Forever shelf
Favorite books
- Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
- Harry Potter 1-7
A light is moving through the stacks
Finding your place.
Lantern is setting out the next page.
LanternCassandra Hartcourt
✨First Million WordsFounding word contributor
How it was earned: Published work that helped Lantern reach its first one million story words.
🎒Back to SchoolSeptember 2026 event author
How it was earned: Participated in Lantern’s September 2026 Back to School event.
October by LanternlightOctober 2026 event author
How it was earned: Participated in the October by Lanternlight 2026 event.
Emotionally raw, character-driven stories about complicated people, impossible love, devastating loss, and the messy ways we survive each other.
RomanceLiterary fictionSuspense
345,024published words across 4 Lantern stories
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
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
Off Base (Liberty Harbor #1)
One night with First Lieutenant Tom Seaver was supposed to scratch an itch, not rearrange Naddy Brooks’s entire life.
She has an eight-year-old son to raise, bills she can barely pay, and absolutely no interest in falling for a Marine whose job can take him away without warning. Tom was supposed to be sex.
Then he kept showing up.
He fixes her dying car, wins over her kid, fills her empty fridge, and somehow turns a casual fling into motorcycle rides, Sunday ice cream, late-night arguments, and a life that starts feeling dangerously like home.
Tom Seaver knows how to compartmentalize. It’s how he survives a career built on classified work, sudden deployments, and never promising more than he can control.
Naddy and her son make that impossible. What starts as something temporary becomes the one part of his life Tom can’t keep at a distance. And the closer they get, the harder it becomes to leave them behind every time duty calls.
Off Base is a steamy, emotional military romance about a fiercely independent single mom, a guarded Marine officer, an accidental family, scorching chemistry, and two people who never meant to become each other’s home.**
Dystopian Romance
When They Come For Us
David Jansen has spent fifteen years building the life he wanted: a Wall Street career, more money than he imagined, and access to people who seem to know what’s coming first.
Somewhere along the way, he lost everything that mattered.
His marriage is over. The conversations between David and his ex, Grace, have dwindled to their seven-year-old daughter, Margot. Grace has built a life without him on Long Island, while David has buried himself in work rather than face what went wrong between them.
Found a new favorite?