Ethan Page had it all: a respectable job, loving friends, and a beautiful apartment - the envy of all his friends. He was madly in love with his wife, Jodie - until he discovered the price she demanded for engineering his perfect life.
There's no one quite like my big sister Jodie . . . Quiet, cautious Pearl has always adored her bold, brash, bad big sister Jodie. When their parents get new jobs at a grand, fusty old boarding school, Melchester College, the girls have to move there - and when they arrive, things start to change. Jodie has always been the leader - but now it's Pearl who's making new friends. Jodie just seems to be getting into more and more trouble - arguing with Mum, scaring the little children, flirting with the gardener. She really doesn't fit in with the posh teenagers at the school. Pearl begins to wonder if she needs Jodie as much as she used to. But when Firework Night comes around and a tragic event occurs, Pearl realises quite how much Jodie means to her . . . A touching, powerful story from the mega-bestselling Jacqueline Wilson, told with warmth and sensitivity.
The Powerful, Poignant Story of Love, Courage, and Redemption from Death Row, Where an Indomitable Woman Challenged Corruption in Order to Free her Husband When TV reporter Jodie Sinclair went to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as the Death House at Angola, in 1981, she expected to report about the death penalty and leave. She never expected to fall in love. Billy Sinclair was an inmate at Angola, sent there for an accidental murder during a robbery gone wrong. After facing a trial which was skewed against him and being sentenced to death, he saw first-hand the corruption and abuse rife in the criminal justice system, and he began an unrelenting crusade for reform. When the pair married by proxy a year after meeting, Jodie took up Billy’s fight. From then on, she lived with one foot in the outside world and one in the complex and dehumanizing bureaucracy of the prison world. This incredible memoir tracks her heroic twenty-five-year fight to save her husband from dying in prison, the professional setbacks she suffered for marrying a prisoner, and a pardons scandal in which she wore a wire for the FBI to help her husband expose corruption in the criminal justice system leading all the way to the governor's office, which put a target on Billy's back. It is the uplifting true story of a woman who stood by her man, and in doing so, exposed the horrors of our criminal justice system and became a voice for all those who have loved ones behind bars.
"Jodie Slaughter is must-buy author, and Bet on It is a perfect example of what makes her writing delicious. Aja and Walker’s story is hot, sweet, and utterly unique, with a rock-solid emotional core." - Talia Hibbert, New York Times bestselling author of Act Your Age, Eve Brown The first time Aja Owens encounters the man of her dreams, she’s having a panic attack in the frozen foods section of the Piggly Wiggly. The second time, he’s being introduced to her as her favorite bingo buddy’s semi-estranged grandson. From there, all it takes is one game for her to realize that he’s definitely going to be a problem. And if there’s anything she already has a surplus of, it’s problems. In Walker Abbott’s mind, there are only two worthwhile things in Greenbelt, South Carolina. The peach cobbler at his old favorite diner and his ailing grandmother. Dragging himself back after more than a decade away, he’s counting down the days until Gram heals and he can get back to his real life. Far away from the trauma inside of those city limits. Just when he thinks his plan is solid, enter Aja to shake everything up. A hastily made bingo-based sex pact is supposed to keep this...thing between them from getting out of hand. Especially when submitting to their feelings means disrupting their carefully balanced lives. But emotions are just like bingo callers—they refuse to be ignored. Jodie Slaughter's Bet on It is a heart-stoppingly fun, emotional romance that will have readers falling in love until long after the last page is turned. “Bet on It reads like the first rays of sun on your face after a long winter. I loved Aja and Walker's story about two genuinely good people who are playful and sweet to each other, helping one another heal, while also having incredibly hot sex. With standout portrayals of beautiful, generous friendships in addition to the love story, this is a book to be savored.” - Rosie Danan, author of The Intimacy Experiment and The Roommate
PRE-ORDER THE STUNNING AND DEVASTATING LOVE STORY ABOUT HOPE, SACRIFICE AND THE CONNECTIONS THAT FOREVER BIND US 'A modern day Atonement meets David Nicholls. Beautifully written - I couldn't put it down' EMMA GANNON 'Like if One Day had been written by Sally Rooney' 5***** READER REVIEW 'An intricate story of love . . . A beautiful piece of writing' SUNDAY EXPRESS _______ She could be the girl dancing on tables one night, and the next she'd be hiding in the shadows. Just when I thought I understood her, she would melt away and become a completely new person, and I'd have to start all over again. That's how it was with Anna. _______ Nick and Anna work the same summer job at their local cinema. Anna is mysterious, beautiful, and from a very different world to Nick. She's grown up preparing for the end of days, in a tightly-controlled existence where Christmas, getting drunk and sex before marriage are all off-limits. So when Nick comes into her life, Anna falls passionately in love. Their shared world burns with poetry and music, cigarettes and conversation - hints of the people they hope to become. But Anna, on the cusp of adulthood, is afraid to give up everything she's ever believed in, and everyone she's ever loved. She walks away, and Nick doesn't stop her. Years later, a tragedy draws Anna back into Nick's life. But rekindling their relationship leaves Anna and Nick facing a terrible choice between a love that's endured decades, and the promises they've made to others along the way. _______ 'I was devastated to finish this book. It broke my heart, and if you're a fan of Sally Rooney, Another Life is something you'll want. The characters are real, the themes of grief, family and loss are so raw. Chapman is a master' Daily Record 'Fans of David Nicholls will adore this complex love story' Prima 'The Romeo and Juliet of our generation' Gillian McAllister 'This book broke me in the best way. A heart wrenching portrait . . . It feels a bit like if One Day had been written by Sally Rooney' 5***** READER REVIEW 'Stunning. Written with such poignancy, full of nostalgia, unspoken longing and the agony of wrong turns' BETH MORREY 'A complex, beautiful, multilayered debut exploring love in all its forms' WOMAN'S WEEKLY 'I have a feeling that this will be one of my favourite books of 2021! I could not put it down, it's so, so good' 5***** READER REVIEW.
With one accusation, army officer Cassidy Matthews's name, reputation—and life—are on the line. A Special Forces soldier insists that Cassy's Fort Bragg-based unit is smuggling drugs. And the accuser? It's Cassy's handsome, stubborn ex-husband, Major Shane Logan. Shane knows Cassy is innocent, which is why he's sure she's being set up to take the fall. Proving it, though, means working together…and trying to ignore the feelings they still share. The closer they get—to the truth and each other—the more the danger grows from a ruthless criminal who'll stop at nothing to destroy them both.
FAITH, REDEMPTION, AND A LOVE STORY "Suddenly, the back door was thrown off its hinges as the SWAT team swarmed our house in a chaotic frenzy, rifles drawn. I sat in the front room with my baby, as I looked down the hallway at Billy already on the floor, and knew they were coming for me." What do you expect from life? A warm bed and food to eat? A safe space free from harm? For Jodie Ballenger, those expectations were never a given. Raised in abuse and neglect by her mother, who had been a prostitute, and a father who chose his new wife over her, Jodie learned quickly that her body was a vessel for others to use. Suffering mental, physical, and sexual abuse; abandonment; and neglect; she knew at a young age that she would need to learn to survive on her own. Jodie grew tough as nails, learning to fight with her fists and mouth. She started taking pills, smoking pot, and partying hard at the tender age of nine. She spent her young life running the streets - she moved along like a feather in the wind, with no anchor, while her mom looked the other way. When she met Billy in reform school, he was another boy in a string of boys she'd turned to for sex and comfort. But what she didn't know was how he would change her life. SWAT raid, pregnancies, running from the law, drive-by shootings, the death of her first true love, and a prison sentence... Could she find her way out and find happiness and most of all freedom? Join Jodie through her thrilling and heartbreaking story of agony and redemption and where a road that seems hopeless can lead to all you ever need. Meet the people along the way that gave them a hand up. And finally, rejoice with them when they arrived at their destinies founding the organization, Break the Grey, inspiring over 330,000 students across the United States and Canada to live and not die, helping them discover their personal value and worth. Who will this book help? This book will help people of all ages who deal with addiction (Jodie started smoking pot and popping pills at 9 years old and meth by 14). This book is for friends and loved ones of those dealing with addiction, those who believe they can't change their lives because of the horrific circumstances they may be trapped in. Issues like criminal families, substance abuse addictions, prostitution, gangs, violence, jail and prison, sexual and domestic abuse, sex trafficking, depression, suicidal thoughts, poverty and shame. This book will show the light in a very dark tunnel, give a solution to escape to the other side of that tunnel and find your destinies. It will change lives forever, inspiring them to find hope, change, and restoration. This book may save your life or the lives of people you love and others. It's the lifeline you and your loved ones are looking for. Includes a quick start guide to help you heal.
On Dee Branch’s first date with Johnnie Oliver, a fourth-generation funeral director, she knew she was in for a unique relationship when he had to leave “for just a minute”—and he came back to the car with a corpse. Over twenty years later, Dee was still in love with her charming southern gentleman when he passed away suddenly in 2007. Determined to carry on Johnnie’s work, Dee earned her mortuary science degree, only to find herself no longer needed in the family business. So Dee crossed the racial divide in the most segregated industry in America and joined the staff of an African-American funeral home as a single white woman. In The Undertaker’s Wife, Oliver draws from her wealth of experience to provide candid and often hysterically funny advice on dying well and surviving the loss of those who have gone before. Her insights on the common ground of grief, survival, and the ever-present faithfulness of God (to all of us, regardless of our race, religious upbringing, or socio-economic background) will help readers prepare for one of life’s only certainties—and do it with wisdom, grace, and a healthy dose of joy.
Inspired by her transgender son, activist Jodie Patterson explores identity, gender, race, and authenticity to tell the real-life story of a family’s history and transformation. “A courageous and poetic testimony on family and the self, and the learning and unlearning we must do for those we love.”—Janet Mock In 2009, Jodie Patterson, mother of five and beauty entrepreneur, has her world turned upside down when her determined toddler, Penelope, reveals, “Mama, I’m not a girl. I am a boy.” The Pattersons are a tribe of unapologetic Black matriarchs, scholars, financiers, Southern activists, artists, musicians, and disruptors, but with Penelope’s revelation, Jodie realizes her existing definition of family isn’t wide enough for her child’s needs. In The Bold World, we witness Patterson reshaping her own attitudes, beliefs, and biases, learning from her children, and a whole new community, how to meet the needs of her transgender son. In doing so, she opens the minds of those who raised and fortified her, all the while challenging cultural norms and gender expectations. Patterson finds that the fight for racial equality in which her ancestors were so prominent helped pave the way for the current gender revolution. From Georgia to South Carolina, Ghana to Brooklyn, Patterson learns to remove the division between me and you, us and them, straight and queer—and she reminds us to celebrate her uncle Gil Scott Heron’s prophecy that the revolution will not be televised. It will happen deeply, unequivocally, inside each and every one of us. Transition, we learn, doesn’t just belong to the transgender person. Transition, for the sake of knowing more and becoming more, is the responsibility of and gift to all. The Bold World is the result, an intimate and exquisite story of authenticity, courage, and love. Praise for The Bold World “In The Bold World, Jodie Patterson makes a case for respecting everyone’s gender identity by way of showing how she came to accept her son, Penelope. In tying that struggle to the struggle for race rights in this country during her own childhood, she paints a vivid picture of the permanent work of social justice.”—Andrew Solomon, bestselling author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree
Regrets. We all have them. Like the Aqua Net hairstyles back in the 80's, the 90's grunge fad, or the person you lost your virginity to as a teen because you were "totally in love." I have a few of my own. Specifically, marrying my rebound guy but staying married because I was too weak to fight for my own happiness. He took me down and kept me there for far too long. I'm done. Done living with regrets and done not pursuing what makes me happy. Then you came along and showed me that I was worth more than who I had become. You are not my regret.