Sweet Sofie


Book Description

Her entire life, Sofia Moreno has dealt with overprotective brothers. With her three older brothers always lurking, no boy would dare reach out to her. Luckily for Sofia, the one boy she's got her heart set on has always been within reach: her brother's best friend Eric, even though his loyalty to her brothers runs deep. Sofia knows there is only so much he can do before giving in to her.Two years older than her, Eric Diego has always known there would be hell to pay if he messed with his best friend's kid sister, Sofia. Through the years, he watches as she blooms into a beautiful young lady right before his eyes. With teenage hormones raging and Sofia more than willing, Eric agrees to the unthinkable: a forbidden secret romance. Feeling emotions and a feverish passion that's new to them both, neither is ready for how quickly their romance spins out of control.Author recommendation -Mature YA Contemporary romance - language and some adult content.




Lovestruck Forever


Book Description

Lizzie Medina’s dreams are about to come true. She’s finally about to marry her true love, the internationally famous movie star Thomas Harper. Her career appears posed for a break out of its own. And, maybe best of all, her family actually seems to have accepted her relationship with Thomas. Just when it seems that it might be possible to actually get everything she ever wanted, Lizzie’s perfectly constructed world starts getting complicated. There’s a rift in the family over a surprise pregnancy. Thomas begins shooting his dream movie—on the other side of the ocean. And the stress of planning a wedding with her overbearing loved ones makes her question how much they’ve changed after all. When someone from Thomas’s past resurfaces, everything Lizzie has worked so hard to build is threatened. Now she must decide, once and for all, what really matters to her—and what she’s willing to fight for.




Her First Breath


Book Description

Her First Breath is a captivating story of the unlikely friendship between an elderly lady and a headstrong young woman who are thrown together by circumstances beyond their control. Sofie Swanson is a private and willful young woman. Independent to the core, Sofie is horrified to learn she is sharing a hospital room with Naomi Moore, an elderly woman seemingly focused on bringing out the worst in her. Sofie, a Yale Law School graduate and attorney, is determined to blame God for her unhappy lot in life. Naomi, a religious and motherly woman born and raised in West Virginia, praises Him for her life. Perplexed and intrigued by her new roommate’s unending faith in a God she does not know or understand, Sofie soon unearths parts of herself she would rather leave buried. As an unlikely friendship ensues, Sophie embarks on a profound journey to a new beginning she never could have imagined.




The Bitter Side of Sweet


Book Description

For fans of Linda Sue Park and A Long Way Gone, two young boys must escape a life of slavery in modern-day Ivory Coast Fifteen-year-old Amadou counts the things that matter. For two years what has mattered are the number of cacao pods he and his younger brother, Seydou, can chop down in a day. The higher the number the safer they are. The higher the number the closer they are to paying off their debt and returning home. Maybe. The problem is Amadou doesn’t know how much he and Seydou owe, and the bosses won’t tell him. The boys only wanted to make money to help their impoverished family, instead they were tricked into forced labor on a plantation in the Ivory Coast. With no hope of escape, all they can do is try their best to stay alive—until Khadija comes into their lives. She’s the first girl who’s ever come to camp, and she’s a wild thing. She fights bravely every day, attempting escape again and again, reminding Amadou what it means to be free. But finally, the bosses break her, and what happens next to the brother he has always tried to protect almost breaks Amadou. The three band together as family and try just once more to escape. Inspired by true-to-life events happening right now, The Bitter Side of Sweet is an exquisitely written tour de force not to be missed. “A gripping and painful portrait of modern-day child slavery in the cacao plantations of the Ivory Coast.”—The Wall Street Journal “A tender, harrowing story of family, friendship, and the pursuit of freedom.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review




The Flowering Wand


Book Description

A deep exploration of the regenerative and magical secrets of sacred masculinity hidden in familiar myths both ancient and modern • Reveals the restorative fungi archetype of Osiris, the Orphic mysteries as an underground mycelium linking forests and people, how Dionysus teaches us about invasive species and playful sexuality, and the ecology of Jesus as depicted in his nature-focused parables • Liberates Tristan, Merlin, and the Grail legends from the bounds of Campbell’s hero’s journey and invites the masculine into more nuanced, complex ways of dealing with trauma, growth, and self-knowledge Long before the sword-wielding heroes of legend readily cut down forests, slaughtered the old deities, and vanquished their enemies, there were playful gods, animal-headed kings, mischievous lovers, trickster harpists, and vegetal magicians with flowering wands. As eco-feminist scholar Sophie Strand discovered, these wilder, more magical modes of the masculine have always been hidden in plain sight. Sharing the culmination of eight years of research into myth, folklore, and the history of religion, Strand leads us back into the forgotten landscapes and hidden secrets of familiar myths, revealing the beautiful range of the divine masculine, including expressions of male friendship, male intimacy, and male creative collaboration. In discussing Dionysus and Osiris, Strand encourages us to think like an ecosystem instead of like an individual. She connects dying, vegetal gods to the virtuous cycle of composting and decay, highlighting the ways in which mushrooms can restore soil and heal polluted landscapes. Exploring esoteric Christianity, the author celebrates the Gnostic Jesus of the Gospel of Thomas, imagining the ecology that the Rabbi Yeshua would have actually been referencing in his nature-focused parables. Strand frees Tristan, Merlin, and the Grail legends from the bounds of Campbell’s hero’s journey and invites the masculine into more nuanced, complex ways of dealing with trauma, growth, and self-knowledge. Strand reseeds our minds with new visions of male identity and shows how each of us, regardless of gender, can develop a matured ecological empathy and witness a blossoming of sacred masculine powers that are soft, curious, connective, and celebratory.




Love Charms and Other Catastrophes


Book Description

Aspiring love charm maker Hijiri Kitamura was excited to come back to Grimbaud for her sophomore year-until she learns about the upcoming charm making competition. Grimbaud has just started to recover from the tyranny of Zita's love fortunes and it would be too easy for the winning charm maker to take Zita's place. The only solution is for Hijiri, with the support of her friends and fellow rebels, to win the contest herself. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done, especially when Love itself has decided to meddle in Hijiri's life. Concerned that it's favorite charm maker has given up on finding a boyfriend of her own, Love takes matters into its own hands and delivers the perfect boyfriend to her in a giftwrapped box...literally.




Intimate Voyages


Book Description

This thought-provoking novel, involving a prominent family aboard the most famous passenger liner in history, has a unique story line of intense drama. Detailing atrocious horrors that demand rescue, the story is told exclusively in first person directly involving the main female character, Sofia Anne Rothman. She is a very wealthy socialite who appears to have everything a woman could possibly desire. True reality reflects a young soul gruesomely victimized since the tender age of five. Her family demands complete loyalty from their youngest member, insisting she obey unquestionably her elder demented brother. Her new journey begins by sailing back home on the maiden voyage of Titanic. Her soul already bares a lifetime of endless unimaginable abuse that she tries in such desperation to suppress deep in her consciousness. Never has a tale entangled such complexities in such a raw realistic manner.




Waiting for the Sunrise


Book Description

Young, selfish and impulsive, Livia and her brother Joe set out to make amends for past indiscretions. Their intertwined paths to heal old wounds leave a path of destruction behind, threatening to break their ties to those they hold most dear. Instead of the forgiveness they seek, Livia and Joe are thrust into the suffering of reopened wounds, and they begin to realize the surest path to absolution isn't to mend past roads but rather to wait for the sun to rise on a new day.




Rescuing the Bad Boy


Book Description

Not All Scars Heal For Donovan Pate, the lake town of Evergreen Cove is a minefield of tough memories-including the day he had to let go of Sofie Martin. Years later he still can't forget the taste of her lips and the feel of her killer curves. He knows he's too damaged, that he should stay away for her own good. But what the head says and the heart wants are two very different things . . . Seven years ago, Donovan broke Sofie's heart. Now her career depends on playing nice in order to pull off the charity fund-raiser of the decade. She vows to keep things professional . . . yet working by his side every day doesn't make it easy to fight temptation, and it isn't long before she finds herself falling for this bad boy all over again. But loving Donovan means helping him face his past-so they can fight for a future together. "Jessica Lemmon is an author to keep your eye on!" -- Katee Robert, New York Times bestselling author "Everything I love in a romance." -- Lori Foster, 2014




The Goat's Head


Book Description

Swedish-born law student, Sofie Lackberg's life is sent into perilous turmoil when she spots a flyer advertising a care assistant job for one night in a palatial Victorian house of gothic architecture and a marble demon out front standing sentry. But the money is too good to turn down for Sofie to keep up with her student fees. Her decision however is the worst she will ever make. The occupants aren't what they appear. Hooded figures capture and restrain her for sacrificial purposes. Sofie has been the chosen one since her birth to give life to the creature only known as "the thing with the goat's head". Can Sofie change her destiny before it is too late? Or will the harrowing truth of her own existence be beyond her control?




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