Nicky Paxton is up to her pointed elf ears in work—filling in for a sick Santa’s helper, corralling kittens in a mechanical winter wonderland and running her family’s department store chain. With only 14 shopping days until Christmas, the last thing she needs is the return of her high school heart-breaker.Lawyer and single dad Chris Spencer leaves the Los Angeles rat race to raise his five-year-old daughter, Holly, in his sleepy Virginia hometown. His first goal is to make sure Hol...

A crime of passion…To clear an innocent friend, sex therapist Dr. Ally Skye investigates a patient’s murder. Soon she's trading heated words and hot kisses with a sexy cop. Can this free-spirited amateur sleuth and her posse of Vegas insiders solve the crime before the killer targets her?A sexy complication…Cynical homicide detective Zack Crawford has the murder to solve. The last thing he needs is a red-hot sex therapist who haunts...

The holidays are the perfect time for ex-lovers to get a second chance at love! This sensual contemporary romance novella is the second in the dog-lovers' "Klein's K-9s" series, featuring a service dog training facility, its skilled staff, and its compassionate volunteers.Celebrity photographer "Jax" Jackson volunteers to shoot the Klein's K-9s service dog facility's fundraising calendar. His agenda: Convince past love and calendar coordinator Amy Walters to give h...

Is it coincidence or karma that lands a stubborn loner in an animal shelter run by his soulmate? In this sensual contemporary romance novella (the third in the dog-lovers' "Klein's K-9s" series), two deserving people discover there's so much more to life than work.After a night of raucous partying in a North Carolina town, country music star Ryan "Rowdy" Gates is sentenced to two months of community service at the Jenkins Animal Shelter. The last thing he expects is to bond with th...

Modern loneliness and the absence of intimacy amongst London's millions are the ills suffered by the quirky yet deeply melancholic 30-something, Joseph Bogart.Weighed down with emotional baggage and feeling lost amidst a mass of failed relationships, Joseph uses his sharp wit and tragicomedy to fight the hopelessness gnawing at him.Through his trials, we discover if Joseph is able to find a successful way out of his life of 'quiet desperation'.

Mysterious and misunderstood, distorted by Biblical imagery of disfigurement and uncleanness, Hansen's disease or leprosy has all but disappeared from America's consciousness. In Carville, Louisiana, the closed doors of the nation's last center for the treatment of leprosy open to reveal stories of sadness, separation, and even strength in the face of what was once a life-wrenching diagnosis.Drawn from interviews with living patients and extensive research in the leprosarium's arch...

Mysterious and misunderstood, distorted by biblical imagery of disfigurement and uncleanness, Hansen's disease or leprosy has all but disappeared from America's consciousness. In Carville, Louisiana, the closed doors of the nation's last center for the treatment of leprosy open to reveal stories of sadness, separation, and even strength in the face of what was once a life-wrenching diagnosis.Drawn from interviews with living patients and extensive research in the leprosarium's arch...

In light of globalization, ongoing issues of race, gender, and class, and the rapidly changing roles of institutions, this volume asserts that Christian social ethics must be reframed completely. Three questions are at the heart of this vital inquiry: How can moral community flourish in a global context? What kinds of leadership do we need to nurture global moral community? How shall we construe social institutions and social movements for change in the twentyfirst century?The illu...

The detectable identity of southern Louisiana’s one-of-a-kind culture has been expressed in numerous descriptive phrases—"south of the South,” “the northern tip of the Caribbean,” “this folklore land.” A strange, piquant, and savory mixture, Louisiana also has been likened to one of the region’s signature dishes, gumbo.Capturing this elusive culture and its charm has challenged many authors, anthropologists, and anthologists. Coming closest to any book yet published, this anthology...

The concept of a “postracial” America —the dream of a nation beyond race — has attracted much attention over the course of the presidency of Barack Obama, suggesting that this idea is peculiar to the contemporary moment alone. Postracial America? An Interdisciplinary Study attempts to broaden the application of this idea by situating it in contexts that demonstrate how the idea of the postracial has been with America since its founding and will continue to be long after the Obama administr...

The new context and character of public service - shifting values, entrepreneurship, information technology, and multi-sector careers - require a 'skills triangle' of technical, ethical, and leadership abilities. This concise and readable work focuses on these three essential skills, and describes what it means to be a consummate professional public servant. Essential reading for both professionals and students, "Achieving Competencies in Public Service: The Professional Edge" sets standar...

In recent years, political discourse about gun control and the Second Amendment has become increasingly volatile and this collection of original essays by top scholars illuminates the various reasons why. Gun lobbies such as the National Rifle Association are more organized and aggressive and their issue agenda has evolved as new and more powerful weapons and militia appear. On the other side of the debate, the critical wounding of James Brady gave gun control advocates a visible martyr wi...