I started running at the age of 14 and soon the streets became my life. I was sexually abused and became consumed with drug addiction which ultimately led to me to stabbing my boyfriend 54 times in self-defense. I was facing the death penalty. As I stood up to face my charges the noise in the courtroom faded away and I felt detached as the judge read the charge of 2nd degree murder. I couldn't hear what the judge was saying because the blood was pounding in my head and my life was flashing before my eyes. I was asking myself how did I get to this point in my life, how did it get so out of control? The answer was simple but yet not so simple......
It only took one rowdy night with his brothers to flip Griffin's world upside down. One unlucky encounter saddled them with a family curse and the promise of doomed relationships. Word spread quickly, and rumors about that night made them the most eligible yet untouchable bachelors in Port Snow, Maine. Then Ren Winters, the new girl in town, crashed into his life. Her thirst for a fresh start gave Griffin hope that maybe, just maybe, he could have one, too. Everyone wishes for that second chance ... -- adapted from back cover
A former parole officer shines a bright light on a huge yet hidden part of our justice system through the intertwining stories of seven parolees striving to survive the chaos that awaits them after prison in this illuminating and dramatic book. Prompted by a dead-end retail job and a vague desire to increase the amount of justice in his hometown, Jason Hardy became a parole officer in New Orleans at the worst possible moment. Louisiana’s incarceration rates were the highest in the US and his department’s caseload had just been increased to 220 “offenders” per parole officer, whereas the national average is around 100. Almost immediately, he discovered that the biggest problem with our prison system is what we do—and don’t do—when people get out of prison. Deprived of social support and jobs, these former convicts are often worse off than when they first entered prison and Hardy dramatizes their dilemmas with empathy and grace. He’s given unique access to their lives and a growing recognition of their struggles and takes on his job with the hope that he can change people’s fates—but he quickly learns otherwise. The best Hardy and his colleagues can do is watch out for impending disaster and help clean up the mess left behind. But he finds that some of his charges can muster the miraculous power to save themselves. By following these heroes, he both stokes our hope and fuels our outrage by showing us how most offenders, even those with the best intentions, end up back in prison—or dead—because the system systematically fails them. Our focus should be, he argues, to give offenders the tools they need to re-enter society which is not only humane but also vastly cheaper for taxpayers. As immersive and dramatic as Evicted and as revelatory as The New Jim Crow, The Second Chance Club shows us how to solve the cruelest problems prisons create for offenders and society at large.
Evil and Greed are running amuck in the town of Middleville, Tennessee. Pregnant teenagers are missing and newborn babies are being sold to the highest bidder. A young boy unwillingly finds himself the target of two greedy men as he stubbles onto a plot to abduct teenage girls who have one thing in common they are all pregnant. It's daja vu for Jena Freemen who finds herself revisited by the very thing that led to her giving up her daughters twenty-six years agoB!seibab tekramkcal SECOND CHANCE is about another time and another chance for a daughter and a mother; for a young pregnant girl, who had been the victim of a kidnapping when she was three years old, only to find herself kidnapped again; and for a boy who had been at the wrong plance at the wrong time.
A fake relationship between a magic-less witch and a wolf shifter turns to more in the start of a bewitching new paranormal rom-com series. Magic-less witch Violet Maxwell wants nothing to do with alpha wolf shifter Lincoln Thorne—the man who broke her fragile, teenage heart. But when the two of them are forced by arcane Supernatural Laws to find mates, Violet and Lincoln agree to fake-date their way to a fake-mating in order to conjure themselves some time. The joke’s on them. When old feelings make a reappearance—along with Violet’s magic—they both realize there’s nothing fake about their feelings. But there are old secrets and looming threats that could snatch away their happily ever after, again. One thing’s for sure: magic doesn’t make dating and love any easier. In Not the Witch You Wed, April Asher brings all the hilarity and sweet, sexy moments you love in a romantic-comedy—plus a fun dose of magic—to this spell-binding new series about being sexy, single, and supernatural in New York City.
When Denise Roessle became a mother at 45, her long-held dream came true. She felt as if she were 19 again, the age at which she got pregnant out of wedlock and relinquished her newborn son for adoption. Suddenly, he was back - this stranger she had given birth to - and he wasn't just searching for his roots. Joshua was looking for a mom. Eager to embrace the second chance she had been granted, Denise leapt wholeheartedly into the role. "It's a BIG boy," she announced to her family and friends, setting free her twenty-six-year secret. But Joshua was not a boy. He was a grown man, with a history that fell far short of what she had envisioned for him when she'd been assured he would be "better off" without her. His adoptive parents had essentially given up on him at age thirteen, sending him away with only an eighth-grade education. He drifted through a series of institutions and group homes, and ultimately onto the New York City streets, where he fell into drugs and crime. When an early marriage failed, he and his young wife surrendered an infant and toddler to adoption. By the time Denise and her son reunited, he was in his second marriage to a teenaged runaway who was six months pregnant with their first child. Despite her disappointment and his obvious problems, Denise was determined to restore their severed bond and give him the unconditional love that had been lacking in her own childhood. At the same time, she struggled with her parents' adverse reaction to her reunion and their refusal to acknowledge their grandson's existence. The shameful event that they had worked so vigorously to bury was back to haunt them. They could not accept their daughter's happiness at having found her lost child. Still reeling in the overwhelming mix of joy and grief, gratitude and guilt triggered by reunion with her son, Denise received a letter from an aunt she never knew existed. Aunt Mabel revealed some startling information about Denise's mother, who had claimed to be an only child raised by a kindly couple after both her parents passed away. In truth, she was one of nine siblings tossed to the winds by their mother after the death of their father in 1929. As she got to know her new-found aunts, uncles and cousins, Denise became obsessed with understanding how her grandmother could desert her children and how her mother, who so clearly bore the scars of abandonment, could then force her own daughter to give up a child. A year into their reunion, after Josh's wife left him with their ten-month-old daughter, the rage that he had initially denied surfaced. Denise went from feeling like a new mom to the frustrated parent of an out-of-control teenager. In the face of his angry outbursts and threats to cut her off, she remained intent on "fixing" him, believing that, in time, she could heal his wounds. Once more, she put her own pain aside and stood by him as he married twice more and fathered another child. Only when Josh and Denise reached an impasse in year five, did she recognize how emotionally shutdown she had been since relinquishing her son - and how she had let her fear of losing him again hold her hostage. In the silence of their estrangement, she began the hard work that ultimately allowed her to resolve her own issues, reclaim the young woman she had left behind after surrendering what turned out to be her only child, and make peace with the past. She found acceptance and forgiveness for her mother, her son, and ultimately herself.
He was all business until he fell head over tool belt for the sexy, single mom. I’m not bitter that Savannah St. James rejected me in high school. It's her cluttered storefront I have a problem with. Still, it’s hard to stay mad at her when she’s more beautiful than I remember and her son keeps finding new ways to sneak over to my hardware store every chance he gets. While I admit he needs a male figure in his life, I’m the wrong guy for the job. Despite my reluctance, the little guy brings us together even as our pasts keep us apart. I’m falling deeper for this woman, and the more I get to know Savannah, the more I realize I may have misjudged her. Maybe we can get a second chance after all.
Gemma Lane built an empire. Not a small feat, considering her home as a teenager was a makeshift tent in a California junkyard. She's dedicated her life to turning pennies into millions. She has power, fortune and prestige. And she's leaving it all behind. Gemma is headed across the country in her best friend's Cadillac when a detour in Montana reunites her with old acquaintances and a man who hasn't changed. Easton Greer challenges her every word and tests her every limit because he doesn't believe she's really abandoned her riches. She ignores his snide remarks and muttered censure--until the day she's ready to return to the wild highway, and Easton taunts her to stay. She'll prove to him she's not just running back to her wealthy life, that she's more than her money. She'll unlock her guarded heart and hope that this time around, he'll treasure the key.
The epic conclusion to the Shadow Beast Shifters. I finally have the life I always dreamed of. So why does it taste like ash on my tongue? Growing up in Torma, the strongest of the shifter packs, I wanted nothing more than to find my true mate and live my best life. Of course, that dream existed before my father betrayed the pack and turned me into their punching bag. I'd all but given up, until a quirk of true mate genetics gifted me a true mate like no other. My childhood dreams were finally a reality. Funny how quickly dreams turn into nightmares. I'm being lied to, missing weeks and months of time. Someone messed with me and no matter how often I'm told to forget it and move on as Torin's mate, there's no way I can. Whoever did this to me should have known I'd pick at it until it bled. It's my nature after all. As I search out random growls, flutters in my chest, and a suspicion that there's so much more going on than I could even imagine, I sense that I'm racing against an unknown clock. I need to get to the bottom of this mystery. And when I figure out who stole my memories, they're going to wish they never messed with Mera Callahan. Game on. -If you like sexy, dark paranormal romances, with humor, steam, action, a tough heroine and an antihero, this is for you.
