Nathaniel Lachlan

Modern

Twenty minutes before the "Wedding of the Century" at The Plaza, I stood outside the Presidential Suite in a fifty-thousand-dollar Vera Wang gown. I was the girl from a West Virginia trailer park about to marry Hugh Maxwell, the golden heir to a billion-dollar defense empire. I pushed the door open only to find Hugh pinned against the bed with my own stepsister, Floy. She was wearing my bridal diamond necklace, and the sounds of their laughter scraped against my eardrums like sandpaper. I didn't scream; I listened as Hugh grunted that once the wedding was over and the trust fund unlocked, he'd dump "that hillbilly trash" on a bus back to the mountains. They weren't just cheating; they were planning to steal my family's land deeds and leave me with nothing. When I set off the sprinklers and exposed their naked bodies to the paparazzi, the Maxwell family didn't apologize. They called me a "greedy peasant" and threatened to ruin my life unless I signed a new deal to save their crashing stock. I realized then that I was never a bride to them. I was a transaction, a rounding error in a ledger to be used and discarded. They thought my poverty made me weak and my silence made me a victim. "If we don't have a marriage certificate by midnight, the bank freezes thirty percent of our liquidity," their lawyer warned. So, I gave them exactly what they wanted. I used a loophole in their hundred-year-old family covenant and married the only other direct heir available. I didn't marry Hugh. I walked into the ICU and married his uncle, Fleet Maxwell-the legendary war hero who had been in a vegetative state for months. Now, I am the matriarch of the Maxwell dynasty. I've suspended Hugh's executive powers, exiled my mother-in-law to the Swiss Alps, and taken control of the family vault. They think I'm just a gold-digger waiting for a "corpse" to die so I can collect a fifty-million-dollar widow's payout. But last night, as I lay beside my comatose husband, the man they called a vegetable gripped my hand back.

Literature

Nathaniel Hawthorne by George E. Woodberry

Literature

The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne by Frank Preston Stearns

Mafia

Maria Callo never imagined her job as Wesley Thompson's secretary would entangle her in the brutal world of the mafia. Cold, powerful, and dangerously irresistible, Wesley is the feared leader of the Redstar gang-one she knows better than to fall for. But when an ambush threatens his empire, Maria b

Billionaires

Jessica Collins never imagined her dream of love and freedom would turn into a nightmare. Sold into marriage to the ruthless billionaire Raymond Shaw, she becomes a prisoner in his dangerous world of power, betrayal, and obsession. He is cold, possessive, and impossible to escape. Trapped between h

Romance

With hatred for her step-sister and family generally, Piper Snow finds herself in a bar wallowing in alcohol after finding out her boyfriend…No, her ex-boyfriend cheats on her with her step-sister. She gets drunk and passes out on her way home in front of a moving vehicle. *** Davis Kingston, a 27

Billionaires

Mary Marshall never expected her life to turn into a nightmare. When a ruthless millionaire demands she marry him to erase her family's debt, she does the only thing she can-she runs. Desperate and with nowhere to turn, she finds herself face-to-face with Thomas Randolph-the billionaire CEO known

Romance

Cursed with the worst luck in the whole universe, Stacy Reeves holds on to the last piece of hope she has for a perhaps better life. This too comes crashing down after a very reckless night with a stranger at a nightclub who turns out to be a popularly dangerous Italian billionaire, Andre Rosello wh

Literature

The stunning collection of short fiction that established Nathaniel Hawthorne as one of the most powerful and provocative artists in nineteenth-century America Dr. Heidegger invites four friends to witness an experiment. As the impoverished merchant Mr. Medbourne, the gout-ridden sinner Colonel Kil

Literature

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not

Romance

The novel takes place in the utopian community of Blithedale, presumably in the mid-1800s. The main character, Miles Coverdale, embarks on a quest for betterment of the world through the agrarian lifestyle and community of the Blithedale Farm. The story begins with Coverdale's chat with a character

Romance

IN September of the year during the February of which Hawthorne had completed "The Scarlet Letter," he began "The House of the Seven Gables." Meanwhile, he had removed from Salem to Lenox, in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where he occupied with his family a small red wooden house, still standing

Billionaires

Ellie Vance. The name spoke volumes: old New England money, Ivy League polish, groomed to be the perfect partner for Governor Will Harrison III. Our wedding plans filled a thick binder, a union of legacy and ambition, celebrated by all. Then came the Kentucky Derby. Will, usually so focused on i

Literature

Sketches and Studies by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Horror

A family burdened by the sins of their forebears seeks redemption in this Gothic masterpiece from one of the most influential voices in American literature In a small New England town, the haunted halls of Pyncheon House trap its current owners—Hepzibah Pyncheon and her brother, Clifford—in an at

Horror

Delve into The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne's meditation on human alienation and its effect on the soul in this story set in seventeenth-century Massachusetts and be dazzled by literature. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's dark novel, The Scarlet Letter, a single sinful act ruins the lives of three

Literature

Doctor Grimshawe's Secret by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Modern

My parents bought me a quiet condo, a soft landing after Afghanistan and the psych facility, a place where I hoped to rebuild my life with my familiar hobby of miniature painting. My first package of rare, custom miniatures arrived, bringing a rare flicker of excitement, but it was quickly extingui

Modern

For fifteen years, I sacrificed everything for Innovatech, the tech company my partner Grayson and I built from nothing. I lived on a shoestring budget, believing every penny saved was a step toward our shared future. Then a property deed for a mansion arrived, addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Carrillo.

Romance

For five years, I was the secret weapon behind A-list actor Johan Lee. As his top agent and devoted girlfriend, I cleaned up his scandals, secured his contracts, and deliberately dressed down so I would never outshine him. Tonight was his birthday, and I was waiting in his penthouse in black lace, r

Literature

Fanshawe by Nathaniel Hawthorne