Best Modern Novels

Trevor Macall rules Dominant High alongside his crew, the Dominanters. Shrouded in mystery and immense wealth, he remains untouchable until the defiant Claudia Jackson arrives. Unimpressed by his power, her stubborn nature sparks a dangerous obsession within him. As Trevor draws her into his world of dark secrets, his possessiveness deepens. Together, they must face rising enemies and buried pasts, proving that when a bad boy falls, he never lets go.

As the sole survivor of a fallen Mafia dynasty, I am Julian Moretti’s drugged captive. After he abandoned me to drown in a frozen lake to save his lover, he forced me into a marriage to solidify his reign. He revived me from a suicide attempt only to parade my sedated body as a trophy. However, Julian underestimated my resolve. I will endure this union to avenge my family and ensure the man who butchered them dies by my hand at the altar.

On her anniversary, a wife discovers her husband, Julian, gifted a sapphire necklace to his stepsister, Seraphina. When confronted, Julian demands she tolerate Seraphina's presence as her new boss. After Seraphina steals her work and Julian forces her silence with shares, the wife catches them together in a car. Realizing he abandoned their wedding night for her, the pregnant protagonist decides to divorce him and vanish with their secret child.

After a decade of marriage, I discovered my husband’s safe opened with my stepsister’s birthday. Inside lay a chilling plan: he intended to strip me of my unborn child and grant his vast fortune to Kaleigh. I was never a wife, only a surrogate for his barren true love. When Kaleigh taunted me and he refused a divorce, calling me a mere incubator, I realized the depth of their lie. To save my baby from their grasp, I must stage my own death.

A woman defined by her own greed faces a chilling legal battle in Trial of a Parasite. After exhausting her parents' savings, abusing her nephew, and extorting her husband's premarital assets, her family finally seeks justice in court. The stakes are lethal; a guilty verdict carries a sentence of unimaginable agony. She risks being flayed alive and having her tendons torn out, enduring systematic torture until death claims her at last in this modern horror story.

Discovering her college roommate was the other woman on the day of her divorce was painful, but seeing her four-year-old son reject her for the mistress broke her completely. Leaving them with everything, she rebuilt her life with an adopted daughter. Yet, two years later, her ex-husband and biological son track her down at her daughter's school. When the boy who once abandoned her begs to call her, she refuses to let them back in.

For ten years, Thelma Pruitt devoted her life to Hudson Farley, the man who sponsored her youth but kept her in the shadows. She endured watching him get engaged to Aria Fox, bore their secret twins only to hear them call another woman mother, and accepted his empty promises. When Aria commits a fatal hit-and-run, Hudson asks for the ultimate sacrifice: go to prison in his wife's place. To protect his family, he promises a future together upon her release. Devastated, she finally agrees.

A deadly ancestral curse haunts the Xavier lineage, forcing every male heir to fake his death at twenty-five and wed a spiritually sensitive bride to appease vengeful ghosts. Previously, I altered the lottery to marry Jason Xavier and save him, only for my sister's suicide to turn my family and husband against me. After being buried alive in a nailed coffin, I wake up resurrected on the day of the fateful drawing. This time, I will step aside and watch my sister claim the doom she so desperately wanted.

On her third wedding anniversary, a pregnant wife finds herself destitute at a hospital payment window with a mere $27.60 to her name. Her unborn baby's survival depends on immediate medical admission, yet her husband, Finn Henson, remains unreachable. When he finally answers her thirtieth call, she hears the sweet voice of Phoebe Hardy thanking him for a luxury Porsche. Realizing he claimed his company had no funds while secretly spoiling another woman, her heart and marriage shatter.

A sudden accident transports a devoted couple of ten years from their modern life into an ancient era. Initially, the husband vows to resist historical customs and remain faithful. However, the lure of power changes him. He takes other women, fathers their children, and expects his grieving wife to bear an heir for his new kingdom. Having abandoned the memory of their missing modern-day child and dying grandmother, his betrayal is complete. Reclaiming her wedding ring, she chooses to escape back to the modern world alone.

After spending a decade chasing Rhys Beaumont, I paid the ultimate price in my past life. I bled out on a delivery table, forced to bear a child for Rhys and his mistress using my own breakthrough gene-editing technology. Granted a second chance, I refuse to repeat my tragic fate. I shock my father and all of Seattle by rejecting Rhys to marry his brother instead. But when Rhys spots his brother's ring on my finger, the reality of his loss drives him to madness.

After discovering her pregnancy, a woman encounters her billionaire husband, Lawrence, at the hospital supporting his former lover during her own prenatal appointment. Dismissed by him and viewed by society as a submissive spouse who would never walk away, she secretly schedules an abortion. Having married solely to settle a ten-year debt that is now fully resolved, she prepares to abandon the toxic relationship and reclaim her freedom from a man who expects her eternal loyalty.

On the eve of her wedding, her fiancé skips the rehearsal only to send a devastating message. He demands they postpone their marriage for three years so he can legally wed another pregnant woman to register her child, insisting his fiancée take the blame for the delay. Expected to protect his mistress's reputation and manage their families' reactions, she chooses a different path. Responding with a simple agreement, she decides she is finally through with him.

Roma Parker has lost her family, her fortune, and her dignity. To salvage what little remains, she accepts a marriage of convenience with Esteban Hamilton, the ruthless CEO who treats her like just another contract. He demands a picture-perfect, loving wife in public; she only wants to survive. Behind his indifference and the glances he casts at his secretary lies a darker game. Every humiliation hardens her, every accidental touch ignites her—until Roma finally snaps. But when Esteban pins her against the wall, his breath on her lips, he reminds her it's too late: she sold her soul to the devil, and he owns it. Now she must decide whether to escape the abyss or surrender to the fire.

During the grueling early days of our startup, we endured scorching heat without even an air conditioner. Yet Gavin Jones, the privileged heir of the prestigious Jones family, willingly abandoned his luxury. He shared a cramped iron bed with me, selflessly fanning me through the sweltering nights. But the illusion of his devotion shatters when he falls asleep, leaving behind a single, unsettling notification on his phone from someone demanding his sleepless attention.

After her mother is falsely accused of abusing an elderly woman, a devastating chain of events destroys a young woman's family. Her father dies of a heart attack, her mother is driven to suicide by online harassment, and the deceitful employer, Nellie Edwards, grows rich off the settlement. Mocked at her mother's funeral, the daughter is suddenly reborn on the very day the contract was signed. Armed with future knowledge, she must stop the conspiracy before it starts.

Medical student Yara Ellis leads a double life, training to heal both humans and shifters to serve the warring packs. While hiding from a dark past, she rescues Alpha Warren Hill from a lethal trap. Warren instantly recognizes Yara as his fated mate and refuses to let her go. Though reluctant to join his pack, Yara learns her dangerous former tormentor has risen to power. To survive, she must accept Warren’s protection, even if it means never being free again.

After being drowned by her six stepbrothers, Meadow is reborn as a one-month-old baby. When her siblings attempt to harm her again, she realizes her mother can hear her internal thoughts. Using this unique connection, Meadow exposes Alex's future plot to sell her and reveals the family's hidden cruelty. This young-adult fantasy follows Meadow's quest to protect her mother and dismantle her father's household, aiming to send her treacherous relatives to prison from her cradle.

To secure his massive inheritance, Hollywood star Jace Sterling Hayes needs a wife, and I agreed to the deal. Our year-long marriage was meant to be a cold contract, yet his touch makes the facade feel dangerously real. As I fall for my forbidden husband, threats close in. His agent resorts to blackmail, and my sister is hospitalized due to our association. Amidst the chaos and public scrutiny, I must decide if our love can survive the truth.

After failing her exams, Lexi is exiled abroad to fund her sister's education. Ten years later, her childhood friend Ian Swain arrives to marry her, promising protection. However, Lexi soon discovers a devastating conspiracy: her family hid her successful college admission years ago to exploit her labor. Now, Ian is secretly funneling Lexi's original music to her sister. Trapped in a web of lies, Lexi must confront the people who stole her identity and her future.

For three years, Elise Thatcher devoted herself to caring for billionaire Kayden Anderson while he lay in a coma. His grandmother arranged their marriage to make her role easier, and Elise endured her in-laws' cruelty, believing she could thaw his frozen heart. She concealed her true identity, nursing him back to health until he could walk again. But the moment he recovered, Kayden coldly demanded a divorce and brought home his first love. Humiliated and heartbroken, Elise signed the papers and walked away—straight back to the empire she'd hidden all along. Now the most sought-after queen in the business world, she's no longer the wife who waited. When Kayden tries to command her obedience, Elise laughs in his face, leaving him stunned as she walks past him and the mistress he chose.

On their fifth anniversary, Damian Pyke abandons his wife to support his first love, Waverly Benson, claiming she needs help raising her child. Rather than endure more neglect, his wife decides to grant him the freedom he desires. She packs her bags and secures a spot in an international architecture program to start anew. However, as she prepares to leave her marriage behind for good, Damian realizes his mistake and desperately begs for a second chance he may no longer deserve.

To celebrate the seventh anniversary of our secret marriage, my actor husband James betrayed me. He handed the script I spent three years writing over to my sister, Sophie, while forcing me to shoot a humiliating, dangerous B-movie. Clad only in lace underwear, I was made to perform yoga on the back of a crocodile. But when the sedative failed, the stunt turned into a real-life horror show as three massive reptiles surrounded and began tearing me apart.

Seo Min-a has it all: millions of followers, a billionaire family, and a reputation as Korea's number one bad boy. But when the 22-year-old model influencer seeks out defiant artist Kwan Seung-ho to help his sister secure a contract, he never expects the older art coach to challenge everything he knows about love and identity. After a shocking first lesson, Min-a finds himself impossibly drawn to a man eleven years his senior, one who insists the encounter meant nothing. In a society where being gay is condemnable, their connection seems doomed. Yet as Min-a navigates fame, family expectations, and his own heart, he must decide whether their unlikely romance is worth the risk. What epic love story will they dare to write?