"Babe, you might want to close your mouth... unless you're offering something, if you know what I mean..." For Bellatrix Brown, going back to America was like eating an entire bowl of broccoli-absolutely revolting. Returning to that country meant leaving the people she cared about in London. Connor Michaels, the devilishly handsome bad boy of the school, never really cared about anything, especially not about girls. His usual game: use them then lose them...that is, until he came upon a stunning British belle. The day Bella and Connor's paths crossed, seats were overturned, hot spaghetti was spilled, and sexual innuendos were flung around like confetti. But the more Connor tortured Bella, the more he found himself inexplicably drawn to her, and the more he began to behave amusingly unlike himself. Will Bella continue to be the bad boy's victim? Or will she be able to do what no other girl has ever done before-catch his heart? Join them in this hilariously spunky love story full of twists and turns, dark pasts, and even a dangerous stalker. If you want a book that has the emotional drama of The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants mixed with the parental neglect of The Secret Garden then you'll want to read Being the Bad Boy's Victim.
They are the men of our wildest dreams. With just a look, they can jump-start our deepest desires. So, crack open the cover. . .and discover men who can't be tamed. . . Her Craving New York Times bestselling author Lori Foster Shy Becky Harte has decided to explore her wicked side. Being spotted in a sex shop by her secret object of desire, George Westin, was not part of the plan. George is intrigued at her purchases, and he'd love to teach the blushing Becky a thing or two about surrender. But when fantasy becomes reality, it's the not-so-innocent Becky calling the shots. . . Naughty by Night USA Today bestselling author Janelle Denison Since they were teenagers, sparks have flown between Chloe Anderson and Gabe Mackenzie. Now, Gabe is back in town, and a friendly poker game is turning into a game of seduction. The stakes: their wildest desires. Leave it to the irrepressible Chloe to turn the poker tables on Gabe. Now she has him at her mercy for four nights--and they've got six years of pent-up passion to make up for. . . . . .And When They Were Bad USA Today bestselling author Donna Kauffman For Cameron James IV, a vacation at the private Caribbean club Intimacies is his chance to find his inner wild man. In real life, Allison Walker is a computer nerd with a successful firm, but at Intimacies, she's in over her head--until she meets Cam. And though Cam is looking to shuck his nice guy image with a wanton woman, it's the nice girl he's just met who's about to bring out the wicked in him. . .
Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva all get mixed up with a senior boy–a cool, slick, sexy boy who can talk them into doing almost anything he wants. In a blur of high school hormones and personal doubt, each girl struggles with how much to give up and what ultimately to keep for herself. How do girls handle themselves? How much can a boy get away with? And in the end, who comes out on top? A bad boy may always be a bad boy. But this bad boy is about to meet three girls who won’t back down.
With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.
Detailing the domestic violence suffered by the first author during her 16 year marriage, this moving volume details the background and events leading up to and immediately following Beth Sipe's tragic act of desperation: ending the life of the perpetrator. Encouraged to publish her story by her therapist and co-author, Evelyn Hall, Sipe relates how her case was mishandled by the police, the military, a mental health professional and the welfare system, illustrating how women like herself are further victimized and neglected by the very systems that are expected to provide assistance. Her story is followed by seven commentaries by experts in the field. They discuss the causes and process of spousal abuse, reasons why battered women stay, and the dynamic consequences of domestic violence.
One girl. Twin brothers. An uncommon triangle. When college student Olivia Townsend returned home to help her father run his business, she never imagined a complication like Cash and Nash Davenport—twin brothers different in so many ways but with one thing in common: an uncontrollable desire for Olivia. Cash is dangerous, sexy, and bad to the bone—a man whose kisses make Olivia forget she is playing with fire. Nash is successful, reliable and intensely passionate—and already taken. But all it takes is one soft stroke to make Olivia forget he belongs to someone else. However, Olivia is in for a surprise. These boys have a secret that should make her run away as far and as fast as she can. If only it wasn’t too late. A sensual game between three players has begun, and it’s about to spin deliriously out of control. Includes a teaser for The Wild Ones
New York Times bestselling adult author of The Bear and the Nightingale makes her middle grade debut with a creepy, spellbinding ghost story destined to become a classic. Now in paperback. After suffering a tragic loss, eleven-year-old Ollie who only finds solace in books discovers a chilling ghost story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who loved her, and a peculiar deal made with "the smiling man"—a sinister specter who grants your most tightly held wish, but only for the ultimate price. Captivated by the tale, Ollie begins to wonder if the smiling man might be real when she stumbles upon the graves of the very people she's been reading about on a school trip to a nearby farm. Then, later, when her school bus breaks down on the ride home, the strange bus driver tells Ollie and her classmates: "Best get moving. At nightfall they'll come for the rest of you." Nightfall is, indeed, fast descending when Ollie's previously broken digital wristwatch begins a startling countdown and delivers a terrifying message: RUN. Only Ollie and two of her classmates heed these warnings. As the trio head out into the woods—bordered by a field of scarecrows that seem to be watching them—the bus driver has just one final piece of advice for Ollie and her friends: "Avoid large places. Keep to small." And with that, a deliciously creepy and hair-raising adventure begins.
ALICE FEENEYS NEW YORK TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER “Boldly plotted, tightly knotted—a provocative true-or-false thriller that deepens and darkens to its ink-black finale. Marvelous.” —AJ Finn, author of The Woman in the Window My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?
The Victim’s Voice in the Sexual Misconduct Crisis investigates how a victim’s voice, identity, credibility, and proof are challenged or established in the current sexual misconduct crisis. Using communication and rhetorical analysis, gender studies, and law and society perspectives, Mary Schuster examines concerns such as victim impact statements offered in sentencing hearings of convicted offenders, due process and Title IX requirements in campus sexual assault investigations, and laws and Title VII standards governing workplace sexual harassment complaints. Schuster also analyzes the testimony offered in the 1991 and 1998 U.S. Senate Judiciary Hearings regarding the Supreme Court nominations of Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, social movements such as #Me Too, and global activists’ efforts to challenge gender stereotypes and hierarchies. This book argues that we cannot outlaw or legislate away sexual misconduct, but must instead focus on cultural, social, and systemic changes in order to change the current climate. Moreover, the author argues for zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, but recommends a gradation of punishment or sanctions for offenders, offering examples of successful educational and therapeutic efforts to alter misconceptions regarding sexual misconduct. Scholars of gender studies, communication, legal studies, and rhetoric will find this book particularly useful.
