Church of the Small Things


Book Description

Is my ordinary, everyday life actually significant? Is it okay to be fulfilled by the simple acts of raising kids, working in an office, and cooking chicken for dinner? It’s been said, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away.” The pressure of that can be staggering as we spend our days looking for that big thing that promises to take our breath away. Meanwhile, we lose sight of the small significance of fully living with every breath we take. Melanie Shankle, New York Times bestselling author and writer at The Big Mama Blog tackles these questions head on in her fourth book, Church of the Small Things. Easygoing and relatable, she speaks directly to the heart of women of all ages who are longing to find significance and meaning in the normal, sometimes mundane world of driving carpool to soccer practice, attending class on their college campus, cooking meals for their family, or taking care of a sick loved one. The million little pieces that make a life aren’t necessarily glamorous or far-reaching. But God uses some of the smallest, most ordinary acts of faithfulness—and sometimes they look a whole lot like packing lunch. Through humorous stories told in her signature style, full of Frito pie, best friends, the love of her Me-Ma and Pa-Pa, the unexpected grace that comes when we quit trying to measure up, and a little of the best TV has to offer, Melanie helps women embrace what it means to live a simple, yet incredibly meaningful life and how to find all the beauty and laughter that lies right beneath the surface of every moment.




Some of My Best Friends Are Human


Book Description

In an underground orphan center on an overpopulated planet, Tajen Jesmuhr dreams of freedom in a distant wilderness under an open sky. So when offered an interplanetary ecology class with offworld field trips, Taje leaps at the chance. But Taje isn't the only misfit here, where everyone has a tragic past and hidden wounds, and she soon clashes with her teacher and her classmates, including: A boy with a frightening secret who lost his family to a terrorist plague. A crafty female human-alien chimera whose parents disappeared in a paraspace accident. And a boy with a hidden past and a dead father he still hates. All may have promising careers ahead of them, but only if they can learn to trust themselves and one another enough to survive an uncaring system and a deadly final exam. Andre Norton believed in this story, and anyone--young and old--who loves science fiction with interesting characters, alien animals, and interplanetary adventures without war will enjoy it too.




My Best Friend's Exorcism


Book Description

Soon to be a major motion picture. This ENHANCED DIGITAL EDITION features TONS of TOTALLY AWESOME ’80s bonus materials—including Satanic Panic educational pamphlets, a do-it-yourself exorcism cheat sheet, a Spotify playlist of awesome ’80s tunes, animated cover artwork, and much more! From the New York Times best-selling author of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, this unholy hybrid of Beaches and The Exorcist blends teen angst and unspeakable horrors into a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller. The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries—and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?




Stranded with my Best Friend for the Holidays


Book Description

What could be more romantic than New Year's in New York City with the man of my dreams? We’d see the sights and experience the city together. And on New Year’s Eve, we’d be front and center in Times Square when the ball dropped for that all important kiss to bring in the new year. Except the guy I’d planned on taking broke up with me weeks before the trip. Cue my best friend, Kylan—who I’d always had a major crush on, though we’d never crossed the line beyond flirting. He was more than happy to join me, and I figured together we could make the best of it and at least have fun together. But neither one of us could have anticipated being stranded in a hotel in New York City, right before New Year’s Eve, due to an unexpected snowstorm. And little did I know that ‘making the best of it’ would mean both of us admitting to our years long attraction to one another, along with a hot kiss we both swore was just meant to see if we had “chemistry” but turned into steamy sexy times that ruined me for any other guy. Now, I’m looking forward to the new year with a new man, until we return home and I’m blindsided by a woman claiming to be his girlfriend . . .




Sarcasm Is a Dragon’s Best Friend


Book Description

My name is Gemini, and my life is a bloody mess. I almost kill my mother; my overbearing father exiles me out of the nest; one of my sisters wants to neuter me so stupidity doesnt breed; my dead grandmother wants me to complete stupid missions for her, and a witch thinks Im an arrogant and rude dragon, so she turns me human. Then I get captured by guards from a kingdom notorious for being cruel to males, and they make me their slave for three years. Their queen decides shes had enough of my sarcastic idiocy and sells me to a neighboring kingdom where I get stuck in a new dungeon: kinghood. Apparently I make enemies wherever I go. I have dragon slayers poaching in my kingdom and my armys commander desperately wanting to kill me so he could be king. All I want is to find a way to break my curse and get my scales back . . . and for my father to stop treating me like a hatchling. Is that too much to ask for?




Sedona Seduction


Book Description

Jaguar shifter, Vance Park used to be one of the Nero Organization's top assassins, but today he calls the Sedona Pack his family, and Sedona, Arizona, his home. He's no longer a hired gun, but a new senate candidate with insider secrets into Nero's shifter experiments, may change all that. Campaign promises could put targets on the backs of all the people Vance cares about, especially Kaya. He may have one last job after all. Kaya Blackwing has always been a loner, but through a twist of fate, she's finally found her Pack, and a place to belong. When she discovers her one true mate is a man with a deathwish, and more secrets than she can count, she struggles to redirect her wolf's primal instincts, but one kiss from Vance seduces her to dream of a future together, and she won't give it up without a fight.




A Good Kind of Trouble


Book Description

From debut author Lisa Moore Ramée comes this funny and big-hearted debut middle grade novel about friendship, family, and standing up for what’s right, perfect for fans of Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give and the novels of Renée Watson and Jason Reynolds. Twelve-year-old Shayla is allergic to trouble. All she wants to do is to follow the rules. (Oh, and she’d also like to make it through seventh grade with her best friendships intact, learn to run track, and have a cute boy see past her giant forehead.) But in junior high, it’s like all the rules have changed. Now she’s suddenly questioning who her best friends are and some people at school are saying she’s not black enough. Wait, what? Shay’s sister, Hana, is involved in Black Lives Matter, but Shay doesn't think that's for her. After experiencing a powerful protest, though, Shay decides some rules are worth breaking. She starts wearing an armband to school in support of the Black Lives movement. Soon everyone is taking sides. And she is given an ultimatum. Shay is scared to do the wrong thing (and even more scared to do the right thing), but if she doesn't face her fear, she'll be forever tripping over the next hurdle. Now that’s trouble, for real. "Tensions are high over the trial of a police officer who shot an unarmed Black man. When the officer is set free, and Shay goes with her family to a silent protest, she starts to see that some trouble is worth making." (Publishers Weekly, "An Anti-Racist Children's and YA Reading List")




Love Knows No Boundaries


Book Description

I actually wrote my book between 1986 and 1988 in Aiken, South Carolina, while my late husband was battling leukemia. Ive always wanted to write, so one day I just sat down and started jotting down notes. To my surprise, the words began to flow. I used bits and pieces of my real-life experiences, but for the most part, the book is fiction. The people are actually real people with fictitious names. The places are somewhat real. I have written short stories for the most part until this book became my first real writing experience. I did not complete the book until August of 1988 after the passing of my husband, but it just lay on my desk unpublished until I heard about Xlibris.




Lightning in Her Hands


Book Description

Gifted—or cursed—with the power to influence the weather, one woman must embrace her wild heart in the next electric romance from the author of Witch of Wild Things. Teal Flores is desperate for two things—control over her gift of weather, and a date to her ex’s wedding. The first isn’t possible until she finds her long-lost mother, but the second has a very handsome last-ditch solution: Carter Velasquez. Carter needs Teal too. His chance at receiving an inheritance is dependent on him being married by age thirty (blame his traditional Cuban grandmother), so who better to pose as his wife than Teal? But fake marriage and cohabitation prove tricky when mutual attraction charges the atmosphere—quite literally for Teal, whose volatile emotions cause lightning strikes. Together, Teal and Carter embark on a quest to find her mother and the answers she’s searching for. But along the way, they’ll discover something even better: a love that can weather any storm.




My Ex-Best Friend's Wedding


Book Description

A wedding dress passed down through generations unravels the tangled threads of three women's lives in a novel of friendship, family, and forgiveness from the USA Today bestselling author of Ten Beach Road. Prized and stored away for safekeeping, the timeless ivory wedding dress, with its scooped neck and cleverly fitted bodice, sits gently folded in its box, whispering of Happily Ever Afters. To Kendra, Brianna, and Lauren it’s a reminder of what could have been, the promise of a fairy tale, and a friendship torn apart. But as Kendra knows firsthand: it wasn’t the dress’s fault. Once closer than sisters, Lauren and Bree have grown up and grown apart, allowing broken promises and unfulfilled dreams to destroy their friendship. A successful author, Lauren returns home to the Outer Banks, fiancé in tow, to claim the dress she never thought she’d wear. While Bree, a bookstore owner, grapples with the realities of life after you marry the handsome prince. As the former best friends wrestle with their uncertain futures, they are both certain of one thing: some betrayals can never be forgiven. Now on the eve of her daughter Lauren’s wedding, Kendra struggles with a secret she’s kept for far too long. And vows to make sure the dress will finally bring Lauren and Bree back together—knowing they'll need each other to survive the coming storm.