First date. First kiss. Make out. Make love. Have wild, uninhibited, crazy sex. Find someone to love me back. … … … When I first read Elizabeth Masters’ list, I was excited. And then I was furious. She created a list of “firsts.” Firsts that should have been mine. Firsts she was now going to give to someone else. Because when she offered me her firsts I said I didn't want them. But that was a lie. It was one of many I told her. Because I wanted her and her firsts more than anything. Someone to love her back? She already had that. First kiss? That was me. She can't erase anything that happened between us no matter how hard she tries to forget. And I know that from experience. Because I've never been able to forget what we had, what we shared. I couldn't stop thinking about what could have been if I pulled her close and not pushed her away. And now she wants to move on with someone else? It wasn't going to happen. What we have is real. Unbreakable. And I'm not messing up again. No more lies. No more hiding. I know she's the best thing that's ever happened to me. Just like I know she's mine. And so are her firsts. Her firsts, her lasts, her in-betweens, her love, her forever. It's mine. She just needed to let me back in. She needed to give me another chance. And if she didn’t want to? I’d make her. Because I was never losing her again. Ryan Flannery broke my heart. Or what was left of the frayed and fragile pieces I had to give. I let him in. I let him close. I gave him everything. I thought he loved me. I laid myself bare, I stripped myself raw. I chased a fantasy, and I got burned. But he did do one thing for me. He gave me something. An idea. According to him I was too young, too inexperienced. And he was right. I needed to change that. So what if he was my first love? He didn't have to be my only. It was time for me to spread my wings. Explore. It was time for me to live. Ryan might have been the one I wanted to give my firsts to. And my lasts. And everything in-between. But it’s not happening. I’ve been hurt enough. Lied to enough. Betrayed enough. It was time I started to think about me. He thinks that I can just forget what he’s done? That he lied? That he made a mistake? He thinks we’re unbreakable? He thinks that it’s me and him? Always? Forever? He thinks I’m going to give him another chance at that? Another chance at me? It. Will. Never. Happen. Until it does. Everyone remembers their first. Except Ryan Flannery. But that's okay. Because all he needs to remember is his last. His last ... Her first.

First love. Second Chances. Friends-to-lovers. Enemies-to-lovers. Roomates-to-lovers. Love-hate. Opposites attract. Forbidden romance. Little sisters. Older brothers. Best friends. Charming billionaires. Inked firefighters. Players meeting their match. Everyone remembers their firsts. First kiss. First love. First heartbreak. First…everything. The first time Liam Sullivan met Samantha Brennan it was an unexpected encounter—a not so ‘meet-cute.’ It was good for him. Bad for her. He wanted her at first sight. She wished she never laid eyes on him. The charming billionaire with all the ink and dimples and flirt, and the girl who’s been burned badly once before by someone he reminds her of? What could possibly go wrong? Everything. Everything could go wrong. Especially when you add in an overbearing older brother, a blast from the past, and a man who will not give up…no matter what. The first time Connor Brennan met Riley Sullivan it was on a blind-date. One he orchestrated as a dare, a challenge. One that came back to bite him in the you know where. That blind-date turned into him meeting his match, his soulmate. But it’s not that simple. Nothing ever is. She’s Liam’s little-sister, and just like Connor, she comes with a wealth of chaos. He loves to throw out challenges—now he must deal with one. But it’s not just challenges standing in his way, or her, or her older brother. Riley has a secret. And when that secret is exposed—the challenge, the chaos? He hasn’t seen anything yet. The first time Aiden Masters met Allie James the best thing that could be said is that they both made it out of the room alive—and so did everyone else. It wasn’t love at first sight. Or second or third. Or tenth. Opposites attract? Not exactly. Forbidden romance? Not that either. More like forbidden everything. Which causes the hate. The animosity. The angst. Which then of course leads to blurred lines, burning sheets, and trouble. So much trouble. You know what they say about hate and love? It’s a thin line. But Aiden’s line is blue. And what’s a cop to do when Allie’s family is embroiled in the criminal? Blur some more lines or move on once and for all. The first time Ryan Flannery met Elizabeth Masters was a meeting that would change everything for him and her. He was knocked, rocked, and thrown. And he didn’t like it one bit. He was someone who’s been around the block a time or two…or a hundred. Definitely a hundred. He knew way too much about the opposite sex that he’s forgotten most of it and them. He’s too much of everything for someone like Beth. She’s working on a list of firsts—first date, first kiss, first…everything. He shouldn’t want her—she belongs with someone better. He should let her complete her list of firsts in peace. With her past she deserves that and more. But it’s complicated. Because he does want her. He wants all her firsts. And he wants her to be his first too—in the way that counts the most. His first love…and his last. His only. Everyone remembers their firsts. Especially them.

Did a tiny bird in Texas really communicate with a horse and convince him it was okay to load on a trailer he’d never been on? Did a horse, after a three-year absence, know that its previous owner was present by hearing a harmonica being played? Did a horse, who had never acted up, hurt its owner on purpose so she would go to the doctor, where she discovered cancer had returned? Richard D. Rowland seeks the answer to fascinating questions as he explores the connection between humans and animals. As someone who was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer and given three years to live (more than twelve years ago), the human-animal bond is a subject he knows well. Animals caused him to rethink life and showed him things he never thought possible—and they led him to write his previous book, Unspoken Messages: Spiritual Lessons I learned from Horses and Other Earthbound Souls. Based on his interviews with people throughout the world, this book expands on how animals are misunderstood—and how they’re much smarter than most people believe.

He didn’t just break my heart. He broke me. One devastating lie. One epic betrayal. One cataclysmic choice that changed what could have been. What should have been. Reed Brooks annihilated every single cell of my being. He single-handedly ended my existence. I once was head-over-heels and believed in starry-eyed dreams and fairytales. I had a future mapped out with him. A forever. And then I had nothing. I was nothing. It took me a long time to put myself back together into the woman I am now. I wasn’t the girl he knew back then. I was someone else. Someone stronger, smarter, forged of steel. Someone who would never, ever forget…or forgive. Reed had his chance with me once-upon-a-time. He wasn’t getting another. I broke her down to nothing. And by doing so, I broke me. She was mine. Always has been. Always will be. For years I searched for her after I completely destroyed her and our future, our perfect life. But I always came up empty. I was empty. Together forever. Happily-ever-after. It was supposed to exist. But I told lies, I betrayed. I did a lot worse so our always and forever could exist. But it didn’t matter. I lost her anyway. And I lost myself too. But now she’s back and I finally have the chance to make things right. It won’t be easy. Because Emma Jameson doesn’t exist anymore. Emma Shaw does. And she’s not the girl who went running. This girl? This woman? She’s absolutely everything I’ve always wanted. Even with her jagged edges and broken pieces she’s more mine now than she was then, because underneath all the tears, frays, shards and bitter words? I see the truth. The girl who loved me is still inside of her trying to break free. She might’ve changed her name, and her soft edges might’ve become razor sharp, but a love like ours doesn’t disappear overnight. Or a decade. There’s nothing standing in our way this time. Especially not her. I won’t allow it. Emma is mine. Always has been. Always will be.

Examines how the media influenced ideas of race and beauty among African American women from the Harlem Renaissance to World War II. Between the Harlem Renaissance and the end of World War II, a complicated discourse emerged surrounding considerations of appearance of African American women and expressions of race, class, and status. Brown Beauty considers how the media created a beauty ideal for these women, emphasizing different representations and expressions of brown skin. Haidarali contends that the idea of brown as a “respectable shade” was carefully constructed through print and visual media in the interwar era. Throughout this period, brownness of skin came to be idealized as the real, representational, and respectable complexion of African American middle class women. Shades of brown became channels that facilitated discussions of race, class, and gender in a way that would develop lasting cultural effects for an ever-modernizing world. Building on an impressive range of visual and media sources—from newspapers, journals, magazines, and newsletters to commercial advertising—Haidarali locates a complex, and sometimes contradictory, set of cultural values at the core of representations of women, envisioned as “brown-skin.” She explores how brownness affected socially-mobile New Negro women in the urban environment during the interwar years, showing how the majority of messages on brownness were directed at an aspirant middle-class. By tracing brown’s changing meanings across this period, and showing how a visual language of brown grew into a dynamic racial shorthand used to denote modern African American womanhood, Brown Beauty demonstrates the myriad values and judgments, compromises and contradictions involved in the social evaluation of women. This book is an eye-opening account of the intense dynamics between racial identity and the influence mass media has on what, and who we consider beautiful.

I was trying to save myself. Not be a hero. But she left me no choice. My friends call me Jenks. My enemies call me Roman Mathers. And me? Right now, I call myself a monster. Some people would call me a hero. A protector. But I know better. I might be an undercover cop, but I’m no saint. I’ve done bad things. And I’ll keep doing them until I put my enemies behind bars, or they put me in a body bag. That was my plan. Burn their whole world to the ground or die trying. Until her. Livvie Brooks. She was glitz and glamour. Not gang-life, guns, blood and broken bones. She was supposed to be disgusted by the monsters. Not attracted to one of them. But she didn’t listen. She stepped out of the shadows, blew up my life, and then she saved it. Saved me. When she should have been saving herself. From me. My life. All of it. She chose to save me. But there was a cost. Isn’t there always? But who was going to pay? Her? Or me? Life or death. For a woman I’ve only known a day. One day. One day, one second, one moment in time can change your life. It sure as hell changed mine. He told me to do anything and everything to save myself. I would do and endure anything and everything to save him. They say life can change in an instant. One second, one moment, one breath, one heartbeat. One look. It happened to me. The moment my eyes locked onto him that was it. He needed saving. And my life needed purpose. I didn’t know what stepping out of the shadows would mean for me. The threat to my life. The changing of it forever. I stepped out of the shadows. And into the pit of hell. Knowing what I know now I still would’ve done it anyway. Because it was him. I wouldn’t have done anything different. I would still want to be right here with him. He calls himself a monster. Because of what he’s done. What he still has to do. But all I see is Matt Jenks. And that might be my downfall. I stepped into his life and irrevocably changed my own. I didn’t know it then. But I know it now. It’s only been a few days and I know I’ll never be the same again. I saved him. But will he save me? Truth or lies. Good or evil. Life or death. Giving up … or going all in? We’ll just have to wait and see.

She threw on armor. While I lost any shred of what I once was. Fuck love. That’s what we both said. What we both meant. We felt it bone-deep. Core-deep. Soul-deep. And then we started to feel other things. Or at least I did. I thought she did too. But she didn’t. Because if she did? She wouldn’t have broken my heart. Shattered me into nothingness. Turned me into something I don’t recognize. We both said it. Fuck love. Too bad the universe didn’t listen. Because I fell for the girl. The girl who only wants to be my friend. The girl who doesn’t want to love me back. She destroyed me. And instead of walking away, letting it go, burying the hurt deep, I decided to burn my whole world to the ground. He let me see the real him. And I completely lost the real me. Fuck love. That’s what we both said. What we both meant. We felt it bone-deep. Core-deep. Soul deep. And then Jackson Raines made me start to feel other things. Things I didn’t want to feel. Things I never wanted to feel again. Thing I have never felt. So I lied. I ran. I shattered. Him. Me. And then I became numb. We both said it. Fuck love. It hurts. It kills. It destroys. It makes you believe in lies. Too bad we didn’t listen. We fell. And we fell apart. He tried to burn the whole world to the ground to survive. And me? We’ll just have to wait and see