trauma

The Broken Flame

by Zenna Lake

Tropes: slowburn, darkromance, magic

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This is Book 3 of The Shackled Oath series. Azaria Sylvenhart died in the Abyss. Coming back should have been the miracle. Instead, she wakes changed, fractured, and carrying power no one in Kareth fully understands. Her squad is still reeling from the devastation that almost took her from them. Old wounds have reopened. New fears have taken root. And while Azaria tries to rebuild the pieces of herself death did not return cleanly, the people who love her are fighting their own battles in the aftermath. Dain is losing ground to an old wound that takes more from him with every passing day. Quinton is chasing answers buried in blood and forbidden records. And Kalias carries truths about Azaria’s bloodline that could change everything she thought she knew about herself. Azaria was once the captain with no magic, forced to prove she was more than what the world saw in her. Now, she must face the one thing she was never trained to survive. Herself. She must learn what she has become before the power that saved her becomes the thing that breaks her again. Perfect for fans of: 🖤 Morally gray heroes and obsessive devotion 🔥 Dangerous magic and a heroine losing control ⚔️ Found family rebuilding after devastation ✨ Dominant MMCs and emotional intimacy 🩸 Blood magic, forbidden knowledge and hidden bloodlines 🐺 Shifters, family secrets and reluctant belonging 💔 Trauma recovery, grief and fiercely protective bonds 🌑 Dark epic fantasy with romance and multiple POVs ⚠️ This book contains heavier themes, including graphic violence, death, grief, trauma, PTSD, panic attacks, chronic illness, discussions of past abuse, and explicit intimate scenes between consenting adults. The Shackled Oath and The Fractured Wing, Books 1 and 2 of the series, are currently available on Kindle Unlimited for readers wishing to catch up before The Broken Flame releases. [Read More]

Valley's Salvation, Book 2 of Valley's Rise

by Gina V. Badd

Tropes: forcedproximity, firstperson, characterdriven

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Valley Bates and her fiance, Bryan LaCoste, are left reeling after multiple shocking events. can they push past the trauma and fear to reach their own black rainbow? Book 2 in the duet, Valley's Rise. [Read More]

The Sniper and the Swan

by Halle Macpherson

Tropes: slowburn, firstperson, characterdriven

Five years ago, the mysterious masked musician known as Il Cigno vanished. Her disappearance has haunted him ever since. Matteo Rossi has two equally challenging roles: mercenary assassin and guardian to his boisterous thirteen-year-old niece, Alessandra. He knows how to track a target, take down a threat, and disappear without a trace. What he doesn't know how to handle is a teenager who has started breaking the rules—or the feisty music teacher who is encouraging her to do so. When Mia Mills built her new life as a music teacher in the Italian lakeside town of Lacustria, she had one rule: keep her head down and stay out of trouble. But Mia has never been the type to walk away from someone who needs her help. When her talented student Alessandra secretly applies for a prestigious music summer camp, Mia is determined to help her chase her dreams—even if it means going head-to-head with her overprotective guardian. Mia knows getting close to people only puts them in danger. But as she is drawn deeper into the Rossi household, she finds herself wrapped in the warmth of a family she never expected to become part of. With each day she spends there, she indulges in the most dangerous ideal of all: hope for the future. As Matteo and Mia try to resist the magnetic pull between them, the truths they are both hiding threaten to destroy everything they've built. Because some truths can set you free. And some can get you killed. [Read More]

Obscura

by Taine

Tropes: slowburn, forbiddenlove, dualpov

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He heals fractured minds. She shatters them. But neither can resist the other. Psychologist Dr. Julian Cross is used to fixing broken people. But his newest patients share a terrifying pattern: shattered memories, hollow eyes, and a toxic obsession with a shadow they cannot name. Following the trail of ruined minds takes him straight into Obscura—a gothic nightclub ruled by a woman who defies every law of nature. Victoria Ashford is a centuries-old vampire. She is meticulous, lethal, and used to absolute control. To protect her kind's secret existence, mortals who cross her are swiftly erased. But Julian is a glitch in her world. He is the first human she cannot compel to forget. Instead of destroying him, she is drawn to him. Julian believes he's dealing with a normal human, but Victoria’s world is a dangerous, intoxicating unknown. As he dives deeper into her dark territory, a slow-burn tension ignites between them. Julian’s curiosity might get him killed. But Victoria’s choice to let him get close could destroy everything she has spent centuries protecting, especially as a dangerous figure from her past threatens to bring it all down. Obscura is an addictive, high-stakes vampire romance filled with intense yearning, forbidden love, danger and a powerful female lead. What to Expect: Forbidden Vampire Romance: Vampires must remain hidden from mortals Reverse Power Dynamic: Powerful Female Vampire & Mortal Male Doctor Slow Burn: Mutual restraint and yearning Gothic Aesthetics: A dark atmosphere with supernatural danger Dual POV: Get inside both of their heads **A note for ARC readers** Thank you so much for reading! My book is already live on Amazon and Goodreads, so you can post your honest review the exact moment you finish reading. Your support means the world to me. [Read More]

Carve Me Golden

by Mara J. Ova

Tropes: forcedproximity, firstperson, characterdriven

Trapped alone with your ultimate daydream crush while a storm rages around you… do you dare take the chance? Forced proximity · She’s also an athlete · Celebrity athlete and his fan · European alpine settings · High‑stakes sport · Overcoming traumatic past · Exotic settings and fresh sports After seven years with a toxic ex, Czech language teacher Zlata knows a new relationship is the last thing she needs. She’s finally thrown herself into ski racing, the real kind, with after-hours training and no rewards but the rush. But a girl is allowed to dream… and sometimes, dreams come true. A broken gondola. A violent storm. And Fabio Baier, her untouchable, world-famous ski racing crush, close enough to feel, to touch, to make her feel alive, if only for an hour. This was never supposed to be real. But when fantasy collides with reality, it doesn’t come softly. It burns. Because Fabio isn’t just every woman’s dream. He has demons of his own to outrun. And until they both face their pasts, all they have is craving. Carve Me Golden is a standalone in the Carve series, a high-heat sports romance filled with forced proximity, emotional scars, explosive chemistry, and a compelling couple who know that love must be earned. If you crave intense attraction, high-stakes passion, and a fantasy that refuses to stay just a fantasy, this book is for you. [Read More]

For Garnet Grove

by Nikki Theissen

Tropes: characterdriven, strongfmc, suspense

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Garnet Grove has a secret, and Abby Norton is determined to uncover it. ​ She's a tenacious investigative journalist with a keen eye for a story, and she's going to do whatever it takes to figure out exactly what a massive rocket manufacturer is hiding in a small town in northern California. Armed with a plot to cozy up to an insider and get the real scoop on Helios, she starts digging. But what she doesn't count on is meeting Noah, a shy but incredibly smart teacher, who works at the Garnet Grove elementary school and has ties to shady dealings done in the town decades ago. As they get closer, she realizes just how much they both stand to lose if she pursues this story. Standing at the precipice, she has one choice: protect Noah or expose the truth and risk everything for Garnet Grove. [Read More]

Poison Apple: Snow White and the MC Beast

by Katlyn S. Coen

Tropes: slowburn, forcedproximity, firstperson

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They call me fairy-tale beauty made flesh. But I’m just Annika. I’ve already buried one man I loved. I’m still haunted by the ghosts of my past. I have one rule: Nobody gets close to my son. Fate—or the Norse Gods—had other plans: Shove me on a pitch-black parking lot. Drop a six-foot-six Sons of Ragnarök patch-wearer—inked, ruthless, and fourteen years my senior. I’m frozen in terror. My fearless two-year-old with zero sense of danger? Both arms. Open wide. And the Beast takes my boy like he’s always belonged to him. “I’m Ronny ‘Leif’ Reinhardt, and I rule the Sons of Ragnarök with absolute power. Protection money? I call it insurance premium. A broken arm? Just business. Innocence has never been my weakness. Until a tiny redhead barrels into my life and the beast in me finally meets its match. The feeling is foreign, dangerous, and fuckin’ addictive. I’m everywhere now. Watching. Guarding.” Guarding? And why is he smirking? And calling our encounters “coincidence”? My head calls him obsessed. My body is obsessed. With him. Starts sending SOS. But the most terrifying part? He doesn’t rip my clothes off. He looks me in the eyes and asks, “May I?” — There’s no going back. The poison apple is already bitten. ONE BITE, and you’ll be stuck in Germany’s industrial wasteland where the darkness hits harder—not for lack of light, but because hope, love, and beauty only increase the level of destruction. A dark, twisted Snow White retelling × outlaw biker romance. ONE BITE, Snow White… and the Beast never lets you go. Five books. One arc. This is where the found family saga begins. This is book one of five — a slow burn that starts gentle and builds. Come for the Golden Retriever moments, stay for the abyss that follows. [Read More]

How To Ruin A Princess: A Steamy Short Prequel Sports Romance Novella

by Mara J. Ova

Tropes: slowburn, firstperson, forbiddenlove

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She is ice and scandal. He is speed and sin. When they meet, their Olympic night turns heat into a weapon they cannot stop using. Nico Reiner is Austria’s new golden boy, hurtling toward an Olympic silver that could cement his place in ski-racing history. The world sees swagger and shine, but behind the grin and glory, every gate is a dare not to choke, not to prove his doubters right when it matters most. Élise Moreau is the exiled heiress of a disgraced French empire, trained to smile, obey, and weaponize her beauty for her father’s ambitions. Slipping into the Olympic Village under a stolen press badge, she wants one anonymous night where no one knows her name, no one owns her choices, and no one can turn her into a pawn. When Nico recognizes the mystery girl who once scorched him with a single look, their collision in a quiet athletes’ lounge detonates into flirting as combat, touch as challenge, and sex as the only language reckless enough to match them both. Silver Course is a steamy forbidden prequel to Carve Me Free, a high-stakes sports romance where a reckless speed king chases an uptown ice queen across the World Cup circuit. If you like scorching chemistry, messy rich-girl rebellion, and dangerous men who race as they love, you’ll devour this Maraverse novella. [Read More]

Fire & Will

by Julia Jaines

Tropes: slowburn, forcedproximity, characterdriven

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A god who was thrown away. A woman he built himself. And Olympus coming to take her back. Spicy. HEA. Mythic. Hephaestus deserved better. The Greek myths gave the forge god a cruel wife, a mocking family, and centuries of being the punchline of every story he was in. He built weapons for gods who despised him and forged chains for prisoners he pitied. He built everything Olympus asked of him and got nothing back but scorn. So he built her. Pyrrha—born of phoenix feathers, dying stars, and molten gold. A woman shaped by his hands and awakened into a life entirely her own. From her first breath, she is hers. She owes Hephaestus nothing. She stays anyway. Then Olympus finds out what he has built. The same family that threw Hephaestus away centuries ago wants his newest creation for themselves—a weapon, a plaything, a possession to bend to their will. Pyrrha will have to decide who she is when the gods come to claim her. Hephaestus will have to decide, finally, if he's worth fighting for. And together, they'll have to answer the oldest question the gods have ever asked: who gets to say what a person is worth? FIRE & WILL is a spicy Greek myth romance about autonomy, self-discovery, and love forged in fire. Tropes: ~ Grumpy craftsman / feisty heroine ~ Forced proximity on a Greek island ~ Creator and creation ~ Touch-starved hero ~ She chooses him back ~ Found family ~ Disability representation ~ HEA guaranteed. Spicy. Standalone. Book 1 of the Love & Myth series. [Read More]