I knew that something was wrong when the pancakes were burnt. ** 13 Reasons Why Contest Entry **

Vera Markov was born into this life. She did not choose it. Had she been given the choice, she never would have even considered this life to be an option. She was born a human but she was raised to be a monster. A killer, a fighter, a warrior. She was trained until there was no more humanity left inside of her, there was only cruelty, hatred, and apathy. She lived under her father's rule, executing his demands to the syllable. Dante Berardi knew her pain. He too was born a human, raised to be a monster. A killer, fighter, and a warrior too. They are practically the same person, except for the fact that they were also raised to hate each other. They were both born to rival crime families in the same city, fighting over money, territory, and just about anything else that they could fight over. Vera and Dante have never met until Vera is sent undercover to get answers from Dante's side of the city. She gets much more than she bargained for, finding answers to questions that she's never asked and feeling human emotions that she's never felt before. As she discovers more about herself and her past, Vera starts to wonder if the monster inside of her can ever be conquered or if she's doomed to this life forever.

Wren had thought that she was doing everything right. She had the right career path, the right boyfriend, the right friends. She did everything that she was told, and she thought that she was happy. Until her junior year of college is about to start and Wren finds her boyfriend making out in the garage with somebody else. Now that she realizes that doing what she's told gets her nowhere, Wren decides that she should start doing everything wrong. Date the wrong boys, break the laws, and piss people off. She spirals out of control after the betrayal of a lifetime and Wren won't stop until she's hit rock bottom, and she lands on her face. [Also available on Radish]

Eleanor never really stood a chance. Her mother was in love with a married man and a little bit crazy. And even though Eleanor's tired mother hated children, she was convinced that he would love her too if they just had a child together. That's how Eleanor was born. And when Eleanor didn't work, when he didn't leave his wife, she decided that one baby wasn't enough and so she had another. And that's how Casey was born. When she realized that having his children wasn't going to make him fall in love with her, she remembered just how badly she hated children. Eleanor and Casey were suddenly thrown aside by their broken-hearted mother; and then their father, being the married man that he was, completely denied their existence. Which left 8-year-old Eleanor and newborn baby Casey in foster care, hidden from the world like a blemish. As Eleanor gets older, she is forced to protect her brother from the cruel world that they live in. She doesn't want him to grow up like she did, feeling like a thrown away misfit. Eleanor learns that she needs to do whatever it takes to get her brother a better life. And that's when the trouble starts for her. By the time that Eleanor turns 22, she has been consumed by a world of lies, money, and sex. Convinced that doing the wrong thing is okay for the right reasons, Eleanor is used to living with two separate identities. When it all starts to catch up with her, Eleanor has to figure out how she is going to make it out of the mess that she's created. Poor girl. She never really stood a chance.

Yasmin used to love living on an apple orchard with her family. She loved going out into the orchard in the mornings to pick the apples with her family, running around with her brother and their dog while her mom and dad would sneak kisses behind the trees when they thought nobody was looking. When Yasmin was twelve, however, everything changed. Her mother died and then, slowly, so did all of the apple trees. As the trees started to lose their leaves and shrivel up, she watched her dad cure his broken heart with whiskey. She watched her brother turn into somebody unrecognizable. As the apples died, so did her family. Even now, at eighteen, Yasmin lives with a dreadful sense of hopelessness in her small town with her twisted family and their stupid yet lovable dog. No way up, no way out. Yasmin is stuck. Until, of course, she meets Dex and he accidentally starts to change everything.

Lana and Sutton thought that they were going to take college by storm. Being on their own isn't easy but they have each other and when they have each other, they can do anything. Best friends, family, sisters, twins. They are with each other through thick and thin. They're trying to adapt to adult life, everything is going perfectly and they're ready for anything thrown their way. Homework, friends, exams, college parties, and college boys. It's their second year and they're ready for it to be the best year yet with new friends, new romances, and new memories. Little did they know what kind of storm was coming their way, and that nobody could ever be prepared for this.

The White Cloud Hotel: Where dreams come true. Except for Bea Holloway, who was uprooted from her home in Illinois to move to Florida when her dad decides to buy this luxury hotel on the coast of Eastern Florida. Without any close friends or any school to return to, Bea doesn't look at this move as a bad thing until she realizes that this sunny paradise isn't all that it seems to be. Bea notices everything changing: Her family dynamic, her outlook on life, and her social life are all unlike how they were back home. With a flirty bellhop, a pretty lifeguard, a weird little brother, and her two dogs, Bea starts realizing that that living in a luxury hotel isn't so... luxurious.

Dear Nobody, My name is Luna Rose Wesley and I'm just like any other girl my age. I have some secrets, I'm afraid of the future, I have some complicated relationships and some amazing friends, and I'm just trying to do anything that I can to survive. But as the days pass, it seems like surviving in my world is becoming more difficult with every minute. You see, without any money, my family is forced to live in in an apartment building that's smack dab in the center of our rundown part of the city. And my mother is just a work of art. She is now addicted to drugs, and she isn't trying very hard at all to try to get us out of our inner-city situation. Living in constant fear, not only of what's outside my window at night, but also of my violent dealing brother living in the room across the hall, I have to find a way to cope without putting a bullet in my skull like so many of my fallen brethren. And my coping mechanism is to write letters to nobody- to you- and sending it to an address that doesn't exist. I need somebody to talk to without that somebody thinking that I'm looking for pity, so I've found you. Nobody. Thanks for listening. Sincerely, Luna Rose (Rated Mature for the mentioning of sex, drug use, violence, and profane language. Does not contain actual sex scenes.)

The SECOND book in the Celebrity Status series (: Last year, Holly Thorne was normal. Until she moved to Hollywood to stay with her brother, Jackson Thorne. Aka, teenage hearthrob actor for all of America, where she meets her idol, Ryder West. And of course, falls in love with Ryder's brother, Kale. She has the summer of her life until it ends with a heartbreaking ending and she returns to her life in Minnesota. A year later, Holly finally graduated high school and now she's ready to take on the world with her best friend, Libby, by her side. Until she gets an unexpected call and is thrown back into the world that she'd spent a year trying to forget. She's returning to Hollywood to be with her brother, Jackson, and all of her LA friends for another summer full of drama, confusion, and tears.