If you’ve invested any time in Skye Warren’s Smoke and Mirrors (Cirque des Miroirs) trilogy, take a moment and read Blue Moon, a nibble of a novella based on the enigmatic and charismatic showman, Emerson. As the “villain” of the trilogy (or seemingly so), Warren situates him in a more morally gray position in Blue Moon. He’s responsible for finding a new act for Circque des Miroirs as penance, and he finds it with Luna, a gorgeous acrobat. Throughout the novella, Emerson shows the complications of his character as he saves Luna from an abusive situation while wanting to covet her for himself. There is definite chemistry and team between Emerson and Luna, a cornerstone of a Skye Warren story.
However, Emerson’s novella is wildly underdeveloped, leaving us with questions at the end of Blue Moon. Maybe it’s because Emerson is an important character in the Smoke and Mirrors trilogy, but I was hoping for more from his story. Warren may have more for him in store later, but Blue Moon feels like mostly a start, not an end for Luna and Emerson. I know that 1001 Dark Nights and Blue Box Press stories are short-form; however, I’ve read several of them to know that I wanted more from Warren for this story.
A dangerous ringmaster claims his rebellious acrobat for a sensual show you cannot miss.
Blue Moon, a Smoke and Mirrors novella from New York Times bestselling author Skye Warren is now live!
Charismatic. Devious. Secretive. Emerson Durand is the ringmaster for the illustrious Cirque des Miroirs. In each city he finds a new woman to command for the night. Until he finds the one woman who doesn’t bow to his demands.
Luna Rider soars through the air as an aerial acrobat. She’s determined to provide for herself and her sister, but she doesn’t count on being gambled away. Or the secrets that hover under the striped tent.
Instead, the person who opens it is none other than the stranger from earlier. He is surprisingly not black and blue, not beaten to bits. In fact, he looks healthy and haughty. His dark eyes twinkle like he has a secret with me. “Luna,” he says as if we’re old friends, which is not a good thing. It’s just another reason for my father to hate me later. Because whatever happens between this man and I, whether it’s sexual or not, dangerous or not, there’s no way I’m leaving Blue Moon Circus. “Come on in.” I step cautiously into the room. I’ve stepped foot into this trailer thousands of times, maybe millions of times, I don’t even know. This was my family home, my childhood home, if the word home could be applied to such a place of terror. But the scene is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Instead of my father’s poker game or a few of the female performers passed out on his lumpy couch for him to use whenever he wants, there are two men I don’t recognize with guns. Pointing them at my father and a couple of his buddies who usually play poker with him. Chips are scattered all around the room. The card table is upended. Something bad happened here though you couldn’t tell by looking at Emerson, he smiles. “We had a slight disagreement at the end of our card game. However, the results stand. I won, which means that you come with me.”
**Every 1001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers, it’s an introduction to an author’s world. And for fans, it’s a bonus book in the author’s series. We hope you’ll enjoy each one as much as we do.**
“You make my soul breathe fire, my beautiful dark desire.”
Parker S. Huntington and L.J. Shen’s newest book, My Dark Desire, begins with a content warning: “this is a dark romance and may contain triggering content.” Anyone who’s read dark romance from either of these two authors knows that their dark can grow dark quickly. Like its partner in crime, My Dark Romeo, My Dark Desire finds its darkness in its MMC’s behavior. When one is rich and powerful, one’s scruples can become gray…and Huntington and Shen’s MMC, Zach, is the grayest of grays.
My Dark Desire is a modern-day Cinderella story with an FMC in Farrow with more backbone than your average dark romance FMC. What I loved the most about this story is Farrow’s capacity to bring Zachary Sun to his knees. It’s always my favorite part of a romance when the MMC seems like the most indomitable character in the room, but it’s clear from the moment this type of MMC meets his FMC, all bets are off. Huntington and Shen have imagined one of my favorite MMCs in this book: a seemingly impenetrable, robot of a man. This only means he will fall hard…and Zach Sun does just that. He becomes obsessed with Farrow.
Thankfully, Huntington and Shen understand the chemistry between an MMC obsessed with his FMC and an FMC who simply cannot help herself when it comes to the MMC. Farrow and Zach are pure chemistry from the start. Their banter, push and pull, and fire set this story’s path—and it’s a blazing one. In fact, Huntington and Shen have written so much story in My Dark Desire that it’s 428 pages of a cat and mouse chase.
What’s most compelling about My Dark Desire and by extension, My Dark Romeo, for that matter, is the creation of Romeo, Ollie, and Zach’s band of brothers trope. Usually, in dark romance, there is very little to save you from the wretchedness of the powerful character towards his/her prey. In this book, Huntington and Shen save you with the humor between these “brothers.” The choice to interrupt the narrative with text messages that will absolutely make you laugh out loud provides a respite from the growing tension between Zach and Farrow or Farrow and her step-family. The intentionality behind the layers of this book, ones that swirl between suspense, humor, and spice, drew me in and compelled me forward. There is something here for every type of romance reader.
My favorite moment of this book came at the end. I haven’t exclaimed at the end of a book for its final line in a while, and Huntington and Shen end My Dark Desire brilliantly. So consider this my warning: if you’re a “read the end of the book to alleviate your anxiety” kind of person, do NOT read the epilogue before you’ve read the entire story. You will ruin the brilliant machinations of its authors. A day later and My Dark Desire is still taking up space in my brain. Parker S. Huntington and L.J. Shen have absolutely done it again with this book, and I am very ready for Ollie’s story…
L.J. Shen and Parker S. Huntington have revealed the covers for My Dark Desire!
Releasing March 10, 2024
From Wall Street Journal bestsellers Parker S. Huntington and L.J. Shen comes a tantalizing forbidden romance between a broken Prince Charming and a disgraced Cinderella.
The task was simple.
Sneak into Potomac’s most heavily guarded manor.
Steal back my pendant. Slip out.
Problem number one?
America’s most unattainable bachelor caught me.
Problem number two?
He decided to keep me. As the help.
Zachary Sun’s winter may be the coldest I’ve ever felt,
L.J. Shen is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, and #1 Amazon bestselling author of contemporary, new adult, and young adult romance. Her books have been translated in over twenty different countries, and she hopes to visit all of them.
She lives in Florida with her husband, three rowdy sons, and even rowdier pets. She enjoys good wine, bad reality TV shows, and reading to her heart’s content., Parker S. Huntington is a stay-at-home dog mom from SoCal, where she discovered her allergy to rain. In spite of her shoddy attendance record and strong aversion to homework, she earned a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside and an A.L.M. in Literature from Harvard. When she’s not writing or exchanging food pics with her friends, she’s binge-watching an unhealthy amount of Netflix while curled up with her dogs.
Meet Parker S. Huntington
Parker hates talking about herself and is (also) allergic to social media, but you can catch up with her in her newsletter at http://www.parkershuntington.com. Occasionally, she’ll post a TikTok video, which you can find at @parkershuntington.
Tropes: age gap; dark romance; small town vibes; found family; circus romance
Skye Warren’s White Lies is the second book of her newest Smoke and Mirrors trilogy. It features the commanding Logan and the beguiling Sienna embroiled in test after test of their love. White Lies handles the cliffhanger left at the end of book 1 of the series, Red Flags, but it inevitably leaves us on another one at the end of this story.
I want to be frank. I struggled with White Lies. I love Skye Warren’s brand of dark romance, and I’ve read most, if not all, of her book list. I’ve been consumed with her Tanglewood world romances in the past, and I will never forget the impact of those stories on my sense of dark romance. I share this because I will continue to read her even though White Lies is one of the most inconsistent stories I’ve read from her. It felt cobbled together, and there were transitions between certain chapters that slowed her narrative pacing. Several chapters of White Lies were repetitive: Logan asking for forgiveness and Sienna vacillating between continuing to distrust him or granting it. Warren tethers Logan and Sienna together with $ex, and it’s difficult to understand and accept Logan’s undying love for her. In a word, White Lies felt rushed.
Here’s the thing: I want to love this trilogy (it’s my first one set in the realm of a circus, and that intrigues me), but thus far, I’ve been underwhelmed by it. I will continue to read Skye Warren because I know she’ll pull it all together in Black Sheep. I was simply disappointed with White Lies. Sienna and Logan’s story deserves better.
Pine River was supposed to be a new start for me.
And it was, especially attending school with my three overprotective cousins, who were the triplets at the top of the social hierarchy. Except they weren’t alone there, and the first day when I came to school, I saw him.
Scout Raiden. Tall. Lean. Tattooed. Mesmerizing. He was a golden god with dark and piercing eyes—looking like he wanted to eat me up.
The feeling was mutual, and that was a problem. It was lust-want-must have-loathing-hate all at once. I was affected. And I couldn’t have that. No way. Not after what I’d just left in Cedra Valley.
I didn’t care how much money his uncle had. I didn’t care that it seemed every girl wanted him. I didn’t care about his reputation as an up-and-coming fighter. Or the promise of how those hands would make me feel.
What I did care about was staying as far away from Scout as possible. Because the promise of his presence, the heat that was going to turn the light back on in my world wasn’t a promise at all. It was a threat.
Tijan is a New York Times Bestselling author that writes suspenseful and unpredictable novels. Her characters are strong, intense, and gut-wrenchingly real with a little bit of sass on the side. Tijan began writing after college and once she started, she was hooked. She’s written multi-bestsellers including the Fallen Crest series, Ryan’s Bed, Enemies and others. She is currently writing many new books and series with an English Cocker she adores.
To touch a Dark One is certain death…to fall in love with one of them might just be your salvation.
Darkest Need, an all-new page-turning Dark Ones novella from New York Times bestselling author Rachel Van Dyken, is available now!
I see everything. I feel everything. I watch people fall in love. I watch them burn with hate, anger, rage, and I see the cycle repeat over and over again. I take it on every night I work at Timber, aka Anubis’s bar in downtown Seattle, and then I help the rest of the immortals keep the very intense balance between Heaven and Earth.
I see everyone’s future but mine, and when I try to look, all I see is darkness, despair, need…
Until she walks into my bar with bruises on her face, getting pulled by one of the lesser demons. I do what any good bartender would do… I beat him within an inch of his life and turn my eyes to her. By then, it’s too late. She already has me in her grasp. A succubus that has no other plan than to suck me clean of every inch of power that’s been bestowed on me by the Heavens.
I never thought my future involved getting kidnapped and tied up or that I’d die by way of sex—then again, maybe that’s for the best. Dying at the hands of my enemy rather than being one more burden to my already mated friends.
After all, giving into one last need before death, while selfish, may be exactly what my darkness means.
My need is great. And she’s about to find out just how much.
**Every 1001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers, it’s an introduction to an author’s world. And for fans, it’s a bonus book in the author’s series. We hope you’ll enjoy each one as much as we do.**
Listen, I know I have chains wrapped strategically around my wrists and that every second that goes by, said chains are burning a mark into my skin that may or may not mean I’m about to get completely demolished by a succubus demon. But this is not how the story starts. I mean, maybe it’s how it ends since I’ve been in this exact spot for the last two days without food or water, waiting for a rescue from my immortal friends, knowing full well they’re probably all just having sex and enjoying marital bliss without realizing I’m actually missing. Me. The manager of the Seattle demon bar, Sin. Werewolf prince. All around really upright kind of guy—or so I like to think. But do you know where that got me? Here. Chained. See also: Demon goddess who has not come back to check on me even once and says she wants to kill me via sex. Bartending is looking great right now. Immortal life in my werewolf clan did not prepare me for this or the fact that saving one succubus would actually turn me into her prey. She was bruised. Beaten beyond recognition. I was going to kill the vampire that attempted to slaughter her, but that’s a longer, more violent story since she ended up doing the deed once she got a bit of my blood. But I did give her water, thinking, wow, I’ve done this person a total solid. I mean, despite the fact that she was pretty. Even her tears were pretty. The bruising and swelling on her face didn’t even hide how beautiful she was—or is. Maybe my first wrong act was comforting her. Because the minute we touched, her eyes flashed a creepy red, and well…see also actual burning handcuffs around my wrists. It’s clearly been a fun forty-eight hours. Maybe she’ll make it quick, though a weird part of me kind of wants my last few moments being sucked dry via sex to last for a while, so long that it’s all I focus on, all I care about, all I see. I see visions of the future, but I never saw this. So, strap in because I’m sure it’s going to be a great story. I just may not make it all the way to the end with you.
Red Flags, Book #1 of the Cirque de Miroirs trilogy, by Skye Warren is NOW LIVE!
🎪✨ Unveil the Red Flags! Get ready for a heart-pounding journey into the seductive world of “Red Flags,” Book #1 of the Cirque de Miroirs trilogy by Skye Warren. 🔮❤️
Grab this all-new forbidden romance trilogy TODAY!
“You’re part of the circus now, which means you belong to me. You’re mine.”
Logan Whitmere, the handsome owner of Cirque des Miroirs, is full of red flags. Secretive. Commanding. Dangerous.
I know better than to trust him, but I’m desperate for a way out of my small town.
He offers me a job as the fortune teller.
What does Logan know that he isn’t telling me? He seems to want to protect me…from the performers. From himself. I fall for his possession. I’m afraid of his obsession.
There are secrets even the crystal ball won’t reveal.
When the truth is unveiled, I’m forced to confront my dark past.
“Red Flags is completely captivating. There’s nothing I love more than a possessive hero and Logan Whitmere delivers. He has so many red flags I can’t even count them all and I’m obsessed.” – Ivy Smoak, Amazon bestselling author
“This story has everything—intrigue, allure, lust—and in the most perfect setting, the circus. Logan and Sienna’s chemistry sizzles from the moment they meet, and I want more, please!” – Willow Aster, USA Today Bestselling Author
About the Author
Skye Warren is the New York Times bestselling author of dangerous romance. Her books have sold over one million copies. She makes her home in Texas with her loving family, sweet dogs, and evil cat.
Fake relationship with the playboy billionaire who’s hiding secrets…
Pretend Ever After by Skye Warren is now live!
Billionaire. CEO. Heir to the largest fortune in the United States. Finn Hughes has a secret that no one can know. It means keeping people away… And what better way than with a fake relationship?
It will keep people from prying into his personal life.
He won’t be exposed. His family will remain safe from public scrutiny and disdain. Then the fake relationship turns all too real.
PRETEND EVER AFTER contains all three books in the Hughes series, taking you from the steamy beginning to the emotional conclusion.
Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited
Skye Warren is the New York Times bestselling author of dangerous romance such as the Endgame trilogy. Her books have been featured in Jezebel, Buzzfeed, USA Today Happily Ever After, Glamour, and Elle Magazine. Her books have sold over two million copies. She makes her home in Texas with her loving family, sweet dogs, and evil cat.
B.B. Reid is the author of several novels including the hit enemies-to-lovers, Fear Me. She grew up the only daughter and middle child in a small town in North Carolina. After graduating with a Bachelors in Finance, she started her career at an investment research firm while continuing to serve in the National Guard. She currently resides in Charlotte with her moody cat and enjoys collecting Chuck Taylors and binge-eating chocolate.
Professor Romance 