Lottie needs a break and her inspiration back, so she launches herself into a quiet coastal town and--quite literally--into Leigh's life. As they try to save a summer camp, Lottie begins to rediscover her spark--and the kind of love she never thought she'd find. ***** Lottie Fitzpatrick is a star. She's glamorous, untouchable, and unstoppable. After her sold-out world tour ends in nasty burnout and terrible writer's block, she seeks refuge in a small, coastal town in Massachusetts to find her voice. She doesn't expect to get roped into volunteering at a struggling summer music camp or to be working with Leigh Flores, the snarky, quiet counselor who has no time for superstars. She's not particularly impressed, but Lottie is too charming. Lottie cares. As the camp's days blur into late-night jamming and songwriting sessions, what starts as a creative reset and mental health break begins to feel like something deeper. It demands bravery. Lottie isn't sure if she's ready to be seen. With real life pulling her back toward the spotlight Leigh has never chased, they'll have to decide if their connection can survive after summer ends. ***** WARM HANDS #2 © 2025 caterina george // all rights reserved

Penn Romero is a smart girl. Smart girls don't get involved with their professors. ***** It begins with a casual meeting at a speakeasy. It begins with a drink. It begins with a stolen stare. It begins with the not-knowing, the secrecy, the sneaking around. Penn Romero hardly knew what she was getting into when she was drawn in by Chase Steele's magnetism, and she hardly knew he'd be her new Film Theory professor. Against everything she's ever known, against everything she should do, she stills falls into a dark spiral of manipulation that keeps her trapped in a spider web, losing sight of who the real Penn is--all that's left is what he has made of her and all he's taken. It ends with him taking and taking. It ends with the should've-knowns. It ends in ruin. ***** THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE. DON'T ADD THIS TO ROMANCE READING LISTS, PLEASE. [[THE AMBYS 2024 TOP PICK IN CONTEMPORARY]] © 2021 caterina george // all rights reserved

After losing the only boy she has ever loved, Jackie must find a way out of the spider web of grief and memory, and hold to the delicate hope of moving forward. ***** Jackie never pictured raising her daughter without Andy by her side. He was supposed to be the finish line, the one she'd always come back to, but the universe always finds a way of turning your life upside down. After a devastating accident takes him away, Jackie is left grasping for a lifeline, trapped in a world filled with memories she can't recover. Leaving home seems like the only choice, but distance can't make the memories disappear or calm the ache of every 'what if'. It doesn't make the pain go away. But love doesn't end with goodbye, or with death. It just changes shape. ***** BENNINGTON COLLEGE #1.5 © 2025 caterina george // all rights reserved

Welcome to The Boyfriend Hotline. Press 1 for heartbreak. Press 2 for memories. Press 3 for dreams. ⋆☆⋆ Flynn Eastwood runs a dating service called The Boyfriend Hotline. When he gets a call from a mysterious man asking him if option 4 exists - three months to befriend the cute girl at the bakery where he works at, he quickly puts the phone down. But when the man calls again offering $30,000 to do the job, Flynn knows he can't say no. ⋆☆⋆ [ glassheart chronicles : #1.6] [ weekly updates ] [© ataliass 2026 ] [ OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2026 ROUND 2 WINNER ]

Prudence Mackey's best friend is dead, and she's not been grieving well.

In which Julien Cortez and Rory Mack Jr's secret romance might not be able to survive under the division rivalry their baseball teams have. ━ There's no denying to any fan that the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees are two of the biggest rivals in baseball. Each time the Major League baseball season starts up, the talk of the town is who will take the American League east pennant; the Boston Red Sox, with their young, talented first baseman? Or the New York Yankees, with their nepo baby centerfielder trying to live up to his dad's hall of fame name? Perhaps Julien Cortez should've known better than to sleep with the enemy. But Rory Mack Jr definitely should've known better than to fall in love with him. ━ ━ Crosses over with 'Modern Romance' by @smidorii ━ Loosely inspired by 'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare

Mari thought that coming home to a ghost town after her mom's death was bad. It turns out it's worse having to attend her estranged father's wedding and letting her childhood best friend break down the walls she carefully built. ***** Mari Chasey's life is suspended. She returns to her hometown in a cold November day following her mother's death, after years of studying abroad in Europe. Pinewood is sleepy in the bitter cold, the deserted shoreline stretching further than she can reach, but that's okay. Mari is good with temporary things and at not lingering. She's not planning to stay for long, just enough to sort out her mother's affairs without poking at open wounds. Then her father returns. Jack Chasey, former renowned superstar, absent for most of her childhood, is getting married to a woman Mari hardly knows. He gets to begin again, build something new, while Mari grapples with a fractured life and all the scattered pieces of herself. Her mother was supposed to live forever; Jack was mercurial and always at arm's length. But now he's here to stay. Enter Kinney St. James. Once Mari's closest friend, then another person that passed by like a comet, she still knows Mari and all the shards of her. Even the sharper ones. In the stillness of winter, Mari reconnects with the quiet life Jack always wanted for her, the softer parts of her that only Kinney can tap into, and what it truly means to be her mother's daughter. ***** Open Novella Contest -- prompts 24, 29, 46, & 77 [[OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2026 ROUND 1 WINNER]] © 2026 caterina george // all rights reserved