[@WATTPAD READING LIST - AMPLIFYING ASIAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER VOICES - MAY 2021] [@WATTPADASIANFICTION READING LIST - FROM ME TO YOU - FEBRUARY 2023] [@AMBASSADORS] READING LIST - AMBASSADORS READS - MARCH 2025] A mix of crazy, stupid, hormonal adults that are thrown into life with a sprinkle of swearing, a dash of witty humor, and a heaping cup of love from yours truly. ----- When Azar gets laid off from her position as a head pastry chef, in anticipation of the bakery's demolishment date, she finds herself with no other choice but to succumb to her mother's wishes: to be engaged to a man she's never met. Except what they don't know, is that the eligible suitor is already knee-deep in his own engagement, ready to be whisked off to another girl in a month. This requires East Han, the second eldest son, to call off the engagement with the Seo family. Determined to earn his parents' trust back, he agrees to follow through with this task. Up until he meets Azar herself, glowing in all her beauty and witty remarks that he knows he'll never get enough of. So other than not telling them the news, he does the one thing he wasn't planning on doing: he falls for her. UNEDITED VERSION COVER BY @qixing #1 | asianinlit #1 | baking #4 | diverstyinlit #5 | korean #8 | asiansinlit #19 | talkthepoc #397 | #summer

A HEIST GONE WRONG. A GANG SHATTERED. Volya Angelov, known by the public as the Priest for his cult-like following, knows how to cut a deal and take what's rightfully his. He and his criminal prodigies have siphoned Gorod Krestov's wealth for years and are slowly draining the city's slums with their profits. Yet when he is arrested and shipped off to an island prison, his empire is left to his closest ally, Mysh, a girl who stands a mere five feet. It's up to her to manage what he's left behind and decide whether or not the syndicate should be risked for his life. But with demons from a haunting past and sinister characters converging all around her: can Mysh pull it off? "SIX OF CROWS" meets "PEAKY BLINDERS" in this twisty, 1920s-set novella with enough suspense to keep you reading until the church bells chime. Honors/Awards: ONC 2021 Top 5 Winner (4th place) ONC 2021 Ambassador's Pick (Round Two) "NOVYYE SAINTS" is 7x featured on: @shortstory's "another time, another place" reading list @action's "thriller" reading list @action's "action spotlight" reading list @historicalfiction's "decade fiction" reading list @badassreads's "the ruffians" reading list @storiesundiscovered's "historically inaccurate" reading list for august 2021 @opennovellacontest's "2021 top five winners" and "2021 ambassador picks" lists Copyright © 2021 Elle Chaika Open Novella IV (2021) | Prompt No. 29

The Women's Guard, The Soldier, The Nazi, The Spy. The Spy turned Prisoner. As they say, dead men (or women, as the case may be) tell no tales. But Kathleen Winfred isn't dead; she managed to escape. Now, the story of her capture by Nazis in occupied France, and her time spent in a hotel-turned-prison must be reported to her superiors. Most stories like Kathleen's are simple: captured, taken prisoner, and, finally, a daring or lucky escape to freedom. But Kathleen's is a little more complicated than that, and to sort out what goes to her superiors in the end, she has to wade through the memories first. ..... M i l e s t o n e s: 2014: Watty's Winner: In Progress Story Award: Watty's Surprise Award for an in progress story. 06/26/2016: Reached #11 in Historical Fiction

A genius analyst has to leave her desk behind and team up with the sour Agency hothead to track down her missing partner. ----- Quinn O'Reilly doesn't belong in the field. She's better off as the brilliant intelligence analyst behind some of the Agency's biggest arrests, and more than comfortable surrounded by her screens. Special Agent Cameron Kent, Agent Quinn's primary partner, is the pro carrying out the plans formulated with Quinn's brainpower. She's the closest thing to family Quinn's ever had. She's also missing, having dropped off the map in the middle of an undercover operation. There is no one better suited to find Cam than Quinn. There is no one better suited than Gavin Locke, agency hothead, to protect her in the meantime. With clues left all around the world, this unlikely pair will have to pick up the pace to find Cam in time - and avoid killing each other in the process. It's time for Special Agent O'Reilly to step forward - and into the field. ----- standalone, 150k words completed

❝ 𝓣𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆𝒏, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒏 ❞ During the sixteenth century, Hussam Al-Hakim, the warrior prince of the Qaysi tribe, must rise to the occasion and succeed on the throne as the next Caliph. However, heavy is the head that wears the crown, and duty calls upon him to fulfill the inevitable. The death of the great Qaysi General, Abbas Al-Ghazi, unleashes a chain of events that causes the Kingdom to confront civil unrest. An age-old secret forces Hussam to choose between loyalty, family, and a dead heart. 𝓦𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒇𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆? 𝓞𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒉 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒌𝒆?

ONC 2020 Grand Winner ~ ~ "When the halls run red with the poison of your life, I will rest. Until then, consider your ruin a promise of mine." ~ ~ Four years ago, Yin Ruwei sold her blood to the northern god Xuanwu in return for revenge. Now, after years of perfectly orchestrated deaths at hands that are not her own, she snaps and puts red in her ledger, killing a man personally. Mu'en is more brutal, more cunning . . . and less heartless than he'd wish the world to know. Someone has been killing off his men with all the fury of a hurricane. Tearstained anger blankets every death and he almost feels sorry for the murderer - until they kill the man he loves. Ruwei and Mu'en find themselves on two sides of the same coin, counting fate like they do the stars in the sky, hoping for a better day, a happier life, a brighter world in the shadows they call home. Sometimes you must seek what you've lost to retrieve it again. Sometimes that which you've lost can no longer be retrieved. And sometimes, just sometimes, those broken pieces find their way back to you. ~ ~ ONC 2020. Prompt 4. Written: 29.02.2020 - 05.05.2020. ~ ~ A paranormal revenge story with roots in Chinese mythology. ~ ~ Please do not use or translate my work without my permission. If you would like to use something, please ask me. ~ ~ Warning: Contains violence, death, etc. Alludes to: abuse, assault, trauma. Contains: Chinese culture, Chinese mythology, LGBT+ relationships, disability.

❝ THE APOCALYPSE DOES NOT WAIT FOR LITTLE GIRLS, MISS TAALIS. ❞ ― a runaway, an ex-apostle, a heretic, a soothsayer, a seductress, and a child all navigate an incoming apocalypse under the backdrop of an ancient city, a burning friary, a dark prophecy, and a doomsday cult.

*ONC ROUND ONE QUALIFIER* *ONC ROUND TWO QUALIFIER* *ONC AMBASSADOR'S PICK* *COMMUNITY CURATOR PICK -- JULY 2020 & FEBRUARY 2021* *MINI AWARD WINNER FOR BEST DIALOGUE -- OPEN DOOR AWARDS 2021* *SUN WINNER - FIRST PLACE FOR FANTASY -- OPEN DOOR AWARDS 2021* ❝ how can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state? ❞ | IN WHICH THERE IS A WAKING, AND A DREAMING, AND A RETRIEVING OF MEMORIES, AND THOSE WHO SPEAK IN DREAMS DO NOT EVEN KNOW THEIR OWN TONGUE | ❝ there are no witnesses to a dream. ❞ (#ONC prompts #15 & #30) (cover by @TahliePurvis )

EDITOR'S PICK, 2019. Featured on WattPad Lit Fic, 2022. Uperi is not afraid of the spirits, unlike the rest of her village. Only her best friend, Apo, understands they're a trick, used by the Elders and their spying apprentices to keep the villagers in line. But she keeps her silence, even when she is forced to marry Apo's late brother to appease his uneasy ghost. She knows the spirits and ghosts aren't real. She is not afraid. Until her dead husband visits her, and opens her eyes. With the help of Apo and his wives, and of the village Seer, Uperi must decide what is most important to her -- her life or her truth. Featured on Wattpad LitFic, 2022. Wattpad Editor's Choice pick, 2019. Round 2 Qualifier for the Open Novella Contest, 2019. Genre Runner Up Winner of Earnesty Writer's Awards, 2019.

Saoirse's blood dances with iron and trickery, a secret that is no longer sheathed, nor hers to keep. When Saoirse's cunning and charade is torn asunder by her very own hands, she finds herself in a precarious peril, fighting to salvage her life and that of The Alder King, to whom she has unwittingly given her heart. Bastard Daughter of the Spring. Cursed Iron Faery. Ill-fated lover to the Alder King. She goes by many titles, but none reveal that her very life is bound of iron and thorns, still hinged on a vow she made to the Spring Court. Skin stamped with scars, and head held high, Saoirse must learn to navigate this world of malevolent faery trickery, with dangers and ancient secrets abounding, on a perilous journey to wreck havoc on the Spring.