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What do you do when you find out that your straight-laced, investment banker fiancé is sleeping with your wild-child best friend--who just happens to be your cousin and your maid-of-honor--three days before your wedding?
You leave him at the altar after reading their dirty text messages out loud to two hundred of your closest friends and family and then you go on your two-week honeymoon to a tropical, all-inclusive resort... but you don't go alone.
Nope--you take your back-stabbing bestie's walking red flag of an on-again-off-again situationship with you.
Tattooed and gorgeous, Dean Mercer is everything I despise in a man--cocky and condescending. Arrogant and abrasive. The almost kiss we shared two years ago?
Completely irrelevant.
Inviting him along was the cherry on top of my revenge fantasy sundae--but I didn't want to actually spend time with him.
You go your way, I'll go mine.
That was the plan.
I had every intention of spending my two-week, self-imposed exile drowning myself in umbrella drinks while working on my tan--alone. But Mr. Red Flag had an even better idea--
You really want to make 'em pay, princess?
Making our fake relationship Instagram official was never the plan... but then again, neither was seeing him naked. Falling for Dean Mercer might be the dumbest thing I've ever done--or it just might be the sweetest kind of revenge.
Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited!
USA Today best-selling author Megyn Ward lives on coffee, chocolate and more than the occasional glass of red wine. When she's not spending time with the hot, dirty-talking heroes and the strong, capable women who love them who live in her head, she's busy chasing chickens, hanging laundry and burning dinner. Either way, she is almost always in the company of her nine dogs, her truest and most faithful companions, and her almost as faithful husband, Joe.
Megyn is also the author of the award-winning Sabrina Vaughn thriller series and the Georgia Fell romantic suspense series, written under the name Maegan Beaumont.
What do you do when you find out that your straight-laced, investment banker fiancé is sleeping with your wild-child best friend--who just happens to be your cousin and your maid-of-honor--three days before your wedding?
You leave him at the altar after reading their dirty text messages out loud to two hundred of your closest friends and family and then you go on your two-week honeymoon to a tropical, all-inclusive resort... but you don't go alone.
Nope--you take your back-stabbing bestie's walking red flag of an on-again-off-again situationship with you.
Tattooed and gorgeous, Dean Mercer is everything I despise in a man--cocky and condescending. Arrogant and abrasive. The almost kiss we shared two years ago?
Completely irrelevant.
Inviting him along was the cherry on top of my revenge fantasy sundae--but I didn't want to actually spend time with him.
You go your way, I'll go mine.
That was the plan.
I had every intention of spending my two-week, self-imposed exile drowning myself in umbrella drinks while working on my tan--alone. But Mr. Red Flag had an even better idea--
You really want to make 'em pay, princess?
Making our fake relationship Instagram official was never the plan... but then again, neither was seeing him naked. Falling for Dean Mercer might be the dumbest thing I've ever done--or it just might be the sweetest kind of revenge.
Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited!
USA Today best-selling author Megyn Ward lives on coffee, chocolate and more than the occasional glass of red wine. When she's not spending time with the hot, dirty-talking heroes and the strong, capable women who love them who live in her head, she's busy chasing chickens, hanging laundry and burning dinner. Either way, she is almost always in the company of her nine dogs, her truest and most faithful companions, and her almost as faithful husband, Joe.
Megyn is also the author of the award-winning Sabrina Vaughn thriller series and the Georgia Fell romantic suspense series, written under the name Maegan Beaumont.
UNFORTUNATELY, HIS SWEET FAKE FIANCEE IS ABOUT TO BECOME HIS WEAKNESS.
Brendan They call me the Black Prince. Heir to Blackguard Equity. First in line for the CEO crown. Ruthless, precise, untouchable—until my father decides to move the goalpost. No wife, no CEO seat.
So I find the one woman who can play the part. Simone Bishop. The sweet, small-town candy striper I met years ago, who sat by my father’s bedside when no one else could stand him. She’s sunshine wrapped in an apron, with flour on her hands and eyes too innocent to belong anywhere near me. But she needs my money. I need her hand. Four months. One shared address. Zero feelings.
Simple. Until I start wanting to mess up that perfect hair in my bed every night. Until I start wanting to keep her.
Simone I should’ve said no. Brendan Black is everything I’ve been taught to avoid—grumpy, bossy, and so intense it feels like my heart’s on a leash when he looks at me. But the family farm is days from foreclosure, and his offer is too good to be real: pretend to be his fiancée, live in his penthouse for four months, and walk away with enough money to save the farm twice over.
I can handle this. I can survive the way his eyes linger. The way he says my name like it’s a command. The way my pulse stutters every time we’re in the same room.
It’s all fake… until it isn’t.
Because somewhere between the first kiss in public and the first kiss in private, I stopped pretending.
And if I’m not careful, the Black Prince is going to ruin me—in the best and worst ways.
MORALLY BLACK BETROTHAL is the first standalone novel in the Morally Black Billionaires series. Warning: May cause uncontrollable sighing, blushing, and an inability to think about anyone but Brendan Black for days. Proceed with swoon-caution.
Nicole French is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance. She's also a hopeless romantic, Springsteen fanatic, and total bookworm. When not writing, she is hanging out with her family, playing soccer with the rest of the thirty-plus crowd in Seattle, or going on dates with her husband. In her spare time, she likes to go running or practice the piano, but never seems to do either one of these things as much as she should.
Keep up with Nicole French and receive your FREE copy of one of her books when you subscribe to her newsletter: https://www.nicolefrenchromance.com/
For more information on Nicole and her books visit here
There's no way the hot relative of a minor British royal is hitting on her. She's misreading everything, right?
Except there's no mistaking that proposal.
When 50something Ranney Martini (yes, Nessa’s mom!) finds herself being courted by the very English best man in a minor royal’s wedding she’s managing, she can’t help but laugh. He’s 17 years her junior, smoking hot, and an award-winning architect. The flirting is all in her imagination.
Of course it is.
But when a strange twist of fate leaves them trapped in Las Vegas, and Tom has a sudden need for American citizenship - faster than fast - Ranney proves she’s the consummate professional.
Because when you’re a wedding protector, you do whatever it takes to make the perfect wedding.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julia Kent writes romantic comedy with an edge. Since 2013, she has sold more than 2 million books, with 4 New York Times bestsellers and more than 21 appearances on the USA Today bestseller list. Her books have been translated into French, German, and Italian, with more titles releasing in the future.
From billionaires to BBWs to new adult rock stars, Julia finds a sensual, goofy joy in every contemporary romance she writes. Unlike Shannon from Shopping for a Billionaire, she did not meet her husband after dropping her phone in a men's room toilet (and he isn't a billionaire she met in a romantic comedy).
She lives in New England with her husband and three children where she is the only person in the household with the gene required to change empty toilet paper rolls.
She loves to hear from her readers by email at julia@jkentauthor.com, on X @jkentauthor, on Facebook at @jkentauthor, and on Instagram @jkentauthor. Visit her at http://jkentauthor.com
Genres: Contemporary MMM prison romance (leans into literary with a strong romantic core)
Tropes: Grumpy/sunshine, found family, hurt/comfort, healing from grief, obsessive devotion, fake dating, prison husband, marriage of convenience, wrongfully imprisoned, morally gray characters, polyamory that heals
Themes: Trauma recovery, self-loathing to self-worth, redemption through love, the violence of tenderness
Heat Rating: 2 out of 5
Length: 82 000 words/320 pages
It is a standalone book and does not end on a cliffhanger.
Samuel has spent years building walls. Not the prison’s concrete ones, but the kind that keep lives from bleeding into each other. As the prison’s self-appointed librarian, he’s carved out a fragile peace where silence is his shield. The inmates call him The Ice Queen—a title he wears like armor. After a lifetime of being preyed upon, he knows better than to let anyone close. Then Eli arrives like sunlight through bulletproof glass. A wrongfully convicted pediatrician, and unbearably kind, Eli is everything Samuel knows to avoid, so when he steps in to protect the man, it’s supposed to be a one-time act of mercy. But Eli’s husband has another plan. Nathaniel—who looks at Samuel like he’s something more than a convict—makes a request that shatters everything: "Be his prison husband. Love him where I can’t." It’s a lie that should be easy. Samuel’s an expert at deception. But the longer he plays the role, the more the lines blur: Eli’s warmth seeping into his frozen bones, Nathaniel’s quiet strength, the whispered secrets of Eli’s daughter who trusts only him. Now the man who built his life on solitude hoards these moments like contraband. Some loves rewrite your sentence.
A devastating queer romance about the families we carve from our own ribs, and the love that refuses to let us stay broken.
I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to say in this review. First, this book is one that is going to needle you and stick with you long after you read it. The characters get inside you, and it is almost like you get to know them on a personal level. The book is full of emotion, and there were times it was really raw. I like the book and the characters, the angst and the push and pull, but there were times when I found myself getting a little lost. I'm not sure what it was, and it could have been me, but it happened. That said, I still like the book and the characters. It's original and well-written. 4 stars and I highly recommend you pick this one up today.
Twenty minutes later he kicked Eli’s bed. It had been a day and a half since the library incident, and he hadn’t spoken a word to him since. He’d thought Eli’s perseverance would continue, but maybe the man was learning about personal space. He knew he ought to be happy about that, but the change unnerved him. He didn’t like things that didn’t come with explanations.
Eli didn’t open his eyes. “Hi, Samuel.”
“How’d you know it was me?”
“Your particular brand of hospitality.” The man paused. “Also, you smell like Reese’s cups.”
“You can smell that from here?”
He took a somewhat discreet sniff of himself, but all he could detect was the shitty prison detergent.
“Hunger sharpens the sense.”
He was appalled. “You still haven’t—It’s been 48 hours!”
“I’ve done 100 hour fasts before.”
That boggled the mind. “Why?”
“To rest my gut after glutenings, mostly,” Eli said. “Why is it that you can ask questions of me, but won’t answer any of mine?”
True to form, he ignored the question and upended his new purchases onto the bed. Eli’s eyes sprang open. “What—”
“No more fasting.”
Eli picked up one of the packages on his chest. Sardines.
“They’ve got Omega 3’s, right? That’s good for inflammation. There’s some salmon there, too, in those pouches.”
Eli sat up. Packages and pouches slithered off him and onto the bedspread.
Suddenly nervous, Samuel found himself rambling. “I wasn’t sure if your commissary account was up and running yet, and the stuff I gave you before were things you couldn’t eat, so I—”
The man was smiling. Not smirking, not grinning—and Samuel knew he was in trouble.
“You’re amazing,” Eli said, as if he hadn’t just ruined a man’s life. “Thank you. And you’re right. My commissary account still isn’t linked up yet.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Eli then swept a space clear on the bed and pointed his invitation. It was the smile Samuel would blame later. He sat where indicated, more pliant and cooperative than he’d ever been in his life.
Eli was impressed. “This is a better haul than I was expecting. I might actually survive on this.”
Samuel was beginning to come back to himself. It was easier now that Eli was sorting through the food, like the spell of that smile had been broken—or at least weakened.
“Who’s Nathaniel?”
Eli flashed him a grin. “My murderer-hating husband.” He ripped open a bag of trail mix. “Don’t suppose I could trouble you to eat the M&M's out of these for me?”
He expected the man to dig in, but Eli only ate an almond, a cashew, and a peanut before setting the package down. That broke his brain a little. “Aren’t you hungry?”
Eli brought the pouch of sardines up to his mouth and ripped it open with his teeth. “Labels are useful, but they’re not foolproof. If I haven’t reacted in half an hour, I’ll eat a little more.”
Samuel knew that if he’d gone more than two days without food, he’d have gnawed his own leg off. “Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Hmm?”
“You knew you couldn’t eat what I bought you, and you knew they’d continue to keep screwing up the special meal thing. So why didn’t you come to me? We could have done this two days ago.”
Eli fished a sardine out with his fingers. The slimy things looked repulsive, and the smell alone was enough to knock someone out. Eli caught him staring and tilted the pouch toward him. “Pardon my rudeness. Would you like some?”
He had to swallow bile. “Your husband’s never going to kiss you again.”
October Arden writes emotionally raw queer stories that live somewhere between literary fiction and romance. Their work explores fluid identities, found families, co-dependent devotion, and complicated love—often through the lens of characters who are chronically ill, neurodivergent, or quietly self-destructive. These are stories for anyone who's ever felt unwanted or unseen, where even the most damaged hearts can find a home.
October loves hearing from readers, so feel free to reach out, ask questions, or suggest what you'd like to see next. You can also join the newsletter to stay in touch—and as a thank you, you'll receive a free copy of Starting with Cake, a quietly unhinged neurodivergent love story full of snack cakes, janitor uniforms, and the kind of care that sneaks up on you. Find out about new books and other extras at octoberarden.com
