Flirting With Darkness

“Ben shows that the black keys of wistfulness and sorrow can make music every bit as beautiful as the white keys. These pages will train your ears to hear heaven’s music once again.” —Jeremy Camp, Gold-charting singer and subject of the movie I Still Believe “With depth and clarity, Ben draws on his personal experience to offer you the practical tools and the courage you need to retaliate against the weight of darkness and walk forward in freedom.” —Levi Lusko, pastor and bestselling author Ben Courson’s mission is to inject hope into a generation plagued by anxiety and despair. In this follow up to Optimisfits, he shares his own battles with depression, PTSD, and personal tragedy—and how that turmoil came to fuel his unabashed optimism and unshakable confidence in God’s ability to heal. In Flirting with Darkness, Ben encourages you to not accept depression as a permanent state, but instead turn to the One who will champion your every struggle. He offers up the tools that helped him cling to God during his darkest moments, helping you discover how… prayer can transform your spirit and turn your pain into joy shifting your focus from your problems to God’s promises allows you to recognize your purpose finding a tribe in friends and family will help you move beyond loneliness counseling and medication can be important parts of God’s plan for your deliverance from mental illness If you feel weighed down by despair, the childlike wonder and biblical insights in Flirting with Darkness will help you glimpse beyond your current pain to see the light in your own story.

Sweet Evil author Wendy Higgins captivates with this fresh romance filled with alluring chemistry and coming-of-age tension. This 96-page novella of unrequited love between sophomore Ryan "The Kid" McPhearson, who makes the varsity baseball team and finds himself immersed in the life of upperclassmen, and the untouchable senior Brooke Bennet is rife with emotion. Maybe to the outside world a two-year age difference doesn't matter, but this is high school. Everything matters. Higgins's deeply felt characters are tested with romantic highs and lows that are powerful, poignant, and keep us wanting more. Includes a hot teaser chapter from Sweet Peril, the second book in Higgins's paranormal Sweet Evil series. Epic Reads Impulse is a digital imprint with new releases each month.

Elise Jameson is the secret author behind the bestselling, cult hit Viking Moon series. But when a stranger poses as Elise, the painfully shy, deaf nineteen-year-old starts to see how much she’s missing. Can she really hide in the shadows forever? This clever, coming-of-age debut is for anyone who has ever felt unsure in her own skin. After a freak childhood accident leaves her deaf and physically scarred, nineteen-year-old Elise Jameson retreats into a world of vibrant characters she creates on her laptop. She is shocked when her coping mechanism turns into a career as a phenomenal bestselling novelist. Fans are obsessed with Elise’s Viking Moon series and its author—a striking girl with zero resemblance to Elise who appears on the back covers. Elise sent the randomly Googled photo to her editor following a minor panic attack. Now, horrified to learn she is expected on set of the television pilot based on her novels, Elise tracks down her anonymous stand-in. To Elise’s surprise, Veronica Wilde has been taking credit for Viking Moon for years. She eagerly agrees to keep up the charade if Elise will pose as her assistant. It’s hard for Elise to watch a stranger take credit for her work and get all the perks she desires, including admiration from the show’s heartthrob star. Edged onto the sidelines of her own life, Elise reconsiders her choice to stay anonymous. Is she ready to come to terms with her true identity—and with the long-buried secrets that could cost her her career, her fans, and the few precious friendships she’s made?

Sara, a history teacher, was devastated after her boyfriend left her for another teacher. She had always chosen the safe path but in the end nothing worked out… So Sara makes a huge change and moves to Rome! Before her departure, her great-grandfather advises her to cure her broken heart with a new romance, to fall in love with a dark-eyed Italian. Sara laughs it off until it becomes reality! Matteo is mesmerizing…his passionate gaze makes her go weak!

In Flirting with Pete, bestselling author Barbara Delinsky weaves together two fascinating narratives that merge in a dramatic, highly emotional, and totally unexpected conclusion, as a daughter's struggle to win the approval of the father she never knew becomes a journey of self-discovery. Psychologist Casey Ellis never met her father—but that didn't stop her from following in his professional footsteps. Now he has died, and Casey is shocked to have inherited his elegant Boston town house, complete with a maid and a handsome, enigmatic gardener. When she finds a manuscript that could be a novel, a journal, or a case study of one of her father's patients in her new home, she becomes engrossed in the story of Jenny, a young woman trying to escape her troubled life. Convinced the story is true and that her father left it as a message for her, Casey digs deeper. As she pieces together the mysteries surrounding her father, Jenny, and the romantic new stranger in her life, she discovers startling links between past and present, and unexpected ties between what is real and what is imagined.

When life hands you demons, it's time to make a little destruction. I thought I wanted to know what I was. Now that I've discovered the answers aren't so pretty, it turns out there are no take-backs. The most powerful monsters in existence fear this one mortal thief. Unfortunately, that means they're set on stamping out my existence. The demon who was my strongest ally has been caught in the middle, his freedom and his life on the line. And that's before we get into the genocidal psycho who's about to unleash a catastrophe that could destroy both our worlds all by itself. I have my work cut out for me, even with my monstrous lovers by my side. Can I become the champion of my darkness, or will it consume me instead? Either way, it's going to be one hell of a ride. *Dark Champion is the fourth and final book in the Flirting with Monsters series. If you love kickass heroines with sass to spare, drool-worthy monsters who have their own sense of morality, and steamy romances where there'll be no choosing required, dive in now!*

This self-help guide is for programmers who need to improve their management and leadership skills.