[Wattys 2022 Winner!] Vanessa Brooks, an anxious and cynical seventeen year-old, discovers she can travel to the summer of 1953 through the run-down community pool in her rural Michigan town and risks her future as she falls for a boy who lives in the past. ****** On the last day of junior year, Vanessa Brooks joins her friends for a traditional jump into the city pool to celebrate the beginning of summer and the last year they plan to spend in Palmer, Michigan; a dead-end riverside town with an eerily abandoned historic main street and decaying Victorian mansions. But when she resurfaces her classmates have been replaced by girls in retro swimsuits and bathing caps and guys in thigh-baring briefs with cigarettes tucked behind their ears. When Pete Harrison, an unfamiliar face who seems somewhat familiar with hers, offers a dizzy and confused Vanessa a towel and a ride home, she discovers her house and family missing. She has somehow slipped into 1953, the year her grandparents graduated high school. Using the pool and vivid imaginings of her grandfather's memories, Vanessa continues to escape to 1953- and to Pete, who, despite his unaffected kindness and optimism, has a mysterious bad reputation around town. But as she dives deeper into the summer her grandparents fell in love, she finds herself unable to return to the present without venturing even further into the past to correct a mistake that threatens her family and future. *Content Warning: this story contains scenes of near drowning and other perils on the sea, swearing, smoking and alcohol use* This story is complete at ~90,000 words. Wattys Winner 2022- Catchiest Hook and Wild Card Shortlisted Wattys 2021 Featured on @WattpadTimeTravel Featured on @WattpadHistoricalRomance Featured on @TeenFiction Editor's choice list, December 2022, May 2023 Cover by @eva3382

Book One in the Soul Seeker Series. At fifteen Amelia is forced to move in with her birthfather when her mother passes away. A man she's never met before in her life, stern and unfair, he is almost never at home and forces his family to move whenever his job calls for it. For three years Amelia has looked after herself and her younger brother Hayden but when she tranfers to Riverwood High everything changes. She finds herself friends there despite the efforts of her stepsister. One teacher in particular takes an interest in her, the 25 year old Nathaniel Flynn. The first time he laid eyes on her he knew, he just had to have her. At eighteen Amelia has to look after her baby brother, hold her own against a stepmother and mean stepsister and battle feelings she's never felt before. After all... Dating your teacher is forbidden, not that Nathaniel seems to care about that. Add into the equation that both her new found friends and teacher aren't who they say they are... Their diet consisting mainly of blood.

Eden Rose is going undercover. Taking over the same exact case that her uncle was brutally murdered while working on. She's determined to close this case and finally bring down the Mancini family. She's always been a "goody two shoes". Always the one following the rules, keeping her head in a book making sure to stay away from trouble. At twenty-six years old, she doesn't have much of an dating life. Nor is she interested. That is until Shane Carson comes along. He brings out a different side of her , a wild side. She's becoming someone she'd never thought she'd be. But it's a little exciting... Shane Carson is a man with a very icy demeanor. A man of very few words. He's more about the action. Placed on the outskirts of the city is his sanctuary, his farm. A place that holds many secrets just like Shane himself. He's thirty-two years old and dating is the last thing on his mind. In fact it'd never even crossed his mind. Then Eden Rose comes along and brings out a part of him he never even knew He's smiling again, he's happy even, but it won't last long. It never does. Two people from very different walks of life manage to find a love so fiery yet so pure. Will they be able to withstand all the secrets that lye beneath the surface? Or will they burn trying?

On a crisp, fall morning, Valerie Rossi is stopped by a stranger, asking if she's Valentina Moreno--a child who went missing in Yosemite National Park twenty years ago. Curious, Valerie's friend Julian looks up the age progression photo recently shown in the news, and the uncanny resemblance is too much to ignore. Especially because of the reoccurring dream Valerie has of a shadow snatching her in the night. Suddenly, something doesn't feel right, so she digs for answers by turning to the one person she might not be able to trust: her father. ONC prompt #51 ~Featured on @WattpadFriendsandFamily - Book of the Month~

Book #3 The Year Rules were changeable. Year 13 Academy Prep Course 2 Year 14 Three-Part Testing Year 15 Choose Career Pathway Year 16 Academy Prep Course 3 Year 17 Final School Test Year 18 Anything not completed on time from Years 13, 14, 15, 16, or 17, result in Abandonment If one reaches Year 18 and has abided by every Year Rule, then that individual is now considered an adult, and will no longer have Year Rules to follow. It is at this point we believe an individual has proven themselves worthy to be a part of our great society. Failure to uphold proper behavior is still not without consequence. Year 13 was a struggle for me, finding my way on the streets, all alone. My life was constantly changing, my beliefs and ideologies a blur. I no longer knew where I stood. I had started to hear whisperings of a revolution, of people who wanted to make a change. People who aspired to be rid of the Government. Year 13 didn't feel any different than all the other Years. Year 17 though, brought about change, long-awaited and necessary change, not only for myself but for others. Year 12: Abandonment for Felisha Martins, date of birth November 19th, 2509, the current number of Years in Abandonment, 11. Year 18 was a long-awaited goal. Year 18 was meant to free me, liberate me. I was going to make that happen.

The Year Rules were devastating. Year 7- Beginner Test Year 8- Volunteer Year 9- Five Part Testing Year 10- Academy Prep Course 1 Year 11- First School Test Year 12- Anything not completed on time from Years 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11, result in Abandonment By Year 7, I was already on the streets. I never got to take my Beginner Test, and I never got to prove myself to anyone. I was expected to fend for myself in a harsh environment, not fit for a child. I moved past it, though, gaining street smarts rapidly, while my book smarts were left to their own devices. Year 12 wasn't going to be the start of my long career path, or the continuation of my academic career. It was just another Year on the streets. Year 12: Abandonment for Felsha Martins, date of birth November 19th, 2509, current number of Years in Abandonment, 6. Current Abandonment date: November 19th, 2521 Year 12 was going to be my growing point. Year 12, was meant to push me further down, break me, put me in my place. But I wasn't going to let that happen.

When she was 14, Dalia was sold to Matteo Martinelli, the former leader of the largest Italian mafia. Flash forward with his son, Vittore Martinelli as the new leader, Dalia is given to him as a birthday present after years in spent in the "safe house". Dalia struggles to fulfill a promise she made and get her old self back as Vittore tries not to fall for the black beauty. Will they go through all the lies, jealousy, betrayal, envy, lust and murder together all in the name of love? Because at the end of it all, she is still Property Of Vittore Martinelli. * * * "Lift your hand," I said looking at how he held onto his bicep with a tight grip. "Let me take a look at the bullet wound." "No tesoro. I can do this myself," Vittore grumbled and I gave him incredulous look. "Don't start that bullshit with me Vittore. Remove your arm and let me help you or..." I trailed off, not able to say more. I was still in shock but I could do this. "Just... just let me help." "No." I glared at Vittore. "Why are you being so damn egotistic?! Let me help you! Do you know what it was like to find you like... and to..." I couldn't even get all the words out. "Let me help you. Please." Begging wasn't something I'd ever do but I just needed him to let me help him. "No-" "Why?!" I suddenly exploded. "Why won't you just let me help you?!" "Because I don't know how to handle it ok?!" Vittore suddenly exploded, his dark eyes glaring at me. "I don't know how to handle these... feelings. Fuck tesoro you drive me crazy! Don't you see that? You make me question everything I've ever known and... I can't..." I watched Vittore as his expression turned determined. "Fuck it." He leaned forward and pressed his lips on mine. * * * WARNING! Mentions of death, torture, gore, abuse and other things related to the mafia.

Sometimes the truth is just too terrible to ever be guessed... Readers' comments: 'Excellent story', 'gripping page-turner', 'marvellous read', 'great writing', 'simply remarkable', 'a fabulously emotional ride', 'wow', 'what a great book!', 'had me engaged right to the end' Wattys award-winning author (The Painted Altar, literary fiction 2020) When two British brothers are reported missing whilst on holiday in southern Italy, the local carabinieri turn to retired detective Jim Jacks for help. Still pained by a recent divorce, he has started a new life for himself as a small-scale wine producer. Along with commander Nuzzo, he will slowly unravel a mystery which is even darker than it had first seemed... Genre: murder mystery Length: 75,000 words (300 novel pages) Target audience: adult, fans of crime fiction, anyone who likes mysteries full of twists and which are populated by three-dimensional characters Extract: I stayed there at the holiday bungalow with Sarah and Olivia for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Would return again the following morning. An analyst would no doubt conclude that my actions weren't entirely selfless; that as a lonely old divorcee I found a nostalgic comfort in female company. And yes, this might have been part of it. But there was a very practical reason too for my more or less continued presence in the house. I just didn't want to leave them to themselves I suppose, was afraid of what might happen. Yes, the thing I remember most about that forty-eight hour period is the silence. There was something brooding to it. Something ominous, almost delicate, like if it cracked you feared it would explode. An edgy, precarious silence stretching on and on, minute after minute, hour after hour... About the author: I'm a 47-year-old English teacher who has lived in Italy for the last 15 years. I have two other novels on the site, The Painted Altar and Kill Who You Want

Henley agrees to pretend to date millionaire Bennett Calloway for a fee, falling in love as she wonders - how is he involved in her brother's false conviction? ****** Henley Linden's brother is in jail for a crime he didn't commit, and she'll take any job to raise the money needed to free him. Soon, she's agreed to pretend to date millionaire Bennett Calloway for ten thousand dollars, so his mother will ease up the pressure on him to find a wife. But once Henley is enmeshed in Bennett's world, he falls for her, and she starts to have feelings for him as well. Despite her romance with Bennett, as she grows closer to the Calloways, Henley realizes they are somehow involved in her brother's conviction. Journeying deeper into a world of wealth and conspiracies, Henley is forced to rely on Bennett, though doing so could cost her everything. [[word count: 200,000-250,000 words]]