Li Xiang is the Priestess of the Moon, she can see read the stars and fortune as well as misfortune to her people. However, the life of a Priestess consists of nothing but loneliness: she can neither leave the palace nor meet with anyone but the Emperor and his advisors. One day a mysterious servant boy named Rui sneaks into her room, daring her to go outside if he wins against her in a game. Upon meeting him, she also befriends a female warrior and a scholar, and realizes life is much more than the palace. When the day comes she can either choose to go down the road her heart truly desires but bring ruin to the kingdom, or ignore the one chance she will ever have to leave this life? *** "My fate has been decided for me." "There's no such thing as that," he said. "We all make our own fate." "But the stars tell me--" I stopped talking when he holds my face in his hands, warm hands cupping my cheeks, brown eyes looking into my eyes. "Then stop looking at the stars. Look at me." A love story about fate, finding one's identity, stepping out of your comfort zone, and, most of all, choosing between your happiness or the happiness of others... [[Word Count: 80,000-90,000]] Wattys Fantasy Winner 2021

The Masquerade only had two rules: You had to be invited to order to attend, and you must dress in the outfit assigned to you. This was my first year being invited to the Masquerade. The first year I might get the answer to the question I've been asking myself for years: Why do I feel this way? Maybe something or someone will be the answer I was looking for.

After an offended Greek goddess sends Kenna back in time to Elizabethan England, she discovers she must stop the theft of Shakespeare's best known tragedy before returning to her century, all while resisting the charms of the theatre's Romeo. ***** After being dumped via voice note, Kenna Fernsby is convinced there was never a tale of more woe. Offended by the insult to true tragedy, a Greek goddess banishes Kenna to Elizabethan England, where she stumbles upon a plot to steal the priceless first draft of "Romeo and Juliet" from right under William Shakespeare's nose. Determined to outwit the thieves, Kenna dives into the intrigue, even when doing so may tangle her healing heart with a man from the past and force her to choose between the 16th century life she has fallen in love with and the fate of the play she loves as much. [[Wattys 2021 Winner in Historical Fiction]] [[Word count: 80,000 - 90,000 words]] The quotes from Romeo and Juliet used in this story were taken from the iBooks edition of the play. The text was originally from playshakespeare.com. ©2005-2022 PlayShakespeare.com. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this information under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. Terms at http://www.playshakespeare.com/license