Diverse Stories

Mira finds herself stuck in the city of love with Jake, the playboy athlete she can't stand. What she doesn't expect is for major sparks to fly on their 24-hour adventure. But can this newly-found love last beyond the magic of Paris? ***** 24 Hours in Paris is now published as a Paperback & E-book by W by Wattpad Books As a Wattpad reader, you can now access both the Original Edition and the W by Wattpad Books Published Edition here upon purchase (PS: a review on Amazon (and also Goodreads) would be very much appreciated, to help get this POC rom com in front of more readers! All the review page links are on my Wattpad profile page :-) ) In the new Published Edition of the book, the characters of Mira and Jake will be older and wiser co-workers in the corporate world, who miss their flight and get stuck spending an extra 24 hours in Paris. They'll start off annoyed with each other, but you know how the story goes... "Adorably sweet and a brilliant read! It made me feel like I was roaming the streets of Paris without having to leave my couch." - Grace @HQ ***** On the last day of their class's college trip to Paris, Mira and Jake get tangled up in a debacle that causes them to miss their flight home to New York. Which means they're stuck in Paris until the next available flight that's 24 hours away! Mira is witty and a lover of art history and good cheese. Jake, on the other hand, is your All-American frat boy with a killer smile. Translation: they can't stand each other. As they visit places they could never have imagined, Mira and Jake go from mortal enemies to star-crossed lovers with sizzling chemistry. But can their spark last without Paris' cheese and charm to keep it going? [[word count: 50,000-60,000 words]] Cover designed by Ray Gardener

WATTPAD BOOKS EDITION. It only takes one moment to change your life forever . . . After her mother's deportation last year, all Soledad "Sol" Gutierrez wants is for her life to go back to normal. Everything's changed-new apartment, new school, new family dynamic-and Sol desperately wants to fit in. When she joins her community college's history club, it comes with an odd initiation process: break into Westray's oldest house and steal . . . a fork? There's just one problem: while the owners of the house aren't home, their grandson Ethan is, and when he catches Sol with her hand in the kitchen drawer, she barely escapes with the fork intact. This one chance encounter irrevocably alters her life, and Sol soon learns that sometimes fitting in isn't as important as being yourself-even if that's the hardest thing she's ever had to do.

WATTPAD ORIGINAL EDITION In 1955, mixed-race Ethan Harper leaves his progressive hometown for a summer in Alabama where he's not welcome, except by resident free spirit, Juniper Jones. ***** After getting himself into a bout of trouble, 16-year-old Ethan Harper's parents send him to Ellison, Alabama, to live with his aunt and uncle for the summer. But the year is 1955, and Alabama is a far cry from his beloved home of Arcadia, Washington. As much as it's hotter in temperature, it's colder in every other way, and Ethan learns the hard way that people see his mere existence as a threat. Amidst all the mayhem, a fiery, free-spirited, oddball walks into Ethan's life. Her name is Juniper Jones. She is the first person in Ellison who seems unfazed by their racial differences, and she promises to give Ethan a summer he will always remember, filled with endless adventure and discovery. With Juniper, Ethan can breathe, he can be, despite the incessant attention and bullying their newly formed friendship attracts. Can the two survive the summer, run in the light and block out the noise of the outside world? [Published version comes out June 16, 2020 with Wattpad Books!] [[word count: 70,000-80,000 words]]

WATTPAD BOOKS EDITION. There are some friends you never forget. It's the summer of 1955. For Ethan Harper, a biracial kid raised mostly by his white father, race has always been a distant conversation. When he's sent to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in small-town Alabama, his blackness is suddenly front and center, and no one is shy about making it known he's not welcome there. Enter Juniper Jones. The town's resident oddball and free spirit, she's everything the townspeople aren't-open, kind, and accepting. Armed with two bikes and an unlimited supply of root beer floats, Ethan and Juniper set out to find their place in a town that's bent on rejecting them. As Ethan is confronted for the first time by what it means to be black in America, Juniper tries to help him see the beauty in even the ugliest reality, and that even the darkest days can give rise to an invincible summer . . .

A heartbroken fashion designer escapes to Tokyo to be an assistant on a movie set, only to get caught up in an illicit, whirlwind romance with the lead actor. ***** After discovering her fiance is cheating on her, heiress and fashion designer Lily Porter is whisked away to Tokyo to help a production company adapt one of her great-aunt's novels. She isn't thrilled about lying about being her aunt's assistant until it throws her into the path of the movie's lead actor, who is enough of a distraction to keep her mind off her ex for good. But can there really be a future for them when their relationship is built on lies, false identities, and a secret engagement? [[Wattys' Longlisted]] [[word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]

In a home where love was a currency, she was always bankrupt. Her parents' affection was reserved for the twin who reflected their every hope, leaving her to inherit the hushed comparisons and soft dismissals. She was constantly reminded of her lesser worth, but she never imagined her marriage would be a cast-off from the twin who was truly desired. Offered as a consolation prize, she expects only disappointment in a loveless union. Yet, the journey of marriage becomes an unexpected path to self-discovery. The Color Of My Own Sky is a story of the invisible bruises that shape a soul, and the battle to finally find the courage to paint your own brilliant horizon. Nov. 3 ©deey_jah

As the cruel, uncompromising, and terrifyingly brilliant CEO of Bloom Press, Roman Alvarez terrifies everyone-including her new assistant editor, Kaalia Amoretta. But on a work trip to the tropical coast of South Asia, under Kerala's storm-soaked skies, professional distance dissolves into something more dangerous. What should have stayed strictly business becomes intimate, charged, and impossible to forget. *** [LONGER VERSION] Roman Alvarez is infamous in the publishing world: cruel, uncompromising, and brilliant enough to get away with it. As the first Black and female CEO of Bloom Press, she has built her career on steel walls and impossible standards. Kaalia Amoretta, the new assistant editor hired to support her, expects a tyrant. What she doesn't expect is the quiet softness beneath Roman's sharp edges ... or the spark that flares every time their eyes meet. When Bloom's newest release hinges on securing a reclusive poet's anthology, Roman and Kaalia go on a "working vacation" to India. But what should have been a straightforward business trip unravels into something far more dangerous: monsoon-soaked nights, shared secrets, and a slow-burning tension neither woman can ignore. Under tropical skies and an old woman's poetry on love and colonialism, their professional boundaries blur, their walls crack, and a tender, terrifying love begins to take shape. But as they return to New York-with media storms rising, a billion-dollar lawsuit looming, and family expectations closing in-the real question emerges: Can a love born far from reality survive the world waiting for them? *** A sweeping, sapphic, slow-burn romance and the kind of love worth risking everything.

"When flame bends to tide, Arveth is born." In the beginning, the Twelve Lands were held in the grace of Maadhi, the Spirit of Dharma. But peace is a fragile anchor when weighed against a monster's hunger for power. When the Sovereign shattered the Spirit, four elemental shards-Aapo, Thejo, Vayo, and Patavi-were scattered across the sky, falling as stars and rising as children with no memory of the past. Since that day, the hunt has never ended. For sixteen years, the Sovereign has searched the horizon for the pieces of his lost anchor. Arvani is a princess of the coast who remembers only the terrifying sensation of falling. Raveth is the Prince of Embers, a walking volcano raised to be the Sovereign's deadliest weapon. One is the tide; the other is the flame. In a world built on a tyrant's lies, can the broken shards find their way back to the Source? When hearts are bound by secrets, will love be a burden too heavy to carry, or the only power strong enough to mend what was broken? Witness the clash of love, guilt, and the elements in this epic tale of the Twelve Lands.

Aurora Windsor has always trusted rules. They make sense. They keep things fair. And they're easy to follow when your brain was built to solve puzzles. Elijah Navarro doesn't trust systems. He believes rules are flexible, codes are breakable, and a little hacking is fine, if it serves the greater good. When a high-stakes codeathon becomes their final exam, the two are forced into an uneasy partnership. But what starts as a fight for grades turns into something far more dangerous-uncovering a system designed to steal from those who need it most. One wants to win the right way. One wants to burn the lie down. As firewalls fall and lines blur, Aurora begins to realize that not all systems deserve saving. And Elijah learns that some rules are worth breaking only if someone's brave enough to expose the truth. Chaos follows. So do sparks. And once a system starts crashing-there's no undo button.

Enter Jericho Tucker: a Nigerian, Brooklyn native with serious daddy issues, a killer afro, and has a whole lot of love to give. But toss picture-perfect Joseph Turner into the mixing bowl; quarterback, silver-tongued, white boy from the dirty south, and you'll have a real disaster on your hands. It's their last year of high-school, and things are already getting hot; just add a pinch of fake friends, two cups of jealous exes, and a little too much southern lovin', and now you're really cooking! So, if you can't handle the heat, you better get the heck out of the kitchen. + 5th place Ace Awards Supreme LGBTQ batch 2 + #2 in talkthepoc + #2 wmbm + #3 in diverselit + #3 bmwm + #7 in weneeddiversebooks + #10 in diverse ***HIATUS***

By day, Kallen Onyx is just another invisible nineteen-year-old trying to survive the Second Shift District. By night, he is the city's unacknowledged safety net. When the bridges shake and the buses stall, Kallen steps in. He doesn't fly, and he doesn't wear a cape. He turns his skin into unyielding mineral stone to hold up the infrastructure the city refuses to fix. He saves lives. The system logs it as "Operational Variance." He breaks his back. The system calls it "Maintenance." But after years of being a human column for a crumbling city, Kallen feels something new. A delay. A stutter. A lag between his will and his power. The weight is getting heavier. The "Lag" is getting longer. And the city just updated its benchmarks to demand even more. Kallen has to decide: Does he keep holding up a world that treats him like a spare part? Or does he let it fall?

Born into slavery, Lena Wells escapes in search of freedom-but instead finds a Union camp overflowing with runaways, soldiers, and the man whose gaze she can't seem to forget. What begins as stolen glances soon becomes forbidden touches and passionate, secret kisses. But war has a way of claiming everything, and when Julian is called back to his regiment, Lena is forced to let him go. Four years later, Lena has built a fragile new life in Philadelphia-a seamstress by day and a devoted mother by night, determined to protect the child who carries the face of the man she lost. Julian Dennis, wounded and discharged, is living in the same city rebuilding a life that no longer feels like his own. When a chance assignment brings Lena into his home that he shares with his mother-who has hired her to sew a few dresses-the past collides violently with the present. One look at Lena's little girl sends Julian spiraling. She looks like him. She acts like him. And the timing is undeniable. Yet Lena insists the child isn't his. Now Julian is torn between hope and heartache, while Lena clings to the truth she's carried alone for years. As long-buried emotions resurface and new wounds open, both must confront not only the ghosts of the war, but the powerful forces of society, race, loyalty, and love that threaten to keep them apart. Because sometimes the war doesn't end on the battlefield- Sometimes it finds you again, exactly where you're trying to start over.

Running away from all her problems on Earth (leaving behind broken promises and a shattered social and love life), the cold empty pitch-black water-covered surface of one of Saturn's moons was THE LAST place she'd ever thought to find solace on her aimless space adventure. The near mundane routine of trying to survive daily from the hazardous onslaught of the planet was practically a game to her at this point. Until one day, while drowning because she forgot to refill her oxygen tank while trying to escape a tsunami, as one usually does, a rustle in the water brought about a startling realization. "Have I truly been alone this whole time while Exploring Titan....."

The King Of Joseon was known for many things, but his possessiveness was known throughout the whole land. And it was not of woman he was possessive of, it was his people's trust and his crown. He was so possessive that he did not even allow foreign rulers or people to come into his land to trade goods, for he feared they would leave and never come back. So when the year of drought came, and the lands water and food sourced diminished the people began to loathe him. Without foreigners' help, the kingdom would fall. Now when he hears whispers of being overthrown he immediately gathers his advisors on what he should do next. They gave him a 'simple' answer: to marry a foreign girl who is the daughter of a king who rules a smaller kingdom, and then they could overtake the land by war. The king without hesitation agreed, and so he sent a declaration to many lands around the world of those whose daughters wished to be married. For a year or so many daughters came and visit, but none of them wished to wed him for he was selfish and heartless. When all hope seemed lost, a young woman from the island of Jamaica accepted to marry him without even meeting him. The advisors were against this for many reasons, but the king did not care he wanted his people's trust again, so he called for her and some of her people to come and stay in the palace. Little did he know that this woman with lovely doe eyes was not the quiet princess he imagined. (Under Minor Revising, Pardon The Mistakes) # 4 Values ~ 3/06/23, 6/8/23, 6/15/23, 6/19/23-7/2/23 # 5 Values ~ 5/29/23, 6/7/23, 6/9/23, 7/8/23 # 6 Values ~ 5/27/23, 5/30/23, 6/1/23-6/6/23, 6/10/23, 6/18/23, 7/3/23-7/4/23 # 7 Values ~ 6/12/23-6/14/23 # 9 Values ~ 5/31/23 #10 Values ~ 5/25/23 #24 Diverse - 6/23/23-6/26/23 #21 POC ~ 4/27/23 #26 POC ~ 5/24/23

Daniella Ophelia Jackson had always been invisible at Sterling Crest Academy, a school where legacy names and trust funds meant everything. With her golden-brown skin, hazel eyes that shifted color in the sunlight, and thick curls that framed her face, Daniella stood out in ways she never wanted to. But it wasn't her beauty people noticed-it was her quietness. She was the girl who sat in the library during lunch. The girl who corrected professors without realizing it. The girl who graduated top of every class without ever trying. A nerdy scholarship student in a school full of billionaires' children. And then there was Camden Declan Callahan. The golden boy of Sterling Crest. With emerald green eyes, black hair that always looked effortlessly messy, warm beige skin dusted with light freckles, and a reputation that followed him everywhere, Camden was everything Daniella wasn't. He was the captain of the hockey team, heir to the Callahan business empire, and the kind of boy everyone wanted. Except he only ever seemed to want her. Their story started quietly-late study sessions, teasing arguments over books, and Camden showing up to the library long after hockey practice just to sit beside her. By the middle of their senior year, the entire school knew the impossible had happened. The hockey king had fallen for the quiet girl with the brilliant mind. And Daniella had fallen just as hard. But Sterling Crest had never been kind to outsiders. What started as a harmless senior prank spiraled into something cruel and humiliating-something that made Daniella the center of a scandal she never deserved. By the time the truth came out, the damage had already been done. Brokenhearted and betrayed, Daniella transferred out of Sterling Crest and disappeared from Camden's life overnight. No goodbye. No explanation. Just silence. Disclaimer: story is in the characters point of veiw and you are reading what they are seeing during that specific situation

"I thought I'd be studying in peace, maybe exploring a few Yakut cafes, not getting tossed into rugby scrums and tackled by beefy boys from Saint Peter's." In the fresh, completely unexpected sequel to Spice and Solace, Rajamanickam "Raj" Kumar is reluctantly whisked away from his comfortable life in Texas to Yakutsk-the coldest city in the world-for half his senior year, thanks to a foreign exchange program his parents forced him into. Leaving behind his beloved nail salon job, his amazing boss Miss Nong, his best friends Shruti, Nisha, and Asifa, and his caring boyfriend Riyaj, Raj braces himself for a lonely half-year of studying computer science at the Yakutsk School of STEM. But life takes an unexpected turn when he meets and is forced to room with his host family's son, Maxim "Max" Zakharov-a strikingly handsome biker with messy hair, tattoos, and eyes that are impossible to ignore. Now, Raj faces a chilling struggle not just with the icy Yakut climate, but also with his own heart. Torn between his loyalty to Riyaj and his growing feelings for Max, he's caught in a whirlwind of emotions and dilemmas that could change everything. Raj's sheltered world is about to unravel in ways he absolutely never saw coming. (THIS BOOK CAN BE READ AS A STANDALONE NOVEL, YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ BOOK 1 TO UNDERSTAND THIS!)

"Music is magic preforming it's tricks with sweet instrumental tones and lyrics" Just some music quotes I really love, I'd love it if you left suggestions!

what would you say if you knew no one was going to read it

face claims part 2

When a corporation threatens to demolish the entire United States without regard for lives, property, or rights, only a chosen few can save their country from mass destruction. Follow six dysfunctional teenagers as they discover themselves, each other, and the superheroes within.