Showing results by narrator "Justin" in All Categories

It’s amazing what the lack of immediate threat to one’s life and wellbeing can do for a person’s disposition. High risk, high reward endeavors suddenly seem far less appealing, month-long delays are no longer a cause for concern, and sleeping in every single day of the week becomes an extremely attractive proposition. Indeed, without a pressing need to aggressively expand its power, Boxxy T. Morningwood is finally able to simply sit back, enjoy life, and watch the world both turn and burn.

Marcus Valentine seemingly has it all: He's smart, charming, a successful doctor with a wife, three kids, and a job he loves. But something, or rather someone, is missing. One morning, driving to work, he almost runs down a female jogger crossing the road. Marcus cannot take his eyes off her. She is identical to a girl he was infatuated with in his teens. A girl he has never forgotten. Soon Marcus is consumed with thoughts of this woman. But when events take a tragic and unexpected turn, his obsession threatens to destroy them both.

The Scottish Ruin Keeper is a love among the ruins tale guaranteed to capture your heart. Young Will Clachan, descended from generations of stonecutters, grew up playing in the ruins of Elgin Cathedral. Once the greatest medieval cathedral in all of Scotland, Elgin was burned to ruins in an act of revenge by Alexander Stewart, the notorious Wolf of Badenoch. The ruins languished for centuries. By the early 1800’s many of the stones had been repurposed for new buildings in the town of Elgin.

Armageddon Day. That is how history will remember the date when two Overlords clashed amidst the war-torn streets of New Whitehall. The disastrous duel its explosive conclusion wreaked heavy casualties on the two armies present, rendering both the Ishigar Republic and the Lodrak Empire unable to continue to fight. And yet, it was no stalemate. With one Hero defeated and another revealed, the balance of power is sure to shift in the elvish nation’s favor.

AI will be the defining development of the 21st century. Within two decades, aspects of daily human life will be unrecognizable. AI will generate unprecedented wealth, revolutionize medicine and education through human-machine symbiosis, and create brand-new forms of communication and entertainment. In liberating us from routine work, however, AI will also challenge the organizing principles of our economic and social order.

Before being conscripted to fight in the Total War, Private Hector Park had a shattered family, a collection of old video games, and a promising career as a motorcycle stuntman. Now, he is dying from a virus threatening humankind with extinction. He has three days to live. When Hector’s brother contacts him after years of hostile silence, Hector goes to try and make peace. But his brother offers him something even better: the chance to cheat death by joining him in Archemi, a full-immersion fantasy VR-RPG video game.

In Paris, a delegate from Hezbollah’s March 8 Alliance is gunned down as he arrives at a summit to broker peace, with all blame placed on Israel. As the world teeters on the edge of war, an unseen force moves in the shadows—a Hamas cell with plans to turn a diplomatic crisis into an all-out catastrophe. When the Vatican Knights uncover a plot that threatens not just the summit but the very stability of the region, one man is sent into the depths of a conflict where alliances blur and enemies strike from the dark.

The world waits for no one. While Boxxy is off chasing shinies and delving dungeons abroad, Azurvale's shadows churn, fester, and ferment into a potent cocktail of trouble. Secret organizations maneuver behind the scenes, patiently advancing their nefarious plots. Government agencies lay in wait, ready to pounce at the first sign of trouble. Powerful adventurers gear up and train for the next challenge, uncertain as to what form it might take.

The ancient Roman empire was the supreme arena, where emperors had no choice but to fight, to thrill, to dazzle. To rule as a Caesar was to stand as an actor upon the great stage of the world. No biographies invite us into the lives of the Caesars more vividly or intimately than those by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, written from the center of Rome and power, in the early 2nd century AD. By placing each Caesar in the context of the generations that had gone before, and connecting personality with policy, Suetonius succeeded in painting Rome’s ultimate portraits of power.

They broke me. Abused me. Treated me like trash and left me to die… A dark, sexy, revenge romance. I survived everything they put me through and when my brother came back from the dead, I thought it was over. I thought I could move on. Except they’re still here, in Verona, they’re still living free and with every day that passes I feel that insult more and more. And my abusers aren’t just going to trust I’ll keep my mouth shut. They start stalking me, start trying to turn my own family against me and then it’s game on.

Finally reunited with her family, Caly struggles to adjust to her new life and the decisions she made to get there. After giving up everything for them, she eagerly awaits the ceremony to receive the second half of her heart and become whole, even though it comes at an unsettling cost. She must marry Prince Aurelius and solidify her place within the Seelie Court. As she prepares for the event, Caly finds herself haunted by the memory of Malum Mendax, the Unseelie Prince—feeling his eyes are on her when she's alone, shadowy silhouettes in her room, and even touching him in her dreams.

Oli the goblin is the last creature anyone would send on a world-ending quest. But the Dark Lord's under siege and without his doomsday weapon, those pesky forces of Good might just get it done this time. Seizing the long-awaited opportunity to serve their Big Boss, Oli and his cousins strike out on a super secret mission to retrieve the doomsday weap-on a road trip to see their family. With the hopes of every creature sinister and foul riding on them, the goblins hurry directly to their destination. Mostly directly. Okay, so it's more of a zigzag.

The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them. But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute.

A misfit crew of relic hunters armed with magical weapons set off on a series of action-packed quests. Their mission: Seek out and recover magical artifacts that might be used in the battle against the Dark Lord. They never anticipated that their actions might send their world hurtling toward a dire fate.

Since leaving the orphanage, Esil has spent the past year toiling in the data mines of Pangea while watching the wealthy elite traverse its myriad of game worlds. His luck changes forever when he discovers a legendary Developer's Chest. The Premium Worldpass inside grants him unlimited access to all of Pangea. Now, Esil isn't just stuck watching as others explore Pangea. He can finally level up. With his newfound fortune, he enters a tournament to compete against some of the most skilled adventurers Pangea has to offer.

When Lucas invites his friends over to play a new fantasy role-playing game, Journals & Journeys, they expect to encounter elves, zombies, and sorcerers. They expect to visit fairy forests, decrepit ruins, and stunning palaces. They expect adventure. They don't expect it to be real. Grythica may be a land of fantasy, but it's a world of terrible danger, too—and one where humans are killed on sight. And while Lucas, Sawyer, Violet, and Caleb should have at least had each other for support, they're separated upon crossing into the realm.

436 AD. The Burgundars are confident of destroying Rome's legions. Their forces are strong and they have beaten the Romans in battle before. But they are annihilated, their king killed, his people scattered. Their fabled treasure is lost. For Rome has new allies: the Huns, whose taste for bloodshed knows no bounds.

In Moody Mood & the Red Round Ball we find Moody Mood who is always moody. He gets mad about everything, even the Red Round Ball, and the sun that keeps ‘smiling’ at him and following him wherever he goes. Would he be less moody if he smiled?

No is the final, and perhaps most perplexing, chapter in the No-Point trilogy. If No-Point Perspective was the encyclopedia of nothingness for dummies and No-Point the professional's handbook, then No is the blank page at the end, the echo of a conversation that has finally run its course. Justin Allen and Andreas Müller, having exhausted all avenues of inquiry, meet face-to-face in Andreas' quaint village. The words dwindle, the silences grow longer, and the "no-point" reveals itself not as a concept to be grasped, but as what's apparently happening—life.

Justin and Trisha Davis know just how dangerous ordinary can be. In this beautifully written book, Justin and Trisha take us inside the slow fade that occurred in their own marriage—each telling the story from their own perspective. Together, they reveal the mistakes they made, the work they avoided, the thoughts and feelings that led to an affair and near divorce, and finally, the heart-change that had to occur in both of them before they could experience the hope, healing, and restoration of a truly extraordinary marriage.