Why...'s Bookshelf
Sweet Silence
Sage is a villain. Not by choice. It just sort of turned out that way, but hey, he's not complaining. Being bad is pretty cool, actually. And while by most people's standards his superpower is pretty lame - muting sound, of all things - he's found it pretty useful when robbing the rich.
Most heroes ignore him. Except one. Lich, the necromancer. Sage didn't know how talking to the dead was considered heroic, but whatever. That's not the problem. The problem is that Lich apparently has a homing beacon locked on Sage specifically, and he keeps getting in Sage's way, despite most heroes not bothering to deal with the small-time villain committing petty theft.
It was annoying, but fine. Sage wasn't all that active in the villainy community anymore anyway. He had just turned thirty, and quite frankly, he was done with this shit. But still, he wanted to go out with a bang, so he planned his final heist: robbing the most powerful man in the city, the governor.
Except, when Sage broke into the governor's house all he found was the governor - dead as a doornail. What's worse is that for the first time in Sage's life, he was no longer invisible. He was found standing over the body, murder weapon in hand.
Now, the entire city of Fairview wants Sage dead, and the only person on earth who can clear his name is his very own necromancer nemesis. For how much they fight, Lich is surprisingly on board with helping Sage...
And so, the two embark on a quest to discover the real killer and clear Sage's name, but the trail leads them to discover some of Fairview's most well-kept and dangerous secrets...
Abyssal
The day that Kai learns that he's half-human, half-merman and that he's the key to ending a 100-year-old war, is also the day that the entire ocean learns of his existence. For years his family kept him hidden from the world, but now the strongest, most dangerous merman in all the seven seas knows about Kai, and he's coming to the surface for him.
To ensure victory, King Marius the Conqueror must capture the half-breed prince of Astria, his nation's greatest enemy, and claim him as his Mate in order to absorb his power before he learns to use it. There's only one problem: there's nothing Marius hates more than humans, not even an Astrian, and Kai is both those things. But when Marius sees the beautiful Kai and clashes swords with him, the cold-blooded king's blood begins to boil for the very first time.
When a dark, handsome, sword-wielding stranger attacks Kai in his home, instead of running, Kai fights even though he knows he's no match. Defeated, Kai is kidnapped to a world he never knew existed and is held prisoner against his will. Thrust into a secret, dangerous aquatic world, Kai must learn to navigate swimming with a tail instead of legs and avoid a powerful, possessive king's advances if he wants to save his newly-discovered mer-people from annihilation.
Unbuttoned
Twenty-eight-year-old Wren has been sheltered his whole life. He was homeschooled, and only allowed to socialize with similarly repressed omegas who at the very least, had watched porn by their age. Wren, not so much. Once he finished school and went on into adulthood, you’d think that Wren would have gone crazy trying to experience all the things he’d been denied as a teenager, right? Far from it. Though Wren had moved to a new city for his job and gained new friends who had certainly dabbled in hedonism, Wren had little inclination to join them.
Wren was content with celibacy. He was content with working nine to five, eating lunch with his coworkers, and then going home at the end of the day to binge watch tv shows and try out the new recipes he found online. His life was a boat on still waters, slowly drifting to an expected destination. Steady. Unchanging.
There’s a storm, though, hanging on the fringes of Wren’s life by the name of Vincent. He’s a complete nuisance, with his ridiculous V-neck shirts that show way too much skin, his captivatingly evil grin, and his scent like a minty forest breeze. Wren doesn’t like him at all, and he’s really annoyed that Vincent is apparently the only taxi driver available in the whole city after seven p.m.
And if the fact that the scent of Vincent’s oncoming rut triggered Wren’s heat meant anything significant, like their compatibility, Wren was going to happily ignore it. And if, right before Wren’s next heat, he stole Vincent’s scarf from the backseat of the taxi, then Wren was going to blame it all on the omega heat-brain instincts.
Except, unbeknownst to Wren, there was apparently a ‘stealing an alpha’s clothes to sex’ pipeline that he wasn’t aware of.
Before long, Wren is sucked up into the whirlpool known as Vincent, desperately trying to claw his way out before he drowns. But as it turns out, the whirlpool is just as desperate to drag him down as Wren is to escape.
Nonconforming
I never wanted to be the Luna or the Alpha’s boyfriend.
I never even wanted to be an omega...
Not that I’ve ever had the courage to say otherwise.
When I turn sixteen in one week, everyone fully expects me to mate with my long-term boyfriend, David, and start a family as soon as possible. But what if David isn’t my soulmate? Or... what if... I don’t want him to be, but he is anyways? Don’t I get a choice in any of this? Apparently not, since the one person I would choose is strictly off-limits and not a werewolf at all!
But just before my sixteenth birthday, my world is flipped upside down. My crush won’t talk to me, my parents insist I learn how to be a proper omega, and a turf war with the local witches’ coven is brewing. But, even if the Moon Goddess and Mother Earth are against me, I’m determined to do whatever it takes to find my own path to happiness.
**Updates: Every Monday**
**Read ahead on Tapas**
The Rising Sun Saga
The spirit world is broken and in desperate need of a restoration. True heroes and ancient beasts that once walked are now a thing of the past. Between the empty spaces of forgotten treasure halls there are whispers of one who has returned. One legend that can rise above the rest…
Rooted in Chinese mythology and flavored by shonen anime, The Rising Sun Saga follows the perspectives of four unlikely heroes as they navigate friendships, love, and overcoming the impossible in an endless, dysfunctional spirit world.
Salvage ~ Vol. 2: Trial and Error (Steampunk/ Gaslamp Romantasy ~ F/M, M/M)
A Steampunk/ Gaslamp Fantasy Romance set in the industrial revolution era of a fictional world.
Magic, mad science, multicultural ambiance, and political intrigue all tightly laced up into one corset and powered by the steam of two romances - one F/M and one M/M.
For mature audiences, 18+.
This is Volume 2 of 3. Please start with Volume 1 here:
https://www.ritoria.com/en/story/a3637f8f-4cc2-498a-b9b5-251c56a6f47d
Salvage - Vol. 1: Nuts and Bolts (Steampunk/ Gaslamp Romantasy - F/M, M/M)
A Steampunk/ Gaslamp Fantasy Romance set in the industrial revolution era of a fictional world.
Magic, mad science, multicultural ambience, and political intrigue all tightly laced up into one corset and powered by the steam of two romances - one F/M and one M/M.
Intended for mature audiences, 18+.
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All creations carry a trace of the maker's ethereal energy, whether deliberately placed in the magical Artifacts made by the Alchemists, or unwittingly left in the handiwork of ordinary people.
Kazia can feel that energy, in both machines and people. She may not be able to do any of the grand magic other Alchemists can, but give her a damaged machine and she can trace its energy to the problem, and know precisely how to repair it. She does have one other ability. One far more dangerous. One she will never acknowledge, and will never use.
Fleeing her villainous father rather than becoming his pawn, Kazia finds a peaceful life on a farm in a neighboring country, where no one knows that she is the daughter of Prince Gorvan Devratha. But with war looming between her birth country of Valesk and her new home in Caedra, how long can that peaceful life last?
She can be safe in the Caedran capital, among the Queen's Alchemists, but will anyone there trust her – especially the handsome but embittered Lord Kelvaran Meratha, who suspects Kazia's father of murdering his family?
Abrizhen is Kazia's older brother. He does his best to play the role of the Prince's good son and heir, but when tasked with retrieving his wayward sister, he must return to the city he'd called home for many of his youthful years. There he'll have to reckon with his past, and finally choose between the life of a dutiful prince, or the welfare of his sister – and the rekindling of an old flame.
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Content/ Mature warnings are on for:
Gore: Nothing terribly extreme. Some bleeding wounds and broken bits, but all limbs remain attached and all innards remain inward.
Sexual Content: It's not all smut all the time, but there is some. I aim for not vague but also not overly lewd. Smut chapters are labeled NSFW. Chapters with very brief smut or just some torrid making out or somesuch are labeled NSFW-ish. All on-screen depictions are consensual, but there are a few passing references to noncon having happened off-screen (not to any MCs).
Strong Language: One character really loves to swear, and could probably construct an entire monologue with just various inflections of the F word. So, yeah, that's on too.
Other CWs: Dark themes (abuse, trauma, ptsd, depression, unhealthy coping mechanisms). Mostly in discussions of past events, but there are a few scenes that may be troubling to some readers.
The Becoming of an Assassin
Are you an avid book reader, and do you have some time to enrich your reading experiences?
Let this book, Aidan's suspenseful, full of action and adventure story, ease your evenings.
Aidan Johnson, 16, just graduated and has been far from ordinary life. His grandfather, a trained assassin, trained him-assassination and hacking skills to protect him from the cruel world. When he dies, Aidan finds himself alone, vulnerable, and exposed. One day he gets involved in a deadly fight that would change his life for good. Ian and Thomas, members of the special attack force of their gang spotted his skills and facilitated his recruitment into the special force by recommending him to the gang leader.
In this rising action, suspense story, you get a glimpse of the cruel world out there-betrayal, hacking, and killings that hardened Aidan into the ultimate weapon of the world of crime.
So, whether you want a pass time or to enjoy a fascinating read, this is your book! Join Aidan as he courageously navigates the underworld of crime, skillfully using his brain to take down whoever stands in his way.
Acceptance || MxM
After getting away from his cruel father's tyranny, Randall has to learn how to live again,
and accept the person he was meant to be - with a little help of a local bartender... ***** An empty shell is all what is left of twenty-five-year-old Randall now. After his
homophobic father found out he was gay, he had to learn to act someone else in order
to survive through the years of abuse and humiliation. Now he has forgotten the
person he once was. He refuses to remember the person he was supposed to be. Emotionally detached, and unable to create any kind of relationships, Randall's
lonely days repeat themselves in the same destructive pattern: go to work,
work out, watch TV, and drink, with no way out of that dark, miserable corner
he has built for himself. When a gay bar opens doors in his neighborhood, the fragile balance he has created
with himself is in danger of being destroyed when his true self is trying to break free. And to make things worse, there is a new guy at his gym. A kind guy who has a nice
voice and loves talking people's ears off. A guy who can see his suffering and is
willing to do whatever it takes to help him. A guy who is making Randall feel once again. (Warning, this novel contains verbal and physical abuse!)