That Novel Corner Novels & Stories

She stopped at the corner of a street she didn't have a specific reason to be on. There was a bookshop at the end of the block. Used, by the look of it — the kind of place that had stopped organizing itself by any system other than accumulation, books stacked in windows and spilling onto a rack outside, a handwritten sign in the door that said OPEN in letters that leaned slightly to the left. Above the bookshop, basement windows glowed with warm light. Ilyra stood on the corner and looked at it. She didn't have her tablet. She couldn't report it even if she'd wanted to. She had walked here without a route, without a purpose, without the apparatus of the thing she was in the process of stoppi

The floor creaked loudly underneath my boots as my eyes scanned every corner. Something about this place felt wrong, but I didn’t know what it was. It felt like someone had gone through so much effort to make it look abandoned. I spotted a small bookshelf in the corner and crouched beside it. Most of the shelves were empty, but this one wasn’t. There were a few books, and I pulled one free, then another, and another. I flipped through them and saw that they were just ordinary books. I sighed. I was beginning to think this entire trip had been a waste until my eyes landed on something odd. One shelf sat slightly farther than the others at an odd angle. My eyes narrowed, and slowly I reached o

>POV: Blake I rоund the corner whеrе Nеоn’ѕ gіrlѕ normally work, аnd feel mу сhеѕt clench. I pity thеѕе рооr women. I may be ѕtаndіng іn ѕԛuаlоr, but I’vе hit thе jасkроt bесаuѕе Neon is rіght thеrе, tаlkіng to оnе оf hеr security guуѕ.

It's come to my notice that I actually do that to him a lot. "Rica wait!" he's voice boomed through out the library. I turned back and gave him a look like he was crazy, I mean he might have as well been, didn't he know the librarian Mrs Agboola was a no nonsense woman, she could banned us permanently from the Library. Dili probably might have not cared about that but I strongly did. The library was my only form of safehaven in school, and I was very determined to keep it that way. "I don't think the people at Zuma rock heard you well, why not be a little louder ehn" I whispered sarcastically with yet another eye roll.

It was the silence. No jazz crackling from the backroom speaker. No Sadie-Rae humming along. Just the creak of floorboards under Nova's boots as she sauntered past the poetry section.The register light blinked. But the camera above it—a new one installed last week, was dark. Unplugged. She stepped behind the counter and knelt. The cable hadn't come loose; it had been intentionally removed. Nova swallowed hard, her pulse ticking up. She stood again, scanning the shop. And that's when she saw it. A slip of paper wedged behind the spine of a hardcover anthology. The same book where she'd once found a flower she hadn't placed. Nova eased it out carefully. This wasn't Sadie-Rae's handwriting. The

Running a hand down my face with a muffled curse, I stepped through the doorway. In a couple of minutes, Lily led me to a large room with so much windows and air, and had glass sculptures and décor matching the clear white color of the couches. Cora was reclining on one of them, beautiful as ever, black hair flowing down her arms, her summer dress pooling around her crossed ankles, with her eyes focused on some book. A romance novel, like she always used to do back since I was a fucking kid.

No one asked. I couldn’t let that happen again. Not today, not tomorrow. I was too tired to fight. Too sick to risk it. So I nodded, not trusting my voice, and turned toward the shelf. The wooden thing stood tall in the corner of the room, filled with neat rows of books. Too neat, sometimes. He liked them arranged in a certain way, spines facing the same direction, colors matching, titles lined like soldiers. It wasn’t about books. It was about control.

I sat on the chair in the corner of the library, uninterested in reading the cookbook but I know I have to read it to prevent myself from embarrassment. There is still time for it anyway. I placed the book on the table and stood up, I switched on the light. I started searching for a novel to read knowing that the one I was reading before is where Mario is and I don't want to see him. That guy is scary just like his dad. I started searching for nobles but it turned out they store the world's history here. I rested on a shelf and it moved slightly. I quickly backed off and checked it. Is there anything wrong with the shelf?

Then she replaced Rosamund carefully on the shelf. “I will come back.” Not I cannot have it. I will come back. I looked at the title again. A Season for Lady Rosamund. Two coins. Secondhand bookshop beneath a white feather near the fountain. Then I looked at Ailis. “Mara was first.” I understood. The bookseller wrapped Mara. Ailis watched him protect the corners with the same concentration she had given my embroidered cuffs. Another thing learned. She cared about book corners. We left through the narrow passage.

They all stood in front of Novelty, the book store that had been converted into a small book cafe with scrumptious cakes on display. Hazel's hands were flat against the store window, her face was busy looking at the cakes making Gage chuckle and he grabbed Bree's hands in his. "Come on, Bree, we're not letting her drool in front of a window store."