Many Christian women today are wearing masks. From an early age, we are taught that to be valuable we need to do more, to be more. To feel worthy, we learn to hide behind the masks of our accomplishments, physical appearance, intelligence, education, relationships—even our work in the church. But those masks separate us from God, from other people, and from our true selves. Thankfully, there is hope. We can remove our masks and trust Christ to see us as we really are . . . but it takes humility. To examine our hearts, motives, and past experiences requires honesty and confession. But beyond the masquerade, Christ can heal and transform our lives, freeing us from bondage.

Steph Young has joined forces with the excellent writing skills of Dan Mitchell as he tells his personal true story. His story will shock you, terrify you, and leave you questioning everything. Dan Mitchell: 'What you are about to read in this first of two books is a narrative detailing a mysterious figure I called the Harlequin. The Harlequin was a thin, androgynous being that presented itself to me on numerous occasions throughout my life, particularly during childhood. This being was clearly not human, and seemed to be stalking me my entire life. Instead of relegating these events to an over-active imagination, I decided to pursue them wholeheartedly. I have spent over twenty years now attempting to understand it the best I could.' Cryptically, as in a Masquerade, there is more than just the mysterious Harlequin figure who makes its presence felt. There is a whole host of characters who appear in this story, and they all arrive in ways as disturbing as the Harlequin.... A parade of the hideous and grotesque and alarming, for we know not what they are.... Are they separate monsters....or all one and the same? And what do they want with Dan? 'His skin was pale, his countenance was pallid. It felt as though he was feeding off of the fear and hysteria happening inside the house. He seemed to be alive, but wasn't. He was some type of revenant and I could sense that he was very dangerous.' 'As she walked we noticed that her movements were very jerky. She seemed to notice us at that moment. With every step she took, she became jerkier, her hair seemed to bounce more violently. Once again my blood went cold. The feeling of unnerving eerieness fell over me. This time it was much worse. I was older and knew something was very wrong with what I was seeing. She began to walk toward my car. From only a few feet away I saw her clear as day through the passenger side window. From the back seat someone said, "Oh my God her eyes!" BEHIND THE MASQUERADE: THE HARLEQUIN: PART 1: Dan's true story will shock you, terrify you, and leave you questioning everything....

On his way to deliver a splendid necklace to the Sun from the Moon, Jack Hare is diverted by a series of odd characters and when he finally reaches his destination he realizes that the necklace is missing. The reader is invited to answer several riddles and solve the mystery from clues given in the text.

The beloved and award-winning novel now available in a new format with a great new cover! When Wesley Boone writes a poem for his high school English class, some of his classmates clamor to read their poems aloud too. Soon they're having weekly poetry sessions and, one by one, the eighteen students are opening up and taking on the risky challenge of self-revelation. There's Lupe Alvarin, desperate to have a baby so she will feel loved. Raynard Patterson, hiding a secret behind his silence. Porscha Johnson, needing an outlet for her anger after her mother OD's. Through the poetry they share and narratives in which they reveal their most intimate thoughts about themselves and one another, their words and lives show what lies beneath the skin, behind the eyes, beyond the masquerade.

Public masquerades were a popular and controversial form of urban entertainment in England for most of the eighteenth century. They were held regularly in London and attended by hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people from all ranks of society who delighted in disguising themselves in fanciful costumes and masks and moving through crowds of strangers. The authors shows how the masquerade played a subversive role in the eighteenth-century imagination, and that it was persistently associated with the crossing of class and sexual boundaries, sexual freedom, the overthrow of decorum, and urban corruption. Authorities clearly saw it as a profound challenge to social order and persistently sought to suppress it. The book is in two parts. In the first, the author recreates the historical phenomenon of the English masquerade: the makeup of the crowds, the symbolic language of costume, and the various codes of verbal exchange, gesture, and sexual behavior. The second part analyzes contemporary literary representations of the masquerade, using novels by Richardson, Fielding, Burney, and Inchbald to show how the masquerade in fiction reflected the disruptive power it had in contemporary life. It also served as an indispensable plot-catalyst, generating the complications out of which the essential drama of the fiction emerged. An epilogue discusses the use of the masquerade as a literary device after the eighteenth century. The book contains some 40 illustrations.

Seth Dickinson's epic fantasy series which began with the “literally breathtaking” (NPR) The Traitor Baru Cormorant, returns with the third book, The Tyrant Baru Cormorant. The hunt is over. After fifteen years of lies and sacrifice, Baru Cormorant has the power to destroy the Imperial Republic of Falcrest that she pretends to serve. The secret society called the Cancrioth is real, and Baru is among them. But the Cancrioth's weapon cannot distinguish the guilty from the innocent. If it escapes quarantine, the ancient hemorrhagic plague called the Kettling will kill hundreds of millions...not just in Falcrest, but all across the world. History will end in a black bloodstain. Is that justice? Is this really what Tain Hu hoped for when she sacrificed herself? Baru's enemies close in from all sides. Baru's own mind teeters on the edge of madness or shattering revelation. Now she must choose between genocidal revenge and a far more difficult path—a conspiracy of judges, kings, spies and immortals, puppeteering the world's riches and two great wars in a gambit for the ultimate prize. If Baru had absolute power over the Imperial Republic, she could force Falcrest to abandon its colonies and make right its crimes. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

On the evening of her first masquerade, shy Elizabeth Anne Fitzgerald is stunned by Tyrell de Warenne’s whispered suggestion of a midnight rendezvous in the gardens. Lizzie has secretly worshipped the unattainable lord for years. When fortune takes a maddening turn, she is prevented from meeting Tyrell, but she cannot foresee that this night is only the beginning…. Tyrell de Warenne is shocked when, two years later, Lizzie arrives on his doorstep with a child she claims is his. He remembers her well—and knows that he could not possibly be the father. What is this game she is playing…and why? Is Elizabeth Anne Fitzgerald a woman of experience, or the gentle innocent she seems? But neither scandal nor deception can thwart a love too passionate to be denied….