In a small grocery store where unexplainable and unredeemable things happening are an expected occurrence, the night shift employees have somehow managed to keep reality from completely unraveling, until now.

Is it possible to fall in love with someone you've never met? When Amos Castillo buys a vintage guitar at a pawnshop, he discovers more than an SG Gibson inside the hard leather case. A hidden compartment filled with journal entries gives him a glimpse into Carmela's tumultuous relationship with her addict rockstar husband, Rodrigo. She's a young woman, navigating a world she wasn't ready for, and suffering in silence as she loses herself to his addiction and manipulations. The more Amos reads, the more he realizes their lives aren't so different. While Carmela struggles to find her voice in a toxic marriage, Amos finds himself in a five-year relationship going nowhere. As he silently roots for Carmela to leave her husband, he reclaims his life by figuring out what he needs to be happy. >A dual POV story told in 1st and 3rd person< If you liked It Ends With Us and Daisy Jones & the Six, you will like this. ~~~~~~~~~~~ [[Top 5 Winner - 4th Place]] 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏 [[ ONC Round One Winner - 2nd Place ]] 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙩 #29 "𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙠𝙮" -𝙑𝙞𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙖 𝙒𝙤𝙤𝙡𝙛 [[1st Place Winner]] 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 - 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏

The Duke of Marlborough has signed betrothal contracts on behalf of his daughter, Lady Arianna Kent. But Arianna is not the type to blindly follow her father's biddings. It is not long before Arianna has different plans for her life and as the wedding date draws near, she sets sail for the colonies. Life isn't as easy as it seems and she soon comes to realize that a pirate attack is the least of her concerns as her father's troubles, and those of the handsome privateer captain who rescues her, catch up with her. In a twisted whirlwind of fate Arianna finds herself in situations she had only ever read about in her novels. Is Arianna strong enough to face the challenges life has in store for her? Can she hope to find happiness along the way? *** Watty's 2014 Collector's Dream Award Winner *** Series Order The Duke's Daughter The Reverand's Daughter by @jaidesmamasmama (wattpad) The Highwayman's Daughter (wattpad) The Harlot's Daughter by @jaidesmamasmama (wattpad)

Italian playboy billionaire Marco Orsini has a dilemma. With the ultimatum to either marry or get disinherited, he must now find himself a wife before his grandfather's birthday--and he entrusts his fate on one woman to find him the perfect bride. ********** Twenty-nine-year-old Francesa Marcolini never expected that the day will come when the handsome yet hateful playboy billionaire Marco Orisini would barge into her office and announce that he needs a wife. Despite being a teacher of etiquette and personality development, Francesa had no intention of becoming the matchmaker for this arrogant Italian no matter how determined he is for her help. But to Francesca's horror, she finds herself on that very job! Cover design by Holly Thurston

Mazie has fallen in love. Okay, maybe it's with the ghost of a boy from school she hates, but love conquers all, right? ***** Soon after sixteen-year-old Mazie moves to the town of Dorn, she becomes haunted by the ghost of a teenage boy. The ghost doesn't remember anything, so Mazie calls him Jack. Until then, she never knew that ghosts could tap dance, nor that it was possible to fall in love with one! But then Mazie meets Blake, a mean, popular boy at her new high school - and she realizes that Blake is Jack's living counterpart. This means Blake is in grave danger, and only Mazie can help him, but saving this unpleasant boy might kill her ghostly love forever... [[word count: 50,000-60,000 words]]

There is no night in the Everburning City. There can never be. ***** For four hundred years the Everburning City has withstood the advance of the life-strangling fog known as the Gloam. Its walls have held back five invasions, but on the eve of the sixth, the city's inhabitants know things have changed. Golems are coming out of the mist, and the bodies of the dead are rising at the Gloam's bidding. The city's last and most desperate line of defence comes in the form of the Crafters, individuals who can channel the power of fire, though they risk their sanity each time they do. The brightest of these valiant heroes are Tabitha a'Loria and her apprentice Gerald Reath. Risking their lives, they mount their airships, determined to save the last bastion of humanity - the Everburning City. [[word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]

With war raging all around, some battles can't be won... ♠ The year was 1916, Elosie Keller was dwelling in a secluded Belgian cottage where she remained hidden away from the world until the day he fell from the sky... Drawn to the carnage of a fallen plane, she finds more than rubble when she notices that the pilot is still alive. She knows without medical treatment that the man is fated to die. Acting in a haste, she pulls the man from his destined coffin in hopes to help him live. Eloise soon finds herself tending a German patient in her hidden home and realizes he isn't the monster the world made him out to be; instead, she begins to see much more than an officer, but a man with a heart just trying to survive a war. When she is finally discovered by the Germans, she is called upon to become a field nurse for the men on the western front--only to fall into a whirlwind of unfortunate events that she must learn how to survive. Follow Eloise as she takes on the battle of being a wartime nurse in a man's world, fighting the one enemy that could never be conquered-love... *This is a work of fiction. Any names, dates, or events are completely coincidental. Thanks for reading. (unedited)

What do you do when the one who stole your future is the only one who can give it back? Eighteen year old Sophie Gabcikova led a completely normal life in the quiet village of Panenske Brezany--until the day her beauty caught the eye of Deputy Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, and he had her kidnapped for the purpose of becoming his mistress. For twelve harrowing months, she suffered unspeakable physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at his hands. Only his death in an assassination attempt perpetrated by her brother and his six comrades freed her from the humiliation and pain she was forced to endure on a daily basis. She could only watch as after his death, her loved ones either abandoned her out of disgust for what had been done to her or fell victim to the bloody reprisals that swept the country in retaliation for Heydrich's death. Now she has come to the grave of the man who in his lifetime shattered her life beyond repair for one last conversation, a conversation she hopes will give her the strength to move on for good from that dark chapter in her life. In a macabre tale of pain, sorrow, and irreparable loss, she painstakingly recreates her days in captivity and beyond. And in every sentence resonates the only question she has ever wanted to ask him: "Why did you do that to me?" Some wounds can only be healed by deepening them.

Set in post-apocalyptic America, a witch orphaned from her deceased family seeks refuge at a whorehouse in order to escape starvation. ***** Ivy Tate has her whole life ahead of her but nothing to live for. The earth has been spewing its guts for years and her clan didn't survive it. The only upside? She's a witch. But contrary to popular opinion, magic can't always save lives. With the threat of a slow, hungry death hanging over her head, she falls into strange company; a band of misfits who have found their own way to survive. Ivy is offered clean clothes, a real bed, and food that doesn't run away. But she quickly realizes the price for luxuries is high, like sell-your-soul high, and she must decide if survival is worth the trade. BLOOMER [Book 1] is an off-the-beaten path tale about a young woman coming of age in a world that is falling apart. Mixing magical realism with speculative fiction and spicing it up with romance, BLOOMER will appeal to readers who like to root for unlikely heroes as they earn their stripes. CONTENT WARNING: There will be whores and there will be cussing. LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction and protected by the author. Any similarities between this work and future catastrophic events is purely coincidental. If you find this story on any online platform other than WATTPAD, I did not allow this. You may also be exposing yourself to malware. If you wish to read this story in its original, safe form, do it here on WATTPAD.

| 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐲𝐬 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 | What do you do when everyone seems to want you dead? Kill them first, of course. Minerva Pyroline, assassin by night and heir to an empire by day, has one goal: Survive. No matter the obstacles. No matter the cost. But with political tensions on the rise, strange feelings for a secretive enemy prince, and destructive capabilities hidden within Minerva herself, the goal is nearly impossible to attain. In fighting fire with fire, killing to not be killed, she's tipped the scales of justice too far. Blood cannot be shed without a price. The goddess of retribution is coming to collect. When Minerva finds herself on the receiving end of the blade, she must answer its whispered question: Do you deserve mercy? ✧ 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐬 ✧ 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 ✧ 𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧 ✧ ─────────────────────────────────── 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐲 @𝐡𝐞𝐱_𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐝 Completed: 8-15-2022 Word Count: 100,000 - 110,000