Forever shelf
Favorite books
- Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
- Harry Potter 1-7
Lantern author
Cassandra Hartcourt
🎒
Back to SchoolSeptember 2026 event author
Emotionally raw, character-driven stories about complicated people, impossible love, devastating loss, and the messy ways we survive each other.
RomanceLiterary fictionSuspense
Behind the byline
About the author
Cassandra Hartcourt writes emotionally immersive, character-driven fiction about complicated people finding their way through love, grief, ambition, family, and the parts of themselves they would sometimes rather keep hidden.
Her stories are drawn to characters who do not fit easily into the lives expected of them—athletes under impossible pressure, journalists chasing the story while becoming part of it, fractured families, unlikely friendships, and people learning that loving someone does not always mean knowing how to save them. With a focus on sharp dialogue, deeply internal storytelling, and relationships that are rarely simple, Cassandra explores the moments when loyalty, desire, trauma, and identity collide.
She has a particular affection for flawed characters, unconventional love stories, devastating emotional choices, and the kind of relationships that change people permanently.
When she writes, Cassandra is less interested in perfect heroes than in what happens after imperfect people hurt each other, forgive each other, lose each other, and somehow keep going.
⌖ Somewhere Romantic and Relaxing
Author marginalia
The fun stuff.
The little things readers always want to know after the last page.
In the headphones
Writing soundtrack
- Whatever vibe fits the mood of the story. I love to create playlists based on the characters I have created.
Tiny author lore
Things to know
- Will always choose the flawed man.
On Lantern
Stories by Cassandra Hartcourt
Romance, New Adult
Find The Light For Me
A scorching case of ADHD, anger issues, and dyslexia landed Braeden Sampson at Smithton Military Academy when he was twelve. Five years later, Braeden knows how to follow orders and survive a school that promises discipline while hiding something uglier behind its polished gates. Back home, things are different. At Paul’s, his family’s diner, Braeden is the kid behind the counter, trying not to think about the place he has to return to when summer ends. Then Abbey Feldman walks into his life. After her parents’ divorce, her mother moves them to Colorado for a fresh start and becomes Braeden’s therapist, tasked with getting to the bottom of his problems. Seventeen, guarded, and carrying wounds of her own, Abbey takes a waitressing job at Paul’s because she needs somewhere to belong. Braeden isn’t supposed to become part of that plan. Neither are late shifts, stolen conversations, teasing across the counter, or the way he notices when she is struggling before she says it. At Paul’s, they build something neither expected: a place where Abbey doesn’t have to apologize for taking up space and Braeden doesn’t have to pretend he is okay. But summer can't last forever. Senior year at Smithton awaits Braeden, along with the secrets he has been too afraid to tell anyone. As Abbey begins trusting him with the parts of herself no one else understands, Braeden must decide whether surviving means going back quietly or finally letting someone see what he has been running from.
Read Braeden →Romance, Hockey Romance, Sports Romance, College, New Adult
The Prom Calculation—The Open Net Series Book 1
Eric Lemhurst knows how to find the open. On the ice, everything makes sense. Angles. Timing. Probability. The exact fraction of a second it takes for an opening to appear before anyone else sees it. At seventeen, Eric is already one of the most gifted young hockey players in the country, with scouts watching and a future everyone seems eager to plan for him. Off the ice, the rules are harder. School is loud. People say things they do not mean. Friendships change without warning. And now everyone is obsessed with prom—a night built around crowds, formal clothes, dancing, and social expectations Eric cannot seem to calculate. His brother Paul is the one person who can steady him when the rest of the world becomes too much, but even Paul has secrets Eric can’t decipher Hundreds of miles away, Walker Blackmore is making calculations of her own. Her life looks perfect from the outside. The right family. The right clothes. The right boyfriend. Radley Bofield is blonde, handsome, popular, and one of the most promising football players at their Alabama high school. He is exactly the kind of boy Walker's mother believes she should be dating. Everyone thinks Walker is lucky. Walker knows how carefully she has to behave to keep Radley happy. As prom approaches, Eric is trying to survive a world that expects him to act like everyone else, while Walker is beginning to understand how dangerous perfection can become behind closed doors.
Read Eric →Romance
The Good Kind
Her husband controls everything-except the deputy who refuses to look away ============ Jake Tropper gave up his lieutenant's bars in Arkansas and moved to Texas to keep one promise: protect the wife and young daughters his brother left behind-and never fail them the way he believes he failed Brendon. Anniston Hillson was never supposed to become part of that promise. To the rest of town, she is the graceful wife of a powerful senator, living the kind of life most people would envy. But now, working as a sheriff's deputy, Jake sees what everyone else misses-the way Anniston flinches when her husband reaches for her, the fear concealed beneath her perfect smile, and the practiced lies she tells to keep the peace. When one violent night exposes the truth, Jake refuses to become another man who looks away. But Dennis Hillson has money, influence, and a sheriff's department that knows better than to challenge him. Standing beside Anniston could cost Jake his badge. Loving her could cost him everything else. For the first time in years, Jake has found someone who makes him want more than survival. Now he must decide how far he is willing to go to give Anniston the one thing she has never known: A love that feels safe.
Read Chapter 1 →Found a new favorite?