American Addict

My name is Brett. I'm a college-educated man who was once a husband of 26 years with two children, three businesses, and a large home with an actual white picket fence. I'm also a drug addict. And I have a tale to tell. It's about the despair of addiction and the absolute certainty that it can be overcome. Recovery is not simply abstinence, but a process of growing up. I spent my entire life searching for the key to long-term sobriety. I would like to share with you what I have learned.

When Kelsey Owens returns home to Dallas, she is a changed woman. After months of training with Marcus Vorenus, she has more control over her abilities. She’s ready to start her new job, even if it means dealing with the King of All Vampires and his partner, Devinshea Quinn. Her first assignment, however, will force her to face her past. Grayson Sloane is in trouble and she has to find him.

When forced to make an impossible choice, would you sacrifice your pride or your morals? I’m Amorette Monet Black, and I was abducted. Funny thing, I have a choice. One that most women don’t get. I could stay here and be forced to share my body... Or, I could let four questionable men take me away. Only there’s a price. It doesn't matter how much time I don't have, the choice is slipping through my fingers.

A worship disorder: This is how Edward T. Welch views addictions. "Will we worship our own desires or will we worship the true God?" With this lens the author discovers far more in Scripture on addictions than passages on drunkenness.

My past was destructive. It haunts my dreams. The moment I embraced my addiction, I knew my life would change dramatically. As the VP of the Houston Defiance MC, my job is to stand tall. Contain the demons clawing from the inside, begging to escape from within. But when I embrace my bloodlust, nothing can tame my wrath. Zero took me in as part of his family-a bond unbreakable. I should care about the no-touch rules. And the fact they are in place on his sister.

Sam Louie grew up torn between cultures as part of a first-generation Chinese immigrant family from Hong Kong living in a predominantly African American neighborhood in the United States. He experienced the duality of existence with the tension of two vastly different worldviews, his identity intertwined with the country he lives in and his ancestral ties. What traditions and cultural beliefs get preserved, what gets discarded, and what gets lost in translation? Beneath it all was the presence of three generations of addiction, trauma, and shame.

My name is Alix and I am addicted to sex. Had been for years. I thought I learned how to live a normal life, but that's the thing about addiction, it creeps back up when you least expect it. There is no one there for me, no one I can turn to for help. Until I'm given a chance to explore a side of myself I'd always kept locked away. I was lost until him. I can't tell you who he is, or why he does the things he's done. All I can say is I hope one day I behave well enough to take off the blindfold and see the man who controls my addiction. My Master.

Atlanta's mayor, The Honorable Josiah J. Bishop, has an addiction to his wife, Mink, that is just as powerful as her toxic love affair with heroin. As her life spirals out of control due to her obsession with the needle, his love and devotion to her is slowly shredding his soul into tiny pieces. But he just can't let her go. The brotha's loyalty to the love of his life and the mother of his two young, adorable daughters is deeper than any ocean.