The Road to Roses: Heartbreak, Hope, and Finding Strength When Life Doesn't Go as Planned


Desiree Hartsock Siegfried - 2021
    Whether your heart has been broken, your dream put on hold, or your character placed under pressure, Desiree Hartsock Siegfried's story will give you courage to stay strong in your own journey.Desiree's debut on the world stage meant facing the critics, experiencing viewers judging her every word and action, and dealing with the devastation of a very public breakup. But what the world didn't know until now was the comeback journey that followed. By telling her experience of starring on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette and later becoming an entrepreneur and bridal designer, Desiree shares her lessons on:Fully trusting God with your future even when you don't understand the purpose of the painSeeing who you really are with faith, confidence, and self-loveAlways failing forward and trusting that despite the external pressures, God's love enduresStaying open to love and trust even through the ache of heartbreak, loneliness, and criticismThis rivetingly honest book shows how Desiree found her resilience and love after all--and you can too.

Unraveled


Lisa-Marie Cabrelli - 2017
     When Claire's creepy new boss Nick promotes her to a job she doesn't understand; it's obvious to everyone but her that he wants something in return. To make matter worse, she accidentally upsets the very man that Nick told her to avoid, the unbearably sexy Vice-President, Satish Bhatt. Things get even stickier for Claire when her "friends" decide that sabotage is the answer, her roommate Sally drops a bombshell and Claire starts to want a lot more of the man she supposed to avoid. A man who seems to have secrets of his own. Unraveled is the first book in the Jersey Girls series. If you like fast-paced, breezy, funny chick-lit with characters you fall in love with and a dash of intrigue and suspense that will keep you turning pages, you will love Unraveled. Pick up Unraveled today to find out the secrets that rock Claire's world!

Diary of a South Beach Party Girl


Gwen Cooper - 2007
    It's a place where the famous come to party like locals, the locals party like rock stars behind velvet ropes, and the press is savvy enough to know what not to report. Rachel Baum is a sheltered, career-oriented everygirl when she moves to South Beach from her quiet Miami suburb, searching for a life less ordinary. Quickly making friends among SoBe's most exclusive scenesters, she spends her days building a career and her nights building a reputation. But in a town where friends become enemies faster than highs become hangovers, the life less ordinary turns into more than Rachel bargained for. As she pursues the endless party in penthouses, dive bars, after-hours clubs, and cocaine speakeasies, Rachel struggles to balance her goals and ambitions with the decadence and excess -- especially her drug-fueled, on-again off-again relationship with Yale-graduate-turned-addict John Hood -- that threaten to destroy everything she's always worked for. With tremendous wit and razor-sharp insight, Diary of a South Beach Party Girl portrays the innermost sanctums of South Beach's privileged Beautiful People through the eyes of a no longer innocent heroine.

The John Milton Series: Books 7-9


Mark Dawson - 2016
    From the Bourne-esque HEADHUNTERS, to dark criminal enterprise of THE NINTH STEP and the thrilling THE JUNGLE, don't start this collection late at night - you won't be able to put it down!***MEET JOHN MILTON.He considers himself an artisan. A craftsman. His trade is murder. Milton is the man the government sends after you when everything else has failed. Ruthless. Brilliant. Anonymous. Lethal. You wouldn't pick him out of a crowd but you wouldn't want to be on his list.But now, after ten years, he's had enough - there's blood on his hands and he wants out. Trouble is, this job is not one you can just walk away from. He goes on the run, seeking atonement for his sins by helping the people he meets along the way. But his past cannot be easily forgotten and before long it is Milton who is hunted, and not the hunter.HEADHUNTERS Bury your enemies, and bury them deep.John Milton thought he was done with Avi Bachman. The most dangerous man he's ever known has been incarcerated in Angola, the brutal Louisiana prison. Inmates rarely leave Angola. Once you go in, the only way out is in a box. But Bachman is no ordinary prisoner. He was an assassin for the Mossad, and he has favours to call in.Milton is in the Australian outback with an old friend and his flirtatious kid sister, looking for a summer’s peace to put his troubled mind to rest. But Bachman has other plans. He thinks that Milton killed his wife, and now he wants revenge. From Australia to Israel, from Hong Kong to Croatia, here is the conclusion of this brutal chapter in Milton’s life. The two headhunters are on a collision course, and only one of them will walk away. THE NINTH STEPMilton is keeping a low profile in London when he meets Eddie Fabian. Fabian confesses that he is considering suicide, and that the reason for his depression was the abuse that he suffered as a child. Milton offers to help, but, before he can, Eddie is found dead in circumstances that Milton considers suspicious.And then events take a turn that no-one could have anticipated…Milton’s attempted good deed becomes a quest to unveil corruption at the highest levels of government and murder at the dark heart of the criminal underworld.Milton is pulled back into the game, and that’s going to have serious consequences for everyone who crosses his path.THE JUNGLEAn assassin haunted by his past. Two young refugees out of their depth and in need of his special talents.John Milton is no stranger to the world’s seedy underbelly. But when the former British Secret Service agent comes up against a ruthless human trafficking ring, he’ll have to fight harder than ever to conquer the evil in his path. After Milton meets a refugee who lost a sister to people smugglers, he travels through war-torn Libya and the murkiest parts of Italy and France to get the girl back. As enemies watch his every move, Milton confronts a group of Albanian pimps and smugglers so dangerous, they could easily make this mission his last. The Jungle is a gripping standalone thriller in Mark Dawson’s bestselling John Milton series.

Amateur Night at the Bubblegum Kittikat


Victoria Fedden - 2013
    Forced to return to her family in South Florida, a place where she never felt she fit in, Victoria moved into her parents' guest room and reluctantly took a job hostessing at The Bubblegum Kittikat, South Florida's "klassiest" gentlemen's club. This hilarious memoir recounts how working in a strip club helped her recover from her breakup while giving her life and herself a much needed makeover. Amateur Night at the Bubblegum Kittikat demonstrates what miracles can happen when you stop judging yourself and others and step far out of your comfort zone (in five inch Lucite heels).

Serenade


Heather McKenzie - 2017
    But as she forms an unlikely connection with her abductor, Luke, her adventure takes a strange turn.There is nothing magical about growing up in a mountainside castle, when it’s your prison. Kaya’s ruthless and powerful father keeps her under lock and key, watched every second of the day–and Kaya’s not really sure why. She’s just a normal girl…no one special. She doesn’t understand her father’s obsession with her safety – until she is kidnapped. Dragged through a brutal wilderness, Kaya’s captor shows her the devastating truth, and even though he has dark secrets of his own, she is inexplicably drawn to him–when the stars are in your eyes, sometimes the line between right and wrong is blurred. Passion obliterates common sense. Love... makes you reckless. As Kaya's father’s men and her devoted bodyguard scour the woods to find her, she wonders if staying in the arms of her abductor is the safer place to be. At least, that’s what her heart is saying—her head is saying run… Dangerously passionate and darkly romantic, SERENADE is a page-turning thriller and seductive love story.

Insurgent (Divergent Series): by Veronica Roth -- Sidekick


BookBuddy - 2014
    Insurgent takes place in a futuristic Chicago with a dystopian society split into factions that are all fighting for power. Readers see more of the world Roth created as Tris and her boyfriend Tobias travel between factions' territories. Gain new perspectives of the story and characters while reading this literary analysis alongside Insurgent. This sequel Insurgent, creates a seamless transition as the story picks up right after the events of Divergent. Throughout the book, Tris struggles with survivor's guilt after making the hasty decision to shoot her friend. Readers witness the turmoil in Tris' relationship that is exacerbated by her self-destructive actions. The first-person narrative offers an insider's view of her grief-stricken psyche, and the chaotic dystopian society offers an ideal setting for the main character to seek self-sacrificing atonement. This analysis of Insurgent provides plenty of discussion and debate topics to enhance your reading experience. Explore Roth's futuristic world and the rocky romance between Tris and Tobias as you enjoy this exciting sequel.

Black Machetes


R.K. Howard - 2014
    Howard's edgy, controversial, and addictive debut, Black Machetes , a powerful, page-turning psychological thriller—at times both shocking and endearing—written with gritty cinematic tones that paint a painfully intimate portrait of a world framed by abuse, tragedy, and inhibited love.

Red Clay Girl


Emilie Spaulding - 2016
    When she reaches her unplanned destination, self acceptance, you’ll shout hallelujah!

Agent


Dale Ivan Smith - 2017
    But what if you're both? Mathilda Brandt isn't the angry, out-of-control teenager she was before she got out of jail. She's hungry for a chance at a normal life, but when a gang threatens her sisters, she has no choice but to use her illegal superpower to protect them. A secretive government agency gives her a choice: go back to prison for life, or infiltrate a notorious super-villain group in order to stop a psychotic Empowered. To save her city, her family, and herself, Mat must become the last thing she ever wanted to be again: a criminal. Empowered: Agent is the first book in Dale Ivan Smith's The Empowered urban fantasy series. If you like heroes and villains, you'll love this fast-paced, suspenseful read featuring a strong female hero.

Sister of Silence


Daleen Berry - 2011
    At thirteen, Daleen Berry was raped. By sixteen, she was barefoot and pregnant. And at twenty-one she was a mother of four children, tumbling headlong into a dark depression that nearly claimed all their lives. A riveting true story, this memoir peers into the most horrible moments of Ms. Berry’s life—and demonstrates the astonishing resilience of the human spirit. Sister of Silence has been called a “brave book,” Ms. Berry a “magnificent storyteller.” It was banned from Livermore High School in California in 2012 and turned into a TED talk in 2013.

Unwound


Jonathan Baine - 2007
    Chronicling the sordid world of a teenage prostitute, it was the biggest bestseller of the year. It broke conventions, inspired a cult following, and made Peter Robertson rich, admired...and scared. There, on the edge of the crowd, he always sees her. She not only looks like Angel, she embodies the desperate creature he created. Everywhere Peter goes, she goes, obsessed with everything about him. What could she possibly want? Soon, curiosity will get the best of him. So will the girl with the haunted eyes. Because what she's really after is something that will explode Peter's world.

Covenant


Brandon Massey - 2010
     On a golden summer morning, fifteen-year-old Anthony Thorne is on a fishing boat with his father, rods cast into the lake, when the crack of a rifle shatters the silence. His father slumps forward, blood leaking from his chest. Horrified, Anthony spins in the direction of the gunfire, and sees a shadowy figure race away from the shore and vanish in the cover of the trees--a vision that will haunt him for years to come . . . Anthony pulls his dad into his arms, but he is beyond help. He dies in Anthony’s embrace, Anthony’s scream of anguish echoing across the still waters. Fifteen years later, a happily married Marine veteran and author of a bestselling series of crime novels, Anthony has achieved a measure of success. But the past still haunts him-—in spite of his eyewitness testimony, his father’s murder was declared a hunting accident, and no one was ever brought to justice. On the anniversary of his father’s death, a mysterious message arrives from an unknown sender that promises to lead Anthony to the truth. But is Anthony's helper the angel he'd been waiting for--or a devil in disguise? Determined to find answers, Anthony and his wife soon find themselves hunted by a team of assassins dispatched by a powerful organization with frightening technological resources. The killers pursuing them are as fanatical in their beliefs as they are well-equipped-—loyal followers of a charismatic leader who might be the most dangerous man in America . . . Lightning-paced and gripping from the first sentence to the explosive finale, Covenant marks Brandon Massey’s entry into the arena of high-stakes action thrillers--a story exploring today’s issues that will resonate with readers long after they've turned the last page. PRAISE FOR BRANDON MASSEY'S THRILLERS: "I've been waiting a long time for a writer like Brandon Massey." -- Tananarive Due, award-winning author of My Soul to Keep "An intense thriller . . . a wild ride!" -Kevin O'Brien, New York Times bestselling author “A razor-sharp thriller guaranteed to keep you turning pages well into the night. Start this one on your day off—-you won't be able to put it down.” —Douglas Clegg, bestselling author of The Queen of Wolves and The Hour Before Dark "The talented Mr. Massey has the rare knack of grabbing the reader early and not letting go. Massey knows how to ratchet up the suspense." —John Lutz, New York Times bestselling author “A taut, involving, and utterly convincing thrill ride.” —Gregg Olsen, New York Times bestselling author

Better Late Than Never: From Barrow Boy to Ballroom


Len Goodman - 2009
    Len Goodman tells all about his new-found fame, his experiences on Strictly Come Dancing, and also on the no.1 US show Dancing with the Stars and his encounters with the likes of Heather Mills-McCartney and John Sergeant. But the real story is in his East End roots. And Len's early life couldn't be more East End. The son of a Bethnal Green costermonger he spent his formative years running the fruit and veg barrow and being bathed at night in the same water Nan used to cook the beetroot. There are echoes of Billy Elliot too. Though Len was a welder in the London Docks, he dreamt of being a professional footballer, and came close to making the grade had he not broken his foot on Hackney Marshes. The doctor recommended ballroom dancing as a light aid to his recovery. And Len, it turned out, was a natural. At first his family and work mates mocked, but soon he had made the final of a national competition and the welders descended en masse to the Albert Hall to cheer him on. With his dance partner, and then wife Cheryl, Len won the British Championships in his late twenties and ballroom dancing became his life. Funny and heart-warming, Len Goodman's autobiography has all the honest East End charm of Tommy Steele, Mike Read or Roberta Taylor.

No Matter What


Deborah J. Hughes - 2012
    First they learn that 10-year old Clara Mallory has been haunting the estate for over 300 years and then Robert, a psychiatrist, uncovers another shocking discovery...his new patients are the reincarnations of those responsible for her death! It is Lynn's growing connection to the troubled young ghost that draws the most concern, however. As Lynn becomes more and more lost in the young ghost's identity, it is a race against time for Robert and Mary to save their daughter and possibly the fate of all their souls.