fiction

18 books found

Under the Weatherman

Under the Weatherman

by Mary Ann Marlowe

My best friend ropes me into some pretty outlandish shenanigans, but tonight’s one for the record books. Up to her usual mischief, she dares me to hit up a random stranger at a bar--and tell him only lies. I’d rather hide behind a book than flirt, but inventing a fictional narrative gives me the nerve to saunter up to a magazine-gorgeous blond and say, “Hey!” When he turns his pretty green eyes on me, eyes framed by dark bookish glasses--my kryptonite--I panic. “I was in your class with, uh--” I snap my fingers, hoping he’ll play along with some vague long-lost connection, out of politeness if nothing else. At first, the sexy librarian only squints at me, then his camera-ready smile widens. “Lizzy Graham?” Oh, my god. He’s not supposed to believe me. I want to bail, but a dare’s a dare. As we catch up, I suspect Evan’s pranking me right back. I tell him I’m a zoologist who speaks Latin to pigs. He claims to be a TV weatherman from Indiana. Sure. He’s funny and cute, and I wish I hadn’t promised to lie to him. I want him to know me. The real me. So when the bar closes, I come clean and, assuming we’re on the same page, invite him to my place. When he doesn’t contact me for weeks afterwards, I feel like the dupe. Just as I’m getting over the mortification, who should show up at my workplace as the new face of weather at six and eleven? I might be frosty, but he’s even icier because somehow he’s only just discovered I’m not the person I said I was. [Read More]

The Gay Goblin King: An Erotic M/M Comedic Fantasy Romance

The Gay Goblin King: An Erotic M/M Comedic Fantasy Romance

by Zwahk Muchoney

A gay fantasy romance novella for fans of queer erotica and unconventional love stories. Neurospicy Goblin King Badinel is visiting the tavern for a mug of ale and maybe a bi-elf hookup, when a masked man claiming to be the infamous Rat King bursts through the door, offering to bring our lead to the greatest heights of ecstasy. Never one to turn down a sure thing, Badinel agrees. However, after an over-exuberant encounter involving an attack by an irate fae swarm, the Goblin King at first plans to ditch the (admittedly hot) Rat King, only to find himself embroiled in a case of pirouetting vermin-horde induced forced proximity. However, as the pair travel together, they come to realize they are both tragic misfits suffering from a broken heart. With any luck, Badinel can finally have the happy ending he never thought possible. This is the last book in Zwahk Muchoney's 'Divine Temptations' series but can be read as a standalone story. The final bonus story, 'The Devil's Honeymoon', is a conclusion to the gay love pairing from the first book in the series and is a purely optional read for reviewers. READER CAUTION ADVISED: This book is intended for an 18+ audience only. It contains explicit sexual content and is inappropriate for minors. [Read More]

Carve Me Golden

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Carve Me Golden

by Mara J. Ova

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]

Carve Me Free: A Steamy Enemies‑to‑Lovers, Forbidden Ski Romance

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Carve Me Free: A Steamy Enemies‑to‑Lovers, Forbidden Ski Romance

by Mara j. Ova

She is ice and scandal. He is speed and sin. When they meet, they turn heat into a weapon they can’t stop using. But can that last? Having spent her life as a decoration for her scandalously rich father, Élise Moreau finds her rebellion in a reckless downhill racer. Escaping an Olympic gala, she takes him up on his offer to be free and wild in his arms. One reckless Olympic night. No names. Just escape, freedom, and the kind of sex that brands itself into your bones. Nico Reiner is the golden, reckless Super-G talent of Austria, hurling himself down the ice like he’s furious at the mountain and flirting his way through camera crews and fan girls. He’s used to casual hook-ups, easy worship, and being the wildest thing in any room—until one perfectly polished princess looks at him like he’s beneath her, then kisses him like she wants to burn her whole life down. They were not supposed to meet again. But months later, Austria’s new speed hero locks eyes with his mystery girl at a World Cup sponsor party—and finds out the wild stranger from his bed is the Moreau heiress whose disgraced dynasty now quietly owns his skis. What starts as a filthy, anonymous rebellion turns into a season-long obsession they can’t tame. As the stakes climb, they learn lust is easy; love is brutal. When crashes threaten careers, tabloids circle like vultures, and her father moves in for the kill, Nico and Élise have to face something far scarier than breaking rules: sacrifice, letting go of each ot [Read More]

Hell's Refuge

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Hell's Refuge

by Miren Kairne

Retiring from Hell was the easy part. Two years ago, Kira Alvarez walked away from a centuries-long career as a succubus, opened a burlesque studio in a small Nebraska town, and tried to build a quiet life among other retired demons who keep their heads down and their powers dormant. The arrangement works until a visiting historian makes her want things she swore off, and something from her past arrives with a grudge that's been building for centuries. The historian is temporary. He's human, he keeps finding excuses to visit, and he has no idea that the woman he's falling for used to destroy kingdoms for a living. Kira should keep her distance. But she's not great at should. With the supernatural wards that protect the town weakening and Midsummer closing in, Kira has a choice: accept that her past disqualifies her from happiness, or fight like hell for the life she's trying to build. Paranormal romantic suspense set in a demon retirement community in rural Nebraska, because someone had to write that book. [Read More]

Familiar Warmth

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Familiar Warmth

by Dae Storm

He can't get him out of his head. Cyrus has spent years bowing his neck to the rule of lesser Alphas in the Crimson Moon pack. Biding his time, growing his strength, and waiting for the night he’ll finally take what should have always been his. The Blood Moon Ritual is coming, and he’s ready to claim his place. No matter who he has to break to do it. Then Gabriel walks in. Younger. Reckless. Oddly familiar; and standing directly in Cyrus’s path to power. What starts as rivalry turns into something far more dangerous—heat, tension, a pull neither of them can ignore. Gabe awakens a hunger in Cyrus that’s been buried for years, raw and consuming. Forced into each other’s orbit, every touch lingers too long, every glance cuts too deep. As Cyrus’s past claws its way back into the present, he finds himself torn between the love he lost, the power he craves… and the man he can’t resist. Familiar Warmth is an M/M shifter romance featuring explicit 18+ content. [Read More]

Flesh and Blood

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Flesh and Blood

by Marion Thomas

A Dark Historical Fiction Romance Set against the tumultuous backdrop of America’s Civil War, Flesh and Blood paints a stark portrait of a southern family torn apart as Jack and his sister Abigail navigate their secrets and treacherous circumstances in a salacious tale of forbidden love, loyalty and survival they struggle to save their farm and keep a buried treasure out of the hands of the crumbling Confederacy. Flesh and Blood offers a raw and unflinching look at the human heart in crisis. Brace yourself for a passionate tale that pushes boundaries and challenges societal norms. (contains explicit graphic language and mature themes) [Read More]

Freedom to Me - An M/M Romance

Freedom to Me - An M/M Romance

by Sidney Quinn

London native Felix Brixton, rich and sheltered, leaves his old life behind on a whim to pursue his dream of running a tall ship tour boat. A mid-life crisis brings him to the small Southern California town of Carino Bay, where he buys a ship, the Freedom. What Felix doesn’t know is he’s also buying a dark secret and complicated history. Jay Otene, tattooed and leather-clad, lays eyes on the sweet, buttoned-up new guy in town and is intrigued. He can’t resist the temptation. But Jay has personal demons which may cost him everything he holds dear. Carino Bay, a queer haven full of misfits like him, offers Felix a new start in more ways than one. But he uncovers deep-seated crime and corruption closely tied to the man of his dreams. No matter how intensely their attraction pulls Jay and Felix to each other, the town’s history and their complicated lives threaten to keep them apart. COMING TO NINESTAR PRESS, JUNE 16, 2026 [Read More]

Hellebore Fields: A Dark Academia Hockey Romance

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Hellebore Fields: A Dark Academia Hockey Romance

by Rivkah Plume

He says I'm his light. But loving him feels like drowning in shadows. At UC Wisteria, I'm supposed to be chasing my future: books, scholarship, and a life I've fought tooth and nail to earn. But instead, I'm being chased by Branwen Atthill, the campus hockey star with sharp edges, hidden scars, and ice-blue eyes that track my every move like I belong to him. When his obsession transforms into something that looks like love, I fall headfirst into the dark fairytale I always craved—until I start losing myself in its twisted pages. Branwen is dangerous. Possessive. Beautiful in ways that make me forget to breathe. When the violence starts, I convince myself I can fix him. That if I love him hard enough, my light will chase away his darkness. But as secrets unravel and the campus grows more dangerous, I'm forced to confront the question I've been too terrified to ask: if I survive loving him, will I still recognize the girl I was before he consumed me? He's everything I was warned about, and the only boy I've ever wanted to burn for. Trigger Warning & Tropes: Contemporary, Dark Romance, Erotic Thriller, Dark Academia, Hockey Romance, Stalker, Grumpy/Sunshine, Dubious Consent, Possessive, Tortured Past, Rags-to-Riches, Murder [Read More]

Starless and Bible-Black

Starless and Bible-Black

by Tyler Kimball

This concerns you: the apostles of a divine black hole have invaded the afterlife to pull the plug on a dying universe. The stars are dead. Their orphans huddle together for warmth in the Realm of the Iron Sky, a refugee camp built on the remains of a million fallen empires and gods slain in some inglorious Ragnarök. The Shadowlands Syndicate is a detective agency investigating disturbances in the bleeding edges, dreamscapes, and legal and liminal grey-areas between the Realm's desperate, declining civilizations. One Syndicate crew uncovers a vast conspiracy between a bodysnatching alien acid casualty, a predatory horde, the resurrected agents of an apocalyptic, anthropic church, and scheming ambassadors who came in from the Cold. Starless and Bible-Black is a science-fiction epic of entropy and an introspective look at the battle between hanging on and letting go. [Read More]

Last Save

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Last Save

by H.A. Laine

Risa Kwon is thirty-seven, a league compliance attorney, and the woman they sent to Portland because they expected her to find nothing and write a report that said so. She packed eleven case files, running shoes, and the binders her mentor built over twenty-two years before choosing the pension over the fight. She does not intend to make the same choice. Milo Varga is twenty-four, a goaltender in his fourth NHL season, and a man who has spent five years turning silence into architecture. He reads shooters the way she reads depositions: looking for the tell, the inconsistency, the moment before the truth arrives. When Risa sits across the interview table, Milo reads her file arrangement in the time it takes to cross the room. She reads him editing her questions before he answers them. Neither of them can stop. [Read More]

Last Change

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Last Change

by H.A. Laine

Vince Mercer is thirty-four, a veteran defenseman who has been quiet about one conversation for seven years. Elara Vasquez is thirty-three, a single mom who lost six years to a marriage that ran her schedule. And Leo is seven. He sorts dinosaurs by geological period. He negotiates bedtime like a contract attorney. He has never met an adult he can't see through, and he is paying close attention to Vince. When the Wolves hire Elara to produce the Heritage Season celebration, the contract puts all three of them in the same rooms. This is a single parent romance told in three voices. Leo is not a prop. He is paying attention. The Heritage Season contract also has a second shape: it's an excavation. When Elara uncovers a memo proving the organization covered up Vince's career-threatening injury, she has to choose between the man she's falling for and the truth that could burn down the ceremony she was hired to build. Perfect for fans of Mariana Zapata, Hannah Grace, and Becka Mack. [Read More]

Short Side

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Short Side

by H.A. Laine

Carter Knox is twenty-three, undrafted, and running out of charm to burn. The Portland Wolves gave him a roster spot nobody expected him to keep, and he's been performing ever since, because if he stops, someone might notice there's nothing underneath. Wren Gallagher photographs the Wolves with the precision of someone who learned the hard way what happens when you let people get too close to the lens. When a PR situation forces them into a fake dating arrangement, the rules are simple: public appearances, strategic chemistry, a clean exit. But Carter keeps being genuine when he's supposed to be performing, and Wren keeps seeing something real through the viewfinder when she's supposed to be composing a shot. [Read More]

Between the Glass

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Between the Glass

by H.A. Laine

Renee Lavoie did not become the best sports journalist in the league by falling for surfaces. She has watched Ben Kowalski charm every room since her first press scrum, and she knows the grin is armor. He is the Portland Wolves' funniest player, their emotional backbone, and the saddest person nobody notices. When a story that could end both their careers forces them together, Renee has to decide what matters more: the truth she was trained to chase, or the man she was never supposed to want. [Read More]

Unassisted

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Unassisted

by H.A. Laine

Elena Marlowe is the best shoulder specialist in North America, and she does not get emotionally involved with patients. But when she takes on Declan Rourke, captain of the Portland Wolves, his injury is the least complicated thing about him. He has spent twelve years performing invincibility, and she can see through every layer. Day by day, session by session, their professional vocabulary becomes something far more dangerous. When her fingers stop assessing and start choosing, the clinical distance she has maintained for twelve years collapses into a language neither of them can take back. The question is not whether the chemistry will ignite. The question is what they are willing to risk when it does. [Read More]

Bathwater

Bathwater

by Tyler Kimball

Virginia Roach is a teen mother living hand to mouth on the isolated island chain of Deep Cannaria, a tropical nation that cut itself off from the world in the midst of a magical war that wounded the sky and poisoned the sea with the fall of a dead godling. But that revolution is thirty years gone, and Virginia isn't one for politics. She wants a stable home. She wants to be a telephone line repairwoman or a witch. And she wants to get a good night's sleep. When she's called to meet her recently-paroled mother outside of the capital reformatory, her simple motorcycle trip is interrupted by misfortunes, misadventures, Bewilderness monsters, abyssal mobsters, and a freak hurricane that wails like a terrified baby. Nothing comes easy in paradise. [Read More]

That Great Leviathan

That Great Leviathan

by Tyler Kimball

When the arctic port thawed, surgeons and conspirators alike sharpened their knives. The renegade city of Northernmost withers under a century-old curse and royal tyranny, dying slowly – until the forces of progress storm its icy shores. A questing knight arrives on swift wings, seeking redemption in this crisis. A gifted anatomist dabbles in arcane arts to divine the cause of the curse. A foreign doctor and a hinterland shaman blend ancient rites with modern medicine. A band of mercenaries search for a barbaric dragon-eater sealed away in a lonely tree. And the last scion of Northernmost's nobility struggles against the legacy of a god that beached itself in her domain. It is a simple rule of alchemy – there is no time more dangerous and fateful than a moment of change. “That Great Leviathan” by Tyler Kimball is a fantastical blend of chivalric romance, political intrigue, and alchemical medical thriller, set in the neoclassical world of Thier. [Read More]

Ese Gran Leviatán

Ese Gran Leviatán

by Tyler Kimball

Cuando el puerto ártico se descongeló, tanto cirujanos como conspiradores afilaron sus cuchillos. La ciudad renegada del Más Norte se marchita bajo el peso de una maldición centenaria y la tiranía real, muriendo lentamente... hasta que las fuerzas del progreso asaltan sus heladas costas. Un caballero errante llega en alas veloces, buscando redención en medio de la crisis. Un anatomista prodigioso incursiona en las artes arcanas para desentrañar el origen de la maldición. Un doctor extranjero y un chamán de las tierras remotas combinan ritos antiguos con la medicina moderna. Una banda de mercenarios busca a una devoradora de dragones sellado en un árbol solitario. Y la última descendiente de la nobleza del Más Norte lucha contra el legado de un dios que encalló en su dominio. Es una regla sencilla de la alquimia: no hay momento más peligroso y decisivo que un instante de cambio. «Ese Gran Leviatán» por Tyler Kimball es una mezcla fantástica de romance caballeresco, intriga política y un thriller médico alquímico, ambientado en el mundo neoclásico de Thier. [Read More]