MELISSA TOPPEN SERIES:

A Thousand Cuts (CELL BLOCK C)

A Thousand Cuts (CELL BLOCK C)

Melissa Toppen

Melissa Toppen

I used to believe in fairy tales.But then I grew up and I realized that life isn't like the books I once loved so much.There are no princes riding in on their white horses.No magic wands or fairy god mothers.And no happily ever afters.Ryland Thorpe taught me the hard way that good doesn't always win and sometimes the people we trust the most are the ones that can hurt us the deepest.At fifteen, my world began and ended with him.He was my older brother's best friend.He was my protector.He was the boy I had loved since I was old enough to understand what loving someone meant.And he was a liar…It's been five years since I've seen him.Five long years and the memory of him still haunts me like it was yesterday.Only he's not just a memory anymore.Prison has hardened him, changed him, altered him in ways I never expected. But beneath it all I can still see a glimmer of the boy I used to love.When lies are exposed and secrets are revealed, I find myself questioning everything I thought I knew.They say the first cut is the deepest.They were wrong…A Thousand Cuts is a complete standalone novel in the Cell Block C Series. A five book series- each book written by a different author in The Romance Collaborative.
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The Way Back

The Way Back

Melissa Toppen

Melissa Toppen

Time heals all wounds…That's what they say anyway.But I believe some wounds never actually heal.Like the hole left in my heart where Jake used to be.The pain a permanent reminder of what I had, and what I lost.A piece of me died with him that day.A part of myself I thought I'd never get back.But then he happened.Zayne…Unexpected and exciting, he's everything I shouldn't want and yet somehow, exactly what I need.He challenges me in a way I've never been challenged.He makes me see the person I used to be- the happy carefree girl with her whole life ahead of her.It doesn't matter that he's older than me, or that he's my brother's closest friend.All that matters is how he makes me feel…Alive.     *The Way Back was originally released in 2014 as the Two Hearts Duet.
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All the Pretty Lies

All the Pretty Lies

Melissa Toppen

Melissa Toppen

Sham.Fraud.Hoax.All words that describe my relationship with Callum Hanson. It didn't start out that way.We used to be friends.That is until high school, when Callum decided he was too cool to be seen with his less than popular next-door neighbor.So, imagine my surprise when out of the blue, after nearly four years of pretending like I don't exist, he offers to swoop in and save the day by promising to help me catch the eye of the boy I've been pining after for nearly two years. The only catch…I have to lie. To everyone. Pretending to be his girlfriend turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would. I was surprised by how well I fit into his world, and how well he fit into mine.Before long though, the lines between fake and real started to blur. I began to see Callum as more than just Norwood High's star football player and manwhore extraordinaire. And the more time I spent with him, the more I wanted it all to be real. But that's the problem with telling lies. No matter how pretty they sound, at the end of the day they're still lies.I just wish someone would explain that to my heart. *All the Pretty Lies is a complete standalone romance.
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Follow Me Down

Follow Me Down

Melissa Toppen

Melissa Toppen

For years I've been planning my escape.Preparing for the day when I could leave home and never look back.But when the moment came, it didn't happen like I had planned.I didn't pack up my car and drive away, watching my old life disappear in the rearview mirror like I had always envisioned I would.Instead, I ran—quite literally—as fast and far as my feet would take me.I didn't know where I was going, only that I had to get away.And that's when he found me…Titus Driscoll.He was unlike anyone I had ever met before.A man who lived by his own code. Who answered to no one but himself.He didn't care where I came from or why I was running.He didn't care that my father was a powerful politician that would stop at nothing to bring me home.Once he had me, I was his.Follow Me Down is a complete STANDALONE Contemporary Romance.
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All That We Are

All That We Are

Melissa Toppen

Melissa Toppen

They say everything happens for a reason- that there's always a light at the end of the tunnel. For the longest time I didn't think that was true. I had stumbled around in the dark for so many years that I didn't think I would ever find my way out. But when I finally did, it came in the most unexpected way.Miles Hollins had been my brother's best friend for as long as I could remember. We didn't like each other much growing up. Or rather, we couldn't stand each other. But after ten years of being gone, a lot had changed.He wasn't the same boy I remembered. I wasn't the same girl either. So much had happened.I moved away and got married.Miles joined the military.We both returned home broken in our own way.I struggled to find my place in my new life. Miles struggled just to get through the day. But together we slowly began to heal. I quieted his demons and he gave me a sense of belonging. For a while that was enough.But this is real life, and in real life nothing stays perfect forever. In real life not every story ends with a happily ever after. Sometimes the scars we carry are just too deep.I promised him I would fight.He promised me I would lose.I'll do everything in my power to prove him wrong. Because it's when you find the one thing you can't live without, that you truly find yourself.All That We Are is a standalone contemporary romance.
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Almost Never

Almost Never

Melissa Toppen

Melissa Toppen

Alec Murray.He was the one. From the first moment I saw him, I knew. I had never been more certain of anything in my sixteen years on this earth.But Alec didn't notice me. At least not in the way that I wanted him to. He noticed my best friend instead.I stood by and watched their relationship blossom. An outsider looking in, wishing things were different. Torn between my loyalty to my best friend and the boy who had unknowingly stolen my heart.Weighted by feelings I could never express out loud, I wrote them all down. Every thought. Every feeling. I poured them all into a letter. A letter he was never meant to read.Only that's exactly what he did. He read it. Every single word. But by then it was too late.Even if he was no longer dating my best friend. Even if I was more in love with him than ever. He was leaving. I was leaving. And there was nothing either of us could do to change it.Alec Murray was my almost fairytale. The happy ending I swore I'd never get. But our story is far from over…*Almost Never is a friends to lovers, complete standalone.
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Violets are not Blue

Violets are not Blue

Melissa Toppen

Melissa Toppen

Roses are red.Violets are blue.Forget everything good you've been told about love, because none of it's true.You don't agree?Spend a day in my shoes and you'd curse love too.My name's Blue.Yes, you read that right. Blue Daniels.And I hate love.I despise every single thing about it.In my thirty-two years on this earth it has brought me nothing but heartbreak and disappointment.Love is a void. Something we're taught we need if we want to live a happy and fulfilled life.Well I disagree.Some say I'm a cynic. Other's call me the smartest woman they've ever met.But no matter what anyone says, I know what I need. And love is not it.Enter Harris Avery.A man who thinks he can have anyone he wants, including me.A man who reminds me daily why I swore off love in the first place.He walks around the office like he owns the place, throwing that sexy smirk of his at every female he passes. He thinks no one is immune to his charm.But poor Mr. Avery has never met a girl like me before.I'm more likely to throw myself off a bridge than at his feet.There's just one problem…He's decided to make it his mission to prove me wrong.To that I say, let the games begin…Violets are not Blue is a complete standalone.
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You and I Alone

You and I Alone

Melissa Toppen

Melissa Toppen

Twenty-one year old Anna Blake has lived her life by one simple rule; never get attached. Having learned early on in life that nothing is guaranteed, she knows there is only one person she can truly rely on; herself.But when she accepts a job as a dancer at one of the most secretive and exclusive clubs in the country, operating under the name Logan, she meets the one man who makes her question everything she thought she knew.Bentley Reed is exactly the type of man women crave. Rich, powerful, and as sexy as they come; the definition of a playboy. A former soccer star turned business mogul, Bentley is used to getting what he wants, when he wants it.... but he has never met a girl like Logan before.Their undeniable attraction is clear from their first encounter and neither can deny the sexual chemistry that flows between them. When Logan agrees to one night with Bentley, she has no idea that one night will alter her very existence.Determined to walk away from a man insistent on not letting her go, Logan struggles to resist the temptation of what her body desires above all else.What happens when two people who operate by the same rules, find themselves breaking them all for the chance to experience just one more night in each others arms?
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Collide (Two Hearts, #1)

Collide (Two Hearts, #1)

Melissa Toppen

Melissa Toppen

Book One in the Two Hearts Series. Grace Morgan is just like any other new college graduate. Driven, head strong and full of life, or so that’s what she lets everyone think. But Grace is not the girl everyone believes her to be and she hasn’t been for years. After losing her high school sweetheart in a tragic cliff diving accident her junior year of high school, Grace becomes a shadow of her former self. She hides behind her fake smile and her carefree attitude, not allowing even her closest friends and family to see the broken girl she has become. Crippled by loss and heartache, she doesn’t believe in love anymore, not in the way a normal twenty-two year old girl should. But all of that is about to change….. Zayne Evans is the one man that holds the power to bring Grace to her knees. Her older brother’s best friend, a successful entrepreneur and a known womanizer, Zayne may be beautiful and charming as hell, but he also has bad news written all over him. But that doesn’t stop Grace from wondering what it would be like to spend just one night with a man like Zayne. A man who is just as good as she is at hiding the real person beneath the mask. What starts out as a rocky week vacation at her families Lake House, turns into the beginning of something neither of them is prepared for. After an intense week under the same roof, Grace is determined to walk away and never seen Zayne again. But fate has a different plan….. Zayne is the one person that can see through Grace’s façade. Grace is the one woman who is not blinded by Zayne’s looks, money, or his untouchable persona. They challenge each other in a way that neither has been challenged before. But what happens when the one person you know you need to resist is the only person that makes you feel alive? And what would you sacrifice to feel that way always?
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Claimed by You

Claimed by You

Melissa Toppen

Melissa Toppen

Scarlett Ryan has done everything in her power to move beyond the pain of her past. But sometimes, the past finds a way back into the present....For Scarlett, leaving home and moving to Maine directly after high school was her only option. Trapped by controlling, manipulative parents, she knew the only way she would ever be free was to leave California and never come back. So when Scarlett agrees to fly across the country to be a bridesmaid in the wedding of her high school best friend, her plan is simple. Get in, get out. Should be easy enough. What Scarlett doesn't expect is to come face to face with the first man she ever loved. The man who took her innocence and then broke her heart. The man, that to this day, no other man has been able to live up to. But Scarlett has come too far to be derailed by the likes of Westin Carver. Commanding, beautiful, and full of charm, Westin has his sights set directly on the one girl he should have never let go. Determined to get her back, Scarlett finds herself in the middle of an emotional whirlwind that she can't seem to escape. Do people ever really change?Will she be able to forgive the past? Can they find a way to be together no matter what the cost, or will their love once again be torn away by the power of lies and deceit?
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Tequila Haze (The Tequila Duet Book 1)

Tequila Haze (The Tequila Duet Book 1)

Melissa Toppen

Melissa Toppen

It was destiny-- the night I met Hudson Demasi.I remember how effortlessly he stole my heart- his dark eyes and quick smile forever etched into my mind. We spent one incredible night together under a haze of tequila- a perfect night. And when I woke the next day, he was gone…I never expected to see him again. Years passed and with it, life went on. Until one day there he was- standing in front of me like no time had passed at all.He's determined to remedy his mistakes. I'm determined to let him try. Because even though I know I should walk away- the urge to feel the burn is just too strong.Tequila Haze is book one in the two part Tequila Duet. Tequila Burn is also now available.
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Tequila Burn

Tequila Burn

Melissa Toppen

Melissa Toppen

It was destiny-- the night I met Hudson Demasi.I remember how effortlessly he stole my heart- his dark eyes and quick smile forever etched into my mind. We spent one incredible night together under a haze of tequila- a perfect night. And when I woke the next day, he was gone…I never expected to see him again. Years passed and with it, life went on. Until one day there he was- standing in front of me like no time had passed at all.He's determined to remedy his mistakes. I'm determined to let him try. Because even though I know I should walk away- the urge to feel the burn is just too strong.Tequila Burn is book two in the two part Tequila Duet. 
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