Ashes to Empire

When childhood best friends become bitter enemies, only danger can force them back together—but can love survive when everything they've built is a lie?
Luna Alvarez and Oliver Cohen were inseparable as children—until their fathers' explosive partnership collapse tore them apart and turned their families into sworn enemies. Now, as rival CEOs of competing New York publishing houses, they've spent years avoiding each other, nursing old wounds, and protecting the legacies their fathers left behind.
But when a series of cryptic threats escalates into full-scale corporate sabotage, Luna and Oliver are forced into an uneasy alliance. Someone is systematically destroying both their companies—leaking manuscripts, breaching servers, intercepting shipments—and the attacks are too coordinated, too personal to be coincidence. As danger closes in and attempts on their lives become terrifyingly real, they must confront an impossible truth: the person hunting them knows their families' darkest secrets. Secrets their fathers died protecting.
Trapped together in safe houses and forced to trust the one person they swore never to forgive, Luna and Oliver rediscover the connection that once defined them. But their rekindled passion is threatened by devastating revelations about corruption, betrayal, and the sins their fathers committed to build their empires. When the mastermind behind the attacks is finally unmasked, Luna and Oliver face an agonizing choice: protect their fathers' legacies, or expose the truth and risk losing everything—including each other.
As layers of deception peel away and new threats emerge from the shadows, they discover that some enemies are closer than they ever imagined, and some truths are more dangerous than any lie.
Ashes to Empire is a pulse-pounding romantic thriller that explores the collision of love and loyalty, ambition and integrity, vengeance and redemption. Set against the cutthroat backdrop of New York City's publishing industry, this enemies-to-lovers second chance romance delivers high-stakes suspense, emotional depth, and the kind of chemistry that burns through every page. Perfect for readers who crave corporate intrigue, family drama, and the question of whether love can survive when built on the ruins of betrayal.
Can two people haunted by their fathers' sins build something true? Or will the weight of legacy destroy their second chance at love?
A standalone contemporary romance with mystery, suspense, and a guaranteed happily ever after.
Content Warning: Contains themes of grief, corporate corruption, violence (including kidnapping and physical threats), and adult romantic content.