Vanessa Brooks Blade Novels & Stories

Princess Riley of Avarayne watched merchants with ledger, smooth smiles murder her mother at the docks and cast the queen into the harbour's hungry rip. Days later, her grief-numbed father guided by a new wife with colder hands than the sea stripped Riley's birthright and crowned a newborn son in her place. Hounded by courtly poisons and a stepsister who polishes beauty like a blade, Riley binds her chest, hides her hair beneath a bandana, and vanishes into the night as "Rye." Aboard the infamous Gilded Wraith under Captain Kade Thorne, the Wolf of the Azure. Rye learns knots, storms, and the language of survival. A slow, impossible pull grows between captain and "boy," even as she steers the crew through sea monsters, rival pirates, and raids against the royal fleet hunting them. But when a bounty bearing House Morcant's seal surfaces, Riley glimpses the conspiracy that began the night her mother drowned. Captured and unmasked to save Kade's life, Riley is dragged back to a palace that would sell her in marriage to silence the truth. To free the man who became her compass and claim the justice denied her, she must choose: reclaim a crown salted with blood or burn the lies that built it.

To help my husband, Ryan Whitaker, compete for the director position, I spend an entire month securing the sale of a luxury apartment worth tens of millions of dollars. On the day the contract is signed, Ryan hands the primary contract to Lucinda Brooks, a new employee who has just joined the company. When I demand an explanation, his eyes flicker with guilt. Still, he argues, "Lucinda studied abroad. She is more academically accomplished than you, and her Iridian is better. The client happens to have a foreign business partner, so it'll be smoother if she takes the lead on the signing." As he speaks, he wraps an arm around my shoulders, expecting me to compromise like I always do. But this time, I don't smile but continue to pull a long face. That very afternoon, I submit my resignation letter and hand over every core client under my management. Ryan is furious as he tears up the resignation letter and mocks me. "When I married you, I didn't even care that you only graduated from high school. Why are you picking a fight with a newcomer now?" I laugh. It's true that I don't have an impressive educational background, but he's forgotten one most crucial thing. I didn't earn my title as the company's sales champion through academic credentials.

I misbehaved. My knees ached from being planted on the aggressively cold floor for so long, but I would take the pain for as long as possible, if it meant gaining the Devil's forgiveness. I whimpered helplessly as the beast of a man pierced me with his cold eyes, ever so subtly patting his strong thigh twice. "D-daddy please-" My pleas were unfinished and went unheard as he continued to pick up the black paddle from his desk and roll up his sleeves. "Don't waste my time, angel." He muttered gruffly, the depth of his well matured voice making every fibre of my being to tremble. "Bend over daddy's lap and receive your punishment, princess." "Y-yes daddy." For her he'd slaughter a nation and drag many to Hell. The Devil has had his eyes on Vanessa since he met the innocent, untainted angel. His Angel. He'd do anything to keep her, to feel her impeccable skin under his impure fingertips, to kiss and stain the luscious lips of an angel with sin and to ruin her innocence and carve his name into her soul. And she's not just about to resist him. When an innocent, naive, little angel mingles with the step-father from Hell.

Adrian Hayes has everything most people dream fame, wealth, championships, and millions of fans. But one carefully planned scandal threatens to destroy it all overnight. After being framed in a false intimacy scandal before the league playoffs, Adrian's sponsors withdraw, his reputation crumbles, and the team gives him only one week to restore public trust. Desperate, his PR team proposes an unusual solution: create the image of a loyal, wholesome friendship with someone outside the hockey world. During the search, Adrian unexpectedly reunites with Ethan Brooks, a struggling photographer he knew during university. Ethan is fighting a different battle. His mother's mounting hospital bills have pushed him to the edge of bankruptcy, forcing him to reject his dream photography projects. Although uncomfortable with becoming part of a publicity campaign, Ethan finally accepts Adrian's generous six-month contract to save his mother's life. As they appear together at games, charity events, interviews, and photo shoots, the public becomes fascinated by their effortless chemistry. Their fake friendship slowly develops into genuine trust, then affection, and eventually love. However, fame comes at a price. Their contract is leaked, jealous rivals manipulate the media, and both men are forced to choose between protecting their careers or following their hearts. Through injuries, betrayals, family struggles, and public judgment, Adrian and Ethan discover that the greatest victory is not winning championships but finding someone willing to stand beside them long after the cameras stop rolling.

Terry Wilde is the ruthless, hot-headed captain of the Boston Blizzard. After a violent locker-room brawl threatens his multi-million dollar contract, the front office delivers an ultimatum: find a stable girlfriend to clean up his image, or spend the playoffs benched. Eve Brooks is the team's brilliant new Head of Analytics. She is sharp, data-driven, and completely immune to Terry’s infamous charm—partly because she thinks he’s a reckless jock, but mostly because she’s a lesbian. When Eve’s ultra-conservative family threatens to cut off her career funding unless she presents a "respectable" male suitor, Terry’s PR team pitches the ultimate trade. The Deal: Fake-date for the season. Terry gets a wholesome image makeover, and Eve keeps her dream job. To fool the aggressive paparazzi, Eve moves into Terry’s luxury penthouse. Living together is supposed to be safe. With zero sexual tension on her end, they form an unlikely alliance—she fixes his game strategy, and he acts as her secret wingman at elite sports galas. But as the high-stakes NHL playoffs loom, the lines between fake and real begin to blur. Through late-night hockey tape sessions and fierce on-ice protection, Terry finds himself falling for the one woman he can't have, while Eve faces an unexpected emotional awakening with the one man who truly makes her feel safe.

BLURB Ava Carter has one dream: play elite hockey. But the Falcons Academy doesn’t recruit girls. So when her twin brother Noah walks away from his scholarship, Ava makes a reckless choice. She steals his identity, his jersey, his future. Now she’s living as Noah Carter, training, competing, and sleeping in the same dorm as Kai Bennett, her brother’s ruthless rival. Kai has spent years trying to defeat Noah. Now they’re roommates. And Kai is starting to notice something is wrong. The way Noah moves. The way he looks at him. The way his pulse changes when they collide on the ice. Then there’s Liam Brooks, captain of the Eagles. Noah’s best friend. The boy who knows her better than anyone. And the only one who might recognize the truth. Caught between her brother’s rival and her brother’s best friend, Ava is playing the most dangerous game of her life. Because the more she wins on the ice, the closer she gets to losing everything: her dream, her secret, her heart. And when her helmet falls in front of a packed arena and her hair spills free… The silence is louder than any crowd. Now the whole world is watching. And no one feels more betrayed than the two boys staring at her from opposite ends of the ice.

William Samsons MacRay, a famous architect, seemed to have a problem with getting everything done on time. He is a mature man, 37 years old, who is late in getting married because he is busy creating amazing architectural buildings in various parts of the world. However, this time, the unfortunate incident when his wallet was stolen and he missed his flight at the airport actually brought Will together with Emmy Estelia Setiawan. This cute 22-year-old girl has just returned to Jakarta after completing her architecture education at Harvard University. He bought Will a cup of coffee and also took the mature man home in an airport taxi. Who would have thought that Will was the owner of Fame Palette Artisans Co., a place that received an Emmy for working via email while still in the United States? This was the first time William felt so attracted to a girl that he kept Emmy with him wherever he went to work around the world: Berlin, Dublin, Morocco, Prague, Rotterdam, etc. They became so close that they had a special sugar daddy and sugar baby relationship. When the seeds of love grew, Will's parents even arranged for him to marry Vanessa, the daughter of their colleague, so that he could get married quickly. Will William dare to continue fighting for his love for his beloved cute girl, or will he try to be logical and end the long age gap relationship?

For one year, I believed Matteo De Luca had truly fallen in love with me. Our marriage began as an alliance, but he held me every night, kissed me before council meetings, and fastened the De Luca Donna brooch at my throat as if I already belonged beside him. Then his first love, Vanessa Ashford, came back. Within days, our official ceremony was postponed, her access was added to the Donna wing, and Matteo stopped wearing the family signet he once used to claim me in public. He said it was council business. But council business did not leave amber perfume on his skin. It did not sit beside him on a private jet to Palm Beach. And it certainly did not smile from the Donna’s chair while his friends watched me lose my place. The final humiliation came at a private dinner, when someone asked whether I was Matteo’s wife. He looked at me, then said calmly, “Elena and I have an arrangement.” That night, I stopped waiting to be chosen. Matteo could keep his first love, his title, and the home he let her enter. I packed my passport, my Florence contract, and the prenatal report he had never seen. Then I left New York with his child.

She pretended not to see. He pretended not to care. Now the whole mafia clan watching them burn. When Leo Christofides saved a man’s life, she lost everything—her sight, her future as a prima ballerina, and her freedom. For two years, she’s lived in darkness, relying on the man who once promised to be her eyes. But when her vision returned, the first thing she sees is betrayal: her fiancé tangled up with her nurse, wearing the same smile he used to give only to Leo. Before Leo can escape this nightmare, she’s handed over like a pawn in a blood-soaked stand-off between two gangs. She is sold to an attractive, enigmatic mafia boss with a gun on his hip and secrets in his eyes. His name is Vic, and he introduces her to his clan not as a hostage but as his wife. Now Leo must play blind in a house full of killers, where power is the only hard currency and trust is a suicide. But she’s not the helpless girl Hermano thinks she is. Leo has a dark secret of her own. She is watching. Waiting. The next move is hers, and it can be deadly. The Vision She Hid is a dark, seductive thriller dripping in secrets and slow-burn heat, where power struggle meets mafia romance with a blade between its teeth.

When my ex-husband, Hanson Rowse, got remarried, I jumped into the ocean with our ten-year-old daughter, Tess Rowse, in my arms. The police called Hanson and my parents. The wedding reception was cut short, and they all rushed over. My soul hung in the air above it all, watching as Tess was pulled from the water. The sight of her hit like a blade to the chest. At the hospital, my parents looked at her with nothing but cold indifference. My brother, Edward Wells, didn't hesitate. He stepped forward and slapped her hard across the face. "You're just like your mother! Always causing trouble and pulling cheap stunts like this just to get attention." Hanson's fists clenched. He scanned the area, and when he couldn't see me anywhere, anger spilled into his eyes. "Where's Melody? She picked my wedding day to pull this stunt, and now she won't even show her face? If she really wanted to die, why leave behind this burden?" At his words, Tess suddenly moved. She stumbled toward the window, climbed up, and before anyone could react, she jumped. The room went dead silent for a heartbeat. Then, the screaming started. What they didn't know was this: the first thing Tess and I learned at that reform school was obedience.