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1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Thirty-One
Provoke by Rachel Van Dyken
The music industry called me a savant at age sixteen when I uploaded my first video and gained instant fame. And then Drew Amherst of Adrenaline became my mentor, and my career took off.
And then tragedy struck, and I wondered if I’d ever be able to perform again. I fought back, but all it took was a falling light to bring it all back to the fore. So, I walked away. Because I knew it wasn’t just stage fright. It was so much more.
Enter Piper Rayne, life coach, with her bullshit about empowerment, rainbows, and butterflies. She smiles all the damn time, and I'm ninety-nine percent sure there’s not a problem she can’t solve.
Until me.
Rafe by Sawyer Bennett
As the second line center for the Arizona Vengeance, my mind has been on one thing—helping my team bring home a championship. But that all changed when I found out my dad had cancer and only months to live. In that moment, nothing mattered more than getting home to North Carolina to be by his side.
Now I’m home and in the midst of my grief, I find comfort from the one person I never expected. Calliope Ramirez stole my heart at a very young age. The beautiful, smart, headstrong girl next door, she was my first...everything. She has never forgiven me for leaving her, believing that I chose hockey over a future together. What she doesn’t understand is that every decision I made was for her, and I’ve never given up hope that one day we’d be together again.
The Naughty Princess by Claire Contreras
Princess Pilar is sick of the spotlight and being seen as the uptight goody-too-shoes the media has cast her to be. She’s especially tired of the fact that her brothers are allowed to run off and do whatever they want while she sits inside watching the world pass her by. That’s why she decides to quietly pack her things and travel to the one place her parents have always forbidden her to step foot on—Ibiza.
As the star of the French premiere fútball league, Benjamin Drake has it all—the money, the cars, the clothing contracts, and any woman he wants. Problem is, the only woman Ben has ever wanted badly enough to stop partying is Princess Pilar, the one he can never, ever have.
The Graveyard Shift by Darynda Jones
Garrett Swopes was the ultimate skeptic until he met a certain hellion and her husband. They vanished after stopping a catastrophic event and left him, a mere mortal, in charge of protecting their gift to mankind. But when she disappears as well, he needs the help of another breed of hellion. One who can see past the veil of space and time. One who betrayed him.
Marika Dubois’s son—a warrior in the coming war between heaven and hell—was foreseen long before his birth. But to create a child strong enough to endure the trials that lay ahead, she needed a descendant of powerful magics. She found that in Garrett Swopes and tricked him into fathering her son. A ploy he has never forgiven her for.
The music industry called me a savant at age sixteen when I uploaded my first video and gained instant fame. And then Drew Amherst of Adrenaline became my mentor, and my career took off.
And then tragedy struck, and I wondered if I’d ever be able to perform again. I fought back, but all it took was a falling light to bring it all back to the fore. So, I walked away. Because I knew it wasn’t just stage fright. It was so much more.
Enter Piper Rayne, life coach, with her bullshit about empowerment, rainbows, and butterflies. She smiles all the damn time, and I'm ninety-nine percent sure there’s not a problem she can’t solve.
Until me.
Rafe by Sawyer Bennett
As the second line center for the Arizona Vengeance, my mind has been on one thing—helping my team bring home a championship. But that all changed when I found out my dad had cancer and only months to live. In that moment, nothing mattered more than getting home to North Carolina to be by his side.
Now I’m home and in the midst of my grief, I find comfort from the one person I never expected. Calliope Ramirez stole my heart at a very young age. The beautiful, smart, headstrong girl next door, she was my first...everything. She has never forgiven me for leaving her, believing that I chose hockey over a future together. What she doesn’t understand is that every decision I made was for her, and I’ve never given up hope that one day we’d be together again.
The Naughty Princess by Claire Contreras
Princess Pilar is sick of the spotlight and being seen as the uptight goody-too-shoes the media has cast her to be. She’s especially tired of the fact that her brothers are allowed to run off and do whatever they want while she sits inside watching the world pass her by. That’s why she decides to quietly pack her things and travel to the one place her parents have always forbidden her to step foot on—Ibiza.
As the star of the French premiere fútball league, Benjamin Drake has it all—the money, the cars, the clothing contracts, and any woman he wants. Problem is, the only woman Ben has ever wanted badly enough to stop partying is Princess Pilar, the one he can never, ever have.
The Graveyard Shift by Darynda Jones
Garrett Swopes was the ultimate skeptic until he met a certain hellion and her husband. They vanished after stopping a catastrophic event and left him, a mere mortal, in charge of protecting their gift to mankind. But when she disappears as well, he needs the help of another breed of hellion. One who can see past the veil of space and time. One who betrayed him.
Marika Dubois’s son—a warrior in the coming war between heaven and hell—was foreseen long before his birth. But to create a child strong enough to endure the trials that lay ahead, she needed a descendant of powerful magics. She found that in Garrett Swopes and tricked him into fathering her son. A ploy he has never forgiven her for.
- GenresCollections
560 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 14, 2021
13 people are currently reading
196 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Van Dyken
177 books18.5k followersRachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of mafia and contemporary romances.
Hey guys I'm rarely on Goodreads, if you need to reach me feel free to email!
EMAIL ME: rachelvandykenauthor@gmail.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rachel-...
Hey guys I'm rarely on Goodreads, if you need to reach me feel free to email!
EMAIL ME: rachelvandykenauthor@gmail.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rachel-...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 26, 2023
Provoke by Rachel Van Dyken⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Braden was sixteen when he uploaded his first video, garnering instant fame. Drew Amherst of Adrenaline became his mentor and his career was launched. Five years later, at twenty-four tragedy struck after someone used his concert as a way to make a personal statement by way of violence. The guy who’d caused it, had been in high school, and suffered from some pretty deep psychological issues.
Five people still died, and he was shot in the leg. The music had drowned out the screams of my name, without knowing that people were dying…and then a girl in front of him…fell, blood all over her. He grabbed her and pulled her up onto the stage, and then kept grabbing people, as many people as he could. No one heard.
The killer thought he’d been sending him a message through his music to kill everyone at the concert because he was tired of fame.
It was a song about LOVE❤️.
Piper Rayne at twenty-seven is his new housemate at his beach home and his assigned life coach. She’s there to help him find his focus, identity, so that music isn’t his only passion, until he can see his self-worth, beyond music and make a plan…otherwise you lose your identity when or if you lose the only thing that gives a sense of purpose.
First there was death by paperwork
Then the ribbing from his band mates
Finally a vision board
“Where the hell did she get all this pep? It was like a Starbucks Christmas commercial had exploded in her little body over the last twelve hours. ”
Piper erected a wall, accustomed to clients doing what they were told, then finding a breakthrough and moving on. But with Braden, it was like he wanted her to be a part of it, in a big way. Getting him to realise music can’t be his life! Wanting to do nothing but make music for an eternity, but humans need more than just something they’re passionate about.
Despite Braden’s shaken self-confidence, the outpouring of support allowed him to see that Piper was his beacon of hope.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Rafe An Arizona Vengeance Novella⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
By Sawyer Bennett
An bittersweet second chance… being traded to a new team, Cold Fury and navigating bidding goodbye to a father dying of pancreatic cancer. His father, Jim, and himself haven’t always had an ideal relationship. Growing up, he found him emotionally cold and distant, but he recognises that he needs to be home in North Carolina, supporting his mum, Brenda, and making his father’s last few weeks, bearable.
They grew a little closer after he entered the professional hockey league, but that had more to do with the fact that he was an adult, and thus they had more things in common. Whilst the bond shared with his mother has always been exceptionally close and emotional, his relationship with his father has been more like that of a proud uncle. They’ve never shared an in-depth discussion one might imagine occurring between a father and a son, and he’s never been the one Rafe turned to for guidance and support.
Rafe and Calliope were lifelong friends, now both twenty-six. Their birthdays are only ten days apart. They celebrated all of them together, seeing as they were the best of friends growing up and then way more later.
They spent years as a couple including their sad history when he broke her heart and left her behind for fame and fortune or the version of when he left to pursue his hockey dreams. Rafe has never stopped loving Poppy. He’s learnt the harsh reality eight years later, after he chose to leave behind, the girl he loved to pursue his career.
They were the quintessential couple. Prom king and queen. Most likely to live happily ever after. She sat by his side, when they called with his draft offer to the league. They’d spent so much time talking about what would happen if he ever made it to the professionals. She had doubts, but Rafe...never. He’d straight-out asked, “Poppy, you’re coming with me, right? Wherever I land? Whatever city? You’re coming with me, right?”
“Yes, Rafe. I’ll follow you to the ends of the Earth.”
Until he decided he didn’t want me to follow him at all.
When he changed his mind—disregarding all our future plans—she couldn’t fathom it. Two weeks before he was set to join his new team, he flat-out told her that he didn’t want her to come. Essentially, he didn’t think she would follow her dreams if she were following his.
Calliope, despite their enmity has remained close to his parents, as a medical professional and as an honorary member of the family. Brenda was her second mother growing up. Throughout the years, their bond continued to grow and develop, even as she moved on in her life. Despite the passage of time, Brenda is still her second mum and one of her mother’s closest friends.
Her medical experience and support as they navigate the medical intricacies of end-stage ♋️ cancer proves invaluable.
Maturity and experience heightens their friends with benefits and although protecting her heart may be in her best interests by setting boundaries, Rafe appreciates this example of life being too short.
They’ve been friends for a long time, there was a time they were everything to each other, and then they weren’t. Rafe made a mistake and ended things, believing that he knew what was best for her. People make mistakes, and some deserve forgiveness. Others don’t. It’s remarkable that she can put that aside and be there for him. She’s the best type of friend a person could have. Still, there are things left unsaid such as his wish for a second chance but she’s wary that they can’t be more. Fear holds him back from admitting his feelings, because he realises that she hasn’t forgiven him and thinks he’ll repeat his actions.
For now, he must reconcile any resentment that he’s felt towards his father for not being there for him, the way his mum was, in order for him to transition from this life with peace. Every day, his father slips a little further away, and he’s running out of time, he has so much to talk to him about, but not enough time.
At his father’s bedside:
“Dad, I just want you to know that I love you very much.”
My dad blinked in surprise, and his eyes got emotional and wet.
“I love you, son, I wish we had more time together.”
I took his hand, and it was all the encouragement he needed. His feelings came pouring out in a litany of love, fervent wishes, and wisdom for me to follow throughout my life. He apologised for not being a better dad, and I assured him that he was the best. He advised me to seek love and hold on to it hard, and I told him I was working on it. He knew I meant Calliope, and he merely nodded.
My dad got me to promise to always look after my mom, and even told me that he hoped she’d find love again one day. Finally, he reminded me to live my life with honour, kindness, and integrity. They spoke for forty minutes, a welcome diatribe of parental advice condensed from a dying man to his son. I hope I never forget a word of what he said, or a minute of that time when I sat there holding his hand.
Before he nodded off to sleep, I told him something that I thought was necessary.
“Dad...Mom and I are going to be all right. I don’t want you to worry about us. You need to move on from this life, knowing that we will survive, strong in your memory, and bound by your love. Don’t hang on, Dad. Let go and be at peace.”
And he did.
Rare and Calliope have known each other for a lifetime. Loved each other for years. Made mistakes, fell apart, and found each other again. If there’s anything they’ve learnt is…to never live life on the verge of regret.
They were given a second chance to grow together.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ➖➖
Braden was sixteen when he uploaded his first video, garnering instant fame. Drew Amherst of Adrenaline became his mentor and his career was launched. Five years later, at twenty-four tragedy struck after someone used his concert as a way to make a personal statement by way of violence. The guy who’d caused it, had been in high school, and suffered from some pretty deep psychological issues.
Five people still died, and he was shot in the leg. The music had drowned out the screams of my name, without knowing that people were dying…and then a girl in front of him…fell, blood all over her. He grabbed her and pulled her up onto the stage, and then kept grabbing people, as many people as he could. No one heard.
The killer thought he’d been sending him a message through his music to kill everyone at the concert because he was tired of fame.
It was a song about LOVE❤️.
Piper Rayne at twenty-seven is his new housemate at his beach home and his assigned life coach. She’s there to help him find his focus, identity, so that music isn’t his only passion, until he can see his self-worth, beyond music and make a plan…otherwise you lose your identity when or if you lose the only thing that gives a sense of purpose.
First there was death by paperwork
Then the ribbing from his band mates
Finally a vision board
“Where the hell did she get all this pep? It was like a Starbucks Christmas commercial had exploded in her little body over the last twelve hours. ”
Piper erected a wall, accustomed to clients doing what they were told, then finding a breakthrough and moving on. But with Braden, it was like he wanted her to be a part of it, in a big way. Getting him to realise music can’t be his life! Wanting to do nothing but make music for an eternity, but humans need more than just something they’re passionate about.
Despite Braden’s shaken self-confidence, the outpouring of support allowed him to see that Piper was his beacon of hope.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Rafe An Arizona Vengeance Novella⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
By Sawyer Bennett
An bittersweet second chance… being traded to a new team, Cold Fury and navigating bidding goodbye to a father dying of pancreatic cancer. His father, Jim, and himself haven’t always had an ideal relationship. Growing up, he found him emotionally cold and distant, but he recognises that he needs to be home in North Carolina, supporting his mum, Brenda, and making his father’s last few weeks, bearable.
They grew a little closer after he entered the professional hockey league, but that had more to do with the fact that he was an adult, and thus they had more things in common. Whilst the bond shared with his mother has always been exceptionally close and emotional, his relationship with his father has been more like that of a proud uncle. They’ve never shared an in-depth discussion one might imagine occurring between a father and a son, and he’s never been the one Rafe turned to for guidance and support.
Rafe and Calliope were lifelong friends, now both twenty-six. Their birthdays are only ten days apart. They celebrated all of them together, seeing as they were the best of friends growing up and then way more later.
They spent years as a couple including their sad history when he broke her heart and left her behind for fame and fortune or the version of when he left to pursue his hockey dreams. Rafe has never stopped loving Poppy. He’s learnt the harsh reality eight years later, after he chose to leave behind, the girl he loved to pursue his career.
They were the quintessential couple. Prom king and queen. Most likely to live happily ever after. She sat by his side, when they called with his draft offer to the league. They’d spent so much time talking about what would happen if he ever made it to the professionals. She had doubts, but Rafe...never. He’d straight-out asked, “Poppy, you’re coming with me, right? Wherever I land? Whatever city? You’re coming with me, right?”
“Yes, Rafe. I’ll follow you to the ends of the Earth.”
Until he decided he didn’t want me to follow him at all.
When he changed his mind—disregarding all our future plans—she couldn’t fathom it. Two weeks before he was set to join his new team, he flat-out told her that he didn’t want her to come. Essentially, he didn’t think she would follow her dreams if she were following his.
Calliope, despite their enmity has remained close to his parents, as a medical professional and as an honorary member of the family. Brenda was her second mother growing up. Throughout the years, their bond continued to grow and develop, even as she moved on in her life. Despite the passage of time, Brenda is still her second mum and one of her mother’s closest friends.
Her medical experience and support as they navigate the medical intricacies of end-stage ♋️ cancer proves invaluable.
Maturity and experience heightens their friends with benefits and although protecting her heart may be in her best interests by setting boundaries, Rafe appreciates this example of life being too short.
They’ve been friends for a long time, there was a time they were everything to each other, and then they weren’t. Rafe made a mistake and ended things, believing that he knew what was best for her. People make mistakes, and some deserve forgiveness. Others don’t. It’s remarkable that she can put that aside and be there for him. She’s the best type of friend a person could have. Still, there are things left unsaid such as his wish for a second chance but she’s wary that they can’t be more. Fear holds him back from admitting his feelings, because he realises that she hasn’t forgiven him and thinks he’ll repeat his actions.
For now, he must reconcile any resentment that he’s felt towards his father for not being there for him, the way his mum was, in order for him to transition from this life with peace. Every day, his father slips a little further away, and he’s running out of time, he has so much to talk to him about, but not enough time.
At his father’s bedside:
“Dad, I just want you to know that I love you very much.”
My dad blinked in surprise, and his eyes got emotional and wet.
“I love you, son, I wish we had more time together.”
I took his hand, and it was all the encouragement he needed. His feelings came pouring out in a litany of love, fervent wishes, and wisdom for me to follow throughout my life. He apologised for not being a better dad, and I assured him that he was the best. He advised me to seek love and hold on to it hard, and I told him I was working on it. He knew I meant Calliope, and he merely nodded.
My dad got me to promise to always look after my mom, and even told me that he hoped she’d find love again one day. Finally, he reminded me to live my life with honour, kindness, and integrity. They spoke for forty minutes, a welcome diatribe of parental advice condensed from a dying man to his son. I hope I never forget a word of what he said, or a minute of that time when I sat there holding his hand.
Before he nodded off to sleep, I told him something that I thought was necessary.
“Dad...Mom and I are going to be all right. I don’t want you to worry about us. You need to move on from this life, knowing that we will survive, strong in your memory, and bound by your love. Don’t hang on, Dad. Let go and be at peace.”
And he did.
Rare and Calliope have known each other for a lifetime. Loved each other for years. Made mistakes, fell apart, and found each other again. If there’s anything they’ve learnt is…to never live life on the verge of regret.
They were given a second chance to grow together.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ➖➖
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 27, 2022
The one I wanted most was a repeat
This is not fair. I so looked forward to Darynda Jones part in this book just to find out it's a repeat of 1001 Dark Nights The graveyard shift. And I already bought that. It was terrific and I enjoyed it as much as I did the first time but still...
This is not fair. I so looked forward to Darynda Jones part in this book just to find out it's a repeat of 1001 Dark Nights The graveyard shift. And I already bought that. It was terrific and I enjoyed it as much as I did the first time but still...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews