Showing results by narrator "Sharmila Devar" in All Categories

Dillon Strands’ life continues its downward spiral in a litany of lust as he begins to come to terms with what he truly wants. But, when what you want appears to be unattainable and the alternative options keep throwing themselves in your way, the path forward is rarely clear. A murder mystery may be the least of his problems, but Dillon plays to win. The only question is what defines victory, and is it worth the ultimate cost?

Troubles continue to mount for Dillon Strands as he struggles to get a handle on his newly blossoming social life. When out of nowhere, Suzie Andrew arrives at his door, dressed to seduce. Can Dillon add her to his list of ongoing conquests without succumbing to the inevitable emotional entanglements? Can he fight his heart in order to keep his word? His mind says yes but his soul may already be bound.

Life has suddenly become very complicated for Dillon Strands. Having gone from a social pariah to the campus Casanova in just over a week, he now finds himself confused as to how to handle his new found life. Resolving to take things as they come, he is just beginning to find his new normal when Suzie Andrews shatters the fragile tranquility he had finally found. Can he find his solace and whose heart will have to break in order to do so? It may just be his own.

When Victoria returns to her childhood home for her twin sister's wedding after decades of a strained relationship with her family, she recalls the devastating trauma of the high school romance that tore her family apart. As a pretty, popular high school sophomore, Victoria discards boys as easily as she finds them, unlike her bookish and brilliant twin. When the senior football captain with a reputation of his own develops an interest in her sister, Victoria becomes wary. She’ll do anything to protect her twin, no matter what the cost.

Dillon Strands is not your typical college co-ed. While other’s are chasing down parties and partners, living out their dreams of debauchery, Dillon and his friends are studying, gaming and stuck in a rut, their social lives hanging by a thread. After a semester of continued promises to step out of their comfort zone, the five friends find themselves exactly where they started.

Most of us know the weight of too much stuff. We can avoid it for a while, but when it's time to move house or reorganize, we can't escape facing our clutter. Your excess stuff can hold you back and make you sick. Having stuff we don't use or enjoy is a burden, a waste of money, and importantly, it doesn't spark joy. If your rooms, closets, and surfaces are filled with clutter, all your unneeded possessions can get in the way of a full experience of life as it was meant to be lived.

Drug overdoses don't happen to girls with good grades and athletic talent, with longtime friends and a devoted boyfriend. Or do they? When high school seniors Cassidy and Sarah, along with Kayla's boyfriend Paul, discover their best friend Kayla unconscious at a party, the idea that they have lost her to a heroin overdose is unbelievable. She didn't use drugs, except the pain medicine prescribed for a soccer injury, and she had no reason to accept any from a stranger.

Gemma Carlson didn't plan on waking up married. She also didn't count on running into her old flame - and her son's father turned country rock star - Travis Bowers, followed by a night of drunken dares. Apparently one of those involved a ring on her finger and a vow...neither of which she intends to keep. Now, with a hangover from hell, this good girl gone bad knows there's just one thing to do: run.

What would you pay to cure your heartbreak? Banish your sadness? Transform your looks? The right spell can fix anything. When Ari's boyfriend, Win, dies, she gets a spell to erase all memory of him. But spells come at a cost, and this one sets off a chain of events that reveal the hidden - and sometimes dangerous - connections between Ari, her friends, and the boyfriend she can no longer remember.

In Riding, Pardis Mahdavi meditates on the lessons learned over a lifetime of horseback riding and the falling, failing, and joy it brings. At once a history of Caspian horses, an exploration of Mahdavi's Iranian-American identity and family history, and a consideration of the capacity for self-reflection and self-compassion through human-animal relationships, Riding offers a roadmap for learning to live in harmony with the self and the environment around us.

Wildfire shares the drama, hardships, and experiences of the firefighters who try, sometimes in vain, to prevent destruction when a spark flares out of control. Hansen tells the rich and frightening stories of the firefighters themselves and the challenges they face: a safety system struggling to keep up with fire seasons that are lengthening, fires that are becoming more extreme, and agencies that are struggling to cover the bills.

Well-meaning physicians, parents, and even scientists today often spread misinformation about what biology can and can't tell us about our bodies, minds, and identities. In this accessible, myth-busting book, geneticist Shoumita Dasgupta draws on the latest science to correct common misconceptions about how much of our social identities are actually based in genetics.

A smart, engaging investigation of the show that brought real teens to TV My So-Called Life lasted only 19 episodes from 1994 to 1995, but in that time it earned many devoted viewers, including the showrunners who would usher in the teen TV boom of the late ’90s and the new millennium. With its focus on 15-year-old Angela Chase’s search for her identity, MSCL’s realistic representation of adolescence on TV was groundbreaking; without her there would be no Buffy or Felicity, Rory Gilmore or Veronica Mars.

Study Break, a collection of interconnected contemporary Young Adult short stories written by Gen Z authors, explores different parts of "the college experience," from questioning your major to questioning your identity.

I haven't spent much time with Sophie since we were kids. When we started high school, we headed in different directions and never looked back. She invited me to her wedding this weekend. I don't want to go because despite all our years apart, I know one thing hasn't changed: her mission to find me the perfect man. I've told her I don't have time for dating, but she never listens. I'm guessing she's going to be pushing some guy at me the minute I get off the plane.

For Long Island native Humaira Mirza, it’s always been about love – and she has the matchmaking track record to prove it. Having successfully found ‘the one’ for both her aunt and her sister, the twenty-three-year-old is ready to claim a bit of romance for herself. The perfect candidate? The gorgeous Rizwan Ali. But as Humaira employs her unique skills to obtain the perfect match with Rizwan, she’s forced to endure the disapproval of family friend Fawad Sheikh who she’s known forever.

The South Asian Province is split in two. Uplanders live in a luxurious, climate-controlled biodome. Outside, the poor and forgotten scrape by with black-market robotics, in slums threatened by rising sea levels, unbreathable air, and deadly superbugs. Ashiva works for the Red Hand, an underground network of revolutionaries fighting the government, which is run by a merciless computer algorithm. As a smuggler with the best robotic arm and cybernetic enhancements the slums can offer, her cargo includes the city’s most vulnerable abandoned children.

women of the Sauromatae, Akmaral is bound for battle from birth, training as a girl in horsemanship, archery, spear, and blade. Her prowess ignites the jealousy of Erzhan, a gifted warrior who hates her as much as he desires her. When Scythian renegades attack, the two must unite to defeat them. Among their captives is Timor, the rebels’ enigmatic leader who refuses to be broken, even as he is enslaved. He fascinates Akmaral. But as attraction grows to passion, she is blinded to the dangerous alliance forming between the men who bristle against the clan’s matriarchal rule.

Despite decades of anti-racism workshops and diversity policies in corporations, schools, and nonprofit organizations, racial conflict has only increased in recent years. "Are You Calling Me a Racist?" reveals why these efforts have failed to effectively challenge racism and offers a new way forward.

Nearly two years after her divorce, Felicity Hawthorne is ready to date again. At least, she thinks she would be, if the idea of dating wasn’t so freaking terrifying. But then she wins a date with sexy, swoony firefighter Noah Prescott at a charity bachelor auction, and everything changes.