Dangerous Love

“Chad Ford reminds us that humanity lies within all of us, and although conflict is everywhere in today's world, we have the tools we need to overcome obstacles and to thrive. This is a fantastic, timely book that I highly recommend." -Steve Kerr, Head Coach, Golden State Warriors Knowing how to transform conflict is critical in both our personal and professional lives. Yet, by and large, we are terrible at it. The reason, says longtime mediator Chad Ford, is fear. When conflict comes, our instincts are to run or fight. To transform conflict, Ford says we need to turn toward the people we are in conflict with, put down our physical and emotional weapons, and really love them with the kind of love that leads us to treat others as fellow human beings, not as objects in our way. We have to open ourselves up with no guarantee that anyone on the other side will do the same. While this can feel even more dangerous than conflict itself, it allows us to see the humanity of others so clearly that their needs and desires matter to us as much as our own. Ford shows dangerous love in action through examples ranging from his work in the Middle East to a deeply moving story about reconciling with his father. He explains why we disconnect from people at the very time we need to be most connected and the predictable patterns of justification and escalation that ensue. Most importantly, he gives us a path to practice dangerous love in the conflicts that matter most to us.

An epic of daily life, Dangerous Love is one of Ben Okri's most accessible and most disarming novels. Omovo is an office worker and artist who lives at home with his father and his father's second wife. In the communal world of the compound in which he lives, Omovo has both friends and enemies, but his most important relationship is with Ifeyiwa, a beautiful young married woman whom he loves with an almost hopeless passion – not because she doesn't return his love, but because they can never be together. Set against the backdrop of a country struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of a recent civil war, this is a story of doomed love – of star-crossed lovers, separated not by their families, but by the very circumstances of their lives.

"A tightly coiled story of obsession and crime that plays out in an era of lawlessness" Terry-Ann Adams, author of Those Who Live in Cages A Dangerous Love is an exhilarating, true love story that plays out in the chaos and lawlessness of the political turmoil that was South Africa in the late 80s and early 90s. The mayhem and desperation of a country whose social fabric is unravelling is mirrored in Karen Daniels's own life, and hers is an up-close-and-personal account of life as a young woman of colour in the anarchy of early post-apartheid South Africa. Karen Daniels was only 21 when she met Martin, a mysterious, dangerous man who, at 22 years of age, had the world at his feet. Captivated by this man, she was soon caught up in a love affair that turned into obsession and violence. Gutsy and charming, Martin wasn't born into a life of crime and drugs, but his greed and passion soon pulled him into the underworld and he was overcome by a darkness he could not escape. Hold your breath as Karen takes you with her on a roller-coaster ride into an abyss of armed heists, crime, and violent abuse. Her story shows how having such intense and conflicting emotions for a man - loving him and being petrified of him - is only a few heartbeats away from hate. Karen's eventual escape from this life is a success story that has taken her to the heights of the corporate world, and encouraged her to become an advocate for human rights and women empowerment. Her story is one of human resilience, courage and determination. It offers hope to those struggling to break free from their circumstances, and will inspire anyone who wants to live their best life and go from surviving to thriving.

Ray Norman spent most of his life living in far-flung corners of the globe, working on long-term development projects and living out his calling as a Christian professional. By the time he arrived in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania around the turn of the millennium, he was veteran of life as an expat, at home in countries and cultures not his own. But in 2001, the world was about to change—and so was Ray’s life. In the aftermath of 9/11—a time when tensions between Muslim and Western culture were peaking—Ray and his daughter, Hannah, made the short drive from their home to the Mauritanian beach. But instead of spending the afternoon enjoying the waves and the water, father and daughter found themselves hurtling back to the city, each with a bullet-hole pumping blood into the floorboards of their jeep. Dangerous Love is an account of the Normans’ brush with violent extremism—and of the family’s unexpected return to Mauritania in the face of terrifying risks. This is the story of a call that could not be denied and of a family’s refusal to give up on love.

The relationships between female sex workers and their noncommercial male partners are often assumed to be coercive and anchored in risk, dismissed as “pimp-prostitute” arrangements by researchers and the general public alike. Yet, these stereotypes unjustly erase the complexity of lives we imagine to be consumed by social suffering. Dangerous Love centers a framework of love to rethink sex workers’ intimate relationships as commitments to collective solidarity and survival in contexts of oppression. Combining epidemiological research and ethnographic fieldwork in Tijuana, Mexico, Jennifer Leigh Syvertsen examines how individuals try to find love and meaning in lives marked by structural violence, social marginalization, drug addiction, and HIV/AIDS. Linking the political economy of inequalities along the border with emotional lived experience, this book explores how intimate relationships become dangerous safe havens that fundamentally shape both partners’ well-being. Through these stories, we are urged to reimagine the socially transformative power of love to carve new pathways to health equity.

Ava Manning has allowed her heart to be broken once. Once is enough. She never intends to let anyone get close enough to hurt her again. She just wants to do her job as a lab technician at Cloneall Drugs, Inc, without any complications in her life. But after Ava saw some research she wasn't supposed to, someone wants her dead. And now she has to deal with the Southern talking, g-dropping, charming LAPD detective Ricky Don McKinzie. Her life is just beginning to get complicated.

Secrets have been revealed and the dangers that lie hidden in Gou’s world are now known to Jamie. But even after experiencing that danger first-hand, he still promises to stay… a promise that Jamie soon begins to regret making. Kyoto’s streets might be quiet, but Gou’s enemies haven’t disappeared. And when Jamie is threatened once more by those behind the attack in Nara, he needs to decide whether to tell Gou about it or not. Decide whether to seek his lover’s protection or fight the men off himself. Mistakes are made. Trust is shattered. Will their love survive, or will it become another casualty of the conflict raging in Kyoto? Dangerous Love is the second book in The Yakuza and the English Teacher Series, a dark romance that involves a young New Zealand ESOL teacher falling in love with an older man with dangerous secrets. It features a friend to lovers age gap romance, tattoo worship, stubborn men dealing with a clash of cultures, dangerous encounters, torn loyalties, an unscheduled trip back to New Zealand… and groveling.

This is my story about a woman who thought she had found love but instead would be led down the darkest path to pain, despair, and unspeakable violence. Experience the mind games I endured that taught me that sometimes you have to accept the side of death that comes with the life you've so meticulously ordered. This is my mind-blowing journey from violence to victory. From lost to liberated. From debased to in demand. Little did I know that, in order to find my life's purpose, all I needed was to brew in some hot water until reaching full flavor. Embark upon this journey with me as I spill all the tea. See you on the inside.