"What are you left with, if you give up everything you think you know, for love?" LYDIA YOUNG hates her life. She's rich, beautiful, and popular, and dates a future lord, but her only wish is to get as far away from it all as possible. And she would do everything and anything in her power to do so. She's been admitted to a top university and is keeping everything in her life in check, preparing for moving away to Scotland and finally starting anew. Until her best childhood friend, MARK CARTER returns from America and drops into her life like a grenade, about to explode. Devastatingly handsome, grown-up and shroud in mystery, he sucks her into a vortex of love, excitement, and secrets until Lydia is left stranded far, far away from her clearly laid out, preset path. At least, she still has Mark. Or so she thinks. She can tell Mark is hiding something. She just doesn't know what yet. When the grenade finally goes off and Mark's past and Lydia's present catch up with them, Lydia has only one question to ask herself: What are you left with, when you give up everything you think know, for love? Author's note: This is my first book! All feedback is welcome! Let me know what you think, you guys! :) 🥇 Best Beginning in the Sweet Waffle Awards 🥈 Romance in the Lovely Valentine Awards 🥈 Best Hook in the Lovely Valentine Awards 🥉 Honorable Mention in the Lovely Valentine Awards, Best Opening Chapter Category [Trigger Alert] [This book mentions mental health issues/Depression/Suicide] [There are some detailed descriptions of mental health deteoriation episodes] [This book contains foul language/swearing] [Top Rating: #1 #itsalwaysbeenyou March 2023 #5 #richkids 25 November 2022 #9 #richgirl February 2023 #16 #populargirl 12 February 2023 #18 #newadultromance 23 January 2023 Cover by: @heidicarrol

Life cannot treat Alexia Grey any better. She has amazing family and friends and gets perfect scores. She is destined for great things. She has envisioned a life with her boyfriend, for whom she has sacrificed her entry to the state's best university. But fate has other plans. The perfect future she has pictured shatters into pieces one fateful day. Alexia Grey is a happy-go-lucky girl who has been dumped by her high school sweetheart. Things get more unbearable when it becomes the talk of the town. People either give her looks of pity or laugh at her. Left without a choice, she leaves for the city to start afresh. In New York City, she meets the cold and aloof Matteo Knight, whose mysterious vibe draws her towards him. Matteo is an introvert with great ambition. To achieve his lifetime goal of becoming a famous doctor, he refuses to get distracted by anything. As a result, he has grown distant from everyone around him. Enter Alexia Grey who has now become his neighbour. What kind of sparks will fly between a boy who is driven by his desire for success and a girl who wants a fresh start in life? *** [Open Novella Contest 2020] Prompt #61: After being jilted, you move to the city to hide your embarrassment, lick your wounds and start afresh. Started: 8 February 2020 Completed: 4 May 2020

Piper Clark married her best friend. And no, not in the way brides always say at their wedding. She married Lucas Vega because he needed a green card. Days before graduation, Piper's college best friend, Lucas, discovered he was being deported. Everything he had worked for, everything he dreamed of, would come crumbling to the ground unless someone intervened. So Piper did. Six years later, they are living separate lives, having hardly spoken to one another since that fateful courthouse wedding all those years ago. But then a call from ICE has her on a plane, heading back to California and her husband, a man who traded his glasses for an Armani suit and his lithe form for a six pack. Now, they've got to put on the show of their lives and pretend the past six years have been nothing but marital bliss. But something new is brewing between these best friends and Piper is starting to wonder if she's acting at all.

[ a desi best friends to enemies to lovers story ] Miraya lands the envied opportunity to do a feature story for the popular magazine MIRROR. When she realises the celebrity she has to work with is the one who ruined what could've been the best years of her life, things don't seem very enviable. Shray Nivas is the hot, rising youth star of South India. His irresistable charm isn't exclusive for the cameras and Miraya knows that first-hand. Having more than ten years of history between them, it becomes hard to stick to the itinerary when they are forced to work together. Set in southern India, watch Miraya and Shray's lives take an unexpected turn, bringing them together in a troublesome fake-dating arrangement and making them the talk of the town with eye-opening truths and secrets from the past to keep them entertained. [80,000 - 90,000 words]

Sophie is flying back home after being gone for four years. She's the maid of honor in her childhood friend's wedding. When she imagined being the maid of honor, she never imagined the groom would be the man that she was in love with. Hoping that having a front row seat to their union will finally give her closure, she catches a flight to the last place she ever wanted to return. Andrew can't believe that his best friend is getting married. He has always thought that letting Sophie go was his friend's biggest mistake. She was the perfect woman and he hasn't stopped thinking about her since she disappeared four years ago. If she wasn't his best friend's ex, he would have tracked her down and fought hard for a chance to have her for himself. When the week of the wedding finally arrives, Sophie and Andrew take their positions as the maid of honor and best man. Will Sophie's history with her ex - the groom, make this an event she'd like to forget or will the best man make this a celebration she'd like to remember forever?

Bianca When I got flooded out of my basement apartment, my brother took me in. Now, my brother and his wife are running off to Spain for a second honeymoon and leaving me alone in their house with their four adorable children and Timo, the wonder-manny. Timo, the wonder-manny, is every bit as terrific as my sister-in-law Camille told me he was. He's kind, he's intelligent, and he's great with kids. The problem? Timo, the wonder-manny, wants nothing to do with me, and I can't really blame him. He couldn't be more mistaken in his first impression of me, but I'm too mortified to set him straight. Timo If you'd told me five years ago that I'd be a nanny to four kids under the age of six, I would never have believed it. I was a highflyer back then. Until I fell. But now my life's getting back on track. I'm a new man, and the new and improved me doesn't get involved with party girls. Unfortunately, my employers have gone off on their second honeymoon and left me to look after their four kids and one homeless party girl who threatens to wreck my resolution to avoid the kind of women who get drunk and ask strange men for their phone numbers. Unfortunately, I'm the strange man who's caught this party girl's eye, and there's no avoiding her as long as we're living under the same roof.

~complete~ Charlotte is as sweet as a strawberry. She's the kind of person who will drop everything just to help you, just to put a smile on your face. She's as sweet as the sugar that constantly runs through her bloodstream, and as excitable as the rush that comes with it. And then there's Benjamin, who's as sour as a lemon. The last thing on this Godforsaken planet he wants to do is acquaint himself with her. While Charlotte is kind and caring, he's rude and vulgar, while she's friendly and innocent, he's crass and mean. So how in the hell is that going to turn out?

"We could just . . . *do it*, you know," he says now, teasingly. "Clear all that sexual tension up with one quick ten minute session?" I seriously hope he's joking, but I'm not certain he is. Either way, I can't prevent the exasperated huff of laughter that escapes my lips at those words. "You must be dreaming if you think there's *any* sexual tension between us," I scoff. "Anyway, I'd rather not be another notch on your bedpost, thanks very much." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ruby Rafferty has won the ultimate prize - a luxury holiday in Crete! In theory, it couldn't be more perfect - endless sun, Greek food, an unlimited free bar . . . There's only one problem. The man she has no choice but to share the prize with. Lewis Sheridan may be ridiculously attractive, but he is also cocky, cynical, and comes complete with his own specific set of red flags. He's everything Ruby has never wanted in a guy, and she's not sure she can survive *one* day alone with him, let alone ten. It's *fine*, though . . . Their suite is massive, the cocktails are flowing, and Ruby can't help but notice how handsome and charming the hotel manager is. If only he didn't think she and Lewis were already a couple . . . Will forced proximity push our vacationers closer or further apart? Can enemies really become lovers? And what will happen if anyone realises they're technically on holiday under false pretences? I guess we're about to find out . . . Cover by @jspromcoms

Seat filler Lincoln Parker never expected to accidentally fall on one knee in front of world-famous superstar Emily Margot. Now, with his face on the cover of every tabloid, he has to pretend to be her lover-and keep hidden his real, growing feelings as their time together starts to run out. ***** When 23-year-old Lincoln Parker accidentally trips over famous actress Emily Margot, he never imagines that she would ask him to be her pretend fiancé until the scandal-of being caught supposedly proposing to her-blows over in the media. Because he's a relative nobody; just an army medic on leave, moonlighting at award shows as a seat filler. But with his name on the dotted line of their contract, he has to find a way to survive in her Hollywood bubble and also bury his growing anxiety, especially as his leave from the army runs out. Can their budding relationship withstand the distance? Is their love built to last? [ General fiction #2 chick lit #4 ] [Wattys 2015 Winner - HQ Love) [word count: 60,000-70,000 words] Cover designed by Lucas Fisher Sequel: The Game Changer

Hooking up with her best friend's brother is Sam's childhood crush come true, but to have a future together, she'll have to overcome her past. ***** Sam Larson has always known Mason Wells is off-limits. He's her best friend's brother, and their family took her in when she needed somewhere to go as a teen. She thought she'd let her crush go, but seeing him at his sister's wedding brings all those old feelings back. And then some. Hooking up is one thing, but to have a real relationship, Sam will have to wrestle with the past she fears if she's going to have the future she longs for. [[Word count: 60,000-70,000]] Cover designed by @OutofMyLimit17 Content Warning: This book contains references to drug use, childhood neglect, and intimate partner abuse.