A Lily Among Thorns

London 1815, just before Waterloo... After her noble father disowned her, Lady Serena Ravenshaw clawed her way from streetwalker to courtesan to prosperous innkeeper. Now she's feared and respected from one end of London to the other, by the lowest dregs of the city's underworld and the upper echelons of the beau monde, and she'll do anything to keep it that way. When mild-mannered chemist Solomon Hathaway turns up in her office, asking for her help, she immediately recognizes him from one fateful night years before. She's been watching and waiting for him for years-so she can turn the tables and put him in her debt, of course, and not because he looked like an angel and was kind to her when she needed it most. She's determined not to wonder what put that fresh grief in his eyes. But after a betrayal even Serena didn't expect, she must put aside her pride and work with Solomon to stop a ring of French spies and save her beloved inn, her freedom-and England itself.

A new way for Christians to think about sexuality Author Miguel De La Torre, a well-respected ethicist and professorknown for his innovative readings of Christian doctrine, rejectsboth the liberal and conservative prejudices about sex. He insteaddevelops an ethic that is liberative yet grounded soundly in theBible; a sexuality that celebrates God’s gift of great sex byfostering intimacy, vulnerability and openness between lovingpartners. In A Lily Among the Thorns, De La Torre examines theBible, current events, history and our culture-at-large to show howand why racism, sexism, and classism have distortedChristianity’s central teachings about sexuality. The authorshows how the church’s traditionally negative attitudestoward sex in general—and toward women, people of color, andgays in particular—have made it difficult, if not impossible,to create a biblically based and just sexual ethic. But when theBible is read from the viewpoint of those who have beenmarginalized in our society, preconceived notions aboutChristianity and sex get turned on their heads. Taking onhot-button topics such as pornography, homosexuality, prostitution,and celibacy, the author examines how “reading from themargins” provides a liberating approach to dealing withissues of sexuality.

A comprehensive, illustrated biography of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk woman of the 17th century known as the "Lily of the Mohawks."

Gives the contrast of the cruelty and persecution of leadership in China and aims to display love, compassion and endurance among believers

HER SAVIOR It was him. Serena couldn’t breathe. She’d been looking for him for years—the man who’d lifted her out of the dregs of London’s underworld. She remembered that he’d looked like an angel. But either she’d embellished or he’d grown up. Because he didn’t look like an angel now. He looked like a man, solid and broad, and taller than she’d thought. And now he needed her help. HIS SIREN Solomon recognized her as soon as they were alone in the dark. He’d not forgotten that night five years ago either. But Serena had changed. She was stronger, fiercely independent and, though it hardly seemed possible, even more beautiful. She was also neck-deep in trouble. Yet he’d help cook a feast for the Prince Regent, take on a ring of spies, love her well into the night—anything to convince her that this time he was here to stay.