NMBooks

FORMERLY TITLED "FATUM"Chosen as a Wattpad Featured Story in May 2017There's a reason high school senior Athena Thorpe spends every available moment reading books: fiction is always so much better than the real world. Even the unexpected scandal she suffered thanks to Jackson Montgomery was just a blip in her typically mundane existence in Sparrow, North Carolina. But no story could ever compare to the life-altering events that occur when Gabriel Valente moves into town. Being the son of a notorious crime lord and having grown up on the streets of Manhattan, Gabriel defies all the expectations the students of Sparrow High have for him, including Athena's. She never expected he would match her interest in the written word, or his unlikely grand gestures and definitely not the immediate but intense feelings which cause them to spiral into a secret relationship. A relationship that hinders on Gabriel's uncertain future, which could find him being the heir to the mob throne. Whether or not she wants to admit it, Athena knows the world Gabriel comes from is a dark and violent one. It's just really easy to pretend it doesn't exist within the bubble that is Sparrow. Yet, no matter how much we pretend, reality is never far away, with Gabriel and Athena learning a tragic lesson about choice and consequence a little too late. When you finally decide what you want most in life, the next question becomes: will fate agree?…