When May Alana's wish on a star brings a stranger to her remote island home, the pair must survive a deadly magical conflict in order to be together. ***** When May Alana, a scorned and anxiety-ridden young woman, finds a stranger on the beach of her remote island home, she wonders if this is the adventurous, accepting, and loving answer to her otherwise cloistered life. But as the pair grow closer, the stranger entrusts May with her brilliant secret: that she is half-Star in possession of otherworldly powers, and that a violent group of Star worshippers are out to destroy her. So if they want any chance of being together, they'll have to survive a deadly conflict between humans and mythological creatures first. THE STAR AND THE OCEAN is Book 1 in the Starborn Series Book 2: THE WIND AND THE HORIZON Book 3: THE FIRE AND THE SKY Cover illustration by Brittany Willows (@BrittanyMWillows) [[Watty Winner]] [[Wattpad LGBT Book of the Month]] [[word count: 70,000-80,000 words]]

||WATTY'S SHORTLIST 2023|| [LGBTQ+ New Adult Fiction] When Mia Cunningham leaves her hometown in coastal Maine at 11 years old after her mother's death, her best friend, Leila Sutherland, gifts Mia a seashell "so she can hear the ocean and remember her home." Over a decade later, the two young women are beginning to navigate their post-grad lives. Leila has remained in Maine, afraid to branch out of her comfort zone, and Mia, after spending her college years in New York and unsure of her future, returns to the only place she ever felt home--Kenneburk, Maine. After a fateful meeting between the young women, Leila and Mia slowly begin to rekindle the friendship that had once been long forgotten. Their friendship is immediately tested, however, as Leila begins to develops familiar feelings and Mia, unsure of where she belongs, cannot help but wonder the direction her life is calling her towards. Will their friendship survive these new trials of adulthood, or should it have ended permanently the day that Mia left 12 years prior? Find out in "Can You Hear the Ocean?" (Published: 2021)