Mike comes to Moncton wanting nothing more than to play for the Ice Cats and finally live on his own terms. He’s broke, bruised, and covered from head to toe in cheap lube, but he isn’t going to let that stop him. All he needs is a place to live and some time to figure out how to reconcile who he really is with who everyone wants him to be. Dumping three gallons of lube on the new kid is just another day at the office for Alexei. He knows exactly who he is: a goalie on the ice, a prankster in the locker room, and a man who knows better than to share his private life with anyone. He’s let people in before and it’s taught him that if he can’t have what he really wants, it’s better to be alone. Despite their apparent differences, an unlikely friendship grows. Neither of them could ever have guessed how much they really have in common.
As little girls, they fell in love with a sport that many of them were told girls could not play: ice hockey. Unwilling to take no for an answer, they tied back their hair, adopted boys' nicknames, borrowed their brothers' equipment, and set out to prove otherwise. In Crashing the Net Mary Turco tells the remarkable story of the first U.S. Women's Olympic Ice Hockey Team and their unforgettable journey to becoming gold medal winners at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Turco followed this dream team for many months as they trained in practice arenas and tournaments across the United States and Canada in anticipation of Nagano. In a lively narrative filled with intimate details of pregame locker room tensions, the Olympic team selection process, the drama of the battles on ice, and the personal friendships that were made along the way, Turco provides an inspirational behind-the-scenes look at how this team came to glory. We meet a wonderful cast of characters: twenty high-achieving, defiant female athletes, both seasoned players and enthusiastic rookies; their coach, a mythical figure in men's ice hockey who treated his players as world-class athletes; and the players' families and friends, who encouraged these girls to follow their dreams, challenge prejudice against contact sports for women, and risk everything in crashing the net. Looking up in the stands at Nagano during their victory ceremony, the women of Team USA could see hundreds of fans waving congratulatory banners. One of them read, "Girls Can Do Anything." Crashing the Net and this special team bring this important message to life.
Contains bonus novella Crashing the Boards. Jealous boyfriends and glitzy parties can be a recipe for disaster. When the gorgeous yet controlling Cooper interrupts a party Izzy was paid to crash and almost ruins her career as a professional party crasher, Izzy kicks him to the curb. She learned early in life not to count on anyone, and she will not relinquish her independence, not even to a sexy-as-sin pro athlete who can melt her heart with one wink. As the Sockeyes hockey team opens their inaugural season in Seattle, Cooper finds himself minus a girlfriend and plus a surly teenaged nephew. Cooper doesn’t want to be a surrogate dad, he doesn’t want to play in Seattle, and he doesn’t want to be alone. He misses Izzy, but seeing her with other men at parties turns him every shade of green. Regardless, he wants her back, and he’s willing to change, if only she’ll give him a second chance. Aware of her precarious finances, Cooper makes an offer she can’t refuse by hiring her to be responsible for his nephew when he’s traveling with the team. Fearing Cooper isn’t capable of changing his control-freak ways, Izzy resists his efforts to turn their financial arrangement into a personal relationship. He needs a sweet, docile girlfriend, and Izzy cannot be that woman. Yet, when tragedy strikes, Izzy is there when Cooper needs her the most, and love has a way of getting what it wants, no matter the circumstances. Keywords: Sports Romance, Instant Family, Friends to Lovers, Hockey Romance, Bad Boy, hockey romance, hockey novel, sports romance, Seattle, hockey, workplace, urban romance, alpha male, sports hero, hockey star, professional hockey, hockey players For fans of: Helena Hunting, Elle Kennedy, Catherine Gayle, Toni Aleo, Jami Davenport, Kelly Jamieson, Sarina Bowen, Sawyer Bennett, Carly Phillips, Kennedy Ryan, Nana Malone, Brenda Rothert, Elise Faber, Kate Meador, Victoria Denault, Mira Lyn Kelly, Odette Stone, Jennifer Lazaris, Lisa B Kamps, Cathryn Fox, Samantha Lind, Samantha Whiskey, Stacey Lynn
After four years with Alexei, there are a few things Mike knows with absolute certainty: he loves Alexei, Alexei loves him, and Alexei gives the very best gifts. This Christmas is no exception, though Mike is having a hell of a time figuring out what, exactly, Alexei’s gift is. Alexei knows his gift this year is going to blow Mike’s mind, but in the meantime, it’s pretty hilarious watching Mike try to figure out what it is. Granted, Alexei does have a lot of surprises in store for Mike this week, and it sure as hell isn’t frankincense and myrrh.
Crashing the Gate is a shot across the bow at the political establishment in Washington, DC and a call to re-democratize politics in America. This book lays bare, with passion and precision, how ineffective, incompetent, and antiquated the Democratic Party establishment has become, and how it has failed to adapt and respond to new realities and challenges. The authors save their sharpest knives to go for the jugular in their critique of Republican ideologues who are now running--and ruining--our country. Written by two of the most popular political bloggers in America, the book hails the new movement--of the netroots, the grassroots, the unorthodox labor unions, the maverick big donors--that is the antidote to old-school politics as usual. Fueled by advances in technology and a hunger for a more authentic and populist democracy, this broad-based movement is changing the way political campaigns are waged and managed. A must-read book for anyone with an interest in the future of American democracy.
Olle Svensson came to Canada to play hockey, but now he’s wondering if twenty-five is too late to start university back home in Sweden. Things started out well, but then he and some teammates catch his friend, Jamie Gallagher, with a guy in a men’s room stall at a random bar. Olle knows he should have stood by Jamie, in the bar and the locker room, but he’d been caught off-guard. He’d thought...well, it doesn’t matter anymore what he was thinking. Jamie is in hell. He’d been sure none of his teammates went to that bar, so he could safely blow off a little steam. Now he’s been outed against his will and doesn’t have a single ally on the team. He’s giving serious thought to giving up on hockey until Rupert Smythe-Morrison and the Moncton Ice Cats come to the rescue. Jamie never thought he’d be so happy to be traded. The only down side is that Olle is coming with him.
In this follow-up to his memoir Too fat to fish, the comedian and radio personality focuses on his drug addiction and life-threatening depression with an unflinching eye and his signature wit. A veteran comedian and radio personality, Lange was addicted to heroin and prescription drugs. He details his very public meltdown, and explains how he turned his life and career around.
When Peyton comes across the victim of a hit-and-run, she knows it’s destiny. But what exactly does fate have in store for her and the boy in the coma? Since her parents divorced, twelve-year-old Peyton has known that to achieve happier outcomes in her life, she’s got to focus on eliminating her flaws—and on making sure her first boyfriend is truly right for her. Guided by her collection of inspirational quotes and her growing list of ideal boyfriend traits, Peyton is convinced that this summer will be the perfect summer, complete with the perfect boyfriend! But when she discovers a boy lying unconscious in the middle of the road, the victim of a hit-and-run, her perfect summer takes a dramatic detour. Determined to find the driver responsible, Peyton divides her time between searching her small town for clues and visiting the comatose (and cute!) boy in the hospital. When he wakes up, will he prove to be her destiny? Or does life have a few more surprises in store? With abundant warmth and gentle humor, Jennifer Richard Jacobson offers a novel about searching for perfect answers—and finding that reality is both messier and far more intriguing than anything you can dream up.
A diamond-hard, visionary new SF thriller. Nailed-down cyberpunk ala William Gibson for the 21st century meets the vivid dark futures of Al Reynolds in this extraordinary debut novel. With Earth abandoned, humanity resides on Station, an industrialised asteroid run by the sentient corporations of the Pantheon. Under their leadership a war has been raging against the Totality - ex-Pantheon AIs gone rogue. With the war over, Jack Forster and his sidekick Hugo Fist, a virtual ventriloquist's dummy tied to Jack's mind and created to destroy the Totality, have returned home. Labelled a traitor for surrendering to the Totality, all Jack wants is to clear his name but when he discovers two old friends have died under suspicious circumstances he also wants answers. Soon he and Fist are embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens not only their future but all of humanity's. But with Fist's software licence about to expire, taking Jack's life with it, can they bring down the real traitors before their time runs out?
You can build a team, but you have to find your home. Rupert Smythe is fond of many things. Callum Morrison isn’t one of them. Rupert is a quiet, thoughtful business man and, sadly, a total wimp. Maybe not the ideal candidate to run a professional hockey team, but he signed on to do it anyway. As his life has reminded him on an almost daily basis since, this isn’t the most brilliant idea he’s ever had. And that was before Callum showed up. Being in the spotlight is just part of being a professional athlete, but Callum needs a break. He arrives in Moncton unannounced, determined to help grow the team he just bought, and under the assumption he’d be welcome. Possibly he should have tried to make a better first impression. Callum figures he can push through the rest of the summer, never expecting two kids, a host of friends, and his growing feelings for Rupert to derail everything he has ever believed about what he wanted, and what he could have.
