The Heir The Arceneaux family has a long history of falling victim to circumstance--madness, embezzlement, even murder--but when the last of the unmarried females inherits the family plantation, she is determined their unfortunate legacy will end with her. After her father is imprisoned in New York, she embarks on a new life in New Orleans with what is left of all the hope she can muster. What she finds is an abandoned house, a fractured family, and an oppressed people. Determined to find her own way, she confronts the challenges head on, and soon realizes change is not something needed only for her, but for many. People of Color In the decades before the Civil War, Louisiana was the most advanced state on the topic of freedom. People of color were successful in business and owned property--some of which they acquired through the gifts or wills of white fathers whose black and mulatto wives and mistresses exacted better lives for their children. A Step Backward The Civil War brought change--any black lineage became cause for discrimination, even in Louisiana--and many blacks and mixed-race persons were relegated to occupations not unlike those of their ancestors. Women, though white, were expected to be hostesses and leave business to men--especially the business of voting. A Family Reunited Willows Plantation, still worked by the descendants of the slaves who built it, becomes the anchor to affect change and in a historical fiction story spanning five generations, author Cyndie Shaffstall, takes you on a journey through abolition and suffrage efforts of the 1700s and 1800s. A Voodoo priestess, a French artist, the first woman presidential candidate, and the world’s fair shed light on issues and provide opportunities to reunite and strengthen an entire family.Each book of The Delegate series reads as though you've come across someone's journal. While you read, the saga envelopes you, and it becomes your journal, and your story, as you are transported through time.

    Maria teaches him how to make fast money by just flipping a few numbers. EJ quickly goes from a regular joe to a man of power. But he's forced to learn the hard way that with more money comes more problems and with more problem EJ is forced to keep flipping numbers.Step into EJ's world where money rules and one bad flip can end your life.

    There is nothing so complicated as a human being and sometimes nothing so horrific!

    Their parents expected them to have outstanding careers, a good man that leads the family, and lots of babies. However, life steps right on in and does its job by throwing curve balls that sends the sisters in many directions. Follow the Holiday sisters to see what lies ahead for them. Andrea Holiday is still living in Mississippi, working as a family attorney at law. She is very proud of the career she has always wanted, but she is very unhappy living a mundane life. At every turn, love is finding her sisters and friends, but seems to escape finding Andrea. While attending a conference in NYC, Andrea steps out of her comfort zone and gives a handsome thug the time of the day, and he gives her more than she bargains for. Will love finally find Andrea? To the outside eye, Anastasia Holiday is living the life. She has her own business, along with a great marriage. However, everything is not what it seems. Anastasia is tired of the façade and set out to do things her own way by finding solace in the arms and bed of another man. Will Anastasia find a way to combat the ill-feelings of her life and find a way to make her marriage work? Or will she succumb to finding love and a happy life with the thug she has fallen for? Alyssa Holiday has finally graduated college and was excited about finding a career in the communication field. However, she discovered those jobs are not what she thought they would be. So, Alyssa decided to change course and joined the FBI without informing her family of her new life choices. She has set a goal to become the best agent she can be. But when her first big case hits close to home, how will she balance the personal from the professional? Will she compromise her new career for family? Alexis Holiday moved to Georgia to attend Clark-Atlanta University. While there, she finds herself slipping into the fast life, so she ends up doing something that she had vowed to never to do. However, she must keep her family from finding out about her new gig. In the midst of this, she finds herself intrigued by two different people that she is very much attracted to, but she is confused about what to do. Will the chemistry Alexis experiences pull her towards the thuggish man that she craves, or in the opposite direction? Award-winning authors, Twyla T, Patrice Balark, Dani Littlepage, and J. Dominique, tagged teamed to bring the first book of their hot new, high octane urban fiction series, Thug Holiday. This story is filled with unlimited drama wrapped in luscious lies, undisclosed lust, secret rendezvous, and titillating secrets. Find out what happens when the sisters all meet up for the first time in years in the Thanksgiving Edition of Thug Holiday. Warning: This book contains a cliffhanger.

    I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance. –John 10:10, AMP Good Friday started off as anything but that for Melinda Black. After losing her job and self-dignity, a series of events cascade her onto an emotionally charged roller coaster ride that drastically changed her life forever. Will Melinda be able to handle the pressure when she stands to lose what's most important in her life? Once Upon a Sunday is an inspirational short story.

    But for someone like me, who takes pleasure in routine and order, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I’ve always liked things uncomplicated and safe. Safe, that is, until Patrick Rivers bursts into my life, causing my world to spin off its axis. What I did not know was with one small act of chivalry, my life would forever change because of the one thing I feared most—letting myself feel.*This is an erotic novella with explicit sex scenes meant for mature audiences only. This is not a stand-alone book, but is meant to be read with the rest of the ‘Sexy Series.’

    While Jake is on a dangerous mission to terminate the patriarch of a large family oil company in Dubai, who refuses to work on illegal arms deals with rogue government agents, Jake's bosses, his wife overhears those same agents and her boss discussing their treacherous plans, after which she and her friend are terminated, just to keep them quiet. Jake is angry and devastated and with help from Sarah, a friendly Federal Agent, he goes in search of the people responsible, determined to kill them, not realising that the vengeance-seeking Arab sons and lethal bodyguards of the man he terminated in Dubai, have been sent to kill him by his treacherous agency colleagues.

    

    Follow Mira's story as she faces life as a single mother, wrestles with the constant call of the ocean to her mermaid nature, and joins an all-male salvage team who is less than thrilled to have her. When my mother died, I ran to the ocean like a coward. Its cradle of salt puckered my memories and withered my sorrow like a grape drying in the sun. I had cheated grief and was foolish enough to think I had gotten away with it.When Nathan died, I couldn’t run away. No matter how much I flinched, bending toward the Atlantic the way ivy strains for rays of light, I could not leave. Grief was back to take what belonged to it for the time it was allotted. I had everything I wanted a few short years ago. My mate. My daughter. A home, a family. It made my head spin to think how much could change so suddenly. I mused, wondering later if I was the only mermaid to ever walk fully through the five stages of grief. But I had my daughter.Targa had yet to turn, the color and shape of her fins were yet to be revealed, but she would. I had been so sure of it then. Siren genes are passed from mother to daughter, without fail. Young legs melded into a shimmering virgin tail in response to a salty sea. But Targa didn’t turn in response to ocean water, not the first time, not any time after that. Something was wrong. I shoved my fear down deep into some dark corner where Targa would not see it and said with a smile that we’d just have to keep trying. I had turned at the age of three, but if there could be late-bloomers in the human race, why not ours too?Her fifth birthday came and went, still she hadn’t turned. Concern sent its barbs into me like a thistle, then it rooted and grew.Targa and I had weekly late night secret swims in the Atlantic, which had once been fun but were now polluted with expectation and suspense. Coaching sessions (my idea), where I attempted human psychology exercises I’d found in outdated textbooks at the library; guided visualization, breathing techniques, and even a failed go at hypnosis. The memory of her skinny little frame sitting in a bathtub containing more salt than water (Targa’s idea) is still enough to fill my eyes with moisture.I don’t know exactly when she lost hope, but she hid it expertly, patiently participating however I asked.I ignored the creeping thoughts that whispered in my mind; she didn’t even like water, didn’t really want to go for swim, couldn’t hear the ocean calling her. I would shove the thoughts away violently, excusing them as nothing but my own anxiety. It was ridiculous. A daughter of a mermaid who disliked the ocean. Impossible. When I muzzled those fears, I became aware of others of a different kind. Not my own, but hers, for me.She could see the want in my eyes. Whatever mechanism bees and dogs used to smell fear, Targa had it for despair. She could sense it on me, reeking like cheap perfume. Her eyes dipped in desperation, her obvious desire not to disappoint me sliced through me like a white-hot blade from heart to gut. She thought she was my tormentor. The realization struck like a hammer and gave me the strength to do what was needed: Let it go.The ocean could call. I’d let the smell of it crucify me, the sound of its waves crash against me, echo through me, call me, beg me.Targa’s need and my love for her was greater. If she never turned and I was locked in a land-cycle for the rest of our lives, so be it.So be it.

    Despite the many challenges, both internal and external, the country was able to register a 6 per cent average annual growth rate during the first forty years of its existence. The country was ahead of India and Bangladesh in all economic and social indicators. Since 1990, the country has fallen behind its neighbouring countries and has had a decline in the growth rate.This book attempts to examine the reasons behind this slowdown, the volatile and inequitable growth of the last twenty-five years, and through a process of theoretical and empirical evidence argues that the most powerful explanatory hypothesis lies in the decay of institutions of governance. It also suggests a selective and incremental approach of restructuring some key public institutions that pertain to accountability, transparency, security, economic growth, and equity.

    Young, pretty, and wild, both females will do whatever it takes all for the mere love of convenient cash. However, will things become more than either woman can handle after some reckless decision-making? Hood, gritty, and raw, "Pretty Young Things" will take you on a wild ride unlike you have ever experienced.

    A land of tribal warriors, scattered and leaderless, was finally united under one mind, a man proclaimed as Husam al-Din, the Sword of the Faith. On the dark day of his death, al-Din’s priests tore his mind apart, preventing his treacherous wife, Maymunah, from taking control of the armies. They disappeared beyond the borders of the known lands, taking with them six harmonic stones containing the mind of al-Din, leaving the tribes leaderless and united only by faith. Revenge vowed, Maymunah set her descendants on a quest to recover the lost stones. Centuries passed as nothing was found, until twenty generations later, in an ice cave deep in the Meil’vohllen Mountains, Hallen made a discovery that would change the world forever. Unable to contain the power of the stones, Hallen’s mind was lost, and for three further generations the daughters of Maymunah have only heard whispers in the wind... The Madness of Hallen is the first of four epic fantasy novels, following the lives of two brothers in their quest against the rightful heir to the mind of Husam al-Din.

    Despite the ache that once lived in her heart due to her and Tedric’s bad breakup, Makayla was able to find the strength and courage to move on, thanks to Jeff who’d helped her to love again. Jeff knew that linking himself to a king of the drug world like Tedric would change he and Makayla’s lives forever; he just had no clue how big of a change Tedric would bring after being reunited with Makayla. No matter how much she tells herself that Jeff is her everything and Tedric needs to remain in the past, Tedric makes it loud and clear that he doesn’t feel the same way. Will Makayla give in to temptation and allow Tedric to awaken a love she chose not to tell Jeff about, or will her love and loyalty for Jeff cause her to remain faithful and let the past remain just that, the past? All Tamar wanted was one night of hot, passionate sex with the notorious, Fabian Grant, a well-known drug dealer in Miami and also Tedric’s right hand man. Fabian had numerous one-night stands in his lifetime but had never come across a woman who made him want to go back for seconds. Tamar had broken the mold. Yet, because of his affiliation with drugs and her being a school principal, Tamar has no desire to see Fabian again. Little does she know, Fabian is accustomed to getting what he wants and refuses to let her break the mold twice. Quanna and Tuck have what seems like the perfect relationship. However, Tuck can’t ignore the feeling that something is preventing Quanna from giving him her all. Just like her best friend, Makayla, Quanna is having a hard time shaking her past, but the last thing she wants is for it to cost her future. While she thinks it best she handles everything on her own, she finds herself faced with an ultimatum that leaves her wondering where her loyalty truly lies. In Forever Mine, Tynessa takes you on a rollercoaster ride with this circle of friends and the drama that surrounds them. Sometimes love has a way of not letting you fully walk away, and some people just can’t help who they love.

    He is a rescue dog with a difficult past who loves other dogs, is frightened of people and cars and mesmerised by cats and rabbits. It is partly told through his eyes and describes how what he has experienced before has affected how he interacts with those around him. Entwined with his story, Clare, his new owner and the author of this book, who has a total of over 30 years experience of working with animals and teaching veterinary nursing and animal care and welfare, tells of the joys of having him as a companion and how, through gentle nurturing, his whole outlook on life has changed. She also writes with a great deal of passion about the pitfalls of a society that has resulted in Ralph being the way he is, and of some of the other issues that are contributing to the problems faced by dogs today. By the author of 'Lilac Haze' - a true story about organ donation, love, loss and hope...

    When she inherits her family's log home in West Michigan, she returns to the river property to make a new start and to put the pieces of her life back together. As soon as she meets the handsome stranger who lives through the wooded path, Kate immediately feels a connection, but is unsure of what it is. Living alone in the woods along a river presents some challenges, but it isn't long before she begins to feel like herself again. When she starts to dig into her family tree, a long-time hobby, she discovers some new and unsettling facts. But what does it all mean for her and her new found relationship with the man next door?