slowburn

17 books found

Fake Dating the Firefighter

Fake Dating the Firefighter

by Jolene Mosi

Fake dating a small-town firefighter seemed like a solid plan. Asher Mason, with his piercing green eyes, infuriating dominance, and muscles built to carry a house out of a fire, needed better optics for an audit. I needed a protective shield to keep my sister safe. The rules were simple: public affection only. No crossing lines. No letting this get real. Too bad Ash and I argue like enemies and burn like a wildfire. One weak night, we crossed every boundary. I stopped fighting the friction and let myself slide into his bed. God, that night changed everything. Now I’m falling hard, and I’m running out of reasons to call this a mistake. I’ve always been the independent fixer, but when my sister ran into danger, I was ready to walk through hell alone. I didn’t count on Ash right behind me. Protective. Furious. No more pretending. I’m carrying his baby and Ash Mason is done kissing me for show. Now he wants forever. Tropes you are going to love: Friends to Lovers, Fake Relationship, Surprise Pregnancy, Firefighter, Small-Town, Dominant Alpha, Bad Boy with a Good Heart, smart & sassy, Damsel in Distress, Wholesome [Read More]

Not His Girlfriend (Yet): 4 1/2 Dates and a Fracture

Not His Girlfriend (Yet): 4 1/2 Dates and a Fracture

by M.T. Liu

A contemporary romance novella about a graphic designer who says "girlfriend" before it's true — and then has to live up to it. Nora Chen spends two hours before every date perfecting the version of herself she thinks he wants to see. Ethan Morin is a Québécois firefighter who deflects the brave parts of his own stories. She performs. He protects. Neither of them knows the other is doing it. Then an accident leaves Ethan recovering, and Nora does something distinctly un-rehearsed: she stays. All night. In his jacket. Without a plan. Now they're sharing a Montreal apartment, two opinionated cats, a winter that refuses to end, and a hallway that's exactly the wrong length. She thinks he's pushing her away. He thinks she can't wait to leave. He watches her fall apart and thinks it's the best version he's ever seen. He doesn't say it. Neither of them says it. Best for readers who enjoy emotional slow burn, hurt/comfort, forced proximity, caretaking, quieter romantic tension, closed-door heat, and guaranteed HEA. For fans of Emily Henry's quiet emotional weight. [Read More]

Bound To Ash

Bound To Ash

by Rafaela Drougouti

A haunted archaeologist must destroy an ancient mirror that steals hope. But the vampire bound to protect it will turn to ash if she succeeds. Trapped together by a curse, they fall into a forbidden love that could be the loophole to save them both… or the fire that consumes everything.... He's been chained to the cursed mirror since 1623. She's the woman bent on shattering it. One touch — and now she can't let go. If the Sorrowglass breaks, he burns to ash. If she walks away, it devours the world. And the enemy hunting them through the dark wants them both — alive, bound, and bleeding. She came to destroy a monster. She's falling for the man trapped inside him. Some curses don't want to be broken. They want to be kept. Trigger Warnings: This book contains mature themes, including violence, vampire bites and both on and off page death mentions and descriptions. -Clean Vampire Romance -Enemies to Lovers -Forced Proximity -Touch Her and you Die -Reluctant Monster [Read More]

Carve My Heart: A Steamy Forbidden Olympic Sports Romance

Carve My Heart: A Steamy Forbidden Olympic Sports Romance

by Mara J. Ova

The tension between them crackles and sizzles in every stolen moment. But they can't. Both their careers depend on it. Katharina Berger crashes into Austria's golden boy, Thomas Kern, on a glacier half on purpose, just to feel his eyes on her: sharp, amused, and hungry. One reckless dinner turns into a night of desperate moans, whispered commands, and breathless surrender that leaves her aching for days. Katharina is a PR manager who fought tooth and nail for her career and swore she'd never lose herself to an athlete, as her mother did. But one look at the way he moves, at the dangerous confidence in his voice, at the hunger in his eyes, and she's never wanted to break her own rules so badly. Austria's ski champion, Thomas Kern, isn't just good. He's the best in the world, and he knows it. But Katharina isn't just another distraction. Her sharp mind cuts straight through his defenses, and her body, the way she takes control, the way she comes apart for him, he's obsessed. When Katharina lands her dream job as the Austrian team's new PR manager, they're forced to work side by side. They know exactly how the other tastes. No one else on the team can ever know. As Thomas struggles under Olympic pressure, Katharina is the only one who sees the man under the legend: the exhaustion under the arrogance, the flicker of fear behind his grin. And he can't stop picturing the heat of her skin, the taste of her lips, the way her gaze cuts straight through every defense he's built. [Read More]

Breaking the Captain

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Breaking the Captain

by Megan Tate

Luke Callahan runs the first lap on fresh ice every morning. He keeps his hands flat on his thighs when his pulse misbehaves. At twenty-two he's the youngest captain in the league, the golden boy with the clean stat line — and lately he's been jolting awake at five a.m. from a dream about a faceless man, a hand at his throat, a voice telling him to let go. Then the Titans trade for Evan Mercer: same position, dark hair, broken nose, and zero interest in being convenient for anybody after his last team quietly shipped him out for being caught with the wrong person. Evan looks at the captain wound tight across the faceoff dot and figures he's going to crack. He's right. He's just early. A turf war over one roster spot turns into board battles that last a beat too long, a handshake held a second past polite, and a pull Luke has no language for. Evan isn't asking him to come out. He's just standing there — steady, patient, unafraid — holding the door. All Luke has to do is stop running long enough to walk through it. Breaking the Captain is a slow-burn, explicit MM hockey romance and the first in the Lakeview Titans series. If you like rivals-to-lovers with a closeted control freak, an out-and-proud love interest who refuses to shrink, forced proximity in a scrappy minor-league locker room, and a found family with one menace of a best friend — this one's for you. [Read More]

On Her Flip Side

On Her Flip Side

by Robin Lyndon

When Chloe Yang walks into her new acting class to upgrade her burgeoning figure skating career, she sits next to the prettiest girl in the room and hopes she's found a kindred spirit. Instead, Maya Dunn scorns the entire reason Chloe signed up. Chloe's got enough to deal with: making a splash with her upcoming debut on the senior skating scene, trying to find a more mature style when everyone thinks her sunny performances are childish, and hiding her worries about how hard her mom works to fund her skating beneath her optimistic front. She can stand to make it through one summer of acting classes in the same room as grumpy, abrasive Maya - who barely seems to want to be there in the first place. But as they learn to act out new selves on stage, Chloe finds that maybe Maya is paying more attention than she gave her credit for - and that she's struggling with unhappy feelings of her own. Will one summer be enough to melt the ice between them? On Her Flip Side is a sweet, slow-burn summer romance about opposites finding they have more in common than they think - and finding their own path in life. [Read More]

Of Ice and Innocence

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Of Ice and Innocence

by Karen Hunter

She fought for her freedom. He's dying without her. Fate doesn't care what either of them wants. Book 2 of The Dragon's Flame Series. This story stands on its own, set within the world of The Dragon’s Flame. While returning characters make appearances, no prior reading is required. Though readers familiar with the first book may recognise a few extra layers. Laya survived four brutal Chases to remain unclaimed — the only free female wolf in a generation. She chose scars over submission and solitude over a mate who would strip away everything she'd bled to protect. The last thing she needs is a diplomatic mission into dragon territory. Kaeldric, advisor to the Dragon King, has been fading for months — his dragon slowly dying because he refused a mate bond he couldn't accept. When he finally finds her, she's everything he dreamed of and nothing he prepared for: a wolf warrior with claws already extended, who would sooner gut him than acknowledge what they both know. One crumbling railing. One frozen river. One impossible bond neither can outrun. Stranded in the wilderness with broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and only each other, enemies have no choice but to survive together. But surviving is the easy part. When they return to civilisation, their bond will either become the bridge between two warring peoples — or the spark that ignites the war that destroys them both. A wolf who refuses to be claimed. A dragon who's running out of time. And a mate bond that will demand the one thing neither of them is willing to give. [Read More]

The Fractured Wing

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The Fractured Wing

by Zenna Lake

This is Book 2 of The Shackled Oath series. She survived captivity. But survival was never the same thing as healing. Azaria Sylvenhart was freed from captivity. What they could not free was her mind. Broken by what was done to her and driven by something darker than grief, Azaria descends into a war of her own making—one her squad watches helplessly, caught between reaching for her and fearing she may no longer want to be reached. Dain fights to hold her together. And Quinton Thornvale, the blood mage who would burn kingdoms to keep her alive, is learning that saving Azaria’s life and reaching her are not the same thing—and that whatever is growing between them was never going to survive unscarred. But darkness does not wait for her to heal. Hunted by the same forces that have tried to destroy her from the beginning, Azaria is forced to confront what she is willing to become in order to survive. And the arrival of a stranger from across the continent—one bound to her by something neither of them understands—threatens to unravel everything further. Because Torven Kaelor is not finished with her. And this time, the cost of stopping him will not be measured in blood alone. Perfect for fans of: 🖤 Morally gray heroes & obsessive devotion 🔥 Dark fantasy romance & escalating tension ⚔️ Found family pushed to the breaking point ✨ Praise kink, dominant MMC & emotional intimacy 🩸 Trauma, vengeance & dangerous loyalty ⚠️ This book contains heavier themes than Book 1, including graphic violence, torture, death, grief, trauma, and explicit intimate scenes between consenting adults. The Shackled Oath (Book 1) is currently available on Kindle Unlimited and for £0.99 on Amazon for readers wishing to catch up before release. [Read More]

Blue Sky Black

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Blue Sky Black

by Lea Vale

Zelda never stopped loving Ari. She just got better at pretending she was over him. Then she ran into him again on the last normal morning in America. By the end of the day, he was missing. Now Zelda is searching the wreckage of September 11th for two people: her best friend, Charlie, and the man she thought she'd lost long before the towers fell. *** As teenagers, Zelda and her best friend Charlie had been trying to escape Philadelphia for as long as they could remember. Ari was never part of that plan—until he walked into the pawn shop where Zelda worked and refused to leave her alone. They fell in love too young. They fell apart too fast. Six years later, September 11th puts them face to face on a Manhattan street, hours before the world changes forever. When the towers fall, Zelda survives and realizes Charlie and Ari were both inside and are missing. She has to find them both. Blue Sky Black moves between Zelda's desperate search through the aftermath of September 11th and the years that made her: a lonely, furious girl learning the value of things in a back-room pawn shop, falling in love for the first time, and losing everything she wasn't ready to hold. Perfect for readers who love: - Emotionally devastating love stories - Second chance romance - Slow burn with heat - Dual timeline - Found family - Female ambition Steam: Open door emotionally driven intimacy with explicit detail. Content Warning: Depictions of September 11, 2001, Grief, Loss [Read More]

Seasons of War

Seasons of War

by Lindsay French

Dark Dystopian Romance Sergeant Zayne Riven was born to take his father's place as the emperor's right hand man, but he has plans of his own. Trapped inside the corrupt regime he wishes to dismantle, Zayne plays loyal war hero while secretly fighting both sides of the war. He is determined to rise to the top and destroy the emperor, even if it means destroying his soul along the way. That is until one political prisoner shatters all of his plans. The emperor has captured the rebel woman Zayne once secretly saved. The woman he could never stop thinking about. And now Zayne has been ordered to break her spirit and use her to crush the uprising. Kira Stiles is a true revolutionary. She papers alleyways with forbidden news and hijacks the emperor's magi-tech to write messages of rebellion across the sky. And she would die a thousand deaths before helping the emperor destroy the rebels. Captivity will not break her, not even at the hands of the grumpy and brooding Sergeant Riven. But as her imprisonment stretches on, Kira begins to suspect that the infamous war hero Zayne Riven may not the heartless loyalist he seems. He may secretly be as dangerous to the emperor as she is. Zayne faces an impossible choice. Her life or the fate of the entire rebellion. [Read More]

Duskshade

Duskshade

by Madison Patershuk and Ebony Dobson

Ophelia’s life is anchored by the measurable laws of the universe. As a dedicated heliophysicist, she trusts what she can prove and she trusts Nick, the man she believes is her soulmate. But when an impossible fracture in reality violently tears Ophelia, Nick, and her loved ones out of the human world and plunges them into the untamed Fae realm of Fenraeis, all earthly logic shatters. Stranded in a world that shouldn't exist, Ophelia quickly realizes they aren't just lost. They are being hunted. The Crownless, a terrifying and relentless entity, doesn't want her dead; he wants her caged. He intends to enslave Phee to siphon the elusive, ancient power awakening in her blood. It is a dormant, near-endless well of magic that hasn't been seen in an age, and this scientist has no idea how to control it. Desperate to keep the people she loves alive, Ophelia must become the warrior she was never meant to be. To survive, she is forced into an uneasy alliance with Kane—the ruthless, infuriating High King who might be just as dangerous as the monsters hunting them. As her impossible abilities rise to the surface, Ophelia realizes her arrival in Fenraeis wasn't an accident. She doesn't believe in destiny, but to keep her power out of the hands of a monster and to save those she loves, she must forge her own. [Read More]

Talk to Me at Midnight

Talk to Me at Midnight

by Stephanie Harina

The voice that once saved her nights is now her trainer at work. Forced out of Bangkok by her dad, Yannie finds comfort in one thing: a mysterious voice who calls her every midnight. He doesn’t know her. She doesn’t know him. And that’s exactly why it works. Until she moves to Manila. And the voice gets a face. Now a teaching intern navigating office politics and Manila slang, Yannie is assigned to Ash Anderson, her serious, exacting English curriculum trainer—who is nothing like the man she talks to every midnight. Except he is that man. To protect her secret, Yannie makes one rule: Ash must never recognize her. Not when he texts her under the table with that ridiculous grin. Not when he stands far too close while demonstrating materials. And definitely not when he singles her out to present in front of everyone… where she’s now a walking disaster in heels. But when her fake deep voice slips, his smirks sharpen, and Ash starts calling her at work, Yannie realizes midnight secrets don’t survive daylight... especially when trouble wears a suit and knows all her confessions. [Read More]

Shattered Edges

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Shattered Edges

by Marion Thomas

A contemporary dark romance about forbidden love and ambition in elite competitive figure skating and what happens when survival leaves no safe choices. (warning: contains graphic, explicit language and mature themes) Richard Hale has spent his life on the ice, chasing precision, relevance, and a career that refuses to wait for anyone. When his skating partner walks away he’s left staring down the quiet, humiliating end of everything he’s built. His younger sister Holly faces the same erasure when her partner’s injury ends her season overnight, leaving her suddenly expendable. The solution is obvious, dangerous and unthinkable. Forced to skate together by circumstance and desperation, Richard and Holly form a partnership that some think shouldn’t exist. On the ice, their connection is undeniable. Off it, the pressure fractures restraint, blurring lines they were never meant to cross and leaving them scrutinized by a world eager to judge what it doesn’t understand. As Nationals loom, obsession threatens to eclipse reason, and desire threatens to destroy the very thing they’re fighting to save. [Read More]

Operation Black Horse

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Operation Black Horse

by N.J. Gervasi

The first rule of war: Never fall for the enemy. And if you do, well, be prepared for the fallout. Sixteen years into the Great World Famine of 2025, Dr. Caitlyn Svendsen’s patients are no longer hungry, thanks to America's classified growth formula designed to outsmart crop failure, but they are still dying. The cause of their illness is a mystery that Caitlyn seeks to unravel despite the risk to her career—and life. Meanwhile, Spetsnaz Commander Kaleb Volkov is as restless as his motherland. Russia is still starving, denied access to America's growing techniques. Caitlyn and Kaleb are the epitome of clashing personalities, raised to resent each other in a society teetering on the brink of destruction. She is Russia’s salvation. He is the eye of a storm heading for America, ready to tear her reality apart. While America blackmails enemies and allies alike into submission with the promise of food, Russia is desperate to restore its influence in the wake of America's agricultural domination. To level the playing field, Kaleb is tasked with a mission that leads him to Caitlyn, forcing the two natural enemies to work together in a world turned upside down. [Read More]

I Already Planned My Retirement: A Vampire Romance Series

I Already Planned My Retirement: A Vampire Romance Series

by Shanna Lee

Colette Briars has had her retirement perfectly planned since she was a kid, every detail neat, quiet, and under control… or so she thought. One fateful run in with a charming teenage vampire, Theo Dragos, sends her plans spiraling into chaos. Now she’s stuck choosing between the life she carefully organized and a romance she never saw coming. [Read More]

The Witch's Broken Crown

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The Witch's Broken Crown

by Calla Robin

An enemies-to-lovers romantasy with a slow-burn romance and court intrigue. Perfect for fans of star-crossed lovers and aching yearning. She should fear him. He should hate her. But a masquerade ball was all it took to bind them together forever. Her whole life, Elise Thornwall has wished for nothing more than to rid herself of the curse that has controlled her family for over five centuries and to claim her throne on her own terms. But hidden behind a white mask, she found the one man her heart could not refuse. Andrew Aistle is her enemy. And, apparently, her fate. With war threatening their kingdoms and treachery lurking in every shadow, Elise and Andrew must do the impossible. Trust each other. Trusting your enemy is a dangerous game. And falling in love, even worse. Five hundred years of bitterness cannot be undone by love… can it? [Read More]

Her Heart's Wish

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Her Heart's Wish

by Dawn Baca

Can a woman who built her life around everyone else finally choose love? Leila Durand has spent years being exactly who her family needed: a devoted mother, a doting grandmother, and the steady heart of the farm that saved her after loss. But when Yuri Petrova asks her to come to Saint Petersburg, the quiet life she has carefully built begins to feel less like safety and more like a beautiful cage. Yuri has always been a man of stars, students, and solitude—until one unforgettable Frenchwoman makes his orderly world feel suddenly incomplete. From their first meeting at a family wedding, Leila’s warmth, strength, and laughter unsettled him in ways no equation ever could. After three years of calls, letters, and longing, he is ready to stop loving her from a distance. Leila is falling for Yuri, but loving him means facing the grief, guilt, and fear she has buried beneath decades of devotion. Yuri is falling just as hard, but winning Leila’s heart may mean leaving behind the life, career, and country that have defined him. When distance, family ties, and old wounds threaten to keep them apart, Leila must decide whether being wanted is worth the risk of finally being seen. Will she cling to the life that made her feel necessary—or open her heart to the man who makes her feel chosen? Her Heart’s Wish is an emotional later-in-life romance about second chances, found family, healing after grief, and the brave, terrifying joy of beginning again. Perfect for readers who love mature heroines, patient heroes, slow-burn longing, complicated families, European settings, and love stories where the biggest battle is learning to believe happiness is still allowed. Read Her Heart’s Wish today and fall in love with a romance that proves it’s never too late to choose your own happily ever after. [Read More]