Shadow_mommy_reads

I never wanted to disappear more than while around my family. Briar Lane, the girl only useful for one thing: my surname. A business handshake and pawn to be traded. My father's chess piece shuffled between empires. That was my life back in L.A., but all it took was finding the dirty secret stuffed in a jacket pocket, and my entire world unraveled.

I've always done what was expected of me. Layla Birch, the good girl. Forced to grow up too fast. To take care of everything myself. I had a plan. Only, I didn't count on him. Colton Wilder, the cowboy nearly twice my age. He's my dream man. One who takes care of me, gives me a job, and makes my pulse thud harder every time he comes near. My ex-boyfriend's father. The nights are long and cold on top of this mountain. As the snow grows thicker and the tension builds between us, we're both inching closer to a line we shouldn't cross.

Help Wanted: Grumpy mountain man seeks baby momma. Job is an incubator position only. Surrogate must be impervious to grunting as the form of communication and nosy brotherly neighbors. Rustic mountain range housing available upon request. I wanted to pummel my irritating brothers when they posted their own version of a wanted ad to help me with my life. But I can’t fault the results once the right woman lands in my lap. Becoming a single father is not a decision I made lightly. In fact, it’s the biggest decision of my entire life. Which is why when I interview Trista, I know she’s perfect.

My brother’s best friend is such a jerk. An imposing, handsome jerk who doesn’t trust me. And now we’re roommates. He wanders around the apartment in nothing but gray sweatpants, looking like a broody, tattooed muscle god, and playing music that shakes the walls. I want to hate him for treating me like an intruder, but there’s something about the way he looks at me—like he’s trying to figure me out—that keeps pulling me in.

Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen's reservoirs for as long as she can remember. But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone. When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently reopens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares… but it turns out they're real.

There are only two rules to the game. Stay alive. And don’t fall in love. When Ophelia’s sister disappears, there is only one way to save her. Ophelia must enter Phantasma, a deadly contest inside a haunted mansion, and claim its prize—a single wish. Phantasma is a maze of twisting corridors and lavish ballrooms, of demons and temptations. Ophelia will face nine challenges, each more dangerous than the last. There can only be one winner, and the other contestants will stop at nothing to eliminate their rivals.