**I loved to hate her…** She made it so easy. She was everything I wasn’t—everything I didn’t want to be. A reminder that from the moment I was born, I was the outcast, the rebel who didn’t fit the mold my family tried to force me into. I went against everything that was expected of me and created a life on my terms. **I built my own empire, carved out my own destiny** running a successful tattoo studio where creativity matters more than pedigree. 🎨
Then **she shows up at my tattoo studio,** representing everything I tried to escape—the upper-class world of expectations, judgment, and people who think money makes them better. She expects to just fit in, like she ever could with her designer clothes and posh accent. Tabitha Anderson. **The posh girl trying to prove everyone wrong… that she can be something else—someone else.** She hates me because she knows I’m right about her. Or so I think. Turns out this isn’t the first time we’ve met, and **our hate has history.** We have history I don’t remember, and she’s never forgotten. 💔
I might not have remembered, but I damn sure won’t forget now. Won’t forget how **her smile is always directed at everyone but me,** how she fits in better than I expected, how the posh exterior hides someone more complex than I gave her credit for. If everything changes and she proves she does fit in with my world of ink and rebellion, will it still be hate I’m feeling or something else entirely? Between running my tattoo empire, confronting forgotten history, watching her transform from posh outsider to someone who belongs, and fighting feelings that started as hate but might be turning into something dangerous, I discover that sometimes the person you hate most is the one you needed all along. ✨
What makes this steamy: Loving to hate her as everything he wasn’t representing outcast rebel past, posh girl Tabitha Anderson showing up at his tattoo studio trying to prove she can be someone else, hate having history they share but he doesn’t remember, smile always directed at everyone but him, and questioning if it’s still hate or something else entirely.
**We still worship the sleeping fae, though their magic only remains within a few of us.** Locked away for twelve years in a tower where her only companions are the animals she communicates with using forbidden magic, Sabine Darrow’s childhood ended the day they discovered her powers. Now, **sold as a bride to a villainous high lord** known for his cruelty and ambition, her greatest fear is trading one prison for another—replacing stone walls with a gilded cage, isolation with degradation. 🏰
But a potential escape lies in the form of **her gruff yet achingly handsome guard,** whose loyalty she is determined to break with every weapon in her limited arsenal. A huntsman with heightened senses, Basten “Wolf” Bowborn has more important things to do than transport his master’s new bride across dangerous territory. **With ancient creatures reawakening along the kingdom’s border wall,** he is torn between his duty to deliver Sabine and his desire to investigate why things that should stay sleeping are stirring—until a forbidden attraction becomes an unyielding obsession that threatens everything he’s sworn to protect. 🐺
Welcome to Astagnon—**a kingdom of cruel games and corrupted courts, where the only thing more dangerous than the secrets slumbering underground is falling for the one person you can’t have.** Between surviving as a bride to a villain, manipulating her guard’s loyalty, discovering why ancient fae creatures are awakening, and fighting an attraction that could destroy them both, Sabine learns that some prisons are made of duty and desire, not stone. And some guards are more dangerous than any high lord—especially when their loyalty starts shifting from their master to you. ✨
What makes this dark: Kingdom worshipping sleeping fae with magic remaining in few, Sabine Darrow locked away twelve years sold as bride to villainous high lord, escape lying in gruff achingly handsome guard Wolf whose loyalty she’s determined to break, ancient creatures reawakening along border wall, and Astagnon being kingdom where only thing more dangerous than secrets underground is falling for forbidden person.
**The best revenge is falling for his brother.** Sophie’s dream of opening a crafting business for kids has slid into a dead-end job at a brewery, but she fools herself into thinking everything’s going well because she’s engaged to a gorgeous, ambitious catch of a man who’s crazy about her. Or so she thinks until they accidentally swap phones and **she realizes he’s been cheating on her with three other women, none of whom know about each other.** Talk about organizational skills applied to the wrong endeavor. 💔
She breaks up with him, but she’s devastated until she befriends the other women he wronged—sisterhood forged in betrayal is the strongest kind. **I want revenge for all of us,** and she finds the perfect opportunity when he confronts her at the brewery. He and his brother Rob hate each other, and Rob’s playing a set at the bar. **One stolen kiss later, she has a fake boyfriend who’s just as invested in getting back at her ex as she is.** Rob’s pollyanna personality has always driven him crazy, but he’s seeing a whole new side of Sophie—opinionated, fierce, and eager to experience everything she’s missed. 😘
This Sophie is ready to stop being agreeable and start living. **Rob is all too willing to help.** His brother ruined his life years ago, so it seems only fair to steal his girl—even if it’s just pretend. Between plotting elaborate revenge schemes, helping each other discover what they’ve been missing, working together at the brewery where the ex keeps showing up, and realizing the fake relationship feels suspiciously real, Sophie and Rob discover that **the best way to get over someone is to get under his brother.** Wait, that came out wrong. Or did it? 🍺
What makes this spicy: Best revenge being falling for his brother when Sophie discovers fiancé cheating with three other women, befriending women he wronged and wanting revenge for all, one stolen kiss creating fake boyfriend just as invested in getting back at ex, Rob willing to help steal brother’s girl, and discovering fake relationship feels suspiciously real.
How to Write a Damn Good Thriller: A Step-by-Step Guide for Novelists and Screenwriters
From the internationally bestselling author of books on the craft of writing comes **James N. Frey’s *How to Write a Damn Good Thriller*.** This book will help the aspiring novelist or screenwriter to design, draft, write, and polish a thriller that is sure to grab readers by the throat and not let go until the final page. Frey uses examples from both books and movies—analyzing what works, what doesn’t, and why—to teach the fundamental principles of thriller writing. ✍️
Frey addresses the following hot topics: germinal ideas that hook readers from page one, **breathing life into great thriller characters** (heroes who compel us, villains we love to hate), crafting a gripping opening that makes it impossible to put the book down, maintaining tension throughout (the holy grail of thriller writing), creating obstacles and conflicts that escalate relentlessly, writing mean, lean thriller scenes with no fat, adding surprise twists that readers don’t see coming but feel inevitable in retrospect, building a smashing climax that delivers on every promise, and many more essential techniques. 📚
**In his trademark approachable and humorous style,** Frey illuminates the building blocks of great thrillers and gives the reader the tools to write his or her own page-turner. Between learning how to structure three-act thriller arcs, understanding the ticking clock device, mastering the art of red herrings, creating compelling stakes that matter, and studying examples from masters like Michael Crichton, Lee Child, and Gillian Flynn, aspiring thriller writers get a comprehensive education. This isn’t theory—it’s practical instruction from someone who’s taught thousands of writers how to craft stories that keep readers up all night. For novelists and screenwriters ready to write thrillers that actually thrill. 🎬
What makes this essential: Internationally bestselling author James N. Frey’s step-by-step thriller guide, breathing life into great characters with gripping openings, maintaining tension while creating relentless obstacles, adding surprise twists and building smashing climax, and trademark approachable humorous style illuminating building blocks with tools to write page-turners.
**It was the most influential marriage of the nineteenth century—and one of history’s most enduring love stories.** Traditional biographies tell us that Queen Victoria inherited the throne as a naïve teenager when the British Empire was at the height of its power, and seemed doomed to find failure as a monarch and misery as a woman until she married her German cousin Albert and accepted him as her lord and master. Now renowned chronicler Gillian Gill turns this familiar story on its head, revealing a strong, feisty queen and a brilliant, fragile prince working together. 👑
The epic relationship **began poorly.** The cousins first met as teenagers for a few brief, awkward, chaperoned weeks in 1836. At seventeen, charming rather than beautiful, Victoria already “showed signs of wanting her own way”—an understatement for a girl who would become one of history’s most powerful monarchs. Albert, the boy who had been groomed for her since birth, was chubby, self-absorbed, and showed no interest in girls, let alone this princess. So when they met again in 1839 as queen and presumed prince-consort-to-be, neither had particularly high hopes. **But the queen was delighted to discover a grown man, refined, accomplished, and whiskered. “Albert is beautiful!” Victoria wrote, and she proposed just three days later.** 💍
The love affair that emerges is far more captivating, complex, and relevant than depicted in any previous account. Between building a family based on support, trust, and fidelity (qualities neither had seen much of as children), navigating the politics of a powerful queen married to a prince with no official role, dealing with Albert’s frustration at being sidelined, and Victoria’s struggle to share power she’d fought to claim, their marriage was partnership, rivalry, passion, and political maneuvering all at once. This is the real story of two extraordinary people creating an extraordinary union. 💕
What makes this revelatory: Most influential nineteenth-century marriage as history’s enduring love story, Gillian Gill turning familiar story on its head revealing strong feisty queen and brilliant fragile prince, cousins’ relationship beginning poorly with awkward 1836 meeting, Victoria discovering grown refined Albert and proposing three days later, and building family based on support and trust.
**The first thing you should know is that everyone lies. The second thing is that it matters.** How well do we know our children? Natalie Falcone would say she knows her daughter Arden very well. Despite the challenges of running a restaurant and raising six-year-old twin boys, she’s not too worried as she sends her daughter off to college—until she gets the call that Arden’s been in a terrible fire, along with her best friend and cousin Rory. **Both girls are critically injured and another student has died. The police suspect arson.** 🔥
**Arden and Rory have always been close, but they have secrets they’ve never shared,** secrets that reel all the way back to their childhoods, and which led them to that tragic night. Who set the fire, and why? As the police dig deep into both the present and the past, Natalie realizes that in order to protect her daughter, she’ll first have to find out who Arden really is. The girl she thought she knew might be a stranger hiding behind familiar features. Every parent believes they understand their children—until the moment proves otherwise. 🚨
In order to protect her daughter, she’ll first have to find out who Arden really is, **even if it means risking everything—and everyone—she loves most.** Between uncovering decades-old secrets the cousins kept buried, discovering what really happened the night of the fire, navigating police investigation while both girls remain hospitalized, and confronting the possibility that Arden might be responsible for another student’s death, Natalie faces an impossible choice. The more she learns, the more she realizes that the lies started long before college, and the truth might destroy her family completely. Some secrets burn hotter than any fire. 💔
What makes this gripping: Everyone lies and it matters when mother gets call daughter Arden critically injured in terrible fire with cousin Rory, another student dead with police suspecting arson, always-close cousins having secrets never shared reeling back to childhood, and mother risking everything to protect daughter by discovering who Arden really is.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 3Page 3