|| a featured story || Aurora never planned on spending her final month alive falling in love. When she meets Gus, a curious boy who is all too eager to waste away the days with her, she finds herself trading in her month of solitude for a month with him instead. Under the summer sun, they promise each other a forever they don't have. All they have is August, and they try to make it enough. [Features a commissioned bonus chapter for the JCPenny #DreamPromposal contest] __________________________ Alex Light © All rights reserved 2018

When Helena finds a phone on the night train, she decides to text the first number in the list of contacts in order to figure out who it belongs to. ***** Helena Santos hasn't had the easiest life. At twenty-one, she's the legal guardian of her teenage sister, in the final year of her nursing degree, and working night shifts at her small-town's local bar. And things get a lot more complicated when she finds a phone on the train home and decides to text the first number in the list of contacts, in hopes of tracking down its owner. That contact? Adam Bauer; the charismatic, sweet, and refreshingly honest older brother of the person who lost their phone. As the two continue talking, they can't ignore the chemistry and growing feelings between them, but life is never that simple. To make things work, Helena and Adam need to juggle a troubled sister, a meddlesome ex-boyfriend, and one fat lawsuit - all intent on keeping them apart. [[word count: 40,000-50,000 words]] Content and/or Trigger Warning: This story contains swearing, mature themes, and sexual content.

Renata Santos doesn't expect her heart to flutter when she catches a boy stealing flowers out of her backyard. But as she unravels his reputation, she realizes puppy-eyed delinquent Isaac Marshall may just be the sunshine she needs to turn her life around. 〚 a wattpad featured story 〛

WATTPAD ORIGINAL EDITION In 1955, mixed-race Ethan Harper leaves his progressive hometown for a summer in Alabama where he's not welcome, except by resident free spirit, Juniper Jones. ***** After getting himself into a bout of trouble, 16-year-old Ethan Harper's parents send him to Ellison, Alabama, to live with his aunt and uncle for the summer. But the year is 1955, and Alabama is a far cry from his beloved home of Arcadia, Washington. As much as it's hotter in temperature, it's colder in every other way, and Ethan learns the hard way that people see his mere existence as a threat. Amidst all the mayhem, a fiery, free-spirited, oddball walks into Ethan's life. Her name is Juniper Jones. She is the first person in Ellison who seems unfazed by their racial differences, and she promises to give Ethan a summer he will always remember, filled with endless adventure and discovery. With Juniper, Ethan can breathe, he can be, despite the incessant attention and bullying their newly formed friendship attracts. Can the two survive the summer, run in the light and block out the noise of the outside world? [Published version comes out June 16, 2020 with Wattpad Books!] [[word count: 70,000-80,000 words]]

W A T T P A D F E A T U R E D -Discontinued- She's a mystery that he wants to solve, but how long before he realizes that she's a mystery she can't even solve herself. ❁❁❁ Former ballet dancer Abigail Hastings has experienced love in the form of friendship with her childhood best friend, Nate Belleview. But when a traumatizing event leaves Abby's mental state bloodied and bruised, the one person she always relied on gets up and leaves without a trace. It's been a year since Nate left, and Abby's still recovering from the broken pieces. If she focuses on school and her friendships, maybe she'll be able to stitch herself back together by the end of the year. When school quarterback and renowned player Jackson Henderson comes crashing into her life, Abby's senior year of recovery is compromised in ways she was not prepared for. But maybe, she isn't the only one with secrets. Behind his charming exterior and jock persona, Jackson hides things of his own that might be too much for Abby to handle. Will Jackson be the one to help guide Abby through her demons or will he nonchalantly enter her heart to destroy everything she's ever known about love? Copyright © 2017 Highest Rank #1 Wattys 2018 Shortlist Unity Awards Runner-up in Romance

Nora Blake repels ordinary. Adam Clarke is constructed entirely of ordinary. ● ● ● "I don't want to share you with the galaxy, Nora Blake," he says quietly, and all at once, all the stars inside my chest are being flung across the universe at full speed and for that particular moment, I am untethered. Unrooted. Flowing. Floating. Something. He doesn't have to, I think, instantly. I am vaguely aware of the fact that I am a kind of traitor: but there is no heavy stone of betrayal in my chest. The galaxy will wait. It will wait until this beautiful boy flings my fragile heart across the universe at full-speed, but right now, I'm so full of it that I don't even care. Look at that. Nora Blake gives up the galaxy. I look at him, then, and there's so much color oozing out of his perfect, jagged cracks that I feel like I'm in one of Nadia's Leonid Afremov paintings and there's a supernova in my chest. "You don't have to," I tell him, so quietly that I don't think he hears. His delicate rose-pink mouth is curved into a kind of frown and his baby-blue gray-flecked gaze is lost somewhere far, far away from the devoid town of Enfield. I recognize that much, and I wonder momentarily if he has his own galaxy somewhere. I don't want to share him either, I think.

Ella is falling apart trying to live a "perfect" high school life. Then she meets Ren, who can see past her scars. Suddenly perfection isn't her only option. ***** Ella Volkov is a gifted music student, but she's depressed and starting to crack under the pressure of high school. Her overbearing father won't even let her choose what instrument she plays. Then she finds herself alone at a party with Ren, her best friend's crush. She'd always thought he was rude, but after that night he's all Ella can think about. Now she's trapped. If Ella dates Ren, it will ruin her friendship with Jenny. But if she stays true to Jenny, she's losing the one person who can see past her scars. It's up to Ella to decide if she will forge her own path, or stay in the "perfect" box designed for her... Content and/or Trigger Warning: depression, anxiety, self-harm, violence, sexual assault. [[word count: 50,000-100,000 words]]

Auburn Ivy runs away from her problems even if it means running away from her family, friends and familiar life. Anthony Kroff is a footballer on the rise but is lonely and lost in the new city he finds himself in. Their lives would have never intertwined if headstrong Auburn and shy Anthony hadn't chosen the same Friday to venture into a side-street cafe. For her it was an escape, for him it was curiosity and together they found something that they hesitated to call love because what if, after everything, they found themselves chasing fool's gold? Carlotta Garcia is the cafe owner and she is hell-bent on bringing them together but we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start at the very start or, if you want me to be truthful, at the very end, with Sabah Taqvi, a bored literature student and desperate romantic. Previously known as "Coffee Shop Love". [ © circularities 2016 ]

There's only one thing Colin hates more than Sadie-- Seeing Sadie cry.