

Anne Cooke is about to get married when she discovers her fiance has been cheating. With her mother gravely ill and five years of love too heavy to just drop, she swallows it, until the sleeplessness becomes unbearable and she wanders into a traditional medicine clinic. There she meets James Young,and something shifts. On impulse she propositions him. Just one night. What she doesn't know is that James already knows exactly who she is, and has quietly decided to help her find her way back to herself. Through carefully prescribed remedies and steadier conversations, he walks beside her as she slowly remembers she has a spine. On her wedding day, she exposes her fiance in front of everyone and walks away with her head up. By then the feelings between Anne and James have long stopped being subtle, and the revelation that he comes from money and that his mother once knew hers feels less like a plot twist and more like something that was always going to happen. He proposes in the same clinic where they first met.

Leonard Miller nearly dies a dozen times completing every level of a mysterious game in closed beta. The moment he returns to the real world, the game goes live.On Earth, for everyone, whether they signed up or not. Dragged back in against his will, Leonard has one edge no other player does: he's already been through all of it. Armed with maxed-out attributes and complete knowledge of every trap and pattern, he tears through the stages, protects the people he loves, builds alliances, and slowly pieces together a chilling truth that a higher civilization has been using Earth as a playground. He intends to shut it down permanently.