Showing results by narrator "Shaina Summerville" in All Categories

I thought my invitation was a birthday present from my best friend. The dress, the limousine, the red carpet...I thought they were meant for me. That was mistake number one. Then my date arrives, all gleaming cufflinks and tousled hair, steely blue eyes, and a body honed to masculine precision. Arrogant. Charming. Panty-melting. And melt, they do. Hanky-panky with a rich hottie in the back room of the event I'm crashing? Don't mind if I do.

Perched between branches and shadows, we watch, we scheme, fighting for a kingdom forgotten and forlorn. Until we rip her away with our claws, our prisoner, our pawn, our plaything. She’s innocent and pure, fragile and helpless…but oh so guilty by blood. She calls us beasts, wicked and evil, vicious and cruel. We are all that and worse. One of us offers her shelter beneath his wings, whispering promises of pleasure, seeking redemption. The other longs to shatter her into a million pieces, whispering promises of pain, seeking revenge.

Shadows so Cruel is a full-length dark fantasy romance novel, and book two in the Court of Ravens duet. The two-part story features two morally gray raven shifters, a young woman at the mercy of their shadows, and a HEA.

Billionaire. CEO. Single dad. And for the next seven days, this arrogant hunk is going to be my boss. Easy, right? All I have to do is be a good nanny to Leif Sorensen's adorable, hell-raising, ballet-loving daughter. Keep my head down, my hands to myself, and forget about this silly crush I've been nursing. So he's big, and blond, and he stars in all my not-so-innocent "Hot Viking Ravages Innocent Maiden" fantasies? Who cares? Certainly not me. Nope. My week-long contract is my ticket out of trouble, and I'm not going to mess it up. Except . . . Leif has other ideas.

The first time I meet him, he is the hunter and I am the prey. The second time I see him, the reaper is knocking on my door. The third time, I am told he will be my husband. Every time we meet after that, I question if he will be my enemy or my lover. He says he’ll teach me the rules and consequences to this world of ours. It’s a dark place of give and most definitely take. And as my future husband, he’s supposed to protect me at all costs from the shadows that threaten my family. But am I ever truly safe when I’m with him?

Unfortunately, being a chronic people pleaser yet wanting to make sure he keeps a solid relationship with his best friend becomes difficult when said best friend asks for a huge favor: rent the spare room in his apartment to Luke's little sister, Calla.

LaRaine came to Hollywood in search of a rich husband and an easy life. But just as she got the chance to star in a movie, her wealthy fiancé cut her loose, ending her gold-digging career before it started. A few flops later, LaRaine's career is on its last legs, and she's looking for a safe haven. Instead, she'll find Deseret. In the wild expanse of the Utah desert, she meets a hard-bitten rancher during a location scout. He moves her in ways she didn't know were possible, and fills her with a love that will inspire her to remake herself as someone new.

I've tried to forget him. He refuses to allow it. Now, here we are, forced to spend the holidays together, pretending everything is as merry as ever. It isn't. I know this. He knows this. Everyone else? Not so much thanks to the man determined to be mine. Despite all that's happened between us, he swears not everything has changed. He might be right.

Layla Wright fit in her role as admin at West Oak Publishing about as well as she would at a five star restaurant in her 'I love DILFS' T-shirt. When she applied to the job she thought she would be learning the ins and outs of the industry to eventually write and publish her own novel. But after years of staying in this same position, she's unsure of how to break out of her routine and chase her dreams.

In Just as You Are, psychologist Michelle Skeen and her daughter, Kelly Skeen, offer simple tips to help you overcome feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness, stop comparing yourself to others, and be more open and accepting of all aspects of who you are. You'll also learn how to be more aware of your thoughts and feelings in the moment using powerful mindfulness tools and build a plan of action for the future based on your values.

The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate is an enjoyable, humorous, encouraging, easy-to-understand guidebook for being an ally to the LGBTQ+ communities. It is chock-full of practical and useful tools for LGBTQ+ advocacy, including: current and relevant information on identities and LGBTQ+ language; tips for what to say and what not to say when someone comes out to you; LGBTQ+ etiquette and techniques for respectful conversations; common bloopers to avoid; and more.

Edie was barely eighteen when she married Joe Gibbs, becoming a stepmother to his five-year-old son and mother to their new daughter. Their life was frugal but happy—until Joe left Edie a widow. Now grief-stricken and anxious about their future, Edie is surprised to learn that Joe had made a secret plan to keep them secure and allow the young widow to pursue a lifelong dream of owning a ranch in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The country's hottest TV cooking show is coming to Cape Cod. Lily Roberts is entering America Bakes! with her charming tearoom, Tea by the Sea! Filming is already proving disruptive, closing the tearoom during Lily's busiest season. But tensions really bubble over when infamous bad-boy chef and celebrity judge, Tommy Greene, loses his temper with Lily's staff, resulting in an on-camera blowout with Cheryl Wainwright. Just as Lily thinks the competition can't get more bitter, Tommy is found dead in Tea by the Sea's kitchen . . . murdered with Cheryl's rolling pin.

Stella Griffin doesn’t believe in fairy tales. Ever since her boyfriend dumped her three weeks before the prom—not ideal timing—she’s convinced every love story is a lie. She’s ready to skip the prom entirely. But she and her best friend, Nisha, have been planning for years to celebrate at Disneyland before the prom . . . an OG OC tradition. But even being all dressed up at the Happiest Place on Earth isn’t salvaging Stella’s night. Nisha has brought along her friend Reece to join them, and he and Stella do not get along.

For decades, performance management has been seen as an annual chore by managers and HR alike. But this process is changing, and there are ways to make it more effective for your organization and more useful for employees. If you read (or listen to) nothing else on performance management in your organization, listen to these ten articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you assess performance more accurately, have more effective feedback conversations, and encourage the growth of your employees.

Cape Cod tearoom proprietress and part-time sleuth Lily Roberts stirs up trouble when she unwittingly serves one of her grandmother's B&B guests a deadly cup of tea....

Web3 Marketing: A Handbook for the Next Internet Revolution is the essential book for anyone looking to understand the next era of the internet and start building. Beyond the sensational hype and headlines around crypto and NFTs, a real revolution is taking place: new technologies for owning, moving, and organizing value spell the overdue end of an internet where a few huge companies hoard data and power, and open a new frontier for products, services, and applications in which ownership and control belongs to creators, builders, and users.

When Brianna Jenson agreed to move in with her cruel uncle, Shane, in rural Pennsylvania, she didn't expect to find herself in the middle of a terrifying town legend. Every afternoon on her walk home from school, as the sun begins to set behind the overhanging branches of Shadowrun Road, Brianna hears footsteps following her - footsteps that belong to no one. Then there's the car that races along the narrow country road with blinding lights and almost runs her over! That's when Brianna realizes...there's no one driving.

I'm completely in love with my husband. And he takes care of my needs . . . as long as they're financial or physical. Anything more is too much to ask. I know that while I might have his name, I don't have his heart. It's almost like he keeps me in a very specific box: WIFE. He only opens that box when we're home alone, anything else would make me too much a part of his life. Even though I love him, I can't live like this anymore. I don't want to, but I ask him for a divorce.

Colorado, 1910. Quinn Cooper can’t help feeling uneasy. But securing a job as a schoolmarm in a tiny frontier town was the only way to save her family from starvation back in Boston. And her nerves aren’t eased by a stray gunshot that spooks the sleigh horses, casting her into the snow...until she’s rescued by a handsome stranger.