PRAISE FOR THE PROTECTORS “James Piper has written a story of the attempted assassination of the president. It deals with high finance and corporate intrigue with exceptional insight. It is fast paced and very, very well written. It is brilliant—lucid and intellectually insightful, and of its kind, it is in the first rank.”—David Adams Richards (2000 Giller Prize) “For those who love a good thriller, full of twists and turns, intrig...

Riggs Malone. Star quarterback and captain of the football team. The boy all the girls wanted and all the boys wanted to be. My first love.And the only person who ever broke me.I have a great life. I've fulfilled my dream of running my own coffee shop-slash-library in my hometown, I own my own home, and I have the best group of friends a girl could ask for. Everything is perfect.Or it was.When a neighboring town starts its very own professional football fran...

PRAISE FOR JAMES PIPER Tilly, Chef Extraordinaire (A Romantic Comedy) “I loved the different characters, smiled when Tilly was teaching James to cook and it wrapped up suitably......I wish it had been a longer book......why not write a longer book for us all - loved it! But if you want a happy few hours this is gentle and lovely.”—J.N. Sheen. “The story is presented with a twist that drew me in from the beginning. I enjoyed the story and cared a...

It’s nothing but a casual hookup. Temporary, with no strings attached. It’ll be over in a few weeks, and we’ll go our separate ways. What could go wrong?JessaHave you ever wished you could turn back time and do things differently? Like that one time you decided to use your ratty bra as a weapon and almost took out the eye of your dad’s hot doctor? Yeah? Me, too.But my nylon ninja skills must’ve impressed him, because he kept coming around, heating my blood with thos...

Never underestimate the power of a little black dress, especially one as lucky as mine.Every time I've worn my favorite black dress, something good has happened. I've talked my way out of speeding tickets—and into a date with the cute cop—and I've found money on the ground, won cool prizes on the Las Vegas strip, and even got a cushy job with an even cushier paycheck. It's my lucky dress, and in it, I can't lose...until I did.Thanks to an enthusias...

For decades, centuries even, when people thought of spirituality, they thought only of religion. I aim to stretch the tent of spirituality in this e-book to include secular experience. My particular approach to secular spirituality is through the medium of film. Characters in the 43 films I discuss come to spirituality without religion. In some of these films, religion nibbles at the edges of events, as when, in the Brazilian film Central Station, Dora, the cynical letter writer, leaves ha...

When my life takes such a spectacular turn for the worse, my three best friends know the perfect way to cheer me up—a weekend trip to Evening Shade, Oregon.The movies that shaped my teen years put the quaint little town on the map, making it a tourist destination for werewolf-loving fangirls who want the full movie experience. And I'm a card-holding member of that eccentric fandom.After copious amounts of alcohol that lead to the revelation of the worst kind of betrayal, I ...

Clean cut, all-American, hot as sin, and sweet enough to lick all over.That’s how my friend Skye describes Miles Blake. It’s how I’d describe him, too, if I didn’t just find out the one-night stand that rocked my world is my best friend’s fiancé’s best friend…God, what a mouthful.Now, the cat’s out of the bag, and despite the lingering attraction between us, I’ve locked him firmly in the friend zone.What else am I supposed to do? If I allow myself to enjoy Miles the...

When I let my most embarrassing secret slip to the person I wanted it kept from most of all.Damn you, tequila.I'm a grown woman. I turned thirty this year, and I've been running my own business for the last decade, a dream I made a reality all on my own. I have an amazing group of friends. Life is good. I'm happy.Well, except for one little problem I'm still a virgin.How did this happen? How did I manage to live this long without ever making it past second b...

Gavin Reese rose to stardom and became a teenage heartthrob ten years ago, but before that, he was just Gavin, an eighteen-year-old boy who caught my eye and stole my heart while filming the movies that would eventually make him a household name.We were friends first. I was only fifteen and too young for anything romantic, but over the next year, our friendship grew into something more. Something special. At least, it was special to me.Apparently,...

What do you do when one of your best friends is unlucky in love? You become his wing-woman, obviously…Sam Simmons has quickly become one of my best friends. We were thrown together when our B.F.F.s fell in love, and the connection was instant. He's the yin to my yang. The peanut butter to my jelly. The chocolate to my bacon. Wait...what? Gross.Anyway, when Sam gets all misty-eyed over his sad, cobweb-filled dumpster fire of a love life, I devise a ...

What's the worst that can happen when you get tipsy and decide to sleep with your best friend's brother? Well, I'm about to find out.Zeke Beckett has always been an enigma. Hot as sin and just as reserved, I've made it my mission to break him out of his shell. Or, at least, loosen his back door's grip on the giant stick he's got shoved up there. My attempts have always failed...until they didn't.When a night of drinking ends with Zeke finding my hidden, sec...