Ownvoices Stories

❖ QUEENKILLER, KINGMAKER Book 2 ❖ A year has passed since Isla rescued Tam Mai from the dungeons, but her sister's mind is still trapped and broken. There is only one person Isla knows can help her. Meanwhile across the sea, a prince seeks justice for the murder of his mother. Their search may soon be over, but their war is yet to begin. Now they must work together to bring a new age to the realms and put a new king on the throne. But how long can their alliance hold, when one is keeping a vital secret from the other? ↝ this work contains violence, coarse language, and sexual references. content warnings also apply for ableism -- please see the opening author's note for details ↜ ↝ Wattys 2023 Ongoing Stories shortlist

🏆 Watty Award Winner (2022) This updated edition includes revised chapters and new scenes. Trans guy Collin makes a bet with his coworker that he can land a date with the hot new barista across the street. It should be easy. Except the more time he spends with her, the more the bet starts to feel like the worst idea he's ever had. ### It's 2003 in Santa Cruz, and 21-year-old Collin thought transitioning would be the hard part. But now that he's on hormones and passing with ease, he's still stuck wondering who he is and where he belongs. It doesn't help that his girlfriend of six years just dumped him. So when his coworker challenges him to prove he's still got game, Collin agrees to a stupid bet: get a date with Heather, the cute new barista who just started working at the café across the street. With some unexpected help from his roommate Sam, getting close to her might be easier than Collin expected. But what starts as a harmless distraction quickly turns into something real. And when the truth behind the bet finally comes out, Collin will have to decide whether risking his heart again is worth it... or if he's about to lose the best thing that's happened to him since the breakup. A nostalgic beach-town rom-com about bets, baristas, and what happens when pretending turns into something real. ☕ Tropes: friends-to-lovers vibes, a very bad bet, coffee shop flirting, early-2000s nostalgia, and learning who you are while falling in love. NEW CHAPTERS EVERY TUESAY & FRIDAY

"He's teaching her how to hack his empire. She's collecting the evidence to burn it down." I was paid to translate. Not to interpret. Not to judge. Kira Khine arrives in Portugal with a passport missing an entry stamp, a revoked university admission, and €23,000 she refuses to touch. She didn't come for romance. She came to survive. But survival gets complicated when her landlord turns out to be Rodrigo Costa-a tech billionaire, single father, and the quietest, most unreadable face in northern Portugal. He offers her a deal: translate contracts in Burmese. In exchange, he'll teach her to hack. She takes it. Then she translates Clause 12.4. IMEI numbers. Geolocation data. Unrestricted real-time access-disguised as "urban planning." The kind of data you use to hunt people. The kind of people who disappear in Myanmar every day. Now, Kira has a choice: look away and cash the cheque. Or learn everything Rodrigo can teach her, and use it to destroy him. An impossible attraction. A dangerous game of secrets. He's letting his guard down around her-and she's collecting the evidence to burn his empire to the ground. Somewhere in the vineyard, a seven-year-old girl named Sofia is waiting for her friend Kiki to come to her birthday party. I trust me.She did. She does. A slow-burn geopolitical thriller about translation, cyber warfare, and ultimate betrayal.

She came to university with one purpose. She left her mother with a secret. Amina's mother sold the family land to send her to campus. Three plots in Maiduguri, gone. The weight of that sacrifice sits on her chest every time the adhan rises over the hostel roofs. She is here to study. To make it worth it. To be the good daughter Hajiya Zainab raised her to be. But Amina has another life. Under the anonymous name The Northern Light, she writes bold articles about Northern girls, forced choices, and voices that refuse to be silenced. If anyone discovers the real face behind the blog, her family, the university, the powerful people her words have angered, everything will shatter. Then, on her very first day, during the Maghrib adhan, she looks out her hostel window. She sees Khalid Bello. A tall boy in a white kaftan. Silent. Still. Listening to the call to prayer like it's speaking only to him. Their eyes meet for one breathless second, and something inside Amina shifts before she can stop it. But Khalid is not just a quiet stranger. He is a journalism student. And the anonymous blogger he's been hunting for months? It's her. Now every stolen glance carries a threat. Every near-confession brings discovery closer. And when an anonymous comment appears under her latest post, "We see you, Northern Light. And we know you're on campus," Amina realises the distance between her two lives is closing faster than she feared. In a world where one wrong word can ruin you, how loud can a girl speak before she loses everything, including the boy who might be her undoing? Before Fajr is a slow-burn, high-stakes campus romance wrapped in secrets, sacrifice, and the haunting call to prayer. Perfect for readers who love hidden identities, forbidden tension, and stories that feel like home.

One man is her family's dream. The other could be her undoing. Suraiya Rao has never quite belonged. She's not white enough for society, not brown enough for her family... not enough for anyone. She's spent her life walking a tightrope between British reality and Indian expectation, doing everything by the book, no matter the cost. Then one chance encounter changes everything. Haydn Ellis Clarke isn't part of the plan. He's rich, ridiculously handsome, and absolutely not the man her family has chosen for her. But he sees her - not the dutiful daughter or the girl buried beneath generations of pressure, but the version of herself she's never dared to be. Mendhi My Heart is a story of identity, belonging, and choosing love, even when it means breaking every rule. Because love doesn't always arrive in the "suitable" package. Sometimes, it wears torn jeans... and gives your grandmother a heart attack.

Some things are easier to write than say. Unsaid Words is a collection of raw, honest thoughts on fear, feeling stuck, escapism, loving differently than everyone else, and self-discovery in a world that keeps moving when you can't. These are not polished answers, these are the real questions; the ones I kept to myself for too long. Welcome to everything I never said.

The world wanted quiet. It got a riot instead. The school called it policy. They called it war. One boy is trapped in a mind that has betrayed him. The other is an artist who stopped sketching and started swinging. But if the world will label them as villains, they might as well give them a reason to be afraid.

The story uncovers the life of a Royal Princess Meera Singh and her love story with a Thai actress. "Love knows no borders. Not even royal ones."

America was built on discrimination, hate, and hypocrisy, The very land we stand on is soaked in blood. It's been 250 years and we're owed an apology, Yet the violence still flows like a flash flood. They put our pain among archetypes, And paint over our scars. But I will always bleed stripes; Even if all I see is stars.

Some love stories are about finding each other. This one is about choosing each other, every single time. December Solis has dedicated most of her life to learning how to stand on her own. Love was never something she expected to hold onto. That is, until she met River Sato. With him, everything shifts feeling more stable, even if she's not entirely sure she can trust that steadiness. He is present in ways that matter, despite parts of his world sometimes falling apart around him. Together, they start building something real. Not perfect, or certain, but genuine. A life crafted from small moments, quiet promises, and a connection that doesn't depend on everything falling perfectly into place. As they draw closer to what feels like home, they're forced to confront what it truly means to hold onto love when their future remains uncertain. This is a story about connection, memory, and the courage to stay even when staying is the hardest thing to do. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

​"He has too much atmosphere." ​Kian has a flawless, data-driven plan for his Master's degree: graduate with distinction, speak to a grand total of zero people, and secure a job interacting exclusively with algorithms. Humans are messy. Humans leave bad tastes in your mouth. ​Then came Arjun Mehra. ​Arjun ruins things the way weather does. Casually and without permission. He shows up late, argues thoughtfully with professors, drinks aggressive amounts of coffee, and leaves yellow Post-it notes that haunt Kian's thoughts for twelve days straight. Kian is determined to find him deeply, permanently insufferable. ​But when a mandatory semester group project forces them into an accidental partnership, Kian's tightly color-coded world starts to blur. ​Arjun is a chaotic variable Kian didn't account for. And the hardest part about data? You can't calculate your way out of catching feelings. ​✨ WHAT TO EXPECT: 🛋️ Forced Proximity (The dreaded group project) 🤫 Grumpy x Charming / Academic Rivals-ish ☕ High-tension banter & slow-burn yearning 📉 A main character who is an expert at lying to himself ​An OwnVoices South Asian New Adult BL Romance. Updates every [Day of the week]!

[This is the translated version of my original Indonesian story. To support me or read the Bahasa Indonesia version, visit my profile] In an alternate version of the 2000s, where technology surges forward and magic-once revered-is hunted to the edge of extinction, lives a young man named Hans. By day, he is a quiet bartender, blending drinks for patrons who never suspect the truth: buried deep within him lies a power passed down from his mother, a healer and sorceress, and his father, a drunken gambler entangled in the shadows of the criminal underworld. For years, Hans has lived in silence-choosing solitude not for peace, but to shield himself from the scars of his past and the shame that clings to him like a second skin. He hides his power, not out of cowardice, but out of pain. That is, until a stranger walks into his bar. A dark-skinned man from the southern isles, the stranger calls himself Kaelani-or Kaelan. But he is no ordinary guest. He carries with him a sorrow deeper than grief, the remnants of a lost homeland-Maluʻia-an archipelago laid to ruin by the very technology that now rules the world. Like Hans, Kaelan is a mage, a guardian of protective magic betrayed by the one he loved. That betrayal cost him his people, his purpose, and nearly his soul. Their meeting is no coincidence. Two fractured souls, exiled from the destinies they were meant to fulfill, begin to find flickers of hope in each other's quiet company. But beyond the whispered conversations and the soft hum of city nights, the world stirs once more. Magic is awakening-and Hans may be the key that time itself has tried to forget.

A story of what occurs after the ending. A planet, nearly stripped of life, left to fester, or prosper, equally. A child, thrown out at 16, whisked away from home, from earth, to learn magic. A set of twins, who've survived despite all the odds. Join Onyekachi, a trans-woman, as she embarks on new journey, forms a new family, and discovers secrets about the planet she's called home for the past nine years.

这本诗集并非儿戏，而是对人类脆弱性及其他复杂而深刻主题的见证。 鉴于涉及的主题及其复杂性，建议14岁以上读者阅读。警告：内容涉及敏感话题。

Is unconditional adoration really too much to ask? Lucius sold his soul to change the world for the better. Of course, the definition of 'better' may have twisted over the years, but how is that his fault? After being torn away from the (one and ONLY, by the way) love of his life, some retaliation should be expected if not strictly required, and after finding the corpse of his dead friend walking around, shouldn't some crowbar-related maiming be forgiven? Oh, and after housing a parasitic vein infestation in his chest, shouldn't at least one tiny, horribly unethical blood ritual or two be justified? Apparently some would disagree, which seems strange to Lucius and the second Lucius inside Lucius' head. This is the third book in the Eternity series.

Two teenagers, Sofía and Martina, experience an unforgettable summer in Pescara, Italy. Their friendship blossoms into something deeper, but fear of rejection and family expectations force them to keep their love a secret. Through ten chapters, we explore their journey of self-discovery, acceptance, and courage to confront their fears and come out of the closet. 💻 THIS STORY IS COPYRIGHTED / DO NOT COPY

Summer 2000. Adam Chandler is a competitive cheerleader who just wants to do what he loves. But when he moves to rural Missouri and tries out for River Run High's squad, the administration makes him an offer: present as a girl, or no cheerleading. He says yes. What begins as a compromise for the sake of the sport becomes a journey of self-discovery as "Amber" navigates high school, first love, heartbreak, and the realization that maybe the girl she's pretending to be is who she actually is. Featuring: → Small-town Missouri, early 2000s (flip phones, AIM, mall culture) → Trans joy and authentic struggle → Sapphic romance (childhood sweethearts) → Found family and fierce friendships → A cheerleading squad that protects their own This is a story about gender identity, first love, and the radical act of being yourself-even when you don't have the words for it yet. CW: Transphobia (discussed/challenged), family conflict, parental abuse (not graphic), mentions of car accident/hospitalization [#OwnVoices trans narrative | Slow burn romance | Coming of age | LGBTQ+]

In 1692, Mary Bradbury was tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang for the crime of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. She escaped, and with her a tome of unbridled arcane power. Centuries have passed since that day. The book has been passed down the family line from witch, to witch, to witch. No longer a book, but an archive-one Witch Hunters have been seeking since the day of Mary's escape. Now, the Archive finds home in the mind of the youngest of Mary's descendants, a bookish girl named Amber. In order to save her family and keep their secrets, Amber will have to break with tradition-but will her family ever be able to forgive her?

The Ancient Library is destroyed by exiles. Zoe, a Traveller, hunts treasure to revive it and her mystical tribe, who die as Africa's stories fade. Along the way, she meets a pirate-garbed grandma and her suspicious detective granddaughter. With time running out Zoe must track her treasure, dodge a dangerous stranger bent on nabbing her stones and find her artifact, the key back home. With a touch and a chant, Zoe returns home with a treasure, a question about the glowing runes on her palm and a head full of stories to share with Auntie at 'Hair Time.' I am Thalia Elie, author of HAIR WE GO! : A Curly Girls' Adventure series. As a multi-ethnic curly girl, I wanted to encourage readers' curiosity about differing cultures. This book celebrates the curly girl! It's an animated escapade that travels around Africa to laugh and learn that curls color the world. Each excursion is an adventure in diversity.

||Full description inside|| "So dark, so deep, the secrets that you keep..." Picture this. You wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, your arms and legs shaking uncontrollably. You've just woken up from a nightmare and it's the same one you get every single night. Your only chance at living a normal life in this world is the knowledge that no living soul will ever know what haunts you day and night. But you're never alone. You have this nagging suspicion that wherever you go, you're being....followed. You have your enemies and you have your friends. The only problem is....how do you spot the difference between the two?