The book also includes descriptions of laquerware under candlelight, and women in the darkness of the house of pleasure.

    The story of Sackville-West's marriage to Harold Nicolson is one of intrigue and bewilderment. In Portrait of a Marriage, their son Nigel combines his mother's memoir with his own explanations and what he learned from their many letters. Even during her various love affairs with women, Vita maintained a loving marriage with Harold. Portrait of a Marriage presents an often misunderstood but always fascinating couple.

    They are told that in the name of sexual consent and feminist empowerment, they must proclaim their desires clearly and confidently. Sex researchers tell us that women don't know what they want. And men are on hand to persuade women that what they want is, in fact, exactly what men want. In this environment, how can women possibly know what they want—and how can they be expected to?In this elegantly written, searching book Katherine Angel surveys medical and psychoanalytic understandings of female desire, from Freud to Kinsey to present-day science; MeToo-era debates over consent, assault, and feminism; and popular culture, TV, and film to challenge our assumptions about female desire. Why, she asks, do we expect desire to be easily understood? Why is there not space for the unsure, the tentative, the maybe, the let's just see? In contrast to the endless exhortation to know what we want, Angel proposes that sex can be a conversation, requiring insight, interaction, and mutual vulnerability—a shared collaboration into the unknown.In this crucial moment of renewed attention to violence and power, Angel urges that we remake our thinking about sex, pleasure, and autonomy without any illusions of perfect self-knowledge. Only then will we bring about Michel Foucault's sardonic promise, in 1976, that "tomorrow sex will be good again."

    One big lie.At least that′s how he feels as a nerdy, closeted, gay high school senior in a suburban North Carolina town.But after months of fretting and hiding behind his quotes, Noah finally does it. He comes out to the world, and realizes he had nothing to fear after all. With his lies behind him Noah is ready to take on his new future.On the same night Noah gets a message from an anonymous boy with a crush on him, and all his dreams begin to come true.But is Noah truly ready for what life has planned for him?-------------------TW: Homophobia, death, grief, bullying, mention of suicide

    Until Robin sets his sights on Sir John Hartlebury’s heiress niece. The notoriously graceless baronet isn’t impressed by good looks, or fooled by false charm. He’s sure Robin is a liar—a fortune hunter, a card sharp, and a heartless, greedy fraud—and he’ll protect his niece, whatever it takes.Then, just when Hart thinks he has Robin at his mercy, things take a sharp left turn. And as the grumpy baronet and the glib fortune hunter start to understand each other, they also find themselves starting to care—more than either of them thought possible. But Robin's cheated and lied and let people down for money. Can a professional rogue earn an honest happy ever after?

    One person is the fighter who pilots the spacecraft and his partner is the navigator who directs the way.Navigators come from higher society and are mostly seen as privileged and intelligent. Fighters are men that are known for their violent tendancies, skills in combat, and anger issues.Abel didn't want to follow his politican father into his world and instead chose his own path as a navigator. He's gay and has always had strong desires that he's hidden... until he's partnered with his fighter, Cain.Cain is unpredictable, violent, possessive, and very skilled at what he does. He goes through navigators faster then any other fighter so he's developed the reputation that he's impossible to work with.When Cain meets Abel, he marks him and possessives him in every way possible unknowingly giving Abel exactly what he's been craving for years. Now the only question is, will their relationship grow to benefit them both in this time of war or with Cain's reputation and violent tendancies end up destroying Abel?