Stories by @joysousa

Icebreaker

Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA. A competitive figure skater since she was five years old, a full college scholarship thanks to her place on the Maple Hills skating team, and a schedule that would make even the most driven person weep, Stassie comes to win. No exceptions. Nathan Hawkins has never had a problem he couldn’t solve. As captain of the Maple Hills Titans, he knows the responsibility of keeping the hockey team on the ice rests on his shoulders. When a misunderstanding results in the two teams sharing a rink, and Anastasia’s partner gets hurt in the aftermath, Nate finds himself swapping his stick for tights, and one scary coach for an even scarier one. The pair find themselves stuck together in more ways than one, but it’s fine, because Anastasia doesn’t even like hockey players…right?

People We Meet on Vacation

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since. Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees. Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong? From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations.

The Inheritance Games

Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why -- or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.

Beach Read

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters. Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast. They’re polar opposites. In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block. Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously).

WESTEROS: Aegon's Conquest

The War of Conquest is the name given to the series of military endeavors in which Aegon I Targaryen conquered Westeros. Supported by his two sister-wives (Visenya and Rhaenys), his dragons, and a small army, Aegon subjugated six of the Seven Kingdoms. Not the entire continent had to be taken by force. Some noble houses supported House Targaryen, while others surrendered without a fight. Only Dorne would remain in defiance of the Targaryen dragons, and it would be another century and a half before, via diplomacy, the Conqueror's work was finally completed.

WIZARDING WORLD: The Original Order of The Phoenix

Before the Harry Potter chronology starts – when the character Lord Voldemort declared war on the Wizarding World – Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and an upstanding and powerful citizen of the Wizarding World, attempted to take control of the situation by founding the Order of the Phoenix.

Twilight Saga

Student Bella Swan meets Edward Cullen, a handsome but mysterious teenager. Edward is a vampire, whose family does not drink blood, and Bella, far from being scared, becomes involved in a dangerous romance with her immortal soulmate.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a work of historical fiction by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The 2017 novel follows Monique, a journalist struggling to make a name for herself, after receiving an offer to interview the mysterious and reclusive 1960s Hollywood starlet Evelyn Hugo about fame, scandal, and love. The novel was nominated for the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Historical Fiction.

How To Train Your Dragon

A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon, and discovers that there may be more to the creatures than he first thought.

WIZARDING WORLD: 19 Years Later

This “19 years later” segment closes the final Harry Potter book with Harry and company at King's Cross, sending their own children to Hogwarts.

MODERN AU: Emma

Emma Woodhouse is the 21-year-old protagonist of Jane Austen's 1815 novel Emma. She is described in the novel's opening sentence as "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition... and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." Jane Austen, while writing the novel, called Emma, "a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like."

MCU: X-Men - Evolution

X-Men: Evolution features the team as teenagers as they fight for a world that fears and hates them.

BRIAR U

Briar U is a spin-off series from another series by the author, called Off-Campus. Here we'll have the big hockey games and university parties, plus lots of romance and hot scenes.

Tomb Raider

Lara sets out on her first expedition aboard the ship Endurance, intending to find the lost kingdom of Yamatai. By her suggestion and against Whitman's advice, the expedition ventures into the Dragon's Triangle. The ship is struck by a violent storm and sinks, stranding the survivors on the isolated island. Lara is separated from the others and is forced to escape the cave of a deranged savage.

Wizarding World: The Founders of Hogwarts

According to Professor Binns, Godric, Helga, Salazar and Rowena ‘built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes’. For the most part, the four worked on creating Hogwarts in harmony, but it wasn’t long before Salazar Slytherin’s troubling views on the wizarding world caused an almighty rift.

MODERN AU: Mansfield Park

The main character, Fanny Price, is a young girl from a relatively poor family, raised by her rich uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, at Mansfield Park. She grows up with her four cousins, Tom Bertram, Edmund Bertram, Maria Bertram and Julia Bertram, but is always treated as inferior to them; only Edmund shows her real kindness. He is also the most virtuous of the siblings: Maria and Julia are vain and spoiled, while Tom is an irresponsible gambler. Over time, Fanny's gratitude for Edmund's kindness grows into romantic love.

Batman: Under the Red Hood

The Red Hood takes Gotham City by storm, and Batman decides to face him, as he doesn't hesitate to kill anyone who gets in his way. The conflict intensifies when the Joker decides to take advantage of the situation.

OFF-CAMPUS

All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.

UNCHARTED

The Uncharted franchise follows a group of treasure hunters who travel across the world to uncover various historical mysteries. The series features historical fiction, elements of fantasy and folklore, and fictional characters alongside real-world historical figures and events. In the main series, players control Nathan Drake; in the expansion, players control Chloe Frazer.

MODERN AU: Sense and Sensibility

The novel follows the three Dashwood sisters as they must move with their widowed mother from the estate on which they grew up, Norland Park. Because Norland is passed down to John, the product of Mr. Dashwood's first marriage, and his young son, the four Dashwood women need to look for a new home. They have the opportunity to rent a modest home, Barton Cottage, on the property of a distant relative, Sir John Middleton. There Elinor and Marianne experience love, romance, and heartbreak.