New York Times Booktok

In the second year of my marriage to Jeffery Sadler, he brought a young woman home. When his eyes met mine, Jeffery smiled carelessly and said, "Naomi, perhaps you should try it too." He added, "After all, young and energetic people are truly different." I knew he was only testing me; he had always enjoyed tormenting and toying with me. But what he didn't know was that this time, I was genuinely tempted. Later, as he stared at the fresh scratch marks on the "young person's" waist and abdomen, his eyes blazed red with anger. "Naomi Sloan," he growled, “Who gave you the audacity to actually take this seriously?”

My mother was the best portrait artist in the police station. She had a strong sense of justice and brooked no evil. However, all I got was a sharp retort when I called her to save me. "You know it's your sister's coming-of-age celebration today, and you're cursing her? Kidnapped, are you? Fine, the kidnappers can kill you for all I care." She assumed it was a prank call. So, she refused to go to the police station and do her job. I wasn't saved in time and was tortured to death. When the DNA report came out, she came to the scene all wobbly. She drew a portrait of me with my bones as reference, her hand trembling all the way. "Jessica? It can't be her. This is a mistake!" She tried again and again. Yet, it didn't matter how many times she redid it as the portrait showed my face. My mother, who had hated me my whole life, teared up.

When I died with a smile on my face, right before my brother's eyes, he looked as if the anguish might tear him apart. Yet, for twenty-one years, he hadn't stopped wishing I would meet this exact end. It all traced back to my fifth birthday—the day I had innocently hoped our parents would come home from their business trip to celebrate with me. They rushed back that night but never made it. A car accident took both their lives. From that moment on, my brother resented me, despised me. He didn't just stand idly by as our cousin snatched up my work as her own; he encouraged it. And when my landlord threw me out, it wasn't a random cruelty—it was my brother pulling the strings. All he had ever wanted, from the very beginning, was to see me die a miserable death. But when he finally got his wish… why did he cry, pleading for me to come back, begging me to call him 'brother' one last time?

The emergency center I worked in went haywire as the typhoon closed in on our town. That night, my husband’s first love made seven emergency calls in a row to me. However, she did not say anything when I picked up. By the eighth call, I thought it was a prank caller, so I gave them a piece of my mind. Then, I heard my husband’s angry voice. “Melinda! This is the eighth time Sadie's called you for help! Haven’t you made her suffer enough?!” After that fiasco, he decided to avenge Sadie by taping my mouth, tying my wrists and legs up, and throwing me into our basement for three whole days, despite it being flooded with seawater, I begged for mercy, but it was to no avail. “You knew Sadie couldn’t talk because she hurt her throat, yet you still hung up on her! I'm going to make sure you feel the same hopelessness she felt!" Those three days left me with a collection of severe infections. I ended up having to remove my kidney. Even after all that, that man still had the gall to kneel by my bed and beg me to give him another chance.

Lia lives a quiet life in a small two-bedroom home on the outskirts of a major city. Between playing piano at a piano gallery, waitressing at a high-end restaurant, and her never ending love for books, she never thought there would be anything more to life. She was content. At least she thought so. It wasn't until she went out with her best friend and had a hot encounter with a large and sexy stranger. One moment they are flirting in a booth, the next she's rushing out of an expensive hotel room after waking up naked beside the handsome stranger. After living through her first one-night stand, she decided to leave it at that. But what she wasn't expecting was to be hunted down by the most dangerous man in the country. Turns out, the man from her one-night stand held more mystery than she thought. Now she must determine whether to find some way to be comfortable with his lifestyle and embrace the kind of love she only seen in her romance novels or to stick with her morals and let this relationship go. That is, if he lets her...

After a team building event, my colleague, Matthew Wells, gives me a ride to the company so I can work overtime. That very night, his girlfriend throws a fit and claims I'm a homewrecker who tried to seduce Matthew. She even produces edited photos of us being intimate. The company's management speaks to Matthew and me—he claims I regularly harass him and pushes the blame on me. The management labels me as a troublemaker and fires me. My apprentice tries to speak up for me but gets bullied and sidelined. Ultimately, she quits out of depression. I charge over to the company to seek justice for my apprentice but accidentally get pushed down a staircase during an argument. I land with my head on the ground and die on the spot. When I open my eyes again, I'm reborn and taken back to when Matthew's girlfriend starts throwing a fit.

Dean adalah vampir, yang memburu bangsanya sendiri sebagai seorang Vampire Hunter, pemburu vampir. Kecepatan dan kekuatannya membuat Robert, pemimpin House of Hunter, rumah para pemburu, memberikan tugas utama para Hunter untuk memburu vampir yang berbahaya, Warren. Namun di tengah perburuannya, Dean dihadapkan pada seorang newborn, -vampir baru, yang sangat kejam dan haus darah. Newborn itu memburu para manusia, dan bahkan membunuh bangsanya sendiri. Tapi kemudian, berhadapan dengan newborn itu, Dean mendapati kekuatannya melemah. Newborn itu memiliki kemampuan yang bisa melemahkan vampir lain, dan membekukan kemampuan vampir lain, termasuk Dean. Reaksi Dean pada newborn itu membuat Dean sendiri terkejut. Apalagi ketika dia mendapati dirinya tak bisa bernapas di hadapan newborn itu, seolah ia butuh bernapas. Entah bagaimana, newborn itu seolah menyihir Dean. Di hadapan newborn itu, Dean seolah terhipnotis olehnya, oleh kecantikannya. Dan ketika Dean akhirnya bisa melumpuhkan newborn itu, Dean tidak bisa membunuhnya. Siapakah newborn itu sebenarnya? Sanggupkah Dean melawan monster kejam dan haus darah itu? Sanggupkah ia membunuh sosok yang menawan hatinya itu?

Saat bertemu dengan Marshella Wood--sang penulis novel yang sedang naik daun--untuk membicarakan projek film, Marvel Dawson diserang oleh sekelompok orang tak dikenal. Penyerangan itu membuatnya mau tidak mau percaya akan cerita penulis itu, bahwa mereka telah terhubung sejak berabad-abad yang lalu. Berdua, mereka kembali ke abad pertengahan untuk memutuskan rantai kutukan yang telah memakan banyak korban.

Sinopsis : Axel Dandion adalah seorang CEO yang berwajah rupawan, bersifat kejam, serta memiliki kecerdasan yang luar biasa. Karena kecerdasannya inilah dia terkenal di kalangan para pengusaha dan sangat ditakuti oleh musuhnya. Namun, siapa sangka dibalik kesempurnaannya itu, ternyata ia hanyalah seorang laki-laki yang gagal move on terhadap cinta pertamanya. Suatu hari Axel sedang menyetir mobil, tiba-tiba di tengah perjalanan, Eleanor melintas tanpa melihat rambu-rambu lalu lintas. Kejadian ini, membuat Axel dan Eleanor saling membenci di pertemuan pertama mereka. Eleanor Freedy adalah seorang gadis mungil yang tidak takut akan apapun dan memiliki prinsip yang kuat. Ia merupakan anak dari seorang mafia. Suatu hari takdir mempertemukan mereka kembali dengan Eleanor sebagai mahasiswa magang di kantor Axel. Sejak itu, mereka berdua dipaksa untuk terus bertemu dan saling menyapa. Tetapi ketika mereka mulai mengenal satu sama lain dengan lebih baik, benih-benih cinta mulai muncul. Malangnya, mereka selalu mengalami hal buruk setelah cinta pertama Axel muncul. Tak hanya itu, ternyata mereka berdua dihubungkan dengan takdir yang rumit. Bisakah mereka berdua bersatu?

Jessica Summer dan Steven Morgan merupakan teman dekat sejak mereka masih bayi hingga tumbuh dewasa. Keduanya memiliki sisi yang berbeda. Steve seorang playboy cap kakap yang hobby meniduri kebanyakan wanita muda di New York, tapi dia betah dengan kesendiriannya. Sedangkan Jessie, dia tak pernah sekalipun berhubungan ranjang bahkan dengan tunangannya sendiri. Kedekatan mereka berubah ketika keduanya memutuskan untuk berhubungan ranjang. Bagaimana kelanjutan hubungan mereka?