characterdriven

6 books found

Blue Sky Black
🌶️🌶️🌶️
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]

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]

The Witch's Broken Crown
🌶️🌶️🌶️
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]

Love Twists and Knots
🌶️
Love Twists and Knots

by Jo-Anne Carriere

An accidental proposal, a charming sailor, a Mediterranean Romance that changes everything… Genny needs a new beginning. She takes a break from the corporate world, and spontaneously decides to go to the South of France for a carefree holiday. Enjoying her wine at a harbor cafĂ© in Antibes, she cannot believe that the man sitting across from her is… HIM—the one she’s always pictured herself with. After their eyes meet, and a light chitchat, and more wine, she accidentally proposes to the charming Nick. Nick laughs it off, but he doesn’t run. Intrigued, he invites her for a sail on the Mediterranean aboard his 83-foot classic sail yacht. What begins as a magical starlit night on his yacht soon becomes far more daring when Genny loses her job due to downsizing—she risks everything, and leaves Vancouver behind to follow the man who has captured her heart. Trouble rises when Heidi, an envious work colleague appears on the quay hoping to be part of Genny’s adventure. Genny shooed her away, but Heidi finds a way… Their romance gets twisted in a knot when Nick’s past resurfaces. Desperate to settle his divorce, Nick sells his beloved yacht to a shadowy buyer, an acquaintance of his ex. The buyer has two conditions—he pays for the yacht only after it is delivered to Puerto Rico—and he insists that Heidi stay onboard for the journey, causing spiraling tension. Fate did not work in Genny’s favor—unable to cross the Atlantic, she leaves Nick and the crew in Gibraltar and reunites with Nick in Barbados. The romantic trip Genny had in mind soon turns into a web of perilous secrets and lies when they discover the buyer had a different plan. Genny must decide what she truly believes. Is Nick her anchor, or is she caught in his wake? To keep her chance at love, will she take risks to choose the wild and beautiful life her heart whispers for? [Read More]

Her Heart's Wish
🌶️🌶️🌶️
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]