Today Ron Ball and I are romantically involved, it read, but I fear I have placed myself at risk in a variety of ways. Based on his criminal past, writing this out just seems like the smart thing to do. If I am missing or dead this obviously has not protected me... That same spring Janine Latus was struggling to leave her marriage -- a marriage to a handsome and successful man. A marriage others emulated. A marriage in which she felt she could do nothing right and everything wrong. A marriage in which she felt afraid, controlled, inadequate, and trapped. Ten weeks later, Janine Latus had left her marriage. She was on a business trip to the East Coast, savoring her freedom, attending a work conference, when she received a call from her sister Jane asking if she'd heard from Amy. Immediately, Janine's blood ran cold. Amy was missing. Helicopters went up and search dogs went out. Coworkers and neighbors and family members plastered missing posters with Amy's picture across the county. It took more than two weeks to find Amy's body, wrapped in a tarpaulin and buried at a building site. It took nearly two years before her killer, her former boyfriend Ron Ball, was sentenced for her murder. Amy died in silent fear and pain. Haunted by this, Janine Latus turned her journalistic eye inward. How, she wondered, did two seemingly well-adjusted, successful women end up in strings of physically or emotionally abusive relationships with men? If I Am Missing or Dead is a heart-wrenching journey of discovery as Janine Latus traces the roots of her own -- and her sister's -- victimization with unflinching candor. This beautifully written memoir will move readers from the first to the last page. At once a confession, a call to break the cycle of abuse, and a deeply felt love letter to her baby sister, Amy Lynne Latus, If I Am Missing or Dead is an unforgettable read.

    Five very different women come together in the Northern Territory of the 1970s by an exceptional new Australian author.In 1978 the Northern Territory has begun to self-govern. Cyclone Tracy is a recent memory and telephones not yet a fixture on the cattle stations dominating the rugged outback. Life is hard and people are isolated. But they find ways to connect.Sybil is the matriarch of Fairvale Station, run by her husband, Joe. Their eldest son, Lachlan, was Joe's designated successor but he has left the Territory - for good. It is up to their second son, Ben, to take his brother's place. But that doesn't stop Sybil grieving the absence of her child. With her oldest friend, Rita, now living in Alice Springs and working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and Ben's English wife, Kate, finding it difficult to adjust to life at Fairvale, Sybil comes up with a way to give them all companionship and purpose: they all love to read, and she forms a book club.Mother-of-three Sallyanne is invited to join them. Sallyanne dreams of a life far removed from the dusty town of Katherine where she lives with her difficult husband, Mick. Completing the group is Della, who left Texas for Australia looking for adventure and work on the land.If you loved The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society, The Little Coffee Shop Of Kabul and The Thorn Birds you will devour this story of five different women united by one need: to overcome the vast distances of Australia's Top End with friendship, tears, laughter, books and love.

    Being the youngest of five and the only girl, she is sheltered from a lot of things that most girls her age experience, including boys. That is until she meets Dominic. Dominic Roberts is a young, handsome business man who owns a profitable trucking company, along with his older brother, David. When the two meet it's hard to deny the attraction that they have for one another and it doesn't take long before they act on what they both feel. The only thing standing in their way besides Brooklyn's brothers is Kennedi, Dominic's fiancé. Kennedi loves Dominic with all her heart, but Brooklyn is slowly making him rethink if marriage is what he really wants. Will Dominic drop his fiancé and make Brooklyn his number one or will she continue to be his little secret?

    Now in their late 30s, the deeply devoted couple has everything-except the baby they've always wanted.When an accident leaves Elle brain dead, Matt is devastated. Though he cannot bear the thought of life without her, he knows Elle was afraid of only one thing-a slow death. And so, Matt resolves to take her off life support.But Matt changes his mind when they discover Elle's pregnant. While there are no certainties, the baby might survive if Elle remains on life support. Matt's mother, Linney, disagrees with his decision. She loves Elle, too, and insists that Elle would never want to be kept alive on machines. Linney is prepared to fight her son in court-armed with Elle's living will.Divided by the love they share, Matt and Linney will be pitted against each other, fighting for what they believe is right, and what they think Elle would have wanted resulting in a controversial legal battle that will ultimately go beyond one family . . . and one single life.

    They were the fundamentals behind my rise . . . and the perpetrators of my fall. They called me Harlem’s black prince–a rising star who carried street dreams on his back. But the streets, ya know. They got a way of coming for theirs. A method of sneaking up on you when you ain’t looking . . .”Andre “Thug-A-Licious” Williams came up on Harlem’s meanest streets. But thanks to his nearly ankle-breaking hoop moves and explosive mic skills, he makes it out–and dominates the rap scene with chart-topping urban hits.Thug has sexed all the hottest freaks and has a slew of baby mamas to show for it. But no matter how many women he takes to his bed, only one can claim his heart: successful beauty salon owner Carmiesha “Lil Muddah” Vernoy, his ride-or-die queen who has stuck by his side and guarded his back through thick and thin.But Thug also has a nightmarish history with someone else. Pimp Williams, his older cousin and ex—partner in crime, is a cold-blooded killer who spreads havoc all over Harlem and will stop at nothing to get what he wants–even if it means betraying his own family, crushing Carmiesha, and forcing Harlem’s black prince down to his knees and back to his bloody beginnings.“Urban erotica has never been hotter!”–Nikki Turner, author of Riding Dirty on I-95

     In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented.  Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave.  She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love them, a world that will not be kind. Captured here in twelve luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother’s monumental courage and the journey of a nation. Beautiful and devastating, Ayana Mathis’s The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is wondrous from first to last—glorious, harrowing, unexpectedly uplifting, and blazing with life. An emotionally transfixing page-turner, a searing portrait of striving in the face of insurmountable adversity, an indelible encounter with the resilience of the human spirit and the driving force of the American dream, Mathis’s first novel heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

    Blessed with good looks, nice bodies, a stable place to live with a mother that is willing to give them anything their hearts desire, they seem to have it all. That is until their mother’s nasty habit of popping pills and alcohol abuse leaves them in an awful situation with no one to turn to. When a baller by the name of Vic takes them under his wing he turns them into finessers, sexy women with the motives to set up any man with deep pockets. When Cinnamon falls in love with one of the licks all hell breaks loose. Secrets are revealed, lies are told, and bodies are found as Vic try his hardest to turn the sisters against one another. Join these sisters on a hectic journey and discover is blood really thicker than water.

    . ." --OOSA BookclubThese women are about to learn more than they ever wanted to know about secrets--and the men who keep them. . .As the owner of Situations, the hottest beauty salon on the south side of Chicago, Noelle Gordon has a direct line to the private lives of her clients. But when an abandoned baby girl appears on her doorstep, Noelle finds herself at the center of a personal drama. Meanwhile, Noelle's employees are discovering that their own romantic relationships harbor a secret or two. The truth isn't always pretty. But can they find the strength to live with it--and with the men they love? "A drama-filled story." --Urban Reviews "Juggles each 'suspicious' intimacy issue in serious soul sistah style." --Publishers Weekly

    The chance meeting with her husband, Damien; their rapid free fall into love; and their low-key, intimate wedding are all locked in her memory. But what she can’t remember is the tragic car accident that ripped her unborn child from her. Ella can’t even recall being pregnant.Hoping to find the memories of a lost pregnancy that’s left her husband devastated and their home empty, Ella begins delving into her past when she’s assigned an exclusive story about Nathan Donovan, a retired celebrity adventurer who seems to know more about her than she does him. To unravel the mystery of her selective memory loss, Ella follows Nathan from the snowcapped Sierra Nevada to the frozen slopes of southeast Alaska. There she discovers the people she trusts most aren’t the only ones keeping secrets from her—she’s hiding them from herself. Ella quickly learns that some truths are best left forgotten.

    But John and Abby know they're just pretending to be happy. In fact, they're waiting for the right time to tell the kids they're going to divorce. But at the family meeting where they plan to tell their children, Nicole shares a surprise of her own: she's getting married. How can they spoil her joy with their announcement?They can pretend a little longer—until after the wedding. But questions begin to haunt them as the date draws nearer. What happened to the love and commitment that held them together for so long? Is it still there somewhere under all the pain and misunderstanding? And is it still possible, alone in the moonlight on an old wooden pier, to once more find . . . a time to dance?The first novel in Karen Kingsbury's celebrated series about the power of commitment and the amazing faithfulness of God.

    Struggling to raise her little brother, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible "adult" around. She finds peace in the starry Midwestern night sky above the fields behind her house. One night everything changes when she witnesses one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold, wreck his motorcycle. What follows is a powerful and shocking love story between two unlikely people that asks tough questions, reminding us of all the ugly and wonderful things that life has to offer.

    She's grown up in the spotlight, both idolized and despised for her family's fire-and-brimstone brand of faith. When Essie's mother, Celia, discovers that Essie is pregnant, she arranges an emergency meeting with the show's producers: Do they sneak Essie out of the country for an abortion? Do they pass the child off as Celia's? Or do they try to arrange a marriage—and a ratings-blockbuster wedding? Meanwhile, Essie is quietly pairing herself up with Roarke Richards, a senior at her school with a secret of his own to protect. As the newly formed couple attempt to sell their fabricated love story to the media—through exclusive interviews with an infamously conservative reporter named Liberty Bell—Essie finds she has questions of her own: What was the real reason for her older sister leaving home? Who can she trust with the truth about her family? And how much is she willing to sacrifice to win her own freedom?

    She also has a weekly beauty-parlor date with Tina, who keeps Venus's long, processed hair slick and straight. But when Clint--who's been reluctant to commit over the past four years--brings home a puppy instead of an engagement ring, Venus decides to give it all up. She trades in her long hair for a dramatically short, natural cut and sends Clint packing.It's a bold declaration of independence--one that has effects she never could have imagined. Reactions from friends and coworkers range from concern to contempt to outright condemnation. And when Clint moves on and starts dating a voluptuous, long-haired beauty, Venus is forced to question what she really wants out of life. With wit, resilience, and a lot of determination, she finally learns what true happiness is--on her own terms. Told with style, savvy, and humor, Nappily Ever After is a novel that marks the debut of a fresh new voice in fiction.

    But when her husband, Brian, leaves her for someone younger, thinner, blonde, and French, she has to step back and take a good, long look at her life.First, her career. She can’t continue to write about “Happily Ever After,” so she changes the heroine of her new book from a hot young thing to a forty-something woman who manages to find happiness without a man. Her agent isn’t too happy—the heroine is how old? She doesn’t get the guy in the end? How is that even possible?But Mona is tough, and she’s got Anthony, her personal assistant, and a few good friends to cheer her on and keep the stiff martinis flowing. And Ben. Ben is her plumber, but not your average plumber. He’s smart enough to know that Brian was never good enough for her, and sexy enough to be cast as the romantic lead in quite a few of her books. The sound of his voice alone can send her imagination into full romantic overdrive.Then she meets Mitch, who might be just the guy for her. And there’s still Ben, who’s managed to come to her rescue more than once. But—there’s a book to publish, a soon-to-be-ex-husband to deal with, and what has Aunt Lily done this time? Can Mona work this all out? Can life imitate art, and can Mona write her own happy ending?

    A deadly warning directs his course as he strives to carry out his orders.Complications set in when his mentor's beautiful, sexy, and rebellious daughter Lissha, who is as comfortable carrying a gun as she is carrying a Gucci bag, forces Kiam to decide between his sizzling desire for her and his immense loyalty to big Zo.Amidst the torrid but unspoken passion that builds between Kiam and Lissha like a blazing inferno, lies hidden alliances and deceit that threaten to explode at every turn.With sex, money, murder and dark secrets lurking around every corner and a team of beautiful yet dangerous women he is forced to work with, who will ultimately be the Bitch he can’t trust.