I was there the day the wall fell from the sky. The day they gunned down my mother and permanently separated the rich from the poor. I was there the day my father decided he could force utopia on a certain half of the population and leave the rest to rot.
Pragmapax was once a great city, the only remaining outpost of civilization in our part of the world. But now, divided by an impossible wall, we've become two cities. Two peoples that despise each other. Two different ways of life-one idyllic and peaceful, the other savage and lawless. Civil war seethes in the air, breathing down our necks.
The only thing I know is that if war finally breaks out, I'm trapped on the wrong side of the wall.
Contains mature themes.
An heir to the throne . . .
Tessana Allisand might have proven that she's the oldest living daughter of the dead king of Elysia, and that she's the rightful heir to the Seat of Power, but that doesn't mean she gets to be queen . . . yet. Forced to wait until her twenty-first birthday, Tess is supposed to be learning how to navigate court life and all the ways she will one day rule. But circumstances and her nefarious uncle keep getting in the way of her education.
A kingdom in turmoil . . .
While Tess is pampered with the luxuries of castle life, the rest of the kingdom suffers under the oppressive thumb of the Ring of Shadows. Tess alone must find a way to stand up to the dark magic threatening to choke the life from her precious kingdom.
A love shaken by distance . . .
Tessana and Taelon found each other in the depths of the Blood Woods. But now, with separate kingdoms to fight for and royal duties to attend to, life is pushing them in impossibly opposite directions. Tess wants nothing more than for Taelon to be at her side. And yet, she will never ask him to leave his own kingdom for hers. Fate seems determined to keep them apart. And love that will defy titles, crowns, and destiny.
Lola Ellis has a picture-perfect life. Until she doesn't.
Successful and engaged to the man of her dreams. Until suddenly she's questioning her position in the family company, her fiance's fidelity, and everything she thought she knew about life.
On her way to Florida to open a new branch of the family business and meet her fiance, she unexpectedly detours to visit her best friend in Durham, North Carolina. What was meant to be a week of rest and relaxation stretches into a permanent TBD.
Will English is an uptight, arrogant bartender who keeps scaring away waitresses. When Lola takes a job at his bar to fill her time, he decides not to engage with the underqualified waitress. She's clumsy, clueless, and costing him too much money. And yet . . . there's something about her that keeps him from dismissing her.
After the bar closes every night, they forge a friendship that doesn't fit into either of their lives. Lola's stay in Durham is only temporary. And Will's roots in the city are deeply established. A relationship doesn't make sense. But sometime after midnight one night . . . they decide they don't care.
Contains mature themes.
Zombies — as if that wasn’t enough to ruin any girl’s dream of a happily ever after. A vaccination gone oh so wrong and a huge portion of the world’s population was turned into Zombies. Reagan Willow is forced out of her home when her parents become casualties of the horrid Zombie Apocalypse. With the help of her best friend Haley, they’ve become experts on surviving the dangers of a world thrust into chaos and decay.
Reagan and Haley are on a vague mission to find somewhere safe to live out the remainders of their terrifying lives when they stumble upon the Parkers, a pack of brothers that seem to have the survival thing down in a much more efficient and successful way than Reagan could ever have imagined. They're also protecting their eight-year-old sister, Page, and will do anything to keep her safe. Zombies are a daily problem, constantly threatening the lives of their group, but they’re not the only peril on the journey ahead. Militia groups of power-hungry men are also a constant concern. And settlements of paranoid, suspicious people turn out to be just as hazardous.
Love and Decay, Volume One, is a compilation of the first six episodes in a twelve-episode season. It's a Dystopian Romance Novella Series about Zombies, the end of the world and finding someone to share it with. This story takes place over multiple episodes.
A lost princess . . .
Tessana Allisand had a family once. A home. A title. A future. Until one night when everything she loved was taken from her. Secreted away to an isolated monastery in the farthest region of the realm, Tess was raised in the silence of monks and the loneliness of tragedy. And there she would have stayed if the dark magic that killed her family hadn't finally found her.
An impossible quest . . .
With her identity discovered, Tessana must face the home she fled all those years ago. The Crown of Nine must return to its rightful place and Tess must be the one to carry it across the nine kingdoms. And when she arrives? She'll need to convince a dying kingdom that the crown that has belonged to one hundred kings should be given to a queen.
A rebellious prince . . .
Taelon Treskinat was in love once. With a princess. The daughter of a slaughtered king. He risked everything to save her, to make sure she survived. When that same princess tumbles back into his life no longer the scared little girl he remembers from childhood, he must decide where his duty lies. With the girl that will threaten everything he knows and loves. Or the kingdom he will do anything to protect.
My name is Clover Calloway and I've lived two separate lives.
The first, I like to call 'my past.' My rockstar days of playing in one of the hottest bands on the planet are over. Along with the most volatile, beautiful, tragic love story of all time.
Over the past five years, I've settled into my second life. My 'normal life.' The life where I'm admittedly a little bored, but also safe.
My past wasn't boring. But my past broke my heart into a million, unfixable pieces. And the man responsible for the shattering of me? Malachi Porter, lead singer and mastermind of Bright Tragedy, should stay there too. Far away from me and this idyllic life I've carved out for myself.
But what happens when my two lives collide?
When Malachi comes crashing into my perfectly normal world, he threatens to destroy it, promises to annihilate everything I've replaced him with. He upends everything I thought I wanted and forces me to question the reasons I left Bright Tragedy all those years ago.
Malachi Porter isn't a normal guy. And he doesn't belong in my 'normal life.' I just hope my heart can survive him, that we don't burn into another bright tragedy.
Trailer park born and raised. It's my legacy. That's how my mama lived. And that's how her mama lived. It's the life I was born into and it's the life I swore I would leave the second I was old enough to make it out.
Only legacies have a funny way of sneaking up on you. An innocent decision the night of high school graduation led to a series of complications in my plans to escape.
Seven years later, I've resigned myself to this small town and the roots I'm tied to. Nothing could make me leave. And nothing could make me spill the secrets that keep me here. Until he walks back into town with a chip on his shoulder and a stupid hunch nobody else in town has been smart enough to follow.
Levi Cole is my opposite. Born on the right side of the tracks with family money to spare, he's the kind of black sheep that can afford to be rebellious-because his family will always pay for his mistakes. He's also the only living heir to Cole Family Farms, after his brother Logan was killed in duty seven years ago.
He sees something in my life that he thinks he has a right to. But he's wrong. And obnoxious. And he needs to take his stubborn good looks and that intense way he looks at me and go back to wherever it was he came from.
I know better than to trust men like him. I was born and raised in a trailer park, I know nothing good happens to girls like me-girls with trailer park lives and trailer park hearts. Especially from gorgeous, kind, pigheaded men like him.
Contains mature themes.
I quit life. Or at least my new job. My new, fancy, head chef position at one of the most acclaimed restaurants in the city is not turning out like I'd hoped. I'm a mess. Totally out of my element and underqualified, I've been thrown into a fiery kitchen and I'm not sure I can handle the heat.
My personal life is falling apart. And to make matters worse, my best friend's brother keeps popping up at all my worst moments to save the day. I've never claimed to have it together, but I certainly don't need a man to rescue me every time I get my heel stuck in a sewer grate. Except that's what keeps happening. Vann Delane is pushy and stuck up and thinks he knows everything there is to know about everything.
I've decided to stay away from him. I've got too many other fires to put out to worry about the something between us that doesn't have a name. So, he can give his knight in shining armor kindness to someone else. And he can save those intense glances and butterfly-inducing smiles for the nice girl he's looking for. And he can deny it all he wants, but I know he likes me.
He says I drive him crazy. But I know there's something about me that he can't deny.
Contains mature themes.
I'm over men. I'm done with them.
Or at least the ones that work in my kitchen. Fine, one man in particular. Wyatt Shaw is cocky and condescending and so far out of his element that he doesn't know which way is up. Or how to run his brand new kitchen all by himself.
That's where I come in. Sous chef extraordinaire. Second in command. Bane of his existence. I am the reason Wyatt's doing so well as the new executive chef of one of our city's most prestigious restaurants. He has me to thank for his glowing accolades and five-star write-ups. Only if you were to ask him, he'd say I'm his biggest problem.
Despite his discouragement and bullish behavior, I've set two goals for myself.
The first? I'm going to fight my way to the top of this male-dominated industry and claim my own award-winning kitchen.
The second? I'm going to do whatever it takes to ignore Wyatt and his rare smiles and the thickening tension that's started to simmer between us.
Wyatt Shaw might be Durham's new shining star. He might be up for a James Beard Award. He might be my new boss and key to my future success, but he's also in my way.
So he can keep his smoldering looks and secret kisses. And he can be the one that figures out how to make it through service without getting distracted by me.
I'm not the problem. The problem is him.
Contains mature themes.
I'm cursed. At least when it comes to finding Mr. Right. I'm tired of men that only want one-night stands or blind dates that are nothing but awkward and uncomfortable. I'm tired of avoiding inappropriate text messages and the constant disappointment of always meeting Mr. Wrong. After all these years of dates that lead nowhere, I can admit that it's me. I'm the problem. I'm shy and picky and cursed. Definitely cursed. So I've decided two things. The first? I'm giving up dating and relationships and men in general. Maybe, possibly, forever. The second? I'm going to have to try harder to avoid Ezra Baptiste. If I couldn't hack it in the kiddy pool of dating, I certainly can't swim in his deep end. He's too successful. Too intense. He's all man when I'm used to nothing but boys pretending to be grownups. He's everything I'm afraid to want and so far out of my league we might as well be different species entirely. So he'll need to find a different artist to paint his mural. And a different graphic designer to help him with his website. He'll need to find someone else to glare at and flirt with and kiss. It can't be me. We're too different. Contains mature themes.
I've sworn off men. All men. Famous last words, right? You're expecting some epic tale of reluctant love and my dramatic change of heart? Well, you're not going to get it. I'm stubborn. And headstrong. And I've just survived the worst three years of my life. After escaping an abusive boyfriend to live in hostels and cheap hotels while I worked my way across Europe, I've come to two conclusions. The first? Now that I'm back home, I'm going to squander my expensive culinary degree on a food truck that caters to the late night drunk crowd. The second? I'm going to prove to the bastard across the plaza that my street food is better than his fussy five course monstrosities. Killian Quinn might be Food and Wine's Chef to Watch Out For. He might have a Michelin Star. He might have every food critic in the city wrapped around his too-large fingers. But he's also pretentious and unbearably arrogant and the very opposite of me. So he can keep his unsolicited advice and his late night visits and his cocky smiles. I want none of it. Or him. I want the opposite. Contains mature themes.
