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Part memoir, part cultural exploration, this book covers the author’s journey as she grows up in an evangelical Christian home, leaves religion behind as a young adult, and goes on to raise children in a family outside of religious belief. Maria Polonchek weaves a personal story with up-to-date studies and philosophic exploration of what it means to raise secular children in an otherwise religious world. Offering careful and respectful advice for other parents who are raising their children outside of a particular religious belief system, she explores the many other ways of instilling identity, belonging, and meaning into our lives and the lives of children. Honest and irreverent, the author admits to her religious “baggage” and searches for better understanding of such topics as religious education, morality, awe, death, purpose, and meaning, and tradition from secular perspectives. She interviews experts, looks at various studies, and turns to a variety of sources for answers, while maintaining a casual and personal tone. While she ultimately argues for parents to let their children shape their own beliefs, she encourages families to tend to existential and social needs that sometimes go unnoticed or unconsidered in life outside religion.

Silvia Pond thought that she could make Neil Remus fall in love with her three years into their marriage. Yet, all she got were photos of him having sex with her twin sister!Silvia eventually gave up on him and decided to free herself from their marriage. However, when Silvia passed Neil the divorce agreement, he tore it up right in front and threatened her. “You want a divorce? Over my dead body!”Silvia only felt indifferent when she saw his enraged expression. “You can only choose one. It’s either me or Ada.”In the end, Neil chose Ada. But when he lost Silvia for good, he finally realized that he had fallen in love with her a long time ago.

Auri Meadows, 19, was waiting for the day her mate would reject her. After an attack on her pack, she had been left blind and scarred. With how she looked, she knew no one would want her and she would be free to live out the secret life she had built. But Alpha Logan wasn’t about to let his mate go. Not after all the years he had searched for her. But as her secrets are revealed, their mate bond continues to be tested and leaves both of them wondering if the Moon Goddess turned their back on them.

Stephanie Drew's life is a mess. I. Her stepmother and stepsister have been trying to sabotage her life for years. II. Navigating her university life, she also has to sell adult products to support herself financially. III. Out of nowhere, she finds out she has a fiancé, the icy-cold Daniel. IV. Oh wait, there’s more - Daniel has an uncle, Denver - the polar opposite of his nephew, an even bigger pain in the ass. "What's wrong with you, Denver, she's my fiancée." "Oh dear nephew, remember, things that I marked are off-limits to others!" "'Remember' my ass!" Stephanie sneers at the two of them. "I’m a person, not an object."

She’s the one who got away, but now that this cowboy’s home for Christmas, does he have a second chance with his first love? After years in special forces, soldier Rohan Telford has exchanged his helmet and flak jacket for his Stetson and heads home to Marietta, Montana to try to regain his place working his family’s thriving cattle ranch. He has one final task to carry out for his fallen team leader. Unfortunately, it involves facing the woman he loved but left. Rohan’s never forgotten Ginny, but she’s never forgiven him. Following the death of her father, single mother and teacher Virginia ‘Ginny’ Lane has never felt less like celebrating the holidays. Still grieving, she’s determined to fulfill her father’s legacy and corral local volunteers to help her open the Harry’s House Annex, a teen center. She’s short on Christmas spirit and that’s before her ex–high school sweetheart Rohan Telford saunters up like twelve years and a messy break up never happened. Virginia only remembers the bad, but Rohan’s determined to remind her of how good they still are.

A choice between bearing an Alpha's child and gaining her liberty or death? Navigating the harsh criminal underworld is no easy task, especially for women. Mira, an unwanted omega born from an Alpha's mistress, has experienced this reality firsthand.Deemed worthless, Mira is sold to the merciless Russian Alpha, Mikhail Popov, who subjects her to unimaginable cruelty. Forsaken by her family, Mira faces a life of suffering and violence under Popov's control.But Mira has a plan. On a fateful night, she seizes the opportunity to escape, taking with her secrets that could destroy Popov. Mira believes she has found freedom, but instead, she stumbles into the lair of Alpha Nikolaos Ioannides, a Greek Alpha with an even darker reputation.As a brutal pack war rages around them, Mira's options grow scarce. However, Alpha Nikolaos makes her an offer: her freedom and independence in exchange for one thing – giving him an Alpha heir.Mira is left with a crucial decision: is she willing to bear a child for the fearsome Alpha in exchange for her freedom? And perhaps more importantly, will she even have a choice?***“You want to breed me?”He winces at the term, but nods.“Yes. I need an Alpha heir but in my position, I don't have time to go out looking for a mate nor do I want a Luna.”Mate; the one thing every wolf wants but no one seems to have. The Mate Bond is so obscure that many wolves have decided not to chase after it anymore.Would I even still be fertile after all the abuse I've suffered? What tests did the doctor run that she concluded I was fit to bear an Alpha's pup?***Side Stories Included:Beta's Runaway Bride - CompletedBITTERSWEET: The Gamma's Stories - Ongoing

"You are mine, Princess. For the next two months, I own this body and you will not give it out to any other man. I own every fucking inch of this body." Dante trailed her boob with the flogger. * Mireille had been a good girl all her life, sheltered by her protective brother until he goes on a three months travel. Mireille has to stay with his best friend whom she last saw in highschool. Mireille thinks she would finally be free from her brother's protectiveness but she turns out to be wrong as her brother's best friend is a worse version of her brother... Protective and possessive. Mireille wants to hate him but it seems to be impossible to hate a man as hot as Dante Romano. Hot, sexy and a billionaire mafia boss, Dante wants to make Mireille nothing more than his best friend's sister but it seems impossible with the heat that runs through their bodies with their every contact. She is his innocent princess and she is supposed to remain so but when lust pulls her close, she becomes his woman, his possession, the Bad Boy's Princess. But there are many more secrets lurking around, secrets insistent on pulling Mireille out of her innocent lifestyle. Note: This book contains mature scenes including violent scenes and plenty of explicit sexual scenes.

One long wedding reception. One impatient bride. One smitten groom. And one honeymoon in paradise… if they don't kill each other first. Keely McKay Donohue is enduring the longest wedding reception of her life: her own. The only saving grace is afterward she’ll have two weeks alone with her new husband. But rather than agreeing to a quickie to officially consummate their marriage, Jack is adamant they hold off until reaching their honeymoon destination. Jack believes his wait-for-the-honeymoon plan is romantic, until he realizes it’s only put Keely in a fighting mood. If he wants to get back on his temperamental bride’s good side, he’d better find a way to sweep his cowgirl off her boots. Fast.

From International bestselling author R.G. Angel comes a new STANDALONE New-Adult college romance series Poppy: Once, I walked the halls of privilege, but in a heartbeat, I watched my world crumble. Now, as I stand at the threshold of Silverbrook University, I'm armed with nothing but a scholarship and a determination to reclaim a semblance of my former life. But fate has a cruel sense of humor. Ethan Hawthorne, the golden boy of my former elite world and my ex-rival, is here. His every smirk is a reminder that the past is not easily outrun. Ethan: At Silverbrook, I'm the guy with the world at his feet—star athlete, heir to a legacy, the guy who always wins. But Poppy? She was the one challenge I never conquered, the one competitor who never played by my rules. Her return in my life is a curveball I never saw coming. She's changed, hardened by life's twists, and now she captivates me more than ever. Our history wasn't just competition; it was a clash of hearts and egos. Now, the rules have changed. I'm not just out to win a petty game. This time, I'm playing for her heart. In the elite corridors of Silverbrook University , a tale of passion, redemption, and undeniable attraction unfolds. Poppy and Ethan, bound by their tumultuous past, are caught in a dance of denial and desire. Can an alpha athlete truly humble himself for love? And can a strong-willed girl find forgiveness in her heart? Dive into a steamy saga of love, scars, and second chances.

The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells is the first biography of one of the “lost ladies” of detective fiction who wrote more than eighty mysteries and hundreds of other works between the 1890s and the 1940s. Carolyn Wells (1862–1942) excelled at writing country house and locked-room mysteries for a decade before Agatha Christie entered the scene. In the 1920s, when she was churning out three or more books annually, she was dubbed “about the biggest thing in mystery novels in the US.” On top of that, Wells wielded her pen in just about every literary genre, producing several immensely popular children’s books and young adult novels; beloved anthologies; and countless stories, prose, and poetry for magazines such as Thrilling Detective, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Harper’s, and The New Yorker. All told, Wells wrote over 180 books. Some were adapted into silent films, and some became bestsellers. Yet a hundred years later, she has been all but erased from literary history. Why? How? This investigation takes us on a journey to Rahway, New Jersey, where Wells was born and is buried; to New York City’s Upper West Side, where she spent her final twenty-five years; to the Library of Congress, where Carolyn’s world-class collection of rare books now resides; and to many other public and private collections where exciting discoveries unfolded. Part biography and part sleuthing narrative, The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells recovers the life and work of a brilliant writer who was considered one of the funniest, most talented women of her time.