The best bucking bulls are rank...and so are the cowboys who ride them.Cole grabbed my arm. "You don't need to do this. I got myself into this mess. I'll live with the consequences." I exhaled and slid Shae-Lynn's pink armband over my forearm. I kissed it, then did a prayer before climbing into the chute. "This isn't about you anymore. I got something to prove." Rodeo is all Billy Ryan and his brother Cole have ever known -- until one deadly wreck changes everything. With their mom requiring full-time care and Cole dealing with his own demons, Billy needs to step up to take care of his family. So he walks away from his future as a champion bull rider. Convincing himself he didn't quit because he lost his nerve... Barrel racer Shae-Lynn, the sweet good-girl-next-door, grew up with the boys on the rodeo circuit. She's the only person who knows Billy better than he knows himself. She could help him get back in the ring, but there's a limit to how many times she'll watch him make the same mistakes. Especially when it comes to her heart. When Cole's gambling debts get out of control and the bills at home pile up, Billy has no choice but to enter a winner takes all bull riding event. He needs Shae-Lynn by his side, but that isn't going to happen unless he figures out a way to cowboy up and prove he's good enough for a woman like her. Intense, emotional and complex, this is Friday Night Lights meets Nicholas Sparks' The Longest Ride... with edge! About the AuthorD.R. Graham is the author of Young Adult and New Adult novels for HarperCollins and Entangled Publishing. She worked as a social worker with at-risk youth for seven years before becoming a therapist in private practice. The clients she works with are children and teenagers and the novels she writes deal with issues relevant to young and new adults in love, transition, or crisis. She is also an award winning columnist for the Richmond News. She currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband. Views: 69
One of NPR's Best Books of 2015"Rifles through fear, identity, meaning, and cultural memory in forty-four short, surreal stories." —Vanity Fair"By turns moving, funny, and maddening....These stories are very much in the key of Donald Barthelme." —The New York Times Book Review"Somehow both grounded and absurd, each one of the stories trying get at that heart of the confusion and sadness at the core of contemporary life." —VICEFrom the highly acclaimed author of Edisto and The Interrogative Mood, Padgett Powell's new collection of stories, Cries for Help, Various, follows his mentor Donald Barthelme's advice that wacky mode" must break their hearts." The surrealistic and comical terrain of most of the forty-four stories here is grounded by a real preoccupation with longing, fear, work, loneliness, and cultural nostalgia. These universal concerns are given exhilarating life by way of... Views: 69
Charlotte ‘Charli’ Gilmore is a beautifully young talented aerial artist and newly graduated elementary schoolteacher. Roman Knight is a devastatingly handsome and compellingly charming businessman who owns the chateau Charli’s troupe is performing at. And from the moment Roman lays eyes on Charli, he wants her. Unknowingly, a twisted web of deceit and manipulation follows Charli. Views: 69
This funny, candid memoir about the author's intern year at a New York hospital provides a scorchingly frank look at how doctors are made, taking readers into the critical care unit to see one burgeoning physician's journey from ineptitude to competence.After his professional baseball career failed to launch, Matt McCarthy went to Harvard Medical School and on to a coveted residency slot in New York. But when he almost lost a patient on his first day after making what he believed to be a terrible error, he found himself facing the harsh reality of a new doctor's life--one in which even overachievers find themselves humbled, and in which med school training has little to offer in navigating the emotional rollercoaster of dealing with actual patients. Luckily for McCarthy, his second-year-resident adviser (whom he calls "Baio", owing to a resemblance to a Charles in Charge-era Scott Baio) was an offbeat genius, with a knack for breaking down the complicated... Views: 69
Stone. Rhinoceros shifter. Bounty hunter, personal trainer and fighter – shifter of many talents. 32. Stone feels blessed. He isn’t the handsomest shifter out there or the smartest, and he definitely isn’t rich - but he’s one lucky son of a rhino. He loves his jobs and when it comes to the ladies, well, you know, he only has to smile and they swoon. Things just get better when he meets a certain flamingo shifter with the prettiest smile and the sweetest curves he’s ever seen. Course, things aren’t exactly straightforward and after a mountain lion shifter – currently stalking him - scares his flamingo away, he fears he may have lost her. Francine Sweeting. Flamingo shifter. Actress, or at least she tries. 30.After an audition goes slightly wrong – there was some light stabbing and damage to property – Francine finds herself under arrest for attempted murder before her flamingo can even squawk ‘not guilty’. And trying to take her mind off her predicament with a sexy rhino shifter doesn’t exactly go to plan. Can Stone find his flamingo and get her out of trouble before Francine finds herself facing the best years of her life in an orange jumpsuit? Warning: this novella contains swearing, as well as scenes of a sexual nature with m/f interaction and is intended for mature readers. Views: 69
He was the geek. She was the homecoming queen.Now he's the only one who can help her... Meredith Sanders was the golden girl in high school-a homecoming queen with a trail of worshipping minions. Now she's all grown up with a trail of failed marriages. The only good thing she has in her life is her brilliant and beautiful teenaged step-daughter...who's missing. But the best man for the job has a serious hate-on for her.Back in high school, queen bee Meredith made Travis Brennan's life miserable. Since then, he's gone from class geek to a hardened, former SEAL, specializing in private security. As much as he wants to help Meredith's step-daughter, he can't help but clash with the gorgeous woman who once made his life hell.But as they investigate the increasingly mysterious disappearance, their conflicted past threatens to turn into a very provocative present... Views: 69
The captivating story of Nora and Kettle continues in Hiro and Kite, the second installment in the award-winning Paper Stars historical fiction series by Lauren Nicole Taylor.We offer our wounds and scars. Understanding that is part of what makes us beautiful.Nora finally has her beloved sister Frankie back, but that's just the beginning of their struggles. She must now become Kite—a stronger, more independent version of herself—a king and a guardian.Kettle has Kite's heart. But something holds him back; a feeling that he doesn't deserve good things. It's a looming shadow that threatens to separate them. Kettle must accept that he is also Hiro: a Japanese American with every right to happiness and freedom.Hiro loves Kite—but Kite won't wait forever for him to tell her. And now they're standing on icy ground. The leverage they had on Kite's abusive father has wavered, and life on the street is... Views: 69
