Ruined. Tortured. Broken. What could have been the perfect childhood turned into a hell that the devil himself would shy away from. I was forced to deal with an evil that would make the darkest of souls cringe. Lily Noel was scarred but beautiful. She was perfectly flawed and everything that I needed. Attraction bordered on obsession. Passion bordered on ecstasy. Addiction bordered on insanity. Nothing could get in the way of our love. Nothing.... This book contains dark themes including s...

When his magical multistring duar snaps in half, Jon-Tom the spellsinger sets out on a journey that will take him all the way back to...America!Jon-Tom has been trapped in a strange land of talking owls and wizarding turtles for a year now, his sole consolation that in this universe his musical abilities have inadvertently made him something of a sorcerer. But when an encounter with some burglars leads to him snapping the magical duar that channels his power, he finds himself an or...

Writers of the modern essay can trace their chosen genre all the way back to Michel de Montaigne (1533–92). But save for the recent notable best seller How to Live: A Life of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell, Montaigne is largely ignored. After Montaigne—a collection of twenty-four new personal essays intended as tribute—aims to correct this collective lapse of memory and introduce modern readers and writers to their stylistic forebear.Though it’s been over four hundre...

D is a vampire hunter--and he's just been paid ten times his asking price to do exactly that, an assignment to destroy Duke Van Doren, administrator of the northern Frontier.Among the complications are that no less than three other groups, each with their own agenda, are headed for the Duke themselves...and D's supposed to hang back from striking until his target has eliminated all three! The question is, will the Duke oblige the terms of the contract--or does he a...

War has spread throughout the world and the Metti virus consumes every continent. Attackers must now defend their own borders and alliances crumble as greed consumes the strong. A threat is kept, and a weapon known as The Grey Sheet is deployed as a final desperate attempt at victory. Even an unlikely alliance between sworn enemies may not be able to stop what's coming.Lieutenant Miguel Alverez is a broken man. Through retreat and defeat at every turn he has been given one final mi...

Daniel Provost is the son of a farmer. Living up to his father's high standards for the farm is very hard work, but his life is basically comfortable and a loving woman is waiting to become his wife.When a well-traveled stranger, bearing a story of Jim Bowie's legendary silver mine, appears at the farm, Daniel might just throw away everything for the chance at adventure he thought had passed him by.

A controversial governor recounts his fight to reform his state and issues a call to action for the whole countryIn 2010, Scott Walker was elected governor of Wisconsin with a mandate to improve its economy and restore fiscal responsibility. With the state facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit, he proposed a series of reforms to limit the collective bargaining power of public employee unions, which was costing taxpayers billions in pension and health care costs....

DJ Screw, a.k.a. Robert Earl Davis Jr., changed rap and hip-hop forever. In the 1990s, in a spare room of his Houston home, he developed a revolutionary mixing technique known as chopped and screwed. Spinning two copies of a record, Screw would “chop” in new rhythms, bring in local rappers to freestyle over the tracks, and slow the recording down on tape. Soon Houstonians were lining up to buy his cassettes—he could sell thousands in a single day. Fans drove around town blasting his music,...

The neighborhoods of Fifth Ward, Fourth Ward, Third Ward, and the Southside of Houston, Texas, gave birth to Houston rap, a vibrant music scene that has produced globally recognized artists such as Geto Boys, DJ Screw, Pimp C and Bun B of UGK, Fat Pat, Big Moe, Z-Ro, Lil’ Troy, and Paul Wall. Lance Scott Walker and photographer Peter Beste spent a decade documenting Houston’s scene, interviewing and photographing the people—rappers, DJs, producers, promoters, record label owners—and places...

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.Inside DriveSim Twelve, first contact begins with a glitch.During a routine test run, physicist Lena Mirek sees something that shouldn’t be possible—a reflection that moves before she does, a pulse that reacts instead of following the simulation, a pattern that feels intentional. At first, she assumes it’s a system malfunction.Then the anomaly appears outside the simulation.Footsteps misalign. Consoles respond ea...

SHORTLISTED: Business Book Awards 2022 - International Business Book categoryCATEGORY SILVER WINNER*: Axiom Awards 2022 - Business Commentary Category*The greatest challenge facing leaders is activating and actioning purpose based brands to the people who matter inside the company and out. Recent statistics prove that more than 87% of consumers would purchase a product because a company advocated for an issue they cared abou...

In 2009, Ignacio Walker—scholar, politician, and one of Latin America’s leading public intellectuals—published La Democracia en América Latina. Now available in English, with a new prologue, and significantly revised and updated for an English-speaking audience, Democracy in Latin America: Between Hope and Despair contributes to the necessary and urgent task of exploring both the possibilities and difficulties of establishing a stable democracy in Latin America.Wa...