In the cult classic novel Bunny, Samatha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracized and then seduced by a clique of creepy-sweet rich girls who call themselves “Bunny.” An invitation to the Bunnies’ Smut Salon leads Samantha down a dark rabbit hole (pun intended) into the violently surreal world of their off-campus workshops where monstrous creations are conjured with deadly and wondrous consequences. When We Love You, Bunny opens, Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story. One by one, they take turns holding the axe, and recount the birth throes of their unholy alliance, their discovery of their unusual creative powers—and the phantasmagoric adventure of conjuring their first creation. With a bound and gagged Sam, we embark on a wickedly intoxicating journey into the heart of dark academia: a fairy tale slasher that explores the wonder and horror of creation itself. Not to mention the transformative powers of love and friendship, Bunny. Frankenstein by way of Heathers, We Love You, Bunny is both a prequel and a sequel, and an unabashedly wild and totally complete stand-alone novel. Open your hearts, Bunny, to another dazzlingly original and darkly hilarious romp in the Bunny-verse from the queen of the fever-dream, Mona Awad.

The Bachelor meets cozy romantasy as a dressmaker is forced into a competition to marry the high prince—who also happens to be her best friend. All Cerriwen Morgane wants is to live a quiet life caring for her anxious father. That’s hard when they run a dress shop right next to a sentient castle that always seems to be under attack. Still, she tries to shield her father from all the stress. Until the castle invokes a series of trials for the next queen—and chooses Ceri as one of the contestants. Now Ceri is forced to compete against six other women to become Cillian Wolfgang’s wife. She has no desire to marry the playboy prince, not when they’ve been best friends since childhood. Then there’s the fact that her father’s anxiety will be at an all-time high. Despite her attempts to lose, the castle keeps sending Ceri to the next round. Worse, the more romantic dates and intimate challenges she’s forced on with Cillian, the attraction they’ve refused to acknowledge becomes harder to ignore. When the lines of their friendship are blurred, neither are prepared for the consequences. Especially when the castle’s true motivations for the competition are revealed, putting their feelings, their friendship, their futures, at risk. This Prince Is Not Charming is a standalone cozy, spicy romantasy with magical trials, a marriage competition, friends-to-lovers romance, and a matchmaking castle.

Fate bends to no one except the cursed.Official blurb coming soon!Tortured Souls is book one of two in dark fantasy romance series. It will end in a cliffhanger. As always, your mental health and boundaries matter. It is highly recommended you check the Content Information for the triggers, tags, and tropes for this series before diving in. They can be found on Melissa's website or at the back of the back.

When you can’t beat the odds, change the game. Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets—a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the world as they know it.

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal mastermind Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly job that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone... A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

Have you ever seen something that wasn’t really there? Heard someone call your name in an empty house? Sensed someone following you and turned around to find nothing? Hallucinations don’t belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness, or injury. People with migraines may see shimmering arcs of light or tiny, Lilliputian figures of animals and people. People with failing eyesight, paradoxically, may become immersed in a hallucinatory visual world. Hallucinations can be brought on by a simple fever or even the act of waking or falling asleep, when people have visions ranging from luminous blobs of color to beautifully detailed faces or terrifying ogres. Those who are bereaved may receive comforting “visits” from the departed. In some conditions, hallucinations can lead to religious epiphanies or even the feeling of leaving one’s own body. Humans have always sought such life-changing visions, and for thousands of years have used hallucinogenic compounds to achieve them. As a young doctor in California in the 1960s, Oliver Sacks had both a personal and a professional interest in psychedelics. These, along with his early migraine experiences, launched a lifelong investigation into the varieties of hallucinatory experience. Here, with his usual elegance, curiosity, and compassion, Dr. Sacks weaves together stories of his patients and of his own mind-altering experiences to illuminate what hallucinations tell us about the organization and structure of our brains, how they have influenced every culture’s folklore and art, and why the potential for hallucination is present in us all, a vital part of the human condition. 

Enter a world ruled by dragons… Anahrod lives only for survival, preferring to thrive in the jungles of the Deep with the titan drake she keeps by her side. When an adventuring party saves her from capture by the local warlord, Sicaryon, she is eager to return to her solitary life, but this is no ordinary rescue. Anahrod's past has caught up with her. And these cunning misfits intend to spirit her away to the cloud cities, where they need her help to steal from a dragon’s hoard. There’s only one in the cloud cities, dragons rule, and the hoard in question belongs to the current regent, Neveranimas―and she wants Anahrod dead. Enjoy this page-turning adventure with conniving dragons, high-stakes intrigue, a daring heist, and a little bit of heat.

A woman on the run. A crew of Viking mercenaries. A forbidden romance. And the secret which threatens them all. Silla Nordvig is running for her life. The queen of Íseldur has sent warriors to bring Silla to Sunnavík, where death awaits her. When her father is killed, his last words set Silla on a perilous quest: travel the treacherous Road of Bones–a thousand-mile stretch haunted by warbands, creatures of darkness, and a mysterious murderer–and go to Kopa, where a shield-house awaits her. After barely surviving the first stretch of road, a desperate Silla sneaks into a supply wagon belonging to the notorious Bloodaxe Crew. To make it to Kopa, she must win over Axe Eyes, the brooding leader of the Crew, while avoiding the Wolf, his distractingly handsome right-hand man. But the queen’s ruthless assassin has other plans and hunts Silla obsessively. Will Silla make it safely to Kopa? Or will she fall prey to the perils of the Road of Bones? Featuring an immersive world blending fairy tale with Vikings, The Road of Bones leads you on an adrenaline-fueled chase with fun banter and a slow-building enemies to lovers romance. The first book in the Ashen Series, you are one click away from reading it!

Good princesses never do wicked things… Sariah is the perfect Aethrolian princess: pious, pure, and obedient. She prays to her goddess, keeps herself chaste, and above all, despises the heathen fae. The Claiming is supposed to be a formality—a two-hundred-year-old tradition that allows the fae king to choose a human bride. Thankfully, he never has. And once he rejects Sariah, she can fulfill her dreams of joining the priestesshood. But then the unthinkable happens. King Amriel chooses her. Desperate to escape him, Sariah accepts the king’s alternative to marriage: run the deadly Wildwood, break his curse, and earn her freedom. It should be simple—survive his maze, go home, forget the fae ever existed. Except the king’s monstrous, beautiful brother is hunting her through the forest. And the deeper Sariah ventures, the more her beliefs begin to crumble. The fae are awakening something inside her, something she was taught to suppress. As the Wildwood closes in, Sariah must choose: break the curse and return to a life of devotion…or surrender to a desire that could be her ruin. The Immortal Hunters series is a collection of dark romantasy standalones—each novel can be read in any order, but once the hunt begins, it won’t stop.

Ravens and Romantics is a collection of contrasts, a poetic exploration of shadow and light, heartbreak and hope, solitude and connection. It blends timeless, vintage echoes of love and darkness with the raw, contemporary realities of modern life, creating a space where timelessness and the present coexist. In Ravens, the poems explore the darker corners of the human experience, where loss, sorrow, and pain take flight. In Romantics, the poems celebrate love, beauty, and strength, reminding us that light shines brightest against the dark. Together, these poems reflect the complexity of being human, the coexistence of darkness and tenderness, and the promise of light even in our most haunting moments. “Shades of Romance” – Seventh Place, Single Poem Category, Annual Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards- 2026