Grownupreads Stories

"Bridget Jones with a lot more wine! This story is hilarious, feel-good and relatable in all the best ways!" - Grace K @ HQ. She's just quit her high-flying job, and her marriage is coasting on fumes. Can Alice find a sense of purpose in the wreckage? ***** Alice's life isn't going to plan. She's tied to her phone, pointlessly managing PR for a sinking corporate megalith. She's become a bit player in her kids' lives, and her marriage is coasting on fumes. Forcing herself into action with a rash resignation, Alice sets out to make a positive impact on the world around her. But how? Meditation leads to napping, and her attempts to get closer to her teenage daughter result in the discovery of a secret that leaves her at a loss. As the months tick by and a sense of purpose continues to elude her, Alice finds herself forming bonds with the most unlikely characters: the young woman who panhandles outside her old office; the homeless boy who sits cross-legged outside the liquor store with his ginger cat; her own dog walker who, it turns out, knows a thing or two about developing a good crema. Testing the limits of marriage, motherhood and the Toronto subway system -- can Alice find her way into a purpose-driven life? Or will it all be one giant hangover? [*Wattpad Editor's Pick 2018*] [[word count: 70,000-80,000 words]] Readers say: "This had me laughing so loud that my sister came to check up on me to see if I'm OK!!!" "...the new Bridget Jones, a working woman's take on the digital age." About the Author: Working mother and red wine enthusiast, Renee lives in Toronto with her flawed but wonderful family (seriously, who left socks on the kitchen counter?) in a flawed but wonderful house (what *is* that smell in the basement?) where she writes flawed but wonderful stories about what it is to be a woman today.

**2016 WATTYS WINNER FOR VISUAL STORYTELLING** Letting her appearance fall to the wayside and desperate to find a reason for her life, Marilyn sits half naked in an Urgent Care examination room with a mysterious skin itch. If she can survive the humiliation of being treated by a sexy male nurse while unraveling the hidden drama woven throughout the hospital staff, Marilyn might leave the hospital cured far below the surface of her skin. NURSE McSEXY is a hilariously enhanced true story (with a healthy dose of fiction) about my mortifying experience involving an allergic reaction, Urgent Care and a sexy male nurse. It was an evening in which one of my greatest fears was encountered--only to reveal my better self on the other side of humiliation. This humorous tale is definitely worth calling in sick for! TO CLARIFY: Despite the title, this is not a tale about a hot and sweaty romance. I mean--I wish it was since it's based on a true story. Unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), my life is a lot more on the belly laughing side of the spectrum than the steaming up mirrors side. Just saying.

Book #2 in the Chrim Chronicles series •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• The second book in the Chrim Chronicles occures in three different worlds that collide in an inevitable war. The reckoning is coming. In part two of the Chrim Chronicles, the two missing bloodlines, Moreau and Fynce, make their return, and not without bloodshed. Meanwhile, Wren tries to escape her way out of Tartarus the Underworld, making a lot of enemies along the way. Back in Chrim the witches of the Infamous Coven who were once best friends now face each other in a battle of life and death. (Ongoing and has yet to be edited)

Carlos, the caretaker of a vending machine, realises that it's not an ordinary machine - it sells luck. What happens next? Will Carlos's life remain the same? Read about the emotional roller-coaster ride Carlos goes through.

Winning Chick Lit Weekly Prompt 14. A gorgeous guy walks into the restaurant where a lonely girl is having dinner... 1,666 words in two chapters

For the Unending Love Contest. It is based on the official prompt of the poem by Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore's 'Unending Love."

Sometimes the truth is just too terrible to ever be guessed... Readers' comments: 'Excellent story', 'gripping page-turner', 'marvellous read', 'great writing', 'simply remarkable', 'a fabulously emotional ride', 'wow', 'what a great book!', 'had me engaged right to the end' Wattys award-winning author (The Painted Altar, literary fiction 2020) When two British brothers are reported missing whilst on holiday in southern Italy, the local carabinieri turn to retired detective Jim Jacks for help. Still pained by a recent divorce, he has started a new life for himself as a small-scale wine producer. Along with commander Nuzzo, he will slowly unravel a mystery which is even darker than it had first seemed... Genre: murder mystery Length: 75,000 words (300 novel pages) Target audience: adult, fans of crime fiction, anyone who likes mysteries full of twists and which are populated by three-dimensional characters Extract: I stayed there at the holiday bungalow with Sarah and Olivia for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Would return again the following morning. An analyst would no doubt conclude that my actions weren't entirely selfless; that as a lonely old divorcee I found a nostalgic comfort in female company. And yes, this might have been part of it. But there was a very practical reason too for my more or less continued presence in the house. I just didn't want to leave them to themselves I suppose, was afraid of what might happen. Yes, the thing I remember most about that forty-eight hour period is the silence. There was something brooding to it. Something ominous, almost delicate, like if it cracked you feared it would explode. An edgy, precarious silence stretching on and on, minute after minute, hour after hour... About the author: I'm a 47-year-old English teacher who has lived in Italy for the last 15 years. I have two other novels on the site, The Painted Altar and Kill Who You Want

The student falls for one man she shoudnt't have just for him to take her to Egypt, to a trip where love that ended two thousand years ago finds its way back with the sand...

"Perfectly happy in our tertiary star system, its thirteen life sustaining worlds more than sufficient to house our modest population of almost eighty billion, we thought we were untouchable. Then they came. Humans. They looked like us, walked like us and the technology they possessed allowed them to talk like us. That is where the similarities ended. Never have such a brutal, bastard race existed and it is the sincerest hope of myself and every single surviving member of my species that never will such a race exist again." Star Clash

Selena is a young woman haunted by her dreams. Dreams of hunger and desire - of a dark and sensuous beast within. Visions so lucid that they threaten the life and identity she thought she knew. Seeking peace and struggling to understand the changes consuming her body and mind, Selena flees to her family's cabin amid the wild Appalachian Mountains. There, under the silver moon, she discovers an identity she cannot deny and a man she cannot resist.

A WW II veteran struggles with the aftermath of a false truth; a young girl prepares to sell her body to a passing stranger; an ancient trapper sniffs the path of the wolf; a deformed fish surfaces; a mysterious track is discovered on the shore of a northern lake. Nine Lies of B.G. Davies is a collection of short fiction featuring new original works as well as a few remastered drafts. Some stories were previously published outside of Wattpad, and reworked here for the Wattpad audience, some have appeared on Wattpad in earlier forms, and others have been running around the hard drive long enough. It's time to set them free. "Unknown Artist: Bicycle and Snow, 1941" was selected as the Grand Prize Winner of Wattpad's Literary Fiction Networks's competition "Winter." "The Brother Goes First" was the grand prize winner of Wattpad's Margaret Atwood The Heart Goes Last Competition. "Seduction in D Minor" was the first place winner of Wattpad Romance Love Me Tinder Competition. "The Line in the Sand" is true. Enjoy the lies.

Escaping from their war torn country, 12 year old Ava and her family live in secret. Amongst the celebration after the Olympics she searches for food and reminisces of the place she used to call home.

It is the year 2142 - The Age of Quantified Automation, and every life is measured and controlled. Everything a person does is recorded. This data is used to place people where they are most needed. Adelaide and Adwin are turning 18 soon and will be placed as a cog in the wheel of the American Republic. Are they more than their data? Does free will still exist? Follow them as they discover what truth really is and what it means to be truly free. Underground is a very different world. They are off the grid. Are they a threat to those who control the Republic - First 400? Do they know the truth? Can they save the world from what they believe to be pure evil? Or are they wrong about who the enemy is? Follow Freya as she fights for what she believes to be true. Join this exploration. ~~Don't forget to hit the ⭐️ if you like a chapter~~ This book is an exploration of biopower, basic income, culture, in-group and out-group bias, conflict, corruption, technology and the human spirit.

Book #1 in the Chrim Chronicles series •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• A small town, perhaps not far from yours, has been keeping a secret since it was founded six centuries ago and has managed to carry its secret into the world of iPhones and social media. In this town, humans are peaceful neighbors to forest-nymphs, witches, werewolves, and vampires. When a ritual turns dark and ends the life of dozens, it marks the end of a long peace. Twenty-year-old Farren, a witch descending of the creators of dark magic, decides that her current job as an executioner is not enough to keep her family safe and gathers an army to dispose of the current council and seize power for her own. But Farren is not the only one who rises. Alliances are formed, plotting each other's downfall. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Summer Brinkley is thrilled to be promoted to a job in California, where her best friend from college lives. She is sad to find out Dana won't be there the first three months, but her best friend offers Summer her apartment to live in while she searches for her own place. The only problem is that Dana has a roommate, Jesse, who Summer crushed on all through college. Jesse James is stunned to find out the girl of his dreams will be moving in with him. He avoided meeting in person during college as Summer had been dating someone else and lived miles away. Now that they will be down the hall from each other will Jesse finally get some Summer Lovin'?

A car crash can change a person's life in a blink of an eye. But what if it changed the person? Kaden and his father, Travis, had had a strained relationship for years. But will heir bonds be tested even more when Kaden has to come to help his father after his brush with death? Neither are prepared for the changes in Travis's personality .. and neither is their city.

Fiction is where we give free rein to the dark side of the mind, to explore where it will go and what it will do when the constraints of civilization are removed.

Schoolteacher Fiona is on a mission for her beloved but ailing grandpa - find a missing Zimbabwean artefact, the priceless soapstone statuette known as the Bird of the Gods. Conrad - globetrotting archaeologist-for-hire, contracted to the stunning influencer Amanda (aka #mandalove) - has the same job. When Fiona and Conrad's paths cross, what was supposed to be a straightforward quest turns into a high-stakes race around the world. And with antagonists popping up at every corner - from mountain tops to deep underground, in Serbian caves, frozen Canadian crypts, and the silver mines of the old West - Fiona and Conrad must work together to catch their bird. Mutual respect grows into something more. But not everything is quite as it seems, and the intrepid pair must watch their backs lest they too end up underground - this time permanently.