Squid Game Jun Ho

When Valentina met Matteo in 2019, they both felt as if they’d known each other before. Everybody knows Matteo Giudice is the first son of a billionaire who is probably, but not surely, the head of the Sicilian mafia. Everything he does seems to be for his own pleasure even though there’s a certain darkness to him that seems to follow him everywhere he goes. Burnt-out from a young age due to his generational wealth, being bored is his biggest problem in life. Valentina is the daughter of a successful Russian businessman and has always flown under the radar at school but now seems to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. There’s something a bout her, as if she has something nobody else possesses, that stirs up Matteo’s interest in the first place. Somewhere along the way of trying to figure each other out they unintentionally fall in love. When buried secrets come out, their lives turn into a deadly game of power, in which love and war have no choice but to co-exist. A slow-burn coming of age mafia romance novel, in which the only thing the protagonists know for sure is that fate doesn't care if you're ready for the love of your life. Part 1 of the Games We Play works.

Frustrated by the mounting tuition fees, Zella was desperate to open an online wife service through social media. At first everything went well, she got a man with a fantastic fee. But after the contract ended, she began to regret it and wished time would turn back to when she didn't know the man.

Condemned as a witch. Thrown into a bloodsport. Hunted by beasts who want to claim, break, or kill her. Branwen Mosswood spent her life serving pints and saving every copper to escape the Walled City's cruelty. She dreamed of a quiet cottage. Freedom. Peace. Instead, she stabbed a nobleman who got too handsy... and was sentenced to the Wilder Games, a brutal forest arena where thirty "criminals" are forced to survive thirty days while being hunted by five savage shifter Warlords: 🦁 Hadrian Ironpaw - the prideful Lion King 🐺 Fenrick Bloodhowl - the feral Wolf beast 🐻 Torren Brokenbone - the berserker Bear 🐆 Zarrk Shadowprowl - the stalking Panther 🐅 Nythor Frostbite - the northern White Tiger prince If they catch her, they can claim her, body, blood, and soul. Branwen has no intention of becoming anyone's prey. She'll fight. She'll bleed. She'll unleash every forbidden spell in her bones. Because she won't just survive the Games... She'll bend the beasts to their knees Tap in! Updates multiple times weekly! This is the first in a series!

I'm Caleb Jennings. When I announce my early retirement, everyone in the city cheers. Only Nathan Sloan, my junior from the police academy, who claims to be able to see things from the criminal's perspective, panics at the news. During the party organized in his honor, he openly states his intention to find me. "I owe my success to the guidance Caleb Jennings has provided me all along. I hope everyone can help me find him and bring him back into the police force." Scoffing, I choose to ignore that. … In my previous life, I was the celebrated captain of a criminal investigation team. Yet, whenever I uncovered a clue, Nathan, a rookie in the city police department, would announce it first, beating me to it. After multiple incidents like this, everyone started saying that I was past my prime. To prove myself, I worked myself to the bone for three months before finally locating the hideout of a human trafficking ring. However, when I arrived on the scene with my team, Nathan had already swept through the place. He was launched into stardom, becoming the rising star detective that everyone adored. As for me, the public mercilessly tore me apart, labeling me as incompetent and shaming me. Due to the pressure from work and the negative public opinion directed at me, my mind was distracted. I ended up getting killed while hunting down the remnants of the trafficking ring. When I open my eyes again, I find that I'd gone back in time—to the day we launch a raid on the human traffickers' hideout.

The President. The Vice President. The Senator. The Congresswoman. The Mayor. Behind every power comes with great secrets no one knows about. Five women who will show how dirty and utterly pleasurable politics can be; because no matter how you will look at it... Politics will always be a dirty game.

When the bodies of his informats start turning up dead at every corner ; an assertive and confident journalist who is entangled with the mafia finds himself in a race against time - for his life.

Xenia Lewis, the nepotism junior, is eager to craft an image of herself as a prodigy. To prove her talent, she requests to take the lead in court. But when confronted by the plaintiff's attorney's sharp questioning, she falters. Our defense unravels, instantly putting us at a disadvantage. After the verdict is announced, Xenia tearfully throws herself into the arms of my fiance, Zayne Scott. Her voice trembles with excuses. "The plaintiff's attorney was too harsh. It was my first time in court, and I was just too nervous!" Due to her incompetence, the defendant, who could have been acquitted, ends up behind bars. Yet, Zayne and my junior colleague, Hugo Wilkinson, indulge her with comforting words. "Don't be upset. No one wins every case." "With your cleverness, Xenia, you'll surely hold your own next time." Furious, I snap, "The court is a place to seek truth and uphold justice. It's not a playground for make-believe. Because of your mistake, an innocent person has been wronged. How can you live with yourself?" Feeling humiliated, Xenia breaks down, sobbing and threatening to harm herself. Resentful that I've hurt her, Zayne and Hugo distort the truth, shifting all the blame onto me. I end up as the scapegoat for her mistakes. Not only am I forced to resign in disgrace, but I also face disbarment. With nowhere to turn, my spirit shatters. While crossing the street, distraught and distracted, I'm hit by a car and killed. Then, when I wake up, I find myself reborn on the very day Xenia and I are set to appear in court.

Veronica, a musician in a band, finds herself on a sticky wicket when she realizes that the man of her dreams—Théo Reynaud—is an elaborate masquerade to his danger-seeking alter ego. As she tries to stay relevant in the music scene, she battles depression and bouts of anxiety while dealing with a dysfunctional long-distance relationship. Théo is a fashion model striving to make a good living in the cutthroat industry while moonlighting as an informant. After a vindictive crime boss endangers his family, he is tasked to complete his final assignment to keep his loved ones out of harm's way, and be with the woman he loves. ▬▬▬▬▬▬ genres: CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE, CRIME, DRAMA ▬▬▬▬▬▬ This is a work of fiction. Places, characters, dialogues, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously. This story contains profanity, sexual themes, drug usage, and some violence intended for mature readers. Read at your own risk. [DISCLAIMER: The author does not own the original images on the book cover.]

‎ ‎I died on Christmas Eve. ‎Poisoned by my sister… betrayed by the man I loved. ‎ ‎Death should have been my end. ‎Instead, it became my beginning. ‎ ‎When I wake up in a blood-soaked alley, a cold voice welcomes me to the “Demon Games" — a brutal survival arena where one hundred humans fight monstrous trials for a chance at rebirth. ‎ ‎The reward? ‎Ten years of life… and one impossible wish. ‎ ‎I am weak. ‎Near-blind. ‎And the easiest prey. ‎Which is why it makes no sense when “he" starts protecting me. ‎ ‎Tall. Masked. Dangerous. ‎His presence alone silences monsters… and makes my heart race for all the wrong reasons. ‎ ‎"Stay close," he whispers, his breath brushing my ear. ‎"Or I'll enjoy watching you beg." ‎They call him a demon. ‎A king. ‎A monster. ‎ ‎But when his hand grips my waist in the dark… ‎When his fingers tilt my chin up… ‎When his voice drops to a husky murmur. ‎"You're safer in my arms… don't make me prove it." ‎ ‎—I realize something far more dangerous. ‎I'm not just surviving the games anymore. ‎I'm becoming addicted to the man who could kill me. ‎ ‎Because the truth is… ‎The masked protector is the “Lycan King” — an overlord bound by rules that demand my death. ‎Yet every time we get too close… ‎Every time his control slips… ‎Every time his gaze lingers on my lips… ‎ ‎It feels less like protection… ‎And more like possession. ‎In a world where survival demands sacrifice and desire is a weakness… ‎I must choose— ‎Escape hell alone… ‎Or fall into the arms of the monster who wants to claim me. ‎ ‎

She couldn't love him. His heart didn't belong to her. It belonged to another woman; one that had loved him for years. And in her heart, the heart that he was slowly stealing with each sweet word and every act of kindness, she knew he loved that woman still. Maybe she would have hated him longer if he had been anything like his mother. The woman who forced her into this marriage by threatening her sister's future. But he wasn't. Samuel Madden was everything she dreamed of ending up with but settling for him might mean settling for half. Half of his heart, half of a family, half of a husband. He had everything planned. The ring, the house, the way he'd ask the woman he loved to marry him. But with one word from his mother, threatening to ruin her life, he found himself at the altar, saying void vows to a woman he met only a month ago. He was ready to settle and wait until he was free again, but Kali Hastings wasn't an easy woman to dislike. Sure, she had flaws, but they were nothing compared to her tender heart and perky personality. Now, he was falling for a woman who was daily conquering more and more of his heart. But at what cost? There was more connecting them than even she knew. A truth that had been buried in his family since he was born. Would she still want him when she found out the truth?