Have you ever felt like you were being watched?

Mila feels that way every time she enters her apartment. She goes to bed each night with a chill down her spine and tingles throughout her body, dreaming of a shadowed man ravishing her in the night.

\n
\n

Her first thought is that she's going crazy... there's no man standing in her closet, waiting until she's asleep to devour her.

\n
\n

But when she wakes up one day with suggestive bruises all over her body with no memory of how they got there, she realizes that maybe her dreams aren't so farfetched.

",{"_131":86,"_33":74,"_193":194,"_195":64},"October 1, 2026","October 1","B0HK2PT8JK","#180808",[],[],"https://cdn.blackauthored.com/books/11661i/f0b1e262-dba5-4c84-a4b7-b8bfd11abf66/1790453685.jpg","https://img.blackauthored.com/?preset=poster_thumb&image=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.blackauthored.com%2Fbooks%2F11661i%2Ff0b1e262-dba5-4c84-a4b7-b8bfd11abf66%2F1790453685.jpg",{"_131":229,"_33":116,"_163":230,"_199":231,"_200":232,"_201":68,"_203":233,"_205":47},"8010fd6b-2cbf-454e-92ea-e7a6a96a4c14","1545-amarie-wheeler","

","https://cdn.blackauthored.com/nkd3ocijxawnmvr6713aaolonkny",[206],"585a6a50-19ab-4560-ab39-9ca47d8fe7ab",12326,[],[252],"Kindred Flame","09d2e369-56b8-41d6-9548-15b9178876bb","2026-10-03","13070-kindred-flame","

Ember Rae Sullivan is a rising chef determined to build her own culinary empire. Control is her comfort zone, and she plans to keep it that way.
Love is a distraction she can’t afford, so she lives by two rules: make your money and never let a man get in the way of your dreams.

Elijah Claus is exactly the kind of man those rules were made for.

Persistent, possessive, and used to getting what he wants, Elijah takes Ember’s boundaries as a challenge—and her resistance as a reason to try harder.

One blurred line is all it takes to complicate everything.

Now, Ember is determined to keep her focus on the future she’s worked too hard for, while Elijah seems just as determined to make room for himself in it.

But when one impulsive decision forces Ember to rethink everything she thought she wanted, she decides it’s finally time to bet on herself.

Except Elijah has already decided he’s betting on her too.

And the more Ember tries to keep her boundaries in place, the harder it becomes to ignore the pull bringing her right back to him.

Because when two people share the same flame the rest is just timing.

",{"_131":86,"_33":74,"_193":194,"_195":64},"October 3, 2026","October 3","B0HLVG8D8L","#491817",[],[],"https://cdn.blackauthored.com/books/12326i/09d2e369-56b8-41d6-9548-15b9178876bb/1791044332.jpg","https://img.blackauthored.com/?preset=poster_thumb&image=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.blackauthored.com%2Fbooks%2F12326i%2F09d2e369-56b8-41d6-9548-15b9178876bb%2F1791044332.jpg",{"_131":253,"_33":117,"_163":254,"_199":-5,"_200":-5,"_201":68,"_203":255,"_205":47},"a7d2c183-a208-458e-87b2-f70393058315","1574-l-shauntel",[206],"8d073e20-0bd6-47bd-8cea-b5e716ca3b0a",12478,"4.75",5,[],[280],"The Ninth","ab816b13-0a1f-4ca8-bb6a-53d213c22899",{"_21":278,"_131":279},"2026-10-05",8,"13229-the-ninth","

From the State of Betrayal Universe. An interconnected standalone that can be read before or after the series.

Our Chicago native, Cassie, welcomes her cousin Devyn to stay with her. Neither are prepared for exactly what's to follow from that simple gesture. Especially not Devyn.

Dropped into a world of drama, lies, secrets, and heartbreak, Devyn learns that Chicago is a test that she will be forced to take. As the women navigate love, upsets, family, and the consequences of their actions, they both end up on a journey that's anything but easy.

One things for sure: they have each other.

The chaos puts us right back into that State of Betrayal feel. It will take Cassie and Devyn coming together to confront the chaos around them, discover who they are as women, and fight to hold onto the autonomy they worked so hard to find.

The Ninth is about friendship, growth, healing, and sisterhood that never fails to show up.Also mess, of course. I wrote it.

Come on in!

",{"_131":86,"_33":74,"_193":194,"_195":64},"October 5, 2026","October 5","B0HM2752FF","#040a24",[],[],"https://cdn.blackauthored.com/books/12478i/ab816b13-0a1f-4ca8-bb6a-53d213c22899/1791240952.jpg","https://img.blackauthored.com/?preset=poster_thumb&image=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.blackauthored.com%2Fbooks%2F12478i%2Fab816b13-0a1f-4ca8-bb6a-53d213c22899%2F1791240952.jpg","Related to: State of Betrayal Series","e94e2dfe-8d5c-4b5c-8dfd-853a50d6d819",{"_131":281,"_33":119,"_163":282,"_199":-5,"_200":-5,"_201":266,"_203":283,"_205":47},"8e23bce9-004e-4f86-9a51-2ec31d1b1e68","319-a-denise",[206],212,"BDE","category","trope","bde","/tropes/bde","selectable","sensitive","position","parent","isLoggedIn",["P",295],"result",{"_21":304,"_23":305,"_19":306,"_307":308,"_25":309,"_310":311,"_27":312},"user","themePreference","light","storedTheme","gaId","G-Z1HVZ17GZ3","Blackauthored","%s","Find your next Black authored read and connect with readers with the similar taste.","handle","@blackauthored","https://blackauthored.com","robots",{"_323":64,"_324":64},{"_29":30,"_31":313,"_33":304,"_314":315,"_316":317,"_25":309},"Organization","logo","https://cdn.blackauthored.com/images/og-image.png","sameAs",[318,319,320,321,322],"https://twitter.com/blackauthored","https://facebook.com/blackauthored","https://instagram.com/blackauthored","https://youtube.com/blackauthored","https://tiktok.com/@blackauthored","noIndex","noFollow"]