Some jobs are hard to fill. Some are impossible. Mara Alvarez just inherited a staffing agency she didn't ask for, with a client list she wasn't prepared for and a predecessor who left no explanation for any of it. The clients are mythic. The placements are impossible. The paperwork is somehow worse than both. A dragon who wants to work in municipal services. A banshee with noise complaint issues. A minotaur who treats every warehouse like a personal maze. A six-hundred-year-old gargoyle who turns out to be the best employee anyone's ever had. And something is quietly making sure every single one of them fails - because someone doesn't want Second Chance Staffing to survive long enough to figure out why it exists. Mara has an HR background, an assistant who thinks chaos is a planning strategy, and absolutely no idea what she inherited. She's going to need all of it. Welcome to Temp Monsters. Please complete your onboarding paperwork in blood or blue ink.

Mia is a stunning but perpetually "unlucky" supermarket cashier. She's an orphan with a bank balance that looks more like a temperature reading in Antarctica. Enter Lucas: a brilliant, painfully shy, and borderline mute game programmer who communicates mostly in "grunts" and "nods." Lucas is desperate to escape his toxic, overbearing wealthy family. To gain his independence, he must prove he can sustain a "normal" family life for one year without their money. He offers Mia a one-year marriage contract: a place to stay and a paycheck in exchange for being his "shield." Mia moves into his cozy (and slightly messy) apartment, assuming Lucas is just a struggling freelancer like her. She rarely sees him-he's a ghost who only emerges for Cheetos and cold pizza. After watching him treat his stomach like a trash bin and "forgotten-to-eat" syndrome, Mia takes over the kitchen. As the "Golden Retriever" personality inside Lucas begins to wake up, the contract starts to feel a lot less like business and a lot more like a glitch in the heart.

Maren Juliette Holt has spent years convincing herself she's okay on her own. Between teaching preschool, late-night romance novels, and quiet routines shared with her cat, she's built a life that's safe. Predictable. Manageable. But safe isn't the same as happy. After too many relationships that left her feeling unwanted, forgettable, or simply too much, Maren has stopped believing in the kind of love she reads about in books. Then she meets Beckham Wilder Tate. Charming bookstore manager. Professional over-planner. Owner of the kind of smile that makes her forget how to breathe for a second. The more time she spends with him, the harder it becomes to keep her distance. Because Beckham doesn't just notice her - he sees her. The messy parts. The anxious parts. The parts she's spent years trying to make smaller. And worst of all? He stays. But learning how to be loved might be even scarier than being alone. 💛 Slow burn romance 📚 Bookstore vibes ✨ Found family 🫶 Mental health & neurodivergent rep 🔥 He falls first ❤️ Happily Ever After

The Duke of Halewick is a monster. At least, that's what the kingdom says. Cold. Ruthless. Untouchable. So when Calista Everdane-a quiet, unremarkable noblewoman with no ambition-is forced into marriage with him, everyone expects tragedy. Calista expects inconvenience. She arrives at his fortress with tea, a stack of books, and a preference for east-facing windows. She doesn't challenge him. She doesn't fear him. She doesn't even seem particularly interested in him. While the court watches for scandal, Calista quietly claims a chair no one is allowed to sit in, befriends the Duke's hound, and begins dismantling political schemes she was never meant to notice. She doesn't scheme. She doesn't strategize. She simply observes-and acts when necessary.

To survive, the peerless beauty Li Hua hid her face beneath mud and ash, fleeing the capital and the cruel Supreme Commander who broke her trust. She sought a quiet life in a remote coastal town, but instead, she ran straight into the arms of the empire's terrifying former God of War, Huo Ting. Fierce, towering, and completely devoted, Huo Ting doesn't just offer her a safe haven-he offers her the family she always dreamed of, alongside his clever adopted son, A-Ming. When her powerful ex-fiancé finally tracks her down to beg for forgiveness, Li Hua must make a choice: let the ghosts of her past drag her back into the dark, or step into the light with her ultimate protector.

The rowdy troublemaker and the quiet, almost-invisible nerd. The retired professional athlete and the burnt out professor. Everyone hides their true intentions, and the only way to figure someone out is to peek at their heart. Some silently hope for better days. Some journal. Some send texts to no one in particular. But Kato Minori makes a wish from the bottom of her heart that startles her when it comes true.

She thought love had already passed her by. Then she met a man who taught her that the quietest hearts often love the loudest. Jane's life has never been quiet. Between raising two children on her own, surviving a painful divorce, and living in a small Southern town where everyone seems to know everyone else's business, she's learned to expect disappointment instead of happily-ever-afters. Then Caleb walks into her life. Kind, patient, and deaf since childhood, Caleb doesn't try to rescue Jane. He simply sees her. As she learns his world through American Sign Language, an unexpected friendship begins to grow into something deeper... something worth risking her heart for. But healing isn't simple. Old wounds refuse to stay buried, family loyalties are tested, and the ghosts of yesterday threaten the future they're slowly building together. Sometimes love isn't about finding someone who completes you. Sometimes it's about finding someone who quietly stays. A heartfelt slow-burn romance about second chances, found family, healing, and discovering that the strongest love stories are often written in silence.

Some beauty secrets are more dangerous than others... When Beauty Box beautician Tammy Smith is discovered with a pair of hair shears in her back, there are suspects and secrets aplenty in her small Southern town. Octogenarian Myrtle Clover, bored by bingo and bridge, is intrigued by the crime...and her neighbors' secrets. But discovering, and blabbing, secrets got Tammy killed and Myrtle soon learns her sleuthing isn't just dangerous...it's deadly.

#ONC2025 Third Place Winner (Finalist) #ONC2025 Short List #ONC2025 Round 3 Ambassador's Pick #ONC2025 Long List #ONC2025 Round 2 Winner *** After spending 30 years in another world, Ariana wakes up in the life she left behind, only to find echoes of the love she lost in a stranger. Was this fate, or just a cruel trick of her grieving heart? ============= When Ariana opened her eyes in a hospital bed, the world she had known for the past thirty years had vanished. There was no elegant hanfu, bustling marketplace, or warm smiles from her children and grandchildren. Instead, she found herself back in her original life-the life she had lost in a car crash, the life where her fiancé, Paul, had betrayed her with her stepsister, Julie. Her best friend, Tina, is the only anchor in this cold, unfamiliar reality, helping her navigate a world that has moved on without her. But Ariana cannot forget the lifetime she lived in another world, the love she had discovered, the husband she had mourned for a decade before she was ripped away. And then she sees him. A stranger with familiar eyes. A man whose presence tugs at something deep within her, inscribed into her soul. Is he the reincarnation of the man she loved beyond the boundaries of time, or is her grief distorting reality, causing her to chase the shadows of a dream? As Ariana struggles to regain her place in a life she no longer wants, the lines between fiction and fate blur. The past is written, but love might find a way to reshape destiny. ============= A novella inspired by the ONC prompt 129: "The ink of our souls binds us beyond the pages of time," The Ink of Our Souls tells a story of love, loss, and the unbreakable ties that transcend worlds.

Wei Zifu, the second wife of Emperor Wu of Han, who rose from a poor singer to a powerful and respected empress. Her rise, fall from grace and survival in imperial harem. **** This story my is historically accurate. Please vote and give lots of love. **** 🪷Age gap 🪷Concubine 🪷 Pregnancy 🪷 Affair 🪷Patriarchy 🪷 Strong female lead 🪷 Harem