They discussed this over bottles of red wine the night they met and promised, if ever they became a couple, they would remain childless and forever the other’s priority. One year after being married, Erica tells Stan she’s pregnant: news she’s very happy about. Stan considers talking Erica out of it, but that would mean aborting her child, something he knows Erica would never do. Two months into the pregnancy, Stan notices changes: times he and Erica enjoyed as a fun-loving childless couple are no longer; Erica’s attention is occupied with all things related to the forthcoming baby, and Stan has gone without sex for months. The child arrives and things get even worse; Stan feels like an outsider: a stranger living among his wife and her son. Erica gives all her time, attention and love to the infant, leaving none for her husband. Stan becomes envious; he looks at the newborn as a threat, tells himself something must be done—but what? He fights his jealous thoughts, knowing horrible things would happen if he were ever to act on them. But one night while drunk, Stan attempts to make love to his wife but is once again rejected. His pride hurt and feeling disowned, Stan stumbles into the baby’s room with intentions of eliminating his problem once and for all, knowing there can only be one man in Erica’s life. That is the promise his wife had made him on the night they met, and it is the promise he intends to make her keep.

    They started a forbidden love that was frowned upon and as a result of that a life was created. Flash forward two years and things have changed. Drew is now a mother to Aamil's child while Aamil is adjusting to being home from prison and learning he has a daughter. Aamil wants to move on with Drew and his child. He is now running his family's lucrative drug business while also trying to pursue a life with Drew. Drew has secrets that can keep her from her happily ever after with Aamil. Her biggest one being Kadar. Kadar is anxious to build a relationship with his brothers while also being with Drew. Only Drew leaves him the minute Aamil is released and Kadar is forced to pick up the pieces all while still actively seeing Olivia. The result of loving the people that has their hearts have them fighting hard to hold onto the love that they don't want to let go. Drew wants nothing more than to be with Aamil but can he forgive her for doing the unthinkable while Kadar struggles to be with Olivia. His mind is telling him to be with her but his heart is conflicted. Will Drew get Aamil and the perfect family that she feels she deserves or will he choose to be with someone that he feels has always been down for him? Will Kadar get it together in time to be with Olivia or will his indecisiveness push her away? In part one you will be taken in an emotional journey as you read just how hard it can sometimes be loving a person.

    Focusing on the similarities and differences in skills between former dictator Hafez al-Assad and his successor son, Bashar, Ajami explains how an irresistible force clashed with an immovable object: the regime versus people who conquered fear to challenge a despot of unspeakable cruelty.

    Martin Stockley at 12 years old was underfed and undersized as the youngest of nine in a Dorset clay miner's family and was probably doomed to die, worn out and broken at a very young age in the clay mines of Dorset. But he had a sharp mind, had learned to read, write and do his numbers and had a fascination for maps. A stroke of good fortune sees him escape that destiny and be taken on as a Ship's Boy and Under Steward to the Captain in the Royal Navy Frigate the Falcon. What follows is a chronicle of his talent for getting into and out of trouble at Gibraltar, the siege of Toulon and against Barbary pirates. Luck and a lot of Dorset courage sees him at the centre of a series of adventures. Blood, guts, a beautiful Contessa and prize money. What more could a young lad from Dorset ask for?

    It was a tradition that began at the start of their twenty-three marriage. But when her husband returned from his latest trip, Savannah finds a surprise she never expected.One pretty red thong. Lots of questions. But before Savannah can get answers, her husband goes into cardiac arrest.Now, as Sheldon fights for his life, Savannah struggles to put her bitterness aside. As every female in his life becomes suspect, and Savannah finds herself questioning everything she's ever believed, a handsome doctor may be the only one that can help Savannah get through to the truth.

    Sophie’s not impressed. Game on.SophieWhen we graduated from college, my friends and I made a pact that we would only play this stupid game five more times—at each of our bachelorette parties. Tonight’s number four and it couldn’t come at a worse time. I have a meeting with a new client tomorrow. I can’t be hungover. Unfortunately, I’ve never played this game without ending up that way. I’m already at a disadvantage with the client. It’s the professional baseball team in town. I’m not much of a sports fan. I don’t even know who the players are, but I guess I’ll worry about that tomorrow. Tonight, it seems that, once again, I’m destined for tequila and bad decisions.SebDon’t get me wrong, I like being a professional baseball player. I just wish it didn’t come with so much fame. People are always staring at me and tonight’s no exception. All eyes are on me as I walk into the bar—except for one pair. And they’re attached to a gorgeous woman. When she finally looks up from her phone, she catches me ogling her and rolls her eyes. I don’t think she has any idea who I am. Damn, that turns me on. I spend most of the night trying to figure out how to talk to her when suddenly she lands in my lap. She’s playing a drinking game with her friends and has to get me to kiss her to win. I want to kiss her—passionately—but not when she’s this flat-out drunk. I’d at least like her to remember our first kiss.The Next DaySophieI’m painfully hungover. All I want to do is get done with this meeting, so I can go home and have my friends tell me about the guy I tried to drunkenly seduce last night. All I remember are his eyes—his soft, beautiful eyes. I’m on the field with my new client watching the players practice when the catcher jumps up from behind the plate and starts walking toward me. When he pulls up his mask, the eyes I’ve been thinking about all morning are staring at me. “Sophie?” he says as a smile starts curling at the corners of his mouth.“I absolutely LOVED the plot idea. It was fun. The characters were fun...Seb and Sophie are the CUTEST couple ever.” Goodreads Review“Truth or Tequila has to be one of my favorite books I've read this year. The storyline holds your attention and the characters have you flipping pages!!!” Goodreads Review“This book was just what I needed. A fun rom com, laugh out loud story with a little bit of everything. Sports romance, suspense, and a sweet love story.” Goodreads Review

    Try something new. Buy a pair of heels. Get a promotion. Fall in love. Seems simple, especially when Christine meets Patrick, the man who could be Mr. Right. He's got the right credentials: a job, a sense of humor, a love of all things Indiana Jones, and best of all, he's actually taller than Christine. But busy schedules take over and gets in the way of Patrick and Christine's budding romance. Life interferes, as it has a way of doing, and Christine wants to throw in the towel. Is the magic of the Christmas season enough to renew Christine's faith in love?

     Stanley Lane-Poole’s acclaimed biography Saladin and the Fall of Jerusalem is a complete study of the life of this noted leader: his youth, rise through twelfth-century Middle-Eastern politics, career as a military commander and the conquest of Egypt and Syria, and his intriguing clashes with Richard the Lionheart. Throughout his life, Saladin established himself as a military commander of genius, a man of honour and an intrepid statesman, cementing his place in the annals of Middle-Eastern history. The result of a lifetime of study by eminent historian Lane-Poole, Saladin and the Fall of Jerusalem benefits from the rich and colourful chronicles of Arab and Moslem historians, providing us with a unique insight into the life and deeds of this fascinating figure. “Stanley Lane-Poole has rendered valuable service in his different works by presenting various phases of Oriental history and life in such a way as to interest even those to whom such subjects are ordinarily a sealed book”.—The American Historical Review Stanley Edward Lane-Poole, 18 December 1854, was a British orientalist and archaeologist. Born in London, England, from 1874 to 1892 he worked in the British Museum, and after that in Egypt researching on Egyptian archaeology. From 1897 to 1904 he had a chair as Professor of Arabic studies at Dublin University. He died in 1931.

    Egypt’s 2011 revolt was no exception. The military’s abandonment of Mubarak—a turning point for the revolt—confounded many observers, who assumed that the leader and the generals stood or fell together. The officers, it was thought, ruled from behind the scenes and simply swapped the figures in the spotlight to preserve the status quo.In a challenge to this conventional view, Hazem Kandil presents the revolution as the latest episode in an ongoing power struggle between the three components of Egypt’s authoritarian regime: the military, the security services, and the political apparatus. A detailed study of the interactions within this invidious triangle over six decades of war, conspiracy, and sociopolitical transformation, Soldiers, Spies, and Statesmen is the first systematic analysis of how Egypt metamorphosed from a military into a police state—and what that means for the future of its revolution.

    On November 4, 1979, a group of radical Islamist students, inspired by the revolutionary Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. They took fifty-two Americans hostage, and kept nearly all of them hostage for 444 days.In Guests of the Ayatollah, Mark Bowden tells this sweeping story through the eyes of the hostages, the soldiers in a new special forces unit sent to free them, their radical, naïve captors, and the diplomats working to end the crisis. Bowden takes us inside the hostages' cells and inside the Oval Office for meetings with President Carter and his exhausted team. We travel to international capitals where shadowy figures held clandestine negotiations, and to the deserts of Iran, where a courageous, desperate attempt to rescue the hostages exploded into tragic failure. Bowden dedicated five years to this research, including numerous trips to Iran and countless interviews with those involved on both sides.Guests of the Ayatollah is a detailed, brilliantly re-created, and suspenseful account of a crisis that gripped and ultimately changed the world.

    She is forced to hide her pregnancy from the religious authorities until she can marry, navigate Byzantine wedding customs and raise a newborn in a country far from home.

    Something that's very hard to learn on your own. This is something about putting yourself first because it's okay to love yourself before anyone else. This is something about doing what's best for you, no matter what people say, because only you know what you deserve. This is something about being real, being real to who you are and accepting things as they come and change. This is something about your mistakes, about your flaws, and about how beautiful it is to get up and try again. This is something about being you, about using your voice when you're afraid. About building enough courage when you feel like standing up to something you don't believe in, something that's wrong. This is about you, and every day should be about you, and that's something you should always consider.

    Her journey, eloquently and intimately told, is a tribute to the resilience of families everywhere.Andalibian takes us first into her family's tranquil, jasmine-scented days of prosperity in Mashhad, Iran, where she and her brothers grow up in luxury at the Rose Hotel, owned by her father. In the aftermath of the 1979 revolution the family is forces to flee: first to the safety of a mansion in Tehran, next to a squalid one-room flat in London, and finally to California, where they discover they are not free from the weight of their own secrets. Caught between their parents' traditional values and their desire to embrace and American way of life, Andalibian and her brothers struggle to find peace in the wake of tragedy.In the tradition of "The Kite Runner," "House of Sand and Fog," and "Reading Lolita in Tehran," this is a universal story of healing and rebirth.

    It will also show how Khomeinsim can be defeated, enabling Iran to close the chapter of the revolution and return to the global mainstream. This book is mandatory for anyone concerned about the future of Iran, terrorism, and the prospects for middle east peace.

    After events confirmed many of his predictions, Fallows went on to write some of the most acclaimed, award-winning journalism on the planning and execution of the war, much of which has been assigned as required reading within the U.S. military.In Blind Into Baghdad, Fallows takes us from the planning of the war through the struggles of reconstruction. With unparalleled access and incisive analysis, he shows us how many of the difficulties were anticipated by experts whom the administration ignored. Fallows examines how the war in Iraq undercut the larger ”war on terror” and why Iraq still had no army two years after the invasion. In a sobering conclusion, he interviews soldiers, spies, and diplomats to imagine how a war in Iran might play out. This is an important and essential book to understand where and how the war went wrong, and what it means for America.