ONE WORLD, ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES
All based in Manhattan with a rotating ensemble cast, Scarlett’s stories give a glimpse into the glitz and glamor of the lives of New York City’s elite. Each is a standalone with series potential. Easter eggs and crossover characters have been woven throughout for reader enjoyment and to deepen the world.
Three things you can always expect in Scarlett’s world: romance, glamor, and a hint of danger.
THE FINAL CURTAIN CALL
CURRENT PROJECT | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE | 85,000 WORDS
When singer/dancer Celeste Marino accepts a job entertaining aboard Le Fantôme, an invite-only cruise for the upper echelons of society with a traveling entertainment troupe, she is immediately captivated by the whispered tales of its reclusive owner. Legend has it that it’s captained by something ghoulish and otherworldly, or maybe just someone looking to hide their dark past behind layers of million-dollar gilt ballrooms and seductive burlesque shows.
The passengers aboard Le Fantôme are wealthy and powerful, with the ability to change lives, and Celeste, recently out of a job, is counting on being discovered for her lucky break into the scene. All she needs to do is keep her head down, work harder than any of the other entertainers onboard, and prove to the world she can be a star. When the owner takes an interest in her, offering her private, candle-lit voice lessons where she can’t see his face, she starts to wonder whether the legends may be true.
The masked man who owns Le Fantôme is hiding himself from the world. Xander Bouchard is content to watch others partake in the myriad vices and scandalous experiences on his ship from dark corners or behind two-way mirrors. The last thing he expects to find is a soul-deep connection with a burlesque dancer harboring a terrible secret, who makes him dream of things he’d long ago realized would never happen for him. He knows there’s no future for he and Celeste once they deboard Le Fantôme, and yet he can’t stay away.
Three weeks spent at sea on a floating playground for the rich and famous deepens their scorching connection, leaving Celeste desperate for more. But when someone turns up dead in the middle of a raucous party, the ship's passengers are eager to point the blame at the mysterious owner. Celeste must find enough clues quickly to exonerate the man she’s begun to fall for, before the vicious storm keeping detectives at bay lifts, because if Xander isn't proven innocent, he'll face being sent to prison while the real killer walks free.
RUMOR HAS IT
ROM-COM | 80,000 WORDS
Arizona native Vivian Doyle is ready to get her hands dirty to grow her anonymous gossip blog. Driven by a dwindling bank account balance and a need to put at least five states between her and her abusive ex, she moves to NYC and moonlights as a socialite to dig up dirt she knows will bring more views to her blog and help her make rent. But when a star-studded, champagne-fueled yacht party ends with her in handcuffs, Vivian’s only chance to salvage her dream might just be NYC’s most eligible billionaire.
The last thing Leo Shin expects when he bails his yacht’s joyrider out of jail is an answer to his problems. He can’t focus on the most important deal of his career while his family is constantly breathing down his neck about bringing a date to his cousin’s event-of-the-season Capri wedding. But when intelligent, scrappy Vivian sails into his life with an irresistible offer, Leo rationalizes she’s the perfect person to give him the time he needs to focus on his company.
A month spent yachting in the Hamptons, attending galas and flying on private jets deepens their connection, which starts to feel anything but fake. Soon Vivian dreads posting insights about Leo's circle, but her only other option is to give up on her dreams. When her ex resurfaces and threatens to expose her secret identity to the world, will Vivian own up to who she is and right her wrongs, or will Leo write her off forever?
TWO FACED
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE | 75,000 WORDS
NYC socialite Delphine’s identical twin sister—notorious party girl and reality TV villain, Lily—is missing. Delphine assumes she's partying away her embarrassment after a disastrous season sends her career, and their family name, into a nosedive. After Lily's agent threatens to kick her off the show unless she shows up to shoot the next season, Delphine agrees to pretend to be her sister for two months and clean up the mess she left behind. But when she steps into her sister’s life, clues about what happened before her disappearance pile up and Delphine begins to suspect something nefarious is behind Lily’s disappearance. It’s clear Lily's not just on another bender but in actual trouble, and Delphine will do whatever she can to help, even if that means working with her sister’s mega-hot nemesis-slash-producer to find her.
The last thing undercover agent Declan Fitzpatrick expects when his mark Lily reappears out of the blue is for her to be, well, not Lily. While posing as a producer on Lily’s show in order to penetrate the Hamptons’ most secretive crime ring, he discovered the proof he needed to put these criminals behind bars just before Lily disappeared with it. But when beautiful, determined Delphine offers to work with him to find Lily and complete his mission, he accepts her offer to work together, even knowing he’s risking his career by bringing a civilian in on a classified case.
Two months spent fighting their attraction, sneaking around billion-dollar homes and eavesdropping on hushed conversations of the Hamptons elite make this dangerous, two-faced game more deadly than ever. While teaming up with Declan and doing whatever she can to ignore their red-hot chemistry, Delphine will learn more about her sister, and herself, than she ever wanted. But with every secret they uncover, truth and lies blur until only one question remains: who can Delphine really trust?
THE CHAMPAGNE GAME
HISTORICAL ROMANTIC SUSPENSE | 80,000 WORDS
Eve is a spy in the FIO, a government agency hell-bent on bringing down bootleggers at the height of Prohibition in 1920. Her ambition is matched only by her desire to avenge her family, who was allegedly murdered by an organized crime family–the Cattaneos. When an opportunity arises to gather intel on the Cattaneo family, she jumps at the chance. But upon arriving in NYC, she discovers that getting close to the family’s enigmatic leader may put both her life and her heart in peril.
Loyal and noble Victor Cattaneo can’t allow any distractions or vulnerabilities, not with a warring criminal enterprise threatening his family and livelihood. When he’s tipped off that a spy has infiltrated his family, he attempts to charm and distract the seductive Eve. Caught in an alluring game of cat and mouse, Victor finds himself drawn to the woman sent to take his family down–even though he knows falling for her could damn his whole family.
Amidst glittering parties, champagne shoot-outs and undercover investigations, Eve falls for Victor, and struggles to rationalize her decades-old desire for revenge. So when she uncovers evidence that proves Victor’s innocence and hints at her employer’s complicity, everything Eve thought she knew about the world shatters. There is one slim chance for discovering the whole truth, but to seize it she will have to make hard choices about who to trust, who to betray and who, at heart, she is.
