Falling For A Stranger

Includes an excerpt from Between now and forever.

“A beautifully written and well-researched cultural criticism as well as an honest memoir” (Los Angeles Review of Books) from the author of the popular New York Times essay, “To Fall in Love with Anyone, Do This,” explores the romantic myths we create and explains how they limit our ability to achieve and sustain intimacy. What really makes love last? Does love ever work the way we say it does in movies and books and Facebook posts? Or does obsessing over those love stories hurt our real-life relationships? When her parents divorced after a twenty-eight year marriage and her own ten-year relationship ended, those were the questions that Mandy Len Catron wanted to answer. In a series of candid, vulnerable, and wise essays that takes a closer look at what it means to love someone, be loved, and how we present our love to the world, “Catron melds science and emotion beautifully into a thoughtful and thought-provoking meditation” (Bookpage). She delves back to 1944, when her grandparents met in a coal mining town in Appalachia, to her own dating life as a professor in Vancouver. She uses biologists’ research into dopamine triggers to ask whether the need to love is an innate human drive. She uses literary theory to show why we prefer certain kinds of love stories. She urges us to question the unwritten scripts we follow in relationships and looks into where those scripts come from. And she tells the story of how she decided to test an experiment that she’d read about—where the goal was to create intimacy between strangers using a list of thirty-six questions—and ended up in the surreal situation of having millions of people following her brand-new relationship. “Perfect fodder for the romantic and the cynic in all of us” (Booklist), How to Fall in Love with Anyone flips the script on love. “Clear-eyed and full of heart, it is mandatory reading for anyone coping with—or curious about—the challenges of contemporary courtship” (The Toronto Star).

"Barbara Freethy knows how to tell a fantastic story and FALLING FOR A STRANGER is no exception. If you're looking for a great feel good read with a bit of action and mystery, this book is for you!" Lesley Ria is as sexy and sultry as a warm tropical night and as beautifully dangerous as the island drinks she serves at the beachside bar on Isla de los Suenos -- The Island of Dreams. But Ria is not as carefree as she appears, and the pretense is wearing her down. One night she risks everything to escape from reality. Drew Callaway is a former Navy pilot and rescue operative looking for his own escape from a life that has seen too much tragedy. Meeting Ria is like embracing the sun, and their single night together is life-changing. But the dream quickly fades when Ria is killed in a tragic accident at sea. Months later, thousands of miles away from where they first met, Drew sees a woman who looks just like Ria. She claims her name is Tory, and that they've never met before, but he can see that she's in trouble, and he can't walk away. He's going to save her whether she wants it or not. Drew isn't afraid of a little danger, but can he risk losing his heart to a beautiful stranger? Love at first sight, dangerous secrets, and family drama combine in this thrilling and romantic novel from #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Barbara Freethy. For fans of Susan Mallery, Kathryn Shay, Nora Roberts, and Brenda Novak Note: The Callaways Family series offers romance, mystery and family drama in each standalone novel, and the books include some of your favorite storylines: alpha heroes, firefighter romance, girl next door, love at first sight, enemies to lovers, opposites attract, grumpy sunshine, meet cute, instalove, and second chance at love. Start reading now! What the readers are saying… "I love The Callaways! Heartwarming romance, intriguing suspense and sexy alpha heroes. What more could you want?" — NYT Bestselling Author Bella Andre "I love the Callaways and FALLING FOR A STRANGER just makes me love their family even more." --All Night Books "I love the mystery and the love of family that is shown through this series. I just can't get enough of the Callaways." Julie on FALLING FOR A STRANGER "FALLING FOR A STRANGER is such a great read! I've read it three times couldn't put it down." Laura "I absolutely love going back to the Callaways family, so tight knit and lots of love, laughter and in between. I loved reading about Drew and Ria in FALLING FOR A STRANGER. It was great to see all the obstacles and then some that they went through. I can't wait to continue on with this series. 5 Stars!" Marisela "Drew and Ria are the ultimate star-crossed lovers in FALLING FOR A STRANGER. With secrets around every corner this is a book that has to be read to be believed. Favorite of the Callaway series!" Isha "I adore The Callaways, a family we'd all love to have. Each new book is a deft combination of emotion, suspense and family dynamics. A remarkable, compelling series!" — USA Today Bestselling Author Barbara O'Neal Also Available: The Callaways On A Night Like This #1 So This Is Love #2 Falling For a Stranger #3 Between Now and Forever #4 Nobody But You #5 – (Novella) All A Heart Needs #6 That Summer Night #7 When Shadows Fall #8 Somewhere Only We Know #9 The Callaway Cousins If I Didn't Know Better #1 Tender Is The Night #2 Take Me Home #3 (Novella) Closer To You #4 Once You're Mine #5 Can't Let Go #6 Secrets We Keep #7

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • “A powerful, heartbreaking, necessary masterpiece.”—Cheryl Strayed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wild The moving story of what one woman learned from fostering a newborn—about injustice, about making mistakes, about how to better love and protect people beyond our immediate kin May you always feel at home. After their decision not to have a biological child, Sarah Sentilles and her husband, Eric, decide to adopt via the foster care system. Despite knowing that the system’s goal is the child’s reunification with the birth family, Sarah opens their home to a flurry of social workers who question them, evaluate them, and ultimately prepare them to welcome a child into their lives—even if it means most likely having to give the child back. After years of starts and stops, and endless navigation of the complexities and injustices of the foster care system, a phone call finally comes: a three-day-old baby girl named Coco, in immediate need of a foster family. Sarah and Eric bring this newborn stranger home. “You were never ours,” Sarah tells Coco, “yet we belong to each other.” A love letter to Coco and to the countless children like her, Stranger Care chronicles Sarah’s discovery of what it means to mother—in this case, not just a vulnerable infant but the birth mother who loves her, too. Ultimately, Coco’s story reminds us that we depend on family, and that family can take different forms. With prose that Nick Flynn has called “fearless, stirring, rhythmic,” Sentilles lays bare an intimate, powerful story with universal concerns: How can we care for and protect one another? How do we ensure a more hopeful future for life on this planet? And if we’re all related—tree, bird, star, person—how might we better live?

I only went to Vegas for my sister's bachelorette party. I didn't expect to fall for a stranger.My traditional family believes moving to LA has corrupted me, but the truth is, they've neverapproved of any of my life choices.It's never been a problem for me, either-until Sebastian.We share one blissful night together. No last names, phone numbers, or feelings.Yet, he still tracks me down, and I can't say no to the heat between us.Our chemistry is intense. Palpable. Life-changing.But it was one thing to be with him in Vegas during a wild weekend and another story entirely toinvite him into my life. How can I take him to meet my parents?After all, his unconventional profession isn't something my family would accept.Can our one night turn into forever?

A story that starts with "Once upon a time in Vegas..." isn't supposed to end with "happily ever after." Sebastian I know this better than anyone, and I can't let history repeat itself. This is why I have rules, and at the top of that list is no fraternizing with audience members after shows. But my rules mean nothing after my instant connection with Kendall. Her southern accent suggests a certain charm, but her sharp tongue says otherwise. Which is why I can't help myself-she's a mystery I need to solve. The more I get to know her, the more I start to believe she could be the one. Until my past comes barreling in and makes me wonder if my one night with Kendall was real or all a cruel game. Kendall Although I live in LA, my conventional family loves to remind me of my small-town upbringing. They've never approved of my life choices-dropping out of college, moving across the country, and dating around, to name a few. Getting involved with Sebastian will be yet another decision they disapprove of-how much more of their disappointment can I take? After all, he's a stripper for Vegas's hottest male revue show. He can't be my forever. The odds are against us, but then again, anything can happen in a story that starts with "Once upon a time in Vegas..." *Strip for Me is Book 1 in the Naked Heat series. Each book is a standalone contemporary romance.

Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers and why they often go wrong—now with a new afterword by the author. A Best Book of the Year: The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, and Detroit Free Press How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to one another that isn’t true? Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news. He revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Bland—throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt. Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don’t know. And because we don’t know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world. In his first book since his #1 bestseller David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell has written a gripping guidebook for troubled times.

A woman with no name and no memory...The two men who claim her: one with love, the other with fear...A dazzling tale of secret passions—and a love tragically lost and miraculously reborn—by the incomparable storyteller. Mere days after Ashton Wingate's wedding to the enchanting Lierin, capricious Fate stole the Mississippi plantation owner's beloved from him. Now, three years later, his carriage has collided with a cloaked rider on horseback: a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to the young bride who was swallowed up by the merciless river. She awakens from unconsciousness in his magnificent home with no memory of who she is. Yet the tenderness of this noble, caring stranger who lovingly calls her "Lierin" soon captures her heart and enflames her with wanting. Then another enters their lives, threatening to destroy the happiness they have rediscovered in each other's arms—the dark and dangerous Malcolm Sinclair, who claims the enigmatic beauty is, in fact, his own wife, Lenore. But Ashton has sworn that he will not lose his adored one a second time, and he will risk any peril to preserve their newfound joy—no matter what the unremembered secrets of his lady's past ultimately reveal.