From acclaimed middle-grade and chapter-book author, Erin Soderberg Downing, Controlled Burn is a story that blends family, friendship, fire, and the rocky path toward healing our deepest fears. Twelve-year-old Maia’s parents say she’s lucky she noticed something as early as she did. Lucky to have smelled the smoke, lucky to have pulled her sister, Amelia, out of their burning house. But is it really “lucky” when Amelia’s stuck in the hospital, covered in burns? And is it “lucky” when Maia knows it was her candle, left unattended, that started the fire in the first place? When she’s sent to spend the summer with her grandparents in Northern Minnesota while her sister heals, Maia discovers that her anxieties and demons are intent on following her wherever she goes...unless she can figure out how to overcome them. But what if she can’t? Maia barely knows her grandparents, she desperately misses her sister and home, and she’s not thrilled to be spending the summer with Grandpa Howard on his daily motorcycle rides out to the middle of the woods, where he spends all day keeping watch for forest fires. There are no kids her age in Gram and Pop’s small town at “the end of the road”—just the chatty nine-year-old neighbor who is intent on getting his Bear Scout badge at all costs, and a friendly, stray dog who’s been lurking around. But Maia will soon learn that nature is a powerful teacher, and sometimes our greatest strengths show themselves when we have to be there for someone else. As she begins to figure out how to face her guilt and paralyzing fears, she’ll discover there’s a fine line between fear and adventure. And when danger strikes again, Maia must summon all her bravery and overcome her self-doubt if she wants to save those she loves most.

"Controlled Burn: Exposing Child Sex Abuse and Corruption at America's Largest Private Catholic High School" is a detailed account of how two women, sexually harassed by their teachers at the same Franciscan educational institution twenty years apart, came together to expose the hypocrisy and systematic corruption that shielded decades of child sexual abuse and abusers from the public. Elizabeth Cucinotta Sorvillo is an attorney, author, mother, and advocate for children, sex abuse survivors and animals. She has been named to the list of Catholic clergy abuse whistleblowers by BishopAccountability.org and consulted for the top school sexual abuse attorneys in the United States. She has provided critical information to private investigators, and several state departments of education and Catholic dioceses. She is current y consulting on several sexual assault and harassment cases, as well as working on investigations regarding multi-state corporate scams. She graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business, and is a recipient of the American Jurisprudence Award for Legal Research and Writing. She is a proud member of Women In Film."

Once or twice a decade, an unknown short-story writer blazes onto the literary scene with work that is thrilling and new. Scott Wolven is such a talent, and his raw, blistering tales of hard-bitten convicts, dodgy informers, and men running from the law make for "the most exciting, authentic collection of short stories I have read in years," says George Pelecanos. Brooding, edgy, and sometimes violent, Controlled Burn's loosely linked stories are each in some way a distillation of hard time -- spent either in prison, the backwoods of Vermont, or the badlands of the American West. Peopled by boxers, drunks, truck drivers, murderers, bounty hunters, drifters traveling under assumed names, and men whose luck ran out a thousand miles ago, these stories feel hard-won from life, and if they are moody and stark, so too are they filled with human longing. Controlled Burn is divided into two sections: "The Northeast Kingdom" and "The Fugitive West." In each, Scott Wolven reveals a broken world where there is no bottom left to hit. In the haunting "Outside Work Detail," convicts stoically dig graves for their fellow prisoners yet reserve their deepest grief for the senseless death of a deer. "Crank" introduces Red Green, a maniacally brilliant addict who brews his own crystal meth in a backwoods lab, and whose high-energy antics inspire both cautious admiration and mortal fear in his business associates. In "Ball Lightning Reported," Red Green's ultimate fate is revealed. In "Atomic Supernova," a revenge-obsessed sheriff deputizes a known cop-killer to help him hunt down a counterfeiter and drug lord. The unexpectedly tender and heartbreaking "The Copper Kings" concerns a father facing the dark truth behind his son's disappearance. And in "Vigilance," a hunted man struggles to escape his past, always yearning for an honorable yet perhaps unreachable future. Powered by a spare, ruminative prose style that recalls the best of Denis Johnson and Thom Jones, Controlled Burn is an unforgettable debut.

What if life’s fires can not only be controlled but can also spur new life? In Controlled Burn, Emmy-winning news anchor and reporter Brooke Martin helps readers navigate their own fires with purpose and emerge stronger than before. Confronted with a fatal diagnosis for their unborn baby girl, Brooke Martin and her husband faced an unimaginable choice, grappling with how to move forward amid a sea of unanswerable questions. Yet, in the midst of unspeakable grief, Brooke’s faith and vulnerability not only laid the foundation for her own healing but also for a global movement toward resilience and recovery. Controlled Burn: Rising From the Ashes to Forge an Unshakable Faith weaves together invaluable advice, spiritual insights, and raw truths learned from Brooke Martin’s greatest trials, offering readers guidance to walk through life’s fires and come out unburned. Whether in pregnancy, the workplace, marriage, or otherwise, we are bound to experience suffering in life. How we respond can be the difference between our destruction and our growth. In Controlled Burn, Brooke Martin will guide readers in: healing and moving forward after tragedy or hardship. gaining a better understanding of their natural talents and gifts. listening for God’s voice in times of adversity and recognizing suffering as an invitation to grow closer to Him. shifting their perspective of pain into a period of self-growth. discovering how to use their own experiences to help others in similar circumstances. Controlled Burn proves that miracles can happen when we are willing to surrender ourselves to God and walk into the fire with faith.

July Dupree and Dean 'PD' Hargrove fell head over heels in love. When PD comes home to tell July the good news about joining the SWAT team as a tactical medic, everything changes. July can't fathom why PD would want to be a cop in this day and age. Wasn't it enough that he already had a dangerous job with the fire department? Now he has to add another, even more dangerous, job to the equation? With so many cruel people in the world who make a sport out of hurting cops just because of the badge they wear, she has to make him understand. But when he refuses to listen to her reasoning, she feels she has no other choice but to issue an ultimatum: her or the SWAT team. Dean doesn't like ultimatums. He's furious with July for putting him in the awful position of having to choose between a dream and her. July never believes for a second that he'd choose the SWAT team over her, but she is wrong. A year later, they're both still in love with each other, but neither one is willing to budge regardless of their feelings. July's feelings for Dean haven't changed, in fact her love for him has only grown. But seeing him living his life seemingly unaffected by the loss of what they had breaks her heart over and over each time she sees him. Dean has a good poker face, though. He's just going through the motions of his life until finally, the smoldering embers of his feelings erupt into a full-on blaze of emotion, burning through everything but his love for July. When the smoke clears, Dean wants to know if they can reignite the fire of their love or is he destined to live his life in a constant state of controlled burn?

Bestselling lesfic romance author Sherryl D. Hancock is back with her brand new CalFire series. Battalion Chief Hunter Briggs is struggling with the loss of her wife. Just when she thinks she can't hold on anymore, she is reminded of another lost love. Kori is the one that got away, and years later Hunter is unexpectantly thrust back into Kori's life. But it's not easy moving on when the past still haunts her at every turn. Filled with love, loss, and characters that will steal your heart, this new series will take you into the flames on a ride like never before.