Showing results by narrator "Shaina Summerville" in All Categories

Apparently, conservative Midwestern voters want more than my brains, connections, and good looks to vote me in as a congressman. That's right, to appear as the all-American family man they want . . . I need a wife. ASAP. The lovely Odette Hastings seems to fit the bill. She's a wholesome small-town girl, and conveniently in need of cash. I'll give her the money to take care of her elderly parents, and she'll be the political arm candy I need. We both win, right? The only problem is Odette is a little too beautiful, a little too intelligent, and way too distracting.

I once fell in love with two people. I was lucky enough they fell in love with me too. Chance Kellerman was the broken boy whose father convinced him he was worthless, and needed to hide his shameful desires. We became friends first, then brothers when we played hockey for the same team. But it was Presley King who brought us even closer. With her we became more. She set us on fire, and we had everything we'd ever wanted. Then she left us.

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.

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. 

Sadie Calloway showing up on my doorstep in the middle of a storm wasn't on my bingo card. She's my best friend's little sister, the girl I used to torment for fun, and now she's standing in my living room, dripping wet and out of options. I'm a cardiothoracic surgeon—precision and control are my life. Sadie is chaos wrapped in baby oil and sarcasm. But behind her sharp tongue and messy habits, I see the shadows of something darker—secrets she's not ready to share.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When Naomi's daughter, Perle, starts to have nightmares about smokestacks and creepy doctors, Naomi is struck with terror—the terror of a mother who fears her daughter is in mortal danger. Naomi believes dreams are glimpses into the future. She, too, has had dreams of foreign soldiers with a strange flag invading her tiny village. She knows in her heart that evil is brewing.

Layla Wright fit in her role as admin at West Oak Publishing about as well as she would at a five star restaurant in her 'I love DILFS' T-shirt. When she applied to the job she thought she would be learning the ins and outs of the industry to eventually write and publish her own novel. But after years of staying in this same position, she's unsure of how to break out of her routine and chase her dreams.

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.

Being a parent is the hardest job in the world – there’s no denying that! Not only do you have to keep a child healthy and happy, you are in charge of disciplining them, turning them into a good human being for the sake of society. And there’s where everything starts to go downhill. No matter how fiercely you love your child and no matter how devoted they are to you, children doesn’t want to listen! They don’t want to listen to you when you want them to do something, and definitely not when you don’t want them to do something. The result – utter chaos!

Ellie Klein fled Vermont after graduating high school, and she hasn't been back since. Not to see her overbearing parents nor her distant brother, not even to visit her temperamental cat and beloved dog. And most importantly, she hasn't been back to see Theo Fox. Her first love and brother's best friend has been but a distant and painful memory for the last seven years. When Ellie's travel site lands her back where it all began, her goal is to get in and out without seeing anyone from before. But life has other plans.

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.

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.

I played hard and lived even harder. At least until the mayor of River's Bend got it in her head that the hockey players carousing through her small town in Nowhere, California were unwelcome. I couldn't care less. My priorities were pucks, puck bunnies, and pucking my way to the top. Only...

I don't dream. I don't desire. At least, I didn't . . . Until they brought her to me. She was human. Fragile. Flawed. And the key to stopping the virus eating my people alive. Dr. Alora Bridges wrote the neural systems that made us weapons. Now, that same code is unraveling us from the inside...

He's the star player everyone loves to hate…and she's the one person who might just be able to tame him. There's nothing Lucy James hates more than arrogant men. Unfortunately, as a PR consultant for the L.A. Hawks pro hockey team, she encounters more than her fair share of them. The chief culprit? Dax Temple. He's annoyingly attractive while he cooks up one scandal after another, making Lucy's life a living hell. She has no desire to play babysitter just because management thinks it's a good idea.

I've tried to forget him. He refuses to allow it. Now, here we are, forced to spend the holidays together, pretending everything is as merry as ever. It isn't. I know this. He knows this. Everyone else? Not so much thanks to the man determined to be mine. Despite all that's happened between us, he swears not everything has changed. He might be right.