Grownupreads Stories

England 1921. For fifty handicapped veterans left without home or job after WW1, the only person standing between them and utter destitution is Olivia Altringham. Lacking sufficient funds and a support network, Olivia has managed to keep her veteran's programme running by sheer determination and force of personality. Now, a soldier she had an affair with during the war has suddenly reappeared in her life, forcing her to re-examine their time together and how she ended their affair. At the same time, mysterious and deadly events unfold on the estate that threaten to unbalance the safe environment she has created for her handicapped charges. The times, and circumstances, are rapidly changing and Olivia realises she must change with them -- or risk going under completely. 🔔 #1 in Historic Fiction May 2020 🔔 Featured on the Wattpad Hidden Gems list May/June 2020 🔔 1st place in the Jelsa Awards 2019 🔔 1st place in the One Million Project Awards 2018 in the category Historic/General fiction. 🔔 1st place in the Asteria Awards 2018 in the category of Historical Fiction 🔔 1st place in the Rise Awards 2018 in the category of Historical Fiction

"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.

The invaders fired without warning. The space station exploded in a soundless ball of flame, incinerating the Patrol ships as they scrambled to launch. Lasers burned swathes through the planet settlements, destroying buildings and killing thousands in their path. In less than an hour, Bellatru was a smoking ruin. Then, the visitors launched the ground troops.

In the sequel to Us Again, Beth is reeling in the aftermath of the argument with her wife Sylvia. She recalls the event that became a turning point in their fractured relationship. On a business trip, Beth meets a charismatic woman named Paula. The dark beauty charms her with attention and silent promises of a night Beth will never forget. With her sexual needs not met at home, will Beth give in to the sexy stranger?

1. Immortal: "No young man believes he shall ever die," said Stek, who had turned forty the week before. "But we both know that's not true, don't we? Just think of all that we could achieve if we didn't grow old and die just as we are getting started!" "What are you talking about?" Drexler asked, mystified. "Immortality..." 2. To Boldly Go: Humanity discovers that only women can explore deep space, and remain sane 3. Turning Point: An alternate history around Joan of Arc 4. My Day at the Beach: - a post apocalyptic short. Four stories for the 2016 Ooorah Smackdown

"There was something so wild and untamed about her she had every man in the room mesmerized yet when she stopped her eyes were only fixated on one person. Him. " A prequel to A Wedding Favour. Part 3/3 in the Jacob/Leah Series

Dominic is a twenty-five year old musician, trying to hit it big. Music may be art and passion, but it is also business and politics. Dom finds it a frustrating mix for an uncertain future. Returning from a tour, Dom is drawn to nineteen year old college student Charlotte. She may be tiny in stature but becomes a huge presence in his mind. When they talk, he is further intrigued - she's young but weary, skeptical but open, a living and breathing contradiction. Charli considers herself a realist. She likes to work hard and play hard. And while she may party, she doesn't smoke or do drugs. Her life is too busy to worry about dating or something like feelings making things more difficult. Right now the only thing she wants out of life is to connect but not commit. So when Dom shows up, she recognizes a complication when she sees one and tries to stay away. Soon Dom and Charli begin a relationship that neither of them sees coming. Once they are in it are they willing to make the compromises required to keep the show on the road or are they both too hard at their cores to make the band play on?

Sandrine is reluctant to take the job as a ghost hunter, despite her ancestral gift. And when she meets her boss and future partners, every fibre of her being tells her to quit-but she needs the money. How hard can it be to dispel the ghost of a bird? Soon, she finds herself fighting the advances of a medieval playboy, targeted by a flock of ectoplasmic ravens, and trying to solve the puzzle of the cottage in the lake. With disaster waiting around the corner, she truly has no time for a budding romance, right? ~ ~ ~ My entry for the open novella contest 2021. Prompts: No 5: There is a terrible drought ravaging the land, but when the waters recede from the local lake/reservoir, they reveal something no one expected to find. No 64. What should have been a simple task for a trio of ghost hunters quickly becomes something for which the term 'Worst Case Scenario' is the mother of all understatement. No 61. I would've lived longer if it weren't for Lorraine. There's only one issue... who's Lorraine? Words according to Wattpad: Chapter 1 - 1495 Chapter 2 - 1455 - milestone 1 reached Chapter 3 - 1469 Chapter 4 - 1552 Chapter 5 - 1563 Chapter 6 - 1620 - milestone 2 reached Chapter 7 - 1564 Chapter 8 - 1700 Chapter 9 - 1637 Chapter 10 - 1797 Chapter 11 - 1605 Chapter 12 - 1561 Chapter 13 - 1690 - milestone 3 reached Chapter 14 - 1842 Chapter 15 - 1762 Epilogue - 233 Total words published: 24545

In a world where tall ships have led to expansive conquests, people are saying a masked man is leading a resistance against the imperial occupiers. Able Houser, a scholar struggling with a stalled career, is both skeptical of the stories yet hopeful that they could be hiding the trail of the insurgents his father was helping when he vanished twelve years ago. After turning up hints of a government cover-up, Able sails across the sea to investigate further and becomes entangled not only in the conflict between the imperial enforcers and the native people but also in a long-standing conspiracy.

Every now and then, he needs her. But she doesn't need him. Does she? An encounter on a cold night in a tent during World War II leads to a lifetime of occasional dalliances between Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall. ✔ COMPLETE 🥇2 HP Fanfic Fanpoll Awards ****** Story contains some sexual content.

Schoolteacher Fiona is on a mission for grandpa - find a missing Zimbabwean artefact, the precious soapstone "Bird of the Gods". Conrad - dodgy archaeologist 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 crazy race around the world. With antagonists popping up at every corner - from mountain tops to underground settings like Serbian caves, frozen Canadian crypts, and the silver mines of the old West, Fiona and Conrad have to work together to catch their bird. Mutual respect grows into something more intimate. But not everything is quite as it seems, and they had better watch their backs lest they too end up underground, this time permanently.

In an alternative universe where tentacle monsters had taken over Australia and assimilated into the human world, a girl risks her life for a clue to escape. ⸻ "Sinister lurks beneath black water." ⸻ Featured on: @WattpadShortStory Spine Tingler @Horror Psychological @Fright Paranormal @dystopianapocalypse Beyond Earth: Robots, Aliens, and Others ⸻ Posted On: December 26, 2019 (6425 words) Latest Revision: July 12, 2020 (7591 words)

EEEEiiieeee! Walter screamed in agony as his brain was sucked out through his ears, converted into digital format inside the modified headphones, and circuited into the computer. When he regained consciousness, he was floating in a vast black space lit only by pinpricks of light... the true story behind Wattpad. Sci-Fi / Humour

On every timeline but one, Eliot Waugh is a brilliant but troubled magician. On that one he is the noble King of Filory. How can he be protected from the Beast? (Fanfiction based on Syfy's TV series "The Magicians")

Complied collection stories and tales of paranormal and fantasy. Born of flickers of inspiration, these stories are too short to be published individually. Contents: Chapter 1 - Behind The Veil

When Audra Wilkes returns to her childhood home after ten years, she doesn't expect to wake up next to Jamie 'Jay' Halston. Five years younger than her and her little brother's best friend, well ex-best friend now. Fresh out of a messy relationship where she's dumped her fiance all before her thirtieth birthday. She's sworn off relationships altogether, vowing to focus on her emerging art career and mending her relationships with her family. All she has to do, is avoid Jamie Halston and that spark between them. Jay Halston has been pining after Audra since he was a teen, but things are complicated now they're older. Both carrying the weight of things that aren't theirs, they don't realise how much they mirror each other. They will reflect and force themselves to heal.

Minerva looks back over a not-so-happy relationship with Albus and comes to some decisions about what she will and won't tolerate. A series of vignettes inspired by a line from James Goldman's "The Lion in Winter": "How, from where we started, did we ever reach this Christmas?" ✔ COMPLETE *********** This story contains non-explicit references to sexual situations.

When a replacement crew fails to arrive and he loses communication with mission control, an astronaut on the International Space Station finds himself alone, completely alone. This is a SHORT story, split into five parts. (Originally started with the title "Left Behind" but decided to change it - sorry!)

8. Time Management - a time travel dilemma 7. Forgetmenot - Steampunk war 6. The Dead Hitchhiker 5. Tok vs Terra - space war! 4. Dream Funk Inc - dreams or nightmares? 3. G.O.O.D. vs E.V.I.L. - a spy-fy challenge. Galactic Overlords, Operational Division comes up against Eternal Vengeance, Interstellar Liaisons 2. The Feud - what happens when a writer tries to get her revenge for a reader's comment? 1. Mike's Revenge - a time trip for dinosaurs My entries for the MadMike's Revenge smackdown - posted in reverse order of writing!

Reinne has set her goals into graduating her Master's degree, finding a sturdy house for her parents and to see her two younger brothers finish their Bachelor's degrees, with a steady job, she was able to do all before the age of 27. She achieved everything she wanted except for one thing: a steady relationship. After her last heartbreak, she told herself no more. In Greek mythology they said that humans are born with two heads, four arms and legs but Zeus separated it in two and scattered it on the lands for it search its other half. With billions of people in earth how can she find her match? Is she willing to open her arms to the idea of love?