When life turns into horror, will you pray or will you prey? After five years of him asking, Karoliina Hautamäki relents and brings her boyfriend to Iron Lake, her deeply religious hometown in Finland's arctic circle. The midsummer visit is marred when her father passes from Covid, though it is the inexplicable deaths that follow that truly throw life off its path. A virus is what most consider it, but in Iron Lake, it is understood as the Sin. The only cure-confession. Karoliina's brother Aatami is heralded as their saviour, the one who has prayed people back from the edge of death. The internet crashes, phone service dies, society collapses. The government attempts to control the contamination by enforcing military quarantines across the country. What was intended as a brief visit turns into a year and a half with no end in sight. When Karoliina's childhood best friend asks for her help to discover the true cause of the deaths, Karoliina rejects it without consideration. But with her brother's glory grating on her, she might desire her own moment of recognition, even if it comes with the risk of all that is Isolde. In the vengeance of mid-winter, Iron Lake is crueller than ever. And amongst prayers is where predators most easily hide. GENRE: horror, dark romance MAY BRING TO MIND: Raw (2016), The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015), Pearl (2022)

Two strangers meet on a night train. A has given up on her life, whilst R would prefer to run away from hers. It is by mere happenstance that they are seated opposite each other on the train, merely the fear of being impolite that gets them to start a conversation. But perhaps it will be by choice that they kindle a connection. GENRE: literary fiction, woman x woman romance COMP TITLES: Alone With You In The Ether, The Reader on the 6.27

Wrath will cremate Cecilio Velez to the bone. Beewolf, his personal demon manifested from childhood nightmares, has taught them to think with fire. When he's about to be expelled from his fifth school, his older brother and current guardian has had enough. So, with the help of the class know-it-all, Cece reluctantly tries to clean up their act. But when you've spent a decade sharpening your teeth, it's hard to dull the urge to bite. GENRE: coming of age with elements of psychological horror TROPE: enemies to best friends, grumpy x grumpy COMP TITLES: if Lilo and Stitch were in Skins grand winner of the Nano Watt YA category 2025 featured in TeenFiction: Soul Deep featured in FreeTheLGBT: Coming Of Age featured in TripleACommunity: Young Adult featured in TeenFiction: LGBTQAIP+ Teens

Reality can be different for everyone. One could believe their reality includes angels, eager to help if they are in trouble. One could insinuate that their world is full of mythical beasts. And Sophia Smith could swear that her world was nothing special. For every college student, life is similar. They live with roommates because affording a house on their own is too expensive and gradually lose most of their childhood hobbies to drinking - it's easier and requires no thinking. Sophia is pleased with the life she leads - until she sees him, in the bar she usually frequents, and comes to realize life with him could be so much more magical. Warning: graphic language, mildly suggestive scenes NOTES: Anything but the plot, Sophia, her friends and family belongs to JK Rowling.

Nicolás Velez is done with casual sex. Listen, yes, he might've slept with everyone in his flat within the first week of living in halls and had a respectable run on Grindr, but what eighteen-year-old wouldn't? He's almost twenty-four now, though, and hooking up with people who can't pronounce his name is, as his best mate would say, "not cute, baby girl". Problem: Nikki sucks at dating. With only disasters to show for his efforts, he decides to take a break from it all. That is, until he meets Josephine Rawlins. GENRE: romance, pan man x bi woman TROPES: workplace romance, friends with benefits, mutual pining COMP TITLES: Entergalactic, Take A Hint Dani Brown featured in Wattpad: Black Love featured in Wattpad: BHM Contemporary Lit featured in Wattpad: Pride Community Recommendations featured in lgbtq: Pride Shelf Dec 24 featured in lgbtq: Bisexual and Pansexual featured in Ambassador Recommendations BIPOC Mental Health featured in Ambassadors: Rainbow Fiction featured in Romance: Slow Burn featured in Romance: LGBTQAIP+ Romance featured in Romance: Pride Month featured in Romance: New Beginnings FreeTheLGBT Pride Awards winner 2025 Nano Watt Romance shortlister 2025

Miles Hoàng's life is perfect. He has the perfect boyfriend, a nice apartment, and a decent job. And sure, his family still think that being gay is a phase he'll grow out of. And okay, he's still grieving his father who passed over a decade ago. And yeah, maybe he starts having panic attacks out of nowhere. But he has managed to ignore all that thus far. What's to stop him from ignoring it forever? GENRE: general fiction, mxm romance TROPES: hurt comfort MIGHT BRING TO MIND: Please Like Me, I May Destroy You

Ziri Meziani does not want friends. Born to an unremarkable town in southern England, Ziri spends most of his time in his head. His parents and his therapist tell him that he "shouldn't spend so much time alone", but to Ziri, other people are an inconvenience at best and a threat at worst. Unfortunately, Miles Hoàng is committed to getting on his nerves. GENRE: coming of age, teen bxb romance TROPES: the boy next door, reluctant lovers, tutoring COMP TITLES: The Perks of Being A Wallflower, The Black Flamingo featured in Wattpad: BxB Pride Spotlight featured in Wattpad: Written With Pride 2023 AMBY AWARDS WINNER in teen fiction featured in Ambassadors: Rainbow Fiction featured in Teen Fiction: LGBTQIAP+ Teens featured in lgbtq: BoyxBoy (YA) featured in FreeTheLGBT: Diverse Literature featured in StoriesUndiscovered: Tales Of The Heart featured in YaRomance: Unforgettable Firsts

The real world skins you alive. It's a hazard of growing up in rural Suffolk... or possibly, it's a hazard of growing up. Either way, the Dorian Andrade and Isaiah Matalon who reunite at a party in Oxford have become equally disenchanted imitations of the boys who used to spend summers eating apples on the riverbank. A lot has changed in the six years since they saw each other. One thing is still the same: the longing for each other's company. But aren't the objects of our yearning so much easier to encounter in the imagination than when they're standing in front of us? GENRE: literary fiction, queer romance TROPES: second chance romance, friends to lovers, mutual pining COMP TITLES: A Little Life, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Call Me By Your Name, basically Wolfstar Muggle AU featured in Ambassador Reads featured in Ambassador Recommendations: Living Beyond Labels Dec 24 featured in Ambassadors: Slice of life featured in ContemporaryLit: Ambassadors' Picks featured in ContemporaryLit: LGBTQ+ Contemporary featured in ContemporaryLit: Literary Fiction featured in lgbtq: ManxMan (NA/Adult Fiction) featured in FreeTheLGBT: Diverse Literature featured in WattpadLitFic: Novels featured in WattpadMulticultural: September 2023 Reads of the Month