Is Thank You For Smoking Worth Reading?

The night before our wedding, my mother needed a fifty-thousand-dollar emergency deposit for surgery. I went to my fiancé, Major Adrian Hayes, hoping he would listen before it was too late. He only saw the number. He paid the deposit in the end, but something between us broke that night. That money became the beginning of every name he would ever use against me. After that, every time I asked him for help, he sent me one hundred dollars. When I was in a car accident, he sent one hundred dollars. When I begged him to attend my mother’s funeral, he sent one hundred dollars. Eight months ago, I found out I was pregnant. I sent him seventy-seven voice messages, desperate to tell him we were having a baby. He never listened. He only sent seventy-seven payments of one hundred dollars. Later, when I started bleeding and was rushed into emergency surgery, I called Adrian and begged him to come to the hospital, to answer the doctors, to save our child. He sent one hundred dollars again. At the same time, Madeline’s Instagram story showed Adrian in his dress uniform beside her at a lavish officers’ charity gala. The comments all treated them like the perfect match. I stared at the screen until my hand went numb. I was begging for him from the edge of an emergency room while he stood under chandeliers beside another woman, looking as if he had already found the wife he wanted. By the time Adrian finally turned his phone back on, his staff officer’s voice was shaking. “Major Hayes... your wife and the baby did not make it.” And in that moment, Adrian went feral.

She returned to bury her father. Instead, she was forced to marry his enemy’s son. - Rosalind Marlow returns to New York to settle her father’s affairs, once one of the city’s most feared mafia bosses, only to find he died beside his greatest rival… and left behind a contract binding her to the rival’s son. Viktor Marino is cold, calculating, and infuriatingly magnetic. Rosa has no intention of becoming anyone’s pawn, not in grief, not in business, and definitely not in bed. But Viktor plays a long game, and with every stare, every challenge, he pulls her deeper into a world of secrets, power, and heat. She was raised to be untouchable. He was born to conquer. And in the space between vengeance and desire, who is going to lose control first? (Contains mature and dark content) ***** EXCERPT ‘Why would you want to leave this behind?’ he growled in my ear, his chest rumbling against my back. Because I can’t trust you. Because I don’t know what I want. ‘Because it’s cruel,’ I whispered. And then he pulled away, leaving me trembling, desperate, and furious.” ❦

Everette and Jack know next to nothing about romance novels.... or women. So when they accidentally join a book club full of both, they have no idea what to think. But, as the book and time goes on, the ladies in their book club become more interested in a different plot. The love lives of both men.

Those words defined Claire Reid's entire life—and her death. At twenty-eight, she dies in a hospital bed surrounded by the family she sacrificed everything for: the father who forced her to quit school, the sister who took everything she had, the husband who treated her like an inconvenience, and the mother who demanded endless gratitude for their abuse. As her heart stops, Claire sees their relief and realizes the devastating truth: she wasted her life loving people who never loved her back. Then she wakes up. One year earlier. One month before her family frames her for theft. This time, Claire refuses. Refuses to give money. Refuses to stay silent. Refuses to be grateful for crumbs. Armed with knowledge of their betrayals and a fury born from her wasted first life, she systematically dismantles their manipulations, exposes their schemes, and reclaims her identity. But when she tries to leave her cold, arranged marriage, something unexpected happens.

All 20 year old Holly ever wanted to do was escape the boring Colorado mountain town where she was born. However, when she arrived at college, she found herself having too many wild nights. Worse yet, she had one too many mornings of waking up in an unfamiliar bed, and she couldn't keep her scholarship. Now that's she's back in Conifer, she has no idea what she is going to do with her life and no hope for the future. Andrew's father died a couple years ago in an electrical accident, and while Andrew wants nothing more than to leave town, his mother's mental instability makes it impossible for him to go. He feels trapped in a no-win situation and his options are slipping away. When a mutual friend has a crisis, Holly comes up with a plan, a plan that will change all their lives for the better. She knows that, despite previously being burned, all it takes to start a fire is a spark. However, she realizes that once again, she may have stood too close to the flame, and the torch she carries for Andrew burns brighter than ever. Will Holly manage to rekindle old loves, or will the destructive fire in their hearts consume everything they hold dear?

My daughter, Annabelle Turner, was diagnosed with hereditary heart disease. I spent the past five years searching for a compatible heart donor for her. Now, I finally found one. Right before Annabelle is sent into the surgery room, my husband and renowned cardiologist, Gabriel Turner, tearfully makes me a promise. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll make sure Annabelle gets a shot at life again." Yet halfway through the surgery, Gabriel suddenly leaves in a hurry without giving any explanation. I stumble into the surgery room and see Annabelle lying on the operating table, covered in blood. Her chest is cut wide open, laid bare for all to see. Tyler Rotwell, Gabriel's assistant, stammers out, "Dr. Turner said… that Anna can still hold on a little longer, but Ms. Byron's son can't. "Dr. Turner took the heart that was meant for Anna and left…" I immediately break down and repeatedly call Gabriel's number, but Gabriel never answers a single call, not even when Anna's blood has completely dried… While settling my daughter's post-mortem affairs, I happen to see a newly posted update on Gabriel's childhood friend, Suzanne Byron's social media. "Turns out it was just a misdiagnosis," was what the caption read. "In that case, let's give this useless little thing to our good boy Oscar as a treat!" The video attached depicts Suzanne's dog Oscar tearing into the heart that was supposed to be donated to Annabelle. As I turn to look at Annabelle's cold body, the last shred of love I have for Gabriel starts crumbling apart. By the time Gabriel finally remembers Annabelle, whom he left on the operating table, only an empty bedroom and an urn containing her ashes would greet him…