Best Romance Novels

To save my crumbling family, I was married off to Julian Moretti, the terrifying Underboss of the Chicago mafia. But he didn't even wait for the wedding reception to end before slipping Rohypnol into my champagne. I woke up on the cold marble floor of the penthouse, only to see my new husband sleeping with his long-time mistress right in front of me. He dragged my unconscious body there just to let me wake up to this humiliation, to show me I was nothing but discarded trash. When I escaped and returned home for help, my father threw a heavy crystal glass at my head. "You ruined us, you stupid bitch! Go back and beg for his mercy!" My stepmother cursed me for not knowing my place, while I discovered they had been embezzling my dead mother's trust fund to pay off debts. Even worse, the mistress in my husband's bed was actually my father's illegitimate daughter. My own family had served me to a Capo's bed just to beg for scraps, sacrificing my life for their beloved bastard. They all thought I was just the obedient, fragile Rossi princess they could easily manipulate and feed to the wolves. They expected me to cry, surrender, and let them bleed me dry. But the fragile mafia princess they knew was already dead. In her place, the dormant instincts of "Seraph"—the lethal Mossad operative I used to be—snapped awake. I wiped my husband's blood off my knuckles, stepped over his groaning body, and made a deal with his deadliest rival. This time, I'm going to burn their entire empire to the ground.

I am a widow trapped in the powerful McMahon family, relying solely on my late husband's trust fund to survive. But my biggest nightmare isn't my cruel in-laws; it's Kain, the ruthless heir to the empire. He just announced his engagement to a perfect, wealthy socialite, yet he refuses to let me go. He dragged me into the shadows at his own engagement party, bruising my wrists and branding my neck, warning me that I will always belong to him. When my mother-in-law spotted the hickey Kain left on me, she assumed I was just sleeping around. To keep my trust fund under her control, she forced me to marry Spencer, a sleazy, useless cousin. I desperately agreed to the arrangement, hoping that becoming a married woman would finally make me off-limits to Kain. But I underestimated a madman's obsession. Kain crashed our matchmaking dinner at the private club. With a single sentence, he bankrupted Spencer's company, terrifying him into giving me up. "Do you really think you're worthy of a McMahon widow?" He has everything—the power, the money, the perfect fiancée. Why won't he just leave me alone? Why must he keep me locked in this suffocating cage? As Kain's leg hooked around my ankle under the table, trapping me right in front of his oblivious family, a cold realization washed over me. Running from the devil wasn't going to work. If I ever wanted to be free, I would have to destroy him.

Elsie was the Sutton family's perfect puppet, a sickly heiress locked away in a pristine manor and treated like fragile porcelain. Her only purpose was to be a pawn in her mother's corporate games. Without warning, her mother ordered her to marry Duke Blake, a ruthless, cold-blooded billionaire known for destroying his rivals. Worse, her mother immediately handed over total control of Elsie's life to him, declaring she couldn't even step outside the gates without his explicit permission. Desperate, Elsie met him and asked if she would be expected to perform wifely duties, praying for a marriage in name only. "I have a very high sex drive." He stated it bluntly, shattering her illusions. Yet, when he drove her into the city days later, a sudden swerve sent her tumbling directly into his lap. Instead of the desire he claimed to possess, his body went completely rigid. He violently shoved her away, slamming her hard against the passenger seat. His face was pale, his knuckles white, and he stared straight ahead with a look of absolute, terrifying revulsion. Humiliation and sharp pain coiled in her chest. She couldn't understand. Why did he demand absolute control over her and boast about his desires, only to treat her accidental touch like a repulsive disease? Why did this all-powerful man secretly smell of hospital antiseptics? What exactly was the Sutton family forcing her to marry? But she was no longer willing to be a lamb led to the slaughter. Thinking of the provocative black lace hidden behind her wardrobe's false wall, Elsie smiled coldly. She was going to find the fatal flaw in this ruthless billionaire's code, and use it to completely shatter her cage.

I was taken from a filthy Nevada orphanage by the wealthy Tillman family and treated like a stray dog for ten years. When their company faced bankruptcy, my adoptive parents demanded I marry a known degenerate to pay off their debts, just so their precious biological daughter wouldn't have to. When I refused, my adoptive mother cut off all my bank accounts and kicked me out into a freezing thunderstorm. "Walk out that door and you will starve in the gutter where you belong!" she screamed. My fake sister mocked my lack of a background, and later, the family even posted photos online to frame me as a disgusting sugar baby to ruin my life. They thought I was just a helpless, worthless orphan who owed them everything. They didn't know the only reason I endured their abuse was to investigate the orphanage fire that burned ten of my friends alive, a tragedy their elite circles helped cover up. I didn't beg for their mercy or cry in the rain. Instead, I got into a bulletproof black SUV waiting in the storm. It was time to shed the pathetic orphan disguise, cure the paralyzed king of the underworld, and burn the Tillman family's perfect facade to the ground.

I spent three years keeping the Baldwin tech empire from crumbling after my husband died. But his nephew, Haden, despised me, convinced I was just a gold-digging widow who stole his inheritance. The breaking point came when our biggest rival stormed into my executive office. His daughter slapped a sonogram on my desk, claiming she was pregnant with Haden's baby to force a hostile corporate merger. Instead of denying the obvious trap, Haden used the moment to completely humiliate me. He pointed down at his expensive leather shoe right in front of our worst enemies. "Come tie it for me. Auntie." After forcing me to kneel, he dragged me to his penthouse in a psychotic fit of jealousy, tore my silk shirt open, and violently accused me of carrying his dead uncle's bastard. Meanwhile, our rivals threatened to tank our stock and ruin the family name if I didn't approve the marriage contract in three days. They all thought I was completely cornered. They thought my cold silence meant I was a fragile woman finally broken by their ruthless power plays. They didn't know I had already spotted the doctored pixels on their cheap, fake ultrasound. I smiled and agreed to their three-day deadline. They thought I was preparing a press release for a Wall Street wedding. They had no idea I was preparing a superyacht, a heavy-duty crane, and a bucket of bloody chum to feed the fake bride's real lover to the Great Whites on a live broadcast.

I died on the cold delivery table, bleeding out while the heart monitor flatlined. Through the blinding surgical lights, I heard my husband Damon's cold, final order to the doctors. "The child is the priority." He didn't care about my life. To him, I was just a vessel to produce an heir, a tool to fulfill his prenuptial clause and secure his billionaire empire. While I took my last agonizing breath, he was already planning his future with his fragile, theatrical mistress, Jasmin. In my past life, when he first brought her into our home claiming she was a helpless victim, I shattered. I screamed, threw vases, and played the hysterical wife perfectly. My desperate pleas for his affection only gave him the exact weapons he needed to ruin my reputation, isolate me, and ultimately force me onto that fatal delivery bed. Until my very last moment, the suffocating pain in my chest wasn't just physical. I couldn't understand how the man I loved could treat my death like a simple business transaction. Why was my absolute devotion rewarded with a carefully calculated execution? But then, my eyes snapped open. I was sitting on the edge of my king-sized bed, exactly three years before my death. From downstairs, I heard Damon's voice echoing in the foyer, bringing Jasmin into our home for the very first time. This time, the scream building in my chest turned to ice. I didn't cry or throw a fit. Instead, I calmly swallowed a secret birth control pill, smiled at his mistress, and dialed the most ruthless divorce lawyer in Manhattan.