With stories from south central LA to the jungles of Peru, A Fierce Heart offers deep and honest reflections on compassion and suffering by one of the country's most powerful mindfulness teachers. Spring Washam is a founder of the East Bay Meditation Center, the most diverse and accessible meditation center in the United States. In A Fierce Heart, she shares her contemporary, unique interpretation of the Buddha's 2,500-year-old teachings that get to the heart of mindfulness, wisdom, and compassion. Woven throughout the book are stories from her life, family, and community, along with soulful and unexpected stories of compassion in action from all over the world. The life-saving teachings of this charismatic teacher are universal; her honesty, enthusiasm, and energy are a balm.

Essie would do anything for her kingdom...even marry an elf prince she just met that morning. The human kingdom of Escarland and the elven kingdom of Tarenhiel have existed in an uneasy peace after their last wars ended with both kings dead. As tensions rise once again, desperate diplomacy might be the only way to avert war. If only negotiations between elves and humans were that simple. When a diplomatic meeting goes horribly wrong, Essie, a human princess, finds herself married to the elf prince and warrior Laesornysh. Fitting in to the serene, quiet elf culture might be a little difficult for this talkative princess, but she's determined to make it work. With impending war and tenuous alliances, it will be up to Essie to unite her two peoples. And maybe get her hands on elven conditioner while she's at it.

"Although Makaha is a small, isolated town on the Western coast of O'ahu, it has produced some of the most intriguing Hawaiians of the twentieth century: world-class surfers Buffalo Keaulana and his sons Rusty and Brian; beautiful skin diver and surfing pro Rell Sunn; and larger-than-life singer and songwriter Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. What connects them is a love for their culture, their people, and water sports. Fierce Heart combines stories of exciting surfing competitions, dramatic water rescues, and deep friendships with a look at the history and origins of one of the world's most thrilling extreme sports." --

In the sequel to New York Times bestselling A Curse So Dark and Lonely, Brigid Kemmerer returns to the world of Emberfall in a lush fantasy where friends become foes and love blooms in the darkest of places. Find the heir, win the crown. The curse is finally broken, but Prince Rhen of Emberfall faces darker troubles still. Rumors circulate that he is not the true heir and that forbidden magic has been unleashed in Emberfall. Although Rhen has Harper by his side, his guardsman Grey is missing, leaving more questions than answers. Win the crown, save the kingdom. Grey may be the heir, but he doesn't want anyone to know his secret. On the run since he destroyed Lilith, he has no desire to challenge Rhen--until Karis Luran once again threatens to take Emberfall by force. Her own daughter Lia Mara sees the flaws in her mother's violent plan, but can she convince Grey to stand against Rhen, even for the good of Emberfall? The heart-pounding, compulsively readable saga continues as loyalties are tested and new love blooms in a kingdom on the brink of war.

He’s a new firefighter with a lot to prove, and she’s the former army captain who just wants to open a bakery and start a new life. Adam Kincaid wants to be known as his own person: not the easiest thing to do as the youngest of five brothers in a small town where everyone knows exactly who his family is. Unexpectedly getting hitched to his former army captain wasn’t quite what he had in mind, though. Isla Peterson knows exactly what she’s gotten herself into with the younger Kincaid: a marriage of convenience. In return, she gets a bakery of her own, and the company of a friend who has as little faith in love as she does. But as their public charade starts to feel surprisingly real behind closed doors, Isla’s ex-husband shows up, asking all the wrong questions. If the truth of their relationship comes out, the safety they’ve found could come crashing down. Welcome back to Pine Harbour, in this sexy small town romance about two friends who don’t believe in love, but do believe in each other.

If Fancy Nancy got angry. Really, really angry. Millie is quiet. Millie is sweet. Millie is mild. But the kids at school don't listen to her. And she never gets a piece of birthday cake with a flower on it. And some girls from her class walk right on top of her chalk drawing and smudge it. And they don't even say they're sorry! So that's when Millie decides she wants to be fierce! She frizzes out her hair, sharpens her nails and runs around like a wild thing. But she soon realizes that being fierce isn't the best way to get noticed either, especially when it makes you turn mean. So Millie decides to be nice--but to keep a little of that fierce backbone hidden inside her. In case she ever needs it again. With bright art and an adorable character, it's easy to empathize with Millie. Because everyone has a bad day, once in a while. Praise for MILLIE FIERCE “Millie Fierce is a delightfully naughty mix between Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and Molly Bang’s When Sophie Gets Angry.”--School Library Journal

Love is easy to give when you are getting it back. Are we still called to God’s plan of how to love when we are getting none in return? Shauna Shanks’s brave journey through obedience reveals the outcome of when we dare to follow God’s ludicrous outline for love as described in 1 Corinthians 13. Wrecked with news of her husband’s affair and his request for a divorce, Shauna finds herself urgently faced with a decision. Does she give up and divorce her husband and move on, or does she try to fight for her marriage? The former choice seems to contradict God’s plan for how to love, such as “love never gives up,” “love is patient,” and “love is kind.” Taking God at His word and assuming the love chapter was really meant to be followed literally word by word, she not only finds herself falling in love with her spouse again, but also falling in love with Jesus, which changes everything. First Corinthians 13 presents an audacious, illogical, and irrational context of how to love, meant to be applied to every marital context not just the fairytale marriage. If God’s instructions seem illogical and audacious, you might just expect the same kind of results in return! This book is not air-brushed. It was written in the midst of the author’s deepest trauma, and she purposefully did not edit out her mistakes and failures during that season. This book will resonate with women who do not feel like the picture-perfect Christian woman with the fairytale life and marriage. A Fierce Love is the story of a train wreck and reaching out to God not in the calm but in the chaos and finding hope for the future.