Rikku's Bookshelf
The Match Breaker
Carmen is a professional asshole. That’s not an exaggeration, that’s literally his job. In a society where engagements are almost impossible to break, his role as the ‘love rival’ is integral to the happiness of youths across the country of Pansolum.
When offered the opportunity to break the engagement of one of the princesses of Pansolum, Carmen takes it, the lure of the payout too strong to ignore, despite the danger.
Everything is going well until the princess's older brother, the crown prince, shows up to chaperone and usher away any unsavory characters.
Carmen, as the unsavory character in question, very professionally continues doing his job despite the added danger and by the end, successfully breaks yet another engagement - and a royal engagement at that!
Congratulating himself on another job well done, eyes glimmering with the promise of the wealth he's about to gain, Carmen flees before the crown prince can demand he become the princess's new fiancé.
The next day, while waiting for the princess's servant to deposit his fee, he suddenly feels an odd prick in his neck, and then everything goes fuzzy.
In his last moments of consciousness, Carmen sees the crown prince coming out of the dark woods and squatting next to him, insisting that Carmen fulfill his promises to the princess.
And now the so-called ‘match breaker’ of Pansolum finds himself in the peculiar position of requiring his own services.
The Little Thief || MxM || Omegaverse
Maybe finding a true mate isn’t always love at first sight.
*****
An omega thief gets thrown out of his clan of criminals after he refuses to save his leader from a debt he can’t pay. Joined by his best friend, these two homeless omegas are trying to stay safe in a dangerous city where the army fights ruthless criminals who hate omegas, but maybe the best way to survive is to find any decent alphas to take care of them, even if they’re not true mates.
And the best place to find good alphas is the local mafia. But stepping into the mafia life comes with its own dangers, and their former clan certainly hates seeing them climbing up the lawless social ladder when they were supposed to fail as outcasts, so their hardships are far from over.
At least there’s a young alpha, not the prince charming our little thief thought he’d find, but he’s kind of cute, and has kind eyes, so even though this one isn’t his true mate, he decides to give him a chance.
But maybe it doesn’t always have to be about love at first sight. Maybe love can bloom where you least expect it – if you give it an opportunity to grow.
Thrall of the Dark Wood
Young mother Ilse arrived in Forst village seven years ago with an infant in her arms and another little one on the way. Secretive about her previous life, most assumed Ilse to be an unwed harlot, driven from her home by her family’s shame. Ilse is especially tight-lipped about the most pressing question: who the father of her children is.
Ilse bore the burden of their rumors with ease, and for seven years lived in relative peace in a small house just outside of the Dark Wood – a forest that many believed was home to inhuman creatures. None but Ilse had ever dared to live that close, fearing that they would be lured into the Wood, never to return.
When Ilse and her children disappear, seemingly out of thin air, the village assumes the Dark Wood has claimed their lives. What they don’t know is that the father of Ilse’s children, who most assumed to be some nobody from Ilse’s home village, is actually much closer than they thought. He comes from the Dark Wood – and he wants his family back.
My Stepbrothers Obsession
Hope and her mother move in with the Kinglsey’s after her mother’s divorce. She hopes that in time her new family will accept her. She is quiet and timid all the qualities that Joshua hates he teases an instant disliking to her and makes a plan to make her life hell. Caleb is his best friend but once he sees ho-e he is infatuated with her and plans on spending more time with her than his best friend which makes Joshua hate her even more , can Caleb save her from her stepbrother’s anger?
Hope returns home after being away for four years with a big secret only for her life to get crushed once again by the only man she let into her life for better or worse, those vows were meant to mean something, but not to him. As she goes through a horrific divorce with her brother and stepbrother by her side her son comes to realise that Joshua’s feelings for her never stopped. Can Caleb save her from her stepbrother’s anger?
Reap What You Sow
Book 4 of the series "A Song in the Darkness"
*****
Kellen Kaar is embarking on a new step in his life: a romantic relationship. Together with his new girlfriend Laurel, he finally has a stable home life as a good starting point to move forward from. He’s physically on the mend from a near fatal beating, but it’s left him with some heavy mental scarring to deal with on top of what he’s already accrued from a less than ideal childhood. And just when it looks like things at work have stabilized, a tragedy throws the whole of Internal Order back into the jaws of chaos.
As if that wasn’t enough, the spectres of Kellen’s past are rising up to haunt him once more. The abusive family he thought he’d left behind tries to stick unwanted fingers into his new happiness even as Laurel’s past seems to be coming back to haunt her as well. His responsibilities keep piling up even as he struggles to resolve problem after problem. Life has a tendency to kick a person when they’re down. And of course, Kellen is finding this out the only way he knows how: the hard way.
Death Is A Bottom?!?
Deyonte Wallace is no stranger to the uncanny and supernatural. Ever since surviving a near-death car accident as a child, he's developed the ability to see otherworldly ghosts, entities, and monsters.
And he can't fathom having to deal with a bigger burden.
Deyonte can't focus on hobbies or his studies as a first-year master's student due to constantly having to fend off supernatural nuances that are strangely attached. Even so, these creatures, though annoying, have never been violent.
That is until one kills him during his nightly ritual of midnight coffee runs.
Deyonte should have been dead, but to his luck, he was saved by a mysterious creature that was different from the rest. Death itself.
Death informs Deyonte that his soul is caught between a state of living and deceased. Due to the uncanny strong power within his soul, it's not the last time he'll be monsters and demons menu. As much as that terrifies Deyonte he can't help but feel a strange attraction to the entity known as Death.
As Deyonte and Death battle hell spawns to escape deadly experiences and unravel the mysteries of each other's past they will somehow get themselves wedged between a crossfire of heaven and hell with both of their very souls on the line. During this quest, Deyonte will have to discover if making out and topping the Grim Reaper is worth all the headache
SILK AND STEEL
The world ended. The apocalypse came. The gods waged war on each other across the realms of reality and at last wiped themselves out. Angles and devils took the souls they wanted to who knows where. And then it was over. And you and others like you were left behind. Maybe your soul was trapped inside your body and couldn’t leave. Maybe it was bound to a demon. Or maybe you have no soul at all. Either way, you must be some kind of monster. All that is left is to decide – what kind of a monster are you going to be?
This is the premise of the short novel Silk and Steel – a dark dystopia / mythpunk story set in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s heavily based around Romani and Eastern European mythology and crammed full of LGBTQIA+ romance. Forget shiny heroes wielding even shinier weapons to defeat 'evil' foes. Instead, every monster here must simply try to survive and carve a place for themselves in this new confounding reality. At the end of the world, there are no heroes, everyone is some kind of monster and each choice they make will shape what kind of monster they eventually become...
Silk and Steel has:
Larger than life characters that you can invest in - a complex plot full of intrigue and suspense - a dark gaslamp/steampunk setting rich in folklore and mythos - graphic violence - steamy sex scenes - villains you'll really love to hate - heroes with troubled pasts and hearts of gold - supporting cinnamon rolls you'll want to adopt and take home.
CWs:
Violence, consensual and non-consensual sex, physical, emotional and sexual abuse, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, addiction, theft and organised crime, swearing, murder, mental health issues including self harm and suicide, demons, magic, religion, cults.
Each chapter will have its own flags so you know what's coming up but please be advised that this is a grim story told in a harsh world - no chapter will be suitable for under 18s and all chapters may include content which some readers may find disturbing.
BROKEN VOWS (Broken Redemption Book 1)
Choosing her cost me everything I’d ever loved… including her.
It’s why I left the small town where I grew up and vowed never to return.
I’m no longer the “golden boy with a bright future” they all remember. Instead, I carry the scars of a tortured past. A broken man deemed unfit, even by the Navy SEALs he’d dedicated the past decade to serve.
What was supposed to be a quick trip to sell my parent’s property turned into this twisted journey that forced me to confront my demons.
And then there she was. My first love, and deepest regret. The woman who still owns every piece of my blackened heart. When she asked for my time, I couldn’t refuse.
Now I can’t walk away.
Not after hearing of the danger her husband, a missing FBI agent, has brought to her doorstep. After everything, I owe her my help. It’s why I offer to protect her and her two little girls from the danger circling them.
It’s a vow I never should have made, given the trail of bodies I’ve left in my wake.
Like the harbinger of death, I’m the last man either of us should trust.
THAT FIRST BREAK (Broken Redemption Prequel)
Choosing her cost me everything I’d ever loved… including her.
I had everything a guy could ask for, a loving family, the perfect small-town life, and a promising future I had worked hard for.
It should have been enough.
She was off-limits, my parent’s best friend’s daughter, practically my sister. I fought my feelings, pretending our soul-deep connection didn’t exist. When she confessed she felt the same, I pushed her away, believing our friendship mattered more than temporary infatuation. That she agreed should have come as a relief, but it left me with this void I didn’t know how to fill.
It’s what drove me to the bonfire that night. Right there, with our friends as witnesses, I claimed her. Told her I loved her and made her promises I shouldn’t have made.
Hours later, it all came crashing down in a whirlwind of fire and ashes. That one split-second choice to go after a girl that wasn’t meant for me cost me everything I loved.
I never should have crossed that line or given in. It’s why she’ll forever be my greatest love and deepest regret.
This tragic story is the beginning of our end…