When I go home for the holidays, Santa has a secret waiting for me

I wandered far and wide in search of happiness, never finding what I sought. When I return to Christmas Falls to lick my wounds, the last thing I expect is for Santa to send me a golden-haired, blue-eyed man I once called my best friend—the friend who was taken away from me when we were kids.

Milo Montgomery is back in town, and he doesn’t wait for miracles to come to him. There’s a special sort of magic in the way he spreads joy throughout our town.

His chocolate shop might be struggling, but that can’t break his festive spirit. His optimism is contagious, and his cheerful mood makes me feel like I’m thirteen again, catching snowflakes on my tongue. As we walk down memory lane, recreating every Christmas Eve we spent together, our friendship becomes everything Ive been missing.

Milo confesses I was his first and only love. But as a straight man, I can never love him the same way. Or can I? Im beginning to question everything I thought I knew about myself. About the world.

Maybe happiness has nothing to do with a place. Maybe all it takes is the right person.

My life was just fine until he came down from his ivory tower.

Sure, I lived my days hiding deep in the closet, but I got to see all the beautiful guys in Neon Nights whenever I delivered fresh produce from my father’s store. And maybe I didn’t have enough time to read all the books in the world the way I would have liked. And maybe sharing one small room with three siblings wasn’t ideal. But that was the best we could do.

Until a man with wolfish eyes and a sinful smirk came to our little home and demanded that my father settle an old debt. He was going to ruin what little happiness we built for ourselves in Hudson Burrow.

The only thing I could do was offer my work in exchange for my father’s mounting debts. I would go with Dominic Blackthorn to his secluded mansion, and I would work off the debt no matter how long it took.

But real life is never so simple.

Dominic is a cruel and emotionless man with nothing but disdain for those around him. And the longer I am there, the clearer it becomes: Dominic’s appetites extend beyond amassing his wealth. He wants the one thing he can never have. He wants me. And to be wanted like that stirs something new in me.

How long can I live with this heartless man before I start seeing something good in him? How long before he lets himself act on this impulse?

I want to resist him, even if I see disarming warmth in his handsome smile.

I've been in love with Jordan Mitchell since the moment I saw him.

He's smart, handsome, and even funny when he feels like it. He excels at everything; whatever he touches turns to gold. He can't do anything wrong.

When our parents got married and merged our broken families, I suddenly had a rival I could never compete with. And a heart-throb I could never be with. And I hate him for it. He doesn't even see me.

Until one summer break… We're alone in our parents' mountain house. All we do is swim, sunbathe, and fight. And I'd rather be kissing him. Soon enough, the line between hate and attraction is too blurry to see.

It turns out that he's just as messed up as me. And his sculpted body attracts me more than ever. With each day we spend holed up in the mountains, it gets harder to resist him. If I don't do something, I might burst.

But the looming threat of destroying our family for a cheap thrill holds me back. There couldn't be a happy ending to our story.

And all my choices are wrong.

For once, I'm going to need him to be in charge of what happens next.

He's my first and only crush. He's my new coach. Oh, and he was once my dad's teammate and best friend.

I've been in love with Nate Partridge since I can remember. Under my mattress, there has always been a stack of magazine covers with his bare torso and a pearly smile. But that's about the extent of it.

I can never have Nate Partridge. He is a straight guy and twenty years my senior. Neither of which is a dealbreaker for me, but he disagrees.

When a hockey accident forces him to retire, he takes the freshly vacant job of coaching the Arctic Titans. And my life takes an unexpected turn for the better.

Nate is the only person who has ever truly understood me. Where my father's ambition dictates my every waking moment, Nate's kindness and compassion make me feel like there's more to life than hockey. Dad's disregard for my passions makes Nate's encouragement only sweeter.

And my crush reaches all new heights. Especially when I discover his deepest secret.

Nate Partridge is not straight.

But do I stand a chance? To him, I am nothing more than his old friend's kid and a college freshman he's in charge of training.

If I want Nate Partridge, it will take more than hope to make this real.

It's time to shake things up in my life before I can make him mine.

Rafael owns my heart. He stole it with the first clumsy bump in a Parisian bookstore, and I never asked him to return it.

He gifted me a night to remember, a night that shaped the person I would become. And then, I lost him. I lost every trace that could have helped me find him. Until fate meddled again and put Rafael and me on the same cross-European train through the Alps.

But if I hoped that some divine hand guided us to one another, I was terribly mistaken.

Our second encounter sparked a decade of failed attempts and missed chances. For years, I yearned to be with him, and for years, something took him away. Our lives are so intertwined that we will never be free of one another. And yet, each time I see him, my dream of a happy ending fades a little more.

Is stealing moments with Rafael enough to live on? Can I survive on glimmers of hope? I don't think so.

It's time to take our happy ending away from fate's hands. It's time to break this cursed cycle once and for all.

All I want is to help those who need it the most. So when a devastatingly handsome stranger lands in Neon Nights, the gay bar where we spend our days and nights, I immediately know he's in trouble. I also know that we share an instant connection that comes once in a lifetime, but our clumsy kiss freaks him out and turns the night into a total disaster.

The truth is that Cedric Philippe Valois Montclair is no random stranger looking for a place to stay. He is a foreign prince about to be engaged to a woman his family picked for him. Facing the prospect of an arranged marriage, the charming prince ran to New York and fell into my arms.

Cedric is a dreamer, an art lover, and hell in a tight shirt. He makes my mouth water and my heart melt.

Can I protect him from his family's pursuit? And can I resist that endless pull of attraction?

I know I can never be more than a friend to him. Even if he didn't have to marry a French marchioness, he couldn't be with me. But every minute we spend on the dance floor, our hands exploring each other's biceps and backs, my desire for him becomes hotter.

I'm about to do something terribly stupid.

I'm about to fall in love with a prince.

The sexy newcomer at Neon Nights hates me. I'm not too thrilled about him, either, except that those hungry eyes full of hateful desire do wild things to me.

I know I shouldn't meddle with a closet case. Good Catholic boys are nothing but trouble and heartbreak.

Except that this Catholic boy is a foot taller and a foot wider, with dusty blond hair and piercing blue eyes. My legs turn to jelly whenever he comes near me. And all of a sudden, I'm messing around with the exact type of guy I should avoid. My time would be better spent protecting our safe space from demolition, but my obsession with Everett consumes my body and my soul.

If only things were as simple as all that.

Just when I think that Everett and I could have something a little like a future together, I discover who he really is. Everett Langley is the son and heir of the very man who is trying to build a luxury hotel after he ruins our neighborhood.

Neon Nights is at risk and I am never scared to be the first line of defense. But this time, standing up for the bar that shelters all the outcasts and runaways in the neighborhood means fighting the very person I am falling in love with.