Ruth Livingstone's life changes drastically the day her father puts a young child in her arms and sends her to a small village in New Jersey under an assumed name. There Ruth pretends to be a widow and quietly secludes herself until her father is acquitted of a crime. But with the emergence of the penny press, the imagination of the reading public is stirred, and her father's trial stands center stage. Asher Tripp is the brash newspaperman who determines that this case is the event he can use to redeem himself as a journalist. Ruth finds solace tending a garden along the banks of the Toms River--a place where she can find a measure of peace in the midst of the sorrow that continues to build. It is also here that Asher Tripp finds a temporary residence, all in an attempt to discover if the lovely creature known as Widow Malloy is truly Ruth Livingstone, the woman every newspaper has been looking for. Love begins to slowly bloom...but is the affection they share strong enough to withstand the secrets that separate them?
Wanted: Discreet Dominant gentleman to teach maybe-submissive woman the rules of the game. No whips, chains, paddles, handcuffs, ropes, or toys. No nookie. No creepy stuff. No butt stuff. No gluten. Just the facts, Sir. Serious inquiries only. –CuriousCat4 When I see the ad in the Portland Alternative’s “Love Wanted” section, I can’t resist the urge to respond. Yes, it’s dangerous—as a star forward for the Badgers I have a reputation to protect—but I miss the thrill of calling the shots in the bedroom and reading that ad is the first time I’ve laughed in months. So I reach out to Curious Cat about the “educational” opportunity... A few sizzling—and hysterical—emails later we arrange to meet. I’m hoping we’ll have chemistry, and I might finally be on my way to getting over my ex-girlfriend. And then the gate to the beer garden swings open and in walks Hailey. My ex is Curious Cat, and this experiment just got a hell of a lot more complicated. But I never back down from a challenge—on or off the ice. I keep my educational offer on the table—six weeks of submissive lessons. Six weeks to learn how to drive a Dominant man crazy, and then we part ways as friends. What do I have to lose? Except what’s left of my heart? Keywords: hockey romance, virgin romance, BDSM romance, dominant male, alpha male, lessons in seduction, new adult, new adult romance, sports romance, sports, friends to lovers, opposites attract romance, opposites attract, workplace, humor, comedy, romance, contemporary, alpha male, love, career, bad boy, family, fiction, forbidden, forbidden romance, romantic comedy, roommates, roomie, roomies, best friends to lovers romance, contemporary romance, best friends in romance, brothers, athletes, rom com, hilarious, romance series, romance books, beach reads, funny, stories, sensual, sensual romance, hot guy, sexy, heartwarming, heart-warming, kissing books, romance series, long series, long romance series, wealthy hero, wealthy heroes, sports romance, Lili Valente, L. Valente.
*** 'Are you aging fabulously? Here's how.' Anna Murphy, The Times 'A lovely book celebrating female beauty over 40.' Top Sante 'You become what you see. What you see determines what you believe - and the most powerful way of inspiring people is with images. My goal with AndBloom is to motivate women to embrace life without fear. To provide examples of women between the age of 40 and, currently, 100, so that any woman can open this book and see themselves recognized.' Denise Boomkens launched the AndBloom project on Instagram in 2018, to create a 'happy place for women over 40' - a community where women can be themselves and where aging is celebrated instead of feared. In this, her first book, she shares her own experiences of aging and brings together portraits and interviews with more than 100 extraordinary 'ordinary' women to create both a gloriously illustrated celebration of female beauty over 40 and an empowering handbook to aging happily.
"The perfect book right now for young readers searching for hope, strength, inspiration — and just a little horticultural havoc."—New York Times The first book in a can't-put-it-down, can't-read-it-fast-enough action-thriller trilogy that's part Hatchet, part Alien! The invasion begins--but not as you'd expect. It begins with rain. Rain that carries seeds. Seeds that sprout--overnight, everywhere. These new plants take over crop fields, twine up houses, and burrow below streets. They bloom--and release toxic pollens. They bloom--and form Venus flytrap-like pods that swallow animals and people. They bloom--everywhere, unstoppable. Or are they? Three kids on a remote island seem immune to the toxic plants. Anaya, Petra, Seth. They each have strange allergies--and yet not to these plants. What's their secret? Can they somehow be the key to beating back this invasion? They'd better figure it out fast, because it's starting to rain again....
A famous boss. A secret identity. And a hilarious road trip to love. Yes. Yes, Rosie does have a crush on Isaac, her YouTube-famous boss. Does she ever talk to him? Absolutely not. Crippling social anxiety can do that. But Rosie is nothing if not tenacious. Ignoring her friends' advice to just talk to him already (Nope, that's way too hard), she instead opts to pursue a virtual relationship with Isaac using a secret identity. The plan is genius. Online, Rosie has social skills she'd never dream of having in person. She's possibly even cool. If Isaac can just get to know her, he'll see how amazing she is. But then a spontaneous road trip throws Rosie and Isaac together, and their virtual and in-person lives collide. (Eleven hundred miles in a seventy's era VW hatchback? What could possibly go wrong?) Much to Rosie's surprise, she doesn't constantly humiliate herself. Conversation is easy, and their chemistry? It's pretty much off the charts. But every road trip is bound to hit a speed bump or two. Will Rosie's secret identity be the thing that brings them together? Or the thing that tears them apart?
Now that high school is over, Ari is dying to move to the big city with his ultra-hip band—if he can just persuade his dad to let him quit his job at their struggling family bakery. Though he loved working there as a kid, Ari cannot fathom a life wasting away over rising dough and hot ovens. But while interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easygoing guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they become closer over batches of bread, love is ready to bloom . . . that is, if Ari doesn’t ruin everything. Writer Kevin Panetta and artist Savanna Ganucheau concoct a delicious recipe of intricately illustrated baking scenes and blushing young love, in which the choices we make can have terrible consequences, but the people who love us can help us grow.
A sharp and funny, rueful, and uncompromisingly real tale of growing up—from National Book Award finalist Amy Bloom A chubby girl with smudged pink harlequin glasses and a habit of stealing Heath Bars from the local five-and-dime, Elizabeth Taube is the only child of parents whose indifference to her is the one sure thing in her life. When her search for love and attention leads her into the arms of her junior-high-school English teacher, things begin to get complicated. And even her friend Mrs. Hill, a nearly blind, elderly black woman, can't protect her when real love—exhilarating, passionate, heartbreaking—enters her life in the gorgeous shape of Huddie Lester. With her finely honed style and her unflinching sensibility, Bloom shows us how profoundly the forces of love and desire can shape a life.
In January 2020, Amy Bloom travelled with her husband Brian to Switzerland, where he was helped by Dignitas to end his life while Amy sat with him and held his hand. Brian was terminally ill and for the last year of his life Amy had struggled to find a way to support his wish to take control of his death, to not submerge 'into the darkness of an expiring existence'. Written with piercing insight and wit, In Love is Bloom's intimate, authentic and startling account of losing Brian, first slowly to the disease of Alzheimer's, and then on becoming a widow. It charts the anxiety and pain of the process that led them to Dignitas, while never avoiding the complex ethical problems that are raised by assisted death. A poignant love letter to Bloom's husband and a passionate outpouring of grief, In Love reaffirms the power and value of human relationships.
The unexpected and forbidden affair between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok unfolds in a triumph of historical fiction from the New York Times bestselling author of Away and Lucky Us.