Accidental Protector

Accidentally hitched. Cue the sweet insanity. Waking up next to the world's hottest stranger is my first red flag. The huge rock on my finger? Hint number two I'm head-over-heels in trouble. I'm hair-on-fire freaked by the marriage certificate. Then I sit down with Noah Bernard, my mysterious new "husband." He talks a good game. Easy, when he'd put Hercules to shame. Olympian abs. Defiant growl. Come-to-mama eyes. Mammoth freaking ego. I almost wish I remembered our honeymoon. But I need answers. Not more secrets. I came to Reno to reinvent myself. What's a pretend wife to do with a tight-lipped temporary badass? Sweet revenge, for one. Like the day my two-timing ex hears I've landed Mr. Perfect. Hello, unintended consequences. After Noah finds out, there's no hiding the truth. I know why there's this darkness in his eyes. I learn how bad my lips can ache for one more kiss. I see him face down hell itself. Protecting me. I keep asking the inevitable: what if the divorce papers can't undo love? From Wall Street Journal bestselling author Nicole Snow - a marriage mistake rocks two battered hearts home. Snarly alpha hero, full of secrets, eager to protect his little firecracker. Full length romance novel with a jaw-dropping Happily Ever After.

How scientists saved humanity from the deadliest infectious diseases—and what we can do to prepare ourselves for future epidemics. After the unprecedented events of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may be hard to imagine a time not so long ago when deadly diseases were a routine part of life. It is harder still to fathom that the best medical thinking at that time blamed these diseases on noxious miasmas, bodily humors, and divine dyspepsia. This all began to change on a day in April 1676, when a little-known Dutch merchant described bacteria for the first time. Beginning on that day in Delft and ending on the day in 1978 when the smallpox virus claimed its last known victim, Ending Epidemics explains how we came to understand and prevent many of our worst infectious diseases—and double average life expectancy. Ending Epidemics tells the story behind “the mortality revolution,” the dramatic transformation not just in our longevity, but in the character of childhood, family life, and human society. Richard Conniff recounts the moments of inspiration and innovation, decades of dogged persistence, and, of course, periods of terrible suffering that stir individuals, institutions, and governments to act in the name of public health. Stars of medical science feature in this drama, but lesser-known figures also play a critical role. And while the history of germ theory is central to this story, Ending Epidemics also describes the importance of everything from sanitation improvements and the discovery of antibiotics to the development of the microscope and the syringe—technologies we now take for granted.