That was where she met her friends, including Lucas Drake. Days of playing on the beach brought Lacey and Luke to be the best of friends.That changed when they sold their beach house. Lacey and Luke kept in touch until the age of fifteen when a dramatic last encounter ended their friendship. That same week, Lacey lost her mom.Before Lacey's mom passed away, she made her one promise - never to fall for Lucas Drake. Claiming that the Drake family was nothing but trouble. Lacey took her advice to heart, after all, she and Luke's parents had worked together for years and owned a pharmaceutical company together.Now at the age of twenty-two, Lacey returns to the Hamptons for a spring break away from pharmacy school. A night of partying lands her in the bed of her old friend Lucas, and he has no clue who she is. She thinks of it as a hilarious game of karma. Lucas, on the other hand, thinks he just found his dream girl.Once he learns the truth, he is hellbent to right his wrongs with her, but still holds back family secrets that could lead their rekindled friendship to implode.Can they just be friends or will it lead to Lacey breaking the only promise she ever made to her mom?That's only the beginning of their problems.

    How else is the adopted child whose birth parents run a drug cartel supposed to fit in? He's notorious for his overconfident swagger and total lack of patience for bullshit - a master of masks. The one thing in his life he can't fake? His feelings for his best friend's twin sister. When she returns back home after eight years of living in another city, Asher is ready to take their lifelong friendship to another level. Of course, life has rarely worked in his favor. Between the letters, his birth parents keep sending him, a run-in with an old enemy that's out for his blood, and his responsibility to protect his adoptive parents from his fucked up birth family, he would only be putting the woman he loves in danger. He may make his living as a fighter but this is one fight he's destined to lose. Right?Aria Hunter has gotten pretty good at faking it until you make it. After getting through an abusive relationship and fleeing to another city Aria is ready to return home years later. Everything has changed, including her relationship with her best friend. There's a constant magnetic pull between them and Aria feels their intense chemistry with every touch and look Asher steals from her. Gone is the once scrawny and irritable ten-year-old boy replaced by a cocky and assertive man that's way too hard to resist. But his looks aren't the only thing that changed about him. When Asher finds himself part of his birth parent's crowd once again, Aria knows this only means trouble. The more she fights to keep him safe, the harder it is to hide how she feels about him. Maybe their feelings for each other just aren't meant to be realized. After all, falling for your best friend is just a cliché. Right?

    So imagine her surprise when she has to go back with her pack to the place she ran from, the people she ran from. Her old pack…The pack that hated her and gave her nothing but hellBut Lux had changed in those two years; long gone was the chubby blond that never talked back and was replaced by a badass third command that doesn’t take shit from anyone and is in charge of training her wolves.But will Lux’s new personality be enough to keep her from getting hurt? Especially when she has to see the person who made her leave, Damon, her mate, the one who rejected her and the alpha of her old pack...

    What if this 'bet' story isn't cliche at all? Cameron and his four other best friends (also known as man-whores) have been betting each other to get with a girl, sleep with her, and break her heart. Unlike most guys thought, they aren't exactly sweethearts. They're deceiving boys who know how to do and say anything in order to win. What happens when Cameron has to make a bet where the girl must fall in love with him as well as sleep with him? She u knows the rules, the game, even the boys (one being her best friend). Cameron has until football camp to woo her, and win the eight hundred bucks from his friend. Will Rebecca fall for Cameron's trap?

    We're not talking lately.Don't you call her what you used to call me...A story in which a girl who writes songs falls in love with the boy who sings them."Color...What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams." - Paul Gauguin.

    "As in the Noli, we have in Ang Tundo Man a story of individuals in love, unfolded against a carefully authenticated social background in order to dramatize the contemporary national experience."

    Set against the turbulent history of East Asia in the twentieth century and by turns erotic and tragic, Magdalena vividly depicts three generations of strong Filipino women. Aimee Liu, author of Cloud Moutain Cecilia Manguerra Brainard s novel Magdalena takes its title from a protagonist descended from several generations of equally compelling female characters. . . Brainard uses a nonlinear narrative and multiple points of view to describe the history of the Philippines that roughly corresponds to its contact with the United States from the Spanish American War to the war in Vietnam. The novel brings into focus not only the romantic and social conflicts of different generations of women but also economic and racial divisions in the Philippines . . . Interspersed throughout the novel are archival photographs of places and people, photographs that remind the reader that while the characters are fictional, the backdrop is historical reality. Kathleen Flanagan, Longwood University, World Literature Today With her second novel, Magdalena, Cecilia Brainard adds new portraits to the gallery in Philippine literature. She has always had a strong sense of place. Here, she provides an inner landscape as well. Together, these provide the coordinates for the family secrets that bind the characters as securely as bloodlines. Linda Ty-Casper, author of The Stranded Whale In this novel, Brainard blends a series of multiple perspectives to create a polyphony of voices that enacts Philippine society before and during the Second World War. The narrative is a nuanced vision of the workings of culture, social class, obligation and the Filipino personality. Rocio G. Davis, author of Transcultural Reinventions: Asian American and Asian Canadian Short Story Cycles I have been looking for a good story about the war. N.V.M. Gonzalez, author of The Bread of Salt and Other Stories (upon reading Winning Hearts and Minds, one chapter of Magdalena.) About Brainard s first novel When the Rainbow Goddess Wept The strengthening of the national spirit; the loss of innocence in two generations these themes are explored by the author, who was born in the Philippines, with persuasive conviction and stark realism. (Publishers Weekly) A fast-paced, sensitively written first novel about the psychological damage war wreaks, seen through the eyes of an intelligent, resilient young girl ... Brainard s appealing characters are larger-than-life people who change before our eyes, yet remain utterly convincing. (Kirkus Review) "

    Mother, father and siblings included have all gone above and beyond the call of duty to try and get her hitched to a man. Just how far is Olivia willing to go to stop the incessant meddling? Will the strong independent woman that Olivia has come to be accept help when she needs it the most, when her own life is threatened and more importantly what will she do when something so much more fragile is put at risk, something like her heart?

    "Dude, you just got freaking stabbed! You're letting out more blood than a girl on her period! You are not going to be fine! I have to call the police. No wait, I have to call an ambulance! Oh my God, why didn't I think of that before? Stupid, Genevi-""Shut the fuck up!" he yelled, turning away. I wrung my hands together in panic, trying to calm myself down. "I can take care of this, kitten. Leave me alone. It's just a small wound. Not like I haven't been stabbed before." he muttered the last part."What?!""Leave." he growled. I stared at him, unable to close my mouth. I had never seen someone get stabbed before. Heck, I had never seen someone get into a fight before. Ever. The only violence I had experienced was in movies. It was unfortunate for me that I found out how I would react in a danger situation like this. And by react, I mean to completely flip the hell out.*LANGUAGE WARNING*

    There can’t be any mistakes. Staying under the radar is what keeps Amelia one step ahead of the man who is trying to find and destroy her.But when she’s befriended by a group of students who make her feel safe and loved, Amelia struggles to maintain her distance, especially when faced with her feelings for Aiden Parker, whose piercing gray eyes and strength weaken her resolve.When Aiden’s ex-girlfriend threatens Amelia in ways that make her easy to find, she has to act quickly. Feeling crushed by her desire for a normal life and not wanting to leave her friends behind, Amelia has an impossible choice to make between survival or the chance at real love.

    Meet Park Sparrow, a feisty, sarcastic, and reckless outcast who's just a small-town girl, living in a lonely world. With an attitude and personality that gets her in more trouble than anything, she's a wild splash of color in the otherwise monotone and regal life of the academy she attends. But there's more than meets the eye. Park isn't a random nobody in a town only famous for a school. Park Sparrow is the princess of Cimeria, and heir to one of the last remaining monarchies in the entire world. Unluckily for her, being an heir also means having a target painted on her back day and night. Park is determined to find out who's behind the attempts on her life. With the unlikely help of Logan Cross, a boy she's hated since the dawn of time, the two must learn how to put aside their differences and get along because Park is in grave danger.As they work together to put together the mystery of who wants Park's throne, they must face new complications and obstacles that will be much more difficult than just a school yard grudge.** This story is NOT edited. This is the original version of I'll Protect You (2013-2014)**

    The school Sydney Acosta moved to all the way from Toronto, Ontario at some barely known town that should actually be considered a city. After the divorce between her mother and father, she's stuck by her mother's side as a best friend, following her to another city in Canada. Her emotions are expressed through the one thing she loves doing. Dancing. Lucas Cahill is a quiet almost outcast in the school. His twin brother, Joseph-Joey with he likes to be called-is the best known guy in school. He's considered popular, cooler and better looking then his brother which is stupid because they have the same face. At school, Joey doesn't acknowledge his brother, at home and in the past they are inseparable with the excuses from Joey tolling up over time. His isolation and other emotions are expressed through his art. The two seventeen year olds are connected in their different forms of art. In a teenage world of sarcasm, drama and their arts. "My drawings are like stick figures compared to anything you draw. You could draw the world's ugliest frog and it will still turn out beautiful. Lucas you're an amazing artist." "So are you." He said quietly, looking up at me with his soft, heartwarming eyes. "How?"I couldn't draw for shit. "Because you are a dancer. Dancing is an art. And you are an amazing dancer."

    But having a crush on the school's bad boy who's ranked highest on the food chain while you're the nerd in the bottom of the food chain is a hundred times harder.Meet Rosaline Arlene Winnefred who's known as the school's 'nerd'. She's that girl who has no more than two friends, gets picked on by pretty much everyone, and locks herself up in her bedroom on a Saturday night reading cheesy romance novels. Not to mention she believes in fairy tales and has a hopeless crush on the school's bad boy. You get the picture?Axel Storm Spencer is the complete opposite of her. He's got that bad boy image that girls love so much. He's tough, violent, and feared by pretty much everyone.In a turn of events, the two get thrown into different messes together. Everything from wild parties, Halloween dances, to discipline referrals and revenge. Her crush might not be so hopeless after all..."After all, it was just a crush on Mr. Bad Boy."

    What she doesn’t need, is all the aggravation that comes with being the assistant of the world’s most eligible bachelor.25-year-old billionaire Adrian Kingston, Emily’s boss, is known for being difficult. He works late at night and early in the day – and expects his assistant to do the same. The only thing he does for fun is, well, women. The spoiled, wealthy playboy gets whatever he wants from whomever he wants.Some mornings, women swing in and out of his office, one after the other. And as if he couldn’t get enough girls, he even tosses his flirtation and sexual innuendo Emily’s way.Good thing Emily knows how to keep her priorities straight. A flirty, devastatingly handsome boss? His jealous girlfriends? Her demanding workload? Emily has enough on her plate! She really doesn’t need all the headache. What she doesn’t understand though, is this: Why does Adrian seem to need her?After all, Emily Johnson, while beautiful, is not exactly Adrian’s usual type. What could he possibly want with her? Is this just another game played by a bored, rich billionaire trying to win the only girl who has the guts to tell him ‘No?’ Or could Adrian Kingston really be falling in love with The Assistant?*A sweet, sexy contemporary romance for new adults.

    She's crushed but of course with the help of her crazy best friend she is going to move on. To bad, she didn't know just exactly how her best friend was going to help her until it was to late. Now she has the school's bad-ass not leaving her alone and even crazier than that are his bad boy kisses...