'Dark Dude' swings between two worlds—Harlem’s vibrant, noisy streets and Wisconsin’s sleepy countryside. In Harlem, Rico’s life is a whirlwind of school fights, crowded apartments, and the ever-present threat of gangs. The air smells like fried plantains and subway exhaust. Wisconsin, though, is all wide-open skies and cornfields. The locals stare at Rico like he’s an alien, and the quiet makes his city-bred nerves itch. Both settings shape his journey, one through pressure, the other through solitude.
'Dark Dude' plants Rico first in Harlem, where his light skin makes him a target, then transplants him to Wisconsin’s farm country. The city’s noise—honking cars, blasting radios—fades into crickets and wind. It’s a culture shock that fuels the story. Harlem’s chaos is familiar but cruel; Wisconsin’s peace is alien yet healing. The setting mirrors Rico’s struggle to fit in anywhere, making geography as important as dialogue.
The setting of 'Dark Dude' is a gritty, urban landscape that mirrors the protagonist Rico's internal struggles. The story kicks off in Harlem, where Rico faces relentless bullying for his light skin and Cuban heritage. The streets are alive with tension—graffiti-tagged walls, flickering streetlights, and the constant hum of sirens create a backdrop of simmering chaos.
When Rico escapes to Wisconsin, the contrast is stark. Rural fields replace concrete, and the silence feels oppressive. His friend’s farm becomes a refuge but also a cultural shock. The novel’s setting isn’t just physical; it’s a battleground for identity, where city grit clashes with rural isolation, forcing Rico to redefine himself.
Rico’s world in 'Dark Dude' is split between urban chaos and rural stillness. Harlem pulses with energy—block parties, Spanish curses flung from windows, and the sticky heat of summer sidewalks. Wisconsin is the opposite: endless green, tractor rumbles, and a sense of being trapped in a postcard. The shift isn’t just location; it’s about belonging. Harlem rejects him for being too light, Wisconsin for being too different. The settings are characters themselves, pushing Rico to his limits.
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Avani is the last earth dragon in the world. Not only that, but he is also the last male dragon. The other three remaining elemental dragons, air, water and fire, are all females. Unless he mates with one of the other three dragons, the race of pure dragons will die out.
Since he snubs the idea of finding a mate, refusing to allow anyone to claim him and therefore control him, he has taken over as protector of the forest. The hunters are always searching for supernaturals to force into their Arenas, a modern-day gladiator fighting ring. And now, they are capturing supernaturals to experiment on, creating a new race of hybrid creatures. Because Avani can shift his emerald-green scales into the black of onyx, those he saves have started to call him The Dark Protector.
Merethyl is an elven princess. She and her brother, Yhendorn, are captured by hunters when her family is attacked, her parents slaughtered in front of her. She and Yhendorn are held captive, experimented on, until one day they find a way to escape. As they flee, Yhendorn is re-captured sacrificing himself to make sure Merethyl gets away.
As she runs, the hunters chase her, trying to run her down. Avani hears her and flies to her rescue, killing the hunters that are after her. When he realizes that she smells better than anyone he’s ever smelled before, he knows he must get away from her. He cannot allow her to have the total control over him that claiming him would give her. But Merethyl has nowhere else to go and she needs Avani’s help to rescue her brother.
Will Avani be able to resist the charms of the elven princess, or will he fall to her, claimed, making her his dragonrider?
Jared and Laynie have been together for years. When Jared gets a great job opportunity in New York he uproots his and Laynie's life and moves out there. Laynie immediately notices Jared's change in personality. He becomes both emotionally and physically abusive towards her.One night, after what seems to be a break-in goes wrong, Jared wakes up in the hospital only to learn he has lost a year of his memories. This includes hurting the one person he swore he would protect with his life. Now Laynie and Jared must get back to who they were before everything went wrong and get to the bottom of the reason behind all the pain.Darkness is created by D.S. Tossell, an EGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.
When Meave Delaney's first private dance at a strip club, leads her to a man who questions her choice of profession, the last thing she expected was to see him again, that too, as her boss in her day job.
Him,
Hunted by a past that seemed to chase him no matter how far he ran, he is sinking further into a place he knew would be difficult to crawl out of.
Her,
Growing up too fast sure had its effects, with a father who wishes to kick the bucket more than anything in the world, she's falling into the very life she fought to stay away from.
Dark,
There's one thing the darkness promised ... No expectations. Sometimes passion and love are all we need to stop ourselves from driving into that dark hole, but sometimes, passion and love pulls you further into it.
But for Meave and Cohen, it was just Him, Her & Dark.
"Jared and Laynie have been together for years. When Jared gets a great job opportunity in New York he uproots his and Laynie's life and moves out there. Laynie immediately notices Jared's change in personality. He becomes both emotionally and physically abusive towards her.One night, after what seems to be a break-in goes wrong, Jared wakes up in the hospital only to learn he has lost a year of his memories. This includes hurting the one person he swore he would protect with his life. Now Laynie and Jared must get back to who they were before everything went wrong and get to the bottom of the reason behind all the pain.Darkness is created by D.S. Tossell, an EGlobal Creative Publishing signed author."
Venus has a lousy dad and an annoying stepmom. However, that's enough to end there; because her dad (who turned out to be not her real dad) threw her into darkness, which led her to another dimension called Second Earth, a world where the volts, humans with Talent, live.
Like someone who feels lucky, she feels like she was given a second, more decent life. It, as it turned out, wasn't quite what she had thought.
She had only been there a few days and was sentenced to death. Not to mention the fact about who her real biological parents are.
As if that wasn't enough, it was as if her mind was infiltrated by a demon who claimed to be her great-grandfather.
Happiness seemed to be eroded little by little from her and she felt that life as a homeless person on First Earth, her original world, would feel better than here. Her heart became more and more shrouded in gloom and she transformed into the image of someone that the people of Second Earth wanted.
Being a bad person wasn't her choice in the first place, but hell could handle it, Venus thought. She was tired of being a good person.
Then will her ending be as easy as she imagined? Will she be able to turn back into what one would call a good girl? Or is her path to being a sadistic and cruel person the best for her?
The destiny of a dark descendant. Will her story be different?
My world is darkAnd I'm obsessed with the darkness around meI feel like I'm the darkness itself.A young man faces sexual and verbal abuse when he was a child. His past experiences in the hands of his step parents created a dark cloud around him. His quest for revenge for the people that hurt him made him grow up to become someone else and something called the darkness. He became so obsessed with his dark world as he unleashed vengeance on the people who hurt him. But then everything changed when a young lady was kidnapped and brought to him to defile. He found out an important truth about her that changes his life forever and that would lead him to the light.Would she be able to bring him out of his darkness? Would he be able to complete his conquest when he finally meets the light? Follow me for more episodes on this book titled " Dark obsession"
The protagonist of 'Dark Dude' is Rico Fuentes, a Cuban-American teen who stands out in his Harlem neighborhood because of his lighter skin—earning him the nickname 'Dark Dude.' Rico's journey is raw and real, grappling with identity, race, and belonging. He’s smart but stifled by his environment, so he bolts to rural Wisconsin, seeking escape from gang violence and his own contradictions. There, he confronts harsh truths about family, friendship, and what 'home' really means.
Rico’s voice is unforgettable—funny, angry, and achingly honest. He loves comics and rock music, which become his refuge. His struggles aren’t just external; he battles self-doubt, guilt over leaving his mom, and the irony of being 'too white' for Harlem but 'too brown' for the Midwest. The novel paints his growth in vivid strokes, from a kid running away to someone learning to stand his ground.
In 'Dark Dude', Rico’s journey ends with a mix of hard-earned growth and lingering struggles. After fleeing his tough Harlem life for Wisconsin, he grapples with identity, racism, and self-acceptance. The climax sees him returning to Harlem, not as an escape but to confront his past. He reconnects with his estranged father, their tense reunion thawing slightly—no fairy-tale resolution, just raw, honest effort. Rico also patches things up with his friends, acknowledging his flaws. The book closes with him embracing his mixed-race identity, no longer running from who he is. It’s bittersweet; life isn’t fixed, but he’s finally facing it head-on.
What stands out is the realism. Rico doesn’t magically solve all his problems. Wisconsin offered temporary relief, but Harlem’s chaos is part of him. The ending mirrors life—messy, unresolved, yet hopeful. His love for comics becomes symbolic; like his heroes, he keeps fighting, even when the ‘villains’ are his own demons. The last pages leave you rooting for him, not because he’s perfect, but because he’s trying.