marriage first, love second

“Come back to me, Ivy,” the man whom she used to love with all her heart said. “No, no,” Ivy shook her head and backed away from him. Her body trembled as fear consumed her whole being. He was the reason her baby was gone! He was the reason for all her suffering! ---------------------------- Ivy thought she was the luckiest woman in the world - she was married to the man of her dream. But that was just her illusion. On the day she received her pregnancy report, she found her husband in bed with his best friend. Before she had the chance to tell him about her pregnancy, she was forced to divorce and her family was driven to bankruptcy by that one man she loved. Since then, her life went south. She married a governor in another country whom everyone thought was a gentleman. Everyone envied her, but no one knew he was a sadist who loved to abuse her. Five years later, the man she used to love met her by chance and begged her to come back. But would she be able to give her heart again, when all she felt toward him was fear and hatred? Knowing that he was the sole reason her life had turned to be what it was today with endless suffering? Cover art by Rainygraphic.

Fiona loved Damon for ten years, and they finally walked into the church. However, on their wedding day, Damon told her that he couldn't deceive his own heart. He loved her sister, and he left Fiona alone at the altar. Fiona's heart shattered into a million pieces, but she would not allow them to humiliate her like that! She randomly found a man on the street to marry. After the wedding, she thought she had married a poor man, but surprisingly, he bore an astonishing resemblance to the enigmatic president of this city. When her company needed a million dollars, Bradyn immediately transferred 200 million dollars to her account. But when Fiona thought she had fallen in love with Bradyn, she discovered that a woman who looked just like her had appeared by Bradyn's side... Was she just a stand-in all along?

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

The night my boyfriend and I celebrate our first anniversary, we get into an accident. My soul travels through time and ends up ten years in the future. Here, I see that my boyfriend and I have married and started a family. It's the future I've dreamed of. However, it seems that I'm out of a job, and I've given up on my dream. I struggle to make it through endless days of my boyfriend's ice-cold treatment. Ultimately, I see myself sitting on the edge of a building's roof after falling deep into postpartum depression. When I open my eyes again, I see my boyfriend's panicked face…

The sound of footsteps fell on her ears, forcing her to turn around. Dhruv stood a few inches away, a white towel wrapped around his waist. Water dripped from his hair as he ran a hand through it. When his eyes landed on her, they raked up and down her body and his eyebrow lifted while his lips formed a tiny frown. "What are you wearing?" He said tilting his head. He did not look pleased. "Your t-shirt," said Shanaya and rolled her eyes. "And who gave you the permission to wear it?" "You did yourself when you tore my dress into two pieces." His lips curved in delight at her words but returned back to normal soon enough. "Did I? I don't remember it." He shook his head. "Hmm, blame your rusty mind. What was your intent anyway? To have me walking naked around your house?" He pressed his lips together, attempting but failing to keep the amusement out of his voice. "Maybe. That'd be a nice sight, I must admit." *** Shanaya Arora has lived her life peacefully without any drama, that is until Dhruv Kapoor, her ex decides to make a return after eight years, bringing along with him a storm of desire and a promise of companionship for a lonely soul like hers. Burdened with the weight of her past, Shanaya tries to avoid him, denying Dhruv another chance at breaking her heart. But fate has other plans.

Salvatore Greco is genius and monster. As the right hand man and brother of the Capo of the D’Angelo, his lack of feelings is a blessing, not a curse – until his brother asks him to marry for the sake of the D’Angelo. Celestina Romano, cousin of the Capo of the New York Famiglia, is chosen to marry Salvatore Greco to prevent war with the D’Angelo, but what she hears about Las Vegas makes her veins pulse with terror. After her father betrayed his Capo and paid with his life, her family thinks marriage is her only chance to bring honor to her name; but only Celestina knows she’s a faulty prize given in return for peace.

Omega Eva Gibson was certain that Austin Belmont was pursuing her sister and would do anything to keep the Alpha’s promiscuous eldest son away from the only family that she had remaining at the Red Moon Pack. But circumstances arise, and she starts to realize that she may have read the entire situation wrong from the beginning, or had she? Feeling like a possible replacement for her sister in Austin’s heart, Eva must decide if being a second choice is what she is willing to settle for to remain in the pack or if she has been his number one all along? Will Eva get the mate she's destined for or will an ancient curse make it next to impossible...

When the soft and caring Emmalyn marries Kelvin Price, the cold and ruthless Alpha, to save her father’s pack, she does not expect to fall in love with a man who had always thought of her as a second choice and a weakling. An unexpected turn of events takes place, pulling the couple closer but can a love founded on lies, betrayal, and deceit ever survive in the cruel werewolf world where enemies looked forward to destroying them? **** When Emma’s older sister, Tiana, runs away from her arranged wedding to Kelvin Price, Emma is forced to marry him in her place to save her parents’ faces and the pack. Kelvin Price is known to be a cold and elusive Alpha who Emma did not think she could end up falling in love with. She was more content with her sweet boyfriend, Marcus. She knew she would only have herself to blame if she expects a life full of roses when she returns with him. What happens when an unexpected turn of events takes place, forcing the couple closer? As they grow closer, they must fight the demons of their past and of the lives that once left them- especially when her sister, Tiana, returns with just one aim. To snatch back what was once hers. Kelvin Price.

He needs a wife. NOW. With his hockey season on the line, he can’t afford any distractions. And a dating reality show is one huge distraction. But there's a surefire way to get out of this dating show contract. All he has to do now is get married. Even with a reputation like him–the Scottish bad boy of hockey–I'm confident I can find someone to play Mrs. Taylor Savage for a year. Like Becca Barnes. The one who got away. Too bad she hates me. But that's why she’s perfect for this arrangement. When her contract is dissolved. She gets the bakery of her dreams. Win-Win. She just has to live with me and pretend she loves me in public for a year. No strings. No touching (unless there’s a camera). No messy heartbreak. It’s sure to be a challenge because with the way I crave her, keeping my hands to myself might be harder than I intended. But he can handle the matter. Being married to her will be easy. As long as he doesn't fall in love with her along the way.

BLURB Amelia found herself torn between love and betrayal as life takes an unexpected turn. Divorced by her powerful ruthless and emotionless husband, Ronald, she watches as her own sister becomes his wife. Devastated and torn apart, she chooses to end her life tragically to end everything but fate offers Amelia a second chance as she was saved by her childhood best friend Jake, who is Ronald's estranged half-brother. Will she embrace the opportunity to rewrite her destiny?