Everyone has a fear. Fear of spiders? Arachnophobia. Fear of small spaces? Claustrophobia. And of course, the fear of being tickled by feathers: pteronophobia. Sophie Smart fears drowning. No, her fear isn't some made up malarkey like exposedflabophobia (acute paranoia when wearing a swimsuit and baring pasty thighs and a round bottom). Sophie drowned as a child. She died for three minutes. Her childhood trauma is real. Yet Sophie, hot-shot advertising executive, isn't a child anymore. Now Sophie's most important client, handsome Matthew Silver, is insisting she learn how to swim. She can't blame him really - he's the owner of a chain of swimming centers, and Sophie's in charge of his new advertising campaign. The last thing Sophie wants to do is get in the water, in a clingy swimsuit, with a client she's trying to impress. She's not going to win him over flapping around like an idiot, is she? But with a broken heart from her last relationship, maybe getting into the pool is just what Sophie needs. Maybe she can trust Matthew with her fears. Maybe it's time for her to forget about her past and take the plunge?

SYTYCW Top 25 Finalist 2014 Cassidy's bartending job and dreams of being a professional dancer give her a strict no romance attitude, especially since her mother's recent passing. Elliot, on the other hand, is a savant when it comes to charming the ladies, but he makes his intentions clear. He'd much rather harass his best friend and make money doing graphic designs than have a steady relationship. However, trouble brews when these two self-sufficient individuals are thrust together in the midst of their friends' life-defining discoveries of heritage, sexuality, and loyalty. They say spring is for new love... But fires blaze in autumn. 🍂 Our Autumn Fire is a contemporary romance with elements of the literary genre. Touching on themes of self identity, heritage, and sexuality, the story follows a group of six individuals juggling major life changes and the curve balls that come with them. Elliot Quentin is a freelance designer with a side of him that never left the party days of college behind. Struggling with a new client who may have just spawned from hell, he finds solace in his interactions with the quiet, but spunky Cassidy Latton. Cassidy is a bartender vying to join a prestigious dance troupe and fulfill her dreams of becoming a professional dancer. Although she's still affected by her mother's passing, she is able to be the rock for her two roommates: Hayley Patel and Alicia Lang. Hayley works with a company that likes to run her ragged, but that's hardly her focus. She's been having thoughts about trying to find her biological parents, and her childhood friend Wesley Holter may have just convinced her to do it. Wesley Holter loves being a teacher at the local high school, but when his roommate and college buddy Elliot makes a stupid joke about him on campus, his world turns upside down. Meanwhile, Alicia despairs over her long time boyfriend Andre Soto. Quiet, shifty, and just a bit suspicious, his actions may just tear them apart.

Connie Bentley is not your average Newly Qualified Teacher. On her first day at St George's Independent Day School for boys, she celebrates her thirty-second birthday. It's not exactly how she imagined things turning out. Matt Turner is not average in any way. A relationship with a colleague eight years ago didn't exactly lead to the happy outcome he'd expected. When Connie and Matt meet, the spark of attraction is immediate and mutual although neither is going to admit to that because the more they learn about each other, the more they're both getting an uncomfortable feeling of Déjà-Vu .

[BEING PUBLISHED -- sample and more info inside] One girl. One camp for delinquents. One hell of a summer. Falice Winters has always been the goody-two shoes. Her twin Arabelle . . . not so much. So what happens when their dad plans to ship Arabelle off to a camp to clean up her act? Well, naturally, Arabelle would find a way out. Her solution? Falice! It was a simple plan: Falice would pretend to be Arabelle and go to the delinquent camp while Arabelle got to have the time of her life with her boyfriend in London. Falice thought her summer was going to consist of sitting on the couch reading novels all day or hanging out with her friends. Never did it cross her mind that she would be pretending to be her sister in a camp of delinquents. But now she's stuck at a camp all summer where being rude is the new "in." And everything turns for the worse when someone figures out her secret. Will Falice survive the summer? Or will everyone learn that she's faking delinquency?

Seventeen-year-old Nora isn’t one for celebrations, but her family is. It's Fourth of July and they have been invited to an old friend’s fancy picnic party. Even if she doesn’t want to, Nora agrees to go, hoping to hide behind a tree with a book all night. Just when she realizes her plan is failing, a frantic and handsome boy asks for her help. He needs apple pies and she wants to leave the party. Together, they embark on a journey through the city on a mission that seems just as impossible as trying to buy turkey on Thanksgiving Day. Get ready for a hot summer night filled with tons of BBQ, historic figures, watermelon eating contests, headaches, fireworks, romance and apple pies.

My name is Julie Quinn and I've been a New Yorker all my life. Life was good. I was swamped with work doing a job that I loved and I was dating the best boyfriend I'd ever had the pleasure to. I have always been a strong-willed and independent woman - or as my best friend puts it "control freak" - and even more after the accident, but what happened on the eve of my 30th birthday was enough to bring down Wonder Woman.

Does every relationship deserve a second chance? When chief romantic Rose Delaney scores her dream job at London's quirkiest new attraction, The Museum of Broken Hearts, she thinks she's got it made. Sure, it's a little depressing dealing with relics of failed relationships each day, but Rose is determined not to let it break her 'love conquers all' spirit. After discovering the museum's handsome curator is nursing a broken heart of his own, Rose steps in to fix it. Can Rose heal the rift, or will this happy ending go awry?

Reid has been homeless on the streets of New York for years now, fighting for cash in clubs and sleeping in empty buildings. With his special ability, Reid could have whatever life he wanted, but chooses not to. When Sam meets Reid on the subway, she has a hard time forgetting about him, and not only because he keeps showing up in the least likely of places. Sam doesn't know it at first, but the boy she just met is about to show her a whole other world.

*** The Wattpad #1 and a Most Read Award Winner *** Hubble, bubble, the witch is in trouble, the ballerina's broken and the vet's in disgrace. Living in the Lakes is going to be murder. When Patrick's photographed in flagrante with a local beauty queen, his father delivers an ultimatum: one more newspaper scandal and Patrick will be disowned - no house and no job at the family veterinary practice. Desperate not to lose his easy life in the country, Patrick needs to avoid trouble - and girls like Libby. Until she moved to the Lakes, Libby hadn't had sex on a first date, let alone indulged in a one-night-stand. But after flings with the local policeman and a married man, her morals unravel causing the local rag to dub her 'The Libertine'. Infamous and still mourning her previous career as a ballerina, Libby casts a Wicca spell to summon a new love. Good-looking, honest, non-brown eyes, English, likes animals... in a nutshell: Patrick, a man she's never met. But fighting Libby's love spell will be the least of Patrick's problems when an old lady dies from a ketamine overdose. The drug was stolen from his surgery and she's the third pensioner to die in as many months. Tongues will wag. ***** Caution ***** While Distraction is rated PG13, it does contain strong language and scenes of a sexual nature. Please don't read it if these things offend you. Cx

When the "Sexiest Man Alive" reneges on his book contract, no-nonsense editor Erin Andersen is sent to rein him in. But after meeting Stephen Spence, she discovers Distraction is contagious. Before the book deal slips away, Erin has to decide between her career and her heart. Whatever she decides, she might lose both. ------------------------------ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯C(_) -------------------------- Thank you for taking the time to check out my work - I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please rate and comment before moving along, if you will. Also, I have a FREE BOOK for everyone, available on my website. Just copy and paste this link and you can read WEST WIND today: http://www.RobinVanAukenBooks.com What's WEST WIND about? Glad you asked: "Fate calls Sabrina to her grandmother's hospital bed where she hears a confession of betrayal and death. Is Destiny leading her on a twisted path? Her search takes her into the arms of embittered Jay West. Will Jay help Sabrina and, in doing so, restore his family's honor? Despite their undeniable attraction and Sabrina's belief in fate, Jay thinks its misfortune knocking on his door."