Bøger udgivet af Blue Crow Books

Opposites attract in this sweet holiday rom com-but will this small-town sweetheart and her alluring new neighbor be a perfect match or a recipe for disaster?It's the most wonderful time of the year...unless you're me. Hold the hayrides, keep your cocoa, and don't put me within a country mile of mistletoe. This year, Christmas means chaos. My sister's getting married and I-Gwen Griffin, perfectionist extraordinaire-will make sure her wedding is flawless. That includes doing the impossible: finding myself a wedding date. But in my tiny hometown of Jasmine Falls, South Carolina, I'll have better luck winning the lottery. I may be awesome at running my cafe, but I'm terrible at men. And after my last epic breakup, everyone in town knows it. That's why I need a plus-one-even a fake one-so that when my sister gets married, everyone's attention is on her, where it belongs. The guy next door is perfect for the job. Gorgeous and charming, Logan Fyfe is only here for a few weeks. He's also a hot Scottish bazillionaire who's totally out of my league-so my risk of falling into a relationship with him? Less than zero. Pretending to date Logan is the perfect plan-until it isn't. Beneath his devilish smirk and delicious brogue is a big-hearted man who makes me feel the one thing I never believed to be true-that I'm enough, just the way I am. With the wedding approaching, there's nothing fake about my feelings anymore. When he slips his arm around my waist and whispers into my ear? Yeah, I'm a goner.We may be worlds apart, but I'm done pretending. It's time to get real...even if it means risking my heart.

Read the IPPY-Gold-winning book that Washington Post bestselling author Kelly Harms calls "moving, vital, and hopeful." In this clear-eyed, incisive, and often funny book, Katie Rose Pryal, a bipolar-autistic author and law professor, introduces readers to the convergence of mental health and sexual assault. Using both personal stories and analyses of public events, Pryal explains the ways bodily boundaries are abused and the mental harm that follows.Included are a surreal, quick-witted tale of Pryal's report of a past sexual assault to her college's Title IX office-after being hired there as a professor. A grim yet comical story of manipulation by a married professor while Pryal was a student that nearly cost her her degree. A Kafkaesque account of finding herself in a video installation at a major art museum after secretly being recorded by the artist.Also included are smart analyses of high-profile events where sexual assault and mental health are front and center, including the uncovering of Larry Nassar's abuse of gymnasts, the hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and the perennial mistreatment of survivors with mental health struggles by the justice system.The relatable stories in Even If You're Broken take readers on a journey of courage and hope and help move us toward a more humane society.If you enjoy books by Rebecca Solnit and Brené Brown, you will love Even If You're Broken.The 2023 revised and expanded edition features a new introduction and six new chapters.

From the IPPY Award-winning author of The Almost Lovebirds comes a sweet enemies to lovers romantic comedy that will leave you swooning.In one week, two former college rivals will challenge everything they believe to be true about each other-and discover that being wrong might just be their greatest win. It's official: Sadie Harper's life is a dumpster fire. Last week she was living her best life as a beloved park ranger in a cozy woodland cabin. This week? She's lost both-and is stuck playing hostess at her parents' inn and feeling like a failure. She knows the pattern: whenever something good happens to her, something terrible follows. Things can't possibly get any worse... until they do, and the one person she never wanted to see again checks into the Jasmine Falls Inn.James Fielding: famous travel writer, charming TV host, internet darling. Mr. Annoyingly Perfect was once Sadie's biggest college rival and turned everything-from GPAs to charity bake sales-into a competition. Now he's shooting a new travel show that could mean a boon for Jasmine Falls' small business owners. Trouble is, they're all counting on Sadie to make sure he enjoys every minute of his time there-because nothing brings revenue like a glowing celebrity endorsement.Spending her days with James Fielding's big fat ego and sexy half-smile is agony for Sadie. Because beneath his witty banter and smoldering gaze, he's the perfect reminder of all her shortcomings. Worse, she can't ignore the way he makes her tongue-tied and weak-kneed-and something about his lingering stare tells her this isn't just part of his charming persona.When James asks for Sadie's help with filming, it gives her a new way to do the work she loves-if she's brave enough to take a leap. But Sadie can't help wondering why, of all the towns, did James choose this one? And why is he so interested in helping her get back on her feet?But most of all, why does all their pretend chemistry on set feel so much like the real thing?Author's note: Almost Definitely Never is a feel-good, closed-door romantic comedy and is a standalone novel in the Jasmine Falls Love Stories series. Perfect for readers who enjoy plucky heroines, sizzling chemistry with kissing only, small town shenanigans, laugh-out-loud comedy, and swoon-worthy second chances. For fans of Sarah Adams and Emma St. Clair.

**Winner of the IPPY Silver Medal for Romance 2023**An old flame ignites new sparks in this small-town second-chance romantic comedy. Feeling burned from a broken engagement and a flailing art career, Fiona just wants a peaceful place to recharge and relocate her muse. A quick visit to her favorite aunt and her hometown is the perfect solution-except Jasmine Falls is also home to Alex Fox: a gorgeous, charming metalsmith who makes a room ten degrees hotter just by walking into it. Eight years ago, he busted Fiona's heart into a million tiny pieces. And now he has the nerve to act like it never happened.When Alex sees Fiona back in Jasmine Falls, as irresistible as ever, he'll do anything to be near her. He never meant to break her heart, but if he tells her the real reason he dumped her all those years ago, she might drive him out into the Congaree swamp and leave him there. Determined to win her back, he offers her a job she can't refuse-one that he hopes will show her how much she belongs here.Fiona wants quiet, but this small town has other plans-soon she has her hands full with a fancy art gala, a rare bird that stirs up trouble, and a cute ornithologist who has his eye on her. The more time she spends with Alex, the more the sparks fly-but can she put the old hurt behind her? She didn't think she wanted to put down roots, but as she reconnects with old friends and makes new ones, she finds that Jasmine Falls has a bigger heart that she first believed. Could this small town-and her first love-be worth another chance?

How do you find love when your biggest secret is an unforgivable sin? Charlie George, one of the best attorneys in L.A., seems to have a perfect life. A sky-high apartment. A drool-worthy sports car. And a face that would make angels weep. But his drive for perfection is no accident: he carries a deadly secret he can never escape. Tory Murphy has seen it all-at least three or four times. As an emergency medicine doctor, she's patched up more bullet wounds than she can count. She can diagnose anyone at twenty paces, except Charlie. His secrets are locked down tight. And although the heat between them is obvious, he's always kept her at arm's length. Until one steamy night when their walls tumble down and the fire between them roars to life, hotter than either of them ever imagined. But when a horrific homicide case lands on Charlie's desk, it sets off a bomb that leaves him reeling. His façade shredded, Charlie makes a series of terrible decisions, destroying the perfect life he's built. The only good thing left is Tory-and his undeniable love for her. But is love enough to pull Charlie back from the brink of self-destruction?**Winner of the IPPY Gold Medal in Romance 2022**Author's note: The main character of Take Your Charming Somewhere Else is a trauma survivor with PTSD and uses alcohol to treat it. I'm a neurodivergent author who has suffered severe trauma in my past and dealt with a lifetime of PTSD. Like all of the books in the Hollywood Lights series, Take Your Charming Somewhere Else centers neurodiversity and carefully handles trauma.It also features a seriously hot lawyer in dire need of some sexual healing, a tough-as-nails doctor who can give it, the world's best adopted dog, angst for days, and a happily-ever-after.Content Note: Take Your Charming Somewhere Else features strong romantic elements with some steamy and fade-to-black scenes. There are flashback scenes of child abuse and neglect by parents, of attempted killing by poisoning, and of self-defense killing by gun. The IPPY-Gold-winning Hollywood Lights series is full of angst, romance, family drama, deep friendship ties, and happily ever afters. The series is now complete. Perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover."Do not miss this emotional tour-de-force-or anything Pryal writes." -Washington Post bestselling author Kelly Harms

**Winner of the GOLD Medal in the 2019 INDIE Book of the Year Awards.**Higher education has changed-and we have to change with it. The Freelance Academic will show you how.When Katie Pryal started her career in higher education, she did everything right-she thought. With a law degree, a doctorate, and a federal clerkship, how could her career go off track? But this is higher ed in the new millennium. "Off track" is the new normal. So, slowly, she made her own career, one she dubbed "the freelance academic" in a long-running column in The Chronicle of Higher Education of the same name.Five years after leaving academia, Pryal has created a living for herself. In The Freelance Academic, she tells her story and provides accurate (and sometimes blistering) critique of how higher ed has pushed its workforce to the margins. Best of all, she gives plain, practical advice for how to make the career you want, one that uses your strengths, and your creativity, to thrive."With candor and vulnerability, Pryal shares her own experiences and hard-fought wisdom to make a compelling case for a rewarding professional life beyond the walls of traditional academia." -Amy Impellizzeri, award-winning novelist and author of Lawyer Interrupted: Successfully Transitioning from the Practice of Law-and Back Again

Louisiana gets a whole lot hotter in this spellbinding story of secrets, betrayal, and seduction. When Enza Parker inherits her estranged grandmother's house, it dredges up a haunting mystery-and puts her in the path of the most alluring man she's ever met.For Enza, Bayou Sabine means pain and heartache: a mother who left her and a father whose lies have caught up with him. Her only fondness for the bayou comes from the summers she spent there with her grandmother, Vergie. Now that Vergie's gone, Enza wants to flip the house and put her past to rest-but this small town is full of big secrets-and it has one more surprise for her.When Enza finds her grandmother's house occupied by sexy firefighter Jack Mayronne, she wants to kick him out. But Jack turns on the charm and convinces her to let him stay in exchange for helping her flip the house. Sparks fly as they share the same roof, and as their fling intensifies, Enza learns that Jack has dangerous secrets of his own. When the truth about her mother's disappearance begins to surface, Enza must decide: how much is she willing to sacrifice to start over-and can she trust Jack with her heart? Note: This book was previously published with the title Bayou My Love."Faulkenberry creates a world of magic, suspense, and desire. An engrossing romance with just the right amount of heat!" -Julie C. Gardner, author of Letters for Scarlet

"A collection blazing with seduction, trickery, conflict, and grief, Wicked South: Secrets and Lies is a saga of bitter deceits and breathtaking victories." -Heather Ezell, author of Nothing Left to BurnFor good or ill-on the page or in life-few things are more alluring than the siren song of a secret.At the heart of each story in this genre-crossing collection lies a secret. A boy who is not a boy at all, a neighbor with a mysterious identity, a tortured student with a list that isn't what it seems, a girl who abandoned the person she used to be at the bottom of a river.Conflict and possibility are embedded in a secret's very nature…betrayal and conspiracy are encoded in its DNA. Secrets can transform. They can alienate, anger, or inspire.One thing is for sure: They make a great story.Wicked South: Secrets and Lies is an anthology featuring young adult stories by authors from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Contributors are New York Times Bestselling author Emily Colin, Elizabeth DeVido, award-winning author Lauren Faulkenberry, Amy Hyatt Fonseca, Lauren Fulcher, award-winning author Robin Kirk, John Klekamp, Karissa Laurel, and Katie Rose Guest Pryal."Menacing fairy folk and locker room monsters. Forbidden love and time-traveling adventures. The nine twisty tales in Wicked South: Secrets and Lies take readers to atmospheric corners of the American South (and beyond) filled with heartfelt characters and alluring mysteries." -John Claude Bemis, award-winning author of The Wooden Prince and The Clockwork Dark Trilogy

Academia isn’t an easy place to be if your brain isn’t quite right.Colleagues carelessly call each other “schizo” and “bipolar.” Another colleague is fired—easy enough to do these days, when most college teachers no longer have tenure—for “instability.” In these ways and many more, psychiatrically disabled people working in higher education are reminded every day that their privilege, their very livelihoods, can be stripped away by the groundless suspicions of others. Their lives can be, in an instant, interrupted.The essays in this book cover topics such as disclosure of disabilities, accommodations and accessibility, how to be a good abled friend to a disabled person, the trigger warnings debate, and more. Written for a popular audience, for those with disabilities and for those who want to learn more about living a disabled life, Life of the Mind Interrupted aims to make higher education, and the rest of our society, more humane."Katie Rose Guest Pryal is one of the foremost writers of disability and higher education we have today." —Catherine J. Prendergast, Ph.D., Professor of Disability Studies

From the IPPY-award-winning author of Entanglement comes a novel of family tragedy, a young woman's sacrifice, and how love can save us from our darkest places.Fractured family, deadly secrets, and a woman on the run in L.A. ...The day she buries her mother, Miranda George jumps on a plane from North Carolina, telling no one where she's heading. She wants to disappear and start over. She arrives on the Los Angeles doorstep of college friend Daphne Saito, and even though Miranda hasn't seen Daphne in years, Daphne welcomes Miranda into her home and her makeshift L.A. family.The problem is, Miranda is on the run from family. All family. Family, in Miranda's experience, can get you killed.Miranda takes off again, but this time her plan is much more sinister. She certainly doesn't expect her friends to track her down. They bring her back from the edge, but will Miranda be able to save herself and her newfound friendships? Or will she remain strangled by the past?"A love story wrapped inside a heart-rending struggle for personal freedom." -Washington Post bestselling author Sonja Yoerg"A dangerous, sexy, motorcycle ride of a story, which pulls off the feat of being both humorous and heartbreaking at the same time." -Sandra Block, author of What Happened That NightThe Hollywood Lights Series is a series of standalone, romantic women's fiction full of suspense, family drama, deep friendship ties, and happily ever afters. The series is now complete.

"Beautifully descriptive and engaging. A delightful story about learning to let go of who you think you need to be and take a risk on happiness." -Orly Konig, author of The Distance Home and founding president of the Women's Fiction Writers Association Sometimes a little trouble-and a lot of Louisiana heat-can help you find your way…This lighthearted novella from award-wining author Lauren Faulkenberry is part romance, part comedy, and all small-town fun.Kate McDonnell has a problem: a problem with four legs and a howl loud enough to wake the whole Bayou. She can't remember why she agreed to dog-sit her best friend's Catahoula, until sexy Sheriff Andre Dufresne stops by and her memories come right back. But Kate can't get seriously involved with anyone right now-she just got cheated on by her scoundrel fiancé, and besides, Bayou Sabine is just a temporary refuge. Maybe Andre would be interested in a light-hearted fling.When Andre Dufresne first met Kate, she was naked as a jaybird and tried to brain him with her hairdryer. But that was months ago. Now, all he wants is to get to know her better. After all, they don't make girls like her where he comes from-whip-smart, fast-talking, straight-shooting, and foxy as all get out. He has his work cut out for him though-Kate is no country girl. She might like him all right, but she can't stop talking about going home.Kate can't resist a short-lived affair with Andre, and Andre isn't about to tell Kate no. Can he convince her that he's worth the trouble? Or will her fear of being hurt again ruin any chance they have of love?

"Bayou Whispers is a rich and emotional story that will draw readers into the heat of the bayou and leave them wanting more." -Tina Ann Forkner, award-winning author of The Real Thing and Waking Up JoyNew love is put to the test in the sultry bayous of Louisiana.Enza Parker has finally found love with sexy firefighter Jack, and through him, she has gained a family, years after her mother abandoned her. With her friend Kate in town, Enza's looking forward to her first Christmas in Bayou Sabine, surrounded by those she cares about most. But instead the holiday brings disaster. One guest puts someone Enza loves in danger, and threatens her relationship with Jack. Another guest brings news that makes Enza question the circumstances surrounding her mother's departure and doubt everything she believed to be truth about her parents.Enza, fleeing Jack and the turmoil in Bayou Sabine, sets off with Kate on a road trip that could bring her solace-or might destroy everything. Will she find answers about her mother's disappearance and the strength to accept the truth? Will she return home in time to save everything that's important to her, and can her bond with Jack be salvaged?

From the IPPY-award-winning author of Entanglement comes a novel of friendship, tragedy, and one woman's journey to self-forgiveness and love.Underneath the glitter of Hollywood, nothing is truly as it seems.Daphne Saito is a talented screenwriter with a seemingly perfect life-a life so fragile it might crumble at any moment.For Daphne, love always brings disaster. She's worked hard to bury her troubled past, but now that her best friend is getting married, her world is upended as her past mistakes catch up with her-and threaten the people she loves most.While planning her friend's wedding, she meets Marlon-he's surly on the the outside, and maybe just as damaged as Daphne. But he makes her feel something she hasn't felt in years-hope. She dares to get close to him, but a tragic turn leaves her with an impossible choice.The night of the wedding brings a perfect storm of chaos: A dangerous ex-boyfriend is bent on revenge. A woman from Daphne's past blows into town with a vendetta of her own. Someone Daphne loves gets caught in the middle, a friend she'll do anything to protect-even if it means committing a horrible act that she can never take back."As glamorous and mercurial as Hollywood itself, Chasing Chaos is a novel that glitters." -New York Times bestselling author Eileen Goudge"Pryal deftly portrays relationships that are under the magnifying glass, obsessive and dysfunctional, while still capturing the complexity and love." -New York Times bestselling author Kate MorettiThe Hollywood Lights Series is a series of standalone, romantic women's fiction full of suspense, family drama, deep friendship ties, and happily ever afters. The series is now complete.

From IPPY-award-winning author Katie Rose Guest Pryal, the #1 Amazon bestseller full of romance and suspense, Hollywood style.One deadly night will change two friends forever in this dazzling story of love and betrayal.For Greta Donovan, happiness was always out of reach. Everyone betrayed her. No one could be trusted.Desperate to leave her painful past behind, she flees to Los Angeles and moves in with her best friend, Daphne, an ambitious Hollywood up-and-comer, and befriends an aging movie star who's like the father she never had.Soon, Greta has it all: a blossoming career, friends she can trust, and a new love who wants to give her the world. She can't imagine her life being any better. But in Hollywood, nothing is truly as is seems.In one tragic night, Greta may lose it all. Daphne makes an outrageous decision that puts Greta in the path of a dangerous man who's bent on revenge. With the attacker on the loose, Greta's world spins out of control-and her future hinges on one secret she doesn't want to tell. Her friends rally to save her-but will they be too late?"Equal parts heartbreaking and heartening, Entanglement shines a light on the interior lives of two flawed and fascinating women." -Camille Pagán, bestselling author of Life and Other Near-Death ExperiencesThe Hollywood Lights Series is a series of standalone, romantic women's fiction full of suspense, family drama, deep friendship ties, and happily ever afters. The series is now complete.