I sent her a basket of cheese. But in my defense, it was gourmet cheese... you know, the expensive stuff.How did Wesley Morgan, hotel billionaire and recovering alcoholic, end up sending a woman a basket of cheese?Well, it was only one of two morsels of information I knew about Shayla Mitchel that I thought would get her attention.The bartender across the dimly lit club took me by surprise the moment I saw her, but then I ran into her twice more upon my return to Santa Barbara, California, and that's when I knew I didn't stand a chance.You see, I never expected Shayla. I was on a mission to correct my mistakes and make amends for the choices I made over six years ago, and then we crossed paths and turned down a road we both never saw coming.And of course, I couldn't fall head-over-heels for an easy woman.No.I had to be drawn to the sass and poise of a girl who doesn't believe in love, at least the kind that comes from a man like me.Now she's all I can think about. All I never knew I needed. But she's putting up a fight and testing us both.Can I convince her to let me in? Can I convince myself that we both deserve happiness?But most importantly, can I convince her that sometimes good people can cause irreparable harm before they can cultivate good?

Carny Sullivan grew up in the zany world of a traveling carnival. Quaint and peaceful Serenity, Texas, has given her a home, a life, and a child. Logan Brisco is the smoothest, slickest, handsomest man Serenity, Texas has ever seen. But Carny Sullivan knows a con artist when she sees one—and she’s seen plenty, starting with her father. As far as Carny Sullivan can tell, she’s the only one in town who has his number. Because from his Italian shoes to his movie-actor smile, Logan has the rest of the town snowed. Carny is determined to reveal Brisco’s selfish intentions before his promise to the townspeople for a cut in a giant amusement park sucks Serenity dry. Yet, as much as she hates his winning ways, there is a man behind that suave smile, a man who may win her heart against her will.Shadow in Serenity is a modern-day Music Man, penned by a Christy Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author.

ForeWord Reviews 2012 Book of the Year Award Finalist! What Would Your Life Be Like If You Simply Let Go of Control? At work, they oversee every detail of every project and expect nothing less than perfection from their coworkers.At home, they obsess over finding the "right" person. Then, they criticize their lover or spouse for doing everything wrong.As parents, they practice zero tolerance for their children's preferred study practices, choice of friends, dress choices, and differing life views.Sound familiar? Everyone knows the type: micromanagers, nitpickers, and domestic despots. Yet, most people fail to recognize the signs of a compulsion to control in themselves-or realize the toll of their behavior on their career, their family, their friendships, and their own happiness. In Losing Control, Finding Serenity: How the Need to Control Hurts Us and How to Let It Go (Ebb and Flow Press, 2011) Daniel Miller pinpoints the dangers of excessive control, which goes far beyond setting limits and standards, in all aspects of life. What's more, he shows those who feel the pressure to control how to break free and reap unexpected gifts. Sharing his journey of transformation, Miller reveals what happened when he finally decided to "surrender": his blinders fell away, new opportunities emerged, and he experienced unprecedented, profound inner peace.Drawing on psychological insights, spiritual wisdom, and the real-life stories of acknowledged "control freaks," Losing Control, Finding Serenity guides readers through an honest inventory of their control patterns-whether prodding, cajoling, withdrawing, playing the martyr, or intimidating-down to the roots. As most controllers will discover, their compulsion to control is provoked by deep-seated fear, anxieties, and insecurities, then aggravated by anger and resentments. Filled with enlightening true stories, Losing Control, Finding Serenity gives readers the knowledge, the courage, the strategies, and the "decontrol" tools to: *Identify and overcome the control triggers of fear, anger, and resentment. *Avoid avoidance, with techniques for overcoming procrastination and reassuring exercises for resisting the urge to withdraw from loved ones. *Become a less domineering parent, build a family democracy, and reduce the struggles with children. *Find and keep the right person by accepting who he or she is rather than trying to change their romantic partner. *Delegate to and trust coworkers to reap increases in productivity, efficiency, and job satisfaction-and reduce conflict and dissension. *Learn to be patient and calmly accept "what is," even when adversity strikes, to enjoy a more fulfilling and serene life. * Pursue your passions and achieve greater life balance in a chaotic, unpredictable world that's frequently beyond anyone's control Losing Control, Finding Serenity offers welcome encouragement and validation for going with the flow of life as it is: an ongoing, every changing mystery. Find out how losing control really means gaining control!

Short stories and poems that weave into daily life situations and thoughts. Both heartwarming and aching, like feeling warmth in your lungs from your hot drink to a sting that feels like someone is pricking a needle on a wound. A journey of ups and downs of life.

After the death of their mother, thirteen-year-old Serenity Evans and her younger brother go to live with their grandparents, who try to keep them safe from bad influences and help them come to terms with what has happened to their family. Includes recipe for red velvet cake.

The alchemy for real personal transformation lies in digging up your own medicine and tools. Your ancestors, with all their struggles, strength, and resilience, are your greatest guides. Anyone scrolling through Robyn Moreno’s social media and seeing her with her adorable kids and taking the stage at empowerment conferences would have thought she had it all together. But the truth behind her well-curated pics was that Robyn was burnt out: in the midst of a full-on, midlife meltdown caused by that all-too-familiar working mom tightrope walk coupled with painful family drama. To save her soul, sanity, and family, Robyn quit her manic #mommyboss existence, and set out on a 260-day spiritual journey based on an ancient Mexica (Aztec) calendar, studying the medicine of her Mexican grandmothers: curanderismo. She learned about sustos—soul losses—and ser—your true essence. She reconnected with family she hadn’t spoken to in ages, and learned fantastical stories about her great-grandmother, Mama Natalia, who was a curandera. She took cooking lessons with a tough but tender-hearted Mexican chef and found community, and joy, in hiking. She had dramatic moments with her sisters, her mom, her husband, and herself. And finally, she went into the jungle of Belize and found healing in the most unexpected way. Reckoning with the hidden stories and aspects of her family and her Mexican American culture that were transforming and heartbreaking brought Robyn to an unshakable understanding of who she is and how she fits into this world. And, by looking to her past to decide which traditions, which medicines, to pass on to her daughters—and which to leave behind—she began to root into the person she was meant to be.

Single in your late twenties or, hold the phone, in your thirties or beyond? Oh hi! You're in the right place. Over a third of us are now single. With the single camp growing at ten times the rate of the actual population, it is now the norm to be single well into our thirties - the average marriage age for women is 35 and 37 for men. But nobody seems to have told society, romcom makers, songwriters, marriage-hungry mothers, 'tick-tock' uncles, our mates or us that. Cue: single anxiety. Love addiction. Spending hours scrolling through dating apps. Being inconsolable when he/she doesn't text. Humming 'Here Comes the Bride' when they do. Catherine Gray went through all of this. And then some. She took a whole year off dating to get her love-hooked head straight. How do we chill our boots about our single status? Detach from 'all the good ones are gone!' panic? And de-programme from urgent, red, heart-shaped societal pressure to find your 'other half*'? We know intellectually that single is far preferable to panic-settling, yet we forget that almost constantly. Why? Psychologists and neuroscientists tell us? Let's start the reverse-brainwash and locate our happily-single sanity, for good. Are you in? *Spoiler: you're already a whole person.