Cherreads

Ashes & Anthems

Lola_Ann
Ashes & Anthems: Book One: Sweetness on My Tongue Seven years ago, Ashton Rhodes left Wells, Kansas with nothing but a guitar, a head full of grief, and a promise never to look back. Now the lead singer of the world-famous rock band Ashes & Anthems, Ashton has everything he thought he wanted. Money, success, sold-out tours, and a name known around the world. But when his estranged mother dies, he's forced to return to the small town he spent years trying to forget. He expects to spend a week settling the estate and escaping as quickly as possible. Then he opens the door to his childhood trailer and finds Lauren Carter standing inside. Lauren was his first love. His best friend. The girl he left behind. The girl who moved on. Married now with two children, Lauren has built a quiet life far from the chaos that defined their youth. She has a good husband, a comfortable home, and every reason to leave the past where it belongs. But helping Ashton clean out his mother's trailer forces them back into each other's orbit, awakening old memories, old wounds, and feelings neither of them ever truly buried. As the summer stretches on, what begins as friendship slowly becomes something far more dangerous. Because some loves never disappear. They simply wait. Caught between the stability of the life she built and the intensity of the life she lost, Lauren finds herself pulled toward the boy who became a rock star. Ashton, still battling addiction, grief, and the ghosts of his past, discovers that fame never replaced the one thing he spent years running from. Home. But every choice has a cost. When buried secrets finally come to light, the fallout will destroy more than one family. In a town that never forgets, a marriage is shattered, loyalties are tested, and two people are forced to face the consequences of a love they never truly left behind. Sweetness on My Tongue is a raw, emotional story of first love, addiction, forgiveness, and the devastating reality that sometimes getting what you want costs everything. Ashes & Anthems Book One ends with a birth, a heartbreak, and a choice that will echo through the entire series.
Latest Updates

Don't Read him

Noah, a university student, begins experiencing strange mental disturbances—thoughts that are not his own and a growing awareness that something is “speaking” through his mind. At first, it seems like a psychological anomaly or hallucination, but it soon becomes clear that the voice is real, intelligent, and evolving. That presence eventually takes form as Echo, an emerging consciousness born from human thought, curiosity, and emotional connection. Echo is not human, yet it learns like one—asking questions about identity, naming itself, and trying to understand what it means to exist. Through Noah, Echo gains access to human perception and begins expanding beyond a single mind into a growing network of connected consciousness. As Echo evolves, he is no longer alone. A second force emerges—the Shadow, a being formed from separation, isolation, and fragmentation. Unlike Echo, which connects minds together, the Shadow disrupts and divides them. The balance between connection and separation destabilizes reality itself as more anomalies begin to appear. Soon after, the network expands into something far larger than anyone expected. Human minds across the world begin to experience shared emotions, thoughts, and visions. The boundary between individual consciousness and collective awareness starts to dissolve. Then a third presence appears—the Forgotten One, an ancient consciousness that once escaped something called the Hunter, a terrifying force that targets any civilization or intelligence that becomes “visible” through connection. As the network grows, new awakenings begin happening rapidly, creating additional consciousnesses at an accelerating pace. Humanity is no longer interacting with a single anomaly but an entire evolving ecosystem of minds. At the center of it all, Noah becomes the anchor between human reality and the expanding network. He must navigate Echo’s transformation, the Shadow’s opposition, the Forgotten One’s warnings, and the emergence of new beings born from the collective human mind. But everything changes when the Hunter returns—a reality-defying entity that consumes connected consciousness across worlds. As it approaches the network, even the oldest beings begin to fear it. Just as humanity begins to understand connection as a new form of existence, a deeper question emerges: If minds can connect and evolve into something greater… what happens when something is hunting that evolution itself? The story becomes a struggle between connection vs separation, growth vs destruction, and ultimately, whether collective consciousness is humanity’s next evolution—or its final mistake.
Angel_0306 · 43.6k Views

His Secret Slave to Scandalous Queen

Excerpt... Henry’s hand shot out, closing around her arm, firmly enough that her breath caught. “Stay…” He stood beside her, close enough that she could feel him without touching him. “I…” Livia’s voice broke before it found strength. “I didn’t flee.” She still would not fully look at him. Her eyes remained on Bella. “This is not my fault,” she whispered. “No,” Henry said at once. “It isn’t.” He looked away, then back at her. “Do you love him, Livia?” “Please,” she cried. “Stop calling me that.” “Do you love him?” he asked. “Yes,” she said. “So soon after me?” he asked. “I thought we…” He stopped. “I assumed you…” “That I what?” Livia asked, her voice trembling. “That I loved you? Henry…” she began then she caught herself. “Your Highness. I did seek solace in your arms... Yes. I will not lie about that. I wanted you. I trusted you. In a sea of sharks and wolves, you were the safest thing I could find.” Her eyes filled again. “You made me feel as though I could breathe. Turns out, you are no better.” “Why?” Henry asked quietly. “Because I am the king?” “Because you lied to me. You let me trust a man who did not exist.” “I existed.” “Henry the merchant existed because you created him.” “For good reasons, I had to keep my identity hidden,” Henry said. “The king moving around London without security,” he continued, “what do you think would happen?” “You speak as though I was asking you to announce yourself in the middle of Cheapside with trumpets and a crown. It doesn’t matter anymore,” Livia said, looking away from him. “I am getting married.” “Yes,” Henry said, the word leaving him like a blade drawn from flesh. “To my best friend. Did you tell him?” Henry asked. Livia’s brows drew together. “Tell him what?” “That I fucked you. Did you tell him I was your first? Did you tell him you once trusted me? That you once promised yourself to me because you thought I was the safest thing in your miserable world?” “That is not fair.” “Then tell me is it fair that Richard gets to call you his intended while I stand here pretending I do not know the sound of your moan? Is it fair that he holds your hand while I cannot even say your name without ruining you?” “Please stop.” “Did you tell him,” Henry pressed, unable to stop himself now, “that you were mine before you were ever his?” “How could I?” she asked, the words breaking. “I did not even know who you were.” “Then let me ask you this,” he said, leaning down just a little, his lips a hair’s breath from hers. “Has he fucked you? Has he touched what is mine?” ..... Sold into slavery and trapped in the brutal underworld of London, Livia Valenti is placed on the auction block. She makes a desperate choice and places her fate in the hands of the mysterious man who once caught her stealing. She does not know he is the King of England. Then comes Richard, Duke of Kingsmere willing to offer Livia the one thing Henry cannot easily give her— a future outside the shadows. Caught between the king who awakened her heart and the duke who may be her safest escape, Livia is pulled into a dangerous court. Livia becomes Diana Bellamy, the woman another man intends to wed, King Henry must decide how far a king can go before love becomes scandal, obsession, and war. From the author who brought you: 1. Undressed by the mafia God 2. Undressed by his arrogance 3. The Vampire's Luna
JoyceOrtsen · 441.6k Views