life before legend marie lu

I'm Isa Borgia, the daughter of the most powerful Don in Corvina. My father worries I'll marry the wrong man on a whim, so he arranges for me to be engaged to Luca, the rising heir of the Marino family. It's an arranged marriage, but that doesn't mean I've lost all my say. The very least I can do is choose a ring I genuinely like. So, I go to the mafia auction. When the diamond ring appears as the final jewel of the night, I lift my paddle. Just before the gavel falls, an arrogant voice comes from behind me. "A country bumpkin like you thinks you can compete with me? Do yourself a favor and leave." The auction hall goes quiet for a few seconds. The only sound comes from the camera shutters clicking around the hall. I turn and see a woman in a gold couture gown. Her mouth curves in a casual smile, as if she owns the place. Before I can say a word, the auctioneer rushes to close the bid.
"Sold! Congratulations to Ms. Sofia Lopez for winning the final lot, the Eternal Star!" My brows pull tight, and a hot spike of anger rises in my chest. "You ended the bidding early! Do you even follow the rules here?" Sofia turns around and gives me a once-over, her gaze sharp as a blade. 
"Rules?" She lets out a cold laugh. "Come on. I'm Luca Marino's favorite godsister. Around here, I make the rules!" I can't help but laugh. What a coincidence. So, she's my fiance's godsister. I pull out my phone and call him. "Luca, your godsister just snatched the engagement ring I picked out. How are you going to handle this?"

Shea had been pressured by her mother to marry her mom's best friend's son. After getting the marriage certificate, she had hardly seen her husband's face before he left. It didn't matter. They had the marriage certificate anyway, and her husband was really that important to her. Soon after, she received a notification about starting her job as a bodyguard in the security department of Lowe Group. Great, she had gotten married, and she even had a job lined up. Shea went to work happily. A year later, when Yancy, the CEO of Lowe Group, returned, Shea had become the CEO's personal bodyguard. Wait a minute! This guy looked familiar. Why did he look like her husband?

While the criminal was brutally killing me, my dad, the head of the criminal investigation division, and my mom, the chief forensic pathologist, were attending my sister Lily Lambert’s match. In a bid for revenge, the criminal, who had once been captured by my dad, cut out my tongue and used my phone to call him. My dad only said one thing before hanging up. "No matter what’s going on, Lily’s match is the top priority today!" The criminal sneered, "Seems I’ve kidnapped the wrong person. I thought they would love their biological daughter more!" At the crime scene, my parents were shocked by the brutal state of the body and condemned the cruelty of the killer. However, they did not realize that the horrifically mutilated corpse was their own daughter.

Overnight, every human being on earth shrinks to the size of a thumbnail. Civilization doesn't so much collapse as become irrelevant. The familiar world is now a jungle of furniture legs and household insects, and survival is a matter of minutes. College student Mason Reid barely makes it through the first day before something inside him unlocks—a system that lets him evolve by consuming living matter, growing stronger with every creature he defeats, and absorbing the abilities of fallen awakeners.He finds an unlikely partner in Evelyn Yates, composed on the surface, fierce underneath. Together, they navigate a miniaturized world full of mutated beasts, corrupted survivors, and a cult that has decided the catastrophe is the birth of something holy. The deeper they push, the clearer it becomes: scattered across this shrunken world are alien crystal cores, and they may be the only way to reverse everything.

Vivian Harrington gave everything—her trust, her mother's shares, even her heart—to her charming boyfriend Nathan Ellis. But the moment she signed those papers, Nathan, his father Gideon, her scheming stepmother Monica, and her jealous stepsister Serena betrayed her... and sent her to her death. When she opened her eyes again, she was back—reborn, right before the betrayal. This time, she knows who her enemies are. And she knows who truly loved her. Adrian Chandler—the dangerous underworld king who once avenged her and died for her. He may not believe her love now, but Vivian swears she'll make him hers, even if she has to burn the whole world to do it.

While the criminal was brutally killing me, my dad, the head of the criminal investigation division, and my mom, the chief forensic pathologist, were attending my sister Lily Lambert’s match. In a bid for revenge, the criminal, who had once been captured by my dad, cut out my tongue and used my phone to call him. My dad only said one thing before hanging up. "No matter what’s going on, Lily’s match is the top priority today!" The criminal sneered, "Seems I’ve kidnapped the wrong person. I thought they would love their biological daughter more!" At the crime scene, my parents were shocked by the brutal state of the body and condemned the cruelty of the killer. However, they did not realize that the horrifically mutilated corpse was their own daughter.

In the 1990s, Trenton Zoller, the director of Windi Factory, was suddenly diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Feeling disheartened by his wife Madelyn's cold violence, Trenton refused the doctor's proposed treatment plan and decided to conceal his illness. He resolved to help the factory undergo reorganizing before losing all memory, ensuring the workers would not lose their jobs. Eventually, he planned to pass away with dignity once his memory faded completely. Misunderstood by his wife and the factory workers, Trenton had to sadly depart as his factory reorganization plan was misconstrued. Madelyn, upon learning the truth, was consumed with remorse, left only with Trenton's ashes. A decade passed in the blink of an eye, until one day Madelyn saw a person in the newspaper who bore an uncanny resemblance to Trenton Zoller...

Everyone in the Lake clan writes off young Tyler Lake as a cultivationless dead weight, until the day he coolly dissects a monster's weakness in an instant, saving his sister Tania Lake mid-trial. As the family tears itself apart fighting over their late father's sacred Mythic Relic, the rival Baker family seizes the chaos to ally with demon forces and launch an invasion.Cornered, Tyler reveals what he truly is—the reincarnation of the Ghost King aka Andrew West, one of the most fearsome beings the ancient world ever produced. He rallies the human Ghost-Tamers, forges an alliance with the Twin Reapers, and dismantles a conspiracy centuries in the making. When the dust settles, he ascends to the Hell  Realm. But even as he destroys the villains before him, something darker stirs just beyond the edge of sight.

If you refuse to apologize, stay here and reflect on your actions! Feel the pain Agnes went through!" Kenneth was the Alpha. His childhood friend was accidentally locked in a storage unit for three days. To punish me, he locked me in a faulty walk-in freezer. He left me with nothing but a piece of bread the size of my palm before locking the door and leaving.Unbeknownst to him, this walk-in freezer wasn't actually faulty. Not long after he left, the cooling system was suddenly activated. I screamed for help and desperately sought ways to survive. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I clawed at the door, nobody came to my rescue. A week later, he finally showed up outside the freezer. He was expecting an apology from me. But when he opened the freezer's door, all he found was my frozen corpse.

Overnight, every human being on earth shrinks to the size of a thumbnail. Civilization doesn't so much collapse as become irrelevant. The familiar world is now a jungle of furniture legs and household insects, and survival is a matter of minutes. College student Mason Reid barely makes it through the first day before something inside him unlocks—a system that lets him evolve by consuming living matter, growing stronger with every creature he defeats, and absorbing the abilities of fallen awakeners.He finds an unlikely partner in Evelyn Yates, composed on the surface, fierce underneath. Together, they navigate a miniaturized world full of mutated beasts, corrupted survivors, and a cult that has decided the catastrophe is the birth of something holy. The deeper they push, the clearer it becomes: scattered across this shrunken world are alien crystal cores, and they may be the only way to reverse everything.

Everyone in the Lake clan writes off young Tyler Lake as a cultivationless dead weight, until the day he coolly dissects a monster's weakness in an instant, saving his sister Tania Lake mid-trial. As the family tears itself apart fighting over their late father's sacred Mythic Relic, the rival Baker family seizes the chaos to ally with demon forces and launch an invasion.Cornered, Tyler reveals what he truly is—the reincarnation of the Ghost King aka Andrew West, one of the most fearsome beings the ancient world ever produced. He rallies the human Ghost-Tamers, forges an alliance with the Twin Reapers, and dismantles a conspiracy centuries in the making. When the dust settles, he ascends to the Hell  Realm. But even as he destroys the villains before him, something darker stirs just beyond the edge of sight.

In his past life, Harrison Cowan abandoned his own daughter for a widow, raising her two sons instead. In his old age, when he fell ill, his adopted sons refused to even pay a mere hundred thousand for his surgery.Given a second chance at life, Harrison is determined to make amends. No longer willing to play the role of a stepfather, he vows to work hard, make money, and devote his life to raising his biological daughter, living only for her from now on!

In his past life, Harrison Cowan abandoned his own daughter for a widow, raising her two sons instead. In his old age, when he fell ill, his adopted sons refused to even pay a mere hundred thousand for his surgery. Given a second chance at life, Harrison is determined to make amends. No longer willing to play the role of a stepfather, he vows to work hard, make money, and devote his life to raising his biological daughter, living only for her from now on!

In her previous life, Aurora was tormented by her family to death. Now, returned to life ten years prior, she embarks on a ruthless journey to send her cruel adopted sister to prison and make her family beg for forgiveness.

Corporate slave Lucienne Farrell transmigrates into a matriarchal world where men are subservient, becoming the vicious Second Princess notorious for abusing her four beast husbands. She wakes to find herself broke, despised by four top-tier males, and constantly sabotaged by her elder sister, First Princess Henrieta Farrell. But after awakening the “Godly System,” Lucienne uses her modern-world savvy to turn everything around. She rescues the gravely injured Commander Cecil Windsor of the Wolfdog Legion, wins his loyalty with ten million in cash, and uses an S-rank Spirit Calming Technique to tame the berserk General Xavier Hampton before a massive crowd, proving to the empire that she’s no longer an F-rank failure, but a future queen who controls everything. This is a game of money, power, and emotion. When the elite men who once despised her begin competing for her favor, how will she choose?

Clare was the woman Axel begged and coaxed for—writing 99 love letters—before finally winning her hand in marriage. By their fifth year,however, Axel grew restless and began spending time with a young nurse. The girl, Emma, came from a poor family yet carried herself with quiet pride. When she firmly rejected the black card Axel offered,declaring she would never be anyone's kept woman, he became obsessed. Axel started appearing around Emma more and more,drawing the attention of all their friends, while briefly forgetting the wife he had once courted with 99 heartfelt letters. Clare neither cried nor argued. Instead, each time Axel broke her heart, she burned one of those letters. And when the last of the 99 was reduced to ashes, it would mark the day she left him for good.

In her past life, Nancy Yale was betrayed, stripped of her family fortune, and brutally murdered by her scumbag husband, Zack Gomez, and his mistress. Given a second chance at life, she swiftly marries Liam Swift, the wealthiest man in Riverton, and publicly humiliates her deceitful ex. To save her father's company, Nancy must fulfill a high-stakes business agreement within six months. With Liam's support, she triumphs over her adversaries, eventually building a life together and raising a beautiful family with him.

In her past life, Nancy Yale was betrayed, stripped of her family fortune, and brutally murdered by her scumbag husband, Zack Gomez, and his mistress. Given a second chance at life, she swiftly marries Liam Swift, the wealthiest man in Riverton, and publicly humiliates her deceitful ex. To save her father's company, Nancy must fulfill a high-stakes business agreement within six months. With Liam's support, she triumphs over her adversaries, eventually building a life together and raising a beautiful family with him.