Diabetes in Fiction

What was supposed to be a simple proposition: One anonymous night of bliss has rivalries and passions colliding in this steamy, heartfelt story that blurs the lines between ambitions and desires by USA Today Bestselling Author Mariah Dietz. 
 I knew transferring to play soccer for my previous rivals would come with complications. 
 What I wasn't expecting was to have a one-night stand with a dark-haired stranger who would soon demand all my thoughts and nights. 
 He's more than just a stranger; he's Camden's star wide receiver, a man whose name is whispered with reverence and desire. As our paths cross in the light of day, the night's secrets loom between us, a silent promise of what could be. 
 But as the stakes rise, so do the risks, and I stand to lose more than just my heart.

Ford Collins is my brother’s best friend and Bexley U’s favorite defender on the ice. Unfortunately, he feels the need to block much more than the puck. Namely, ME and any chance I have with a guy. Encouraged by my older brother, Ford has ruined every single date I’ve ever had. With his hot smirk and sly maneuvers, he has made it his mission to make me the most unattainable female college student in the world—that is, until I have a brush with death, and I beg him to help me. After all, he owes me. And I’ve come to collect. Determined to rid himself of the guilt, Ford promises to help me score a boyfriend—or two—and swears he won’t interfere. But the more time I spend learning from one of Bexley U’s most desirable playboys, the more I start to question the real reason why he’s been sabotaging my dates over the years. With the lingering touches, heated stares, and sizzling chemistry between us, we both know we’re playing with fire. What happens when our game of “practice” and Ford’s spicy lessons become something real that we not only need to hide from my older brother, but from each other?

After health problems wiped out their first few weeks of school, Perley and Amandine are both starting their Junior year behind their classmates, and both have major changes in their lives that they’re struggling to get used to. Perley was diagnosed with diabetes over the summer, and worries that all these new medical expenses will be a hardship on his family. And Amandine, part of a venerated family of vampires, has been turned much younger than she expected to be after a car accident nearly killed her. The two of them form a fast friendship – both feel a little out of step with their old lives, and as a bonus, it turns out that Amandine’s new vampire abilities can help Perley save money on blood glucose tests. But as the year goes on, they’re forced to admit that maybe their coping strategies – and their blood-sipping-turned-romance – aren’t working out so well after all. Will they be able to get their lives back to normal? Or will both have to figure out new ways for their “normal” to look?

Something is wrong with Liam. He collapses during soccer practice, he can’t stay awake in class, and he’s starting to see a ghostly white fox that disappears into smoke. His parents and teachers accuse him of being lazy and staying up too late, but he knows it’s something worse. No one believes him except for Alaina, a friend and self-proclaimed expert in fantasy and fairy tales. She’s seen this sort of thing before and believes Liam has been cursed with a powerful sleeping spell. Her journal is full of possible ways to break a curse. Liam is skeptical, but with his normal life slipping further away, he agrees to try her potential cures.   As they search for answers in stories, Alaina shares that she also is dealing with something no one else can see: type 1 diabetes. It rears its head like an invisible dragon, and she carries her medical equipment as a knight’s lance and dragon-scale shield to battle it.  As Liam’s mystery illness worsens, he will need Alaina’s friendship—and perhaps a bit of fairy magic—to find a way to understand the truth of what is happening and regain the pieces of himself that are lost.

Managing a chronic illness like Type 1 Diabetes before the threat of an apocalypse sucked most of the time, but the rationing of food and medicine is quickly making it impossible. Fortunately, Lily’s favorite distraction, Ethan, has been hanging out with her brother more and more. Between visits, Lily finds security in being prepared for the virus and its continually reaching famine. She works in her garden, helps her chemist father create a machine to make insulin in their home and attempts to help her dad find a cure for the virus. But everything comes crashing down when her dad is deployed, and their rations are cut. When her carefully laid plans start unraveling, she’ll not only learn if she can survive, but discover if she has it in her to thrive.

Mallory Edwards is the queen of plans and hers are always on schedule. Captain and soccer goalie for Clear Lake University? Check. 4.0 student? Check. On track for graduate school and an amazing career? Check. Everything is right on target. Until it suddenly isn’t. On top of grieving the loss of her father, a crumbling relationship with her mother, and a recent type 1 diabetes diagnosis, Mallory realizes her perfectly constructed plans are at risk of unraveling if she doesn’t find an internship by the end of her junior year. And of course, the one thing standing between Mallory and a secured future is Kenneth Gray. Kenneth Gray, a former nationally ranked swimmer, is everything Mallory isn’t. The neutral to her vibrant. The spontaneous to her rigid. The only sparks that fly between them aren’t the good kind, which is why it might be best they’re nothing more than rivals. But Kenneth has a secret. Unbeknownst to Mallory, the game they created together, the Brain Bowl, is at risk of ending. In one semester, Kenneth must not only secure his own future, but also find a way to keep Mallory in his life. Outside of their game. Suddenly, the line between rivals and something more seems thinner than ever before.

As a surgical intern, my life is a relentless cycle of work and more work. If I lose focus, even for one second, my career could be on the line. So when my living situation unexpectedly changes, the last thing I need is the distraction of house hunting. Which is why I don’t hesitate to say yes when my best friend and esteemed surgeon, Dr. Parker Winters, comes to my rescue with an offer I can’t refuse: A room in his luxurious penthouse, free of charge. The only condition? Keep an eye on his little sister. It sounds straightforward until I discover my new roommate is none other than the woman who’s been haunting my thoughts since I first met her. The one who never called me back and is now utterly off-limits. In the fiercely competitive field of orthopedics, I’ve learned to fight for what I want. But what if what I want most is the one thing I should avoid at all costs – my best friend’s sister?

Social life? What social life? Romance? Not a chance. Working as a lifeguard at Sea Side Cove and passing her classes takes up all of Katie’s time and energy. She just needs to survive this semester and one more, and it’ll all be worth it. But the new surfing instructor must have knocked a screw loose when he hit her with that door, because Hunter’s got her daydreaming about a future. Even the cat likes him. The Wishing Well is a charity organization that helps sick kids go on family vacations. They need volunteers for a fundraiser on a cruise ship. Katie can’t afford to give up a day of pay to work for free until she finds out Hunter is the one asking. Eight lifeguards board the Championship Casino Cruise, but when armed gunmen storm the ship, they find themselves gambling with their lives.

Klara and Alex are having trouble connecting, but at least their calendars are in sync. Klara—who’s always thought of herself as a little different, a sneaker in a world full of kitten heels and polished boots—is feeling a disconnect these days. She has type 1 diabetes, currently works in a dead-end job, and is in desperate need of a change. When her dad falls ill, Klara begrudgingly agrees to help run his small construction company while he recovers, even though it means moving back home and pushing the boundaries of her comfort zone to the extreme. Alex has been a shell of himself since his brother died in an accident. He’s unemployed, has bills piling up, and is distant from friends and family. His therapist is encouraging him to keep things manageable by setting up a calendar, checking off tasks each day, and looking for work to help get him back on his feet. When an ad pops up for a carpenter position at a small construction company, he jumps at the chance to take a step forward. Klara’s and Alex’s stories unfold through a series of miscommunications in this clever and witty novel from debut author Ally Zetterberg that’s about finding acceptance and even love in unexpected places.

Viggo Bergman, hopeless romantic, is thoroughly weary of waiting for his happily ever after. But between opening a romance bookstore, running a romance book club, coaching kids’ soccer, and adopting a household of pets—just maybe, he’s overcommitted himself?—Viggo’s chaotic life has made finding his forever love seem downright improbable. Enter Tallulah Clarke, chilly cynic with a massive case of writer’s block. Tallulah needs help with her thriller’s romantic subplot. Viggo needs another pair of hands to keep his store afloat. So they agree to swap skills and cohabitate for convenience—his romance expertise to revive her book, her organizational prowess to salvage his store. They hardly get along, and they couldn’t be more different, but who says roommate-coworkers need to be friends? As they share a home and life, Tallulah and Viggo discover a connection that challenges everything they believe about love, and reveals the plot twist they never saw happily ever after is here already, right under their roof.

They say home is where the heart is, and Rory Whatley knows better than most just how true that is. Neglected by her parents from a young age, she found "home" in Sam Capshaw, a shy but big-hearted boy who welcomed her into his family when they were seven years old. He was her entire world until a friendship-ending argument ripped it all out from under her. She's spent the last decade trying to pretend that Sam never existed, drowning her sorrow in fantasy novels by her favorite author, the reclusive J. Edward Michael. Now back in Asheville, she's determined to start anew, but those plans quickly crumble when she learns Sam has also moved home and their mutual friends make seeing him again an inevitability. When she and Sam reconnect, it's as though no time has passed at all. He's still the same sweet, people-pleasing guy he used to be-and the same guy who broke her heart when they were eighteen years old. Then a mysterious Advanced Reader Copy of J. Edward Michael's next book turns up on her doorstep, with a plot that seems to parallel her complicated relationship with Sam. As her feelings for Sam grow stronger and the book becomes more uncanny in its detail, Rory is forced to reflect on the relationships that have defined her for most of her life. Told in alternating timelines between their childhood and the present, BETWEEN THE LINES perfectly encapsulates the nostalgia of childhood friendships and first loves interwoven with the struggle of forgiving old hurts and the fear of losing the people who matter most.

If this arranged marriage falls through, we’re going to lose our ranches. Doesn’t matter that our families hate one another and have for generations – they came to terms behind our backs. To save our legacies, I’ll go through with it but the first time I face Colton Korhonen, I state, ‘I want a divorce.’ She’s the wife I didn’t want until I married her. Coming face to face with our small-town’s hatred of her and how her grandmother treats her, triggers every protective bone in my body. Screw business – if marrying her is the only way to keep her safe, I’ll do it. But as I get to know my wife, tell me why I want those rings on her finger to remain there permanently?