Thirdly

Alright, these are my personal opinions: Thematic (those who took the "forbidden knowedge" theme to heart) Emptying the Library (I'm still recovering from this one) The Ledger Gemma Entertainment Value (those that had me cackling) Peeping Tom (my personal top favorite this year) Sweet Sour Paradox Logic (a VERY close second place for me!!) Coffee With Supervision Suspense (these had me at the edge of my seat!) The Ledger of the Howling Wind Murder at 9th and Tom Unexpected Discovery (towards the end, no spoilers from me!) Wrong Window Just the Facts, Man Romance/Self Love (my heart...) Undeliverable No Official Reason The Ivory Fig Ceremony Subtle Signs

Yessssssss~ Very nice!

You know what they say about curiosity and cats....

NOT the kind of "Peeping Tom" you're thinking about! Don't miss out on reading this one, it is peak entertainment!!

My birth mother abandoned me when I was a few months old. - 😭 When she deemed the skin crispy enough, she transferred the pan to the oven to finish cooking, then pulled the pan of roasted potatoes out and tipped them into a serving dish. She did the same to the sauteed vegetables. - 🤤 She stood at the bottom of the stairs and called up to my brother, Wayne, who was standing on the landing like an idiot. Wayne, being the Neanderthal that he was, started wolfing down his food. - 🤣 Melting into a dark corner, I watched as they tested the windows to see if they were unlocked.- 😂Yep. I know just what kind of siblings these two are now. I pounced on him and used the only weapon I had: my nails. - Let's goooo! Mom was in the kitchen. “Morning, Tom. Your breakfast is ready.” - Peeping Tom!! They’re both fine, ma’am. They were instrumental in catching the guy who was after the information that Mr. Henderson had hidden. - Damn right they were! OMG, I loved this one so freaking much!!!

We never really think about it, but it's true that identity, love, and pain shape us and change us over time. Deep.

Oof. Hang in there, Stephen. Gareth has to sort out his own demons. This felt like a guilty pleasure, seeing Gareth struggling for the greater good. 😂

Holy Hera. Forget "unreliable narrator" this one is more like "scheming narrator."

Prepare some tissues for this one! Heartbreaking and heartfelt.

Aaaaaah I can barely comment through my tears. 😭 Regrets that live on. Facing the truth.

Ever read about fugitives in a supernatural Western? Check this one out!

Yessss this is my kind of story! Action injected with some supernatural and a chase!

We are indeed our own worst enemies and sometimes need to learn to step out of our own way!

Oof. I can't beat this comment, as it's exactly what I was thinking. Being forced to face yourself is no easy thing. I play video games to destress, but I came across at least 2 instances when the game gave me a plot twist and I had to fight my own character at their peak level and I panicked each and every time. 😂We are our own worst enemies, no doubt about that. Wonderfully written!

A glint of metal shone in the light before it plunged into the loser. - Oof. What's that one song... Mack The Knife! That's what this line reminded me of. A shaky hand fell upon and stroked my back. It shocked me. To be on Death's final breath, the man chose to greet me with his last grasp. I studied his smiling face until the arm fell limp and his head hung. - Aww, you did a good thing, kitty. Looking back to the alley, I skulked away. Memories would turn into eventual nightmares. Returning was no longer an option. - I wouldn't want to live there, either!

I've been guilty of taking too long in the restroom, but I've never been accused of cheating while I'm in there.

I never check the genres and summary, so I was pleasantly surprised that this is NOT a horror but a romance.

His grandmother, his only family, died during the Ivory Fig Ceremony week. - No, not granny! Sometimes Finn took Matthew’s hand or pressed a fig into his palm, and Matthew didn’t feel so alone. - He's really obsessed with those figs, isn't he? Worried that Finn might feel abandoned, he scribbled a letter and left it at their usual spot, explaining his absence and hoping that Finn would understand. - "Am bringing offering to altar. Hope I don't get killed and sacrificed..." we all get the blessings if the deity’s happy - Wait, what if the deity's unhappy?? “Half?” Matthew croaked. “Like…slicing me in half?” -PFFT! That's what I was worried about, a human sacrifice. “Guess we better make sure you can write out your name neatly,” Matt decided. “When I first saw your dad’s handwriting, it looked like he’d written down Fern instead of Finn." - 🤣Calling him out like that. This was so cute! I'm so glad he wasn't actually sacrificed at the altar.

Words fail me. But you won't regret reading it. Culinary chaos.

“It didn’t explode.” - Haha! What a way to start. “You’ve got that look on your face.”“What look?”“The dumb one you get when you’re about to dash all my hopes and dreams,” Caden replied with a slight smirk. - LMAO! 😂 “Hey,” Caden said, for the third time. He almost felt embarrassed that he couldn’t come up with something better than hey. /The boy looked at him expectantly, and after a moment, tilted his head to the side and said, “That’s the third hey, is that all you wanted to say?” - Cut him some slack, he was totally lost in those pretty blue-grey eyeballs. “Bleach, volume twenty-one.” - Miageta yozora no hoshitachi no hikari~ 🎵 "It's a human soul that has lost its heart," Kai said. "Literally. There's a hole in their chest where it used to be. They can't feel anything except hunger and they consume other souls trying to fill the space." He looked down at the page. "They're not evil. They're just empty." - Like the heartless from Kingdom Hearts? "There are recipes that use this to create magical potions,but nothing edible as far as I read." - Well, shit. "You said you needed something special to make your sauce exceptionally extraordinary." Kai stepped forward to grab a spoon. - Careful what you wish for. "Fenugreek and the holy Jamie Oliver," Caden said as he stared at the smoke gathering around the pot and tried to cover his mouth and nose. - You can say that again! "They'll know,” Kai looked very pale. “The door broadcasts a signal the moment it's complete." - Well, shit. “Hi, I’m Kevin. How can I help you?” - I mean, he took in in stride, what can I say? 🤣

There's some good stuff in here. Fans of National Treasure will really get a kick out of it. Just be ready for the length!

This story almost killed me at 20k words. Don't get me wrong, it's still very much the forbidden knowledge theme with that hidden ledger. But, I propose everyone limit next year's SA entries at 10k tops for the sake of my short attention span. Billy recognized only a few of them and trusted none. His grandfather had taught him early that historians were the worst sort of gamblers. They pretended to wager only with dates and documents, but in truth they staked reputations, fortunes, and sometimes lives upon the fragile belief that the past could be forced to confess. - Yeah, if I were somehow reincarnated into a cockroach a couple hundred years from now, I'd love to see what humanity thinks what CDs and blurays were. "Plastic frisbees that reflect light!" “Gratitude is not required,” Rusk said. “Discretion is.” “Discretion usually means someone important would prefer not to be embarrassed.” - Right? Fishy fishy. “You realize,” Thad said as the treads bit into the snow, “that we have just acquired enemies in at least two governments and in this pub.” - Seriously. Inside, wrapped in cracked black oilcloth and bound with a cord hardened by age, lay a book no larger than a church Bible and thicker than a banker’s conscience. Its leather cover had dried almost black. Along the spine, stamped in flaking gilt, were two words: War Accounts.- Well, what do you know? “Maybe he feared what daylight would burn,” Thad said. “Or whom,” Silas said. - Exactly. After its publication, history could no longer ask only who killed Grant. It had to ask who profited, who knew, who concealed the truth, and what nations become when they build peace upon an unacknowledged accounts. - Pretty much.

To think he ended up inheriting the property. If that's not familial love, I don't know what is.

Shh. Y'all don't see me. I'm just dropping some more art: *scampers away*

Cassiopeia, my queen, how I adore thee... let me count the ways... 🥰