Willow Williams loves the number 23. She was born on the 23rd day of July, and considers 23 to be her lucky number. Wesley Wilkerson has an obsession with the number 23. He cuts his steak into 23 pieces, He watches TV for exactly 23 minutes a day, and He has exactly 23 shirts, 23 pants, 23 pairs of socks, and so on. When Wesley meets Willow, he instantly knows that she was meant to be his wife. Her name starts with the 23rd letter of the alphabet, her full name is 23 letters, she was born on the 23rd, she lives on the 23rd house on Front Street, and she is the most beautiful girl Wesley has ever seen.
When Willow meets Wesley, things could not be worse for her. She was just recently at her boyfriend Logan’s 18th birthday party, where he dumped her. Furious and heartbroken, Willow decides to head home, until she bumps into Wesley. He then takes her to his deserted cabin and tells her of his obsession. Enter the crazed world of 23 alongside her, in the haunting new story, 23.
Antique store owner Liz brings home a Victorian taxidermy hound from auction, unwittingly unleashing dark forces on her wife and son.
*****
Nat Loman has finally married the love of her life, Liz, and is getting used to her role as stepmother to Liz's 5-year-old son, Liam. The Loman family runs a bustling antique business so they attend a sale where a striking, black taxidermied hound is up for auction. Liz picks it up for the business, but it ends up being stored in their home, where Nat notices strange things occurring. She quickly discovers the past residents had died violently. Then she hears from a friend about the myth of "the devil's dog", a hound that perches in the shadows, tearing families apart from the inside. Soon, people around the Lomans are dying, and Liz is changing, darkening. It's up to Nat to save the woman she loves from the darkness closing in, and to save Liam from danger no matter what she has to sacrifice.
[[Winner of the 2018 Wattys "Hidden Gems" category]]
[[word count: 60,000-70,000 words]]