He only replied to the want-ad because the wording linked Florida with Washington DC and wanted someone who could speak Arabic. The year was 2008. Jobs were scarce, gas prices high. The back page ad called for a big rig driver with a clean record, who could be at Black Water Crossing the day before Halloween. As fate would have it, a quirky satellite blackout occurred before the government agent could complete the overseas agreement. A follow-up call led nowhere. Thus, the mid-east connection never fell victim to a federal communications dragnet – nor could Martin Swan detail the pending threat against Washington, or where the explosives would come ashore.

    Standing in her way? The Coalition-a secret church organization tasked with the responsibility of taking care of these types of incidents quickly and quietly and by any means necessary. Jennifer decides to file a lawsuit against the priest and the church and seeks out an attorney, Zachary Blake, who handled her late husband's industrial death case. However, through an unfortunate series of events, Zachary has gone from the penthouse to the poorhouse, working out of a dingy one-room office, handling traffic cases. Although Jennifer has misgivings, she reluctantly retains him and, together, they embark on a "David vs. Goliath" legal battle against an organization hell-bent on thwarting their efforts. Zachary hires an investigator, the infamous Micah Love, who travels to Ohio, where he discovers that two families have disappeared after an encounter with the same priest-and the one person who may provide some answers has died under mysterious circumstances. Religion, law, betrayal, mystery, intrigue, faith, and love converge in Michigan for the trial of the century. Will Zachary resurrect his troubled career and obtain the justice Jennifer seeks for her kids? Or will the church and the Coalition and its mysterious leader prevail in covering up the decadent acts of the priest and circumvent justice once again? Will the truth prevail?

    Max Nowaz’s science fiction novel, The Arbitrator, follows the story of 153 year-old Jim Brown, a former highly successful administrator who is now rotting in jail, for tax fraud. However, in reality, he is there for taking revenge and killing several people on the planet Levita, after meeting the beautiful Narissa... In prison, he has acquired a drug habit, which is killing him slowly and his only chance of survival is a very expensive renewal process, which will make him young again and cure his drug habit. After ten years in jail, he is suddenly given a reprieve and offered a chance to redeem himself. He is sent as the ‘Arbitrator’ to ‘Pirrus’ in another solar system, to try and stop a rebellion and bring matters under control. Will he complete the mission successfully to earn enough funds for his regeneration? Only time will tell. Just when he thinks he has accomplished his task, he meets Gina, the daughter of a rebel, and finds out that there is a plot by foreign powers to invade the planet... The plot thickens when Brown also discovers that there is a mole in his organisation who is undermining his efforts to succeed. How will Brown react to the devastating news? This book will appeal to fans of innovative science fiction and people who enjoyed the stories in The Avatar and The Blade Runner.

    Granted, it sounds like an exaggeration, but Silas was more panicked about leaving the house than even the rat. Neither wanted to go. One had a family, the other had social anxiety. Before sunrise, one was going to be freed in a field, the other from custody. One would see worlds he could never dream, the other would have all his worst fears confirmed. Night of the Rat tells the dark and comedic lengths one couple will go to rid their neighborhood of unwanted guests.

    Iola meets Jim Lewis, who never served in the war but contributed in his own way to the war effort. They marry in post-war Philadelphia and raise a family against the backdrop of the paranoid era of McCarthyism. Their differences and a need for fulfillment propels them away from each other. Illicit liaisons and grief bring them life-changing insights.

    Included are sample plans, author information, vocabulary-building ideas, and cross-curricular activities. At the Intermediate and Challenging levels, sectional activities and quizzes, unit tests, and ideas for culminating and extending the novel are also included.

    Others are only too real in this modern-day thriller set amid the chaos of a global epidemic and a cultural uprising that set the world ablaze. She's Lucky one day-Jackie the next. Actress or con artist? Avenging angel or gold-digger? Hunter or prey? Straight or lesbian? Black Lives Matter activist? Only she knows the truth. Or does she? Controversial? No doubt. And all the while-the pandemic kills.

    After her boyfriend Steve leaves her, she fixates on the show Socialites and its star Magnolia Artois, following every facet of the girl’s life on social media in the hopes of befriending and becoming more like her.But stalking isn’t new to Lexi. She ultimately won over her ex Steve by following and manipulating every minute detail about him so he’d fall for her. In fact, she landed her other ex-boyfriend Jeremy in the same way. Being a pharma rep, she’s used to manipulation to get doctors to buy her drugs, along with the perk of saving pills for herself.But what happens when the stalker gets stalked?Recently, Lexi has felt someone watching her: in her apartment in Queens, at her job. At first, she thinks her mind’s playing tricks, but the watcher is behaving just like she would. And soon they begin leaving threatening clues like she starts to do to Magnolia once her obsession grows more dangerous. Is it one of her exes out for revenge? Her only real friend from childhood who she’s always had an unhealthy rivalry? A detective who may have figured her out? The reality star Magnolia trying to turn the tables? Or even someone she might not know?Lexi learns the only way to beat her stalker is to use her own stalking prowess to outsmart them at their own game. But has she finally met her match?

    Always fascinated with anything supernatural, Elizabeth determined this year’s theme would center around a particular superstition. This year, she was to host a dinner party of just thirteen guests. She wanted to test the adage that if one broke the circle of thirteen at the table, then misery would befall all in attendance.Ms. Headstrom intentionally invited only those who have been most notable in certain circles, some not exactly for the best reasons, to attend this year’s event. All the infamous guests accept her invite, unaware of the theme, as well as unaware of just how far the evening’s events would go.

     Even though sex is one of the most basic needs, humanity still shies away from talking about it. With this book, through my poems I urge you to tastefully feel, visualise and just enjoy something that comes naturally to all of us. Enjoy the image depicted with each poem to enrich the surge of emotions you will feel! Another journey, another path, discover some more of your emotions and let love flow through... "Enigma is a compelling book that will make you see love making in a mind-blowing way. A decent, elegant, erotic book with nice poetic content well put together by author - Chriselda Barretto. A perfect book celebrating quality time with one's mate!" - Debb

    Michael’s Catholic school outside Boston in the 60s and 70s, takes refuge in her wacky misunderstandings of Bible Stories and Catholic beliefs to avoid the problems of her Irish/Italian family life. Her musings on sadistic nuns, domestic violence, emerging sexuality, and God the Father’s romantic life will delight readers. Bridget creates glorious supernatural worlds—with exorcisms, bird relics, Virgin Martyrs, time travel, Biblical plagues, even the ‘holy’ in holy water—to cope with a family where leather handbags and even garlic can cause explosions. An avid Bible reader who innocently believes everything the nuns tell her, Bridget’s saints, martyrs, and boney Christs become alive and audible within her. While the nuns chide her sinful ‘mathematical pride’ and slow eating habits, God answers her prayers instantly by day, but the devil visits nightly in the dark. Scenes run the gamut from laugh-out-loud Catholic brainwashing of children, to heart-wrenching abuse, to riveting teenage excursions toward sex. Young Bridget tries to make sense of a world of raging men and domestically subjugated women and carve a future for herself, wrestling with how God and men treat women. Her Italian female relatives—glamorous Santa Anna, black-and-blue Aunt Maria, sophisticated Eleanor with a New York ‘Fellini pageboy’—offer sensual alternatives to the repression of her immediate family. She prays fervently that “despite God’s bizarre treatment of married women... some [girls] might still discover ways to have a great time without being a nun.” Dodging Satan is the flip-side of l'Histoire d'une Âme by Saint Thérèse of Lisieux authored by a twentieth century American girl chomping on a blue-gum cigar while she talks to a confidant about God and sex.

    Adam Plantinga, author of 400 Things Cops Know and Police Craft. At a time when New York’s mean streets were their meanest, one NYPD detective at the end of his career takes one last chance to correct a 20-year-old injustice, and another cop at the beginning of his career tries to stop him before a police department already scarred by corruption investigations takes another hit.

    The Kovid family, who live somewhere in the Eastern US make the best of it through planned shopping maneuvers, family togetherness at dinner time and the TV set. Mom and Dad Kovid have three sons aged 17, 16 and 13. The middle son has a sweetheart named 'Amber', who at the beginning of the quarantine is a patient on a hospital ship, and is dying from COVID-19, when a miracle takes place.

    But when the truth brought Laney Thomas back, something followed.Together, Laney and Evan have moved forward from the night that changed their lives forever. They finished college, moved back home, and started the next chapter of their lives. But shortly after being back in Lake Haven, they began. Nightmares. Ominous sleep stealers of never-ending darkness, that plague Laney’s dreams, threatening her happy ever after.But darkness, is never just itself. Something is always hiding in its shadows. And while the truth may have saved her once, the consequence of that night could be too hard to escape this time.RAVEL is the second book in the Lake Haven series. It dives deeper into the world of EVOKE, exploring the impact of moments that change us, loves that consume us, and decisions that forever haunt us.

    Denied a privileged life, she is caught in the devious grip of an international trafficking ring. Confronted by the ultimate depravity of this underworld, she escapes, only for it to haunt her relationships, her future, her world.Ava’s former captors, Jeffrey Hoffman and his network of global elites, hold every option in keeping their secrets, silencing anyone who steps out of line. But Ava pursues them nonetheless.Only one woman, an accomplice in Hoffman’s criminal trade, might provide the closure Ava desperately seeks. Will she track her down? And will Ava get from her what she needs to resolve the ravages of the past?