Esther Barthelemy's Bookshelf
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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.
A Drink Before Battle (M/M) (✔)
General Sevei is of the firm opinion that Nobles are shady and Alchemists even shadier. Noble Alchemists are the absolute worst. He is not looking forward to partnering with one to guard the border.
Upon their introduction, though, it would seem they have already met... under very intimate circumstances.
Oh...,****...
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This is set in the same world as my novel "Salvage", but they are completely independent stories. You don't have to read one to read the other. (This one is back in medieval times, about 400 years prior to Salvage.)
Just like in Salvage, here you can expect some humor and some angst (and some occasional smut) and a bunch of hot messes just doing their best. Despite the seemingly salacious premise, this is a love story at its heart, as well as a story of friendship and found family.
Vers. couple: Manly cinnamon roll MC x Manly neurotic wreck ML
CW:
Homophobic society, internalized homophobia and closeting, internalized transphobia (supporting character), war veteran ptsd, slavery (supporting character - no abuse of this character is depicted).
The Vampire's Last Omega
Almost two centuries had passed since vampires emerged from the shadows. After declaring themselves as the dominant species and for all humans to be captured, mortals were made into blood slaves, traitorous employees with protections, or lowly animals in the wild who could barely survive.
Teru was the first omega to appear in decades. He was terrified of being discovered. His rare secondary gender would attract the bloodsuckers’ attention—enough that it was even kept secret from other nearby packs.
His nightmare came true.
Teru was caught by traffickers during a scavenging trip to find supplies for the Valley Pack. Little did he know that vampires were not the scariest monsters out there.
Kieran, an immortal alpha prince of the royal family, was immediately captivated by Teru’s sweet pheromones. He craved to taste the omega’s blood, something he hadn’t had the desire to do in centuries since his ‘incident’ that left him unable to drink without becoming violently ill.
His blood was not the only thing Kieran craved. His body wanted Teru in ways he never felt in his thousand years of existence. For the first time, Kieran questioned his pride. How did that human he purchased on a whim soften his cold heart?
Once Teru became Prince Kieran’s property, the last human omega had a choice—will he try to return to his pack or give everything up for a forbidden love that’s more than meets the eye?
***
Warning: This OMEGAVERSE contains mature content. Please read at your own discretion.
Note: This story has four seasons under one cover. When the official published version is released, there will be three separate stories with different synopses and covers.
Cover artist: Chyntia
The Devil Inside
Jaesung didn't expect his end to come at the hands of the one he trusted the most.
To help his grandparents' make ends meet, Jeasung dropped out of high school and joined the mafia. Little did he know he would be signing his life away to their cold-hearted heir, Luca.
In reality, his troubles were just beginning. As a Korean-Italian in an American mafia group, Jaesung was already considered the lowest of the low. Now with the young heir having put all his attention on him, his simple life was anything but. Add in a new drug on the scene that is slowly killing their members, and life for Jaesung just got a lot harder.
A story about the dark underbelly of the city, with betrayal, murder, romance, and deceit at every corner.
Will Jaesung fall prey to the devil himself?
She Who Bears The Wolf's Mark
The deal states that on Carly's 18th birthday, the Evergreen Pack will come knocking on her door to claim what's theirs. Her. And until that day, she bears the mark of the Evergreen Pack on her back, the future Supreme Alpha's mark.
Copyright 2024 | All Rights Reserved
What's a Mate?
A pack of werewolves escapes captivity, and finds their way to a human girl's home where they take shelter. The last thing Alpha Kane expects to find when breaking into the empty mansion is that it's actually not empty, and that it is occupied by his mate.
When The Rain Stops
[ A VERY Slow-Burn, Coming-of-Age LGBT+ Love Story about the Messiness of Love and Life ]
Jackson Rivera hates Rory Harwood with all his guts. He's has been the scourge of Jackson's summer for years, and he doesn't know why. That is, until he finds Rory's journal and begins reading it. And as he keeps reading, Jackson discovers way more than he bargained for. Hopefully, Rory won't kill him by the time it's over.
~
Jackson Rivera hates summer for three good reasons - three months of social isolation and boredom at his family's summer cottage, three months of dealing with the family who shares the cottage, and three months of the worst person he's ever met: Rory Harwood.
Rory has been the scourge of Jackson's summer for years, and, despite his attempted efforts to call a truce, Jackson's ready to break the guy's nose or kill him. That is, until he finds Rory's journal and begins reading it. And as he keeps reading, Jackson discovers way more than he bargained for, setting forth a series of events that'll change not just Jackson and Rory, but everyone around them, forever.
Let's just hope that Rory won't kill him by the time it's over.
*Updates one chapter a month [unless otherwise stated]*
(Contains slurs, violence, angst, profanity, homophobic dialogue, and bullying)
~
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author's intellectual property.
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+.
~~~*~~~
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.
~~~*~~~
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 Shadow of Gloom
**Book One of The Accursed Chronicles**
August, a man from our world, stumbles into a magical realm called Laelmos, a land plagued by conspirers, winter, and the Vale, a troublesome source of corrupted magic that can hijack the system of any creature.
Unbeknownst to August, there is evil hiding in the shadows of Laelmos, conspiring and plotting for the return of the Vale's supremacy, and it just so happens that August has been plunged straight into its claws. After stumbling into the hands of Gloom, a leader of The Remnant, August is bound to Gloom's side and is pulled helplessly into the turmoil of Laelmos. August wishes he could return home, but his purpose in Laelmos is much bigger than he first thought as an awakening happens within him, turning his world upside. August is left to wonder whether his life will ever be normal again or if he will have to embrace his new reality that threatens to destroy him.
[ content warning: vulgar language, violence, and mentions of suicide + suicide death ]
[ total word count: 77,000-78,000 ]