chemistry that keeps her up at night. What begins as a simple assignment spirals into late-night tutoring sessions, stolen glances, and kisses that blur every boundary she’s ever set. But with jealous teammates watching, old wounds resurfacing, and a love too intense to hide, the game they started might be the one that shatters them both. Imani will soon learn that some games can’t be won without losing everything, and Nicolas, that even in the game of hearts, the strongest player can fall to his knees.

This is the first book in an 8 book series of hockey romances. All 8 books have an underlying theme of ‘life after loss’. My first book is about Natasha, a librarian in her 40s who lost a sibling as a teenager and never healed, preventing her from ever finding/committing to love…and the hockey coach who is twice divorced and has given up his dreams of ever finding his match and having a family-until he meets Natasha…. Will Coach Alex's love (along with his superior skills in the sack) be enough to break down the walls Natasha has held firm for over two decades? The 8 books go through the different players of the team, all having their own versions of loss to overcome, with the captain (Adam) being married to a woman (who happens to be a teacher at Natasha's school) who has a terminal illness and will eventually commit suicide in book 6 and the series ends with Adam's own second chance love story….

What are you supposed to do when you find your Alpha mate and he is much older than you and already has a fiancé'? What would you do when you find out he is trying to juggle both of you? When you confront him at a fancy upscale restaurant in the city and meet your hot new neighbors that just happen to be the rival hockey team captains and twins. After that, the hot twins transfer to your college while one has decided to try to bully you. The other asked you to pretend to be his new girlfriend so he can dump his latest girlfriend and help you get rid of your pestering ex. He thinks it's a win/ win. A total no-brainer. However, things quickly take a turn and get extremely complicated. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living, or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cassie Monroe wants nothing more than to survive college, graduate as a medical student and prove to her aunt that she's not the monster everyone claimed she is. But all of that shatters the night she saves her best friend's brother and secret crush on ice, only to spark something terrifying and impossible.  Knox Black, captain of Bridgestone’s Icefang hockey team and heir to the Blackwood pack, has spent years searching for the mate who can save his cursed wolf. He never expects her to be human. Claiming her will cost her life. Rejecting her is killing him.  Cassie doesn't know that werewolves exist and doesn't understand why Knox glares at her with hatred one moment, then protects her with deadly ferocity the next. But the more she tries to stay away from him, the more fate pulls her back into his world and dark family secrets that can destroy them both.  This story is a heart-pounding college romance full of forbidden passion, fated mates, betrayal and a love strong enough to defy fate itself. 

I ruined his jersey. And now he is ruining my life. Axel Wolfe, was the university's hockey king and a certified jerk, I don't really know what came over me that day, but I ruined his precious hockey jersey, spilling latte all over it, not only that I bruised his ego infront of his teammates and fans, and left as if I haven't done anything, the next morning he makes me his personal tutor just to mess with me then he ups the stakes… “Fake date me,” he says. He offered to help to piss off my ex, I should have said no, but I agreed thinking I was playing the game. Turns out, I’m the one being played.

By night, She’s the masked temptation he can’t stop dreaming about. By day, she’s the girl he can’t stand. What happens when both of their worlds collide? By day, she’s a brilliant scholarship student at Wexford Institute of Business & Arts. By night, she becomes Spicy, the club’s most wanted stripper masked in seduction, all for the sake of keeping her sick sister, Ami, Alive. And then there is Jace Harrington, the hockey star, who is royalty, arrogant, and heir to a billion-dollar empire. He’s got everything! fame, fortune, and a long line of girls begging for his attention. But the one girl he can’t forget is the one hiding behind a mask… and the one he can’t stand is Sabrina. Too bad they’re the same person! Their worlds were never meant to collide. But secrets have a way of slipping through the cracks. When Jace discovers the girl he craves is the same one he passionately hates, the line between love, desire, and obsession begins to blur. He’s a rising hockey star with everything to lose. She’s a masked dancer living on borrowed time. Sabrina is barely holding it together. Juggling school, a sick sister (Ami), a reckless one (Skye), and a secret that could destroy everything. Falling in love was never part of the plan. He’s never met a girl who could bring him to his knees. She’s never met a boy worth risking it all for. And when the mask comes off... Someone’s going to get hurt.

Via suffers from the disease of a visual hallucination; unable to distinguish the difference between the reality and hallucination whenever she was on its period. On the positive side, she was able to perform artistic talent on the stage and created a number of masterpieces based on what she sees in her hallucination period. Struggling with her disease, she became an ambitious painter since her childhood, has developed an extreme obsession with her talent in creating lifelike paintings as her only source of recovery. She had won numerous art competitions in various places enough to land her on a list of respected artists in her country of origin and popularity among her peers. However, this was not supported by her parents who lacked the proper knowledge in mental illness. She had been socially isolated for the twenty years of her life, as commanded by her helicopter parents. Determined to escape from the forced solitude and to treat her disease, she joined a prestigious art competition to achieve financial and emotional independence.

Avelina Costa had it all—love, dreams, and a future with hockey superstar Zayn Volkov—until he shattered her world with one cruel decision. Pregnant and heartbroken, she disappeared… only to wake up with a new face, a stolen identity, and a thirst for vengeance. Two years later, she's back—living as someone else, standing beside the man who once abandoned her, married to him under a name he doesn't question. But as Avelina draws Zayn deeper into her web of revenge, old feelings begin to resurface… and so do dangerous secrets. Can she truly destroy the man she still loves—or will her own heart betray her first?

The Hidden Piece is a creative fictional story about the life of a young girl with a promising future. Faced with many life challenges that she didn't handle well, she had regrets and wished she behaved differently. Each phase of her life contended to activate her inward strength when confronted with these challenges, but she easily gave up which almost affected her dreams and aspirations. The only required tool to push through her difficult moments was using the power of her mind, which was also the strong force opposing her progress. This story is highly recommended for young adults searching for headway through life storms.