Four sisters face new beginnings in this heartfelt modern take on Little Women by New York Times bestselling author Virginia Kantra. Amy March is more like her older sister Jo than she’d like to admit. An up-and-coming designer in New York’s competitive fashion industry, ambitious Amy is determined to get out of her sisters’ shadows and keep her distance from their North Carolina hometown. But when Jo’s wedding forces Amy home, she must face what she really wants…and confront the One Big Mistake that could upend her life and forever change her relationship with Jo. Gentle, unassuming Beth grew up as the good girl of the family. A talented singer-songwriter, she’s overcome her painful anxiety to tour with country superstar Colt Henderson. But life on the road has taken its toll on her health and their relationship. Maybe a break to attend her sister’s wedding will get her out of her funk. But Beth realizes that what she’s looking for and what she needs are two very different things.… With the March women reunited, this time with growing careers and families, they must once again learn to lean on one another as they juggle the changes coming their way.
Originally published in 1984, Reading the Romance challenges popular (and often demeaning) myths about why romantic fiction, one of publishing's most lucrative categories, captivates millions of women readers. Among those who have disparaged romance reading are feminists, literary critics, and theorists of mass culture. They claim that romances enforce the woman reader's dependence on men and acceptance of the repressive ideology purveyed by popular culture. Radway questions such claims, arguing that critical attention "must shift from the text itself, taken in isolation, to the complex social event of reading." She examines that event, from the complicated business of publishing and distribution to the individual reader's engagement with the text. Radway's provocative approach combines reader-response criticism with anthropology and feminist psychology. Asking readers themselves to explore their reading motives, habits, and rewards, she conducted interviews in a midwestern town with forty-two romance readers whom she met through Dorothy Evans, a chain bookstore employee who has earned a reputation as an expert on romantic fiction. Evans defends her customers' choice of entertainment; reading romances, she tells Radway, is no more harmful than watching sports on television. "We read books so we won't cry" is the poignant explanation one woman offers for her reading habit. Indeed, Radway found that while the women she studied devote themselves to nurturing their families, these wives and mothers receive insufficient devotion or nurturance in return. In romances the women find not only escape from the demanding and often tiresome routines of their lives but also a hero who supplies the tenderness and admiring attention that they have learned not to expect. The heroines admired by Radway's group defy the expected stereotypes; they are strong, independent, and intelligent. That such characters often find themselves to be victims of male aggression and almost always resign themselves to accepting conventional roles in life has less to do, Radway argues, with the women readers' fantasies and choices than with their need to deal with a fear of masculine dominance. These romance readers resent not only the limited choices in their own lives but the patronizing atitude that men especially express toward their reading tastes. In fact, women read romances both to protest and to escape temporarily the narrowly defined role prescribed for them by a patriarchal culture. Paradoxically, the books that they read make conventional roles for women seem desirable. It is this complex relationship between culture, text, and woman reader that Radway urges feminists to address. Romance readers, she argues, should be encouraged to deliver their protests in the arena of actual social relations rather than to act them out in the solitude of the imagination. In a new introduction, Janice Radway places the book within the context of current scholarship and offers both an explanation and critique of the study's limitations.
Christian women don’t have to choose between being sexual and spiritual. They have legitimate longings that the church has been afraid to talk about, and books like Fifty Shades of Grey exploit and distort them. We need the truth on the matter. Whether you are single or married, sexually dead or just looking to revive your sex life, Pulling Back the Shades will address your desire to be both sexual and spiritual. With solid biblical teaching and transparent stories, trusted authors Dannah Gresh and Dr. Juli Slattery offer an unflinching look at the most personal questions women ask. The book offers practical advice for women to address five core longings: to be cherished by a man to be protected by a strong man to rescue a man to be sexually alive to escape reality God designed women with these longings and has a plan to satisfy them. It’s time for women to identify their intimate longings and God-honoring ways to fulfill them.
Dr Nandita Rai is the gynaecologist for the stars. She is on TV and radio every other week talking about women 's issues. She is a South Mumbai feminist. Every woman wants her to be their doctor. Until the Mumbai Police raid her clinic when they get a complaint that she does sex selective abortions. Is the celebrity doctor aborting female fetuses? If she is, then the police need to build a watertight case. Dr Rai has friends in high places, her patients clam up and her paperwork is clean. The case seems to be going nowhere until Sub-inspector Reshma Gabuji begins to dig up Dr Rai 's secret online presence and uncovers a ruthless vigilante group.
Originally published in 1898, this work contains some valuable advice for young women. The author brilliantly explains the truths of life to a girl entering puberty. Moreover, there are tips for behavior, education, and friendships. Some suggestions in the book might seem outdated, but most of them are timeless and helpful.
The heart-stopping third installment in the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, which Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Hollow City, called "a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love." With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn't know if the rebels, her friends, or even Adam are alive. But that won't keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. The same person who saved her life. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world . . . but that's not all he wants with her. The Shatter Me series is perfect for fans who crave action-packed young adult novels with tantalizing romance like Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Legend by Marie Lu. Tahereh Mafi has created a captivating and original story that combines the best of dystopian and paranormal and was praised by Publishers Weekly as "a gripping read from an author who's not afraid to take risks." Don’t miss Defy Me, the shocking fifth book in the Shatter Me series!
She's on the run from the law. He is the law. I'm Shay O'Brien. My life is a hot mess, but I have a plan: Adopt an alias-check Hideout in Bumfuque-check Marry the hot-but-grumpy local sheriff-oh, crap. I didn't know! I didn't know he was the sheriff. He didn't know I was a fugitive. My hot mess just got hella hotter. Welcome to Rattlesnake Canyon, a sleepy western town where nothing is as it seems. Bizarre, quirky, outlandish, and those are just the townsfolk! A shifter rom-com fake marriage romance. THIS BOOK IS INTENDED FOR ADULTS ONLY. This is a steamy paranormal shifter fantasy romance series with an HEA and no cliffhangers. Fans of Zoe Chant, Terry Bolryder, K.F. Breene and T.S. Joyce may like this shapeshifter series.
You might think the problem would be waking up in Vegas, hungover, next to a beautiful woman who's wearing your boxer briefs and finding out ya married her in the middle of an epic drunken night of festivities. But you'd be wrong. I, Nolan Cassidy, international charmer and maker of mischief have fallen head over heels for Cora Delaney. I want to be married to the lass. So you might think the problem would be that she wants an annulment. But again you'd be wrong-stop getting it so wrong. I, Nolan Cassidy, with my devil tongue and Irish accent, will no doubt change her mind. Does the problem lie in that she has a son who doesn't like me and is as clever and crafty as I? Or that I've only got one month-until St. Patrick's Day-to prove to my one true love that I can be a good husband and father? C'mere and I'll tell ya... None of that is the problem. I'm a problem. My boxing days may be behind me but the fight never left me. When I see something I want, I get it. And nothing is going to stand in my way. Not my new wife's hesitation nor her son's doubts. So buckle up, strap in. Because I'm no longer in the business of wanting. I'm in the business of having. Which is gonna make for one wild Paddy's Day.
Long before clinch covers and bodice rippers, romance novels had a bad reputation as the lowbrow lit of desperate housewives and hopeless spinsters. But why were these books-the escape and entertainment of choice for millions of women-singled out for scorn and shame? Dangerous Books for Girls examines the secret history of the genre's bad reputation-from the "damned mob of scribbling women" in the nineteenth century to the sexy mass-market paperbacks of the twentieth century-and shows how romance novels have inspired and empowered generations of women to dream big, refuse to settle, and believe they're worth it. For every woman who has ever hidden the cover of a romance-and every woman who has been curious about those "Fabio books"-Dangerous Books For Girls shows why there's no room for guilt when reading for pleasure.
