Showing results by narrator "Shaina Summerville" in All Categories

I thought my invitation was a birthday present from my best friend. The dress, the limousine, the red carpet...I thought they were meant for me. That was mistake number one. Then my date arrives, all gleaming cufflinks and tousled hair, steely blue eyes, and a body honed to masculine precision. Arrogant. Charming. Panty-melting. And melt, they do. Hanky-panky with a rich hottie in the back room of the event I'm crashing? Don't mind if I do.

Perched between branches and shadows, we watch, we scheme, fighting for a kingdom forgotten and forlorn. Until we rip her away with our claws, our prisoner, our pawn, our plaything. She’s innocent and pure, fragile and helpless…but oh so guilty by blood. She calls us beasts, wicked and evil, vicious and cruel. We are all that and worse. One of us offers her shelter beneath his wings, whispering promises of pleasure, seeking redemption. The other longs to shatter her into a million pieces, whispering promises of pain, seeking revenge.

Shadows so Cruel is a full-length dark fantasy romance novel, and book two in the Court of Ravens duet. The two-part story features two morally gray raven shifters, a young woman at the mercy of their shadows, and a HEA.

Being a dog walker isn't as glamorous as you might imagine. Unless, of course, you're walking a tech billionaire's German shepherd mix. And when your grumpy, gorgeous billionaire boss asks you to spend the evenings at his place to babysit his teenage niece, who are you to refuse? You think, what could possibly go wrong? I'll tell you what can go wrong: Your business implodes, your heart shatters, and you find out you're carrying his baby.

Billionaire. CEO. Single dad. And for the next seven days, this arrogant hunk is going to be my boss. Easy, right? All I have to do is be a good nanny to Leif Sorensen's adorable, hell-raising, ballet-loving daughter. Keep my head down, my hands to myself, and forget about this silly crush I've been nursing. So he's big, and blond, and he stars in all my not-so-innocent "Hot Viking Ravages Innocent Maiden" fantasies? Who cares? Certainly not me. Nope. My week-long contract is my ticket out of trouble, and I'm not going to mess it up. Except . . . Leif has other ideas.

I was having the worst day ever, and to cheer myself up I was trying on wedding gowns at a boutique. Which is cool, until my frenemy walked in with her posse of women. "Emma! You're getting married too? So am I!" I'm not getting married. I don't even have a boyfriend. I just find wearing a wedding dress can turn a bad day around.

Someone was playing a cruel joke on Marigold Wells. And she had a feeling she knew exactly who it was. Ever since their divorce seven years ago, Marigold's ex-husband, Liam, had been making it his personal mission to push her beyond all her boundaries. So when she found out that they were suspiciously assigned to a six-week project for their son's school, what was she left to do?

Dina Chandler has been to hell and back. Two-and-a-half years ago, her tempestuous marriage to Blake Chandler ended abruptly when his plane disappeared in the South American jungle. With no one else to take the helm, the lovely, grief-stricken widow found herself in charge of the vast Chandler hotel empire. Through it all, Blake's old friend, Chet Stanton, had been her rock.

Lilian always had a no-dating rule. For the last twelve years, she's been the guardian of her younger sister. She did the whole PTO, soccer mom thing. But now that her sister's a college graduate and married, Lilian is taking her life back . . . and looking for a good time. I respected her "no dating" rule even though I've wanted her since the day she started working for me. Two years later and my thirst for her has only intensified. Lily might think all she wants is a one-night-stand, but I'm determined to make her mine.

I'm in love with Lucas Blaze, the player grandson of the woman I take care of. I'm nothing like the women he dates, so the chances of him noticing me are slim to none. Until the day he asks me to marry him. Lucas is the youngest Blaze Brother. He works twenty-four seven, and his only use for women is to get his rocks off when he's taking a break from putting his family's liquor brand into every store in the country. I don't mingle in the same high-profile groups, and I sure as heck don't know the first thing about pleasing a man. But to make his Granny happy, Lucas is willing to marry me.

A marriage proposal from a deliciously handsome and wickedly charming prince sounds like a fairytale. But for a nerdy scientist with severe social anxiety, it's a horror story. Prince Torin O'Grady, with his mischievous blue eyes and cocky grin, is always in the spotlight. And he needs to marry me to inherit the crown. But we have nothing in common. He's a future king. And I'm perfectly happy slogging through mud in my work boots. So why can't I stop thinking about him?

It's no secret that the big-shot CEO of Got Cake? wants to buy my bakery but I declined his offer - even though it was presented to me on a notecard with a triple chocolate donut. For the record, I did not eat his overpriced donut.... I threw it in the trash. Off the record-I totally ate it, and oh my heck, it was finger-licking delicious.

One year after the Michaluk Virus decimated the southeast, Ethan Bennett and his six companions have become as close as family while facing the trials of living in a drastically changed world. Then a mysterious woman arrives at their safe house in Alabama, pleading for assistance in Atlanta. Despite their suspicions that the woman is hiding important information, Ethan and his friends agree to help. But when they're suddenly forced to flee from the infected, the cohesion the group had cultivated is shattered.

Months after the traumatic events in Atlanta, Kimberly Gellar and her new friends have established Woodside, a walled-in community of survivors led by the best, brightest, and most heroic among them. And a CDC doctor with them has created a promising cure for the virus and tested it on the man Kimberly has begun to fall for, who promptly shows strange and concerning side effects.

When Brianna Jenson agreed to move in with her cruel uncle, Shane, in rural Pennsylvania, she didn't expect to find herself in the middle of a terrifying town legend. Every afternoon on her walk home from school, as the sun begins to set behind the overhanging branches of Shadowrun Road, Brianna hears footsteps following her - footsteps that belong to no one. Then there's the car that races along the narrow country road with blinding lights and almost runs her over! That's when Brianna realizes...there's no one driving.

When the Aizenberg family is forced into the crowded Warsaw ghetto, they must share a small apartment with a secular Jewish family. This living arrangement will be a test for young Shoshana Aizenberg as she enters adulthood. Meanwhile, fast-rising doctor Ernst saves a man's life on the Russian front. For his heroism, Ernst is rewarded with the role of Dr. Mengele's apprentice at Auschwitz. It is an opportunity beyond his wildest dreams . . . the cost is the stuff of his worst nightmares.

For decades, performance management has been seen as an annual chore by managers and HR alike. But this process is changing, and there are ways to make it more effective for your organization and more useful for employees. If you read (or listen to) nothing else on performance management in your organization, listen to these ten articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you assess performance more accurately, have more effective feedback conversations, and encourage the growth of your employees.

Crew knew cooking like the back of his hand. He'd grown a successful business and made himself a proud owner of one of the top savory food trucks in a three-hour radius. You would think that would be enough to impress his family, but it wasn't. However, winning a city wide food truck competition and claiming the number one title would have to be enough. Except, this title was only possible by serving the best entree and dessert. His only option? Relying on the one girl he would run miles away from.

Olive Moore has been avoiding her hometown for three years now. But a phone call with her mom has her agreeing to spend the holidays back home with her family, she lets it slip she will be bringing a boyfriend with her. The only problem with that is she has no boyfriend. That is until she meets a handsome—albeit annoying—stranger on the plane who makes her an offer she can't refuse.

It's not until Dez's father shows up, wielding a gun and knowing more about Kale than he should, that Dez realizes there's more to this boy - and her father's "law firm" - than she realized. Kale has been a prisoner of Denazen Corporation - an organization devoted to collecting "special" kids known as Sixes and using them as weapons - his entire life.