Showing results by author "Hildred Billings" in All Categories

Welcome to Hellfire, where there are only three rules. Consent is a must. Safety is paramount. No judgment of anyone or whatever the desire. Other than that? Prepare to give your soul to the Devil, because you’re in her playground now. Married couple Jeanette and Roxy are in Hellfire to party, but paradise shakes wherever they step. For the past several months, the “happy” couple have been arguing more and more about the path of their relationship.

Life has not been kind to Mercy: her girlfriend is gone, she's unappreciated in her corporate job, and depression has always haunted her. That's how she came to stand on the bridge where she meets Acedia, the deity who oversees the Seven Sinners, bringers of peace and carnal healing. Now Mercy must embark on a journey to reclaim the sinful delights in life, beginning with Lust, the crimson-colored deity who hopes to reawaken more than just a woman's heart.

Months after she first went to the bridge, Mercy has been declared healed. However, life still isn’t all sunshine and roses, as evident when she’s stood up on a date. Yet there is someone waiting for her. Acedia, the leader of the Seven Sinners, wishes to personally congratulate Mercy on completing her healing journey. Then the darkness returns, ready to claim Mercy’s soul.

Born into an elite family, Jun has spent her life cultivating the professional qualities needed to claim her inheritance, the Nippon Royal Hotel empire. Just when she thinks her dream is about to come true, however, Jun's uncle ships her from her homeland of Hokkaido to the city of Nagoya to become the new local general manager.

The sixth story in the Sins of Mercy series. In the grandest of miracles, Mercy is developing a social life. Thanks to her new friend, Mercy spends an evening out enjoying the company of energetic strangers who flirt with her, share their knowledge, and make her feel a little less alone. Yet Mercy shows she’s still on her way to healing when she’s unable to indulge in the same revelries as everyone else. Luckily there is yet another new friend waiting at home: Excess, the jolly goddess of many kitchen talents.

Mercy has never considered herself special, which is why she can see right through her coworker’s “flirtations” for what they really are: harassment. After finally putting everyone in their place, Mercy heads home to find the last of the Seven Sinners in her room. Vanity, the Goddess of Self-Absorption, is ready to teach Mercy how to love herself. But Vanity isn’t very aggressive. If Mercy wants her life back, she’s going to have to take it. Again. And again.

The fifth story in the Sins of Mercy series. Worn down by harassment at work, Mercy makes a new friend who informs her she needs to get “angry” again - to feel the rage of a woman scorned who won’t take bull from anyone and knows how to get what she wants. But how is Mercy to ever feel the sweet release of rage again? As fate would have it, a goddess is waiting for her. Wrath, the deity of righteous anger, wants to whip Mercy back into hating shape.

Ten years ago, Jess Mills had her life changed when she crossed paths with Shannon Parker, the most beautiful girl at their small liberal arts college. But what Jess assumed to be nothing more than a crush on a straight girl turned into the night of her dreams senior year. Then? Nothing. Shannon was gone before graduation. But Jess's love for astrology and divination is about to come in handy now that Shannon is determined to face her feelings and understand the whim of the universe.

City girl Mikaiya "Mik" Marcott returns to her hometown to help her ailing grandmother. But who does she see first when she's barely reached the city limits? Ariana Mura, the girl whose heart she broke 10 years ago. Only Ari isn't a "girl" anymore. She's a grown woman who doesn't take crud from anyone. The lanky Ariana with a flower crown in her long hair is now the big and tough Ari, Paradise Valley's strongest EMT and all-around "native gal" the other townsfolk are prepared to defend.

No one is more productive at work than Mercy, who is blessed with lust and avarice - and both sins leave her with too much energy! For a week, Mercy has not slept a wink, opting to, instead, put in overtime at work, clean her house every day, and probably train for a marathon, too. It's gotten to the point where her coworkers are noticing her for all the wrong reasons.

For the first time in months, Mercy enjoys a day all to herself. After spoiling herself silly without a care in the world, she takes a wrong turn around the wrong alley and encounters Envy, a goddess who wants Mercy to hold a grudge. A plethora of bad memories awaits Mercy before she can continue on her healing journey, and nothing holds a candle to the very real issues in her place of work.

Since her visit from the first of the Seven Sinners, Mercy Devereux has been living a life of sin. At first, she enjoyed the renewed desires, but now they're starting to control her existence! How is Mercy supposed to live a life of insatiable sin without trading one addiction for another? The answer comes in the form of Avarice, the greedy goddess Mercy catches ransacking her house one night.

High in the mountains of central Japan, there's a town that makes it official business to invite in a host of spirits every summer. Helen's twin sister has drowned. After 60 years of relying on each other, Helen must now learn to not only work through her grief, but to embrace a life without the only person who ever mattered.

My name is Chiharu Morita. Of course, that is the name on this blog, so that is who I am. The Chiharu you know is only a shadow. Yes, I was in a group called Butterfly Tops. Now, I am a composer. The person responsible for some of the pop songs you hear on the radio. Those aren't the reasons you know me, though. You know me because of Yumi. The woman who comes into your living room every night on dramas, music shows, and radio request lines. The most famous woman in the country.

Life as a small-town housewife in Paradise Valley is usually what Sally Greenhill needs. With four kids and a busy wife to keep her preoccupied, she’s got more than enough to do from sunrise to sunset - at all times of year. But as Deputy Candace Greenhill becomes bogged down in an arsonist investigation, Sally begins to suspect that the ring of flaming rebels might be closer than any of them had foreseen. With Halloween right around the corner, both Sally and Candace are too busy to keep an eye on the precocious son with an eye for adventure...and trouble.

On the first day of senior year in a new school, Alabaman transplant Carrie Sage meets the girl of her lesbian dreams. Too bad the mayor’s daughter is a bit too straight to go for a troublemaking Southerner like Carrie. Enter Leigh-Ann Hardy, the only girl in Clark High School who knows a thing or two about the girl Carrie crushes after like it’s Valentine’s Day.

Heaven’s Cafe is the social epicenter of Paradise Valley, but Heaven Mossberg doesn’t have much of a social life to show for it. Between the demanding small business life and dealing with her ex-husband’s pleas to get back together, there isn’t a lot of time for one 30-year-old to kick back and chill.

Frankie Delacour has everything she could possibly want in life: a steady business, a supportive family, and townsfolk who don't give her too much flack. All right, so she doesn’t have a girlfriend, let alone a wife. But one of her online friends is talking more and more about finally meeting. In fact, Z, aka Elaine Hadley of the teashop Tea & Thyme has been wanting to meet for years. She hasn’t told Elaine a few things. Such as who she actually is. Some things are left best on the internet. Like the endless possibilities of a girlfriend maybe, someday.

In the final installment of A Year in Paradise, we fly through town and catch up with every couple to grace the series so far. But while Christmas shopping and holiday parties light up the windows, one lonely resident comes to the unfortunate conclusion that Paradise Valley might not be for her.

If anybody deserves a break, it’s Hesper Chess, the only registered CPA within 15 miles of Paradise Valley. Once tax season is over, she dreams of nothing but mai tais and sandy beaches. Too bad she knows a lot about personal finance, and can’t bring herself to spend the money! But before she can rest on her laurels, she hears a cry from one of the town’s many business owners. Florist Meadow Hobfield is being audited. She needs help. A lot of it. These two townspeople who have never shared many conversations are now about to spend a lot of time together.