[With Bonus Episode !] Including 4 special pages of additional story.To distract herself from the fact that she is now completely alone in the world, Vanessa takes a solo trip to Paris. But her beauty is so captivating that men begin to follow her around, trying to woo her! Soon a man named Markos, who is almost frighteningly handsome, notices and offers to become her bodyguard. Drunk on wine and Paris, the city of lights, Vanessa quickly falls in love. However, when she finds that Markos is one of the world's premier billionaires and he begins showering her with wealth, she begins to suspect things are not what they seem. "He thinks of me as nothing more than a high-class prostitute!"
A mistress is for pleasure, not for marriage... Tycoon Markos Makarios thinks he has the perfect woman in Vanessa: she's beautiful, adoring, living only to please him. In fact, she's the best mistress he's ever had. Until he has to warn her not to think of marriage; a mistress is only for pleasure, after all. But Vanessa had believed she was his partner--not merely a plaything. Now Markos is about to learn the true price of the woman he's obsessed with...and to discover there's something even his billions can't buy!
[With Bonus Episode !] Including 4 special pages of additional story.In the gardens of a baron's historic manor, Jo meets and falls for March, the gardener. But she's rich, and has always been worried men only want her for her money—that is, until she gets to know March. He sees her for her, and that's all. But one night during a quarrel, his true identity comes to light—he's the baron of the manor! But why would someone like him hide his identity and try to woo her? Is he just after her money after all?
Any woman who wants to marry can . . . once she learns how. Packed with tips, wisdom, and stories, Marriage Minded's A-to-Z format, warmth, and humor make it a fun and informative read for women looking to meet a partner and create a fulfilling marriage.
Very Special Episodes examines how the quintessential “very special episode” format became a primary way in which the television industry responded to and shaped social change, cultural traumas, and industrial transformations. With essays covering shows ranging from the birth of Desi Arnaz, Jr. on I Love Lucy to contemporary examples such as a delayed episode of Black-ish and the streaming-era phenomenon of the “Very Special Seasons” of UnReal and 13 Reasons Why, this collection seriously and critically uses the “very special episode” to chart the history of American television and its self-identified status as an arbiter of culture.
"Eerie and addictive. . . . Like Wuthering Heights, The Whispering House is a melancholy novel, its characters filled with dark longings." — The New York Times Book Review From the acclaimed author of The Orphan of Salt Winds It was like holding a couple of jigsaw pieces in my palm, knowing there was a whole picture to be made, if I could only find the rest. Freya Lyell is struggling to move on from her sister Stella’s death five years ago. Visiting the bewitching Byrne Hall, only a few miles from the scene of the tragedy, she discovers a portrait of Stella—a portrait she had no idea existed, in a house Stella never set foot in. Or so she thought. Driven to find out more about her sister’s secrets, Freya is drawn into the world of Byrne Hall and its owners: charismatic artist Cory and his sinister, watchful mother. But as Freya lingers in this mysterious, centuries-old house, her relationship with Cory crosses the line into obsession and the darkness behind the locked doors of the estate threatens to spill out. In prose as lush and atmospheric as Byrne Hall itself, Elizabeth Brooks weaves a simmering, propulsive tale of art, sisterhood, and all-consuming love: the ways it can lead us toward tenderness, nostalgia, and longing, as well as shocking acts of violence.
The path to marital happiness is different than you think. When our plans for marriage improvement begin with “If my husband would . . .” or “If, as a couple, we could . . .” we’re missing the secret. Despite her man’s flaws and failures, the Lord plans to bless a wife’s marriage through her husband. A Wife’s Secret to Happiness shares eleven powerful, practical blessings that God wants to pour into your lap like sweet spiritual confetti, and the wifestyle habits that will attract or reject this divine provision. No matter your title—from stay-at-home mom to business executive to ministry leader—you can celebrate God’s role for you as a wife and learn how to •Embrace vibrant marital roles without getting stuck in gender ruts •Reduce stress and busyness by building intimacy and strength •Boost love, support, and encouragement in your communication •Deepen your spousal connection so you won’t feel alone •Restore dreams for your life with your spouse Through thoughtful exploration of biblical promises, humorous hope-filled stories, and compelling testimonies, Jen shares how God empowers her life as a submissive millennial wife, and inspires readers to experience the same freedom.
Starting with Bad Behavior in the 1980s, Mary Gaitskill has been writing about gender relations with searing, even prophetic honesty. In This Is Pleasure, she considers our present moment through the lens of a particular #MeToo incident. The effervescent, well-dressed Quin, a successful book editor and fixture on the New York arts scene, has been accused of repeated unforgivable transgressions toward women in his orbit. But are they unforgivable? And who has the right to forgive him? To Quin’s friend Margot, the wrongdoing is less clear. Alternating Quin’s and Margot’s voices and perspectives, Gaitskill creates a nuanced tragicomedy, one that reveals her characters as whole persons—hurtful and hurting, infuriating and touching, and always deeply recognizable. Gaitskill has said that fiction is the only way that she could approach this subject because it is too emotionally faceted to treat in the more rational essay form. Her compliment to her characters—and to her readers—is that they are unvarnished and real. Her belief in our ability to understand them, even when we don’t always admire them, is a gesture of humanity from one of our greatest contemporary writers.
Most couples — because they watch so many of their peers divorce and are themselves the products of failed marriages — don't have many successful long-term-relationship role models. Parenting and communication issues are perennial, while some challenges, like increasingly 24-7 work lives and economic hardships, mark the current decade. Despite all this, psychotherapist and clinical social worker Marcia Naomi Berger asserts that most couples can make love last — they just need to learn how. Berger answers this need with a deceptively simple prescription: have an interruption-free thirty-minute (or even shorter) meeting each week and follow an agenda that includes the kind of appreciation and planning for fun that foster intimacy and pave the way for collaborative conflict resolution. Berger has refined these techniques while working with hundreds of couples — with results that are both practical and profound.
While observing exotic animal trainers for her acclaimed book Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched, journalist Amy Sutherland had an epiphany: What if she used these training techniques with the human animals in her own life–namely her dear husband, Scott? In this lively and perceptive book, Sutherland tells how she took the trainers’ lessons home. The next time her forgetful husband stomped through the house in search of his mislaid car keys, she asked herself, “What would a dolphin trainer do?” The answer was: nothing. Trainers reward the behavior they want and, just as important, ignore the behavior they don’t. Rather than appease her mate’s rising temper by joining in the search, or fuel his temper by nagging him to keep better track of his things in the first place, Sutherland kept her mouth shut and her eyes on the dishes she was washing. In short order, Scott found his keys and regained his cool. “I felt like I should throw him a mackerel,” she writes. In time, as she put more training principles into action, she noticed that she became more optimistic and less judgmental, and their twelve-year marriage was better than ever. What started as a goofy experiment had such good results that Sutherland began using the training techniques with all the people in her life, including her mother, her friends, her students, even the clerk at the post office. In the end, the biggest lesson she learned is that the only animal you can truly change is yourself. Full of fun facts, fascinating insights, hilarious anecdotes, and practical tips, What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage describes Sutherland’s Alice-in-Wonderland experience of stumbling into a world where cheetahs walk nicely on leashes and elephants paint with watercolors, and of leaving a new, improved Homo sapiens.
