"For a place called Paradise City, this island sucks. I don't think a single day has gone by that I haven't thought about stabbing the shit out of myself," he said. "Especially since I'm forced to live with you every second of every day." "Sh. I'm trying to science," I said, not looking up from my binoculars. "See anything interesting?" "Not really. My vision's a little clouded from the fog and rain clouds you constantly emit." He laughed. "You never fail to amuse me, Rea." "But you just said-" "I just said you make me want to stab myself. Interpret that however you'd like." With a love for whales and all life (besides maybe humans), Reagan Winebrenner had never even seen an ocean until her senior year in high school. But the moment she saw her first humpback, she knew she had found her passion and future career. A few years later and an invitation to Paradise City in hand, Reagan has her entire summer laid out for her, working on the project of a lifetime. But with five other students completing their projects as well, will they discover something worthwhile, or will they end up a psychology lesson for future generations? A New Adult Watty Winner 2019

❇️ 2018 WATTYS WINNER! The Originals category ❇️ - "The Breakfast Club" meets "Nancy Drew" in this most unusual YA Mystery. SUMMARY: Five high school students, with little in common other than being descendants of the town founders, are forced to work on a history project together. But when their history project uncovers evidence of a long-buried town secret, the kids must piece together the clues behind their discovery before its legacy comes back to haunt them. ***** Using ACTUAL, archival material (some dating as far back as 1776), The Descendants weaves a tale of mystery and intrigue, constructed entirely from real photographs, documents, and snippets of history from a small, rural town in New Hampshire. What Dan Brown did with conspiracy theories in "The DaVinci Code" and Ransom Riggs did with historical photographs in "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," I will attempt to do in "The Descendants," but with teen protagonists and the Cheshire County Historical Society. :-) Why? 'Cause I'm crazy like that! Yeah, I know...History?! Blah! But it actually turned out really fun! :-)

-Editor's Choice! Dec 2019 - 17-year-old Lucille Monteith wants nothing else to find her brother, who, despite what everyone says, she refuses to believe is dead. She'll do anything to locate him, to bring him back home safe, though it begins to dawn on her that she's hopeless in her investigation. After a tragic accident, brothers Cian and Vincent Horne were torn from their normal lives. Vinny stuck as an earthbound spirit and Cian becoming an angel of death, the two roam the earth together, unafraid of death and its meaning. When Vinny discovers that Lucie can see him, however, it changes everyone in the trio's lives, and Lucie finds she may not be so hopeless after all. Embark on this journey as an angel, a ghost, and a teenage girl search for a loved one, battle their demons, and fight to keep pulses beating.

**Wattys 2016 Winner!** Fifteen-year-old Emmeline Jefferson doesn't have time away from the Demons. Not a minute to say goodbye to her family, not a moment to wonder "Why me?" Every second she's not possessed is spent begging stranger after stranger for help. But no one believes a sporadic girl who claims Demons have spent more time in her body than she has. No one until she finds Dumaine. Dumaine Chartres's whole life fits in his accordion case, his friends are nonexistent, and this fascinating girl is telling him Demons exist. These things all make perfect sense. What he doesn't understand is why humans have such outrageous issues with murder. Death is natural. If he wasn't supposed to kill anyone, they wouldn't have died. Nobody even noticed the bodies anyway. In return for a break from his internal demons, Dumaine offers Emmeline help, and she's willing to receive it from anyone. Maybe this boy can finally be the keeper she needs. Maybe chasing these Demons can explain why he's so different from everyone else. Maybe this friendship can work. With a wise but demented old man, and enough determination to perturb the Demons, Emmeline and Dumaine concoct a plan to unriddle their lives. The first step is to confront the Demon's creator. But something else seems to have found the creator first. And it only looks like an Angel. Human Spines is part one of a YA dark Urban Fantasy written in a style similar to Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me and Elana Johnson's Possession. It's the first of a series and told from the viewpoints of Emmeline, Dumaine, and their rambling but wise navigator, Hans. Through a diverse cast, it explores themes of learned distrust, fear of the unknown, and the battle against the evil inside us all, in a way similar to a Studio Ghibli film. Cover by ecclesia-

***THIS STORY WILL BECOME FREE ON JULY15th!*** Beverly Curie only lives for herself (and maybe ice cream). When her three nieces are suddenly put under her care, she must do the impossible: think about someone other than herself. Beverly is the only member of her family left in Chestnut Ridge, where she's kept the same routine for eight years: do as little work as possible during the day, marathon sitcoms in the evening, and try (for the life of her) to get everyone to leave her alone. When she loses her position at Red Ribbon's Craft Store, Beverly is left without a job and without a paycheck. Then her estranged sister, Aimee, calls with an impossible favor: Could Beverly take care of her three nieces for six months? It's insane. But then there's the thirty thousand dollars that Aimee offers to pay and Beverly can't resist. Suddenly, she's stuck taking care of three little girls, trying not to kill the soccer moms at the snobby Percival Academy, and joining the PTO. Now Beverly--self-serving, sarcastic, and problematic--must take on the role of a loving parent. And she is anything but. This story is now available on YONDER, your next-generation reading app from the Wattpad family. Join me on YONDER today! Find it now in your app store. Cover designed by Ilafi Nastiti

This is the original, unedited version of Light as a Feather, Book #1. This book was the inspiration for the Hulu Original Series. The revised version is now available in bookstores throughout the USA & Canada from Simon Pulse. McKenna Brady thinks her junior year of high school is going to be the best ever when she's welcomed into the elite group of popular girls at Weeping Willow High School led by blonde, gorgeous Olivia Richmond. Prior to junior year, McKenna was known in her small town as the girl whose twin sister died in a tragic house fire, and she's overjoyed at the prospect of redefining her identity. She has a date to the Homecoming dance with Olivia's handsome older brother, and a good chance of being elected to student council. For the first time since McKenna's parents divorced, things are looking up. But everything changes the night of Olivia's Sweet Sixteen sleepover birthday party. Violet, the shy, mysterious new girl in town, suggests that the girls play a scary game called Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, during which Violet makes up elaborate stories about the future ways in which beautiful Olivia, brassy Candace, and athletic Mischa will die. The game unsettles McKenna because she's already escaped death once in her life, but she doesn't want to ruin her friends' fun. It's only a game, she reminds herself.