The first book in the War of the Myth series: Rogan's book. Kidnapped. Fated mates.

Rogan's dedicated his life to protecting the Seven Planes. So when an ancient evil rises, he doesn't hesitate to volunteer his team. But immediately, things start to go wrong. Their intel is leaked to a gang hunting creatures of the Myth. Emma, the woman they grab is the wrong twin and worse, she's protected by the gods. Drawn into an intricate game where one wrong move means the annihilation of the Seven Planes, Rogan can't afford to be distracted by the soft lips of his captive. Especially since Emma's very existence is a crime. But when her life is required for the success of the mission, Rogan finds that he'll chance everything to save her. Within a few hours, Emma's safe, little life crashes down around her. Driven off a bridge and drowned in a world of nightmares, Emma instinctively clings to the man that saves her. But when she wakes chained to a bed and interrogated over facts she doesn't know, she realizes that her sexy savior might not have her best interests at heart after all. Forced to stay by his side, Emma is dragged into a terrifying reality where her twin sister stars as a mass murderer and Emma herself is wanted for being a descendant - a forbidden child of the gods. With so much at stake, does she dare trust the the man sent to imprison her?

When Emma wakes up tied to a bed, she believes the mafia has finally caught up to her.But the truth is so much worse.She's been mistaken for her twin sister, her sweet, lovable sister who's been charged with mass murder and helping a vampire destroy the Seven Planes. If she doesn't confess all, her kidnapper will pull the water out of her blood and into her lungs. Dragged into a reality where monsters and gods exist and mercy is nowhere to be found, how can she possibly survive long enough to save her sister? Because there's only one thing she knows for certain anymore: Liz is innocent. And she'll do everything she can to prove it.He'll see her imprisoned for life or dead at his feet.Tasked with bringing in a forbidden child of the gods, Rogan never expected this job to be easy. But finding out she's his lifemate, the literal other half of his soul, has just made his mission a hel of a lot harder. For now he has to make a choice:Use his lifemate as bait.Or damn the worlds to Niflhel.

Follow Gin Blanco, a kick-butt female assassin who moonlights at a BBQ joint in Tennessee, as she searches for the person who double-crossed her in this heart-pounding and fresh paranormal romance series. After Gin’s family was murdered by a Fire elemental when she was thirteen, she lived on the streets and eventually became an assassin to survive. Now, Gin is assigned to rub out an Ashland businessman, but it turns out to be a trap. After Gin’s handler is brutally murdered, she teams up with the sexy detective investigating the case to figure out who double-crossed her and why. Only one thing is for sure—Gin has no qualms about killing her way to the top of the conspiracy.

From the New York Times–bestselling author of Spider’s Bite comes a sequel that’s “just as hard-edged and compelling as the first” (Romantic Times). Curiosity is definitely going to get me dead one of these days. Probably real soon. I’m Gin Blanco. You might know me as the Spider, the most feared assassin in the South. I’m retired now, but trouble still has a way of finding me. Like the other day when two punks tried to rob my popular barbecue joint, the Pork Pit. Then there was the barrage of gunfire on the restaurant. Only, for once, those kill shots weren’t aimed at me. They were meant for Violet Fox. Ever since I agreed to help Violet and her grandfather protect their property from an evil coal-mining tycoon, I’m beginning to wonder if I’m really retired. So is Detective Donovan Caine. The only honest cop in Ashland is having a real hard time reconciling his attraction to me with his Boy Scout mentality. And I can barely keep my hands off his sexy body. What can I say? I’m a Stone elemental with a little Ice magic thrown in, but my heart isn’t made of solid rock. Luckily, Gin Blanco always gets her man . . . dead or alive. “A fantastic sequel in every respect . . . This second installment is even more steamy, suspenseful, and full of mystery and adventure. Packed with pulse-pounding action and suspense, this urban fantasy truly delivers.” —SciFiChick.com

2012 Jolt Award Finalist! Even experienced software professionals find it difficult to apply patterns in ways that deliver substantial value to their organizations. In Elemental Design Patterns, Jason McC. Smith addresses this problem head-on, helping developers harness the true power of patterns, map them to real software implementations more cleanly and directly, and achieve far better results. Part tutorial, part example-rich cookbook, this resource will help developers, designers, architects, and analysts successfully use patterns with a wide variety of languages, environments, and problem domains. Every bit as important, it will give them a deeper appreciation for the work they’ve chosen to pursue. Smith presents the crucial missing link that patterns practitioners have needed: a foundational collection of simple core patterns that are broken down to their core elements. If you work in software, you may already be using some of these elemental design patterns every day. Presenting them in a comprehensive methodology for the first time, Smith names them, describes them, explains their importance, helps you compare and choose among them, and offers a framework for using them together. He also introduces an innovative Pattern Instance Notation diagramming system that makes it easier to work with patterns at many levels of granularity, regardless of your goals or role. If you’re new to patterns, this example-rich approach will help you master them piece by piece, logically and intuitively. If you’re an experienced patterns practitioner, Smith follows the Gang of Four format you’re already familiar with, explains how his elemental patterns can be composed into conventional design patterns, and introduces highly productive new ways to apply ideas you’ve already encountered. No matter what your level of experience, this infinitely practical book will help you transform abstract patterns into high-value solutions.

Bachelard called them "the hormones of the imagination." Hegel observed that, "through the four elements we have the elevation of sensuous ideas into thought." Earth, air, fire, and water are explored as both philosophical ideas and environmental issues associated with their classical and perennial conceptions. David Macauley embarks upon a wide-ranging discussion of their initial appearance in ancient Greek thought as mythic forces or scientific principles to their recent reemergence within contemporary continental philosophy as a means for understanding landscape and language, poetry and place, the body and the body politic. In so doing, he shows the importance of elemental thinking for comprehending and responding to ecological problems. In tracing changing views of the four elements through the history of ideas, Macauley generates a new vocabulary for and a fresh vision of the environment while engaging the elemental world directly with reflections on their various manifestations.