Hayes Callahan has spent years telling Y/N the same thing. One day, she’d be his wife. One day, they’d have a family. One day, she’d stop getting on a plane every few months just to say goodbye all over again. Neither of them expected “one day” to arrive while they were twenty, attending different colleges, and living hundreds of miles apart. Now Y/N has a positive pregnancy test, Hayes is chasing an NHL dream in North Dakota, and life suddenly looks nothing like the plan they made as teenagers. Long distance was already hard. This might be their biggest test yet.
With nowhere else to go, you’re forced to move in with the older brother who disappeared from your life two years ago — and into the dangerous world he built without you. What was supposed to be temporary quickly turns complicated when living under his protection means sharing space with people who don’t trust outsiders, secrets that never stay buried, and a city where loyalty matters more than innocence. In a world full of violence, tension, and blurred lines, the safest place you can go might also be the hardest one to escape.
For two years, Beau Maxwell and the protagonist have made long distance work. Different universities. Different schedules. Different states. It wasn’t always easy, but it was always worth it. So when Beau heads back to Briar for junior year, he’s preparing for another semester of FaceTime calls, airport reunions, and counting down the days until he sees his girlfriend again. What he doesn’t know is that she’s secretly transferred to Briar. And thanks to Dean Di Laurentis, she’s currently hiding in the hockey house waiting to ruin his entire evening.
A year ago, she left Briar for a volleyball exchange program overseas, expecting to come back and pick up where she left off. A year later, she's finally home. Unfortunately, so are all the feelings she thought distance would fix—especially the ones involving John Logan.
After graduating college, she has no choice but to move back into her father’s apartment in South Hollow — the same neighborhood he spent years trying to keep her away from. At thirty-nine, Damon Carter is loud, tattooed, reckless, and still deeply tied to the people and problems surrounding the neighborhood he never really left behind. And now that his daughter is back home for the first time in years, it doesn’t take long for South Hollow to notice. Especially the younger men around her age who grew up hearing about Damon Carter’s daughter long before finally meeting her.
Three years after leaving the neighborhood she grew up in, she returns to Blackwater for her father’s birthday expecting nothing more than a short visit and old memories. Instead, coming home forces her back into the lives of the people she never fully stopped loving — her loud, affectionate family, the neighborhood that still feels like home no matter how dangerous it can be, and Zion Reed, the cocky ex-boyfriend she thought she had moved on from years ago. But in Blackwater, nobody forgets anything for long.
Five years after leaving the city behind, she’s finally built a quiet life for herself on August Lane — far away from the violence, the people, and the version of herself she thought she outgrew. Then, in the middle of the night, she gets a message from a burner phone she never deleted. Now four men from her past are hiding inside her house, including the ex-boyfriend she hasn’t seen in years and the best friend who never truly disappeared from her life at all. What was supposed to be a temporary favor quickly turns into something far more complicated.
The protagonist never cared much about hockey. Then her twin brother transferred to Briar. Now she’s spending more time at the rink than she ever planned, getting adopted by a group of hockey players she didn’t ask for, and developing feelings for one teammate in particular. Unfortunately, John Logan seems to be having the same problem.
For almost two years, Y/N convinced herself that love was supposed to feel exhausting. She forgave more than she should have, accepted less than she deserved, and spent far too long believing that if she loved Jake Lawson enough, eventually he’d choose her the way she chose him. He never did. So she walked away. Months later, she’s happier than she ever thought possible with Wesley Hayes—a man who proves that love isn’t supposed to leave you questioning your worth. Then one crowded party forces her past and present into the same room. Jake expected heartbreak. He expected anger. He never expected indifference. Sometimes the hardest part isn’t watching someone move on. It’s realizing they already have.
They were each other’s first love, right up until college sent them in different directions. Two years later, a volleyball tournament, an unexpected invitation, and one weekend in Boston bring them back into the same room for the first time since they said goodbye. Turns out, moving on is a lot easier when you don’t have to see each other.
Shifting was supposed to be temporary. One successful attempt, one night at Hogwarts, and then back to reality. Instead, you and your best friend wake up at King’s Cross with Hogwarts letters in your hands, names everyone somehow already knows, and a version of the wizarding world that feels a little too real to be a dream. Sorted into different houses but pulled into the same dangerous circle, the two of you quickly become entangled with Slytherin’s most infamous group — Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini, Matteo Riddle, and the rest of the people everyone warns you to stay away from. At first, it feels perfect. Magic. Parties. Late nights wandering Hogwarts. Secret passageways. People who make it dangerously easy to forget there’s a life waiting for you outside the castle. But this Hogwarts doesn’t follow canon as closely as it should. And the longer you stay, the more obvious it becomes that fantasy is far easier to fall in love with than reality.