Birth rates are falling almost everywhere. What's driving the decline?Governments have spent billions trying to encourage people to have more children, yet birth rates continue to drop. Economists blame housing costs. Researchers point to infertility. Politicians argue over policy. But what if they're all focusing on the symptoms rather than the cause?In Birth-Rate Crisis: Reclaiming Family and Purpose in a Dopamine-Driven World, Australian entrepr...

"I didn't enjoy this book, I LOVED it!" - Jennifer"Is it possible to fall in love with a fictional character? Because I am so in love with Matt!" - SarahWhen Samara Oldroyd meets the most amazing guy ever, she's frustrated their conversation is cut short. Her wishes that they'll run into each other again come true when she meets her sister's new boyfriend. It's him! Eeek!Inspired by the film Dan in Real Life, this novella will tickle you pink as Samara tries—in vain—...

Carter's life changes when an old man entrusts him with a book of magical spells. Ridge, his best friend, wants to try one of the spells—the power to bring people back to life—but Carter isn't comfortable with the idea. He finally consents when Ridge suggests they resurrect an obscure composer they've been studying in school. But will the spell work, and if it does, will the boys agree never to do it again?Note from the author: this book represents the combined efforts of me (Andre...

Twelve-year-old Ashley has trained for years to follow in her parents' footsteps and become an F.B.I. agent. When a mysterious, seemingly magical stone is stolen, and the F.B.I. needs someone small to retrieve it, she's ready.Ashley is about to learn that no amount of training can prepare her for what she'll come across, though. When bullets start flying and flames begin roaring, will she achieve her objective and get herself and the stone out safely?

Midian has lived in Gevkan Castle for almost all of her twenty-five years, growing up alongside Princess Arien. Though timid, she's content in her life and comfortable with the people who surround her. It's not until she meets Kelson, best friend of Prince Dmitri, that she realizes how deep her shyness runs. Kelson is outgoing and wildly flirtatious, pushing Midian away when all he wants is to draw her closer.Midian's life is put in danger when she's kidnapped by the neighboring ki...

Should Carter raise a detective from the dead to stop a famous thief?Carter suspects his former best friend, Ridge, is up to something, and he's not surprised it has to do with bringing a dead person back to life. When Carter learns that the person Ridge brings back is a famous thief, he must race to stop them both. Unfortunately, it means he'll also have to resurrect someone.Will Carter and the detective stop Ridge in time before the principal of their school is robbed or ...

It's been a year since Carter last had to raise someone from the dead to stop Ridge, and he has almost begun to relax. Almost. Before he can fully adjust to being a student at junior high, though, he and Ridge get in a fight, and Carter knows Ridge will do anything to find revenge.He just didn't expect Ridge to stoop this low.Carter must now raise Winston Churchill from the dead to stop someone Churchill has stopped twice before. Someone with the power to unite people to an...

Something ancient lurks beneath the waves…and it is waiting for you…H.P. Lovecraft's Dagon is the giant amphibious horror who spawned Deep Ones, hybrids which look human early in life but gradually take on their sire's monstrous form. Lovecraft created the mythology surrounding these beings in his stories "Dagon" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", and the nightmarish fish-people have been inspiring weird fiction ever since.In The Book of Dagon, seven...

As one of the first books to treat portraits of early modern women as a discrete subject, this volume considers the possibilities and limits of agency and identity for women in history and, with particular attention to gender, as categories of analysis for women's images. Its nine original essays on Italy, the Low Countries, Germany, France, and England deepen the usefulness of these analytical tools for portraiture. Among the book's broad contributions: it dispels false assumptions about ...

Illuminated here are the relationships between visual culture, faith, and gender in the courtly, monastic, and urban spheres of the early modern Burgundian Netherlands. By examining works by artists such as the Master of Mary of Burgundy, Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling, and Bernard van Orley, author Andrea Pearson identifies and explores pictorial constructions of masculinity and femininity in regard to the expectations, experiences, and practices of devotion. Specifically, she demonstrates th...

Who’s more dangerous—the brooding, attractive man she’s partnered with or the things they’re hunting?Lizzie Ashton thought being a professional Fire Impeder was dangerous, but using her magic to stop bombs, guns, and fires before they start is nothing compared to what happens when Abel, an intense man she’s worked with previously, storms back into her life.Abel needs assistance with a dangerous task that only Lizzie can do. She hesitates to accept his job o...

Disappearances at a popular national park... Monsters from another dimension... And Nicole can't use her magic. What could possibly go wrong?Mysterious disappearances at a popular national park force authorities to organize an academy-led expedition, and they've invited undergrads to compete to be included. As a talented Arete, Austin is a natural shoo-in. And he's not the only experienced student competing. Nicole struggles a great deal with her powers, but she knows she has wha...