Before The Ivy

Originally published: San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, 2006.

In mid-nineteenth-century London, destitute Ivy, whose main asset is her red hair, comes to the attention of a painter of the pre-Raphaelite school who, with the connivance of her family, is determined to make her his model and muse.

Six years ago, I had a best friend with sky-blue eyes, purposefully messy brown hair, and a body that made every single girl drool on sight. I would know--it drove me absolutely crazy...until I was the one doing the drooling. Our days were filled with stomach-hurting laughter accompanied by easy conversation, and our nights were filled with secret, awkward teenage flirting. But that was when Dawson was just my best friend. Nothing more, nothing less. And then... it was more. It's a memory I pretend to see through blurry eyes, hazed by passing years of no communication. The one night that my heart was suddenly soaring through the starry night, only to catch fire as it rapidly descended seconds later. Six years was a long time to get my heart under control. A lot has changed, and yet here I am, still drooling over Dawson--my ex best friend.

"Engel makes good use of her setting; the fight for survival on the cusp of winter stokes the sense of danger in a way that matches Ivy's roiling feelings, and the love story moves with the slow-growing heat that Ivy needs." —Kirkus Reviews I am still alive. Barely. My name is Ivy Westfall. I am sixteen years old and a traitor. Three months ago, I was forced to marry the president's son, Bishop Lattimer—as all daughters of the losing side of the war are sold off in marriage to the sons of the winners. But I was different. I had a mission—to kill Bishop. Instead, I fell in love with him. Now I am an outcast, left to survive the brutal savagery of the lands outside of civilization. Yet even out here, there is hope. There is life beyond the fence. But I can’t outrun my past. For my actions have set off a treasonous chain of events in Westfall that will change all of our fates—especially Bishop's. And this time, it is not enough to just survive... The Book of Ivy series is best enjoyed in order. Reading Order: Book #1 The Book of Ivy Book #2 The Revolution of Ivy

Somehow...I'm a siren. And apparently I'm a siren with one seriously sexy, alpha-hole, gatekeeper of Hell stuck up my ass.Finding out my lineage should be the least of my worries especially when I'm wanted for murder on Earth and have a date with a group called the Watchers in Hell...but my gut tells me it may be the key to unraveling everything.Either submit to Cander, like a good little siren demon by my 72 hour deadline, or make my own way.To Love or To Lust; That is the question.

In this in-depth look at the heated debates over paying college athletes, Ronald A. Smith starts at the beginning: the first intercollegiate athletics competition—a crew regatta between Harvard and Yale—in 1852, when both teams received an all-expenses-paid vacation from a railroad magnate. This striking opening sets Smith on the path of a story filled with paradoxes and hypocrisies that plays out on the field, in meeting rooms, and in courtrooms—and that ultimately reveals that any insistence on amateurism is invalid, because these athletes have always been paid, one way or another. From that first contest to athletes’ attempts to unionize and California’s 2019 Fair Pay to Play Act, Smith shows that, throughout the decades, undercover payments, hiring professional coaches, and breaking the NCAA’s rules on athletic scholarships have always been part of the game. He explores how the regulation of male and female student-athletes has shifted; how class, race, and gender played a role in these transitions; and how the case for amateurism evolved from a moral argument to one concerned with financially and legally protecting college sports and the NCAA. Timely and thought-provoking, The Myth of the Amateur is essential reading for college sports fans and scholars.