Octavia Butler Novels Ranked Novels & Stories

Maya Lin has a lot of secrets. To the world, she is a struggling single mom trying to finish college. But online, she is "Velvet Rose," a famous erotica author whose stories pay the bills for her and her four-year-old son. Her most famous book? A retelling of the single most reckless night of her life: her eighteenth birthday at Secret Pleasures, a masked club where she gave her virginity to a stranger. What Maya doesn’t know is that this stranger never forgot her. Professor Adrian Black is cold, cruel, and broken. Since the death of his wife, he has shut down his heart. His only escape is reading the novels of a mysterious online author—the only woman who seems to capture the memory of the one night he felt alive again. When Adrian catches Maya writing a steamy scene in his class, she thinks her life is over. But Adrian doesn't report her. He blackmails her. “Be my assistant, Ms. Lin. Or say goodbye to your scholarship.” Adrian thinks he’s punishing a bratty student. He has no idea that the quiet girl in his office is the author he’s obsessed with.

I forgot to bring a No. 2 pencil, so I filled out my SAT exam with a red pen. The proctor warned me it would count as cheating, and I just shrugged and told him it didn't matter. Tyson Jenkins, the school heartthrob who ranked near the bottom of the class, suddenly got anxious. In my last life, we went back to school to pick up our acceptance letters. I already had a guaranteed spot at Kingsford University. And yet, I was the only one who didn't receive a letter. Tyson had used a system to swap our exam scores. Because my score showed up as zero, Kingsford University revoked my guaranteed admission. I demanded a review of the scoring, but Tyson, who had suddenly become the top scorer out of nowhere, sneered at me. "Kieran, couldn't cheat your way through the exam this time, huh? Everyone knows you only got that guaranteed spot by cheating. You've got some nerve playing the victim!" I went to our homeroom teacher to clear my name. I never expected her to cry on camera and say, "I tried to talk Kieran out of it in private. It's not fair to the other students if he does something like that, but he used his family's influence to pressure me into staying out of it." Overnight, I was at the center of a storm. Before I could even explain, a group of fanatics dragged me up to the roof and shoved me off. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day before the exam.

Before entering the SAT venue, I suddenly realize that I can't find my admission ticket at all. That's when my rival, Sara Foster, texts me. "You're still dreaming of taking the exam, huh? Why don't you take a good look at what this is?" I see ripped pieces of my admission ticket floating on the water in the photo. I start trembling violently at the sight. Just as I'm about to ask Sara why she ruined my ticket, I see another text message from my childhood friend, Josh Hooper. "Remember when I told you to get into Calder College just so you could keep me company there? It's all a prank. I've given up on my guaranteed admission spot so that I can attend Westbrook University with Sara. "I was also the one who took your admission ticket away. I was worried that you might ruin my relationship with Sara by badgering us, so I've decided to make you repeat your senior year." That's when the exam bell rings. I can no longer hold myself together, so I slump to the ground in a fit of despair. The moment my vision blurs with tears, a live comment appears out of nowhere. "What are you crying for? Remember the guaranteed admission slot that Josh has given up on? According to the rules, it has been passed to the one ranked second, which is you!"

Claimed as the Wrong Bride: Tripicity Book One Octavia Maddox is a grey zone artist living rough in Tripicity, selling her work to survive. When mob boss Bastien Leclair arranges a contract marriage with Olivia Maddox to secure a political alliance against his rival Corporal, Olivia refuses and doesn't show up. A gallery mix-up, possibly deliberate, puts Occy in the wrong room at the right moment. She signs a contract she doesn't fully understand in exchange for a number that covers the warehouse she's been saving for. Bastien comes to collect. What follows is a chase through the grey zone, a count system of punishments for running, a fever that lands her in hospital, and a slow negotiation of trust between two people who don't trust easily. He moves her to the Alderton, his building, his world, and builds her a studio with north-facing light. She migrates to his bed without deciding to. They fall into something neither of them names. Meanwhile Corporal, operating as Mrs. Santoro, has been watching Occy through a hacked security feed and commissions a painting from her. The three-way power structure of the city tightens around Occy without her knowing it. The Meridian overstep begins destabilising the grey zone she built her life in. Bastien's attempt to secure her position legally through a Maddox family adoption explodes when he tells her without asking her first. She walks out. He sits in the room she left. Coming: the grey zone war, the Maddox meeting with Occy, Corporal's escalation, the truth about who engineered the signing, and whether Occy chooses to stay. Not because she has to, but because she wants to.

Azura wasn't just any human, she was the keeper of the Dragon Stone. Her entire life, she always thought she was different, but it wasn't until the day she met Cyran, who happened to be a Dragon King, that she realized how different she really was. On the day she met Cyran, she was kidnapped and nearly killed, until the man she just met turned out to be her savior. Not only that, but she learns that the fantasy novels that she writes are real. For a moment, she believes she can return to her life, but then right after being kidnapped, she is held as a prisoner at Cyran's house. There she learns the truth about her origins and that she is fated to be Cyran's mate. More than that, she learns that she has been reborn, after dying a tragic death forty years ago. It is bad enough that her so-called mate wants to keep her but also looks like half the time he wants to kill her. In her memories lies the key to keeping history from repeating itself. Will she be able to remember her past before it is too late? Will Cyran be able to look past the mate he lost and fall in love with the new version of his mate? Or will tragedy repeat itself?

My younger sister was crazy about novels and always envied the way ordinary heroines pick up penniless heroes and climb the social ladder. So, she started picking up men wherever she could. Until one day, a man with a face covered in sores collapsed at our doorstep. I instantly recognized the signs of syphilis and warned my sister repeatedly, and only then did she give up the idea. However, fate had other plans: my sister's best friend "picked him up" instead and married into a wealthy family. My sister held a grudge. On my birthday, she locked me in my room and set it on fire. No matter how desperately I begged, she refused to open the door. Outside, she sneered: "I know you're just scared I'll live better than you, so you want to drag me down into misery with you. People like you don't even deserve to be a sister!" I burned alive, my body reduced to nothing but ashes. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day my sister insisted on "picking up that man." This time, I quietly stepped back, letting her have her way—of course, I chose to let her succeed.

Scarlett Anderson obeys her father and marries Evans Foss, the Alpha of the Foss pack. This is the only way she and her pack can stay protected from whoever is killing the Andersons. Weird things begin happening shortly after their marriage. Secrets get revealed and she soon discovers that Evans isn't the protector he claims to be. Suddenly Scarlett's father is murdered, their butler dies mysteriously and her life is threatened… A vengeful man comes into the picture; Bryan Haaland. He had sworn to destroy the Andersons and Foss pack. These two packs annihilated the Haaland pack many years ago. He is the only surviving member of that pack. He will stop at nothing to get his revenge. The night Bryan chose to kill Scarlett. He watches how she is poisoned and buried by the man who is meant to protect her. This shocks him and he is now torn between two choices; watching her die or saving her. He saves Scarlett out of pity and later finds out that she isn't just his enemy's daughter but someone he promised to love and protect many years ago, making everything complicated. Scarlett wants her revenge and she knows only Bryan, the man who her father and mate have wronged can help her. Will Bryan keep a promise he made twelve years ago and help Scarlett get her revenge? Or will he hold on to the bitter memories, push Scarlett away and make those who wiped out his pack pay?

The day I went into labor with the twins, I bribed the family doctor to shoot me up with every heavy-duty suppressant he could get his hands on. Anything to stall the birth. Why? Because in my last life, Vincent—my husband, the Don—claimed to have a low sperm count. To guarantee an heir, he lined up ten mistresses and told the whole house: whoever popped out a son first, her kid would be the next Corleone Don. He promised if I delivered first, he'd ditch the others. Said our baby would inherit the throne. I bought every word. When I found out I was carrying twins, I couldn't stop shaking—I thought I'd won. But after I gave birth, he tossed me and the babies into the freezing wine cellar and locked the place down. "Lucy came from nothing. I just wanted to give her kid a name. You started rumors, pushed her into despair, and now she's dead—her and the baby. You're vile. Not fit to be the Don's wife. Think about what you've done. I'll open the door in three days." Then he had the butler seal it shut. What he didn't know? That night, the cellar caught fire. Me and my babies? Burned alive. When I opened my eyes again, I was back—right before labor. This time, I'm not staying. Soon as I deliver and get back on my feet, I'm taking my kids and disappearing for good.

⚠️ Reader Advisory: This story contains steamy scenes, mature language, and forbidden romance. Recommended for readers 18+ who enjoy emotionally intense and sexually charged love stories with depth. ~ “I’m going to turn every dirty page you’ve ever read into your reality, Teyana.” And Jeremy Carter did. ~ It started with a simple party dare and ended with my legs wrapped around the ever-addictive Jeremy Carter’s waist. I never thought the boy who never noticed the nerdy me in high school, the emotionally unavailable biker god I’d secretly fantasized about, would become my stepbrother. Or that I would find a naked painting of myself hidden in his closet — painted by his own twisted hands. Jeremy is inked sin, raw dominance, and a filthy mouth. I was just the quiet, virgin bookworm, that took solace in dark romance novels… until he dragged me into his dangerous world of racing, rage, and ruin. I should run. I should regret it. But when a man like Jeremy Carter kisses you, there’s no coming back. But what happened when family, friends, and even the campus tried to pull us apart? This is the story of how I got ruined by the one man I might never have… and how I let him.

We’ve all read them right? Those sappy romance novels, the ones where some handsome stranger rescues the damsel in distress. He’s wealthy like no other and adores the ground she walks on. There’s some life altering event, a struggle of some kind but it gets resolved and they live happily ever after. As cute as they are, and as much as those kind of books can distract you from whatever is going on, that’s just not how life works. Your daily tasks are boring as hell, you have to work your ass off with very little to show for it and if life throws you a curve ball it’s usually not some handsome prince but rather more issues to take care of. Real life just isn’t a fairytale and monsters aren’t real. Not in the fairytale sense of the word anyway. Right?? Meet Tara, after being abducted as a young girl, she unintentionally finds her way back to where she was born, completely unaware of the dangers she's about to face. She knows nothing about where she came from or who she really is. As it turns out, mosters are real and fairytales do hold some truth. Follow her in her quest to learn about her history and save all shifter-kind in the proces