Showing results by narrator "Sean Crisden" in All Categories

Life has taught me that I can't trust anyone. Not friends, not family. In the worst, darkest moments, no one can be counted on to have your back. Even a billion miles away from Earth, on a remote icy planet, I still feel alone. The only consolation? I haven't resonated. It's not that I don't want love or children. I just can't trust anyone, even myself.

What is dreaming, and what causes it? Why are dreams so strange, and why are they so hard to remember? Replacing dream mystique with modern dream science, J. Allan Hobson provides a new and increasingly complete picture of how dreaming is created by the brain. Focusing on dreaming to explain the mechanisms of sleep, this book explores how the new science of dreaming is affecting theories in psychoanalysis, and how it is helping our understanding of the causes of mental illness.

Vivienne is one of “those” people, the kind who believes in love at all costs. Broken hearts are a natural product of that, and Viv is used to dealing with it by simply ignoring the ache and moving on to a new love. But this time, she can’t seem to shake the pain - until Carter comes along, handing out easy smiles and the kind of attention that makes her not feel so fractured after all.

From their first encounter, Cruz "The Butcher" Merada and Zafira Wilder's meticulously laid plans were shot to hell. He's a charmingly persuasive player, a keeper of sinful promises, who's used to getting what he wants. She's resilient, determined, and nobody's pushover. They know a relationship between them would never work; however, it's only a matter of time before they risk giving in to their desires. Soon, they're spiraling out of control in a tangled web of heartstrings and treachery. If they're smart, they'll call it quits and walk away before someone gets hurt.

Two years. That's all the peace we had before our past awoke from the dead. The tombstones of our enemies have been overturned, and we are reminded that we can never escape the chains of the corrupt. Seeking retribution for my lost love consumed my past, but that violence and desire for punishment now jeopardized the future of those closest to me. We are given one choice, a singular option. Return to Ponderosa Springs. But it's more than the infamous Hollow Boys in danger this time. It's her. A mirage of a woman too stubborn for her own good.

My best friend’s brother is the most infuriating person to walk this planet. Since the day I met him, he’s made it his mission in life to make mine hell. If he’s not hiding behind the nearest dark corner, he's plotting his next trick. That’s Dorian Davis, and nothing about him has changed in the two decades that I’ve known him. I should be used to it by now. Immune to his antics. I even considered myself prepared when his sister coerced us into helping her host a Halloween party for her company.

According to Max Disher, an ambitious young black man in 1930s New York, someone of his race has only three alternatives: "Get out, get white, or get along." Incapable of getting out and unhappy with getting along, Max leaps at the remaining possibility. Thanks to a certain Dr. Junius Crookman and his mysterious process, Max and other eager clients develop bleached skin that permits them to enter previously forbidden territory. What they discover in white society, however, gives them second thoughts.

Tattoo artist, Ares Hood. He always had the kind of name that was meant for the bedroom. Yet, I wasn’t the type of woman to make it easy for a man. Some might call me a tease, but I like to think I’m just a fast learner when it comes to everything in life ... Except him. Ares and his crazy cousins have these naughty days they celebrate, so when I need his help, I’m almost convinced we can be more. As kids, I was infatuated with him. As young adults, I kind of loathed him. Now we’re grown and I’ve got little room for games, especially his kind.

Colton stole my heart. He wasn't supposed to, and I sure as hell didn't want him to, but he crashed into my life, ignited feelings within me that I thought had died forever, and fueled a passion that I never knew could exist. Rylee fell out of that damn storage closet and into my life. Now I don't think I'll ever be the same. She's seen glimpses of the darkness within me, and yet she's still here. Still fighting for me. She is without a doubt the saint, and I am most definitely the sinner.

Tobias Jackson grew up in Coburn, a town where the gay population equaled exactly one: him. Add that to the fact that his dream guy was his best friend's jerky older brother, Levi Baxter, and it made hooking up virtually impossible. Now home from college for winter break, Toby is a different person. He left Coburn for San Francisco, where he wasn't the lone gay guy and the only black kid in town. And yeah, he took advantage of what the city had to offer. Apparently Toby isn't the only one who's changed.

Lennox "Nox" Cruz can't turn his back. No matter the collateral damage, he can't walk away. He simply isn't that kind of man. Carsyn Devero is in too deep. The skeletons in her closet come out daily to remind her of the past she can't escape. A chance encounter brings a boy who is now a man back into her world. As much as she knows she needs to walk away, Nox won't let her. She's stuck and doesn't want to drag him down into her storm. He's relentless and refuses to let her fall. They're bound by the wreckage, only holding onto hope no one else will go down with them.

Do you believe in love at first sight? Corey Ellis sure doesn't. Oh, everyone around him seems to have found their happy ending, but he's far too busy to worry about such things. He'll have plenty of time for romance after he survives his last summer before graduation. So what if he can't get his former professor, Jeremy Olsen, out of his head? It's nothing more than hero worship. And that's the way it should stay. Except bi-gender Corey - aka Kori - is interning at Phoenix House for the summer, an LGBTQI youth center, and the director just so happens to be a certain former professor.

In my family, I wear a lot of different hats all centered around the same role. Comedian. Life of the party. The jokester. Everyone's favorite fool when I wasn't getting on their last nerve. But without me, my family wouldn't be the empire we are today. As one of the best hackers in the country, I'm the one that uncovers any secrets our enemies are hiding, no matter how big or small. My entire life, I've been able to hack my way ahead of any situation. Yet, somehow I didn't see her coming.

Fall in love with this group of navy SEALs from The Westmoreland Legacy in three fan-favorite novels from New York Times bestselling author Brenda Jackson, collected here in one volume!

In Necropolitics, Achille Mbembe, a leader in the new wave of francophone critical theory, theorizes the genealogy of the contemporary world, a world plagued by ever-increasing inequality, militarization, enmity, and terror as well as by a resurgence of racist, fascist, and nationalist forces determined to exclude and kill. He outlines how democracy has begun to embrace its dark side - what he calls its "nocturnal body" - which is based on the desires, fears, affects, relations, and violence that drove colonialism.

Today’s fans of science fiction and fantasy have an appetite for stories that address a wide variety of voices, perspectives, and styles. There is an openness to experiment and pushing boundaries, combined with the classic desire to hear about spaceships and dragons, future technology and ancient magic, and the places where they intersect. With a diverse selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and Diana Gabaldon, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020 explores the ever-expanding and changing world of SFF today.

Simone Brooks and Cameron Bennett should not be together. She’s a wealthy socialite looking for a suitable husband. A man with the right pedigree and an economic status that matches her own. He’s part owner of the hottest nightclub in Atlanta with his siblings. Someone who loves cooking, the outdoors, and women - not necessarily in that order. After one night together, their sizzling chemistry makes it difficult to stay away.

Still reeling in the aftermath of sexual assault, Dr. Gwen Brennan struggles with feelings of powerlessness—until she joins the Whitewood Clubs masquerade night. There she reigns supreme, and it is only by her grace that anyone is allowed to touch her. When a mysterious masked man steals her heart, she's left with a choice: does she take a chance on forging a new relationship, or does she retreat into the arms of her stalwart bodyguard?

Crime is a rarity in the small town of Wyattsville, so when one occurs it is headline news. Grocery store owner Sidney Klaussner, shot in the course of the robbery, is lying in the hospital unconscious. In the room across from him the young man assumed to be the shooter. Although no one knows the truth of what happened inside that store, Sidney's wife is determined to see the boy punished. The lad's only hope is his sister Jubilee. She knows whey he was there but is anyone going to believe a seven-year-old?

Aidan Spencer walked away from his family and his friends when the woman he'd loved since childhood died while attempting to kill his best friend's wife. Aidan had chosen to save another and in doing so had lost Cassie. For over a year, he's been isolated from everyone he loves until a family emergency brings him back home. When he meets a woman along the way whose problems are more dire than his own, Aidan must decide if he's strong enough to fight for the woman he's falling in love with.