Where The Crawdads Sing

The most popular girl from my high school is getting married. She invites everyone in our class to the wedding. I want to act like I don't see the message, but she deliberately tags me in the group chat. "You kept pretending to be a rich girl like me in high school, but I don't hold it against you. In fact, I'll allow you to attend my wedding tomorrow to see what the rich life is like." The other classmates speak up. "You're so generous, Haley. It's no wonder you can marry someone from the Baumer family. I can't believe you can even forgive someone as materialistic as Emma!" "Does someone like Emma Larkin even deserve to attend Haley's wedding? She's so full of herself." As the insults become worse, Haley Stockwell steps forward to keep the peace. "Come on, let's put this behind us. I'm not bothered by these things since it's been so long. Anyway, let's not bear a grudge against Emma when she's already so poor and ugly." Everyone in the group chat starts singing her praises and calling her kind and innocent. I sneer. Haley is the one who kept pretending to be rich—I'm the true heiress from an affluent family, yet she made me out to be a liar. She turned me into the target of everyone's insults. I check the digital wedding invitation to see that the venue is my villa. The groom looks familiar—isn't he my husband's driver? I smile at the thought of what's going to happen. I reply, "Sure! I have to attend your wedding!"

Tiarra Shane has never felt happiness since she was a child. Yes, they live a prosperous life, she gets what she wants, and she never has a problem with anything — she has nothing more to ask for, as others have stated. But, unbeknownst to everyone, she didn't need material things to be happy. She only needed her father and twin to accept and love her. She had the impression that his father and Reina Margaux, her twin, were not treated equally from the start. Their father treats them differently in terms of toys, clothes, and love. Because they held her responsible for their mother's death. She does everything they want, anything that pleases them, but she receives nothing but pain. How can she be happy if the only thing that will make her happy is the same thing that is causing her pain? How long will she have to pay for a sin she never committed? Her ultimate goal in life is to find the happiness she craves. But when will she be able to experience happiness in her lifetime?

Nicole thought that her life would be easy now after she left behind all the memories of an awful night, but an unexpected tribulation led to her moving into a new city, trying to forget the inexplicable incident that happened to her. Little did she know that she could never escape from it because the devil would always find her, no matter how hard she tried to get away from him. He was meant to be her medicine, but he turned out to be poisonous. I hear his hoarse voice bringing me back from the daze as he growls in between the kisses. "You have no idea how dangerous it can be..." He says with his lips going down to the area just above my breast, he sucks in desperately, squeezing my ass gently, making me whimper in bliss. I cling to his shirt, trying to hold my body from collapsing. "Careful...You are messing with the devil, Cole." He doesn't let me breathe for a minute as he starts attacking me with his open-mouthed kisses back. Rapture succumbs to me as I feel his lips again on my neck, traveling higher. I breathe heavily, unable to maintain my composure while being acquainted with this unfamiliar sensation. His lips reach my ear as he gently nibbles my earlobe. "You know why people call me the devil?" His breath fanned over my ear. "It's not because I am a sinner." His harsh breath comes out of his pants, showing me how equally affected he is as he continues. "It's because I am capable of making innocent people commit sins."

My coming-of-age ceremony was supposed to be a celebration. My father, the Alpha of Alphas, had invited every powerful pack in the land. His goal: for me to choose a mate from the land's strongest Alphas. I chose the most powerful of them all, Alpha Lukas. But my sister Lyla, my father's bastard, was only allowed a lowly beta. She was slaughtered in the forest. After her death, Lukas and I crafted 99 soul crystals in her memory. I thought he did it for me, to honor my fallen sister. But then he killed me in battle. With his bare hands. "You bitch! If you hadn't chosen me, Lyla would have been my mate!" Only then did I learn the truth. He had only ever loved Lyla. He hated me for stealing the life that should have been hers. Those 99 soul crystals… they weren't for her memory. They were for my penance. I died in a sea of despair. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of my ceremony. Facing the most powerful Alphas in the world, I walked past them all and chose the one no one wanted. The half-breed outcast despised by all. Salome.

"What is your name, little flame?" The young man asked, crouching down before the stubborn 4 year old. "Miwa... Iretomiwa." She answered with a dazzling smile. "Miwa... Iretomiwa...a beautiful name... what does it mean?" The young man asked tenderly and the little girl grinned. "...that you're in luck... because it means blessing has come to you..." The little girl replied in a childish teasing voice, the young man threw his head back and laughed loudly. "Blessing has come to me?...Miwa... Iretomiwa...my blessing." The young man whispered in a loving tone. **Cover art does not belong to author, all credits go to the original artist**

“Even if the world shuns me, laughs at me, gives me strange looks, and labels me as a freak, I will not give up. I will never give up on what I believe in, even if it takes years, I will continue to persevere until I achieve my goal and get what I deserve!” These were the words Juan always told herself deep down in her heart whenever she looked at the mirror. These were the words that made her keep on going whenever they laughed at her, mocked her for being ugly. To her, as long as she has faith even as small as a mustard seed, she believes that one day, her time will come and her life will change for the better. All she needed was a chance, an opportunity and that is all it took for her life to be changed eternally forever. Destiny came knocking at her door and no matter how many times she tried throwing this chance away, it followed her home and from that day going forward, Juan, the ugly and clown everyone was used to became a beauty that many couldn’t touch. Even if the journey wasn’t simple and rocky, she wasn’t willing to give it up and live a life of suffering as she did. Will there be happiness waiting for her at the end of the road? Will she be willing to sacrifice it all to achieve her dreams and goals?

Yaszy Romano was taken from Alessio Romano at the age of six. One day the adoptive parents get into a car accident and Alessio get a call from the police. Read to learn more about Yaszy Romano:)

On one drunken night, Nora had with a handsome stranger, Austin, who has a lot of baggage that he's dealing with and isn't ready to commit. The results in pregnancy, but before Nora can inform Austin that she’s carrying his baby, she finds out the abominable reason why he doesn't want to commit or have kids. Embittered, she goes away and has her baby boy somewhere far away from him. She lives her life quietly, until five years later, when she runs into Austin at an airport, and her quiet life becomes chaotic once again. Nora wants nothing to do with him, but she has to be cordial with him for her son’s sake … or so she tells herself.

His eyes remained warm as he gazed at me. "I will do anything for you, don't ever forget that." He moved closer, gently tucking the rose behind my ear. "I promise you a future.." "Since when did my future switch from being a threat to being a promise?" I couldn't help but cut in looking straight into his eyes. He got paused for a moment as remorse flashed in his eyes. --- Elaine had given three months to their fateful marriage. Though it was an arranged more like forced marriage, Elaine had given her all to make it work. Only Cannon didn't reciprocate her efforts, let alone her feelings. He got blinded by anger and only used Elaine as a pawn to get his revenge. But it all changed when returning home, Cannon found the divorce papers with Elaine gone from his life__ --- Sequel of the book "Married to My Sister's Boyfriend" This one can be read as a standalone story but would be better if you check out the first one before this...

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.