Gabrielle S.

They built this city on secrets and called it survival. In the shadows, a rare few are born with a poison: a trait so concentrated it becomes power. Not magic. Not myth. Something sharper. Something that can keep a city standing… or bring it to its knees. Azaleea Kane arrives with a false name and a blank space where her past should be. She’s all bite and sarcasm, the kind of girl who laughs at danger because fear has never paid her rent. She came to disappear. To stay small. To outrun the nightmare she can’t remember. But the city doesn’t let people stay hidden, not the ones who matter. Dimitri Volkov notices her once, and the lie she’s living begins to crack. He isn’t a gangster in the way the stories say. He’s the last resort. The thing unleashed when the rules fail. His poison is rage, cold, controlled, absolute. When Dimitri turns violent, it’s not chaos. It’s precision. It’s final. And for reasons neither of them can explain, Azaleea feels safest beside the most dangerous man in the city. Their connection isn’t cautious. It isn’t slow. It’s recognition, like fate has been waiting for them to stop running in circles. Dimitri claims her without promises. Azaleea chooses him without hesitation. In the middle of ambushes, blood-slick streets, and enemies who strike from the dark, their bond doesn’t fracture, it hardens into something unbreakable. The Volkov brothers close ranks around her, each of them a different kind of nightmare, each sworn to keep balance when the world tips toward war. They expect Azaleea to be a liability. Instead, she becomes the center. Because her poison is waking up. Truth, unyielding and merciless. The kind that can’t be erased, can’t be rewritten, can’t be silenced. The more they hunt her, the more the city begins to… remember. Names that shouldn’t exist. Histories that were buried. A dynasty that was slaughtered to keep certain men in power. Someone once tried to erase Azaleea from the world. Now they’re coming back to finish the job. And when they finally take her, when they break her open and force her to face what she was meant to become, Dimitri stops playing by anyone’s rules. The calm restraint that kept the city from burning snaps in half. What follows isn’t revenge. It’s an ending. When poison can be salvation or annihilation, Azaleea and Dimitri must decide what they’re willing to destroy to keep each other and what happens when the truth finally looks the city in the eye. Pick Your Poison is a dark romantic thriller about power, obsession, and the kind of love that doesn’t ask permission.

Avena Cross never believed in fairytales. Life taught her the hard way that love doesn't pay the bills, and dreams don’t put food on the table. As a literature student and struggling writer, she barely keeps herself and her sick father afloat, pouring every ounce of her energy into maintaining her scholarship and selling books to cover medical expenses. Damian Carter doesn’t believe in love. Cold, ruthless, and powerful, he built his billion-dollar empire by following one rule: emotions have no place in business. When his grandfather—his only family—gives him a shocking ultimatum before his supposed impending death, Damian signs a contract that goes against everything he stands for: he has three months to fall in love and get married. When fate throws them together in the most unexpected way—a fiery confrontation at a university lecture—Damian finds himself intrigued by the one woman who doesn’t fall at his feet. Avena challenges him, frustrates him, fascinates him. She’s a brilliant writer, a sharp mind, and the perfect candidate for a position he needs to fill. But what if she’s perfect for something more? When Avena’s world crumbles, and Damian presents an offer she can’t refuse—one year as his wife in exchange for more money than she’s ever dreamed of—she steps into a contract that will change everything. She swore she wouldn’t fall for him. He swore love wasn’t real. But when the lines between pretend and reality blur, when stolen glances become something deeper, and when fake kisses start feeling dangerously real… What happens when a contract becomes a promise? And what happens when breaking the rules means risking everything? Because in the end, the only thing more dangerous than signing the contract… is wanting to tear it apart.

Sophia Moreau is a challenge no man has ever won. A self-made CEO, ruthless and untouchable, she built her empire from the ground up, leaving no room for weakness. No distractions. No mistakes. And definitely no men who think they can outplay her. But Travis Cole? He doesn’t walk away from a challenge. For years, Travis has kept a list—a private game between him and his closest friends. The women no one else could have, the ones deemed impossible. He’s never lost a bet. Never failed to break down the walls of even the most untouchable. And when Sophia’s name is thrown into the mix? He’s supposed to say no. She’s supposed to be off-limits. But one encounter with her, one sharp-tongued argument, one look in those firestorm eyes, and suddenly, he wants her. More than the game. More than the win. More than he should. What he doesn’t realize? She’s the one game he was never meant to play. And when she finds out the truth, when she learns that he made her a bet, she won’t just walk away. She’ll make sure he is the one left broken. Because Travis might have fallen first. But Sophia? Sophia was never meant to fall at all.

Kaira Hart doesn’t let people close. Not since the night her world was ripped apart and she learned the hard way that safety is a myth. Genius-level coder by day, culinary architect by passion, she’s built a life that runs on silence, secrets, and strict control. She doesn’t owe anyone explanations—and she never, ever asks for help. Until the night her body gives out. Hades Calloway walks in like a storm dressed in control—dangerous, unreadable, and far too observant. When Kaira collapses in his arms, everything shifts. He should’ve let her go. She made it clear she didn’t want saving. But he saw the ghosts in her eyes. And for the first time in a long time, he decides not to walk away. He’s everything she’s spent years avoiding—powerful, calm, commanding—but he doesn’t ask for her trust. He waits for it. Patiently. Stubbornly. Until the walls she’s built to survive start to crack. But when two broken people begin to heal, the past doesn’t stay buried. And loving someone like her? It means being strong enough not to fix her—but to stay when she breaks.

Eva Ammar has only known pain. Adopted into a household that treated her like a slave, she endured unspeakable torment for twenty-one years. Starved, beaten, and left with no hope, she finally seizes her only chance at escape. But fate is cruel—her body, too broken to go on, collapses onto the cold pavement of New York. When she wakes, she is in a hospital, unaware that her mere presence has triggered an ancient prophecy. Dante Capello, heir to one of the most feared mafia families, has spent his life searching for something no man should crave as desperately as he does—his mate. Bound by an ancestral curse, the Capello bloodline is destined to find their soulmates through a divine sign: the merging of their blood creating an ethereal light. For centuries, no such bond has been seen. Until now. The moment Eva’s blood is tested, Dante’s world is set ablaze. A light unlike any other shines in a hospital room across the ocean. His search is over. But when he finds her, she is nothing like he imagined—fragile, terrified, and drowning in shadows too deep for even his power to heal. Worse, she fears him. She fears them all. Dante swore to protect her. But how do you save the one destined for you when she has been taught that love is just another form of pain? He will burn the world for her. He will kill for her. He will teach her that she was never meant to be broken. And God help anyone who stands in his way.