Monsters by Mistake

Elise wishes she were invisible. Roan wishes he wasn’t.

ROAN

A Halloween party scarier than anything in the movies turned me into a monster. Invisibility isn’t the superpower people think it is. It’s a curse. Since it's unknown if I can spread the condition to others, I’m destined to be unseen and alone.

Until the night I post a grumpy “In Search Of” ad, and get a single reply. I don’t know why Elise agreed to my self-serving demands of complete visual anonymity, but my life became instantly fuller. I don’t have to see her to fall for her. But I know it can never be more than long-distance feelings and inspiration for my right hand.

Until the day Elise surprises me by breaking our anonymity agreement and shows up in my coffee shop… and gets a monstrous surprise in return.

ELISE

Appearances matter. I learned that after an accident left one side of my face heavily scarred. I’m used to the staring. The pointing and whispering. Kids asking their parents if I’m a monster. I’m also used to being alone, because the dating pool dried up the day I lost half my beauty.

I was job hunting the night I found Roan’s “In Search Of” post. It’s been years since I read a singles ad, and I still don’t know why I did. Call it coincidence, fate, or the universe doing something to balance the scales. It was as if Roan wrote that ad for me.

My friends think Roan must be a hideous ogre to be hiding behind his “no pictures, no contact” rule. I don’t care what he looks like. Roan and I click in every way. He doesn’t need to touch me in person to satisfy me. But I’d like him to.

Six months after agreeing to his conditions, I want to break them. I’m ready to take the biggest risk of my life–rejection by the man I love. I want all of Roan Byrne. The good, the sexy, and if he does turn out to be an ogre, the ugly. I only hope that when he sees me, he feels the same way…

𝙎𝙝𝙚'𝙨 𝙖𝙛𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙣𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙢 𝙝𝙚𝙧.

CORA

Sent to Screaming Woods to write a magazine piece on its resident monsters, I’m ready to meet hairy beasts, ogres, vampires… Heck, I even have an interview scheduled with an actual invisible man. What I’m not prepared for? A snake man. I’m terrified of snakes. Now I’ll have to talk to a man-sized one on a daily basis, because he owns the motel where I’m staying and there are no vacancies elsewhere in town.

Once the initial shock of coming face to face with a walking, talking snake passes, I start to see Leroy for the man beneath the monster exterior. And the more I get to know my snake man, the more I realize my biggest fear would be losing him.

LEROY

My human life disappeared two decades ago, when I became a snake man. Now, I wouldn’t change back if I could. I have the best of both species in me. My new anatomy has definite advantages, and because of them, I’m frequently propositioned. But that’s not the kind of proposal I seek.

I’m the loneliest snake in town until the day Cora walks into the motel I own—and promptly faints at the sight of me. The magazine reporter is only in town to interview monsters for an article, but I know instantly that I won’t want to say goodbye to her. My charms have never failed me before, but I’m a 180-pound embodiment of her biggest fear. That won’t stop me from trying. Anything is possible in Screaming Woods.