Modern Library's 100 Best Novels Novels & Stories

Aria Vale was raised to be invisible in a powerful family that never wanted her. At her elite university, she survives on scholarship and intelligence, quietly nursing a lifelong crush on Adrian Blackwood—her childhood best friend and the campus golden boy she has loved from afar for years. On graduation night, Aria finally gives herself to him, believing her feelings are returned and that’s love. That single night ruins her life. Aria walks in on her stepsister in bed with the man she trusted most. Adrian turns his back on her, she is left pregnant, and her family casts her out in shame. With nowhere to go, Aria disappears and survives with the help of Julian Cross, a kind doctor who protects her and helps her rebuild her life. Five years later, a global medical crisis erupts, and the only person who can stop it is Dr. Aria Vale, now a respected scientist. Adrian, now a powerful CEO, must work with the woman he once destroyed, unaware that the child she is raising is his. Julian stands firmly at Aria’s side—not just as her protector, but as the man who helped raise her son and heal her wounds. As the crisis stabilizes, the real battle begins, not for power or control, but for Aria’s heart. Caught between the man who abandoned her and the man who stayed, Aria must choose between a love that shattered her and a life that finally kept her safe.

I don't have any ambitions in life. My biggest dream is to become a rich widow. On the day I'm supposed to go on a blind date, my parents place two photos in front of me. The first photo features Frank Larson, the young and handsome heir of the richest family in the elite circle. The second photo shows his youngest uncle, Henry Larson, who's supposedly dying really soon. It's said that he has never married anyone despite being 35 years old. My younger sister, Lily Nufer, chooses Frank as her future partner immediately. "I want to become the wife of the richest heir in the elite circle! A life of glory and luxury awaits me!" Then, she starts mocking me. "Sarah, you should just marry the walking corpse. Once he's dead, his assets are all yours!" I nod in return. "Okay." Walking corpses are fine by me. I don't have to scrub his back during bathtime. Plus, the sooner he dies, the sooner I regain my freedom. But after I get married, I find out that the so-called "corpse" not only possesses a figure that's sexier than a model's, but his stamina also exceeds that of a bull's. On top of that, Henry is also the one who calls the shots in the elite circle. Later on, Frank gets cast out of the Larson family for embezzling the company's funds. As Frank's wife, Lily is forced to live on the streets with him. Unable to take it anymore, Lily kneels by my feet and offers to exchange Frank for Henry due to their age difference. I'm about to nod and agree to the offer when Henry, my extremely influential and powerful husband, stomps onto Frank's hand immediately. "No way!" I say, "I'm okay with having a younger husband. Youth is nice." Henry chuckles coldly at Frank. "Sarah's your aunt! How dare you try to take her away from me! It seems that you must be tired of living!"

Malia's world turns upside down when her boyfriend cheats on her with her best friend. Seeking revenge, she turns to Asher, the powerful Lycan King's son, who has his own reasons for helping her. Unfortunately, the moment they embark on this journey of revenge and cold calculation, they find themselves tangled in the cutthroat world of Lycans and Werewolf and they must confront their own secrets and lies. But when a deadly threat emerges, targeting students and disrupting the fragile peace, Malia and Asher must work together to uncover the truth. Can their unlikely alliance survive the danger and deception surrounding them, or will their secrets tear everything apart?

She falls in love with her childhood best friend, Lucas. When she decides to tell him, Lucas is already into another girl oblivious of her feelings for him! Oh no! All hell is about to break loose! Heidi is furious and even more furious when her father tells her that he's getting himself a girlfriend, so many years after her mother left . The two men in her life are gonna be taken away! The two important people in her life are gonna divert their attentions to some people else! What happens when Heidi finds out that her father's girlfriend's daughter is none other than the girl who's taking her place in Lucas's life! Are the two women sent to torment her? – Heidi's big question. Find out how she fought them. Find out how she tried to keep her two men all to herself.

After years of enduring an abusive marriage, Isabelle Rivers discovers a shocking truth: her husband has another family. Betrayed by the people she trusted most, she escapes only to find herself at the mercy of her past and the threats that follow. A fateful encounter with her childhood friend-turned-billionaire, Liam Anderson, sets her on a path of healing and rediscovery. But as old wounds resurface and dangerous secrets unravel, Isabelle must decide whether to trust a man again or walk away for good.

“I loved you with all my heart, but you betrayed me, cheating with me on her? Really?” Vionne Wallace said bitterly to her husband. “Sign it! We are getting a divorce, I’ve come to realize Nora is the one for me. You can't even bore a child, barren woman.” He said sharply, his void deviod of emotions He faced could tell it all, he was in love with Nora, my own step sister. Vionne Wallace, was a fashion designer and also business administrator, she got married to the love of her life, Harrison Worthington  Just after 3 years of marriage, she couldn't give birth and the marriage started crashing, he cheated on her with Nora. With a broken heart, she drank to stupor and had a one night stand with a powerful billionaire. When her  father found out, he was in support of Harrison and Nora, while he disowned her, giving everything he had to Nora. She found out there was more to the one night stand man, when they met again. He was her father's best friend  The one night stand was not just powerful, he had a connecting relationship with her father and her ex husband, he will get married to her and help her defeat them. Will they come to fall in love? Or will she go back to her ex husband after this?

My best friend, Scarlett Throne, is diagnosed with cancer. After running away from home, she takes her own life. She leaves behind only a testament and a pair of eight-year-old twins, a boy and a girl. "You're the only person I can rely on in this world. I'm not asking you to adopt them, but just make sure they have enough to eat." Out of compassion, I take the siblings in. For the next 20 years, my husband and I have been working hard together to raise them, buying them cars and houses. But one day, my adopted daughter reports my husband for being abusive toward her. Even my supposedly dead best friend suddenly appears and testifies against him. I demand to know why she does such a thing. My best friend, filled with righteous indignation, says, "I see you as my best friend! I've never thought you adopted my children just to serve your husband's perversions!" My husband's reputation is ruined, and he's been thrown in jail. I desperately try to prove his innocence, only to be forcibly sent to a mental hospital by my adopted son. There, I wither away and die. When I open my eyes again, I find myself back on the very day my best friend was diagnosed with cancer.

My name is Clara Kelly. I was born in Brooklyn, into an Irish-American cop’s family. My father spent his whole career walking a beat out of the 84th Precinct. My mother volunteered at the parish. I was the first girl on our block to get into Columbia Law. The year I graduated, I was volunteering at a charity gala. I picked up the wrong glass of wine and ended up dumping it down the front of a man’s Brioni suit. That man was Adrian Francesco Moretti. Fourth-generation Don of the Moretti Family of New York, and one of the five families of Cosa Nostra. He chased me for four years. I said no six times. The seventh time, he stood outside my law firm in the rain until three-fifteen in the morning. I married him. Two decades in, he’d handed me the keys to the entire Moretti Family. In our world they called me “the Irish Donna,” a woman with no Italian blood who somehow held the seat. Childless by choice, the two of us. Famously in love. Until that Wednesday afternoon, when my college roommate of twenty years, my best friend Vivian Sinclair, walked into my living room with a five-year-old boy. She said the boy was Adrian’s son. She said that five years ago, she’d taken a used condom out of the wastebasket in my upstairs master bedroom, kept it frozen for three years, and done IVF. She said she was the real mother of the Moretti heir. She was the real Donna Moretti. “Be smart. Pack your bags and walk out. You might even get to keep your life.” “You’re barren. The Moretti Family doesn’t need you.” I looked at the woman I’d called my best friend for half my adult life. I didn’t say a word. She thought she was holding the winning card. What she didn’t know was that she’d just stepped onto a board Adrian and I had been laying for twenty years. I needed exactly one sentence to shatter every piece of the Donna fantasy she’d spent five years building.

His lashes fluttered and when his eyes met mine this time, the emotions they expressed before were extinct. “You’re my best friend’s daughter. You’re the girl I swore to protect and shield from those who would seek to harm or use you. I cannot do this now. Your father will not forgive me. I will not forgive myself.” “But you want me.” “What I want doesn’t fucking matter, Elle. I am not the type of man you should desire. I am bad and I’m only going to hurt you.” “Why don’t you let me make that decision myself?” “Because you’re too blinded by the silly feeling you have to see the truth. There can be nothing between us. Not now, not ever.” he said with the utmost certainty. . All Estelle Biggs ever wanted was Jace Henshaw II, and all he has ever wanted to do was protect her from everything that would harm her, including himself.

"Dylennn," she whispered as his lips trailed down her neck. "Avelynne,I killed you once, little wolf…” he whispered. His voice was a growl, ancient and broken. “And the Moon cursed me to spend eternity watching the world rot until I could love you right. You are mine little wolf, and no one in the entire universe will stop me from claiming you” "NOT EVEN YOUR BETHROTHAL HUSBAND!". ************ Seven centuries ago, a Lycan lost control and slaughtered the only soul he was born to protect. Now she’s back and she's reborn as the daughter of an Alpha and betrothed to his greatest enemy. Evelyn has always felt watched. Dreams of glowing eyes and whispered vows haunt her nights, and the shadows around her home feel alive. But when she meets her cold father’s best friend, Lord Dylen Wolfe, her world fractures. His voice, his scent, his touch... they awaken memories she shouldn’t have, they ignite desires she shouldn't crave. He’s a monster from history. The lover from her past life. And the predator who’s waited three thousand years for her return. As her forgotten memories resurface, so do the lies, the curses, and the war that tore their worlds apart. Because this time, if she remembers the truth… Will she accept his love or will the beast who once killed her have to do it again?…