There’s something magical about reading when the world goes quiet — when your heart feels wide open, and the only thing you need is a story to get lost in.
If you’ve been craving fiction that feels like a warm bath for your soul (or a little red wine in literary form), this one’s for you.
These seven stories, all written and published by Lee on Wattpad, are full of emotion, mood, and magic. From poetic slow burns to mysterious thrillers and soft, intimate reflections, they’re made for readers who want to feel every page.
After catching her fiancé cheating, a pregnant hotel critic escapes to a wild, cliffside guesthouse run by a former flamenco dancer and her fiercely loyal chosen family—queer women who once defied a dictatorship with rhythm, rebellion, and love. Grilled sardines, old secrets, sunset dances, and one unforgettable summer await. → Found family. Flamenco at golden hour. A birth, a death, and the fierce joy in between.
Selena travels to Thailand to recover from tragedy. What she finds instead is a strange stillness, a kind caretaker named Than, and a love story told more through silence than words. But in a hospital where time slips and memories shift, reality begins to unravel. → A poetic, dreamlike story of grief, healing, and unspoken love. Content warning: themes of loss, medical trauma, and emotional complexity.
A tender collection of poems about soft love, brown skin in golden light, late-night longing, and the sweetness of staying—even when it hurts. → For lovers of softness, slowness, and skin-warmed poetry.
Poetry for the ones who fell quietly, loved almost, and remember too much. Every page is a soft ache—a hallway glance, a missed moment, a memory you can’t let go. → Gentle, sad, and beautifully intimate.
Hana wakes up missing a tattoo—and the memories tied to it. As the ink reappears, so do fragments of a buried secret she swore to forget. But some marks aren’t meant to fade… and someone else wants the truth hidden again. → A sharp, atmospheric mystery with memory, magic, and a supernatural twist.
What starts as a craving for snacks turns into a chaotic, hilarious trip through space—complete with talking fruit, emotional frogs, and goodbye wrapped in glitter and weirdness. → Whimsical, trippy, unexpectedly tender. Feels like crying from laughter and love at the same time.
There’s no record of Room 404—but Nawin gets assigned there anyway. He wants quiet. What he gets is Top: cocky, half-naked, and always in his way. Tension turns electric. Arguments get too quiet. And soon, the line between hate and want blurs into something neither of them expected. → A steamy, slow-burn roommate romance set in a room that doesn’t follow the rules—and neither do they.
💻 Read them all by searching BeautyLeeBar on Wattpad
🕯️ Set the Scene: Your Cozy, Luxe Reading Ritual
Reading isn’t just something you do — it’s an entire aesthetic. Here’s how to create your own sacred reading space, BeautyLeeBar style:
Layered Lighting: Golden glows from taper candles, fairy lights, or a vintage lamp.
Signature Scent: Burn a soft woodsy candle or mist your space with rosewater and vanilla.
Mood Pairing: Sip matcha, pour red wine, or curl up with chamomile and chocolate.
Soundtrack: Lo-fi jazz. Rainy nights playlist. Absolute silence — your rules, your ritual.
💬 Bonus Chapter: Join The Chapter Lounge
Looking for a soft place to land between books? Come join The Chapter Lounge — an intimate, cozy-positive community hosted on the @BeautyLeeBar Instagram Channel.
Created for readers, writers, and creatives who feel most at home in quiet corners, this space is all about connection without pressure. Whether you’re curled up with a new read, scribbling lines of poetry at midnight, or just craving good energy—this is your circle.
✨ Expect:
Thoughtful book recs
Gentle writer check-ins
Soft storytelling and creative convos
Emotional support and cozy vibes only
Come as you are. Stay as long as you need. This is a little corner of the internet where art, emotion, and community meet—with blankets, not spotlights.
📖 Love poetry? You’ll find more pieces by Lee on Instagram, too: @leemanuscript ✨ A home for the written word, one soft stanza at a time.
✨ What’s Your Favorite?
Which story spoke to you the most? We’d love to see your dreamy reading setup. Tag @BeautyLeeBar on Instagram or TikTok and share your ritual — candles, playlists, red wine, soft lighting, or whatever helps you unwind best.
Use one of our cozy tags so we can find you: #ChapterLoungeReads | #TheChapterLounge #ChapterLoungeBookClub | #BeautyLeeBarBookClub
I feel sepia most days, and I choke on crystals now.
Could she always speak in rainbows
or is that just what I wanted to be loud.
Soft whispers of jazz club
gracing my nostrils rubbed off
on borrowed satin that once
caught dreams or thoughts
when they couldn’t sleep.
Interrupting rest for a Girl,
never interrupted.
If I play the villain
you’ll be the sweet pea.
Melting rocket pops, freezer burnt veggies,
to keep company.
if lust were long walks on the beach
We took breaths of
sunsets and choked
on butterflies to feel
alive. Neon gushed through
our insides, inflaming
ultraviolets. A forest fire.
But only the flowers burn.
Sweet desire, I’m tired.
no audio
Sometimes silence sounds like children playing on a playground. The sweet laughter and creaky swing sets, the sand in your shoes and your hair. You fell a lot. But who the hell cares.
Sometimes silence sounds like the ocean. The Atlantic at 6 a.m. in the month of June. Right at the edge of the water where the waves kiss your toes and you inhale the burst of first light orange.
Sometimes silence sounds like a heartbeat. But not your own. The one that made a tune with you. The bump electrifies your skin and deepens your lungs. But no more heavy breathing, only waiting, wanting, and leaving. back then it was self-loved someone symphony.
Sometimes silence sounds like you. How you talk behind your back. How you speak you’re not hungry but you say you want to spend your last $10 for the week on a burger. You say sweet nothings, you shout slurs about you, you whisper, “you look good today” faintly so that God can’t even hear you.
Sometimes silence sounds like everything all at once. Can you have that by tonight? When can you hang out? Have you paid for this? Did you schedule that? Cars, planes, people in the street existing and functioning, fulfilling their economic corporate needs.
Sometimes silence sounds like an old phone the one that hangs on the wall. Like getting a call from someone you weren’t expecting. You answer because you think it’s them but it’s not. You’re not rude so you stay and chat.
Sometimes silence is the wind whispering through your hair. The holes in your sleeves snagged from the fences. Walls you put up painted pink with each stained sheet. Strangled from cotton each thread sinks deep.
Sometimes silence is the buzzing of the lights on the walls, tucked on shelves and behind the window. It creeps in from the street. Comes in the door without invitation. It’s a pleasant unwelcome guest.
Sometimes silence is vacant. Rooms filled with dust. Neighbors to welcome you home. Old lovers with not much love at all. you put up your sign no vacancy no more.
Sometimes silence is a sunset. so bright and blissful you close your eyes and breathe in the now, push over the later and breathe out the before.
*Artwork by Kally Compton
What was your favorite poem? Leave a comment below!
To my sisters, this is a reminder of what makes us beautiful. To my brothers, this is a reminder that your love of us isn’t futile, it’s been earned… and then some
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WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN? IS IT A DISEASE?
WELL, IF IT IS, I SURE HOPE IT’S CATCHING BECAUSE THEY NEED TO POUR IT INTO A BOTTLE, LABEL IT, AND SPRINKLE IT ALL OVER THE PEOPLE~ MEN AND WOMEN~WHO EVER LOVED OR CRIED, WORKED OR DIED FOR ANY ONE OF US. SO… WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN? IS IT A CRIME? ARREST ME! BECAUSE I’M STRONG, BUT I’M GENTLE. I’M SMART, BUT I’M LEARNING, I’M LOVING, BUT I’M HATEFUL. AND I LIKE TO WORK BECAUSE I LIKE TO EAT AND FEED AND CLOTHE AND HOUSE ME, MINE, AND YOURS AND EVERYBODYS, LIKE I’VE BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST 300 YEARS.
WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN? IS IT INSANE? COMMITT ME! BECAUSE I WANT THE HAPPINESS, NOT TEARS; TRUTHS, NOT LIES; PLEASURE NOT PAIN; SUNSHINE, NOT RAIN; A MAN, NOT A CHILD!
WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN? IS IT A SIN? PRAY FOR ME! AND PRAY FOR YOU TOO, IF YOU DON’T LIKE WOMEN OF COLOR BECAUSE WE ARE… MIDNIGHT BLACK, CHESTNUT BROWN, HONEY BRONZED, CHOCOLATE COVERED, COCOA DIPPED, BIGGED LIPPED, BIG HIPPED, BIG BREASTED, AND BEAUTIFUL ALL AT THE SAME TIME! SO… WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN? DOES IT BOTHER YOU THAT MUCH BECAUSE I WANT A MAN WHO WANTS ME… LOVES ME AND TRUSTS ME, AND RESPECTS ME AND GIVES ME EVERYTHING BECAUSE I GIVE HIM EVERYTHING BACK, PLUS!
WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN? I’VE GOT RIGHTS, SAME AS YOU! I HAVE WORKED FOR THEM, DIED FOR THEM, LIED FOR THEM, PLAYED AND LAID FOR THEM, ON EVERY PLANTATION FROM ALABAMA TO BOSTON AND BACK!
WHAT IF I AM A BLACK WOMAN? I LOVE ME, AND I WANT YOU TO LOVE ME TOO, BUT I AM, AS I’VE ALWAYS BEEN, NEAR YOU, CLOSE TO YOU, BESIDE YOU, STRONG, GIVING, LOVING,
Born in New York City to parents of Cuban and Jamaican descent and raised in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York, Aja Monet Bacquie began writing poems when she was eight or nine years old.
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At 19, Monet became the youngest winner of Nuyorican Poets Café’s Grand Slam. She later earned her Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Not long after graduation, she published two chapbooks: The Black Unicorn Sings (2010) and Inner-City Cyborgs and Ciphers (2014). Both were later released as e-books. Monet also co-edited and arranged the spoken-word collection Chorus: A LiteraryMixtape (2012) with Saul Williams and writer and actress Dufflyn Lammers.
Monet has performed spoken word in France (she lived, briefly, in Paris), England, Belgium, Bermuda, and Cuba. During her visit to Cuba, Monet connected with her extended family there—relatives from whom her U.S.-based family had become estranged after Monet’s grandmother fled the island. In 2018, Monet released her first full-length poetry collection, My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter, dedicated to women of the Black diaspora and mothers. The book was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry.
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The collection includes her best-known poem #sayhername, a dedication to the Black female victims of police brutality often overlooked by news media and activists. Inspiration for the poem came after an event at which Monet read a poem that expressed her solidarity with the struggle of Palestinians. Eve Ensler, who was in attendance, invited Monet to contribute a poem to the #SayHerName vigil. Monet joined Ensler, legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, and others on May 20, 2015, in New York’s Union Square to remember Black women and girls murdered by police.
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Monet, who lives in Little Haiti, Miami, co-founded Smoke Signals Studio in Miami—an arts collective dedicated to music, art, and community organizing. She also manages the poetry workshop Voices: Poetry for the People and organized its first annual Maroon Poetry Festival in the Liberty City section of Miami.
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And for many, she is performance poetry’s reigning “cool girl.” Aja Monet is a surrealist blues poet, storyteller, and organizer. Everyone knows Aja Monet, and everyone wants to be (just a little bit) Aja Monet. Her work is as eclectic and thoughtful as she is, and her voice is one you could listen to forever.
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