Whitney Barbetti

"In here," he said, pushing on the skin above my heart, "you're ten below zero. And you're closer to death than I am." My name is Parker. My body is marked with scars from an attack I don't remember. I don't want to remember. I choose to live my life by observation, not through experience. While people are laughing and kissing and connecting, I'm in the corner. Watching them live. I'm indifferent to everything, everyone. The only emotion I feel with any kind of depth is annoyance, and I feel it often. A text message sent to the wrong number proves to be my undoing. His name is Everett, but I call him rude. He's pushy, he's arrogant, he crowds my personal space, and worst of all: he makes me feel. He chooses to wear all black, all the time, as if he's waiting to attend a funeral. Probably because he is. Everett is dying. And he's spending his final days living, truly living. In doing so, he's forcing me to feel, to heal. To come face to face with the demons I suppressed in my memory. He hurts me, he fulfills me, he completes me. And still, he's dying.

Ten Below Zero

**Please note: this novel contains mature subject matter and is not suitable for those under eighteen years of age.** When I was seventeen, I disappeared. I walked out the door of my apartment with a backpack and never looked back. I left the life of Cora Mitchell behind, seeking freedom from my real-life nightmare. But my freedom came with a cost. I lived a fictitious life for the next six years, never letting anyone close enough to see underneath the façade that was Andra Walker. I was content with my simple little life. Until I met Julian. And the moment I started allowing myself to open up, allowing someone to see through the superficial, was the very same moment the Monster from my past would return to find me.

He Found Me

Adam Oliver hated me. Loathed my very existence. He had every right to, but that didn't make my life any easier the afternoon I had to rescue him on the side of the road.But worse than rescuing a guy who hated me to his core was the lie I told my parents.Because I'd just told them that my long-term boyfriend was finally back in town.My long-term boyfriend who didn't actually exist.The one named Adam Oliver-the guy I'd crushed on all through high school.So the real Adam had no idea that he and I were engaged in a years-long, committed, serious relationship.And, somehow, some way, I needed to convince him to play along with my one little lie.

A Hate to Love Rom-com

One Little Lie

Karla Sorensen

X and I were probably doomed from the start.That's what happens when you meet in court-mandated group therapy and then try to steal from him to pay off your blackmailing drug dealer. Former drug dealer, thank you very much. I'm turning over a new leaf and all that.Which is why I should leave him alone.Except he tempts me to do things I swore I'd stop doing. It's that whole gruff, grumbly, anti-social thing he has going on. Him, flame. Me, moth. Something about him calls to me, makes the blood hum in my body. And I don't want that feeling to end.Lucy Connors is straight-up insane.She looks like a Disney princess and tries my patience in more ways than I thought possible. Besides the fact that I have to save her cute little ass from jail, I can't quite figure out how to leave her alone. Even when she's trying her hand at Breaking and Entering. Especially when it's myhouse she's burglarizing.Yeah, we were probably doomed from the start.But that's the thing about being hooked on something so good, and so bad for you-you don't walk away when you should.

A Love Story of Criminal Proportions

Hooked

Six wasn't the hero I needed. But he was the man I wanted. And it was my selfish craving, the desire to own him, that would be our undoing. No one tells you that love is a disease. An infection that tears your heart apart, leaving you half the person you were before. A malady that leaves open wounds. An invisible disorder tracing scars in the places you couldn't see if you weren't looking for them. I was sick, but love didn't heal me. Instead, it festered in my marrow, and drove me to unforgivable mistakes. Six was my first mistake, but he wouldn't be the last.

Six Feet Under

JulianI've come to understand that I'll always find her. She's my north star, my sense of direction. In her, I've found my home. She tells me I saved her. But the truth is, she saved me.But nothing good can ever last. Andra's keeping secrets. She's holding something back. I'm trying, desperately, to anchor her. To let me in, to let me help.But will all my efforts end up with a ghost of a girl I love?AndraI'm used to disappearing. Vanishing into thin air, without a trace of who I've been or where I've gone.But it's so much harder to do with a broken heart and no hope for a happy ending. Sometimes the only people who can put all the pieces of us back together are the ones we least expect to. That's what Julian did for me.Julian found me. But now, all Six wants is to keep me locked up, away from the world, away from the Monster. I can't live like that. It's not living at all. Because I still have unfinished business.And I'm going to make sure the Monster gets what's coming to him.

He Saved Me

He Found Me & He Saved Me

Mila "Don't let go." Those were my first words to him, as I hung over the side of a London bridge. The words I would soon say again, in a moment that didn't involve bridges, but something much more fragile: my heart. He held onto me for three weeks, in a time when I needed to be held. Needed to connect to someone who understood how loss tunneled unrepentantly through the fabric of your soul. Although he said he'd stay, we both knew he wouldn't. I had already survived one loss-I didn't know if I'd survive another. Ames She spun into my life like a tornado of smiles and chatter and everything else I'd long avoided, with a persistence that I admired, albeit begrudgingly. She broke down each neat wall I'd constructed without even trying. Her presence alone caused me to remember what it felt like to smile, to look forward to what the day would bring. But it was only supposed to last three weeks. "Don't let go," she'd pleaded. I'd promised her I wouldn't-but I would. I didn't have a choice.

The Weight of Life

Six was always there, even when I didn't want him. But he couldn't hold me together, and I couldn't be his penance.Loss is a phantom limb. No one can see it, but the ache torments you in the night, distracts you during the day, and leaves you fragmented. I'm half a heart, half a soul, and nothing could cure the pieces he'd left behind.Losing him was safer than loving him. Because the love that kept us coming back again and again was nothing short of madness.But then, isn't mad love the most honest?---Pieces of Eight is the sequel to Six Feet Under and the final book in the Mad Love duet. It should not be read as a standalone. Triggers include mental illness, self-harm, and addiction.

Pieces of Eight

I was born in sadness, which was just the beginning of a solemn and desolate life. I'm no stranger to pain-none of us are. The night I held my best friend's hand as she died, I understood true agony. And I never thought I'd feel happiness again. But that was so long ago... Moving to Colorado to be with Colin, my high school sweetheart, was the perfect way to start over and rekindle what had begun to fizzle. I wanted that spark to ignite, to burn in passion and desire. Instead, I found myself falling for Jude, my boyfriend's roommate. He's the only person who understands my soul, who can breach the walls I've built. But I can't have him. Because I'm Trista Kohl, and my destiny is sorrow.

Into the Tomorrows

I've been in love with him forever. But to him, I've always been off-limits. Until the night that changed everything. Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was the secrets we shared. Maybe he finally opened his eyes and saw me. By the time the sun rose, I'd lost him again, my heart shattering on his parting words: "It was a mistake." So I ran. Ran until I was thousands of miles away, in a country I didn't know, surrounded by people who only made me miss him more. I never expected him to follow me ... or to pry more secrets from my soul. In exchange, he gave me more of his secrets too. The more he let me into his heart, the more I loved him, but I'm afraid that some secrets may be too big to overcome.

The Sounds of Secrets

One night together could ruin everything...Keane Colburn was my best friend. Ever since childhood, we could always count on each other to be there no matter what-though when I confessed my love to him, things didn't turn out as planned.Thankfully, my little crush didn't ruin our friendship. I shoved those feelings to the back of my mind, watching him chase after other girls and silently wishing it was me. I resigned us to friendship-that was more important than anything else.But a drunken one-night stand changed everything. Because even though we vowed to forget about it, I couldn't get it out of my head. And as old memories began to rise to the surface, our lives collided in ways we had never imagined.

Whitney Barbetti

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