Motivated and more determined than ever to beat the odds and finish school, 23-year-old Camilla Baxter finds out that her mother is diagnosed with cancer. Feeling obligated to her mother, she drops out of school to help take care of her. When she enrolled back into Kean University, she had lost her scholarship and is forced to pay her way through her last year. So she gets a job at Ladies' Oasis working for 32-year-old club owner, Troy Jones. Troy is instantly drawn in by Camilla’s initially soft but spunky personality. But it's the firecracker, "itchy trigger-finger" Camilla that he can’t live without. Troy, a club owner by day and a hitman by night, has some demons of his own that he needs to get rid of before he and Camilla can actually live the happy life that he has planned for them, but getting rid of these demons turns out to be his biggest downfall and it almost leads to him losing it all.
Troy and Camilla have been through a lot together as the self-titled Bonnie and Clyde. They continue to make enemy after enemy, when all they really want to do is be completely in love with each other. Being with Troy has caused Camilla to step out of her reserved personality and show all other females that she’s about that life and she plays no games when it comes to her man. Camilla has learned that everyone that smiles in your face isn’t your friend. Supreme’s secret obsession with Camilla has stirred up some jealousy within Kitty. After Supreme’s vicious attack on Camilla, she’s determined to get revenge. Once Supreme goes missing, Kitty already knows who had something to do with it and she will not stop until those who are responsible pay. Troy, completely in love with both sides of his sunshine, is willing to jump through all hoops for her and be by her side when shit goes down. He’s the first to pick up on Kitty’s deceitful vibes and does his best to warn Camilla to be careful around her. When Kitty starts to feel that Camilla and her gang are on to her ulterior motives, she expedites her plan that may get her revenge for Supreme once and for all. After Kitty and Keyonna’s sneak attack on Troy and Camilla, lives are left hanging in the balance. Who will survive this unforeseen attack? Will G-Ma have to dust off her gat for her BooBoo?
A slippery cat isn’t always a good thing. That is when it comes to the elusive Kitty. Once again, Kitty has managed to slip out of Camilla’s grasp. This time leaving two people, that Troy and Camilla love, fighting for their lives. Still not convinced that she has gotten her revenge for Supreme and with her partner in crime, Keyonna dead, Kitty manipulates herself a new partner who also has a score to settle with Troy and Camilla. What’s a Bonnie without her Clyde? While maintaining her home, running her daycare and finishing school, Camilla is out for blood on her one woman warpath. Convinced that the hospital has become her second home, she’s determined to protect all those she care about and take down all who has chosen to become an enemy. With her new sadistic ways of torture Camilla is proving why she’s not the one to mess with. Sometimes less is more even when it comes to family. With his family growing by the minute Troy mistakenly lets his guard down and is now forced to deal with the consequences. Troy has tried to leave the killing in the past but with his family always being a target shit might just have to get ugly one last time. Not feeling his wife acting like a lone ranger, Troy has made it his business to never be too far away. The love this duo have for each other and their family has been tested many times and has proved to be Bulletproof.
New Jersey: A History of the Garden State presents a fresh, comprehensive overview of New Jersey’s history from the prehistoric era to the present. The findings of archaeologists, political, social, and economic historians provide a new look at how the Garden State has evolved. The state has a rich Native American heritage and complex colonial history. It played a pivotal role in the American Revolution, early industrialization, and technological developments in transportation, including turnpikes, canals, and railroads. The nineteenth century saw major debates over slavery. While no Civil War battles were fought in New Jersey, most residents supported it while questioning the policies of the federal government. Next, the contributors turn to industry, urbanization, and the growth of shore communities. A destination for immigrants, New Jersey continued to be one of the most diverse states in the nation. Many of these changes created a host of social problems that reformers tried to minimize during the Progressive Era. Settlement houses were established, educational institutions grew, and utopian communities were founded. Most notably, women gained the right to vote in 1920. In the decades leading up to World War II, New Jersey benefited from back-to-work projects, but the rise of the local Ku Klux Klan and the German American Bund were sad episodes during this period. The story then moves to the rise of suburbs, the concomitant decline of the state’s cities, growing population density, and changing patterns of wealth. Deep-seated racial inequities led to urban unrest as well as political change, including such landmark legislation as the Mount Laurel decision. Today, immigration continues to shape the state, as does the tension between the needs of the suburbs, cities, and modest amounts of remaining farmland. Well-known personalities, such as Jonathan Edwards, George Washington, Woodrow Wilson, Dorothea Dix, Thomas Edison, Frank Hague, and Albert Einstein appear in the narrative. Contributors also mine new and existing sources to incorporate fully scholarship on women, minorities, and immigrants. All chapters are set in the context of the history of the United States as a whole, illustrating how New Jersey is often a bellwether for the nation..
Christmas delights... Claudia first met Thomas when he was asked to discuss the health of her great-uncle, Colonel Ramsay. After the colonel's death, Thomas always seemed to be around-and then, astonishingly, he proposed. It took a wonderfully delightful Christmas with his family for Claudia to realize that she truly loved her new husband. Now all she had to do was find a way to persuade Thomas to love her....
Discover the darker side of the Garden State with this anthology of gritty mystery stories. Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each volume is compromised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct location within the geographical area of the book. In New Jersey Noir, a star-studded cast of authors sifts through the hidden dirt of the Garden State. Featuring brand-new stories (and a few poems) by Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Safran Foer, Robert Pinsky, Edmund White & Michael Carroll, Richard Burgin, Pulitzer Prize–winner Paul Muldoon, Sheila Kohler, C.K. Williams, Gerald Stern, Lou Manfredo, S.A. Solomon, Bradford Morrow, Jonathan Santlofer, Jeffrey Ford, S.J. Rozan, Barry N. Malzberg & Bill Pronzini, Hirsh Sawhney, and Robert Arellano. Praise for New Jersey Noir “Oates’s introduction to Akashic’s noir volume dedicated to the Garden State, with its evocative definition of the genre, is alone worth the price of the book . . . Highlights include Lou Manfredo’s “Soul Anatomy,” in which a politically connected rookie cop is involved in a fatal shooting in Camden; S.J. Rozan’s “New Day Newark,” in which an elderly woman takes a stand against two drug-dealing gangs; and Jonathan Santlofer’s “Lola,” in which a struggling Hoboken artist finds his muse . . . . Poems by C.K. Williams, Paul Muldoon, and others—plus photos by Gerald Slota—enhance this distinguished entry.” —Publishers Weekly “It was inevitable that this fine noir series would reach New Jersey. It took longer than some readers might have wanted, but, oh boy, was it worth the wait . . . More than most of the entries in the series, this volume is about mood and atmosphere more than it is about plot and character . . . It should go without saying that regular readers of the noir series will seek this one out, but beyond that, the book also serves as a very good introduction to what is a popular but often misunderstood term and style of writing.” —Booklist, Starred Review “A lovingly collected assortment of tales and poems that range from the disturbing to the darkly humorous.” —Shelf Awareness
Someone Else's Love Story is beloved and highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Joshilyn Jackson's funny, charming, and poignant novel about science and miracles, secrets and truths, faith and forgiveness; about falling in love, and learning that things aren't always what they seem—or what we hope they will be. Shandi Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful three-year-old genius son Nathan, aka Natty Bumppo, and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced parents. She's got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up and falling in love with William Ashe, who willingly steps between the robber and her son. Shandi doesn't know that her blond god Thor has his own complications. When he looked down the barrel of that gun he believed it was destiny: It's been one year to the day since a tragic act of physics shattered his world. But William doesn't define destiny the way others do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in facts and numbers, destiny to him is about choice. Now, he and Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head on, making choices that will reveal unexpected truths about love, life, and the world they think they know.
I Love You as Big as Canada is the perfect addition to any baby's bookshelf! Adorable illustrations and clever rhymes highlight all the places that you and Baby love about your city, state, or country. Combining the evergreen message of love with regional touchpoints, each book features top landmarks for that specific location with all the snuggle-worthy sentiment that baby board books in this category provide.
A whimsical, moving novel about a retirement home for literary legends who spar, conjure up new stories, and almost magically change the lives of the people around them. Alfonse Carducci was a literary giant who lived his life to excess—lovers, alcohol, parties, and literary rivalries. But now he's come to the Bar Harbor Home for the Elderly to spend the remainder of his days among kindred spirits: the publishing industry's nearly gone but never forgotten greats. Only now, at the end of his life, does he comprehend the price of appeasing every desire, and the consequences of forsaking love to pursue greatness. For Alfonse has an unshakeable case of writer's block that distresses him much more than his precarious health. Set on the water in one of New England's most beautiful locales, the Bar Harbor Home was established specifically for elderly writers needing a place to live out their golden years—or final days—in understated luxury and surrounded by congenial literary company. A faithful staff of nurses and orderlies surround the writers, and are drawn into their orbit, as they are forced to reckon with their own life stories. Among them are Cecibel Bringer, a young woman who knows first-hand the cost of chasing excess. A terrible accident destroyed her face and her sister in a split-second decision that Cecibel can never forgive, though she has tried to forget. Living quietly as an orderly, refusing to risk again the cost of love, Cecibel never anticipated the impact of meeting her favorite writer, Alfonse Carducci—or the effect he would have on her existence. In Cecibel, Alfonse finds a muse who returns him to the passion he thought he lost. As the words flow from him, weaving a tale taken up by the other residents of the Pen, Cecibel is reawakened to the idea of love and forgiveness. As the edges between story and reality blur, a world within a world is created. It’s a place where the old are made young, the damaged are made whole, and anything is possible….
Lori, the heroine of this rousing narrative, is attempting to flee the hectic East Coast for a better life in the West. She is a child of the Seventies who feels misled by the rebellious "boomer" generation and disappointed with life in 1980s New Jersey. Spurred by the tale of her pioneering grandparents, who immigrated to Montana, and following her friend Madeleine, who has all the answers, Lori quits her job, loosens her ties, and sets off into a wild frontier. Lori's story is one of love for people and for places that are more mythic than real. Her pursuit is as painfully familiar as it is impossible: she seeks meaning in life while working dead-end jobs, falls in love with uninterested partners, and plans a future that seems doomed from the start. Somehow, though, she persists and ultimately finds her place as a twenty-first-century pioneer.
