Stephanie Michelakakis worked and sacrificed for her position as a Lieutenant in the Coalition. She was on track to become the first woman ever accepted into a Royal Guard, specifically King Jotham's Royal Guard. Then a life-altering injury shattered her dreams. Now she must figure out how to move on with her life. Nicholas Deffand was the youngest male ever named as the Captain of King Jotham's Royal Guard. He served and protected his King to the exclusion of everything else. But now he's found a woman who not only understood what his job entailed but his dedication to it as well. These two dedicated people never expected to find love. Will they be strong enough to make it work or will their relationship be another sacrifice they must make?
Cassandra Chamberlain always stood out. It was hard not to at 6’1” and 165 pounds with jet black hair and sapphire blue eyes. And if that wasn’t enough, she was also brilliant, having graduated from Harvard at 15, taught at MIT at 19 and been nominated for the prestigious Magellan Award at 25. But she’d never really fit in. Not with her peers, not with her contemporaries, only with her family. But everything changed when Earth was attacked. Cassandra and her niece, Victoria, were the only survivors. Suddenly, the smartest woman on the planet had to relearn everything. Everything she believed to be true was challenged and she had to learn to survive not only for herself but for Victoria because someone wanted them dead. Admiral William Zafar is the youngest Admiral ever in the Coalition of United Planets Fleet and the hero of the Battle of Fayal. At 7’1”, he’s 325 pounds of Carinian male in his prime who is feared and respected throughout the Fleet. He is a Royal from the House of Protection, carrying its birthmark and considers its King one of his oldest friends. But when the Regulians destroy a previously unknown planet leaving only two survivors, he found he was willing to risk everything to protect the woman he loves from the Regulians and the Carinian traitor who wants her dead.
Victoria Lynn Chamberlain at two, she was abducted by an alien race, the Regulians. At nine, her world literally exploded when the Regulians returned, destroying Earth. She and her aunt were the only survivors thanks to another alien race, the Carinians. Now she’s eighteen, a new graduate from their top medical school, and is ready to claim her life mate, Lucas. The handsome Carinian pilot that saved her all those years… cycles ago. Major Lucas Matthew Zafar was decorated pilot for the Coalition, who has worked hard for every promotion and earned every decoration, despite his father being High Admiral. Nine cycles ago, he crashed on an alien world and discovered his life mate, a nine-cycle girl with flame-red hair and sparkling, green eyes. She captivates everyone around her with her strength and determination. She is his world or will be once she grows up. When he’s injured in an explosion, he discovers that his wait is finally over for Victoria has more than grown up. Together they discover what it truly means to be life mates. That it is about doing what is best for the other even if it is not the best for you. That you have to do more than just love, you have to trust and be willing to sacrifice the things you never thought you would. Moreover, if you are lucky, and the ancestors are watching over you, you just might get everything you’ve ever dreamed of.
Jotham is King of the House of Protection. He was the youngest male ever to assume the position because of the sudden death of his father in Jotham’s twentieth cycle. In the forty cycles since becoming King, he married his life mate, Lata, and lost her in a transport accident. He had two sons and lost his youngest, Dadrian, due to his son’s own treachery. Now his first son, Barek, is interested in a woman and Jotham is going to find out everything about her that he can. Jacinda is from the House of Healing. She is the widow of an Assemblyman for the House of Protection. Stephan was her life mate even though he was twenty cycles older than her. His sudden death devastated her and if it weren’t for her three children, she isn’t sure she would have survived. In the cycles that have followed his death, she has learned to live with her loss and more importantly has learned that life can still be good. When Jotham summons Jacinda to the Palace, his only intent is for her to help him gather information on Amina, Jacinda’s great-niece. That plan goes out the window when Jacinda refuses. She challenges not only his right to interfere in Barek’s life, but questions how he's lived his own since Lata’s death. Two strong personalities come together after having loved and suffered the loss of that loved one. Can they find enough common ground and courage to chance a new love? Or are they destined to live the rest of their lives alone?
Take two American teen chefs, add one heaping cup of Paris, toss in a pinch of romance, and stir. . . . Rosie Radeke firmly believes that happiness can be found at the bottom of a mixing bowl. But she never expected that she, a random nobody from East Liberty, Ohio, would be accepted to celebrity chef Denis Laurent’s school in Paris, the most prestigious cooking program for teens in the entire world. Life in Paris, however, isn’t all cream puffs and crepes. Faced with a challenging curriculum and a nightmare professor, Rosie begins to doubt her dishes. Henry Yi grew up in his dad’s restaurant in Chicago, and his lifelong love affair with food landed him a coveted spot in Chef Laurent’s school. He quickly connects with Rosie, but academic pressure from home and his jealousy over Rosie’s growing friendship with gorgeous bad-boy baker Bodie Tal makes Henry lash out and push his dream girl away. Desperate to prove themselves, Rosie and Henry cook like never before while sparks fly between them. But as they reach their breaking points, they wonder whether they have what it takes to become real chefs. Perfect for lovers of Chopped Teen Tournament and Kids Baking Championship, as well as anyone who dreams of a romantic trip to France, Love à la Mode follows Rosie and Henry as they fall in love with food, with Paris, and ultimately, with each other.
In America's long march toward racial equality, small acts of courage by men and women whose names we don't recall have contributed mightily to our nation's struggle to achieve its own ideals. This moving book details the story of one such little-noted chapter. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, as Jackie Robinson changed the face of baseball, a group of African-American businessmen -- twelve at its peak -- changed the face of American business by being among the first black Americans to work at professional jobs in Corporate America and to target black consumers as a distinct market. The corporation was Pepsi-Cola, led by the charismatic and socially progressive Walter Mack, a visionary business leader. Though Mack was a guarded idealist, his consent for a campaign aimed at black consumers was primarily motivated by the pursuit of profits -- and the campaign succeeded, boosting Pepsi's earnings and market share. But America succeeded as well, as longstanding stereotypes were chipped away and African- Americans were recognized as both talented employees and valued customers. It was a significant step in our becoming a more inclusive society. On one level, The Real Pepsi Challenge, whose author is an editor and writer for The Wall Street Journal, is a straightforward business book about the birth of niche marketing. But, as we quickly learn, it is a truly inspirational story, recalling a time when we as a nation first learned to see the strength of our diversity. It is far more than a history of marketing in America; it is a key chapter in the social history of our nation. Until these men came along, typical advertisements depicted African-Americans as one-dimensional characters: Aunt Jemimas and Uncle Bens. But thereafter, Pepsi-Cola took a different approach, portraying American blacks for what they were increasingly becoming -- accomplished middle-class citizens. While such portrayals seem commonplace to us today, they were revolutionary in their time, and the men who brought them into existence risked day-to-day professional indignities parallel to those that Jackie Robinson suffered for breaking baseball's color line. As they crossed the country in the course of their jobs, they faced the cruelty of American racial attitudes. Jim Crow laws often limited where they could eat and sleep while on the road, and they faced resistance even within their own company. Yet these men succeeded as businessmen, and all went on to success in other professions as well, including medicine, journalism, education, and international diplomacy. Happily, six of these pioneers lived to tell their stories to the author. Their voices, full of pride, good humor, and sharp recollection, enrich these pages and give voice to the continuing American saga.
"Aloha" is at once the most significant and the most misunderstood word in the Indigenous Hawaiian lexicon. For K&257;naka Maoli people, the concept of "aloha" is a representation and articulation of their identity, despite its misappropriation and commandeering by non-Native audiences in the form of things like the "hula girl" of popular culture. Considering the way aloha is embodied, performed, and interpreted in Native Hawaiian literature, music, plays, dance, drag performance, and even ghost tours from the twentieth century to the present, Stephanie Nohelani Teves shows that misunderstanding of the concept by non-Native audiences has not prevented the K&257;naka Maoli from using it to create and empower community and articulate its distinct Indigenous meaning. While Native Hawaiian artists, activists, scholars, and other performers have labored to educate diverse publics about the complexity of Indigenous Hawaiian identity, ongoing acts of violence against Indigenous communities have undermined these efforts. In this multidisciplinary work, Teves argues that Indigenous peoples must continue to embrace the performance of their identities in the face of this violence in order to challenge settler-colonialism and its efforts to contain and commodify Hawaiian Indigeneity.
Underdogs, unite! Celebrated nonfiction author Melissa Stewart offers young readers a funny, informative look at some animal "underdogs" that have amazing means of survival. Pee-ew! Should the stinky, skunklike zorilla take a bath? And should the slowpoke Galápagos tortoise get a move on? Everyone knows "cool" animals like elephants and cheetahs, but you should meet these lesser-known creatures that have amazing, creative means of survival! Written with a lively, playful voice, this book introduces young readers to a variety of animal "underdogs" and explains how characteristics that might seem like weaknesses are critical for finding food and staying safe in an eat-or-be-eaten world. Along with her engaging animal facts, Stewart weaves in a gentle message of understanding and celebrating differences. Stephanie Laberis's bright, humorous, and scientifically accurate illustrations add to the fun.
In this critical look at contemporary higher education, Pasque argues that if a more thorough understanding of leaders' perspectives is not offered, then the dominant perspectives within academic discourse will continue to perpetuate the current ideas of higher education's relationship with society.
Attune, help, and recover: a structured developmental approach to behavioral challenges in children with disabilities. This book offers a comprehensive view of behavioral challenges for a child with autism or other special needs from a developmental perspective based on the DIRFloortime® framework. Parents and professionals are guided to understand and improve a child’s behavior while also supporting underlying developmental capacities for shared attention, warm engagement, trust, initiative, creative shared problem solving, symbolic and logical thinking, and the development of personal values. The approach is presented in three parts. Step-by-step, clinicians, caretakers, and educators will learn how to use the developmental approach to: 1. Understand the many variables involved in the behavior of a child with special needs, 2. Effectively respond to a challenging behavior in the moment with three key steps: attune, help, and recover 3. Create a long-term plan to support developmental and behavioral progress. When a child with a disability has a behavioral challenge, a clinician is confronted with the complexities of the child’s developmental strengths and vulnerabilities, individual differences, and his or her unique pattern of interactions in personal relationships. Keeping all the variables in mind, the developmental approach provides a plan that supports a child’s growth and deepens his or her capacity for perspective and care for others. The framework is based on universal developmental principles, which are effective regardless of the child’s particular age or disability. By recognizing a child’s developmental level of functioning, an adult can select strategies to effectively guide the child toward higher levels of relating, thinking and communicating. Through the process of compassionate attunement, and building on a child’s strengths, adults can optimistically chart a clear path to long-term success. A refreshing alternative to rewards-and consequences-based models of behavior management, the methods and practices in this book will empower any adult who interacts with a child with special needs, whether their work is directly focused on improving behavior, or because they must provide support so that the child can participate in other endeavors.
