Time Magazine's 100 Best Novels Novels & Stories

Alphonsus Series 2: Jannah Leigh Alcantara She has been in love with her best friend and successfully kept her feelings from him ever since they were young. But when he got drunk, something happened between them. He brought her to his bed, and it happens over and over again every time he got drunk. Now, what will happen once she gets pregnant? ----- Jannah Leigh Alcantara has been in love with Jeremy, her best friend. She successfully kept her feelings from him ever since they were young. But one night, Jeremy got drunk. Confident that Jeremy wouldn't remember a single thing once he woke up, Jannah confessed her feelings, only to be taken advantage of by him. Something always happened between them, and Jannah couldn't help but surrender to the man she loved the most. But then, she got pregnant and was presented with the biggest betrayal she had ever experienced in her entire life: Jeremy revealed something that broke her heart. Now, she was torn between letting Jeremy take responsibility or hide their child. But upon choosing the former for she was left with no choice, his parents found out about her pregnancy and did something that both turn their worlds upside down. And that is, setting them up for marriage.

Karimba Cellon is a thirty-year-old billionaire, the only son of tycoon Mark Cellon. When he was young, Karimba witnessed his stepmother, Janet Cellon, causing a fatal car accident, which led to him developing a fear of women. Later, for business interests, he was forced to marry Alley Houston, a woman he didn't love. Alley Houston is the esteemed daughter of the Houston lineage, known for being the most renowned scientists in the world. Alley, on the other hand, suffers from multiple personality disorder since the death of her twin sister. Coincidentally, her twin sister, Lily Houston, was a victim of a car accident caused by Karimba Cellon's stepmother. Two individuals who seemed unlikely to ever come together start falling in love after countless misunderstandings. Will the plots orchestrated by Janet Cellon and Brenda Mclean, her niece, along with the emergence of a second personality within Alley Houston's body, prevent them from being together? And what crimes will be revealed and exposed to the light?

Sabrina devoted seven years of her life to a marriage built on hope, sacrifice, and repeated heartbreak. But just when she discovers she is pregnant again, her husband Leon shatters her world with one sentence.” She’s carrying a healthy baby, Sabrina… and she deserves to be with the father of her child.” Thrown aside for Zara—his first love, now heavily pregnant with his child—Sabrina spirals into a life-threatening tragedy the moment Leon turns his back. As she fights for her life in the hospital, the only man who runs to her side is Cole, Leon’s best friend… the man who has silently loved her for years. While Leon builds a new family with Zara, Cole bleeds, fights, and risks everything to keep Sabrina alive. Betrayed and broken, she finds unexpected solace in Cole Lander—her husband’s best friend. Will Sabrina find the strength to start over, or will her pain consume her?

At twenty-eight, I held the dubious honor of being the last unmarried socialite on New York's Upper East Side. Everyone around me was growing increasingly anxious about my single status. In my previous life, my mother arranged a matchmaking cocktail party, where I was told to choose a husband from ten handpicked elite bachelors. I bribed the event planner to place Mark West's profile at the very top—and as I had hoped, I chose him. After we married, Mark treated me with what seemed like tender affection. He even bought me an oceanfront villa in the Hamptons, making me believe I had finally found true love. But that illusion shattered the day I was nine months pregnant, just hours away from giving birth. Mark drove a scalpel straight into my abdomen—then, right in front of me, hurled our newborn onto the floor. "If you hadn't forced me into this marriage with your family's power, Sofia wouldn't have been heartbroken enough to go drinking and get drugged and assaulted. This… this is what you owe her!" He tossed the scalpel aside, then calmly let his private doctor pin down my blood-soaked body. I fought through excruciating pain for six agonizing hours, until I finally bled to death. Afterward, Mark dumped my corpse into the Hudson River. But for Sofia, he hosted a grand funeral—funded with my money, under my name—and paraded himself to the world as a grieving, devoted widower. Given a second chance at life, I refused to step foot in that cursed matchmaking event. Instead, I went straight to my mother with a demand: marry me to Robert Black—the most ruthless, cold-blooded titan of Wall Street, whose scarred face was feared by all. In the end, stripped of my financial backing, Mark's hedge fund collapsed. He became a disgraced fraudster, spat on by everyone on Wall Street.

A week before summer break, my boyfriend’s childhood sweetheart threw a fit, insisting on going to Tanond to watch a strip show. She even convinced our entire class to go with them. I kept warning them that it was not safe, that it could be some kind of new scam, and begged them not to go. When they refused to listen, I secretly reported it to the police. On the day of their departure, the police stopped them right at customs. A few days later, a male stripper suddenly went viral overnight. When she found out about it, she got so furious her eyes turned red. “It’s all Zoey’s fault! If it weren’t for her, we could’ve seen an international superstar's strip show!” On the first day we went back to school, they drugged me and made ten men teach me how to dance. “Didn’t you stop us from watching a strip show? Then you can perform one for us yourself.” The next day, my photos of strip show were all over social media. After that, I jumped off a building out of despair. When I opened my eyes again, it was once again the day his little sweetheart demanded that trip to Tanond.

“My brother would kill you, Roman. Hell, I shouldn’t even be here!” He moves closer, blocking the exit. “He’s not here, and you’re not telling me to stop, Nikki. So, why don’t we stop lying to each other and admit the truth?" I glare at him. My heart’s slamming against my chest. “Which is what exactly?” A wicked smirk curves his lips. “That we want each other. Always have. No matter how badly we shouldn’t.” *** Ten years ago, I almost kissed the one guy I should’ve stayed away from, my brother’s best friend, Roman Hayes. But then he vanished from our lives and has somehow become the person my brother hates the most. I haven’t seen him in years. The last place I expect to find him is at a high-end gala where I’m meeting potential sponsors for my charity, dressed in a ridiculously expensive suit and reeking of sin—and somehow, he might be the answer to all my prayers. But there’s a catch: I’m not supposed to be anywhere near him, and the moment our eyes lock, I know I’ve made the biggest mistake of my entire life. He’s my brother’s ex-best friend, after all, and there’s a spark between us that’s never been extinguished, and a truth neither of us wants to admit. But some truths are darker than I could have possibly imagined, and some games are too wicked and wild to be entertained. This man might just destroy my life in ways I never saw coming… And the worst part? I’ll enjoy every second of it.

"Take off your ring." His command settled deep in my bones. I shouldn’t be doing this. And yet… I slid the ring off my finger. He stood on the other side of the room, his face hidden in shadows, but I felt him—his presence wrapping around me like a dark temptation. "Take off your clothes." I obeyed, my fingers hesitating at the waistband of my underwear. "I didn’t tell you to touch that." So I stood there—shoes on, pants still clinging to my hips—while my engagement party continued just down the hall. His gaze burned through me, drinking me in. "God, Butterfly." His voice was a tortured whisper, and I ached to comfort him. "Crawl to me." The words settled over me like silk and steel. Slowly, on all fours, I obeyed… --- Alessandra has always been the family push over even when her father forces her into a marriage. She plays the role of the perfect fiancée—obedient, loyal, untouchable. Until she meets him. Jeremy’s best friend. A man just as powerful, just as dangerous—but with eyes that see right through her. A man who tempts her to break every rule, risk every consequence. They hate each other on sight. But hate is just another kind of heat, and the fire between them threatens to burn everything to the ground. Loving him could cost her everything. Resisting him might destroy her. Either way, she’s already ruined. ~~~~~ Trigger warning : Dark Romance, obsession, Forbidden Romance, Male lead is a bit mentally checked out...

At twenty, she had one reckless night with the Beta who always looked at her like she was trouble. By morning, he was gone. He left more than silence behind. Two years later, she’s raising their daughter alone — strong, proud, and over him. Then he comes back. Not as Beta. As Alpha. And he wants what he didn’t stay for.

On the way home during the holidays, my fiance's sister-in-law, Pamela Kensington, brings out an electric pot that requires 2,000 watts in order to function so that she can cook some meatballs. "The sockets in the electric car are meant for us to use, no? If we can't have hot food during our trips, then what's the use of having an electric car in the first place?" My fiance, Mason Vance, who is driving, doesn't bother to stop Pamela. Instead, he helps her fill up the pot with water while smiling. In my previous life, I had strictly stopped them from cooking meatballs and told them that we didn't have enough power left in the electric car. If they were to cook the meatballs, the car would stop in the middle of the journey, and we wouldn't be able to make it home. Pamela, who tagged along for the ride, thought that I refused to let her son have a piping hot meal, so she began criticizing me. Mason, on the other hand, thought that I was being too much of a busybody. He slapped me in front of everyone before pushing me out of the car. I was frozen to the bone in the blizzard as I watched everyone else leave me behind happily. In the end, I died from hypothermia. When I woke up again, I realized I'd returned to the moment when Pamela is about to plug the electric pot into the socket. This time, I hand her a power strip. "Go ahead and use this power strip. It can channel more power for your meatballs to cook quickly."

She swore she’d never fuck him. Her brother’s best friend. The Madrigal heir. Arrogant, reckless, built to ruin her. Then one night he had her bent over the sheets—rough grip, filthy mouth, fucking her like she was already his. It should’ve been a mistake. Just sex. Just heat. Now there’s a billion-dollar merger on the line, a mafia family in the shadows, and Josephine can’t stop spreading her legs for the one man guaranteed to wreck her. He’s chaos. She’s ambition. Together they’re obsession, destruction, and the dirtiest mistake she’ll ever make twice.