[NOTE: This book was written in 2010, a time of long-distance phone cards, weight-loss obsessions, and searching for a man as a solution to life's problems-what a messy time to be alive! In other words, I hope you enjoy this throwback, and while this book does end on a cliffhanger of sorts, the sequel addresses any unanswered questions (which is hopefully fair, given that book 1 is free, ya know?] An awkward family homecoming at Christmas. A humiliating public weigh-in, with two judging parents as the audience. The announcement of a deadline for arranged marriage doom. And that's just the first two chapters. In "Year of the Chick," Romi Narindra must find love before her parents find her a husband. Easy to say, less easy to live through, as this book takes you deep inside "awkward Indian living in the West." To escape her fate, Romi wades through the waters of secret-dating, where self-consciousness is at an all-time high, and experience at an all-time low. It's the sort of thing that would turn almost anyone into a man-crazy freak with romance tunnel-vision, and that's exactly what ends up happening. All the while, a lack of inspiration in her corporate job leads Romi to her love of writing, in what quickly becomes a man-quest play-by-play. From whiskey-breath scum bags to uni-brow creeps and everything in between, Romi and her wingmen come up empty time after time. And that's when she meets a fellow writer. On the Internet. So will it be arranged marriage doom, or an Internet affair that's not as creepy as "To Catch a Predator"? Time will tell in the "year of the chick," a twelve-month quest to find love. Tick-tock. --------------------------------------------- "Year of the Chick" is book one of a series, and book two is available at Amazon! LENGTH: 75,000 words or 285 pages DISCLAIMER: this book contains profanities, blunt accounts of the dating scene, and many awkward family moments. Enjoy!

Chase Evans may be a notorious playboy, but he’s always known he’d fall hopelessly in love one day. So when he meets Spanish beauty LaCienega [Lah-cie-Ena-ga] Perez and falls head over, he knows for sure she’s what he’s always been waiting for. Except LaCienega is already engaged by the time he meets her and to none other than his childhood best friend Jace Waite who Chase hasn’t seen since high school graduation. Meanwhile, he meets Krislynn Reimer who has a strange attraction for bad boys and imperfection. She's not interested in the pretty boys who are complete jerks like he is. She wants the real bad boys, the ones with addiction problems, family problems, money problems, woman problems, any problems! It’s her favourite hobby to take them home and put a Band-Aid over their hearts and nurse them back to health. Except when they make a full recovery, they always abandon her and always in the cruellest ways. The two utterly can't stand each other so how in the world did Chase end up as Krislynn's boyfriend and how in the world did Krislynn end up as Chase's maid?

High school is hard for most people and for Chloe Miller, this is no exception. She is forced to learn the perils of her choices the hard way and the result leads her to building a steel wall around herself that is impossible to crack. Eventually, her mother loses her job and Chloe is then forced to move in with her cousin and their family. This means a new school and on the first day she arrives with a dynamite mission in mind. A mission to reclaim everything that she had once lost at the hands of others. She quickly finds herself fighting a past that she struggles to forget and creating a future that she can live with. It becomes a constant battle for her, centered around peer pressure, character stereo types, cliques and consequences. Couple that with the plight of falling in love and she finds herself playing a starring role in the game of life where everyone is playing for keeps. Will she win... or will she lose? Excerpt: Sauntering forwards, she slid onto his lap with all the grace of a prima ballerina and wrapped her long arms around his neck. Leaning in to his ear, she blew out a little puff of hot air so that it fanned lightly over all the right places. She felt a sense of utter satisfaction when he shuddered. Now that Chloe was certain that she had his attention, she whispered in his ear. “You may have been the best bucko, but guess what…..I’m going to be better.” She lifted up so that she could look him in the face and smiled confidently back at him. His previous cocky demeanor had seemed to have lost some of its earlier steam, “Who are you?” he asked so low that only Chloe could hear him. His forehead was creased as he searched her face, watching her as if she was some type of strange puzzle that needed to be solved. Chloe lifted her hand patted his cheek. The boy didn’t have a clue. “I, my friend, am your biggest adversary. So what do you say Mr. Player, won’t you play with me?”

Grace is Sweet, simple and way too sarcastic. She doesn't like to be rude to people but, she stands for her friemds and family no matter what. Cameron is Badass, law breaker who doesn’t believe in love and has no intrest in girls whatsoever. ‘Love is perfect waste of time’ he likes to say. You put the cocky badass and the queen of sarcasm together, with some twists and turns..and what have we got? An unforgettable rollercoaster ride full of fun, arguments, fights, laugh riots and much more! This isn’t just any cliché, this is father and mother of all clichés!

Mia Hastings was never one to follow the rules. Her brother knew it, her best friend knew it. Everyone knew it. She lives for the moment, doing whatever she feels and thinking of the consequences later. Her main goal in life is to live it. Mia’s brother’s best friend Drake O’Connell was never big on rules. The judge who sentences him to 2 years in prison knew it. He is known for being the badboy, partying and womanising. His charm, good looks and obnoxious behaviour made his life pretty easy and his main goal in it was to have fun. He had lost 2 years of his life locked up, so he was determined to make up for lost time. So when these two people are thrown together, both without a care in the world, issues of their own and more secrets than an episode of Pretty Little Liars, you can expect a story full of laughs, tears, arguments and felonies. They might be breaking the law, but both Mia and Drake are about to find out that when it feels wrong, it is ALWAYS more fun. ©makeandoffer

Soon-to-be 18 year old Francesca is most commonly known as Checka. She grew up without a home and knowing nothing about her deceased mother. Well aware that she will never be adopted before she reaches adulthood, she is surprised when she receives a letter from her grandmother. Francesca is suddenly whisked away into a life she never even imagined. She discovers that she is descended from a line of royalty and is expected to rule a country she has no knowledge over. It isn’t an easy task as she learns that she has to win the crown in a battle against two other lines of royalty. Her checkered past is not good material to rely on when trying to be a princess. Will she succeed or have to return to America and the life she so desperately wanted to escape?

Would YOU trust someone who bought you off Ebay? Grace is sick of being labelled a snob because of her money. She's sick of her backstabbing friends and her mansion of a house. She doesn't know how to tell if people are friends with Grace, or Grace's money, and all she really wants is a fresh start. So she decides to sell herself on Ebay. Setting up a fake account, she sells herself as a teenage dropout who 'will work for money'. When 'Jas737' wins the auction, everything seems innocent. She gets to work cleaning his apartment, and for once in her life realizes how it feels to have responsibility, and a friend who doesn't judge her for her wealth. But unfortunately for Grace, she learns that you can't trust everyone the hard way. Who's not to say there's other people tracking her down with different meanings for "work"? after all, how's a 'helpless teenage drop out with no money supposed to save herself? Will she be able to keep up her disguise? Is Jas737 even as trustworthy as he says he is? Maybe Grace should have thought twice about selling herself over the internet.

Callie Picket,the-fat-girl-next-door has a big fat secret. Well, a secret she's been successfully hiding from her oh so sexy apartment neighbor Chris Walker. In their first meeting, he mistakes her for a fat guy and she does nothing to correct him. "That awkward moment when the man you love doesn't know you're a woman" Very over-weight 22 year old girl Callie has a mega crush on her hunkie new apartment next door neighbor Chris ...(age 24). The thing is, since Callie is so overweight, Chris mistakes her for a guy but she doesn't tell him the truth because they've become buddies and she doesn't want to lose that bond with him. Then Chris makes her start going to the gym to lose weight and as the pounds comes off, Chris begins to see these changes...like Callie starts to look more girly, and since he's a total playboy and lady lover, he starts getting attracted to her while thinking that she's still a "he". Basically, he thinks he's going gay. Will Callie ever tell him the truth as her lie begins to take its toll on both of them as she and very confused Chris becomes closer? Or will he be the first to finally see her for what she truly is? A Big Fat Liar.

Hadley Jamison doesn't know what to think when she hears that her classmate, Archer Morales, committed suicide. She didn't exactly know him, but that doesn't stop her from feeling like there was something she could have done to help him. So to Hadley's surprise, on the very night of Archer's funeral, she has a run in with Death himself and is offered the chance to go back in time to stop Archer from ending his life. The catch? She only has twenty-seven days to do it. And if Hadley doesn't succeed? Well, she doesn't want to think about that.