Marley Valentine

From USA Today bestselling author Marley Valentine comes an all new emotional, friends-to lovers gay romance standalone. I couldn’t tell you when I fell in love with Gael Herrera, but I wish I knew how to make it stop. Falling in love with a straight man is a rookie mistake. But falling in love with my soon-to-be-married-to-a-woman best friend is nothing but heartache. Through all the years, and all the men I’ve fooled around with, he’s always been at the back of my mind. An unrequited crush I wish I could shake. A dream that was never going to come true. When I whisk him off to a surprise bachelor party weekend in Vegas, I surrender to the idea that this is an opportunity for me to finally let go of my feelings for him and say goodbye. But after a heated exchange and an even hotter kiss, everything I thought I knew about our friendship changed. Maybe I had it wrong. Maybe, after all this time, we were more than best friends. Maybe, just maybe, he felt it too.

At twenty-four, I’d already lived a thousand lives. I was a daughter. An orphan. A foster kid. A sister. Someone to everyone, and yet I was unrecognizable to myself. I spent my time keeping everybody else afloat, while I was slowly drowning. Until I met her. The first time she walked into my life, I was mesmerized by the mysterious stranger. When I came face-to-face with her a second time, I was being introduced to my best friend’s mother. We were worlds and experiences apart, unlikely in every sense of the word. Everything between us was unexpected. Our attraction to one another, the secrets I shared, and the cracked pieces of her I so badly wanted to put back together. We broke. We healed. We loved. Desperately. But I didn’t know how to love her without losing myself, and if she discovered the cost, I knew she wouldn’t let me

“Tragedy brought us together, but something stronger made me want to stay.” Julian was the boy next door. My brother’s best friend, he fit with my family in ways I never could. While he and Rhett went on to play house, I left the only life I knew, desperate for a fresh start. Until everything changed. Heartache came along, and the aftermath of my brother’s death was here to stay. I was now face to face with Julian more than I ever wanted to be. Being around him brought up all my insecurities, forced me to deal with hard truths, and conjured up feelings I had no business entertaining. He wasn’t the man I thought I knew. He was complex and layered, and inherently beautiful in all the ways I’d never noticed. Not on another person. Not on another man. Not until him.

We longed. We lost. We loved. Desperately. I thought I had my life all figured out. But after a college football accident leaves me deaf, I was learning how to live all over again. I expected the anger, the frustration, and the struggle to readjust, but what I didn’t expect to happen amongst the chaos, was to fall in love. Especially not with two men. Rough-edged puzzle pieces, Rhys, Samuel, and I were nothing but aching memories, painful realities, and hidden scars. We were products of our pasts, abandoned and unloved, messy and complicated. Individually we had baggage; together we had mountains to climb. But when the three of us were tangled up in one another, spilling secrets in the dark, hearts beating in sync, nothing else mattered but them. We needed to break the cycle, because they deserved love… And who knows, maybe I finally did too. UNLOVED is book two in Marley Valentine's emotional LGBTQ+ series that follows a group of foster siblings, who are banded together by their pasts. Each book can be read as a COMPLETE standalone.

Attending King University was at the top of my bucket list. Falling in love with my Professor wasn’t. Earning a full scholarship to King University was my hard earned ticket out of hell. I'm happy to be away from the small town I grew up in and all the equally small minded people who live there. King was going to be my safe haven. A place where I could leave the old me behind and finally grow into the young man my family had desperately tried to hide away. Diving head first into new experiences, new friends, and parties, I didn’t expect to run straight into the one thing I wasn’t ready for. His arms are welcoming, his body is addictive and his lips are heaven. Cole Huxley is everything I could fall in love with, except for one problem ... I never wanted to fall for my Professor.

A Brand New M/M Romance Novel, Coming Winter 2023

One night with Reeve Hale wasn’t enough. I knew it when I kissed him, I knew it when I slept with him, and I was certain of it when I walked out of his motel room the very next day. So when the shy, gorgeous man is introduced as our newest employee at Vino and Veritas, I can’t help but conjure up all the ridiculous ways to convince him to repeat that unforgettable night. Like asking him to be my fake boyfriend at my sister’s upcoming wedding. Only, I didn’t expect him to say yes. Playing pretend shouldn’t feel this real. Especially when Reeve is planning on leaving Vermont after the summer. We agreed to one night. We negotiated a fake relationship. But I’m the one who broke our terms. I wasn’t supposed to fall in love and he was never supposed to be so unforgettable.

"When I can't hear you and see you, I can't want you–and I can't want you anymore." Sasha was the girl next door, and at fifteen I was sure she was my forever. She was my constant, and never let me down. Until she did. She broke me, yet I still found myself longing for her with a debilitating desperation. Then came Taylah. A crazy and chaotic hurricane of beauty and bad decisions, she breathed life back into me. For her, my heart began to beat a new rhythm. She was whimsical, and I was level-headed. We were mismatched in the most perfect of ways. Two women. One decision. Sasha was my first love, but could Taylah be my last?

“If I kiss you, will you run? Because you need to know, Evie. If you plan on running, I plan on catching you.” I knew Evie Wright was special from first time we met. Even with her sad eyes and heartbroken smile, I was attracted to the beauty she so desperately tried to hide. Emotionally battered and bruised, Evie had experienced one too many of the hard truths life had to offer. She was drowning in heartache and I wanted to be the one to rescue her. I wanted to shower her in love and warmth and show her we could have brighter days. But she was too scared. Scared to move forward. Scared to move on. And I was scared of losing her. Together, Evie and I were more than special. We were worth the fight, and worth the fall. I told myself I would give her time and space, but instead, I think I just made it easier for her to walk away. This book was previously titled Devastate.

From USA Today Bestselling Author, Marley Valentine comes a brand new emotional, second chance, gay romance. Two halves of a whole, Arlo Bishop and I were both unwanted kids brought together by the foster system. Dealing with the aftermath of neglect and abandonment, we grew up side by side and found solace in one another. We wanted. We needed. We loved. Desperately. But somewhere along the way, Arlo wanted and needed and loved drugs more. So, I did the only thing I could and broke my own heart to save his. Now, four years later, I’m back in L.A. and face-to-face with my past. Not only does the pain and hurt of our mistakes linger between us, but so do our feelings. I didn’t plan on a second chance, fear of history repeating itself making it hard to forgive and even harder to forget. But with only one touch, one kiss, I was taken back to where it all started. Two halves of a whole, Arlo Bishop and I were made for each other. But we were no longer the unwanted foster kids. We were grown men. And I wanted nothing more than him. UNWANTED is book one in a brand new, emotional LGBTQ+ series that follows a group of foster siblings, who are banded together by their pasts. Each book can be read as a COMPLETE standaone.

"Even if he doesn't want to be with me, he will always be one of the best things to ever happen to me." We weren’t just young, we were stupid and reckless. He was the beginning of every bad decision I made, the enemy of everyone I’d ever loved. I was a pawn in his game. A prize to be claimed, and a trophy to be flaunted. Now we’re two adults with crooked pasts, trying to straighten out our future. His heart belongs to his daughter, while mine is too tattered to give away. Neither of us believe in happily ever after. Not after everything we’ve been through. So, why are we desperately trying to chase ours?

“Even though I don’t deserve her—not now, not ever—I can’t see myself letting her go.” Beyond these prison walls an entire life waits. A daughter I barely know. A twin brother I miss. A lifetime of penance to be paid. But regret consumes me, and what-if’s haunt me. How do you forgive the irreversible errors of a boy, trying too hard to be a man? Emerson Lane. She’s my how. Warm. Passionate. Unexpected. She’s everything good in this world. She makes me feel dangerous things. Hopeful things. Redemption isn’t something I thought I’d ever find. Until the keeper of my second chance found me.

If someone asked me to describe our love story, I would only need to use two words. Before and After. • • • • When I met Leonardo Ricci, he was determined I would only be a fling, while I was certain he was my forever. Seven years later, we're the perfect couple. Happy, married, and in love-in sickness and health, till death do us part. At least until the unthinkable happens. Now we can't look at each other. We don't sleep in the same bed. We can't even be in the same room. The loss is too great and the pain runs too deep. But this man is the love of my life. I convinced him once, and I would be damned if I couldn't do it again. I would be damned if I couldn't fix what we broke. *please check out marleyvbooks dot com for content warnings related to this book*

Raising my sister's autistic son was an unexpected plot twist in my own life. But I loved every minute of it. Even if those minutes meant everything ran on a rigid schedule with little time for anything else. I lived my life for software developer by day, bartender by night. He’d want for nothing. And I had no time to want anything. But lately it’s getting harder to do it all on my own. Enter Will. My boss’s son. He’s here to help me with Miller. But somehow he’s helping me realize maybe the life I’d envisioned, the life I thought I’d being do alone, can be different. And he’s not only giving me the extra time I needed for Miller’s care and work and life. But he’s giving me back that time to want. And he’s making me want him. Making me want more.

Hard. Painful. Tragic. This is what my life has become - purgatory. Floating in the middle of what could’ve been and what’s never going to happen. My past dictates my future. Every step forward, guarantees ten steps back. Regret entwined with an addiction to bad decisions, living in the moment, and neglecting the consequences has become a way of life. Ignoring all the warning signs, I didn't see him coming. He was supposed to be a distraction, a bit of fun amidst all my chaos. But Elliot Ramzy turned out to be all that, and so much more. *Deviate is a spin off novel and can be read as a complete standalone. The characters in this book are originally featured in Devastate*