something rotten jasper fforde

It was only supposed to be a three-month trial marriage, a formality between two powerful families. But the heiress stepping through the door is no pampered socialite: she's a master hacker, a sharp businesswoman, and the keeper of a rare ancestral healing art. Esme Burke endures every test Caden Howard's family throws at her and throws every one right back.Along the way, she quietly saves her "husband's" life, and he slowly realizes she's "Lolly", the girl who lit up his childhood.What began as a contractual arrangement dissolves into something achingly real, and the two grandfathers' little scheme turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to either of them.

In Havenport, Xavier Shane has always been untouchable, shielded by his lawyer wife Zoey Gold, his fighter childhood friend Sarah Penn, and his brilliant younger sister Lydia Shane. But on his 29th birthday, his world shatters when Lydia is brutally assaulted in a dark alley and dies. The real blow comes in court, when Zoey stands for the killer, and Sarah forces Xavier to sign a settlement.Betrayed by the two women he trusted most, Xavier turns to the last thing his grandmother left him—a music box with a mysterious number. The moment he makes that call, the pampered prince starts to become something far more dangerous.

Luke Shaw walks out of prison framed by his own brother and stumbles into something inexplicable, an ancestral bronze mirror that connects him across nine centuries to Wendy Cole, a young woman surviving alone in the Ascon Era. They make a deal. Luke sends modern goods and business strategies through the mirror, helping Wendy clear her father's wrongful conviction and build a commercial empire from nothing. She sends back Ascon antiques, giving Luke the capital and leverage he needs to dismantle his brother's power piece by piece. Two people wronged by their own families, separated by a thousand years, building each other's revenge one transaction at a time.

Luke Shaw walks out of prison framed by his own brother and stumbles into something inexplicable, an ancestral bronze mirror that connects him across nine centuries to Wendy Cole, a young woman surviving alone in the Ascon Era. They make a deal. Luke sends modern goods and business strategies through the mirror, helping Wendy clear her father's wrongful conviction and build a commercial empire from nothing. She sends back Ascon antiques, giving Luke the capital and leverage he needs to dismantle his brother's power piece by piece. Two people wronged by their own families, separated by a thousand years, building each other's revenge one transaction at a time.

Luna Ashford is a sharp modern forensic scientist who wakes up one day as the princess consort of the seventh prince of the Solmire Empire—wife to Jothan Barnett, a prince the entire court whispers about:brutal, cursed, a man who buries his wives. Her system gives her a clean exit: earn enough intimacy with Jothan and solve the wrongful case shadowing his past, and she goes home. Simple enough. Except the monster the rumors promised turns out to be something else entirely, and the case runs deeper and darker than any file she's ever worked. She came to investigate a prince. She didn't plan to understand him.

John Brooke has spent years doing construction work to put his girlfriend through school. The day she finally graduates, he shows up with a ring.She shows up with news that she's marrying his best friend. The whole humiliating scene plays out right in front of Luna Taylor, CEO of Taylor Group, who happens to be passing by. She sees in John something she rarely encounters— genuine goodness. On impulse, Luna proposes. He says yes. John's ex watches the man she discarded walk into a life she couldn't have imagined for him and realizes too late exactly what she threw away.

David Ashcroft has spent his life training on Tempest Peak under a master who turns out to have one very specific weakness: he needs three million for renovations and isn't above bending the truth to get it. Conned off the mountain and broke, David answers what looks like a generous job listing and finds himself face to face with Aria Blackwood, a CEO who has just invented something powerful enough that foreign interests have put a bounty on her head. David neutralises the first assassination attempt almost by accident. He's hired on the spot. When a rival moves in under the pretense of romance to steal her technology, David dismantles the scheme in public.The rival is not gracious about it.

When cold-hearted mayoral candidate Megan Ford's perfect image crumbles on live TV, she makes a desperate deal with charming callboy Max Wood - fake fiancé for hire. One hundred thousand dollars to play the role of devoted husband and save her political career. What starts as a cynical contract becomes a media circus of press conferences, scandals, and a fake wedding orchestrated by her ruthless campaign manager. But between the cameras and chaos, something real begins to spark between the ice queen politician and the carefree escort. Now with her past lies exposed and election day approaching, Megan must choose: stick to her perfectly controlled image or risk everything for the one person who made her feel human again.

An accident leads to Priscilla Hilton becoming pregnant with a CEO Samuel Walker’s child. Years later, through a twist of fate, she enters a flash marriage with Samuel while bringing her son along. What was supposed to be just another business deal turns into something completely unexpected.Samuel's family falls head over heels for her.His mother dotes on her like her own daughter, his father showers her with gifts, and his sister becomes her biggest supporter.They spoil both Priscilla and her little boy beyond belief. She keeps reminding herself this is all temporary, just until the contract ends. But when the truth finally comes out, she discovers she might actually be the real deal after all.

John Brooke has spent years doing construction work to put his girlfriend through school. The day she finally graduates, he shows up with a ring.She shows up with news that she's marrying his best friend. The whole humiliating scene plays out right in front of Luna Taylor, CEO of Taylor Group, who happens to be passing by. She sees in John something she rarely encounters— genuine goodness. On impulse, Luna proposes. He says yes. John's ex watches the man she discarded walk into a life she couldn't have imagined for him and realizes too late exactly what she threw away.

At a lavish banquet in Metrovale, billionaire Ethan proudly introduces his new wife from the countryside: "My wife is gentle and soft-spoken—she's new here and not familiar with all your city games. Please look after her."But the guests know better. This "gentle" woman, Roxelle, once single-handedly took down an entire gang—ten men, no problem. Ethan insists she's "innocent and romantic,"while global business tycoons are secretly begging for her cooperation after her groundbreaking research shook the world economy. What began as a marriage of convenience slowly turns into something real. Until one shocking revelation changes everything—Ethan's beloved daughter… is actually Roxelle's own child.

Elian Bruce is young, ambitious, and utterly devoted. Kaylan Bell is his entire world. They study side by side, build a business from nothing,dream of forever. He promises to marry her and love her for life. She vows to never leave his side.But ten years change people.Ten years turn promises into weapons. Ten years transform love into the sharpest blade.Now the devotion curdles into something unrecognizable. The man who once held her like she's precious now wields that same closeness like a knife. And Kaylan faces the most painful question:when your greatest love becomes your deepest wound,who bleeds more—the one who wields the blade, or the one who once forged it? Some loves don't die.They just learn to cut deeper.

Elian Bruce is young, ambitious, and utterly devoted. Kaylan Bell is his entire world. They study side by side, build a business from nothing,dream of forever. He promises to marry her and love her for life. She vows to never leave his side.But ten years change people.Ten years turn promises into weapons. Ten years transform love into the sharpest blade.Now the devotion curdles into something unrecognizable. The man who once held her like she's precious now wields that same closeness like a knife. And Kaylan faces the most painful question:when your greatest love becomes your deepest wound,who bleeds more—the one who wields the blade, or the one who once forged it? Some loves don't die.They just learn to cut deeper.

Elite lawyer Kylin Taylor walks into a cafe and finds her fiance Zane Walker attending tenderly to his mistress. She doesn't make a scene. That night, she slides a condom into a legal contract and hands it to Zane's closest friend, David Evans, Eryland's most talked-about playboy. "Hotel tonight? It's on me." What begins as cold, surgical revenge becomes something stranger: she uses David to deliver Zane a humiliation; David plays along with every sign of enjoying himself.But as the game deepens, he drops the act entirely and and starts betting everything he has on her instead of the thrill. Kylin realizes, with a jolt, that she never had control of this board to begin with. Someone laid these pieces into position ten years ago, and it wasn't her.

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.

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.

The zombie apocalypse breaks out, and Frank Parker dies in betrayal. Fate grants him a second chance. This time, he wakes bound to the Maid Collection System, a power that lets him recruit and form deep bonds with exceptional women who become the core of everything he builds. He assembles his people, establishes a fortified base, and takes his revenge on those who sold him out, rising from the absolute bottom toward something that looks increasingly like kingship. A lightning ability and a mech suit keep him alive in the field; genuine bonds of loyalty keep the base alive from within. As a catastrophic tide of the dead and a hidden orchestrator both close in at once, Frank leads his growing legion toward a throne over whatever world comes next.

Cast out by his own family as useless, Justin Lowe opens a supermarket in the apocalypse and staffs it entirely with S-rank anomalies. His monsters clock in, follow orders, and keep the shelves stocked while human survivors trade hexcoins for goods that shouldn't exist: prehistoric snacks, high-tech weapons, supplies from no known supply chain. Each transaction upgrades the store. Each upgrade unlocks something stranger. The anomalies are terrifying everywhere except inside Justin's shop, where they are, inexplicably, perfectly obedient. Dragged repeatedly into the power struggles and crises of the survivor world, he navigates each one with wit and nerve rather than force. In the end, it isn't a weapon or an army that defeats the cosmic evil bearing down on what's left of humanity. It's a commercial contract, and the man who signs it becomes the world's last savior.