Stories by @tiaowen

Holly's Unjolly Christmas

Holly loves people. But that doesn't mean she wants to be around any over the holidays. So, booking an isolated cabin on top of idyllic Mount Winter Bliss is exactly the escape from reality she needs. It's just her crappy luck that the rental comes with a grumpy, sexy demon groundskeeper-and that an avalanche strands them there.Together. Azgoran wants nothing to do with people. And since renters who are willing to traipse across dangerous terrain are in short supply, avoiding humans isn't usually a problem. Until she shows up. Holly is far too tiny, talkative, and... adorable for him. But for some reason, knowing all that doesn't make it any easier to keep his mind-and hands-off her. The only thing these opposites have in common is forced proximity and a big attraction. Is that enough to get them to happily ever after? Or are they destined for the most unjolly Christmas ever?

Holidays Ablaze

Sofia, a talented chef whose culinary dreams have flamed out, is spending her holiday season hiding away in a cabin atop Mt. Winter Bliss until her solo retreat is disrupted by the arrival of Samite, a maddeningly pretentious demon. Sofia is no stranger to facing down big egos in the kitchen. With plenty of salt and steely resolve, she sets the ground rules and strikes her first bargain with a demon. Samite, a demon who's business ambitions have been dashed. finds himself stranded atop Mt. Winter Bliss at the mercy of an infuriatingly unhelpful human. He's hell-bent on escaping this mountain, and she'd gladly whip him up a swift exit except for one major obstacle. An avalanche has buried the only road down the mountain, trapping them together. Their initial clash ignites a simmering tension, and as they navigate the close quarters of her tiny one-bedroom cabin, more bargains are struck and the heat continues to rise.

Beastly & Bookish

All Noelle wants is to save the Winter Bliss library. She has a plan, too—a New Year’s Eve fundraiser during the annual fire-magic festival. The last thing she needs is a distracting romance with the sexy, binge-reading demon she hasn’t seen in over a decade. Too bad fate (and Mount Winter Bliss) has other plans. Rom only returned to his small hometown because his family needed him to open Perkatory, their newest coffee shop. Seeing Noelle again was a welcome surprise, but there’s no way the beautiful librarian could ever fall for a scarred-up monster like him, right? When an avalanche leaves Noelle and Rom snowed in together, the forced proximity might be their second chance at first love. But will their happily ever after come at the expense of saving Noelle’s beloved library?

Luminiferos

At just eighteen, Lilly White has lived multiple lives. There was the cold, hard reality of growing up in an English orphanage, isolated and unwanted. But paradoxically, visions and dreams of lush forests and mystical creatures, and most troubling of all – a warm, loving family. Lilly doesn’t know if these are the delusions of a lonely mind, or something more. When a man with a raven reveals a portal to a lost world, she finally gets proof she is not insane. But for all the ethereal beauty of this impossible place, a toxic darkness creeps closer, consuming everything in its path. Caught between the desire to find her family and fight against an evil that threatens all of existence, Lilly must hone gifts within herself she never could have imagined, and embark on a journey of self-discovery, transcendence and love.