{"title":"Candy Steele","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eContemporary romance — billionaire, dark romance, mafia. \u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"crown-bundle-the-complete-dona-series-5-dark-romance-books-pre-order-delivers-june-15","title":"Crown Bundle — The Complete Dona Series, 5 Dark Romance Books (Pre-Order, Delivers June 15)","description":"\u003cp\u003eAt forty-three, she buries her husband.\u003cbr\u003eAt forty-eight, they hand her another one — sixteen years younger, \u003cbr\u003echosen for her, and bound by a contract she wrote herself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFive families. One arranged marriage. And a Dona who refuses to be \u003cbr\u003eanyone's pawn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e═══════════════════════════════════════════\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWelcome to mafia Montréal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhere the Ferrante estate sits on Lac des Deux-Montagnes behind iron \u003cbr\u003egates and old trees. Where the St. Lawrence carries secrets the way \u003cbr\u003ethe river carries ice. Where a widow in Armani and pearl earrings runs \u003cbr\u003ethe most powerful crime family in Quebec — and where, at 3 AM in a \u003cbr\u003edarkened kitchen, the only sound is a piano playing Debussy through \u003cbr\u003ethe walls.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVittoria Ferrante doesn't need a husband. She needs a problem solved.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Reyes cartel is hitting her warehouses. The five families demand \u003cbr\u003ean alliance. The Santoros offer their youngest son — Nico, 27, the \u003cbr\u003eeducated one, the spare. A pawn she can contain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe marries him on her terms: separate wings, no shared accounts, \u003cbr\u003eno public affection, no children. A leash dressed as a vow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen he plays the piano in the east wing at 3 AM.\u003cbr\u003eAnd she finds herself standing in the doorway, listening.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e★★★★★ 4.67\/5 — Goodreads readers\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFIVE NOVELS. ONE EMPIRE. ONE WOMAN WHO REFUSES TO BREAK QUIETLY.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e═══════════════════════════════════════════\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e📖 BOOK ONE — CROWN\u003cbr\u003eThe contract is signed. The marriage is political. Then someone \u003cbr\u003ecomes for her life — and the husband she meant to ignore is the \u003cbr\u003eone who saw it coming.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e📖 BOOK TWO — OATH\u003cbr\u003eThree months under the same roof. A snowstorm. A piano. A hand \u003cbr\u003eon a hand on a bench. By morning, every rule she wrote is broken — \u003cbr\u003eand the dossier on her nightstand will end everything.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e📖 BOOK THREE — BLOOD\u003cbr\u003eHe chose her over his own blood. His father will not forgive him. \u003cbr\u003eHis brother has sworn to bury him. And Vittoria will not open the \u003cbr\u003ebedroom door — even when he sits on the floor, on the other side, \u003cbr\u003eall night.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e📖 BOOK FOUR — EMPIRE\u003cbr\u003eWar comes to Senneville. They take Nico. She takes the war room. \u003cbr\u003eA 43-year-old Dona walks into hell to bring her husband home — \u003cbr\u003eand walks out carrying something neither of them thought possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e📖 BOOK FIVE — REIGN\u003cbr\u003eEvery seed. Every traitor. Every name that ever smiled at her over \u003cbr\u003ea glass of whiskey. The Dona walks into Le Tribunal in a black suit \u003cbr\u003eand gold studs — and rewrites the map of Montréal in a single afternoon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTropes: arranged marriage • age gap (older woman \/ younger man) • \u003cbr\u003eforced proximity • slow burn • enemies-to-lovers • dark mafia romance\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Slow burn through Book One. Volcanic from Book Two onward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e═══════════════════════════════════════════\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e🎁 EXCLUSIVE FOUNDING READER BONUS\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Château That Came With a Ghost\u003cbr\u003eA standalone novella by Ginger Bloom — 50,000 words.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHannah Walsh inherits a medieval castle in Provence. She did not \u003cbr\u003eexpect to fall in love with the village, the brooding architect \u003cbr\u003enext door, or the sarcastic 14th-century knight haunting her tower.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCozy paranormal romance. Wine country. A 600-year-old grudge.\u003cbr\u003eNever sold separately. Yours forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e═══════════════════════════════════════════\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWHAT YOU GET\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e- Five full-length dark romance novels (~380,000 words total)\u003cbr\u003e- One exclusive 50,000-word paranormal novella\u003cbr\u003e- Delivered June 15, 2026 by secure download\u003cbr\u003e- EPUB and MOBI — Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, any reader app\u003cbr\u003e- No DRM. No subscription. No platform lock-in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e═══════════════════════════════════════════\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWHY PRE-ORDER FROM ÉPIGRAPHE\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eÉpigraphe is an independent Quebec publisher building a permanent \u003cbr\u003ehome for indie authors and the readers who love them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou're not renting these books from Amazon. You're not borrowing \u003cbr\u003ethem from a subscription. You buy them once, and they're yours — \u003cbr\u003eon every device, forever, in a format you actually own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFounding readers fund the next series. Your pre-order is what makes \u003cbr\u003ethe next Candy Steele possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e═══════════════════════════════════════════\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePre-order: $19 USD\u003cbr\u003eRegular price after launch: $35 USD\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e═══════════════════════════════════════════\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome women bury their husbands and disappear.\u003cbr\u003eVittoria Ferrante buried hers and built an empire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFive years later, they handed her a husband meant to control her.\u003cbr\u003eThey had no idea what they'd done.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStep into mafia Montréal. Be one of the founding readers.\u003cbr\u003eThe crown is waiting.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Epigraph-e","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47714967486722,"sku":null,"price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"captive-empire-of-desire-book-one","title":"CAPTIVE : Empire of Desire — Book One","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eShe came to his table expecting threats. He offered her a deal instead.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLea Rousseau is twenty-three years old, working three jobs, finishing her master's thesis, and slowly drowning alongside a father whose gambling debts have reached the wrong people. She doesn't scare easily — fear has been the background hum of her life for so long she's stopped hearing it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDamien Kavinsky is the kind of man rooms rearrange themselves around. Billionaire. Calculated. Five years of keeping every relationship transactional, every door locked from the inside.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThen a cocktail waitress spills Scotch on his shirt and offers — with trembling hands and a balance of $300 — to pay for it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe finds her the next morning. The offer is simple: three months as his public partner, attending galas and board dinners, convincing his investors he's the kind of man who stays. In exchange, her father's $152,000 disappears.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eShe signs.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eHe rewrites the terms.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNow she's living in his penthouse, sleeping down the hall from a man who reads her thesis abstracts at 2 AM, who notices when her desk height is wrong, who looks at her like she's the one variable in his empire he didn't account for.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLea knows exactly what this is. She's too smart not to.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe problem is — so does he.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eA slow-burn forbidden contract romance set in Montreal.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Epigraph-e","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48339131990274,"sku":"EMPIRE-1-EB","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0816\/3600\/0002\/files\/auboutdumonde_1.jpg?v=1786896219"},{"product_id":"claimed-empire-of-desire-book-2","title":"CLAIMED : Empire of Desire — Book 2","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe told her to run. She told him she doesn't take orders. They were both lying about what came next.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLea Rousseau moved into Damien Kavinsky's penthouse expecting three months and a clean exit. What she got was a real relationship, a Russian crime organization dismantling Damien's empire piece by piece — and the unsettling discovery that she's better at his world than she ever planned to be.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSergei Volkov doesn't use violence. He uses leverage. Investor withdrawals. Revoked permits. Surgical precision designed to make Damien bleed slowly and publicly. When a mysterious woman named Natasha appears with intelligence about Volkov's network — and chooses to approach Lea, not Damien — Lea has to decide whether her instincts are good enough to trust.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDamien can't protect her and partner with her at the same time. He knows this. He still tries to do both.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhat he doesn't know: her thesis on stolen art just became the most dangerous weapon either of them has.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe contract is over. The war has just started. And Lea is no longer watching from the sidelines.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eDual POV. No cheating. Cliffhanger ending. Part of a 4-book series.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Epigraph-e","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48339182780674,"sku":"EMPIRE-2-EB","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0816\/3600\/0002\/files\/auboutdumonde_2.jpg?v=1786897404"},{"product_id":"conquered-empire-of-desire-book-3","title":"CONQUERED : Empire of Desire — Book 3","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe dress was white. The world they were standing in was anything but.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLea and Damien are planning a wedding in the shadow of a war that isn't finished. Volkov is still breathing. And now Dimitri — the uncle Damien trusts above everyone — is pushing for a deal that would end the bloodshed and bind Damien to the Bratva forever.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLea smells the betrayal before she can name it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDamien tells her she doesn't understand family loyalty. She tells him he doesn't understand what it looks like when someone's protecting themselves instead of him. They've never fought like this — not once, in all the months they've been building something real. The separation is two chapters. It feels like a year.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen the truth confirms what Lea suspected, Damien faces the hardest choice of his life: his uncle's logic or his wife's judgment. Blood or truth.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe chooses.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThen Volkov makes his final move. And the only way to survive it is together — her evidence, his empire, and a coordinated strike that ends the war the way it should have ended from the beginning.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe wedding happens. The war ends. And something darker than either of them expected begins to surface.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eDual POV. Spicy. No cheating. Part of a 4-book series with guaranteed HEA.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Epigraph-e","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48339191791874,"sku":"EMPIRE-3-EB","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0816\/3600\/0002\/files\/auboutdumonde_3.jpg?v=1786897605"},{"product_id":"crowned-empire-of-desire-book-4","title":"CROWNED : Empire of Desire — Book 4","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content a-expander-content-expanded\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThey called her the Kavinsky wife. She was already something else entirely.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSix months in Tuscany. Lea is pregnant, building her art authentication consultancy, learning what it feels like when life is genuinely good. Damien is restructuring his empire away from everything his family built in blood.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThen his cousin arrives from Moscow. Charming. Helpful. Useful in every way that makes Lea's instincts go quiet and cold.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKonstantin Kavinsky isn't stealing. He's positioning. Shell companies. Shadow infrastructure. A claim of family right over an empire Damien has spent years bleeding to legitimize. And he's smart enough to go to the people Damien loves before he makes his move.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDamien is too close to see it. Lea isn't.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eShe's eight months pregnant and running a financial investigation using the same skills she used to track stolen art — following provenance, spotting fakes, finding the moment when something real becomes a forgery. The trail leads somewhere worse than she expected.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTo win this, she'll need to go where Damien can't follow: a conversation with his mother.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe empire has a queen now. Not everyone will bow.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-header a-expander-partial-collapse-header\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Epigraph-e","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48339201261826,"sku":"EMPIRE-4-EB","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0816\/3600\/0002\/files\/auboutdumonde_4.jpg?v=1786897779"},{"product_id":"empire-of-desire-the-complete-series-books-1-4","title":"Empire of Desire — The Complete Series (Books 1-4)","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eAll four novels. One deal that was never going to stay on paper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eIt starts with a contract. Three months, one signature, and a debt that disappears — Lea Rousseau knows exactly what she's agreeing to, and exactly what it costs. What she doesn't count on is Damien Kavinsky rewriting the terms before the ink is dry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eAcross four novels, the arrangement unravels into something neither of them can control. Every clause they add becomes a way to stay. Every boundary they set becomes the next thing to break. The penthouse that was supposed to be a stage becomes the only place either of them tells the truth — and the empire Damien built to keep everyone out starts costing him the one person he let in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThere are men who own rooms. And there are the ones who burn them down when someone tries to take what's theirs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eSlow-burn forbidden contract romance set in Montreal. Four full-length novels, complete series — no cliffhanger you'll have to wait out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAll four books — $15.99\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003e(individually $18.96)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eDelivered instantly through BookFunnel. Read on Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, or any device you like.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Epigraph-e","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48339218792706,"sku":"EMPIRE-BUNDLE-EB","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0816\/3600\/0002\/files\/Image2026-08-16a12.31.jpg?v=1786898000"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.epigraph-e.ca\/fr\/collections\/candy-steele.oembed","provider":"Epigraph-e","version":"1.0","type":"link"}