Showing results by narrator "Lauren Sweet" in All Categories

Sometimes one good dose of trouble could turn your life around, put you on the right path. But I'd taken the opposite side of the forked road and headed off looking for even more trouble, like a junkie constantly searching for the next high. Never would I have guessed that turn would lead me to her. I couldn't stop thinking about her. She was an angel, a hardcore, bonafide angel, and in her short life she'd already had a taste of hell.

Timing. Hockey careers are made or broken on it, and mine has taken an exceptionally broken road. I’m not a star. I’m a grinder, I work hard, and I’m finally at the point I can put the past behind me and get the fat, long-term contract I deserve. But my agent - the man who stuck by me through every crash and burn - has had a heart attack. I need another agent now, or my one chance for the good money will slip through my fingers.

Now that I maneuvered my parents into giving me the future I wanted, life seems easy. I finally have some freedom to enjoy my senior year without feeling like I'm slowly suffocating under the twisted morals and warped expectations of my parents. But it's not long until everything starts to fall apart. The pretty lies that kept my world tied up in a pretty red bow? They're starting to unravel.

There was before. When we were together, when we were happy. When we had nothing but dreams. When not a single bad thing could ever happen because we were young and in love. And there was after. When the unthinkable occurs, how do you count time, knowing how precious it is? When dreams turn to nightmares, how do you wake up every day and choose to go on? When you have a chance to save another, how can you not? Even if it changes everything. Even if it destroys you.

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love—and the inevitable heartbreak—is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest setup was a success. Darcy doesn't expect her lie to bite her in the ass. Elle Jones, one of the astrologers behind the popular Twitter account, Oh My Stars, dreams of finding her soul mate. But she knows it is most assuredly not Darcy... a no-nonsense stick-in-the-mud, who is way too analytical, punctual, and skeptical for someone as free-spirited as Elle.

My world isn't safe. The northern gate lies open, and monsters roam the land. Towns are locked behind walls, protected by the emperor and his Black Army. Once, a fated priestess and her four guardians kept the gate sealed with magic, but there hasn't been a priestess in over a century...or so I thought.

In the depths of the Sultan's cave, tenacious street thief Azar steals a bunch of jewels and a brass lamp. Sure, stealing has no honor, but she'll do whatever it takes to feed her brother, buy the medicine he needs, and get them out of the slums of Utaara. When Azar releases three gorgeous genies from the lamp, her first wish is to save her brother. Except the genies magic is weakened from being trapped for hundreds of years, and they must wait for their power to recover.

I like to think I’m a practical person. Car stop working? Thank God for mechanic boyfriends. Goldfish floating upside down? Well, I clearly shouldn’t have a fish. Irrefutably attracted to one of my new roommates? I’ve lost my mind, obviously.

After years of lusting over Jake Wolfe, Nicole finally got a taste of the dirty-talking bad boy. During the scenting ceremony, he showed her how explosive things can be between them. But Nicole doesn't do love. She doesn't even know what love is. So how can she know if a relationship with Jake would be the right path to take? Jake Wolfe wants Nic more than his next breath. She's curvy, mouthy and so hot his blood boils just thinking of her. But Nic's been keeping him at a distance.

So apparently my mom was a witch. And not just a witch, but a witch who turned bad. My poor, sweet, normal dad wanted me to have a good college experience. Instead I get a magical offer I literally can't refuse, from the world's most elite school for warlocks. Warlocks. As in guy witches. Even though I definitely have lady parts, somehow I ended up at a warlock school to learn the gentlemanly arts (which are a lot more badass than, ahem, lady magic).

For as long as I can remember, I've been the girl who didn't fit in, the girl who collapsed in the middle of class, just because my brain decided to turn on me. I can't really complain, though. We don't live in the Middle Ages, so I have yet to be subjected to an exorcism. I can get treatment for my condition. Epilepsy aside, I can mostly be a normal person and have a normal life. There's just one problem. I'm not a normal person. I never have been. And the first time I find this out is upon receiving an exclusive invitation to The Academy of the Devil.

This is the most important house flip I've ever done. It's a gorgeous California home by a known architect, it contains the final piece of the map we need to unite the magical realms, and the body of Byron, my demigod ghost, is supposedly here. That's a lot on one girl's plate. Of course, no home renovation is without surprises. In this case, we have a whole slew of nosy old wizard neighbors, a lonely undine who lives in the pool and won't leave, 1970s decor worthy of the Brady Bunch, and my struggles not to get distracted by Byron, Graham, Jake, and Jasper and get stuff done.

Don't judge a book by its cover. You'll tell me you don't...but you already think you know what my story's about. You have no idea. Just like the people sitting in this courtroom. She asked for it. That's what they keep saying. And no, it's not because my skirt was too short or I was drunk at a party. It's nothing like that. It's because of what I like and how I like it. They're judging me as I sit in the front row, my eyes drawn to the man on trial. If I'd known it was going to end like this, I never would have gone home with him. But he's the type of man I just can't say no to.

I'm leaving you this note because I know you're very busy, and I don't want to waste the town sheriff's time. Lord knows I've already wasted enough of it. Thank you for taking me home last night and...everything else. I made you a basket of wild blueberry muffins for your trouble. That seemed like the appropriate baked good for getting naked in your living room. I wasn't myself last night. I didn't mean to kiss you or fondle your backside or ask all those intimate questions. Thank you for pretending to enjoy it.

She couldn't have known the danger she faced when she dared to steal from me. She was too young for a man my age, barely in her twenties. Far too pure and untouched. Unfortunately for her, that wasn't going to stop me. The moment I laid eyes on her, I claimed her. Determined to make her mine… by any means necessary. I owned Chicago's most elite gambling club, a front for my role as a Russian Mafia crime boss. She was a fragile little bird who had just flown straight into my open jaws. Naïve and sweet, she was a temptation I couldn't resist biting.

I didn't come to her apartment planning to tie her to her bed and ravage her. A Russian arms dealer has no need for an innocent schoolteacher. I would have done what I came to do and left, but when she opened those gorgeous red lips and threatened to scream I knew she would be screaming long before I was finished with her.

Anson Meyer is world-renowned for his record-breaking country songs, his devilishly good looks, and his really short temper. So after a heated altercation with a reporter, Anson is temporarily kicked out of Nashville by his agent and sent back to his hometown of Comfort, Texas, to “cool down” and “figure out where he sees his career going”. When Anson shows up in Comfort, though, he quickly realizes that not everyone is ready to welcome home the bad boy of country music. Especially the woman he is still in love with.

In the depths of the Sultan's cave, tenacious street thief Azar steals a bunch of jewels and a brass lamp. Sure, stealing has no honor, but she'll do whatever it takes to feed her brother, buy the medicine he needs, and get them out of the slums of Utaara. When Azar releases three gorgeous genies from the lamp, her first wish is to save her brother. Except the genies magic is weakened from being trapped for hundreds of years, and they must wait for their power to recover.

As a bestselling romance novelist, everyone thinks Truly Livingston is an expert on happily-ever-afters. She’s even signed on to record a podcast sharing relationship advice. Little do they know she feels like an imposter—her parents just announced they’re separating, she caught her fiancé cheating, and her entire view on love has been shaken to the core. Truly hopes the podcast will distract her... until she meets her cohost.

New town. New school. Same lies. This is my senior year, and not only have my parents moved me to a new place where I know nothing and no one, they are determined to make me fall in line with the life they want me to have. Not the life that I want. I'm looking for any possible way to escape this prison and leave them behind. Which has been harder than I thought. An opportunity to escape appears. And I'm going to take it. I'm going to use four so-called perfect guys in this new town to make it happen. The ones that have it all, or so everyone thinks.