No man may touch Zaria. Not even her own father. Envy of the other girls, Zaria was born for the sea. Nobody questions her fate as the chosen braenese to marry Keroe, God of the Sea -- least of all her. And even if she did, she has no choice. When Zaria's wedding day finally arrives, she'll become the only islander of her generation permitted to cross into the God Sea. There's nothing more she could possibly want. Until a curious boy washes up on her palm-fringed paradise and Zaria defies sacred law to hide the unconscious stranger. There are only two possibilities with his strange (and strangely handsome) face: he's either a village anomaly or the Sea God himself, in disguise. The alluring boy-creature couldn't have come from anywhere else, because there is no other land in all the ocean. But when the scoundrel awakens, he has the gall to ambush Zaria. As three pageants leading up to her wedding turn unexpectedly deadly, and the enigma of its true purpose looms, Zaria is torn between her long-desired fate as Sea Queen and the infuriating boy who tells her that everything her people know is a lie. ******** Please be advised: In this dystopian series the protagonist grows in a manner similar to characters such as Sansa Stark. She begins as sheltered/ and does not become a strategist until Book II when the story darkens and matures. There is no spice/adult content until Book III. Book I is Mid-Range YA. Book II is Dark/Mature YA better suited to older teen readers. Book III is New Adult and contains mature content. **Winner of Independent Book Review's "The Best Books We Read This Year (2021)"**

Promised to a strange prince Forced toward an arranged marriage, the chosen braenese has a new enemy and he's not at all like the boy who washed ashore in Elowa. This one hates her before she even sets foot upon his sand. Bound for a strange land To survive, Zaria must learn the ways of this new world and fight alongside its people. She'll need to gather as many assets as she can to help her escape back to Kirwyn. Did he find his boat that fateful night... or did he meet his doom at the bottom of the ocean? Eluding two powerful brothers If navigating court politics isn't tricky enough, outmaneuvering the prince determined to dispose of her, as well as the one set upon marrying her, proves downright deadly. To her surprise, it's not her betrothed who poses the biggest threat -- it's his cruel and overprotective brother. One boy to marry, one boy to battle, and one to steal her back... ...she hopes. ******** Bound by Dark Waters is Book II in the Beyond the God Sea Trilogy. Please be advised: This is Dark/Mature YA. While there is little-to-no explicit content, the themes and challenges within this story are more appropriate for older teen readers. As Zaria straddles the line between Young Adult and New Adult, so do her experiences.

Two leading physicists discuss the importance of the Higgs Boson, the future of particle physics, and the mysteries of the universe yet to be unraveled. On July 4, 2012, the long-sought Higgs Boson--aka "the God Particle"--was discovered at the world's largest particle accelerator, the LHC, in Geneva, Switzerland. On March 14, 2013, physicists at CERN confirmed it. This elusive subatomic particle forms a field that permeates the entire universe, creating the masses of the elementary particles that are the basic building blocks of everything in the known world--from viruses to elephants, from atoms to quasars. Starting where Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman's bestseller The God Particle left off, this incisive new book explains what's next. Lederman and Hill discuss key questions that will occupy physicists for years to come:* Why were scientists convinced that something like the "God Particle" had to exist?* What new particles, forces, and laws of physics lie beyond the "God Particle"?* What powerful new accelerators are now needed for the US to recapture a leadership role in science and to reach "beyond the God Particle," such as Fermilab's planned Project-X and the Muon Collider? Using thoughtful, witty, everyday language, the authors show how all of these intriguing questions are leading scientists ever deeper into the fabric of nature. Readers of The God Particle will not want to miss this important sequel.

On a lonely cliff beside the vast blue sea there is a house. In the house there lives a girl, and in the girl there lives a dream. Soon she'll be as free as the fishes that swim beneath the water. But until then she bides her time and lives quietly, her every move ruled over by an uncaring, heartless stepmother. The hope for freedom is all she has to hold onto. So close she can almost taste it. But when her stepmother's estranged younger brother comes to stay, he presents a mystery that lures her in. The girl doesn't understand that beneath the allure of the unknown sometimes all we find are horrors. And in searching for the truth, her heart is in danger of falling like a rock to the bottom of the deep dark sea. Beyond the Sea is a standalone Gothic Romance set in modern times.

Engaging narrative and provocative content come together in this mind-stretching and heart-challenging journey. Come with Kelly Monroe Kullberg on an intellectual road trip as The Veritas Forum explores the deepest questions of the university world and the culture at large. Discover that Veritas transcends philosophy or religion and instead brings us to true life.

The president of New York University offers a love letter to America’s most beloved sport and a tribute to its underlying spirituality. For more than a decade, John Sexton has taught a wildly popular New York University course about two seemingly very different things: religion and baseball. Yet Sexton argues that one is actually a pathway to the other. Baseball as a Road to God is about touching that something that lies beyond logical understanding. Sexton illuminates the surprisingly large number of mutual concepts shared between baseball and religion: faith, doubt, conversion, miracles, and even sacredness among many others. Structured like a game and filled with riveting accounts of baseball’s most historic moments, Baseball as Road to God will enthrall baseball fans whatever their religious beliefs may be. In thought-provoking, beautifully rendered prose, Sexton elegantly demonstrates that baseball is more than a game, or even a national pastime: It can be a road to enlightenment.

From the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Sharon Kay Penman comes the story of the reign of King Baldwin IV and the Kingdom of Jerusalem's defense against Saladin's famous army. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as Outremer, is the land far beyond the sea. Baptized in blood when the men of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem from the Saracens in the early twelfth century, the kingdom defined an utterly new world, a land of blazing heat and a medley of cultures, a place where enemies were neighbors and neighbors became enemies. At the helm of this growing kingdom sits young Baldwin IV, an intelligent and courageous boy committed to the welfare and protection of his people. But despite Baldwin's dedication to his land, he is afflicted with leprosy at an early age and the threats against his power and his health nearly outweigh the risk of battle. As political deception scours the halls of the royal court, the Muslim army--led by the first sultan of Egypt and Syria, Saladin--is never far from the kingdom's doorstep, and there are only a handful Baldwin can trust, including the archbishop William of Tyre and Lord Balian d'Ibelin, a charismatic leader who has been one of the few able to maintain the peace. Filled with drama and battle, tragedy and romance, Sharon Kay Penman's latest novel brings a definitive period of history vividly alive with a tale of power and glory that will resonate with readers today.