Sarasota Herald-tribune E Edition

My name is Rayna Giancarlo and I’m many things. I’m an abused daughter, the school ridicule, the abused fiancée, the vengeful daughter, the bitter niece, the runaway wife. But not for much longer. I won’t always be a victim. Soon I’ll rise up from the flames like a Phoenix and then I’ll burn everyone who had ever wronged me to ashes.

Sarah Reynolds, a gifted artist, opens her new gallery exhibition amid the sun-drenched streets of Spain, where passion burns like a summer storm. Her breathtaking beauty attracts attention from all directions, but she is fully captured by the mysterious Damian Thorne, who is twice her age and has a captivating presence and heavenly charm. What starts out as a single drink turns into a memorable one-night affair that leaves both parties speechless and wanting more. Sarah is unaware that Eleanor, her mother, is covertly seeing Damian. After the hectic affair, Sarah returns to the Philippines and attempts to get rid of the heat from that evening. Two weeks later, her lively mother, Eleanor, talks nonstop about her new lover's imposing charm and alluring allure, creating an impression that is unintentionally false. Three weeks after their meeting, Eleanor proudly introduces Damian as her lover, and the truth falls apart. Sarah is shocked, but they both pretend to be calm, hiding the electric tension with courteous grins, even though Damian's ravenous glance shows how desperate he is to get her back. Sarah struggles between loyalty and desire since she doesn't want to break her mother's heart. However, destiny weaves its complex web: Eleanor and Damian become family when they get married in an expensive ceremony a month later. The forbidden flame rekindles behind the façade of domestic contentment. Sarah and Damian give in to moments of intense love that have been taken—secret affairs in dark places where guilt feeds the flames and every touch puts everything at risk. Sarah must manage the seductive attraction of the older man who now shares her mother's bed in this web of secrets, love, lust, and lies while protecting an affair that might destroy their entire world.

Emily’s life was already planned—obedient daughter, perfect fiancée, quiet future. Then she crossed the wrong line. Adrian Carter is everything she shouldn’t want—her fiancé’s uncle, a ruthless billionaire, and a man who sees straight through her carefully built facade. One night changes everything. And Adrian has no intention of letting her go.

Latricia's whole world literally fell apart when she walks in on her fiancée sleeping with her best friend. She realizes bitterly that she has been used. Not only does her marriage fall apart, she gets disowned by her own father and is left with no option but to ask for help from the stepbrother of her ex-fiancée. Will he accept?

***Completed***Desirée (Desi) de Léon lives a double life. Most people know her as the submissive, unshifted researcher for the werewolves, searching for the notorious killer Balric the Betrayer. However, the truth is her wolf is Balric the Betrayer. They're close to completing his revenge, but neither of them counted on the alpha and his twin brother, Desi's mates. Can she finish Balric's revenge, should she?

After my fiancée returned from six months of traveling with her childhood friend, she realized I had changed. For his sake, she broke protocol and promoted him to be the CEO's personal assistant. I obediently stepped aside and gave up my position. When he took over the project I had spent three sleepless months completing, I handed it over without a fight. My fiancée found my sudden compliance strange. Her childhood friend, on the other hand, was smug about it. He said with a grin, "Looks like your cold treatment finally worked. If you want him to behave, you just have to train him like a dog." My heart was calm and unmoved as I listened to their conversation. No one knew that I had been reborn. No one knew that I had finally accepted the truth: she never loved me from the start. No matter how reluctant I felt, from this moment on, I would cut ties with her completely. One clean break, free of all entanglements.

Aurora is a twenty-one-year-old wolf shifter who recently graduated with a master's degree in business and landed a prestigious manager's position at Xanders Financial, the largest financial company owned by her pack. Driven and focused on her new career, finding a mate is the last thing on her mind. However, her carefully planned life takes an unexpected turn when Maverick, the Alpha's son and notorious playboy who has been studying abroad for five years, returns to town. ​Maverick arrives at the company headquarters intending to inform his father, Alpha Alexander, that he is abandoning his future Alpha duties to marry his fiancée, Scarlett, and live in Paris. But the moment Maverick and Aurora cross paths, they are hit by the overwhelming scents of caramel apples and pine, and their wolves instantly recognize each other as fated mates. ​Despite the powerful pull of the mate bond, Aurora tries to push Maverick away, frustrated that he is already engaged and determined to protect her heart and her career. Meanwhile, Maverick's world is thrown into turmoil. He postpones his wedding to figure out how to handle the mate bond, much to his father's demand that he reject Scarlett immediately. ​Unbeknownst to Maverick, his fiancée Scarlett is a manipulative, status-obsessed Delta wolf who secretly rejected her own true mate just to secure Maverick's wealth and power. Realizing her plans to take over the company are threatened, Scarlett begins plotting to uncover the identity of Maverick's fated mate so she can eliminate Aurora as competition once and for all. Caught between a scheming fiancée, an Alpha's expectations, and a stubborn but beautiful mate, Maverick must decide if he is finally ready to leave his playboy ways behind and fight for Aurora.

I was scrolling through reddit when I came across a post seeking advice. The poster said he had HIV but was hiding it from his fiancée. The post had tens of thousands of likes. Intrigued, I clicked to read more. As I went through the details, I realized—why did his description of the fiancée sound so much like me?

She loved the wrong people and trusted her blood sister, her fiancée and her family, only to be betrayed and killed by them. When she got another chance to live her life, she ruthlessly chose to abandon them all, destroy everyone that had wronged her and forge her own path using the help of her number one enemy.

Inhaling deeply, I nodded as I gazed into his sexy grey eyes, "Yes. I will be your fake fiancée, Roman." He smirked, "Perfect. I knew you wouldn't disappoint me, doll." +++ One day, Sofie Diaz comes home, and is given the horrendous news of her engagement to the CEO of a reputable business corporation, who is thrice her age, by her greedy parents. Infuriated, she goes to a bar to drink her frustration away. There, she meets a sexy stranger. One thing leads to another, and Sofie ends up having a one-night stand with him. The next morning, the man, Roman Giovanni, who Sofie later realizes is one of the richest CEOs in America, makes an absurd proposal, for her to be his fake fiancée for a hundred days to fulfill his grandmother's wish, for him to get married. Ignoring her logical reasoning, Sofie accepts his proposal on a whim as she'd rather fake being engaged to a hot billionaire than be the wife of an old ogre. What happens when this arrangement of theirs blooms into love spiced with a generous dash of passionate sexcapades?