Sean Alcott is pulled from the gutter when an undercover operation goes wrong. His next assignment involves infiltrating a crime family run by fearsome matriarch Aileen Molloy. He immerses himself in his new life and eventually falls for Aileen’s daughter Wren but everything changes when the body of a biker cop is found dumped outside a police station with a list of undercover officers nailed to its forehead. Alcott’s name is on the list. Yet for Alcott, who has found purpose behind the mask, there is something far worse awaiting him than his possible death, something involving his lover’s own masks and secrets.
Zoe Morgan's childhood was marked by her younger sister's tragic illness. When Zoe falls in love and has her own child, she is determined to be a perfect mother as well. But before long, old scars long dormant begin to pull Zoe to the edge of an abyss too terrifying to contemplate
Synopsis: Bill Blakley creates Donovan, an Artificial Intelligence nightmare and Vera, a robotess vixen. In doing so, he becomes a man obsessed with control and sex! But his 45 year old demons fight for total annihilation of not only Bill, but the world as he knew it. The first part of the book is about Bill’s past, and his new flat in Tromso Norway. The plot thickens as former friends attempt to shine light on his inner darkness. But Bill, despite his laptop program called Donovan, falls in love with Vera, the robot he created. As his feelings towards Vera turns into a possible first fertilization by a male to a robot, Bill receives an awakening of the supernatural. Thus, near the end of the story, he almost looses all and has to reshape his mind and body in the process. The moral of the story is that humanity is gearing itself towards total reclusion. Bill is a symbol of this and what every man from Generations X and Y are debating concerning the fate of male-female reproduction.
This book explores the contested place of metaphysics since Kant and Hegel, arguing for a renewed metaphysical thinking about the intimate strangeness of being.
In her deeply affecting, vividly written memoir, Rosemary L. Bray describes with remarkable frankness growing up poor in Chicago in the 1960s, and her childhood shaped by welfare, the Roman Catholic Church, and the civil rights movement. Bray writes poignantly of her lasting dread of the cold and the dark that characterized her years of poverty; of her mother's extraordinary strength and resourcefulness; and of the system that miraculously enabled her mother to scrape together enough to keep the children fed and clothed. Bray's parents, held together by their ambitions for their children and painfully divided by their poverty, punctuate young Rosemary's nights with their violent fights and define her days with their struggles. This powerful, ultimately inspiring book is a moving testimony of the history Bray overcame, and the racial obstacles she continues to see in her children's way.
This is an historical fantasy set in 1555 on the Island of St Thomas in the USVI. A privateer named the Red Grouse, captained by a Captain Douglas Murphy intercepted a Portuguese merchant ship. They sunk the vessel and took on board two hostages, which consisted of an Arabian merchant and his daughter. Later they entered, what is now known as the American Virgin Islands. As they past Secret Harbor they become the victims of a surprise attack by a French galleon, captained by a Captain Jacques de-Sores and the Grouse sank. Despite this, twelve year old Tom, the captains cabin boy and one of the hostages, named Mayya the Arabian merchant's daughter, also twelve, managed to escape being drowned. They were marooned on the Island, now known as St Thomas. Their journey through this Island introduced them to both the good and the bad elements of the island. Their human weaknesses and frailties were tested and they learnt life's cruel lesson about pain and separation. On their journey they became embroiled in a struggle between good and evil, the dominance of evil and the advantages of the collective good. In the story, the manifestation of evil was Mowang, the king of devils and his pet Weiju. The good were materialized in the Tutus fairy-like beings, the Black Witch Lisa, the Ceboney girl Arawa and others. Mowang lived in a cave overlooking Brewer's beach, where it still is to this day. Many places are named after the heroes and heroines in this book. This story is a mythological story about the Island of St Thomas in the USVI. Ironically the loss of the great evil resulted in the disappearance of the great good. The Ceboney and Arawa people no longer live there, they are all gone now. Gone too, are the ancient mystical creatures, only their names exist, like some epitaph to those who lived in those long lost forgotten times.
All three books in the #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling Dark Artifices trilogy are now available together in a collectible hardcover boxed set. The Dark Artifices is a sequel series to the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series. Emma Carstairs is a Shadowhunter—the best in her generation. Together with her best friend and parabatai Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of Los Angeles, where faeries—the most powerful of supernatural creatures—teeter on the edge of open war with Shadowhunters. But when bodies of murdered humans and faeries continue to turn up, Emma and Julian must strike an uneasy alliance with their supposed enemies in order to find the killer. Meanwhile, an extremist faction of Shadowhunters called the Cohort will do anything to seize power and turn Shadowhunters against Downworlders once and for all. Emma, Julian, and their friends must embark on a series of quests from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica, and deep into the realms of Faerie and beyond in order to save the Shadow World as they know it—even as a deadly and ancient curse threatens to destroy them and everyone they love. This beautifully packaged boxed set includes: Lady Midnight Lord of Shadows Queen of Air and Darkness
The Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication examines the multifunctional ways in which seemingly productive communication can be destructive—and vice versa—and explores the many ways in which dysfunctional interpersonal communication operates across a variety of personal relationship contexts. This second edition of Brian Spitzberg and William Cupach’s classic volume presents new chapters and topics, along with updates of several chapters in the earlier edition, all in the context of surveying the scholarly landscape for new and important avenues of investigation. Offering much new content, this volume features internationally renowned scholars addressing such compelling topics as uncertainty and secrecy in relationships; the role of negotiating self in cyberspace; criticism and complaints; teasing and bullying; infidelity and relational transgressions; revenge; and adolescent physical aggression toward parents. The chapters are organized thematically and offer a range of perspectives from both junior scholars and seasoned academics. By posing questions at the micro and macro levels, The Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication draws closer to a perspective in which the darker sides and brighter sides of human experience are better integrated in theory and research. Appropriate for scholars, practitioners, and students in communication, social psychology, sociology, counseling, conflict, personal relationships, and related areas, this book is also useful as a text in graduate courses on interpersonal communication, ethics, and other special topics.
Allie Kim’s fatal allergy to sunlight, XP, still confines her to the night. Now that she’s lost her best friend, Juliet, to an apparent suicide, the night has never felt darker—even with Rob at her side. Allie knows why Juliet killed herself: to escape the clutches of Garrett Tabor, whom Allie saw committing an unspeakable crime. Garrett is untouchable; the Tabors founded the world-famous XP clinic that keeps Allie and Rob alive and their small Minnesota town on the map. Allie can’t rest until Garrett is brought to justice. But her obsession jeopardizes everything she holds dear. Not even Parkour can distract her; nothing reminds her more that Juliet is gone. When Rob introduces Allie to the wildly dangerous sport of nighttime deep diving, Allie assumes he’s only trying to derail her investigation . . . until they uncover the terrible secret Garrett Tabor has hidden under Lake Superior.
