For the past eight years Chicago television Traffic Anchor Roz Varon has been recording her travels in words and images. This book is designed to be a keepsake for those readers who enjoy vicarious adventures, and for those who seek ideas for their own trips across the U.S. and in foreign lands. Written with honesty, enthusiasm, and a grateful sense of wonder, Roz and her family enlighten her audience with little known facts, humorous anecdotes, and heartwarming insights into her personal life. We are Roz's awestruck travel companions at the inauguration of President Barack Obama, students of history while roaming the Jewish Deep South, and gleeful visitors to Walt Disney World - which our author considers "The Happiest Place on Earth." As we venture to other continents, we move through sacred places in Israel, joyous sites in Ireland, and legendary landmarks in the southern United Kingdom. Perhaps the most fun we have with Roz and her family is the traveling the famous Route 66, a treasured Americana road trip that will surely have readers packing their maps and bags. While all appears sunny and careful in these pages, we also learn that Roz Varon is a more than 10-year Metastatic Breast Cancer Survivor. This medical facts adds poignancy, courage, and inspiration for all those whose lives have been touched by the illness.

The genius and the prodigy ... Nazio “Naz” Donati is brilliant, sinful, and criminal. A genius from the moment he was born, and a man who's still trying to learn how to navigate and balance this thing called life. He certainly wasn't expecting love to practically fall right into his hands, never mind for love to take the form of his best friend's little sister. Rosalynn "Roz” Puzza is talented, beautiful, and driven. A pianist prodigy from the second they sat her at a piano as a little girl, and a young woman who isn't sure if she's truly earned her spot on the stage. She wasn't expecting a man like him to take her focus and change her muse, never mind to distract her from the thing she thought she wanted the most. Sometimes, first love is intense. All-consuming. Crazy. And you just have to ride it out. When brilliance and talent crash together, it can make magic.

Jessica thinks she is an ordinary girl living a rather dull, mundane life. That all changes when she is attacked by aliens and her childhood friend must reveal that he is also an alien sent to Earth to protect her. Jessica’s world is suddenly turned upside down when she discovers that her parents are not really her parents and she is forced to travel to an unknown world in order to assume a destiny that she wants no parts of. And to add more confusion to the mix, she realizes that she is in love with her best friend who is now an alien. Can Jessica make sense of her crazy world, fulfill her destiny and have the man she loves? She realizes that she must find a way if she is to know true happiness.

Four contemporary love stories that will give you all the feels… “Bliss’s writing style is complex and enjoyable, thought-provoking and captivating.” Mr. Imperfect A second chance for love...or the last word? It's a tough choice when your sexy childhood sweetheart shows up in this award-winning rural romance. It takes a funeral to drag bad-boy millionaire Christian Kelly back to his rural New Zealand hometown. Now thanks to an ancient IOU, he's stuck there trying to save the inheritance of the only woman who ever dumped him. Can a loner find the courage to be vulnerable? Should a nurturer settle for a man who refuses to need her? Romantic Book of the Year (RuBY) winner Australia Mr. Irresistible A crusading journalist discovers appearances are deceptive when she's maneuvered into a river journey by a sexy millionaire playboy in this modern spin on Pride & Prejudice. To everybody else, millionaire Jordan King is a selfless philanthropist and most-eligible bachelor, but newspaper columnist Kate Brogan has inside information that he is a home wrecker—handsome and full of false promises. Just like her philandering father. Oh, how Jordan loves a good challenge… Mr. Unforgettable The widowed mayor of a small town struggles professionally and personally when her affair with an unsuitable man becomes so much more for both of them in this sexy romance. Reclusive millionaire Luke Carter can never forget that he’d been abandoned as a child. And that’s why he's driven to build his camp for underprivileged kids in small-town Beacon Bay. If only the coastal New Zealand community trusted his motives. His only ally is widowed mayor Elizabeth Light, a woman he wants to know better… Mr. Undeniable A businessman inherits custody of three children with his ex-wife, the woman he walked away from after a personal tragedy in this poignant story of second chances. Just when he has accepted that he’ll never be a father, Jack Galloway inherits not one, but three kids. He’s supposed to raise this family with his ex-wife, but Roz has her own ideas about parenting. She’s also got some crazy notion, that, thanks to their unexpected “family,” the two of them have been handed a second chance… Romantic Book of the Year (RuBY) finalist Australia

Boston P.I. Carlotta Carlyle's allegedly unfaithful fiancé disappears right after his supposed mistress turns up dead.

A businessman inherits custody of three children with his ex wife, the woman he walked away from after a personal tragedy in this poignant story of second chances by award-winning author Karina Bliss. Just when he has accepted that he'll never be a father, Jack Galloway inherits not one, but three kids. He's supposed to raise this family with his ex? And his ex-wife, Roz, has her own ideas about parenting. She's already doling out domestic duties, as if he had all the time in the world away from his business. She's also got some crazy notion, that, thanks to their unexpected “family,” the two of them have been handed a second chance. As if he'll let either of them get their hearts broken again. If he could just crush the hope that hearts can be mended, and love will always find a way. * Previously titled SECOND-CHANCE FAMILY. A Romantic Times Top Pick. Finalist in Australia's Romantic Book of the Year (2009). “…a touching story about grief and forgiveness...The trials and tribulations of family life are equally sprinkled with heart-warming and even humorous events; all vividly described. Readers are drawn in and encouraged to care deeply for this family by Ms. Bliss’s creative talent. Karina Bliss will definitely be added to my favourite author list” Donna Zaph, CataRomance The Lost Boy series Mr. Imperfect Mr. Irresistible Mr. Unforgettable Mr. Undeniable

In the 1890s, attracting the wrong man can be undeadly. When Roz is reported to a witch hunter for talking to her cat, the prim and proper Salem librarian leaves town in a hurry. She doesn't have many options, so she takes a job as a dance hall girl in the wild west. One of the girls is murdered, and Jonah, a reserved but hunky deputy, suspects the local vampire. But Roz knows it wasn't him. She was with him at the time being turned into a vampire against her will. Roz wants to get closer to Jonah. But to find the real killer, she'll have to cozy up to the saloon's rough and rowdy customers instead. Being a vampire might be some protection from the murderer if the method of death wasn't a stake through the heart. Prologue from Have Teeth, Will Bite London at midnight, 1886. The tavern door blew open, letting in chill wind and an even colder customer. Natasha, a voluptuous blonde spilling out of a lightweight black cloak, stepped in. The door slammed shut. The bartender looked up and frowned. He met Natasha's gaze across the smoky, dim-lit distance. Then he turned away fast and began furiously wiping the rough wood bar. Natasha sniffed the air, and her red lips curled up. She wove toward the bar through mostly empty tables with a strange sinuous grace for a woman so large. When she reached one end of the bar, Natasha began to walk along its length. One by one, she scanned the occupants of each stool. In turn, they met her eyes, and she moved on, leaving the mark of varying degrees of nervousness or fear on their faces. Finally, Natasha found an appealing target. She stopped at the side of a young pale-haired man. A roughly dressed workingman--big-boned, baby-faced, and reeking of innocence and purity. Natasha glanced once at the older man on the next stool, and he silently vacated it. She sat down and tossed off her cape, drawing the young workman's eyes to flowing blonde curls that brushed overflowing cleavage. Her impossibly tight girdle created an hourglass figure with a tiny waist. Not having to breathe had its benefits. Natasha stared into the young man's eyes. He seemed nervous, but he couldn't break away from her gaze. His pale skin became paler and somewhat clammy. She heard his heart rate speed up, and his breathing become fast and shallow. “I am Natasha,” she purred. “And you are?” “Sam,” he answered in the toneless voice of a person under compulsion. “Come along, Sam.” Natasha rose from her stool in one smooth motion and glided out of the bar. She didn't stop to pick up her cloak from the floor. It was just a bothersome disguise anyway. Natasha didn’t feel the cold, but her husband, Dr. Vandergreest, insisted she wear it. Why go to so much trouble anyway? It wasn’t as if these people had the power to do anything to her even if they suspected what she really was. Her husband’s tiresome rules were hard to live with--or be undead with--so much of the time. Was it any wonder that she needed a little fun in the evenings? A black carriage waited in front of the tavern. The black-cloaked coachman and two enormous black horses blended into the night's dark shadows. Sam had followed her out as commanded. Natasha turned to him. Sweat dripped down his face in the icy-cold London night. She lifted a pale, shapely arm and gestured toward the complete blackness within the open carriage. "Get inside. I hunger!" she ordered. *** Other books by LD Marr Horror on the darker side: Stalked in the City - In the dystopian near future, there are two classes of people—the users and the used. After having psychic experiences, a former drug addict returns to the New York dance club she hung out at in the past to hunt a kidnapper. A hot but wrong guy distracts her from her search. Talking cat stories on the lighter side: Under another pen name, Trisha McNary, LD Marr also wrote the science fiction series Xeno Relations: Alien Pets, hypnoSnatch, and Bonded in Space.

A young woman sets out from Ireland for Liverpool in the 1950s and finds success as a fashion designer... but will she find love too? A Daughter's Journey is a poignant saga from Lyn Andrews that follows a young woman as she finds her independence, before heartache threatens to take it away. Perfect for fans of Anne Baker, Maureen Lee and Katie Flynn. Angela O'Rourke is six when her parents hand her over to an aunt and uncle in a distant village. It's a common practice for large, hard-up families in 1950s Ireland, but for Angela it means that her mother and father don't love her any more. Angela is well cared for until she's sixteen, but then her uncle takes to drink, and it's not safe for her to stay in his house. Moving to Liverpool in the early 1960s, she begins to make her mark in the world of fashion design. But the pain of a disastrous love affair sends her home to Ireland just after the death of her aunt: and there, among old papers, Angela makes an astonishing discovery. As she learns the truth about the past, a brighter new future beckons. What readers are saying about A Daughter's Journey: 'What a fantastic book. The best book I've read in a long time. Great story from start to finish and well written' 'A great, heart-warming read for a Sunday afternoon'

Standing in the Need presents an intimate account of an African American family’s ordeal after Hurricane Katrina. Before the storm struck, this family of one hundred fifty members lived in the bayou communities of St. Bernard Parish just outside New Orleans. Rooted there like the wild red iris of the coastal wetlands, the family had gathered for generations to cook and share homemade seafood meals, savor conversation, and refresh their interconnected lives. In this lively narrative, Katherine Browne weaves together voices and experiences from eight years of post-Katrina research. Her story documents the heartbreaking struggles to remake life after everyone in the family faced ruin. Cast against a recovery landscape managed by outsiders, the efforts of family members to help themselves could get no traction; outsiders undermined any sense of their control over the process. In the end, the insights of the story offer hope. Written for a broad audience and supported by an array of photographs and graphics, Standing in the Need offers readers an inside view of life at its most vulnerable.