Weneeddiversebooks Stories

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 . . .

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]]

He just wants her booty, but she'll end up stealing his heart. ***** After pirates kidnap seventeen-year-old Ana in a case of mistaken identity, the orphaned housemaid prepares for the worst. Instead, between a shipwreck, mutiny, and her growing feelings for her captor -- the dashing Pirate King of the Caribbean, Alestair Kincade -- Ana soon realizes the secret she keeps is far from the most dangerous part of her new life. But playing the wholesome daughter of a Spanish admiral among rag-tag buccaneers isn't easy either, and to avoid both discovery and the gallows she'll have to learn to rely on more than just her wits and her charm. But is Alestair Kincade really on her side? Or will his protection and his love both disappear the moment he learns the truth? Book Two of The Pirate King Series is called SCUTTLE (formerly The Reluctant Pirate Queen) [Now an audiobook from Hachette, Powered by Wattpad] [word count: 90,000-100,000 words] PLUNDER (Book One in The Pirate King Series) © 2014 by R.S. Kovach. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced without the author's written permission. Cover designed by Ren T

Running away from their jobs as camp counselors, Ellie and Seb embark on a road trip with unexpected turns en route to their destination - New York. ***** Camp Raukawee was meant to be where Ellie Morrison and Sebastian Lee spent their summer working as camp counselors, but they've had enough. Escaping in the middle of the night, the friends hatch a crazy plan to make their way to New York to visit Ellie's dad, who she hasn't seen since he moved five years ago. Along the way, however, a series of cities and events have the pair not only questioning their individual futures, but wondering what will happen to the growing spark between them as the countdown to adulthood begins. [[word count: 90,000-100,000 words]] Cover designed by Gillian Goulet

He's handsome. He's charming. He's rich. Did I mention tall, with a dashing smile, that makes the ladies' hearts melt? But even after everything Levi Tau still finds himself playing this losing game of love, which leaves him heartbroken and unsatisfied. You've heard of, always the bridesmaid never the bride- but have you heard of always the Best Man never the groom?

(A dark horror-romance retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth) Jade Salvador isn't your typical dissatisfied, burnt-out twenty-something-year-old. Crushed by the weight of her family's name and high expectations, she finds herself working a dead-end job, hoping for something more out of life. One day, she makes the drastic decision to start catfishing would-be predators online, posing as a teenager and exposing their crimes. But when Jade meets Percy Belrose, a man who's also searching for the same purpose in his life, things get messy fast. As sparks begin to fly and bodies begin to pile up, Jade soon finds out that killing is the easy part. It's falling in love that might be the death of her.

She is about to marry a man of immense wealth and influence, but his chilling request changes everything. "If you love me like you say you do, then you'll do it," he insists, pushing the boundaries of trust and control. Will she compromise her own soul for love, or will this demand expose the betrayal lurking beneath their opulent life? Prepare for a gripping exploration of power, love, and sacrifice.

{Wattys 2018 Longlist} {Formerly titled 'Vows'} Bookworm turned high-powered CEO Sora Gallegos Himura has never fought for anything in her life, but she's finally found something worth battling for. Love. * Two years after her husband left her for her older sister, Sora Gallegos Himura is finally back on her feet. She has a killer job with a corner office, a gorgeous baby boy, and her mental health right where she wants it. What she doesn't have is anyone to share it with. Until Ravi, her fashion designer, playboy ex-brother-in-law shows up promising Sora the world. Suddenly, the one man Sora has sworn to never trust is the only person she believes in. Can the Casanova who's spent a lifetime breaking hearts be the one who puts Sora's back together? © 2016-present Idris Grey If you enjoy, please comment and vote!

In which Zara Malhotra does the unthinkable: accepting a job in one of the most cutthroat kitchens in the city, (an all male kitchen, she might add) and inadvertently objecting herself to working alongside the pompous and volatile, Xander James. All Rights Reserved © wonderrwall cover by @justlyd

A variety of short stories, involving LGBT protagonists. This collection consists of original works and also stories based on Teen Wolf, The Hobbit, Merlin and etc.

Weston Edmonds meets Tilda Brentwood singer and actress at a party. They spend one night together that Weston imagines as a one-shot. Tilda is a star, and Weston is in appearance an everyday nobody, yet Tilda seems to know everything about him. Perhaps she knows a little too much.

Uttam. Perfect. Soundarya. Beautiful. He was an author. She despised his book. His work was about perfect society. He believed everything had to be perfect. She saw beauty in imperfections. She taught him how to see that beauty. She talked for an hour with him. That's it. He fell for her words and ideology. But she left him. They were like two parallel lines drawn in the space. Once they started their journey, they never met. He tried endlessly to draw perpendicular line but in vain. When she tried to draw, one of them reached the end point. He knew one thing for sure- he had never met someone like her. Warning: Unedited story. This is not a happy ending story, either. *** [Third person POV] [Completed] *** © 2017 by Likhitha Reddy

(Unedited.) Zoe is an independent, tough girl and the head of Students’ Disciplinary Committee in their school. An average teenage girl on an average teenage life. Her life started to mess up when Craig—a transfer student and Ashton—the unexpected stranger arrived, who she found out that are best friends for a long time. Two idiots who live in comfort and popularity. What will she do when he finds herself stuck in between the two idiots who happen to like her and she has to choose only one? Will she develop the same feelings for one of them? Or will she hide it for the sake of Craig and Ashton’s friendship? Can she handle the attention? The bashes, the intrigues and the jealous girls? She's tough but love is tougher. ************************* Cover by @cracker_jack Trailer by me! :) © 2014 Two Idiots and A Girl temperedinnocence All Rights Reserved

eve langer is a feminist. bonnie arthur is a lesbian. james eisner is a jerk and joanne carter likes boys. (for @feminism's lgbt/feminism challenge) [june 6 - june 22 2014]

Nora Blake repels ordinary. Adam Clarke is constructed entirely of ordinary. ● ● ● "I don't want to share you with the galaxy, Nora Blake," he says quietly, and all at once, all the stars inside my chest are being flung across the universe at full speed and for that particular moment, I am untethered. Unrooted. Flowing. Floating. Something. He doesn't have to, I think, instantly. I am vaguely aware of the fact that I am a kind of traitor: but there is no heavy stone of betrayal in my chest. The galaxy will wait. It will wait until this beautiful boy flings my fragile heart across the universe at full-speed, but right now, I'm so full of it that I don't even care. Look at that. Nora Blake gives up the galaxy. I look at him, then, and there's so much color oozing out of his perfect, jagged cracks that I feel like I'm in one of Nadia's Leonid Afremov paintings and there's a supernova in my chest. "You don't have to," I tell him, so quietly that I don't think he hears. His delicate rose-pink mouth is curved into a kind of frown and his baby-blue gray-flecked gaze is lost somewhere far, far away from the devoid town of Enfield. I recognize that much, and I wonder momentarily if he has his own galaxy somewhere. I don't want to share him either, I think.

• "Because maybe, in a way, we didn't leave it behind nearly as much as we might once have thought. Because somewhere underneath, a part of us stayed like that: fearful of the world around us, and no matter how much we despised ourselves for it." • "So she thoroughly taught him that one cannot take pleasure without giving pleasure, and that every gesture, every caress, every touch, every glance, every last bit of the body has its secret, which brings happiness to the person who knows how to wake it. She taught him that after a celebration of love the lovers should not part without admiring each other, without being conquered or having conquered, so that neither is bleak or glutted or has the bad feeling of being used or misused." • Based On A True Story.

❝You know you don't belong here, right?❞ ❝That's just it though, isn't it? I don't belong anywhere,❞ Traveling to an entirely different city on the other side of the country, Isaiah Beaumont must quickly learn the ins and outs of downtown D.C. in order to survive- especially since he has stepped foot on enemy territory. The gang, Streetside Kings, have been notorious for owning the streets of downtown D.C. while their rivals, Notorious Outlaws, owned the streets of uptown D.C. Malik Lyon, the new leader of Streetside Kings, takes a dangerous interest in Isaiah Beaumont but are the two ready for the misery, tragedy, heartache, and dangerous road that lies ahead of them? || All Rights Reserved || || Copyright © LowkeyEmmy 2024 ||

A young woman jilted by her ex-fiancé is given a second shot at love when her meddling relatives contrive ways to pair her up with her handsome neighbor in this laugh-out-loud contemporary romance novella that will sweep you off your feet. After Sophie's long-term boyfriend decides he doesn't want to marry her, she flies back home to her native Philippines with her tail tucked between her legs. Forget romance. With the help of Ninang, her wealthy grand-aunt on her mother's side, she picks her pieces back up and throws herself headfirst into her dream project: opening a coffee shop on the famous beach resort island of Dalisay. But there's a catch. Ninang agrees to help fund the cost of starting a new business, if and only if Sophie hosts her younger sister, Narra, and their cousin, Layla for the summer. Fresh out of college, Narra and Layla have come to Dalisay for three months of fun and romance, and they refuse to leave Sophie out of it. Enter Archie Hastings. A smooth-talking, motorcycle-riding Brit, he moved to the island to work at a non-profit and nurse a heartbreak of his own. When Narra indulges in a little too much fun and romance, he's there to help Sophie save the day, only to find himself pulled into a scheme to get Sophie-and by extension, himself-laid. Sophie just wants to be left alone. But love has a funny way of sneaking up on you, and this summer, on the beautiful sunny island of Dalisay, where the white sand is soft like powder and the blue sea impossibly clear, it might just catch her off-guard. * * * "True North is the perfect beach summer read, especially for those who want something short & sweet! I enjoyed every moment; Archie & Sophie's story having me smile from ear-to-ear. I also loved how there was great focus on friendships & sisterhood." - Tine

in which maisie tran [potential editor in chief of the wildwood high gazette] winds up on a competition team along with four other girls for the annual battle of the sexes [where the boys seem to miraculously win every year] whose boy team just so happens to consist of blaise cavett [also potential editor in chief of the wildwood high gazette], her ultimate rival and ex-boyfriend. COMING SOON. CEPARA © - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - 2020

A scholarship program from Penguin Random House, the Creative Writing Awards are focused on encouraging the next generation of diverse and unique voices. We Need Diverse Books began partnering with Penguin Random House in 2019 on the CWAs, which distribute $50,000 in scholarships each year. Five students receive $10,000 each in these categories: fiction / drama, personal essay, poetry, and the Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word. There is also a New York City entrant award, in recognition of the Creative Writing Awards previously being centered on New York City. Read the 2019 winning entries here, along with a selection of honorable mention submissions. For more on the Creative Writing Awards go here: https://social-impact.penguinrandomhouse.com/creativewriting/