a high school grumpy x sunshine book written to make you feel good ♡

A banished princess enters the enemy kingdom under a false name, hiding a single deadly purpose: assassinate the king. But as she learns the man behind the crown, her hatred begins to unravel. Now trapped between vengeance and a growing love she never planned for, she must decide whether to finish what she started, or betray everything she once fought for.

Romance trope: best friends to lovers. "You're supposed to be my best friend, but all I can think about is kissing you again." TEDDY: I somehow got stuck in the unfortunate "one of the guys" category. It was on accident, naturally falling into this role since my childhood best friend was a boy. The crush on my best friend was also an accident. He's always seen me as one of the guys. That is, until the one drunken night he didn't. The one that nearly ruined everything a decade ago. JENSEN: It was much easier when I didn't notice how hot my best friend is. It would be even better if the rest of the jackoffs in our small town would stop noticing too. I can still remember all the details from our night together years ago. The night we never talk about, yet it's still so fresh in my mind. But will a secret scar from a past relationship ruin everything? [This is BOOK ONE of the WITH YOU series, a small town romance series set in Minnesota about the lives of the dysfunctional, blended Anderson family - with an interwoven mystery built into the background that spans the entirety of the series.] **Title formerly The Rest of Forever**

After a one night stand on New Year's Eve, Lia and Derrick don't expect to see one another again. After all, she's a Harvard PhD student and he's a professional hockey player for the Boston Knights - there's no way their paths should cross again. Except when they do, it's immediately obvious the chemistry between them hasn't dimmed one bit. Too busy for the real thing, neither of them sees the harm in continuing to see each other in a casual sense. Though when Derrick gets traded to a team in California and things begin to go sideways with Lia's research team, the pair can't seem to shake the fact they've grown to rely on one another, even now that they're thousands of miles apart.

Skye Templeton is sick of living in a small village in the Scottish Highlands where everyone knows every single little thing about her. She's tired of her dead-end "situationship". She desperately needs to escape . . . So when a chance encounter opens her eyes to the possibility of a different life, she decides it's time to shake things up a bit. Moving to Glasgow on a whim probably isn't her smartest idea, but Skye is determined to make the most of her new life. Unfortunately, life doesn't always work out the way you planned . . . Especially if you didn't really have a plan in the first place! ~~~~~~~~ I initially started this story with the intention of entering it into the Open Novella Contest this year - I've since found out that it wouldn't qualify but I'm still using one of the prompts all the same! The prompt I'm using is: Prompt 45- "Keep your happily ever after; it ain't mine." And, much like Skye, I really don't have a plan for it yet, so let's just see what unfolds! ;-)

Carissa Belfiore's mission was simple; hunt down the man terrorising her city and burn his syndicate's web of deceptions to the ground. The catch though? She must work together with the devil in disguise. 𐀔𐀔𐀔 Four months after the trail went dark, Cara and her team gain a second chance at retribution, at tracking down the man responsible for the mysterious chain of disappearances plaguing the streets of her town. Retribution, though, comes at a cost. Missing people and stolen identities unsolved, Cara's boss presents to her with a new ultimatum. She must pursue this mission with Asrea's top (infuriating) agent or lose the rights to the case. With no other choice, Cara must learn to thread the thin line of peace with the devil disguised as a federal agent, one who has little belief in patience and even less so for mistakes. Much like everything else though, it was easier said than done. As the two of them begin to dismantle the empire brick by brick, Cara finds herself pulling at loose strings tying the pieces of the missing puzzles connecting her past to her present. Strings, she soon realises, had been buried by the hands of someone desperately trying to keep her from finding out the truth. A truth that might just break her. No retrogrades, no reversals, and no unknowing the known. If only she could've done it alone, for even the devil must be paid his dues. The devil whose icy, blue eyes never fail to see through every shield and every shadow she'd built around her heart, the very shadows that seem to calm within his presence. The man whose icy rage threatens to thaw her blazing heart. 𐀔𐀔𐀔 First Draft Completed on 12/1/2025 Completed on 12/3/2025

When vengeance strikes in the form of a bullet out for the princess's blood, Princess Aleia VonAuclair must flee the heart of her country in order to protect the people she loves and take back the pieces of her soul she'd lost to the girl she once loved like a sister - the same girl who'd turned out to be the one hidden beneath the assassin's mask all along. ♡︎♡︎♡︎ Princess Aleia VonAuclair's twenty-first birthday was set to mark the beginning of a new era; a celebration of a country and their princess reborn after a deathly battle that put an entire nation neck-to-neck with Asrea's infamous serial killer. While Aleia struggles to twine the identities of the girl she'd once played dress up with to the girl history writes down as the heartless slayer of innocents, the rest of the world will forever remember her only as her legacy: Asrea's renowned Harbinger of Death. But when terrors of a sharpshooter and his lethal bullet striking for vengeance erupts the nation into utter chaos, the princess is forced to flee thousands of miles away from her home and the people she holds dear to her heart. Hidden between the shadows of a new city, Aleia is ordered keep her head down and her heart locked tight until they capture the man set out for the princess's blood. No distractions, no attachments, and absolutely no mistakes. If only it were that simple. If only if it weren't for the man whose cold, green eyes seem to pierce straight through her soul and into the buried depths of the secrets tearing her life apart by the seams. The man whose own shadows threaten to unveil hers. ♡♡♡ Completed on 9/3/2024 #1 in YoungAdult 🥇 #1 in TeenRomance 🥇 #2 in HiddenIdentity 🥈

• WATTYS 2022 WINNER • When Iris Monet married millionaire Jared Darling, she had only one rule - that he could cheat on her with anyone except the household staff. This arrangement of theirs would have gone on quite happily if she hadn't caught him on the snooker table with their maid, and on their wedding anniversary night no less. Humiliated and more than a little drunk, Iris storms out of the house vowing never to return unless it's for a well-compensated divorce. But as the train trundles out of the city, she slowly calms down and quickly realizes that there's a problem. A big problem. Because the only thing Iris has ever done in her life is being a trophy wife. The prospect of unfunded singlehood on the cusp of her thirties is a horrifying nightmare she's unprepared to deal with. So naturally, when she lays eyes on who she thinks is the richest bachelor in Ryefair, Iris is more than ready to put her claws into him. Except, Satoh Akai isn't the richest bachelor in Ryefair - not by a long shot. And as someone who speaks better with animals than people, romance is the furthest thing from his mind. When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, anything is possible but one thing is certain - worlds will collide and hearts will burn. ✒ 17th November 2021 (start) ✒ 27th July 2022 (end)

He sees the cracks she hides. She hears the silence he jokes over. Neither expects to become the other's safest place. Olivia Hudson has perfected the mask, golden girl, party queen, untouchable. Declan Knight hides behind jokes and a smile loud enough to drown out everything that hurts. When a single crack in Liv's façade collides with the fractures Declan can't outrun, they see each other, too clearly, too fast. Dragged together by pull and pushed apart by pride, they flirt, fight, and burn through a campus that keeps score. But want is easy. Trust is work. And neither of them knows what it means to let someone stay when the lights are off and the past gets loud. Family loyalty, private scars, and a love that refuses to be tidy, this is a story about choosing to be seen and learning that "broken" isn't the end of you. It's where the light starts. For fans of angsty romance with real stakes, protective siblings, and healing arcs that earn their happy ending - golden girl × class clown, grumpy/guarded × charming, hurt/comfort, slow burn found family, brothers who will burn the world for you

Some lines aren't meant to be crossed. This one won't stop calling. Sierra Grace likes quiet plans and clean exits. She has a plan, keep her head down and heart safe. Grayson Knight likes trouble and the edge of everything. He has never met a line he didn't cross - until hers. They were supposed to orbit, never collide. He's the campus legend, reckless playboy and the family's beautiful disaster; she's the one person who's always seen straight through him. In the noise of a too-big family and a campus that never stops watching, Sierra learns that keeping safe isn't the same as feeling seen and Grayson learns that wanting is easy; staying is the hard part. She's careful. He's chaos. If he wants her, he has to be more than the reckless knight everyone expects. If she wants him, she has to decide the line she won't cross... and the one she will. Campus, chaos, and the one girl he won't risk losing. Can a reckless boy become the man she deserves? If you like banter, found-family noise, and a reformed flirt who actually shows up, this one's for you.