Quick reads you can finish in 10-30 minutes
Found 1964 short novels
I remember the first time I decided to be cruel on purpose. The snow had not yet thawed and a hostage-prince knelt, pale and shivering like a statue that had been carved from ice. His lips trembled, a vein at his temple pulsing slow and red. He looked up at me as if he still believed mercy might be an option. "Your Highness, I was wrong," he said, voice barely a rasp. "I know I was wrong." I told a slave, "Beat him. Do it until you think he will die." They did not refuse. They always...
I first noticed him the day I almost fell into the courtyard fountain. "Hold on—don't let go," a voice said, flat and steady. A pair of hands closed around my wrists. I looked up and the world rearranged: sharp jawline, clear eyes, a wind that smelled faintly of cold lemon. He didn't smile. He simply steadied me. "Thanks," I said. "No problem," he answered, and then turned away as if it had been nothing. They all called him Denver Fontaine. I should have known then that a quiet...
I died under a clear summer sky. "I remember the swallows under the eaves," I said aloud to no one in particular, and the words sounded like they came from another life. "I remember the jade pendant." Aviana Albert, my handmaid who had never left my side, stood by the window and lowered her voice. "Maggie, you slept for three days. Please—eat." "I did eat," I said, lifting the bowl, but my fingers were still ghostly from the memory. "I remember the fire. I remember the smoke." Aiden...
I woke with the taste of metal and dust in my mouth, the room tilting as if the world were a poorly balanced scale. My hand was steady enough to find the bowl at the bedside, but when the man in black leaned over me and drove a blade across my wrist, I knew the past was not a dream. "Don't move." A voice, cold as mountain snow, told me to be still. "Hold. Breathe." I tasted blood and remembered everything. I remembered running from my home across the border, remembering the thrill and the...
"I don't want your money." I slammed the bank card into Carter Bennett's palm and walked out before he could finish his sentence. "You're my daughter," he called after me. "Say it. Say you are my illegitimate child. Say it now and we'll fix everything." I kept walking. Rain pricked my hair. The black hoodie I wore was stained where someone had just dumped a bucket of cold water from a balcony above. My hair stuck to my forehead. My lips were dry. I let the card fly. "Hey!" Carter's...
I wake up choking on smoke and the smell of burning sugar—like the green mung cakes my mother used to promise me when she came back from the kitchen. "This can't be happening again," I whisper. "Kaylie—" my mother's voice is warm and soft, and the room is exactly like the one I remember, seven years into her cover. "Mom, I'm hungry." I run to her like any six‑year‑old would, clutching the small phone she leaves on the nightstand. "Don't run, stay with me." Lenora Price smooths my...
I never expected rescuing a stray could change my whole life. "It bit me," I said into the dark, rubbing the hand that still stung. "It was supposed to be a dog." "It wasn't a dog," the voice above me said, amused and dangerous. "And you are certainly not allowed to do that." I blinked awake to a face too pretty for midnight and a hand that felt like an accusation. The man—no, the creature—had hair that caught the moon and eyes sharp as almond pits. He sat on my couch like he owned the...
I woke to a voice that crawled under my skin. "What's wrong? You still want to play with the idea?" he said, low and rough. The sound of it hit me harder than a slap. I froze. The name that rose in my throat felt like a rusted key turning: Hudson Daniels. I remembered the night. I remembered everything down to the ache in my bones. I remembered the way it ended last time. I remembered the promise that never got kept. My heart lurched. I had been given a second chance. I had been...
"I promised you ice cream after the exams," I said to myself like a spell as I walked into the supermarket with Drew. Drew Peters—my older brother—was carrying himself like the king of thrift today, a lollipop stuck in the corner of his mouth, as if that would hide the fact he was counting his coins with his eyes. "Take whatever you like," he said, more loudly than necessary. "Really?" I answered, already running down the frozen aisle. Drew rolled his eyes. "Don't go for the fancy...
I woke up to a loud, boyish voice next to my ear. "Big sister, wake up. We have guests." I held my head like it weighed a ton. My brain felt fuzzy, like someone had left lights on all night. "You— why are you in my bed?" I croaked. "You married me yesterday," he said simply. His eyes were bright and clear as a new day. I sat up and saw two marriage certificates on the bedside table. I flopped back to my pillow and blinked at the ceiling. If I hadn't been dizzy enough to nearly...
"I owe rent and dignity," I said to my reflection, holding a pocket pudding like a tiny, sad trophy. "Then stop buying pudding," Journee said over the phone, voice bright. "Or go seduce your landlord's son. He's ridiculous—tall, model legs, peak cheekbones, and his dad owns the building. Live rent-free. Think of the Instagram." "I don't think about Instagram," I muttered, one eyebrow raised at my own mirror image. "I think about electricity bills." "I mean, do you want me to set up a...
"I'll pay." I stood up and reached for the small plate, but my hand stopped when I saw him. "Ervin?" Dayana's voice tilted like she wanted to be proud and surprised at once. "Long time." The man who had walked into the coffee shop smiled with a face I had not seen in seven years and yet knew by memory. I felt Dayana's fingers close on my sleeve. "That's my boyfriend," she said fast, and then, "Oh—" Her voice cracked into the air when he turned. Alvaro Adams looked at me as if...
I still remember how embarrassed I felt the moment my ball ricocheted and found him. "Are you okay?" I asked, voice small. He crouched on the asphalt, hands clamped to his groin, and there was a sound in his throat that made the world tilt for a second. "It's... probably ruined," he said, quiet as if admitting defeat. "Ruined?" I echoed, and my stomach dropped. "You mean—" He didn't finish. He stayed hunched over like that while the afternoon heat soaked through my tee shirt and...
I did not wake up to sirens. I woke up to the weight of an arm across my waist. "Morning," he murmured into the hollow at my neck, voice still thick from sleep. "I—" I tried to move, tried to remember how to breathe without sounding like a prisoner. My hand lay flat against the cold metal of the alarm clock; the band on my finger caught the light. "You asleep last night?" he asked, lips finding the soft skin there. "Yes," I lied, because the truth would be more honest than I could...
I woke up to someone shouting in my head and the smell of coffee that had gone cold hours ago. My forehead burned where I had leaned on my desk. For a strange, sleep-wet second I still tasted last night's wine. Then my phone buzzed and Emily barged in like she owned the air. "Cat, your old flame is back in town," she said, flinging her coat onto the chair. "Isn't he dead?" I rubbed at my eyes and tried to make the world stop spinning. Emily sat, folding and unfolding her long fingers....
I was supposed to be the proud daughter of a great family—Estrella Larsson, the eldest granddaughter of a chancellor, raised to be admired and married for honor. Instead I became the second household’s shadow: a side consort in the East Palace, expected to keep my head bowed and my mouth closed. "I don't understand why you look like that," Hailey said one afternoon, swatting at a pear. She was my brightest friend in the East Palace—Hailey Kozlov—who loved everything with a reckless, open...
I remember the first time the world noticed him without meaning to notice me. "You've been trending," Eliza said, tapping my phone. "Who?" I managed, because the studio smelled like charcoal and turpentine and his shoes—Eliot Marques always left an oil-smudged trail. "Your boyfriend. The video is everywhere." I held the phone in front of him. He had his leg thrown over the easel, a piece of paper crushed between his long fingers. He looked up at me the way he always did—like I was...
"I shouldn't have stared at his post," I told myself, clicking the screen closed. "You typed and left it unread," Cadence said, looking at my phone. "Why are you so dramatic?" "I was only asking why he didn't bring me any food," I said. "Because, Jan—" Cadence stopped, shook her head, and smiled the way she always smiled when she wanted to protect me from feeling small. "Because he's Eben Compton." "Because he is a coward," I muttered. "He likes Kaori Taylor," Cadence said....
"System bound. Spatial jump complete." "Memory synced. Live stream online. Host, watch the comments and interact." The dizzy spin was still in my head when I opened my eyes. The courtyard light hit my face and then I closed my eyes again, forcing the world to steady. "You're useless, Kassidy. Stop playing weak—both the Crown Prince and your cousin have seen through you. You're just a willful temptress!" A slim girl in pink stood by the handsome man everyone called the Prince. Her voice...
I remember the slap as if it were a clock striking a terrible hour. "Why are you still fighting?" he hissed, his hand reeking of anger and something colder. "I could strip you naked right now and wait for Mr. Collier to return." I used the shock to my advantage. I bit hard on my lip until taste of blood sharpened my mind. I counted the man's breaths and drove my knee upward into his left lower abdomen—hard, precise, the way I'd learned in a dozen desperate nights when my life was all...
