They say the mental house was meant to keep them in. Once they came, they never left. But what if someone did leave? Or even escaped? A beautiful love story between two broken humans wanting a new happy beginning. - Niall Horan fanfic

|| a featured story || Aurora never planned on spending her final month alive falling in love. When she meets Gus, a curious boy who is all too eager to waste away the days with her, she finds herself trading in her month of solitude for a month with him instead. Under the summer sun, they promise each other a forever they don't have. All they have is August, and they try to make it enough. [Features a commissioned bonus chapter for the JCPenny #DreamPromposal contest] __________________________ Alex Light © All rights reserved 2018

For Andrew Cai, everything followed routine and when that routine broke because his wife filed for a divorce, his life spiralled downwards. For London Wan Liang, moving past her mother's death seemed impossible, especially when nothing in her life improved and that left her bitter soul stuck in the past. For the two of them, the way back home may not be as far as it seems - not when one fateful chance encounter brings them together. { Copyright © AnneeSparrow. All Rights Reserved }

Lori's just looking for little time to focus on work after a bad breakup - until a steamy encounter with a sensual stranger leaves her looking for much, much more. ***** Ben Stone is used to getting exactly what he wants. Being a successful businessman and known playboy allows him his pick of beautiful women. He loves them all - but just for a night. That is, until he seduces Lori at her friend's bachelorette party and can't get her out of his head. For Lori, men do not make the short list of important things in her life - but then again, she hasn't met Ben before. When their relationship must be kept a secret they're forced to make a choice: prior obligations, or their burning flame? [[word count: 40,000-50,000 words]] Cover designed by Lucas Fisher

A married writer begins a passionate and destructive affair with a tortured artist, not knowing he has loved her since they met thirteen years ago. ***** Eloise Airens sat as a model for an art class thirteen years ago, where a damaged young artist, Aidan Foley, fell in love with her. For him, she was everything. For her, he was just a face in the crowd. But thirteen years later, Eloise's marriage is struggling and she ends up at Aidan's latest art show in New York. He's immediately drawn to her as he's never gotten over his obsession, and she's drawn to him because despite his pretentious art, only he can make her feel truly alive. Despite trying to save her marriage and stay true to her values, Eloise can't escape the pull of the talented, brooding, yet tortured Aidan Foley. Will she stay with the world she knows, or risk everything? And more importantly, will she do so before Aidan tells her about their strange past? [[word count: 150,000-200,000 words]]

Maddie can't remember the last 2 years, but she knows Ethan is the handsome boy who's been haunting her dreams. Do they have an insta-spark, or a past? *** When a skiing accident leaves sixteen-year-old Maddie Monroe with a brain injury, erasing all her memories from the past two years, her personality undergoes a massive transformation. Long gone is the carefree girl she used to be, and old friends feel like complete strangers. One of the strangest side effects the accident leaves her with are her dreams -- or more specifically, the boy who plagues them. She has no idea who he is, but he comes to her most nights; handsome, funny and charming as hell. When he shows up seated beside her in English class one day, she feels an instant connection to him - and as their relationship develops, Maddie can't help but feel like there's a hidden past between them. Have they met before? Who is Ethan Ryder? [[word count: 60,000-70,000 words]]

Childhood best friends to enemies to lovers. Alina wants nothing to do with the rebellious bad boy, Liam Somner. Which is difficult, because he goes to her school. And lives on her street. And keeps showing up at her apartment, and sitting in her kitchen, smearing way too much cream cheese on his bagel and... refusing to wear a shirt. Alina and Liam have history. Too much of it, and it's messy and painful, and should be buried deep and forgotten. But Liam feels like there's unfinished business between them. Unfinished business, like finding the burial place of Liam's great grandfather. And saving Oscar, Alina's brother, from his depression. And that promise that Alina and Liam made at midnight, with legs dangling over the East River, to never leave the other behind. Liam and Alina's past is a tangled web of life debts, family secrets, betrayals, and forgotten promises. So even though she swears she hates him, when Alina realises Liam is awake late, she finds unexpected company in her enemy. Two insomniacs, wide awake in the city that never sleeps. COMPLETE word count: approximately 60,000 words

BOOK ONE OF THE BLACK SERIES -- "Well, behalf of my dick, who cannot speak for himself," Kade said simply as he watched over my face, one of his eyebrows risen, "I would like to say for him that he doesn't care about my brother's feelings at this current moment - or his reaction to the photo." "Well, I do," I muttered, my sentence coming out muffled in my hands as they covered my face. "Do you know how this makes me look to the public eye? To be sleeping with my boyfriend's older brother?" "Look on the bright side, Em." I didn't even spare him a glance as I shook my head, grunting. "Emara, look at me." My hands were pulled away and Kade stared at me, his vibrant blue eyes twinkling and his dirty blonde hair covering his eyebrows. The sight of his effortless beauty made my hard glare slightly soften. "You know I won't tell him if he finds out, you know me," he mumbled to me, "but I'm not going to lie to him when he finds out and say that if I had the chance to change what we've been doing, I wouldn't - because I would do it again without a second thought."

When Everly Reed collides with the cynical and devilishly handsome Mason Valdez, she knows trouble is ahead, but she never could have guessed how much she would be drawn to the storm. ***** Nineteen-year-old Ever Reed likes when things make sense. Which is probably why she excels at math, enough to secure her a spot at an Ivy League school out of state. Sheltered by her mother and older brother Asher for most of her life, Ever hasn't experienced much of the world, but she knows New York will be an adventure. Enter Mason Valdez: cynical, arrogant, and undeniably attractive-exactly what Ever doesn't need. But as their paths keep crossing, Ever finds herself intrigued by Mason, and eager to know the boy behind the bitter mask. As secrets, scars, and painful pasts rise to the surface, Ever knows one thing for sure: they can only make it through if they face their storms together. [[word count: 150,000 - 200,000]] Cover designed by Frances Louise De Ramos Spinoff to The Hoodie Girl Book One of the A Thousand Storms series [[The Fiction Awards 2018 Best Overall Story and Best Romance Winner]] Content/trigger warning: This story mentions sexual assault and childhood abuse

𝐀𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐚 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐧. 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥. Just when Aurora is finally taking control of her own life, everything seems to be falling into chaos. She leaves behind all that she's ever known to take a chance at life in an entirely new place. But America is nothing like England, and its inhabitants even more so. Trusting her brother to help her adapt, Aurora accepts his offer to stay with him and some of his teammates. Seven of them to be exact. She quickly comes to realize that her comfort-zone doesn't exist here, and everything is big, scary, and intimidating. Just like her brother's best friend. Maddox is Aurora's polar opposite, which explains the magnetic pull that he seems to feel for her. He knows that he's bad for her, that the bad in his life will only taint her purity, like a drop of ink in water. Maddox doesn't know what to think about the new girl, but he does know that he thinks about her way too much. He knows that he can't sit by while she struggles, and life in Greenville is sink or swim. Aurora's been thrown into the deep-end without a life preserver and the only thing keeping her from drowning is a tattooed hand reaching out to help her.