Marrying a stranger to keep the woman's siblings out of an orphanage is one thing, but when more children than expected pour out of the stagecoach, what’s a man to do? Nervous about meeting her fiancé for the first time, Ellie Spritzer’s lifelong hope of finding love is about to end—or rather, begin. She never imagined her quest for love would take her to the other side of the country with all eight of her siblings in tow, but after her mother dies unexpectedly, what choice does she have? At least the man she’s been writing for the past year is still willing to marry her and take in her siblings… or so she thinks until she arrives in the dusty town of Twin Rivers, Texas. Growing up an orphan, Sam Owens never had a place to call home or a family to love. So if his wife-to-be needs to bring three of her siblings with her, he has no complaints about having a ready-made family. But his mail-order-bride doesn’t arrive with three. She arrives with eight. Sam can’t make himself turn away children in need. But as a beginning rancher, he doesn’t have the resources to care for so many people. When sinister forces threaten the things Sam and Ellie both hold dear, can they figure out how to keep their fledgling family together, or will they lose the very things they cherish most? Tomorrow’s First Light is the first book in the Texas Promise Series by bestselling Christian romance author Naomi Rawlings. If you like tender marriage-of-convenience stories, you’ll love this heartwarming tale filled with hope and new beginnings. Texas Promise Series Book 1—Tomorrow’s First Light (Sam and Ellie) Book 2—Tomorrow’s Shining Dream (Daniel and Charlotte--available 2020) Book 3—Tomorrow’s Constant Hope (Wes and Keely--available 2020) Book 4—Tomorrow’s Steadfast Prayer (Harrison and Alejandra) Book 5—Tomorrow’s Lasting Joy (Cain and Anna Mae)

What happens when a woman on the run ends up married to the richest man in Texas? Keely O’Brien has spent the past five months on the run, but no matter what she does, she can’t seem to evade the ring of dangerous criminals that killed her brother in Chicago. When she spots an ad for a wife from the owner of a small ranch on a remote stretch of Texan desert, she knows she’s found the perfect hiding spot. The Wolf Point Ring might be searching far and wide for her, but they wouldn’t think to look in tiny, sun-scorched town of Twin Rivers, Texas. Now if she can just keep her new husband from finding out why she really married him… Agamemnon “Wes” Westin’s feet might be firmly planted in West Texas soil, but his heart is running… Running from the loss of his first wife and stillborn daughter, and running from the fear of suffering loss again. Unfortunately, he has little choice about needing to marry, but he does have a choice about who he marries. If he has to share his roof with someone, he wants a woman who works hard and doesn’t complain. That’s why he decides to run an ad for a bride, claiming that he owns a small ranch, rather than the sprawling cattle empire he inherited from his father. After all, what woman is going to be upset when she finds out her husband is one of the richest men in Texas? When Wes discovers Keely is hiding from criminals who want her dead, he can’t help but protect her—even if she’s irate with him for lying about the size of his ranch. When danger arrives in Twin Rivers, both Wes and Keely find themselves facing their deepest fears. Will they let their pain and past losses ruin their dreams? Or will Wes and Keely find a way to forge a new life together? From jagged mountains and green river valleys, to cattle ranches and vivid sunsets, Tomorrow’s Constant Hope offers a meaningful story about simpler times, sincere faith, and learning to love again after loss.

Discover the first Brady Coyne and J.W. Jackson mystery with this compelling novel following two old friends who suspect that there’s a dangerous killer on the loose on the picturesque island of Martha’s Vineyard. As summer winds down on Martha’s Vineyard, J.W. Jackson is looking forward to getting in some fishing in the annual striped bass and bluefish derby with his good friend Brady Coyne. A Boston lawyer, Brady is on the island to help the elderly Sarah Fairchild write her will. J.W. has a little business, too, having agreed to assist in the search for a missing woman who was last seen on the island a year ago. For Brady and J.W., it’s law and detecting during the day and fishing to their hearts content by night. But things take a drastic turn when another woman goes missing and Brady discovers that there are more than a few people on the island who desperately crave Sarah’s vast estate. The two friends begin to suspect that there’s a killer behind the missing women but they have no idea that their own lives are in danger. By turns charming and suspenseful, contemporary and evocative, First Light could only have been imagined in the collective mind of two superb authors.

The one thing she can't do is fall in love... at least not if she wants to save her sister. Alejandra Loyola knows she’s going to die. If having information about her uncle and cousin’s illegal cattle rustling operation isn’t enough to get her killed, then snitching on them to the law will surely mean her death—and she’s snitched more than once. The only question is, will she be able to see her younger sister provided for before she dies? When successful Austin lawyer Harrison Rutherford is called back to his home town of Twin Rivers, Texas, after his father falls ill, he finds himself inundated with the burdens of running a large shipping business. The one surprise waiting for him is Alejandra Loyola. The maid who works for him is quiet and sweet. Now if only she trusted him enough to tell him what leaves shadows under her eyes and a haunted look on her face… But the longer Harrison stays in Twin Rivers, the more something seems amiss. Rustlers have been wreaking havoc on local ranchers for over a year, and Harrison is starting to wonder if the secrets Alejandra is carrying have more to do with his father and the rustlers than he wants to admit. As the rustling ring become more dangerous, will Alejandra trust Harrison enough to tell him what she knows? Or will the rustlers prove powerful enough to destroy not just the ranches surrounding Twin Rivers, but any hope for a future between them? From jagged mountains and green river valleys, to cattle ranches and vivid sunsets, Tomorrow’s Steadfast Prayer offers a powerful story about love, faith, and doing the right no matter the cost.

A moving story of love, family, and survival against all odds from beloved entrepreneur and reality TV star Bill Rancic. Set amid the deep, wild woods of the Yukon, First Light tells the story of Daniel Albrecht and Kerry Egan, a young couple just beginning their life together: in love, engaged, and, as Kerry soon discovers, expecting their first child. While they are flying home from a work trip in Alaska to plan their wedding in Chicago, both engines of their plane catch fire and send the plane careening into a mountainside in the middle of a terrible snowstorm. Kerry is seriously injured in the accident, and Daniel—the one person among the passengers with some survival experience—makes the courageous decision to search for help, hoping against hope that he can return to save his fellow travelers, especially the woman he loves. Thus begins a harrowing and suspenseful race against time and the elements, as it becomes clear that not everyone will make it out alive. As the couple's story draws to a close, the surprising truth about the boy’s life, and that of his parents’ marriage, will at last be divulged. A romantic and heart-wrenching debut from Bill Rancic, First Light is about surviving the most insurmountable obstacles—and finding renewal and love just when it seems that all is lost.

Astronomers have successfully observed a great deal of the Universe's history, from recording the afterglow of the Big Bang to imaging thousands of galaxies, and even to visualising an actual black hole. There's a lot for astronomers to be smug about. But when it comes to understanding how the Universe began and grew up we are literally in the dark ages. In effect, we are missing the first one billion years from the timeline of the Universe. This brief but far-reaching period in the Universe's history, known to astrophysicists as the 'Epoch of Reionisation', represents the start of the cosmos as we experience it today. The time when the very first stars burst into life, when darkness gave way to light. After hundreds of millions of years of dark, uneventful expansion, one by the one these stars suddenly came into being. This was the point at which the chaos of the Big Bang first began to yield to the order of galaxies, black holes and stars, kick-starting the pathway to planets, to comets, to moons, and to life itself. Incorporating the very latest research into this branch of astrophysics, this book sheds light on this time of darkness, telling the story of these first stars, hundreds of times the size of the Sun and a million times brighter, lonely giants that lived fast and died young in powerful explosions that seeded the Universe with the heavy elements that we are made of. Emma Chapman tells us how these stars formed, why they were so unusual, and what they can teach us about the Universe today. She also offers a first-hand look at the immense telescopes about to come on line to peer into the past, searching for the echoes and footprints of these stars, to take this period in the Universe's history from the realm of theoretical physics towards the wonder of observational astronomy.

In the early 1990s, a NASA-led team of scientists changed the way we view the universe. With the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) project, they showed that the microwave radiation that fills the universe must have come from the Big Bang -- effectively proving the Big Bang theory beyond any doubt. It was one of the greatest scientific findings of our generation, perhaps of all time. In The Very First Light, John Mather, one of COBE's leaders, and science writer John Boslough tell the story of how it was achieved. A gripping tale of big money, bigger egos, tense politics, and cutting-edge engineering, The Very First Light offers a rare insider's account of the world of big science.

Ansel Adams led regular trips into the Yosemite backcountry as part of his efforts to protect this rare instance of untouched nature and, as a result, introduced thousands to its beauty. Following his example, the Yosemite Fund asked five well-known Yosemite photographers to once again bring the wonders of the wilderness to the general public. For five years, these five photographers spent a part of their summers in Yosemite's wilderness region, which covers more than one thousand square miles of almost indescribable raw beauty, and the camaraderie that developed between them is evident in the reminiscences and musings that accompany their photographs. The result of this uncommon collaboration is a book of glorious prints, each imbued with its creator's distinct style.

Peter can't wait to join his parents on an expedition to the ice caps of Greenland to study global warming. But while he's there, he begins to suspect there might be another reason for this trip other than scientific research. And in another world, there is Thea, who lives with her family under the ice, and is desperate to see what's above it. When Thea and Peter meet, two worlds will collide, and a host of secrets will be released.

Super science. Madness. Transhumanism. This is the dawn of posthumanity. Some things can t be unlearned. Gleaming labs whir with the hum of servers as scientists unravel the secrets of the universe. But as we peel away mysteries, the universe glances back at us. Even now, terrors rise from the Mariana Trench and drift down from the stars. Scientists are disappearing or worse. Experiments take on minds of their own. Some fight back against the unknown, some give in, some are destroyed, and still others are becoming more. The human and inhuman are harder and harder to distinguish. Mankind is changing, whether it wants to or not, with brand new ways of thinking. What havoc is wreaked by those humans trying to harness and control their discoveries? As big science progresses and the very fundamentals of this universe are understood, what stories are being hushed up? Of course, the Old Ones laugh at our laws, scientific and otherwise. These are transhumanist near-future science fiction tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. These are tales of more than merely cosmic dread. They exist in our world of the next couple years. This is the era of big science and what is that? We ll be right back... Authors: Desirina Boskovich, Lynda Rucker, Samantha Henderson, Daria Patrie, Kaaron Warren, Richard Byers, Damien Angelica Walters, Spencer Leary, Joshua L. Hood, Jeff C. Carter, Simon Bestwick, Matt Maxwell, Shannon Fay, Adam Heine, Mike Allen, Darrell Schweitzer, Cody Goodfellow, Bruce R. Cordell, Pete Rawlik, A.C. Wise, Robert Brockway, Nate Southard, Molly Tanzer, Joshua Alan Doetsch, Thomas M. Reid, Clinton J. Boomer, L.A. Knight, Lizz-Ayn Shaarawi, J.M. Rozanski"