Kathleens Surrender

DIVA Southern debutante falls in love with a headstrong gambler/divDIV In the unforgiving heat of the Deep South, the cotton barons of Mississippi have created an idyllic playground for their wives and daughters—a playground that Kathleen Beauregard is dying to escape. Trapped in her father’s mansion, she spends her days dreaming of being rescued by a handsome Southern gentleman. Unbeknownst to her, there is a striking young man who has long worshipped her from afar. But though he may be charming, Dawson Blakely is far from a prince./divDIV /divDIVKathleen meets the well-traveled gambler at one of her father’s interminable parties. Blakely has rough manners and a hot temper; and though she knows he is wrong for her, Kathleen cannot resist him. When these two star-crossed Southerners connect, Dixie will burn before it keeps them apart./div

Anyone reading comments in online spaces is often confronted with a collective cultural loss of empathy. This profound loss is directly related to the inability to imagine the life and circumstances of the other. Our malnourished capacity for empathy is connected to an equally malnourished imagination. In order to truly love and welcome others, we need to exercise our imaginations, to see our neighbors more as God sees them than as confined by our own inadequate and ungracious labels. We need stories that can convict us about our own sins of omission or commission, enabling us to see the beautiful, complex world of our neighbors as we look beyond ourselves. In this book, Mary McCampbell looks at how narrative art--whether literature, film, television, or popular music--expands our imaginations and, in so doing, emboldens our ability to love our neighbors as ourselves. The prophetic artists in these pages--Graham Greene, Toni Morrison, and Flannery O'Connor among them--show through the form and content of their narrative craft that in order to love, we must be able to effectively imagine the lives of others. But even though we have these rich opportunities to grow emotionally and spiritually, we have been culturally trained as consumers to treat our practice of reading, watching, and listening as mere acts of consumption. McCampbell instead insists that truly engaging with artists who have the prophetic capacity to create art that wakes us up can jolt us from our typically self-concerned spiritual stupors. She focuses on narrative art as a means of embodiment and an invitation to participation, hospitality, and empathy. Reading, seeing, or listening to the story of someone seemingly different from us can awaken us to the very real spiritual similarities between human beings. The intentionality that it takes to surrender a bit of our own default self-centeredness is an act of spiritual formation. Imagining Our Neighbors as Ourselves presents a journey through initial self-reflection to a richer, more compassionate look outward, as narrative empowers us to exercise our imaginations for the sake of expanding our capacity for empathy.

From renowned futuristic writer Kathleen Morgan comes the exciting prequel to her award-winning Heart's Lair. This fantastic romance tells the thrilling tale of the Cat People's struggle for survival against the invading Bellatorians--and of the love between a man and woman born to be enemies. Features a 3-D cover.

A rebellious Chicago debutante seeks adventure on the frontier and is kidnapped by a Sioux warrior, in a steamy romance by a USA Today–bestselling author. The toast of Chicago society at eighteen, Martay Kidd is too wild to be satisfied with a life spent in parlors and ballrooms. Bored with the big city, the slender beauty hops a westbound train to join her army general father in the frontier country of Colorado. But when she arrives in Denver, she becomes the unwitting target of a Sioux warrior named Night Sun, who seeks revenge against Martay’s father for slaughtering his family years before. Night Sun abducts the general’s daughter, stealing her away to a world that is far rougher, and far more exciting, than she could have ever imagined. Though stubborn, strange, and violent, Night Sun is no match for the fiery Midwestern debutante. And it will not be long before the mistress of the ballroom has him dancing to whatever tune she calls.

In this sizzling historical romance set in the majestic Colorado Rockies, USA Today–bestselling author Nan Ryan brings to life the tempestuous passions of a beautiful, strong-willed ranch owner who can’t help loving a mysterious drifter she is not sure she can trust One minute, Natalie Vallance is safely ensconced in the stagecoach taking her from Santa Fe to her ranch in the Rockies. The next, a shot rings out, and the coach is surrounded by marauding Apaches. Facing certain death, Natalie is stunned when a blue-eyed stranger comes to her rescue. She ends up sharing a night of forbidden passion with him. When the virile drifter, Kane Covington, reappears at her ranch, Cloudcastle, Natalie wonders what he is after and who he really is—an outlaw, a swindler, or a charming rogue? Natalie has reason to be suspicious, for she is the protector of sacred Indian ground and the guardian of a treasure in buried gold that unscrupulous men will kill to claim . . .

From USA Today–bestselling author Nan Ryan, the passionate story of a woman determined to reclaim her stolen legacy—even if it means seducing and marrying her most hated enemy In 1847, a dying general entrusts to his friend the final instructions for his heir, never imagining the treachery that will last for generations . . . The magnificent Southern California cattle ranch Lindo Vista is Sabella’s past—and her future. Now, as the lone survivor of a family that was cheated out of its rightful land, she will stop at nothing to regain what belongs to her. Burton J. Burnett, cattle baron and sole heir to the sprawling Lindo Vista, first spies the stunning blond stranger at a party celebrating his engagement to another woman. Passionately obsessed with the elusive beauty, he vows to make Sabella his, unaware that she is orchestrating her long-awaited revenge . . . A story of seduction, love, betrayal, and a decades-old lie that is about to come full circle, Because You’re Mine is Nan Ryan at her enthralling, steamy best.

DIVDIVUSA Today–bestselling author Nan Ryan draws readers into the wildly passionate, suspenseful tale of a woman at the mercy of the rugged man guiding her through the New Mexico desert/divDIV Shreveport. 1865. Elizabeth Montbleau is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. But the Natchez-belle-turned-Rebel won’t be facing the firing squad alone. Another prisoner—a convicted Yankee spy—has been condemned along with her. Knowing that this will be her last night on earth, Elizabeth gives in to the desire the sensual stranger awakens in her./divDIV The next morning, fate steps in, and both their lives are spared. But they’re destined to meet again . . . /divDIV West Quarternight has never forgotten the red-haired beauty and the fleeting night of passion they shared. The last place he expects to find her is on a treacherous journey across the merciless desert. Now, as Elizabeth’s guide, he will lead her on a quest for her missing husband . . . and an elusive, legendary treasure. No longer a memory, Elizabeth is now a prize that West intends to win, even though he swears he will never love her./divDIV/div/div

DIVHer kingdom bankrupt, a princess travels to the New World in search of a fortune/divDIV When Princess Marlena’s father, the benevolent ruler of the tiny kingdom of Hartz-Coburg, dies, he leaves behind nothing but a famous name and a mountain of debt. To fill her beloved nation’s empty coffers, Marlena has two choices: marry or beg. Although she’s considered one of Europe’s great beauties, Marlena has a fiery temper and frightens off all but the most repulsive of the international nobility. Too proud to surrender to a man she does not love, Marlena goes to America to raise the money, arriving just in time to see the stock market crash of 1880./divDIV /divDIVPenniless and desperate, the princess decides to find investors among the gold-rush millionaires of the American West. Instead she finds misery, danger, and a handsome stranger with a temper rough enough to match her own. To make it home, Europe’s toughest princess will have to find her inner cowgirl./div

DIVWith her life in shambles, a young woman joins a gang of rough-riding outlaws/divDIV When the ambush of a gold shipment for the army ends with the death of a Union soldier, Cordell Rogers and his ex-Confederate raiding party flee to Mexico. Cordell brings his wife and daughter, Mollie, but scarlet fever leaves him a widower, and young Mollie must grow up among his ragtag band of bandits. On her eighteenth birthday, Mollie makes a decision. She leaps on her horse, straps on a pistol, and prepares to become an outlaw./divDIV /divDIVAs Mollie begins her career as a renegade, the son of the soldier killed in the long-ago raid searches Mexico for justice. His fevered quest could destroy Cordell’s band of outlaws, but only if he can resist the charms of the sultry young woman who rides like a man./div

DIVThe riverboat’s newest showgirl has no idea what she’s getting into/divDIV Raised on a houseboat, Nevada Hamilton has spent her whole life on the river. At night she sings for her father and his friends, and when they go to bed, she gazes across the water at the paddleboat gambling palaces, dreaming of the day when she can take her place on one of their stages. When her father is killed in a bar fight, Nevada must pursue her dream. She puts on her make-up, dons her finest dress, and walks into the greatest adventure a young girl could ever imagine./divDIV /divDIVHer first night on the job, she meets world-class gambler Johnny Roulette, who quickly falls for the delicate, innocent Nevada. Depending on how the dice fall, she could win Johnny’s heart forever—or she could break her own heart in two./div