Romance By The Book

For a smart woman, Alex is pretty clueless. She wants the truth, but she's looking in the wrong place. She wants love, but she's not looking at all. If only Cam didn't keep disrupting her life, Alex might be able to find some answers. After all, it's not as if Cam is interested in her. Which is probably a good thing, since Cam is even more infuriating than she is charming—and she's got plenty of charm.

On the other hand, Rosamund, Cam's ex and Alex's professional rival, is definitely interested in Alex, but can she be trusted? Alex doesn't even realize the historic house she's staying in is haunted. Perhaps a little supernatural help will lead Alex to uncover the secret of a love story hidden for over a century, and to solve the greatest mystery of all—the truth hidden in her own heart.

What's a poor pirate to do? Stevie has never met anyone quite like Kate, her not-so-helpless captive. Too bad the bold buccaneer swore an oath to preserve the virtue of the lovely parson's daughteran oath Kate has no intention of letting Stevie keep. But Kate has a problem of her own: the gorgeous Lady Isabella, a wealthy aristocrat who is happy to use kidnapping and blackmail to get what she wantsand what she wants is Kate. Jane Austen was never like this!

Would you trade the life you have for a chance at a life you’ll love?

Devri Cahn is poised on the knife edge of getting everything she’s always wanted: an enviable rental empire in Brooklyn, guaranteed top-tier income, and elevated social status in the cutthroat world of the NYC lesbian elite. It’s finally all at her fingertips, so why does she want to leave it all behind?

Siobhan Byrne has returned to her tiny rural fishing village on the southern coast of Ireland with one goal: to buy the rundown cottages by the sea and turn them into slick, modern holiday rentals. After university in Dublin and some real-world experience, she’s determined to reach her goal of marketing Ireland’s undeniable pull to rich American tourists. It’s about time Ireland stepped into the twenty-first century, and she’s the woman for the job, especially if she gets filthy rich doing it.

Devri and Shiv never expected their feelings for each other to linger, but sometimes the search for what you’ve always wanted leads home, to the one you've always needed.

Miss Cassandra Belvedere and Miss Louise Sheffield were once debutantes vying for the same gentleman’s attentions. Bitter rivalry turned to passion—but at the end of the Season, Louise chose the earl instead of the girl.

Fifteen years later, Cass strides back into London Society to demand Louise’s help. After all, it’s the least she can do after destroying Cass’s life. Her family’s glove making business is in peril, and the elegant Louise, now the widowed Countess of Atwater, wields enough power to bring Cass’s gloves into fashion.

But Louise didn’t expect the attraction between them to burn stronger than ever, or that society would turn on her for associating with Cass. Bold, brash Cass has the real power—to unravel Louise’s strait-laced life and show her that their passion is worth fighting for.

Nothing could prepare them for the Season of a lifetime—or a second chance to fall in love.

Suri Daniels, a beautiful and troubled woman, is the descendant of a family of supernaturally gifted women, known as the Blessed, and literally holds keys to gateways between the earthly plane and seven powerful gods. A series of tragic losses and a stipulation in her grandmother’s will has her returning to the family’s home in New Orleans, unaware that she will need to step into the role of Orisha priestess and escape the attention of a powerful demon. To top it all off, she must accept the help of a Cambion—Lyla Jefferies, a dark supernatural being she has spent her life avoiding. What’s worse? She can’t help being drawn to Layla in ways she doesn’t understand.

Being the child of a top-tier demon and a human isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For the past two hundred years, Layla Jefferies has lived a life of quietude. When an unknown force draws her out of seclusion, the pull is too strong to ignore. Layla is tasked to assist with protecting the gateways and saving Suri from becoming a vengeful demon’s avatar. Falling in love with her is definitely not part of the plan.

Layla and Suri are brought together by fate to defeat the darkness threatening to tear their world apart. What they don’t expect to discover is a love that might set them free.

Content advisory: Opening chapter includes a depiction of sexual violence and rape.

Dear Reader,

I wrote The Blessed to honor the resilience, strength, and faith of my community’s ancestors. To tell a story, in my own way, of their survival in a world that treated them as less than the lowest of creatures. A world that continues to methodically strip away our sense of selves as humans and our culture as a people. Layla is the embodiment of all People of Color, particularly Women of Color, in this country and the suffering they have endured, which was violent, painful, and has lasted for generations. I choose to honor all those women like Layla, her mother, and grandmother who survived and rather than turn to violence themselves, chose to stand tall and lift their community up.

The Blessed begins with an act of physical violence to represent how some People of Color were brought into the world. Just as we survived our violent past, so does Layla. Just as we did not allow what was wrought upon us to break us, to take away our capacity to love and cherish others the way we were not, Layla also does not let her circumstances break her. She turns that violence into the resolve to help her community. In the process, she finds a love that strengthens her even more.

You may feel discomfort when reading Layla’s beginnings as it mirrors the pain of the past. Atrocity and its generational impacts should not feel comfortable or easy. But her story is ultimately an uplifting one of family, faith, culture, and love that I believe you will enjoy. I hope you see The Blessed as honoring the struggles of my ancestors and accepting the blessing of life, faith, and love that they have bestowed upon me as a result of their survival.

Forever thankful, always grateful, abundantly blessed,

Anne Shade