Thorns Beneath The Veil

Beneath the cover of a decent society lurks a hidden world, a world of darkness ruled by blood, betrayal and greed. But in this dark Mafia world, years of war and turmoil have left many crime families in ruin and on the brink of extinction, and among them is the once mighty Lorenzo family. Born into this world of blood and power is the beautiful Isabella Lorenzo… born and raised from childhood to obey and serve, in a world where women were nothing but currency for power and alliance. When her aging father, Don Antonio Lorenzo begins to lose his grip on the remains of his once powerful empire, Isabella is forced to become a pawn in a last ditch alliance: a contract marriage to Luca Bastoni, the deadly and emotionless heir of the rival Moretti syndicate. To the outside world, their union is a merging of wealth and influence, but beneath it lies a fragile bundle of chaos waiting to erupt. Luca is every bit a mafia prince… ruthless and power hungry, while his wife Isabella is a beauty who buries her pain under loyalty to her father. However, there is an undeniable attraction between Luca and Isabella, but years of bad blood between both families make trust an impossible dream… they may share a bed, but not a soul. Unknown to Isabella, the Morettis have no intention of keeping their part of the bargain… Their marriage is only a cover for annihilation.

À 21 ans, Cyra ne rêve pas de contes de fées. Livrée à elle-même depuis l’enfance, elle enchaîne les petits boulots pour fuir une maison où l’amour n’a jamais existé. Entre une mère absente et un beau-père manipulateur rongé par le jeu, elle n’a qu’un seul objectif : s’en sortir. Mais un soir, tout bascule. Drogue, trahison, piège sordide… Cyra se retrouve vendue à un hôtel miteux par celui qui aurait dû la protéger. Elle tente de fuir, de se sauver. C’est là que le destin la frappe de plein fouet. Raphaël, PDG froid et insaisissable, est lui aussi tombé dans un guet-apens orchestré par sa propre famille : drogué, poussé à concevoir un héritier pour préserver l’empire familial. Leurs chemins se croisent, leurs corps s’unissent dans une nuit irréelle, où ni l’un ni l’autre ne contrôle ce qui se joue. Au réveil, rien ne sera plus jamais comme avant.

Arielle Santos 24 years old never imagined that her life would be written for her — even her love story. She was raised in a modest family, a dreamer who painted her hopes in colors only she could see. But one evening, her world collapsed when her parents revealed the truth: to save their family from bankruptcy, she had to marry the son of their business partner — Evan Monteverde, the 28 years old, cold and distant heir of one of the country’s most powerful companies. Evan didn’t believe in love. To him, emotions were distractions — weaknesses that could ruin a man. He had long promised himself never to trust feelings again after being betrayed by someone he once loved. So when his father announced his arranged marriage with a woman he barely knew, he didn’t protest for love’s sake — only to end the endless lectures about “duty” and “family legacy.” Their wedding day was perfect — at least in the eyes of the guests. But behind the veil and the smiles, two strangers stood at the altar, reciting vows they didn’t mean. The words “I do”echoed in the church, but neither of them truly did. After the ceremony, they made a deal — they would live together for one year, play their roles for the sake of appearances, and then quietly separate. No love. No expectations. Just peace. But peace was harder to keep than they thought.

Les trois fils de la famille Dubois, qui m'avaient toujours chérie plus que tout, ont disparu quand la tumeur cérébrale maligne m'a torturée. L'opération risquait de me faire perdre la mémoire. Ne voulant pas les oublier, je leur ai téléphoné pour demander de l'aide. Mais après qu'ils ont raccroché, ils m'ont reprochée sans cesse : « Chloé, c'est l'anniversaire de Judia aujourd'hui, arrête de nous déranger ! » Je me suis évanouie de douleur. À mon réveil à l'hôpital, j'ai vu le message de Judia sur mon téléphone. « Chloé, les frères m'ont offert trois talismans de protection ! » Sur la photo, on voyait les trois talismans que j'avais obtenus pour eux, après sept heures à genoux sous la pluie. Mon cœur s'est brisé. Je suis partie seule à l'étranger et a subi l'opération pour les oublier. Jusqu'au jour où trois hommes inconnus se sont agenouillés devant chez moi, suppliant frénétiquement mon pardon.

Perfect Luna. Devoted wife. Dead woman walking. Ciara O'Callahan thought she had it all. A divine mate bond with the powerful Alpha Ronan O'Donoghue, a beautiful daughter, and the respect of her pack. Until the night she discovers her husband's dark secret: he shares more than just blood with his twin brother Ewan. Much more. But uncovering the truth comes at a deadly price. Betrayed and murdered by her own mother-in-law to protect the brothers' twisted bond, Ciara's last desperate wish echoes through the veil between life and death... And something answers. Now seventeen again, blessed with a second chance at life, Ciara faces an impossible choice. Submit to the sacred mate bond that would lead her back to Ronan? Or defy the very foundations of wolf society and forge her own destiny? This time, she refuses to be a pawn in fate’s cruel game. She will not walk blindly into a future paved with deceit. And when she crosses paths with Darragh Byrne, the mysterious and battle-scarred Alpha of the Moonveil Pack, the gods themselves seem to stir. Darragh is everything Ronan is not. Calculating, unpredictable, and entirely uninterested in a mate bond. Yet when his sharp golden eyes meet hers, something shifts in the air. A force just as powerful as destiny itself. Some say you can't fight fate, Ciara’s about to prove them wrong.

Mia, a beautiful and innocent girl, is running away from someone. When she stumbles upon a city, she's determined to have a fresh start. But it isn't as peaceful as it seems to be, as mysteries and murder lurk just beneath the surface. Even more so when she becomes entangled with two men, both hiding something. When the bodies begin piling up, who is to blame? It would seem Mia has never gotten away at all.

Life was tough for Svetlana Kozlovsky already courtesy to Bratva who was on a hunt to find her dead or alive but she apparently hadn't seen the worst of it yet. Well, until she met Luca Alessio Giannini, Don of the Cosa Nostra, faked being his arranged fiancé and becoming pregnant with his imaginary baby... Svetlana Yulia Kozlovsky 23-year-old, Second generation heir of Russian Mafia syndicate: Frivolous, scheming and clever as she is, her heart is plated in gold. Through series of bad childhood experiences molded her to be her caution self, she is a surgeon by profession with traumatic practice experience as a disciple of a mad doctor. Love and trust doesn't come easy to her. Luca Alessio Giannini 29-year old, head of the Italian Mafia. Apparently the CEO of Multi-Billion Company, he works in black and white trades. To the world he is self-made jolly playboy billionaire but under the veil he is cunning, promiscuous and when provoked a cold-hearted killer. Bored of every person meeting him with servitude, he immediately get attracted by the ice-cold Russian beauty who doesn't bat her eyes twice at him. With her devil-may-care attitude and aloofness to his charm, she is quick to catch the eyes of the Mafia King and he wants her. And nothing stops him from getting what he wants, not even the Raven head beauty who has his heart in her clutches.

When the world ends, Lilly James awakens. After a cataclysmic event fractures Earth and shatters the veil between realms, Lilly a seemingly ordinary woman who discovers she is the last tether holding the balance between divine order and infernal chaos. Hunted by celestial beings and demonic lords alike, Lilly is thrust into a war that has raged for eons in secret and now exposed and burning across the remains of the world. Caught in the eye of this divine storm are four men, two gods and two demons, sworn enemies from rival factions, each drawn to Lilly for reasons that go beyond destiny.     •    Kael, a fallen war god with a rage that could burn empires, hides a tortured honor behind his blade.     •    Theron, a stoic god of time and decay, holds the secrets to the apocalypse—and to Lilly’s past.     •    Riven, a charming demon prince of desire, masks deadly ambition with silken words and stolen touches.     •    Draven, a shadow-born demon of vengeance, silent and cold…except when he’s near her. Each of them needs her. Each of them wants her. But their desires might tear her and the world apart. As ancient prophecies unravel and her own powers begin to awaken, Lilly must navigate a brutal new reality where love could be her salvation or the catalyst for humanity’s final ruin. The gods demand devotion. The demons crave possession. But Lilly? She was never meant to bow. She was meant to rise.

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

When emotionally distant billionaire Ezekiel Kalu is forced to marry to fulfill a family inheritance clause, he signs a one-year contract marriage with Amara Obi, a headstrong artist struggling with mounting debts and secrets of her own. What starts as a calculated arrangement quickly spirals into something neither of them prepared for. Beneath the surface of their ice-cold agreement, old wounds, shocking betrayals, and an undeniable spark begin to tear down their defenses. But when hidden truths are revealed, will love be enough to survive the lies that brought them together?