Dangerous To 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.

Dangerous. Wild. Reckless. Those were the words that passed through Serna Ward’s mind at the moment Julian Raynor entered the gaming Hall. If anyone could penetrate Serena’s disguise as a tart–and jeopardize the political fugitives she was delivering to freedom–it would surely be London’s most notorious gamester. Yet when the militia storms the establishment in search of traitors, Raynor provides just the pretext Serna needs to escape to an upstairs bedroom. But Serena is playing with fire...and before the night is through she will find herself surrendering to the heat of unsuspected desires. Seductive. Fiery. Treacherous. She had used him for her own scheming purposes, then thrown his generous proposition back in his face. Julian Raynor, a man who had ruthlessly enjoyed his share of women, did not much care to have the tables turned on him. And when he discovered that the passionate beauty who had played his wonton prisoner in bed was none other than Serena Ward, the proud daughter of his bitterest enemy, he saw his chance for revenge–not only on the man who had single-handedly destroyed his family but on the woman who haunted his dreams.

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 nobleman of illegitimate birth is determined to give society its comeuppance—but a spirited woman may change his mind about love and marriage. With revenge in his soul, Ivan Thornton, the rakehell known as the Gypsy bastard, cuts a swath across London, leaving broken hearts in his wake. But the newly entitled Earl of Westcott—and the most eligible bachelor in the city—hasn’t even begun to punish society for turning its back on him when he was a child, making him suffer for the sins of his father. A spinster possessing neither title nor fortune, Lucy Drysdale knows that her sharp repartee and intellectual curiosity frighten off potential husbands. In London to chaperone the sheltered young cousin of the Earl of Westcott through her first social season, she plans to attend lectures given by the world-class expert in psychology with whom she’s been secretly corresponding. Instead she finds herself clashing with an arrogant, uncivilized nobleman who is handsomer than sin and awakens passionate feelings in her. Vowing to keep her wits about her, Lucy dares the unthinkable: taming a man whom society deems too dangerous to love.

Francis Bacon, philosopher, politician, writer, is an outsider at the court of King James I. He is clever but not aristocratic, has ambition but no money. So when his political enemies form a deadly alliance against him, centered around the King's poisonous lover Robert Carrm Bacon has no choice but to fight for his survival. Together with the neglected Queen, Bacon resolves to find a beguiling young man who can supplant Carr in the King's bed. But as Bacon soon discovers, desire is not something that can be controlled. Bold, irreverent and utterly original, The Dangerous Kingdom of Love is a darkly witty satire about power, and a moving queer love story that resonated through time.

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.

Is this the end of Todd and Elizabeth? "No motorcycles." That is the one rule not to be bent or broken in the Wakefield house. Ever since their cousin was killed in a crash, Elizabeth and Jessica are forbidden to go near them. So when Elizabeth's boyfriend Todd drives up on a shiny new Yamaha, she knows there's trouble ahead. She's not allowed to ride Todd's bike, but other girls are—and do. Elizabeth loves Todd, but the sight of these girls with their arms around her boyfriend is making her mad with jealousy. Todd says there's nothing to be worried about, but Elizabeth is scared of losing him. Will another girl come in an swoop Todd off his feet? Will Todd's new bike tear him and Elizabeth apart? Dangerous Love is one of the original Sweet Valley High stories by Francine Pascal.

Enjoying a successful career with his best friend Priss, a destructive friend who helped him escape bullies in childhood, Ian fears for his life when she becomes irrationally angry about Ian's new relationship.