Not Pretending Anymore


Penelope Ward - 2021
    I was starting to lose hope. Until a knock at my door came and God answered my prayers. Except…uh…wrong prayer, God. I’d definitely requested the big guy find me a drop-dead gorgeous man on more than one occasion...just not as my roommate. Declan Tate talked me into interviewing him anyway. While he was amusing and charismatic, I wouldn’t have been comfortable living with a man, so I regretfully declined. Then cupcakes showed up at my door—freshly baked by Declan and just as sinfully delicious as he was. You could say he was persistent. I eventually folded. It wasn’t like I had another viable candidate anyway. Plus, I was interested in someone else. And Declan was into another woman. So it wasn’t like anything would happen romantically. After he moved in, the two of us became the best of friends. We even started to give each other advice on getting our crushes to notice us. Eventually, Declan concocted an idea: we should pretend to be a couple to make our love interests jealous. I was hesitant, but went along with it anyway. To my utter shock, his crazy plan worked. Now I was dating the supposed man of my dreams, and my best friend had the woman of his. But there was one problem. I couldn’t stop thinking about Declan. Those feelings we were trying to fake? Yeah…I wasn’t pretending anymore.

The Sweetest Remedy


Jane Igharo - 2021
    Because of this, Hannah has always felt uncertain about part of her identity. When her father dies, she's invited to Nigeria for the funeral. Though she wants to hate the man who abandoned her, she's curious about who he was and where he was from. Searching for answers, Hannah boards a plane to Lagos, Nigeria.In Banana Island, one of Nigeria's most affluent areas, Hannah meets the Jolades, her late father's prestigious family--some who accept her and some who think she doesn't belong. The days leading up to the funeral are chaotic, but Hannah is soon shaped by secrets that unfold, a culture she never thought she would understand or appreciate, and a man who steals her heart and helps her to see herself in a new light.