Curvy fitness influencer Crystal Chen built her career shattering gym stereotypes and mostly ignoring the trolls. After her recent breakup, she has little stamina left for men, instead finding solace in the gym - her place of power and positivity.Enter firefighter Scott Ritchie, the smug new gym patron who routinely steals her favorite squat rack. Sparks fly as these ultra-competitive foes battle for gym domination. But after a series of escalating jabs, the last thing they expect is to run into each other at their grandparents' engagement party.In the lead up to their grandparents' wedding, Crystal discovers there's a soft heart under Scott's muscled exterior. Bonding over family, fitness, and cheesy pick-up lines, she just might have found her swolemate. But when a photo of them goes viral, savage internet trolls put their budding relationship to the ultimate test of strength.

    We need a fresh understanding of the meaning of success. What do Condoleezza Rice, Joe Torre, Bill Gates, Goldie Hawn, Mary Hart, Garry Kasparov, and Jack Welch have in common? All have talked at length with Maria Bartiromo about business, the world and their surprising, inspiring and uncommon ideas about the meaning of success. Their stories, those of an extraordinary range of other people from all walks of life, and Maria Bartiromo’s personal insights are the foundation of The 10 Laws of Enduring Success. It is the guide for the extraordinary times we are living through.  During bullish, optimistic periods, people seem to ride an upward wave with ease and confidence. The tangible evidence is right there for all to see--in their jobs, bank accounts, homes, families, and the admiration of their peers. But it is a fact of life that success, once earned, is not necessarily there to stay. If ever there was a cautionary tale about the fleeting nature of success, it is the events of recent years.     But a funny thing happened. Faced with gut-wrenching realities, many people have started to re-evaluate the meaning of success in less superficial and impermanent ways. They're asking themselves hard questions that havelong been ignored:  about what's really important to them, and where the bedrock of their personal achievement lies.     As Maria Bartiromo watched the financial drama from her front-row seat at the New York Stock Exchange, she began to re-assess the meaning of success--not just as one-off achievements, but as a durable, lifelong pursuit. Is there, she wondered, a definition of success that you can have permanently--in spite of the turmoil in your life, your job, or your bank account? This question is more important than ever, given the unpredictability of the current economy. --What are the intangibles that can't be measured or counted? --What are the qualities that aren't reflected in your title or on your business card?--And more practically, how can you remain successful even when the worst things happen to you? --Is it possible to build success from failure? It's lonely at the bottom of the heap, when your BlackBerry stops buzzing, and the world moves on without you.  Everyone wants to be close to success, and to have success. But what is success? How do you get it, and how do you keep it? As Maria interviewed some of the most successful people in the world, she felt the need to answer these questions: what makes these success stories tick? How did they achieve such leadership and power and how can one hold onto it, once you get it. What are the barriers to success and what is the bedrock to enduring success? From the Hardcover edition.

    Dark. Romantic. Introducing a newly reimagined tale written in the vein of Beauty and the Beast and Hades and Persephone.Long before civilization, there were the gods. And before the gods, there was the earth, the celestial bodies, and air given flesh. They are the Anemoi—the Four Winds—and they have been banished to the four corners of the world.Wren of Edgewood is no stranger to suffering. Her parents are gone. Survival is all she knows. For three hundred years, the land known as the Gray has been encased in ice, surrounded by a great barrier called the Shade, which protects the townsfolk from the Deadlands beyond.But day by day, the Shade weakens.Only one thing can stop the Shade's fall: a mortal woman taken captive across the barrier, bound in wedlock to the dark god who reigns over the Deadlands. He is the North Wind, the Frost King, an immortal whose heart is said to be as frigid as the land he rules.And the time has come for the Frost King to choose his bride. The North Wind is a standalone, enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance, the first in a series sprinkled with Greek lore. Perfect for fans of Jennifer L. Armentrout, Laura Thalassa, and Scarlett St. Clair.

    Former cattle driver, Rough Rider and current New York City cop Nat Blackburn is given an offer he can't refuse by President Teddy Roosevelt. Tales of gold in the abandoned mining town of Hecla, in the Deep Rock Hills, abound. The only problem-those who go seeking their fortune never return. Roosevelt's own troops are among the missing, and the President wants to know their fate - and find the gold. Along with his constant companion, Teta, a hired gun with a thirst for adventure, Nat travels to a barren land where even animals dare not tread. Along the way, they are joined by a Selma, a fiery and beautiful woman in search of her brother who was swallowed up by Hecla years earlier. Hecla is an eerie ghost town, its cemetery filled with crooked tombstones, the dusty streets scored by tumbleweed, the windows of the abandoned houses like eyes, following their every move. Terrifying wraiths flit throughout the town at night. Settling into a vacant home, Nat, Teta and Selma are approached by strange, black eyed children who then disappear like twin vapors. A trip to the mine ends with them galloping for their lives, chased by immense, hairy wild men. No, Hecla is far from abandoned - it's teeming with the supernatural, strange beasts and phantoms both luring them deeper into the mystery and driving them away from the mine. Only when a strange preacher and his hulking mute assistant arrive (on a Godly mission after hearing the blaring horns of Revelation) do they realize they cannot leave the town's borders, an invisible wall refusing to let them go. There's only one thing to do - plumb the chilling depths of the ghost mine and find the source of Hecla's bizarre power. What they stumble upon is a hellish battle of underworld forces while being tortured by the ghosts of their checkered pasts. There's a mystery in Hecla thousands of years old. Solving it could spell the end of the world. F

    Work-In-Progress; with no definitive publication date.

    . . Some are not.What happens when "the happiest day of your life" turns into a nightmare? Forget the drunken best man or the bridesmaid dresses from the '80s . . . none of these wedding day disasters can compare to a cursed bride determined to make it down the aisle, or a vampire who is about to disrupt your wedding.

    Jeanann Verlee's award-winning debut collection is a series of narratives, prayers, and conjurings which address gender, sex, race, poverty, heartbreak, and survival with such stark intimacy, you will find yourself living inside. These poems cannot possibly be about you, yet they are. They cross boundaries and reclaim hope. They are as the opening poem suggests, nothing short of communion.

    Woodman.What if Rome never fell?In an alternative reality, the Roman Empire never fell, and the world was never the same. Present-day Appia, real-world North America, fractured by a mythical war in recent history has been divided into five Imperial fortress states. These states, shielded by an invisible forcefield and known as Havens, are designed to protect inhabitants from the world beyond. What lies beyond? Electa Steel wants to know.Electa, on the cusp of womanhood, faces an uncertain future in Latia, the capital state in Appia. While sun-drenched Latia may be a paradise for some, it is a prison for others. Feeling suppressed by her society’s rules, expectations, and religion, she rebels quietly in the only ways she knows how – drinking, smoking, fighting, and partying. Her youthful but futile resistance cannot last for long. Her seventeenth birthday looms and with it, the Choosing. This rite of passage promises wealth and happiness for a chosen few but Electa, as a plebeian faces an almost certain fate – expulsion from her Haven and homeland.Electa’s fate takes an unexpected turn when, against all the odds, she is Chosen to remain in her society for the rest of her life and to compete in Imperial Panore, a once in a generation event to find a wife for the future Emperor. A mysterious terror organization, Spartaca, from outside her Haven, recruits her, to bring down the Empire from the inside. Spartaca uses Electa as a pawn, and in the process, she must learn to adapt to the politics and power her new life brings. To win the competition, she must first seduce the Prince, and future Emperor, Asher Ovicula. Then she must defeat the other competitors in a series of brutal gladiatorial games. Why did Spartaca choose her? The truth will change Electa’s world forever. For fans of Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen series, the Hunger Games, and The Man in the High Castle.

    Forty-four writers, dancers, actors, and artists contribute essays, lists, poems, comics, and illustrations about everything from body positivity to romance to gender identity to intersectionality to the greatest girl friendships in fiction. Together, they share diverse perspectives on and insights into what feminism means and what it looks like. Come on in, turn the pages, and be inspired to find your own path to feminism by the awesome individuals in Here We Are.Welcome to one of the most life-changing parties around!

    In this restless, swerving book simple questions—such as, Why paint a bird?—are immediately complicated by concerns of morality, human capacity, and the ways we look to art for meaning and purpose while participating in its—and our own—invention.

    It’s a monstrous thing, not just because of its size, but because of who was murdered there. When Ruby Case limped into church that spring morning, she was not thinking about haunted trees. Mother of two young boys and wife to a backslidden believer, she faithfully prays for God’s visitation upon the city. Yet when she inexplicably raises a boy from the dead, Ruby gets more than she bargained for. The resurrection creates uproar in the quiet coastal town, turning Ruby into both a celebrity and a scapegoat. When Reverend Ian Clark joins Ruby in a search for answers it leads to a collision with unspeakable darkness. Together, they quickly realize that Ruby woke more than a dead boy, and the secrets she unleashed now threaten to destroy them all. Can they overcome their own brokenness before they become victims of an insidious evil?

    Dark. Humorous. Twisted.---While on his way to the office one morning, Norman Reeves' daily commute derails when a run-in with a stranger makes him question not only the whereabouts of his wallet, but also his sanity. In hopes of retrieving his property--and to satisfy his curiosity--Norman agrees to meet a hooker in an alley for the promise of making some extra cash if he simply talks to her. But when he arrives in the alley, he is surprised to see the hooker accompanied by a sharp-tongued boy, and a set of conjoined twins who only speak in riddles. Further complicating the bewildering encounter, the stranger tells Norman he must choose from these bizarre people, to take one of them with him on a journey--and he cannot refuse.The stranger? None other than the Devil. The journey? Find the center of Eden and reverse the Fall of Man.Thrust into a place called Creation, Norman's task is plagued by unimaginable people and events. He must unravel impossible clues to free the Three Trees, and keep himself out of Hell at the same time. On this surreal and fantastical journey, Norman discovers many things better left unknown: the shocking secret lives of people close to him, and the terrible reason why he was chosen for this mission.If Norman succeeds, his rewards will be unimaginable.But should Norman fail, like all visitors to Creation, he will forget everyone and everything he has ever known, becoming part of the nightmarish madness that was once the paradise of Eden.

    Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.

    Inspired by her own reflections on more than fifty years of life as a young girl, a woman, a wife, and a mother, She Walks in Beauty draws on poetry's eloquent wisdom to ponder the many joys and challenges of being a woman. Kennedy has divided the collection into sections that signify to her the most notable milestones, passages, and universal experiences in a woman's life, and she begins each of these sections with an introduction in which she explores and celebrates the most important elements of life's journey.The collection includes works by Elizabeth Bishop, Sharon Olds, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mary Oliver, Pablo Neruda, W. H. Auden, Adrienne Rich, Sandra Cisneros, Anne Sexton, W. S. Merwin, Dorothy Parker, Queen Elizabeth I, Lucille Clifton, Naomi Shahib Nye, and W.B. Yeats. Whether it's falling in love, breaking up, friendship, marriage, motherhood, or growing old, She Walks in Beauty is a priceless resource for anyone, male or female, who wants a deeper understanding and appreciation of what it means to be a woman.She walks in beautyGeorge Gordon, Lord ByronI She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and brightMeet in her aspect and her eyes:Thus mellow'd to that tender lightWhich heaven to gaudy day denies.II One shade the more, one ray the less,Had half impair'd the nameless graceWhich waves in every raven tress,Or softly lightens o'er her face;Where thoughts serenely sweet expressHow pure, how dear their dwelling-place.III And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,The smiles that win, the tints that glow,But tell of days in goodness spent,A mind at peace with all below,A heart whose love is innocent!

    And in this new collection, Horoscopes for the Dead, the verbal gifts that earned him the title “America’s most popular poet” are on full display. The poems here cover the usual but everlasting themes of love and loss, life and death, youth and aging, solitude and union. With simple diction and effortless turns of phrase, Collins is at once ironic and elegiac, as in the opening lines of the title poem:   Every morning since you disappeared for good, I read about you in the newspaper along with the box scores, the weather, and all the bad news. Some days I am reminded that today will not be a wildly romantic time for you . . .   And in this reflection on his own transience:   It doesn’t take much to remind me what a mayfly I am, what a soap bubble floating over the children’s party. Standing under the bones of a dinosaur in a museum does the trick every time or confronting in a vitrine a rock from the moon.  Smart, lyrical, and not afraid to be funny, these new poems extend Collins’s reputation as a poet who occupies a special place in the consciousness of readers of poetry, including the many he has converted to the genre.