Explores all aspects of the kiss, including why people kiss, why kisses are given under mistletoe, and such subjects as kissing bugs, French kissing, and origins of phrases with "kiss" in them.

From USA Today Bestselling Author, Morgan Jane Mitchell comes another installment in the Nashville, TN Chapter of Royal Bastards MC - Read as a Standalone Red hair and heritage aren't the only qualities behind the road name Irish. Some claim Patrick Kelly possesses the sheer luck of the Irish. After all, he's undefeated in the ring at Royal Road. More than that, he's about to get everything he ever wanted. Unfortunately, when he plans to meet up with his ex-lover at the Nashville, Tennessee Chapter of the Royal Bastards MC's annual St. Patrick's Day bash, Irish's luck runs out. Trading fate for folly, he discovers the lips he seized in the dark belong to another. Even looking at his Vice President's sister, CeCe is deadly, let alone what he did to her. She's strictly off limits with good reason. But Irish can't quit thinking of her. What was Cecilia Green doing all alone in the dark anyway? Working at the clubhouse, she's always in the shadows. She had no idea it was dark. She's blind. Being ambushed into a smoldering kiss and then some ignites her interest in the man behind it. But she's blind, not dumb and seriously not the wilting flower that her brother makes her out to be. Irish's reputation as a ladies' man proceeds him. Luck has never been in CeCe's vocabulary. It will take much more than good fortune for Irish to win her heart.

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book of Year A NPR Best Book of the Year In Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies, the Ibis began its treacherous journey across the Indian Ocean, bound for the cane fields of Mauritius with a cargo of indentured servants. Now, in River of Smoke, the former slave ship flounders in the Bay of Bengal, caught in the midst of a deadly cyclone. The storm also threatens the clipper ship Anahita, groaning with the largest consignment of opium ever to leave India for Canton. Meanwhile, the Redruth, a nursery ship, carries horticulturists determined to track down the priceless botanical treasures of China. All will converge in Canton's Fanqui-town, or Foreign Enclave, a powder keg awaiting a spark to ignite the Opium Wars. A spectacular adventure, but also a bold indictment of global avarice, River of Smoke is a consuming historical novel with powerful contemporary resonance.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Meet Merry Gentry, paranormal P.I., and enter a thrilling, sensual world as dangerous as it is beautiful, full of earthly pleasures and dazzling magic, and ruled by the all-consuming passions of immortal beings once worshipped as gods . . . or demons. Merry Gentry, princess of the high court of Faerie, is posing as a human in Los Angeles, working as a private investigator specializing in supernatural crime. But now the queen’s assassin has been dispatched to fetch her—whether she likes it or not. Suddenly Merry finds herself a pawn in her dreaded aunt’s plans. The job that awaits her: enjoy the constant company of the most beautiful immortal men in the world. The reward: the crown—and the opportunity to continue to live. The penalty for failure: death. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Laurell K. Hamilton’s A Shiver of Light. Praise for Laurell K. Hamilton and A Kiss of Shadows “One of the most inventive and exciting writers in the paranormal field.”—Charlaine Harris “Sexy . . . Merry’s adventures are engaging and keep the reader turning the pages.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Stunning . . . steamy . . . an exciting and original world.”—San Jose Mercury News “I’ve never read a writer with a more fertile imagination.”—Diana Gabaldon

African-American women's texts, she demonstrates, often dramatize their distrust of their readers, their lack of faith in "the cultural conversation," through strategies of self-silencing and "self-talk." At the same time, she argues, the homoerotics of women's writing has too often gone unremarked. Not only does longing for an ideal listener draw women's texts into a romance with the reader, but there is an erotic excess which is part of feminist critical recuperation, itself.

Kissin Kuzins: Forbidden Desires Unleashed follows the turbulent life of a young woman molested as a child who succumbs to a long-term incestuous relationship with a blood relative that spans years and the damage it did to her emotionally and mentally. Until she met a stranger who helped lead her to a faith-filled, loving, healthy, new existence. About the Author H.G. Arthur created this book so that young ladies who have experienced abuse, physical and mental, molestation and rape would know that speaking out helps. She loves her family and shares kindness and love to whomever she encounters. It was only when she found Christ her savior that God taught her what genuine love really is. Finding the strength to love even those who have hurt you is also part of living a Godly life and a righteous life.

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New York Times bestselling author Catherine Anderson presents an emotionally compelling story about the hard as nails, fiercely loyal Harrigan family. Faking her own death to escape her murderous husband, Rainie Hall takes refuge in the rural community of Crystal Falls, Oregon, where she starts work as a bookkeeper on a horse ranch run by rugged, dangerously good-looking Parker Harrigan. Parker’s word is his honor, and he can’t tolerate liars. When he realizes that Rainie hasn’t been truthful with him, he’s furious, then concerned. Clearly she’s a woman in trouble and if she’ll trust him, he’ll do right by her. But as their attraction blossoms into a deep and thrilling passion, Rainie fears that her mere presence could jeopardize everything the Harrigan family holds dear....