Lauren had a turbulent childhood and adolescence. In some ways it is a horrific story: her parents' marriage break-up, sexual abuse as a child in Australia, her mother's drug addiction and eventual suicide, a rebellious adolescence in Wellington, running away, stowing away, being raped by three men, and on to prostitution, depression, suicide attempts and drug use on her own account. After a number of dead end jobs, Lauren worked as a striper and then became a prostitute. She returned to high school as an adult student and eventually undertook medical studies and qualified as a general practitioner. Medical training is renowned as being rigourous and difficult. Lauren made it with not only her difficult past to reconcile, but also the problems of a single mother with a child with learning difficulties.

Bent But Not Broken is a heartfelt journey of a young girl and her family as they navigate the healthcare system from diagnosis to surgery and beyond. Follow them as they use their own words in blog posts and through an emotional and gripping narrative that puts you by their side through the ups and downs, challenges and successes.

Life's pressures will come, yet we will not be broken. Without a doubt there are so many things we wrestle with in the flesh and in the Spirit. There is a constant war going on within us and around us. Will we please ourselves and our flesh or will we overcome the struggles we face by living in the Spirit of God and trusting Him to get us through? We all have so many responsibilities that tug at us and pull at us, bending us this way or that way, how do we balance it all and become the person Jesus has called us to be? That is the reason for the writing of this book, to encourage all to not trust in themselves but to trust God, even when you don't know all the reasons why. It is the desire to never give up, never to throw in the towel, never surrender to the adversary of our soul. We must persevere through everything we face, we must look past the outside appearance of what we see and see the truth about what we are wrestling with. The moment is now to stand up in the face of every obstacle that is against you and declare that nothing will stop you from being who God has chosen you to be. You can be who you have always dreamed you could be, God has made a way for you and me. To overcome there will be a fight, to overcome there will be a struggle, but we can do it with only our Lord's help. We might be bent and things may not be perfect in our lives yet, but one thing is for sure we will NEVER be broken.

Book 3 of the One-2-One series. Meet Madeline and Justin. Before Madeline's bike accident left her with a traumatic brain injury, she and her twin sister were inseparable. So were her parents. But now, Madeline's parents are divorced and Becky has become rebellious, angry, and sneaky. Even worse, she doesn't seem to want Madeline around anymore. At least Madeline knows she can always rely on the miniature therapy horses she visits every week. Justin is a senior and the president of his school's Best Buddies club. Before his sister died, he used to take her to the barn to visit her beloved therapy horses. Now, with Madeline, he goes there to escape the gloom of his mother's grief at home and the pressures of his final year in high school. Together, Justin and Madeline help each other to reconnect with the important people in their lives -- and with the lives that they thought they'd lost.

Defense attorney Madden Polunin is good at his job. He works alongside the Kings of Men MC and is known, and hated, by the New Gothenburg PD for getting his clients cleared of charges that should have sent them to jail. Straitlaced Officer Evan Slater loathes everything about Madden, from his charismatic personality that helps free criminals, to how hard it is to pronounce his ridiculous last name. Polunin makes Evan's job more difficult than it needs to be, and Polunin's smug smile fuels Evan's anger. In a night of celebration, Madden ends up drugged and runs into Evan, which begins a turmoiled relationship between a self-declared "straight" police officer and a lawyer only interested in one-night stands. Between criminal arrests, a serial killer father locked behind bars, and a negligent work partner, Madden's and Evan's lives collide in ways they never expected. Includes the novella, Curved.

Born on the eve of China’s Cultural Revolution, Ping Fu was separated from her family at the age of eight. She grew up fighting hunger and humiliation and shielding her younger sister from the teenagers in Mao’s Red Guard. At twenty-five, she found her way to the United States; her only resources were $80 and a few phrases of English. Yet Ping persevered, and the hard-won lessons of her childhood guided her to success in her new homeland. Aided by her well-honed survival instincts, a few good friends, and the kindness of strangers, she grew into someone she never thought she’d be—a strong, independent, entrepreneurial leader. “She tells her story with intelligence, verve and a candor that is often heart-rending.” —The Wall Street Journal “This well-written tale of courage, compassion, and undaunted curiosity reveals the life of a genuine hero.” —Booklist (starred review) “Her success at the American Dream is a real triumph.” —The New York Post

Director of the Citizenship Education Program, Dorothy Cotton, recounts the accomplishments of the program and her experiences in the civil rights movement.

Pain is a lasting feeling, emotion, and can consume a person without any discrimination. Amy Holland knew all too well what pain did to someone. She has been living with it for far too long, and it is all because of her father. Reese "Joker" Whitman has put his old life behind him. He is now just Joker, part of The Soldiers of Wrath, an outlaw MC that rules his town. Despite the hard edge he carries around, the violence and destruction he's been known to deliver, Joker wants Amy, the daughter of the woman his father married. Amy might be considered family, but she isn't blood, and he wants her more than he's ever wanted anyone in his life. However, he has to tread lightly, because she's been hurt, and she may never be able to give herself fully to him. When she finally sees Joker for who he is, it isn't fear or pain that consumes her; it is hope and desire. But can she give herself to the biker when she sees herself as too damaged be loved?

Bent But Not Broken is a heartfelt journey of a girl and her family as they navigate the healthcare system from diagnosis to surgery and beyond. Follow them as they use their own words in blog posts and through an emotional and gripping narrative that puts you right by their side. All the ups, downs, challenges, and successes of the experience changed their lives and taught them that compassion and love build strong communities, even stronger families, and that true strength comes from the most unlikely sources. For the Butters family, the punch that knocked the wind out of them was a diagnosis of severe idiopathic scoliosis for their eleven-year-old daughter Avery. The only viable treatment option was spinal fusion surgery. It was a terrifying prospect to stare down. Frustrated with the lack of information on what the family would actually experience, Avery's mother, Jodi, started a family blog. It was there that Avery, Jodi, and Andrew would share their thoughts and experiences about the journey in real time. Jodi was determined that if there were other families searching for this information her family would be able to provide it. When it was all said and done and the blog came to its rightful conclusion, the writer in Andrew felt that since the blog was so successful at spreading the message then surely there were other ways to help spread the word and share lessons that even applied beyond Avery's scoliosis.