FBI agent Jack Rhodes and Doctor V.C. Coldwater team up to solve a murder involving treason, secret government research, and the Uzbekistani black market. ***** Commander Jack Rhodes was kicked out of the Navy SEALs after a mission went wrong, but he continues to serve the public as an agent of the FBI. After a woman is murdered, he's forced to team up with the unconventional and flagrantly disrespectful Doctor V.C. Coldwater. What looks like a simple case turns out to extend deep into government research, nuclear fission, and the global criminal underworld. Jack's forced to rely on a woman he thought he'd despise, because in a case this complicated, she's the only person he can trust. [[word count: 200,000-250,000 words]]

This event is meant to find the best stories in multiple genres to give its audience an exciting summer read. CLOSED & WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Technicalities always get you. The sneaky reality hits and makes matters worse, at least from my parents' point-of-view. The summer before senior year of high school was supposed to be carefree, but just like expecting to marry my high school sweetheart and getting into my dream university, nothing goes as planned. What felt like the going through the motions turned into the start of my life, new life. God, and to think that it all started with illusive dreams that will never be.

According to her brother, high school sophomore Emily Randazzo has a "GPS brain" which set her route and won't let her try a new one. But as far as Emily is concerned, her whole life has been spent in trials - like trying to decide whether she should live in Brooklyn with her strict Mom or suburban Jersey with her lenient Dad - or trying to figure out how other people's brains work and why hers is so different from theirs - or trying to navigate when she should stand firm in her ways, versus being flexible for others. After so many years struggling to fit in and be happy, Emily finally feels that she's found her lane in life. She's attending an all-girl school that she loves, made some good friends like her bestie Jenny, and set a goal to be accepted to Yale University. So of course she doesn't want to change direction now! However, a weekend visit to the relaxed rules at her father's home puts new detours in Emily's path, starting in the form of two boys: her brother's best friend Kelly, and next-door-neighbor Evan. Soon enough Emily begins to wonder if she should recalculate. Divided between two parents, two states, two boys and the possibilities of two extremely different lives, Emily is trying to figure out who, what and where she wants to be in her future.

It isn't meant to be; men like him don't often get their hands on expensive things like her, perhaps only when they steal them. And yet, on this evening, blurred by whiskey, wine and smoke, Zara Thurston and Aleksandr Lawson become entangled in inseparable ways and begin the cycle; the cycle in which they shag, hate and hurt each other on repeat for months to come - all in the name of love. He steals her, some part of her, and she some part of him - but at what point must they give in? After all, she is a diamond, and he is damned.

[ #1 in "Rising" Chicklit (4/10) ] "What do you want from me, Hazel?" A muscle in his strong jaw ticks, almost as though it's counting down the seconds until his emotions swallow the both of us whole. I've never met anyone like Tyler. Never met anyone who's so honest about themselves like he is. The good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful...it doesn't matter. He's an open book and that...scares me. His mere existence in my life demands that I open myself to him in the same way. He wants me to wear my heart on my sleeve, but that's how things get broken. That's how people lose themselves, and I can't let that happen again. Tyler inches towards the door, shaking his head. He's going to leave, I can tell just by the look in his eyes. He'll leave and he won't come back. My fingers latch onto the sleeve of his jacket before I can stop myself. This was supposed to be fun. This was supposed to be harmless. Why can't we go back to it just being easy? "Everything," I tell him in a hushed whisper. "I want...I want everything." (Detailed summary inside) ✖️✖️✖️ Ranking | Chicklit HR: #28 (4/22/18)

"DON'T DATE THE TALENT!" is a well-known rule for the underlings at the venerable Robert Abraham Agency. Fantasies are business, not personal, at RAA. Confusing the two has left countless hearts, futures and bank accounts, empty. This directive hasn't been a problem for twenty-four year old, aspiring screenwriter Amelia "Millie" Stevens. She's been known to flirt of course, since stroking egos is part of the deal when you work with actors. However, Millie won't compromise her future for anything less than a blockbuster with series potential kind of love, and certainly not for a b-movie lay. So she knows where and when to call "CUT" on the action. Two years ago, Millie competed against her well-connected and wealthy peers, to land a coveted spot in RAA's mailroom trainee program, along with a pitiful salary for the privilege. Since then she's worked her way up (although her paycheck says otherwise) to an assistant's desk in the commercial department. Desperate to make her dreams come true, Millie spends her days tethered to the phone lines, and her nights completing coverages of other people's scripts, all while trying to finish her own screenplay in-between. This leaves little time, or money, to do her laundry, let alone date. Then the featured player of Millie's other, more carnal, dreams walks into the office. Fin Covington is the twenty-eight year old, British, supremely-hot, mega-star of a hit cable show. In NYC for some theatre projects, he meets with Millie's boss, and immediately shows an interest in her. The more she encounters Fin, the more she questions the stage directions of her life. Should she ignore the rule and greenlight the affections of this celebrity on hiatus, despite the risk of exposure by her scheming colleagues and the paparazzi? Or should she "PASS" on the summer-long dalliance? As she makes her choice, Millie soon comes to realize that not everything in life can be scripted and sometimes you just have to adlib.

Tessa Young is an 18 year old college student with a simple life, excellent grades, and a sweet boyfriend. She always has things planned out ahead of time, until she meets a rude boy named Hardin, with too many tattoos and piercings who shatters her plans.