May 2024 Wrap-Up
King of Wrath
Ana Huang
She’s the wife he never wanted…and the weakness he never saw coming.
Ruthless. Meticulous. Arrogant.
Dante Russo thrives on control, both personally and professionally.
The billionaire CEO never planned to marry—
until the threat of blackmail forces him into an engagement with a woman he barely knows.
Vivian Lau, jewelry heiress and daughter of his newest enemy.
It doesn’t matter how beautiful or charming she is. He’ll do everything in his power to destroy the evidence and their betrothal.
There’s only one problem: now that he has her…he can’t bring himself to let her go.
***
Elegant. Ambitious. Well-mannered.
Vivian Lau is the perfect daughter and her family’s ticket into the highest echelons of high society.
Marrying a blue-blooded Russo means opening doors that would otherwise remain closed to her new-money family.
While the rude, elusive Dante isn’t her idea of a dream partner, she agrees to their arranged marriage out of duty.
Craving his touch was never part of the plan.
Neither was the worst thing she could possibly do: fall in love with her future husband.
King of Wrath is a steamy billionaire/arranged marriage romance. It’s book one in the Kings of Sin series.
It contains explicit sexual content, profanity, and mild violence. Recommended for mature readers only.
King of Pride
Ana Huang
She’s his opposite in every way…and the greatest temptation he’s ever known.
Reserved, controlled, and proper to a fault, Kai Young has neither the time nor inclination for chaos―and Isabella, with her purple hair and inappropriate jokes, is chaos personified.
With a crucial CEO vote looming and a media empire at stake, the billionaire heir can’t afford the distraction she brings.
Isabella is everything he shouldn’t want, but with every look and every touch, he’s tempted to break all his rules…and claim her as his own.
***
Bold, impulsive, and full of life, Isabella Valencia has never met a party she doesn’t like or a man she couldn’t charm…except for Kai Young.
It shouldn’t matter. He’s not her type―the man translates classics into Latin for fun, and his membership at the exclusive club where she bartends means he’s strictly off limits.
But she can’t deny that, beneath his cool exterior, is a man who could make her melt with just a touch.
No matter how hard they try, they can’t resist giving into their forbidden desires.
Even if it costs them everything.
King of Pride is a steamy opposites attract, forbidden billionaire romance. It’s book two in the Kings of Sin series but can be read as a standalone.
Contains explicit content and profanity. Recommended for mature readers only.
King of Greed
Ana Huang
He had her, he lost her…and he’ll do anything to win her back.
Powerful, brilliant, and ambitious, Dominic Davenport clawed his way up from nothing to become the King of Wall Street.
He has everything—a beautiful home, a beautiful wife, and more money than he could spend in a lifetime. But no matter how much he accumulates, he’s never satisfied.
In his endless quest for more, he drives away the only person who saw him as enough.
It isn’t until she’s gone that he realizes there may be more to life than riches and glory…but by then, it may be too late.
***
Kind, intelligent, and thoughtful, Alessandra Davenport has played the role of trophy wife for years.
She stood by her husband while he built an empire, but now that they’ve reached the top, she realizes he’s no longer the man she fell for.
When it becomes clear that she’ll always come second to his work, she finally takes charge of her life and puts herself first—even if it means leaving the only man she’s ever loved.
But what she didn’t count on was his refusal to let her go…or for him to fight for their marriage, no matter what it takes.
King of Greed is a steamy marriage in trouble/second chance romance. It’s book three in the Kings of Sin series but can be read as a standalone.
King of Sloth
Ana Huang
He’d never wanted anyone enough to chase them…until he met her.
Charming, easygoing, and rich beyond belief, Xavier Castillo has the world at his fingertips.
He also has no interest in taking over his family’s empire (much to his father’s chagrin), but that hasn’t stopped women from throwing themselves at him…unless the woman in question is his publicist.
Nothing brings him more joy than riling her up, but when a tragedy forces them closer than ever, he must grapple with the uncertainty of his future—and the realization that the only person immune to his charms is the only one he truly wants.
***
Cool, intelligent, and ambitious, Sloane Kensington is a high-powered publicist who’s used to dealing with difficult clients.
However, none infuriate—or tempt—her more than a certain billionaire heir, with his stupid dimples and laid-back attitude.
She may be forced to work with him, but she’ll never fall for him…no matter how fast he makes her heart beat or how thoughtful he is beneath his party persona.
He’s her client, and that’s all he’ll ever be. Right?
King of Sloth is book four in the Kings of Sin series but can be read as a standalone.
Twisted Love
Ana Huang
He has a heart of ice…but for her, he’d burn the world.
Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can’t escape.
Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart.
But when he’s forced to look after his best friend’s sister, he starts to feel something in his chest:
A crack.
A melt.
A fire that could end his world as he knew it.
***
Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can’t remember.
But despite her broken past, she’s never stopped seeing the beauty in the world…including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn’t want.
Her brother’s best friend.
Her neighbor.
Her savior and her downfall.
Theirs is a love that was never supposed to happen—but when it does, it unleashes secrets that could destroy them both…and everything they hold dear.
Twisted Love is a brother’s best friend/opposites attract romance with a hint of suspense. It’s book one in the Twisted series but can be read as a standalone.
This book contains a possessive, morally gray alphahole; explicit sexual content, and profanity. No cheating or menage, but if you’re looking for a traditionally sweet, loveable hero, this is not the book for you. Recommended for 18+.
Consider Me
Becka Mack
Carter Beckett is the NHL’s resident bad boy, top player both on the ice and in the bedroom, and quite possibly the sexiest man to ever grace my field of vision. But worst of all? He knows it.
He’s arrogant, self-centered, and the man doesn’t seem to know what a filter is, let alone how to use one. He’s had everything served to him on a silver platter, including endless strings of women, and apparently, I’m up next.
His only problem? I have no intention of falling for his shi—um, charm.
I have the solution to all my sexual frustrations in a drawer at home, and it’s far less complicated than Carter Beckett. Sure, he may be pretty, but he’s also a walking, talking reminder for you to wrap it before you tap it.
But then I start letting my guard down, and he starts showing me pieces of himself I had no intention of seeing. The bricks surrounding me may be tumbling down one by one, but I’m not sold yet, which means for the first time in his life, Carter’s the one begging.
For my time, my trust, for a single chance.
For me to just…consider him.
Consider Me is book one in the Playing For Keeps series, a series of interconnected standalone mature hockey romance stories that contain lots of heat, swoon, laughs, and a ride on an emotional rollercoaster!
Play With Me
Becka Mack
I’m the star right winger for the Vancouver Vipers, an unstoppable force, fast as lightning. My dream come true, and I’ve worked my whole life to get here. I don’t plan on giving it up, but if I want to keep playing hockey, I’m going to need all my limbs. To ensure my body parts stay intact, I only need to follow one simple rule.
Don’t touch my captain’s little sister.
Seems easy enough. She’s snarky and bossy and has a mouth like a sailor. Truthfully, I’m bordering on the edge of terrified when she’s around.
The problem is I’ve seen too much. Too much of her, inside and out. And now? Now I want more.
But she’s my best friend’s little sister, and nobody’s ever been as off limits as Jennie Beckett is to me.
Her collection of toys is impressive, but I plan on showing her how a real man can make her vibrate without all the batteries. These hands can handle a hockey stick; surely they can handle her.
C’mon, Jennie. Play with me.
Play With Me is book two in the Playing For Keeps series, a series of interconnected standalone mature hockey romance stories that contain lots of heat, swoon, laughs, and a ride on an emotional rollercoaster! Each book can be read on its own, but for the richest reading experience, reading in order is recommended.
UNravel Me
Becka Mack
Golden boy. Notorious serial dater. The NHL’s most eligible bachelor.
That’s what the headlines say about me, at least. I wish I could say they’re not accurate, but truthfully? I don’t even know who I am anymore.
Between a soul-crushing ex-girlfriend and a never-ending queue of dates gone wrong, one thing has become glaringly obvious: I don’t want to be Adam Lockwood.
So when my dog decides to play matchmaker, taking down a sweet little thing with rose gold waves, brilliant green eyes, and a smile for days, I can’t believe my luck that she doesn’t have a clue who I am. I know I should tell her, but for once in my life someone sees the man behind the goalie mask.
Rosie gives me all of her–her heartache, her laughter, and her son. But me? I’m holding on a little too tightly to the pieces I’m scared to give up, the pieces she might not like.
One small lie becomes a secret hanging above my head, but what if there’s another one hiding right around the corner?
Suddenly, my deepest desire becomes my biggest fear.
I’m terrified she’s going to unravel me.
Unravel Me is book three in the Playing For Keeps series, a series of interconnected standalone mature hockey romance stories that contain relatable characters, lots of heat, swoon, laughs, and a ride on an emotional rollercoaster!
Unravel Me contains emotional references to the past death of parents and its surrounding grief, as well as brief discussions of foster care, depictions of child neglect (not by the main character), and the death of an animal (minimal descriptions and as it pertains to the FMC’s training as a veterinarian student; not main character’s pet). If you are sensitive to these subjects, please use this information to make an informed decision about whether to proceed with this story.
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.
As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin-and his world-forever.
From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.
A Court of Thorns and Roses is book one in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.
A Court of Mist and Fury
Sarah J. Maas
Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she’s now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.
As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre’s hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different people: one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.
Bestselling author Sarah J. Maas’s masterful storytelling brings this second book in her dazzling, sexy, action-packed series to new heights.
A Court of Mist and Fury is book two in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.
A Court of Wings and Ruin
Sarah J. Maas
Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s actions and learn what she can about the invading king threatening to bring her land to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit. One slip could bring doom not only for Feyre, but for everything-and everyone-she holds dear.
As war bears down upon them all, Feyre endeavors to take her place amongst the High Fae of the land, balancing her struggle to master her powers-both magical and political-and her love for her court and family. Amidst these struggles, Feyre and Rhysand must decide whom to trust amongst the cunning and lethal High Lords, and hunt for allies in unexpected places.
In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the fate of Feyre’s world is at stake as armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy it.
A Court of Wings and Ruin is book three in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.
A Court of Frost and Starlight
Sarah J. Maas
Feyre, Rhysand, and their friends are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly altered world beyond, recovering from the war that changed everything. But Winter Solstice is finally approaching, and with it, the joy of a hard-earned reprieve.
Yet even the festive atmosphere can’t keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, her concern for those dearest to her deepens. They have more wounds than she anticipated-scars that will have a far-reaching impact on the future of their court.
Bridging the events of A Court of Wings and Ruin with the later books in the series, A Court of Frost and Starlight explores the far-reaching effects of a devastating war and the fierce love between friends.
A Court of Frost and Starlight is book four in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.
A Court of Silver Flames
Sarah J. Maas
Sarah J. Maas’s sexy, richly imagined series continues with the journey of Feyre’s fiery sister, Nesta.
Nesta Archeron has always been prickly-proud, swift to anger, and slow to forgive. And ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, she’s struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. Worse, she can’t seem to move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and all she lost in it.
The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre’s Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta’s orbit. But her temper isn’t the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable, and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.
Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.
Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance-and healing-in each other’s arms.
A Court of Silver Flames is book five in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.
Born of Blood and Thorns
Riley Hunt
Break the curse, save a kingdom…
Blamed for her shattered kingdom, half-vampire Isabella just got a dire ultimatum from her vampire prince father. Unwilling to embrace eternal darkness as a vampire, Isabella flees, pursued by Gideon, the merciless alpha wolf who wants to claim her as his own.
Isabella chooses neither.
She flees into the dangerous forbidden woods, pursued by Gideon and his pack. Fate leads her straight into the claws of the red dragon, Lore—her enemy and her salvation.
Despite her initial disdain, Isabella finds herself drawn to Lore, unraveling the mysteries surrounding him. In a risky alliance, she agrees to help him free his kingdom, only to discover the chilling truth: curses serve a purpose.
Trapped in an ancient curse, Lore watches as his humanity slowly fades. By night, he prowls the skies in his beastly form, burdened by the unbreakable curse that plagues his once glorious realm.
They are drawn to one another. In a risky alliance, they decide to free his kingdom, only to discover the chilling truth. The price they’ll have to pay is higher than they imagined.
It might cost them everything.
Born of Blood and Thorns is one of ten books in the Enemies Ever After series, a collection of standalone short novels featuring enemies-to-lovers fairy tale retellings with a touch of steam.
Goyhood
Reuven Fenton
Funny, poignant, and revelatory while plumbing the emotional depths of the relationship between estranged brothers, Goyhood examines what happens when one becomes unmoored from a comfortable, spiritual existence and must decide whether coincidence is in fact destiny.
When Mayer (née Marty) Belkin fled small town Georgia for Brooklyn nearly thirty years ago, he thought he’d left his wasted youth behind. Now he’s a Talmud scholar married into one of the greatest rabbinical families in the world – a dirt poor country boy reinvented in the image of God.
But his mother’s untimely death brings a shocking Mayer and his ne’er-do-well twin brother David aren’t, in fact, Jewish. Traumatized and spiritually bereft, Mayer’s only recourse is to convert to Judaism. But the earliest date he can get is a week from now. What are two estranged brothers to do in the interim?
So begins the Belkins’ Rumspringa through America’s Deep South with Mom’s ashes in tow, plus two an insightful Instagram influencer named Charlayne Valentine and Popeye, a one-eyed dog. As the crew gets tangled up in a series of increasingly surreal adventures, Mayer grapples with a God who betrayed him and an emotionally withdrawn wife in Brooklyn who has yet to learn her husband is a counterfeit Jew.
The Spy Coast
Tess Gerritsen
A retired CIA operative in small-town Maine tackles the ghosts of her past in this fresh take on the spy thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen.
Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.
But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends―all retirees from the CIA―to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This “Martini Club” of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they’re eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives.
Complicating their efforts is Purity’s acting police chief, Jo Thibodeau. More accustomed to dealing with rowdy tourists than homicide, Jo is puzzled by Maggie’s reluctance to share information―and by her odd circle of friends, who seem to be a step ahead of her at every turn.
As Jo’s investigation collides with the Martini Club’s maneuvers, Maggie’s hunt for answers will force her to revisit a clandestine career that spanned the globe, from Bangkok to Istanbul, from London to Malta. The ghosts of her past have returned, but with the help of her friends―and the reluctant Jo Thibodeau―Maggie might just be able to save the life she’s built.
Now it’s your turn!
Share your May reads and let’s discuss — what were your favorite reads from the past month? Or is there a book you’re looking forward to this month? Any new discoveries or treasured rereads? We’d love to see your recommendations and thoughts!
