Reader-response Criticism

"But all these scars, they will always remind you of the beast that I am." He said in a hushed tones, caressing the scars on her face. "Not when they can be turned into beautiful scars." Her response echoed with confusion and incredulity to him. How could all the pain he had inflicted on her turn into something good? A broken and desperate, depressed Billionaire, and the poorest of all naive girl who just lost everything in a blink of an eye, and her mother just traded her like a piece of trash. They are to be bound together by a contract as husband and wife for just five months. Everything seems to be under control, until one night of total madness that complicates everything. She had done and sacrificed so much for him, asking nothing in return or ever complaining. In return, he asked for one night to treat her like the loving wife she is supposed to be. One night they surrendered and lost their souls to each other, marking the beginning of their unquenchable thirsts for each other. In the short run, a bond is formed. What happens if the two of them break the major rule of the contract? Who will bear the blame? What's the punishment for such an offense? When feelings arise, can they embrace them? But what happens when his real love returns? His crush. His first love. The one he once went insane for. She doesn't return empty-handed. She is seven months pregnant with the son he thought she lost. What will he do? Wait... His passionate nights with his contract wife bore fruits too. She is expecting his child. Will he marry both of them, or who will he choose?

In the final year of my bond with vampire lord Saul, the curse of our pact struck, and I was overwhelmed by agony, but my lord was nowhere to be found. He had gone out. He left me to suffer. Alone. When the door finally creaked open the next morning, I looked up through bloodshot eyes—hope flickering like a dying candle. But he wasn't alone. He carried an unconscious woman in his arms, her head resting against his chest like she belonged there. Ignoring me as I curled up on the floor in pain, he first carried the woman to his room and called the old butler anxiously. "Jacinda's passed out. Hurry! Check if she's all right!" The old butler cautiously pleaded on my behalf, hoping our lord could save me first, but Saul frowned and interrupted: "Jacinda is in danger, and I have no mind to drink her blood now. She just needs to pull through herself. Believe me, she won't die. Right now, the priority is to save Jacinda." A frown and a glance in my direction was his only response to the old butler's desperate plea. With my only hope shattered, I clenched my teeth and slashed several long wounds on my arms and hands to drain blood for self-rescue. After a long period of weak convulsions, the curse of the pact finally ended. I lay in a pool of blood, sending a message with my last faint consciousness. "I promise I will leave him."

A spilled drink. A billion-dollar suit. A mate bond that changes everything. Elowen Hale is drowning in debt, hiding her wolfless secret, and just trying to survive her scholarship at the elite Mooncrest University, until she ruins Lycian Valor’s designer suit at a charity gala. Lycian is the cold, untouchable heir to one of the most powerful Alpha bloodlines in the world. At twenty-two and unmated, his wolf is losing control. Then a clumsy scholarship student crashes into him, and his wolf recognizes what his mind can’t accept: she’s his fated mate. There’s just one problem, she’s wolfless. His offer: Pretend to be his girlfriend for one semester. He’ll pay off all her debts. Her response: She laughs in his face. Then accepts, because she’s desperate. What starts as a fake relationship for mutual benefit becomes dangerously real when Elowen’s dormant wolf awakens, revealing she’s not just any wolf, she’s a Moonsilver Alpha, from a bloodline thought extinct and hunted for centuries. Now Elowen must navigate pack politics, survive those who want her dead, and master powers she never knew she had. And Lycian must choose between his pack’s expectations and the mate who was never supposed to exist. When ancient enemies emerge and war threatens everything they love, being the Campus King’s fake girlfriend becomes a matter of life, death, and a mate bond that could unite, or destroy, the entire wolf world.

In the fifth year of my spiritual practice, my phone suddenly exploded with messages. [Aria, why aren't you replying? Are you really that petty?] Puzzled, I opened Messenger, and froze. My cousin, who never seemed to measure up to me and always went out of her way to oppose me, was getting married, and she expected me to attend. "Sorry, I've been busy lately. I won't be able to make it," I replied politely. However, my courteous response only fueled their ridicule. "Stop pretending! You haven't kept in touch with your family for years. Are you too embarrassed because your life is such a mess?" "She won't even come to her own cousin's wedding? How heartless!" "Let me guess, the real reason she can't come is she can't afford a wedding gift." One cutting remark after another appeared, until Betty Stewart stepped in, feigning concern. "Come on, don't be so harsh on Aria. We're family, after all." "If she's really struggling, I could ask my husband to help her get a cleaning job." Then she sent me the digital invitation, the gold lettering gleaming. When I saw the groom's name, my pupils constricted in shock. Joseph Clark? Wasn't he the short-lived husband who had spent three years sucking up to me just to extend his life?

Lyra was never supposed to be the heroine. In the novel she read in her past life, Lyra was just a placeholder—the adopted daughter of a high-society family who dropped her the second their real daughter returned. Then came the humiliation. The neglect. The death that barely registered in the plot. But this Lyra? She’s not following the script. Reincarnated into the story, Lyra remembers everything. She knows where the plot is headed—and she plans to derail it. Step one: make herself indispensable. Step two: change the fate of Ethan, the second male lead who disappeared without resolution. He was brilliant, guarded, and completely overlooked by the original heroine. Lyra—who adored him as a reader—isn’t about to let history repeat itself. She starts small: a business deal, market predictions, power moves. Somewhere in the chaos, they become something more. And when the real daughter returns, sweet on the surface and toxic underneath, Lyra proposes a marriage contract to survive. No feelings. No strings. Just strategy. But love doesn’t follow rules, and neither does fate. As alliances fracture and danger rises, Lyra must fight to stay in a story that was never meant to keep her. She won’t be discarded. She won’t be erased. This time, the side character is writing her own ending.

In the heart of modern Cairo stands an ordinary residential tower… yet behind its walls lurk secrets darker than the night itself. House of Horror plunges into the psychological depths of characters who slowly unravel, transforming from ordinary people trying to survive… into beings haunted by hallucinations, crimes, and cursed truths. The story begins with a mysterious murder shaking the tower’s residents, and events unfold like an unstoppable rolling fire: Nasser, the father, commits the first crime in his home, igniting a chain of psychological terror and breakdowns. Malik, the son, becomes the focal point, trapped between a haunting past and horrifying truths that consume his mind, until he himself turns into a merciless monster. Sophia, his sorrowful sister, is swept into a vortex of fear and despair. Other characters’ paths intertwine inside the cursed house: Dima, Ghada, Rofan, security officers, tower residents… all threads in a dark tapestry driven toward a single fate: death or madness. Police officers fall into a maze of mysteries, entangled with corpses, investigations, cameras, and witnesses unaware that they are approaching a bloody end. Questions mount: Who is the killer? Who is the victim? Or is the house itself the true criminal? In this first part, the initial tragedy takes shape… and the curse begins. A high dose of psychological horror, suspense, and escalating drama drives the reader to hold their breath with every page. .....

Warning: This story contains explicit scenes and is intended for mature audiences only. Reader discretion is advised. “You said you’d never touch me again.” “I lied. And you like that, don’t you?” “Ten Sinful Commandments? Sounds like a church gone wild.” “More like a sin you’ll beg to confess.” Lydia Grace thought she left her past—and him—behind. But when she walks into a luxury club in Milan and locks eyes with Damian Moretti, the dangerously dominant man who once made her break every rule she lived by… it all comes flooding back. He’s powerful, seductive, and hiding a secret that could burn the world they both know. But Damian isn’t just here to rekindle the flames. He has a plan. One that involves ten unholy rules, whispered against her skin—rules that tempt her deeper into a game of control, surrender, and secrets. “You want me to obey you?” “No, sweetheart. I want you to crave it.” But Lydia has secrets too. A broken past, a ruined family legacy, and a dangerous mission that puts her right back in his arms… and at his mercy. Ten commandments. One forbidden man. And a past that won’t stay buried. Obsession is the first sin. The rest? You’ll have to beg for them.

My twin sister, Rebecca Shaffer, was kidnapped while saving me. The trauma left her with a mental illness that made her lash out at everyone around her. The only person who could get close to her, the only one who could calm her down, was my husband, Ezekiel Roberts. For the sake of her recovery, my parents insisted that Rebecca move into the master bedroom of my newlywed home. Whenever Ezekiel and I were intimate, Rebecca would lose control and throw things at me. Then, Ezekiel would scoop her up in his arms and carry her into the bedroom, soothing her with gentle words. Everyone kept telling me the same thing. "If Rebecca hadn't tried to save you, she wouldn't be like this now. You owe her this much!" I had no response to that, so I gave in again and again. That was, until I accidentally overheard a conversation between Rebecca and my parents. "How much longer do I have to keep pretending to be crazy? I'm so sick of sneaking around like this!" My parents looked at her with sympathy in their eyes. Ezekiel gently caressed her stomach and said, "Don't worry. I won't let Rebecca or the baby suffer even a little bit. Once I have Maisie completely under my control, I'll make everything public." I clutched the pregnancy test report in my hand and let out a bitter laugh. From now on, they would not need to keep up their elaborate charade. I would leave on my own.

On the night of our wedding, my wife, Carol Lockhart, leaves me and goes to stay at a hotel instead. It's because she's an aloof, arrogant young woman who has always been in love with my younger brother, Thomas Shaffer. Over the next ten years of our marriage, I treat her as sincerely as possible and give her my entire heart, but the only response I get in return is her mockery. "Marcus Shaffer, I would rather be a nun for the rest of my life than fall in love with you!" However, when a heavy truck comes skidding toward me, the woman who has hated me all her life suddenly throws herself at me and shoves me away, saving my life. Before passing out, I see her grabbing the doctor's hand, while blood flows from her mouth, begging, "Don't tell that idiot that I was the one who saved him… "And don't let my parents blame him for my death…" My eyes fill with tears. I finally understand now that she wasn't the only one who made the wrong decision during our wedding. After I'm reborn and given a second chance at life, I decide to join the International Peacekeeping Forces and head out into the war as a frontliner. Since I can no longer live out the rest of my life with her, I wish her a lifetime of happiness, and I hope that we will never meet again.

Warning: DARK ROMANCE Story contains detailed mature scenes possessing dubious consent not recommended for age group below 18 years old. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! Prologue Shadows engulfed him in a beautiful embrace. He looked like an angel with devilish intentions. It wasn't until he took a step towards her did the gravity of situation descended upon her and even then she couldn't do anything but shake in fear. She knew making a run for it won't do a thing, calling was not an option and if she screamed...she opened her mouth to scream but a meek plea came out. Her body's lack of response terrified her, tears gathered in her orbs with horrible anticipation. With his each step nearer she gripped the frame of her window tighter hoping to keep her balance. It took him three steps to be inches away from her body. He slowly took his suit jacket off, making himself comfortable as he amusingly watched her shaken face. She was so horror-stricken to even look at his face. She gulped as his hand cupped her neck in a gentle grip, guiding her eyes to his. His eyes slipped from the hold of her eyes to her lips in a second. She grew self conscious all over again. His heated gaze on her lips was unwavering. In the moment of bewilderment and growing self awareness her tongue unconsciously wiped her lips wet and it was all it took for him to descent on her lips.