Showing results by author "Jae"

Pop star Leontyne Blake might sing about love, but she stopped believing in it a long time ago. What women want is her image, not the real her. When her father has a stroke, she flees the spotlight and returns to her tiny Missouri hometown. In her childhood home, she meets small-town nurse Holly Drummond, who isn't impressed by Leo's fame at all. That isn't the only thing that makes Holly different from other women. She's also asexual. For her, dating is a minefield of expectations that she has decided to avoid.

When Claire, an overachieving psychologist with OCD tendencies, hires Lana, an impulsive, out-of-work actress for a fake relationship, she figures the worst she'll have to endure are the messes Lana leaves around. It's only for a few months anyway. And it's not as if she'll enjoy all those fake kisses and loving looks. Right?  

Susanne Wolff isn't thrilled when her mother sends her all the way across the country to Freiburg to save her uncle's stationery store from bankruptcy. Freiburg is too provincial for her taste, and besides, pen and paper are outdated anyway. Anja Lamm, Paper Love's only full-time employee, takes an instant dislike to the arrogant, digital-loving snob who's supposed to be her temporary boss. But thanks to a meddling cat, a business trip to a stationery fair, and an armada of origami boats, Anja soon starts to see beneath Susanne's aloof exterior.

All her life, Annie Prideaux has suffered through her brother's constant practical jokes. But Jake's last joke is one too many, she decides when he sets her up on a blind date with his friend Drew - neglecting to tell his straight sister one tiny detail: Her date is not a man but a lesbian. Annie and Drew decide it's time to turn the tables on Jake by pretending to fall in love with each other.

All her life, 19-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family's inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns. But when her sister Kathe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above.

Seventeen-year-old Kateiko doesn’t want to be Rin anymore - not if it means sacrificing lives to protect the dead. Her only way out is to join another tribe, a one-way trek through the coastal rainforest. Killing a colonial soldier in the woods isn’t part of the plan. Neither is spending the winter with Tiernan, an immigrant who keeps a sword with his carpentry tools. His log cabin leaks and his stories about other worlds raise more questions than they answer.

Falling stars are supposed to be a lucky sign, but not for Austen. Her new job as a secretary in an international games company isn't off to a good start. Her first assignment - decorating the Christmas tree in the lobby - results in a trip to the ER after Dee, the company's second-in-command, gets hit by the star-shaped tree topper. Dee blames her instant attraction to Austen on her head wound, not the magic of the falling star. She's determined not to act on it.

Six months after the end of Wintersong, Liesl is working toward furthering both her brother's and her own musical careers. Although she is determined to look forward and not behind, life in the world above is not as easy as Liesl had hoped. Her younger brother, Josef, is cold, distant, and withdrawn, while Liesl can't forget the austere young man she left beneath the earth and the music he inspired in her. When troubling signs arise that the barrier between worlds is crumbling, Liesl must return to the Underground to unravel the mystery of life, death, and the Goblin King.

Most stress can be traced to communication - or a lack of it and the conversations we are NOT having or are too scared to have about what we value, and our boundaries to uphold those values. Just like balance, stress means different things to different people. Jae Ellard has spent the last decade working with people who feel stress in some way. Jae wants to shift their relationship with stress, but they just don't know where to start. You will experience stress, that is just life. So why not become more mindful and proactive about how you manage stress when it comes around? 

I love nothing more than my job. As a local celebrity and businesswoman, I’ve worked my way up through the ranks to become the biggest news publisher in the area. Everything’s perfect, except my love life. But it’s complicated. This town is nothing short of conservative and would never understand me. And my mother? She’d think I was going to hell. I’m a lesbian, and it has to stay a secret. 

The reality is some days rock, some days are so-so, and some days really suck. For the days that really suck, there are questions to help make it suck less. Jae Ellard has spent the last decade working with people who feel stuck in some way, dealing with work-life balance struggles, stress overload, communication challenges, distraction, and disengagement.

How do you know when you are out of balance? Jae Ellard believes that balance has nothing to do with gender, geography, income, education, or job type - you don't even need a job to feel out of balance! Rather it's about the conversation we have (or don't have) about how these issues impact life. Drawing on thousands of conversations over a decade, Jae takes listeners through five simple truths about work-life balance that can liberate any person seeking to create easy joy and meaningful engagement between the interconnected roles and responsibilities that make up life.

Alien queen Kora has a problem as vast as the endless crimson deserts. She's the first female ruler of her territory in generations, but her people are rioting and call for her violent younger twin brother to take the throne. Despite assassination attempts, a mounting uprising of nomadic human rebels, and pressure to find a mate to help her rule, she's determined to protect her people from her brother's would-be tyrannical rule.

A Christian woman has an affair. It's a betrayal beyond mention. She stands to lose everything. Mona Leigh Anderson, a good mother and even better wife, is unaware that her tidy and sheltered world is going to explode into a thousand pieces. And by her own hand, she launches the grenade of destruction. Brian Anderson is a principled man, a leader in the church. Never in all his days did he believe his marriage could come to such a heart-rending testing of his faith, although this is exactly what he's about to endure.