Beyond the Thistles

North Hunter has worked hard to step out of the shadows of his orphaned upbringing into the limelight of Hollywood. He never imagined a dark moment from his childhood returning to destroy everything he’d built. Devastated, he finds comfort in the isolation of an exclusive members-only club in the Scottish Highlands, even if the club comes with a prickly estate manager who sets his blood on fire.

I went to Scotland looking for answers about my past. The last thing I expected was getting trapped on a private island with my stoic, brooding, gorgeous contractor. Ramsay McRae is a man with secrets. He prefers the company of his dog to people and silence to any semblance of politeness.

I’m nothing but a payment, bartered to the most powerful cartel in the northern hemisphere and forced to marry a man I do not know. My father sold me to save his own skin. He might as well have ushered me to the gates of hell. The Marino family is sadistic. If rumors are true, they’ll own me, use me, control me, and strip me of every freedom I’ve taken for granted. I’ll be a shiny new toy in a dark and deadly underworld.

Natalie Bennett has a plan: survive her big sister's Christmas Eve wedding, avoid her estranged father, and absolutely do not fall apart in front of the ex she walked away from...even if he does look annoyingly good in red velvet.

Steele Sanderson has always been my safe place. My best friend. My constant. My person. So when I walk in on my boyfriend—who also happens to be my boss—screwing a colleague on his desk, it’s Steele who picks up the pieces. Now I’m living in his penthouse, crashing in his guest room, and working as his assistant while I figure out what’s next. Every day, I tell myself this is temporary. That just because he looks at me like I already belong to him doesn’t mean I actually do. Except... Steele doesn’t see it that way.

I’ve spent five years hiding in plain sight, burying my head in my books, courtesy of a scholarship at Dublin's most prestigious college. But now, for the first time in my life, I feel seen. Wanted. Desired. And I've awakened a need I never knew I had. Enter James Beckett, a billionaire bachelor with a reputation as famous as his family’s whiskey empire, and he wants me to be his fake girlfriend until he conquers the next part of his empire. He'll even tutor me through my final exams... and anything else I require tuition in. But some educations come at a devastating price.

Still married. Those words change everything. Now my should-be ex-husband, Ramsey Stockton, the former pro football star turned felon and hero who left this town—and me—behind years ago, is at my door offering me a deal with the devil. If I let him stay and play his wife again for ninety days, he’ll give me a quiet divorce and his family ranch—the one my inn is on. When I scoff at the idea, he offers a million-dollar bonus to help my business float through this rough patch, but only if I’m his.

The scowl should’ve been my first clue to stay far away from Anson Hunt. The sexy smirk and the fact that he’s my brother’s best friend? Reasons two and three. Not to mention, he’s the new contractor working on my house. He’s everything I’m not: grumpy, rude, and more than a little attached to his solitude. It doesn’t matter how many times I try to kill him with kindness; the man simply won’t crack. Until he sees me shatter. Because when my world comes crashing down around me, Anson is the one catching me as I fall.

Author Catherine Cowles brings you an addictive small-town romance series full of protective heroes and suspenseful twists and turns. Wrecked Beginnings contains the first three stand-alone novels in the Wrecked series. Includes Reckless Memories, Perfect Wreckage, and Wrecked Place.

Kacey Dawson has always lived life on the edge—impulsively, sometimes recklessly. And now, as lead guitarist for a hot up-and-coming band, she is poised at the brink of fame and fortune. But she is torn between wanting to be a serious musician, and the demons that lure her down the glittering, but alcohol-soaked path of rock stardom. A wrecked concert in Las Vegas threatens to ruin her career entirely. She wakes up with the hangover from hell and no memory of the night before, or how she ended up on her limo driver's couch.

Lexington Hall and I were never supposed to collide—he, the golden boy of Hollywood, and I, a small-town dreamer with stars in my eyes. But when we shared the stage in our high school musical, something ignited. Then, just as quickly, it all fell apart, leaving my dreams in pieces. Now, four years later, Lex is a household name, turning our past into a television sensation. He's spun our story for the world to see, while I'm still haunted by what we lost.

Charming and seductive. Cold-blooded and merciless. Kenzo Mori, the wrathful king of the Mori Mafia family, is a sinfully beautiful devil with a heart of ice. He's an enemy who's had a target on my back for years. Now, he's my new husband. Our marriage of inconvenience is supposed to end the violence between the Bratva and the Yakuza. Little does he know, the real war has only just begun. Kenzo thinks I belong to him. I think he'd better sleep with one eye open. But while the enemy in my bed might be slowly dominating my nights and darkest fantasies, my heart is a battle he'll never win.

He wants me to stay out of his way. I want to get under his skin. One look at single dad Callum Blackwood, and I know I messed up. I never meant to save a farm—or steal it from under the grumpy innkeeper who had already claimed it as his future. Now I’m the woman who swooped in on a whim and left him seething. Trouble is, I have no idea what I’m doing. Every smirk, every biting comment, is a reminder that he’s waiting for me to fail. But I don’t back down from a fight—even when the fight comes with a jawline that should be illegal and a scowl that sets my pulse racing.

In Fiasco, Kentucky, there is one rule: never fall for a Foxx brother. Any woman who did, ended up dead—or so the rumor goes. Townies call it a curse. But I’ve lived it, and I won’t survive it again. I’m not a cop anymore, but I’ve seen enough danger to know that Laney Young, the beautiful stranger who just showed up in my small town, is running from it. She’s lying about where she came from and what she’s doing here. I don’t want her near my family or the quiet life I’ve made for myself. But my brothers have other plans.

One night changed them both forever. Their lives shattered, beyond repair, with jagged edges and pieces askew. Now, Everly has a chance to make things right. To bring healing to the place where everything fell apart. But it means facing the family her father almost destroyed, and the boy with the dark eyes - now grown - who still haunts her dreams.