USA Today Bestselling Author Donna Fasano brings you two stories that feature strong female leads. No one on this earth is more resilient than a single mom. She has to be. Her children are vulnerable, and they’re depending on her to create a nurturing, loving environment. But single moms deserve caring and affection, too. Come along as fate forces… er, ah… helps Julia and Lainey find the men of their dreams. (Goodness knows, these single moms are both too busy to find love on their own!) This Duet Bundle includes: HER FAKE ROMANCE “Mom, get a life!” Her teenage daughter's words are daunting. True, struggling single mom Julia Jones hasn't had a date in over a decade, but she could still catch a man—if she needed to! So Julia, who claims not to want a husband, finds herself entangled in a fake romance. Ryan Shane is tall, dark, and devastatingly handsome. And he just so happens to need a no-strings date himself. Their plan is perfectly thought out. Until one conveniently staged good-night kiss turns into very inconvenient passion... TAKE ME, I’M YOURS Derek Mitchell has learned the hard way to never trust a beautiful woman. So although he would always be indebted to Lainey Adams for thwarting a kidnapping attempt on his beloved daughter, he isn't about to show his gratitude by offering his heart on a silver platter! But what's the brooding bachelor to do when his matchmaking millionaire father rewards Lainey's heroism—by giving her a share of the family fortune? Despite Derek's love phobia, something about the beguiling single mom touches his soul, filling him with hope... and desire. Yet he senses that she is keeping secrets—the kind that could shatter his world.
Once upon a time, I fell in love with a boy.A beautiful, broken boy who had his own world of struggles. People warned me against our love, but I didn't listen.We looked weak. Young, foolish. Dangerously in love. We didn't care.In order to keep our hearts protected from the opinions of others, we became each other's secret. We shared stolen moments. Tender touches. Secretive embraces.It was our twisted love story, and it worked for us up until our lives changed forever.The boy I loved became Hollywood's newest golden boy. His career blossomed as mine stalled. He found massive success as I discovered multiple failures. He made something of himself, while my dreams never came true. We moved into different realms where our pieces no longer fit together.In the fairy tales, love conquered all.In reality, love was the main reason empires began to fall.I always knew Landon belonged in my story. He was my beginning, middle, and end.The only problem? I wasn't certain I still belonged in his. *Book Two of the Landon & Shay Duet.*
"Their story is not only very memorable and extremely sexy, but I could read this series many times over and never tire of it." - Ms Romantic Reads He can never turn back into a prince... A troubling revelation puts Blake's newfound career in jeopardy--and even worse, puts Erin's impending graduation at risk. He can't risk her future no matter how much he wants her. She will never have a happily ever after... A dark legacy threatens everything they've worked to build. When old debt comes between them, both Blake and Erin must fight to protect each other--and their love. Since their forbidden beginning, Erin and Blake's relationship has been marked by deep sensuality and intense emotion. The couple is tested at every turn. They're running out of time. Blake and Erin will have to trust each other to forge their own sexy ending. * * * * * Author's Note: This book was previously published as a serial in multiple parts, including Beauty Becomes You and Loving the Beast. They've been collected into this volume and revised for new readers. FALLING FOR THE BEAST is the second book in A Modern Fairy Tale duet.
If you want to grow healthy vegetables at home, but have hesitated because it seems too hard and time consuming, Organic Gardening for Everyone is your perfect hands-on guide—an “if I can do it, you can do it” case study that addresses your concerns and gets you started. Loaded with practical advice and step-by-step guidance, Organic Gardening for Everyone takes a very personal and friendly approach to a subject that can be intimidating. It is a first-class primer on organic vegetable gardening, and an inspirational story about how anyone can balance the rigors of gardening with the demands of a modern, family-oriented lifestyle. In 2012, a California mom decided to start an organic vegetable garden. But she went about it in an unusual way: she crowdsourced it by launching a YouTube channel under the name "CaliKim" and asking for help. And then she started planting. As questions came up, she turned to her viewers and subscribers and they replied with answers and advice. As she learned, her garden grew successfully—even in the hot, harsh California climate. Her expertise also grew, and now she answers many more questions than she asks and has become a very accomplished home gardener. And CaliKim has a great story to tell: growing healthy organic vegetables for your family is not difficult, even for today’s time-challenged lifestyles. She provides complete step-by-step information on growing the most popular edibles organically, and also gives sound advice on how to take on the challenges of balancing a hectic lifestyle with successful growing—and how to involve the whole family in the process. You'll be rewarded for your effort every time you place a plate of natural, organic vegetables on the family dinner table knowing exactly what they are, what is in them, and where they came from.
Everyone else in the tiny town of Enfield, Texas, calls fall football season, but for the forty-three members of the Fighting Enfield Marching Band, it’s contest season. And for new saxophonist Anna James, it’s her first chance to prove herself as the great musician she’s trying hard to be. When she’s assigned a duet with mellophone player Weston Ryan, the boy her small-minded town thinks of as nothing but trouble, she’s equal parts thrilled and intimidated. But as he helps her with the duet, and she sees the smile he seems to save just for her, she can’t help but feel like she’s helping him with something too. When her strict parents find out she’s been secretly seeing him and keep them apart, Anna and Weston learn what it truly means to fight for something they love. With the marching contest nearing and the two falling hard for one another, the unthinkable happens, and Anna is left grappling for a way forward without Weston. Ashley Schumacher’s Full Flight is about how first love shapes us—even after it’s gone.
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.
Landon had just managed to clutch the whole world in his hands, but could feel it slipping away. Nothing about his world was how he had imagined it only weeks ago. Heather was his forever, but he didn’t need this especially not now. Now that he had everything that he could dream of having. He was a legacy that was now falling. Falling and failing the small town that looked up to him. Now his hopes and dreams were in the hands of someone he never even met.
A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.
This set contains both Unholy Union and Unholy Intent, the complete Unholy Union Duet! Cristina Monsters don’t hide in the dark. When I met Damian Di Santo in a dark corridor of my family home I knew he was a monster. I was a scared girl. He was already a man. That was when his twisted countdown began. Marked by dead roses and sharp thorns, eight years passed each bringing me closer to becoming his. Until the eve of my eighteenth birthday. That was the night he returned to claim me. Damian Circumstance put Cristina on my path. Fate bound her to me. Cristina and I share a common past. A single night that changed the course of our lives. She asked me if I was a monster the night I met her. I am. She’s about to learn I’m her monster. Because the countdown that began eight years ago has ended. Her time is up. On the stroke of midnight, she’s mine.
