My First Reading Library Usborne Novels & Stories

When my husband learns of his first love's death, he jumps from the cruise ship where we are spending our honeymoon, ending his life. Only then do I realize he has never gotten over Clara Levine. Reborn back to his teenage years, he resolutely lets go of my hand and walks toward his first love. I watch them leave together, then turn and walk away. From that moment on, our lives become nothing more than two parallel lines that will never meet. Ten years later, we run into each other at a banquet in Oceanus City. He has become a rising star among the elite, with Clara appearing on his arm, intimately holding onto him. When he sees me accidentally wander into the banquet, he can't help but give me advice. "Stop obsessing over me. Even if you wait for me for ten years, I still won't fall in love with you." I ignore him and pull my son out from the corner where he's sneaking cake. His eyes suddenly turn bloodshot as he grabs my hand tightly. "How dare you try to make me jealous on purpose? Didn't you say you would only love me for your entire life?" he says.

From bestselling author Emily Goodwin comes the epic start to a sexy and exciting paranormal romance series... Never trust a vampire. I might have learned that lesson the hard way. But when I find myself in a vampire-owned bar, I don’t have much of a choice. With vampires still trying to assimilate into mainstream society, I’ve done Lucas King a favor by stopping one of his patrons from draining a human dry in the basement of his bar. A favor he'd prefer to repay in bed than in kind. Vampires and witches have had more than a jaded history, and when witches start showing up dead in surrounding covens, all signs point to something old and powerful. Something that knows the ways of the witches.Something--or someone--like Lucas. What's worse than trusting a vampire? Falling in love with one.Dead of Night a vampire/witch romance and is book one in the Thorne Hill series.

"Every time we make love, I make Sera turn around. From behind, she looks the most like Luna ." My hand froze on the door handle. Through the small glass window, I stared at the face of the man I had loved for three years. He had only ever seen me as a substitute for someone else. In that moment, I felt something inside me shatter. I didn't scream. I didn't cry. I didn't burst through the door and demand an explanation. I just turned around and walked back downstairs. My legs felt strange, as if they belonged to someone else. I called Professor Lumiere and accepted her invitation to go abroad. My voice was steady. She couldn't tell that I was dying inside. Later, when Felix chased me all the way to Europe and stood in front of me with red-rimmed eyes, telling me he truly loved me— I gently pushed his hand away. "I'm sorry," I said. "I don't love you anymore."

Late one night, a thread blew up and hit the front page of a famous forum deep in New York’s underworld. The original poster had dug up an old prompt: “Name three words that sum up your youth.” Then an account that’d been dormant for years popped up in the replies. Its avatar was a backlit silhouette of a girl in a white dress, username: Seraphina. That was Seraphina Rossi. The Rossi family heiress, the undisputed it girl of New York’s underworld. She typed: Vibrant. Passionate. And Rico Valentino. All hell broke loose in the thread. The wild Valentino’s heir and the breathtaking Rossi heiress had once loved each other hard, only for it all to end in bitter regret. Nearly everyone in New York’s underworld had watched that heartbreak play out. Including me. I turned my head, staring at the man sleeping beside me. This was the man next to me: the once reckless kid who’d ruled the streets of Queens with his bare fists, now the Don of the Valention family. Poised. Unshakable. And he didn’t love me. I’d always known Rico still kept in touch with Seraphina. That he’d met her in secret, more than once. That’s why he’d refused to make our marriage public. His excuse was always the same: “Keeping your identity off the grid keeps our enemies from targeting you.” But I knew I was the one standing between Rico and the woman he’d never stopped loving. If all three of us were just going to keep hurting like this? I’d rather walk away. Let them have each other. I’d made up my mind. I was divorcing Rico.

One night was all it was ever meant to be, a reckless moment between Aria Bennett and a man far beyond her world, yet what he treated as something forgettable became the turning point of her life, because while he walked away without hesitation and chose a woman of his own status and power, Aria was left behind with heartbreak and a truth he never stayed long enough to discover, forcing her to rebuild her life alone while carrying the weight of a secret tied to the man who never looked back. Years later, Aria is no longer the same woman he left behind, as she has grown into someone stronger, guarded, and completely in control of her life, someone who no longer waits to be chosen and who has learned to hide everything that once made her vulnerable, but when fate brings her back into his world, the past refuses to stay buried and the balance of power begins to shift, because the man who once dismissed her now sees her in a way he cannot ignore, and what he once overlooked slowly turns into something he cannot escape. Regret begins to take hold as he is drawn to her with an intensity he cannot control, yet the closer he gets, the more he senses that Aria is hiding something far deeper than the pain he caused, something that threatens to change everything he thought he knew about that night, while Aria refuses to become his second choice again, holding onto the life she built without him even as the truth edges closer to being revealed, a truth that could force him to face the full consequences of walking away from the one woman he should have never lost.

Arla-Rosa gave her heart to the wrong man and paid the ultimate price, her life, and the lives of her unborn children. Betrayed by her family, ruined by love, discarded like trash, she was left to die in the cold, her trust shattered and her spirit broken. But death was not her end. It was her rebirth. Waking six months before the night of her greatest betrayal, Arla is no longer the naive, trusting girl they destroyed. This time, she sees the daggers hidden behind smiles, the poison laced in sweet words. This time, she has no intention of forgiving. No plans to surrender. No mercy to spare. Armed with the knowledge of what’s to come and a heart forged in fire, Arla-Rosa is ready to play their games... only now, she is writing the rules. And when the final reckoning comes, they will learn one brutal truth: The phoenix does not forgive. It burns.

Alex Morgan had stopped believing in love. Born gay in a world that rarely showed him kindness, Alex spent years chasing relationships that ended in disappointment. The last heartbreak—his painful breakup with Chris John—left him emotionally shattered and determined never to open his heart again. But fate had other plans. One night, while Alex sat alone in his office at Reed Holdings, quietly crying after another lonely day, the last person he expected suddenly walked through the door—Jamie Reed, the mysterious and untouchable CEO of the company. Jamie was powerful, cold, and impossibly wealthy—a man rumored to have ice in his veins and zero interest in romance. Yet instead of leaving, Jamie lifted Alex’s chin, studied his tear-stained face… and kissed him. That single kiss ignited a secret neither of them could ignore. Their hidden relationship soon grows intense, passionate, and dangerously addictive. Jamie refuses to stay away from Alex, visiting him night after night until rumors begin spreading through the office and beyond. Powerful people begin watching. Just as Alex decides to run away before becoming the center of a scandal that could destroy Jamie’s reputation, Jamie makes a shocking request. He begs Alex to let him claim him—completely. Within hours, they sign a marriage certificate. But marrying a billionaire is not a fairy tale. Alex suddenly finds himself surrounded by enemies—jealous lovers from Jamie’s past, ambitious business rivals, manipulative friends, and dangerous secrets buried deep within Jamie’s empire. As threats grow darker and betrayals surface, Alex must decide if their love is strong enough to survive the storm. Because in Light City, power comes with a price. And loving Jamie Reed might cost Alex everything.

For ten years, Autumn Lewis and Julian Carter were childhood sweethearts. After three years of marriage, all she got in return were injuries, neglect from her brothers, and betrayal from her husband. When Autumn found out she had stage-two stomach cancer, something in her finally let go. She picked herself up and rose from an unnoticed employee to a powerhouse in the tech world. As soon as the divorce cooling-off period ended, she tricked Julian into signing the papers and made a clean break. The next time they met, the ever-calculating Julian’s eyes turned red as he tore up the divorce certificate. “Autumn, I was wrong. We’re not getting divorced. If I could give you my stomach, I would—just please don’t leave me.” Her once-proud brothers now pleaded, “Autumn, forgive us. Your sister-in-law is filing for divorce. Could you spare us some money?” Just then, a man stepped out from behind her, lifted his shirt slightly, and sneered. “Autumn, why waste your time on these jerks? Look at me instead.” Indeed, affection that came too late was worth less than dirt. She didn’t care for it anymore.

My alpha mate Damien had no idea that I'd been secretly in love with him for seven years. The day his first love Sofia ran away from their mating ceremony, I put on the wedding dress and took Luna's place without hesitation. Despite everyone's dissuasion, I insisted on mating to the devastated man. After mating, he was incredibly caring and thoughtful, remembering every anniversary. I thought he'd finally fallen in love with me. Until the day his first love returned, all my illusions were shattered. When the rogue wolves attacked, he left me behind without hesitation to save Sofia: "She's not as strong as you. She needs me." This time, I didn't stop him. I simply severed our mate bond and leave our Pack. But why was this Alpha, who deeply loved Sofia, frantically searching the world for me?

This is a real life account of one Dillon Vera, a highschool student who struggles to deal with the challenges of life, school, and dealing with his growing attraction to a yet unknown face. The kicker is that the attraction he has is for a man, and he is scared of the reactions of the people he loves. Watch Dillon's story unfold over the course of eight years with this special someone, as he discovers that life has a lot of unexpected surprises, both happy and sad alike. This is a real account of Dillon and his friend's life, their love, and how they grew as people and traversed their wonderful, but problematic, world.