Guilty Pleasure

Meet Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, in the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series that “blends the genres of romance, horror and adventure with stunning panache”(Diana Gabaldon). Laurell K. Hamilton’s bestselling series has captured readers’ wildest imaginations and addicted them to a seductive world where supernatural hungers collide with the desires of the human heart, starring a heroine like no other... Anita Blake is small, dark, and dangerous. Her turf is the city of St. Louis. Her job: re-animating the dead and killing the undead who take things too far. But when the city’s most powerful vampire asks her to solve a series of vicious slayings, Anita must confront her greatest fear—her undeniable attraction to master vampire Jean-Claude, one of the creatures she is sworn to destroy... “What The Da Vinci Code did for the religious thriller, the Anita Blake series has done for the vampire novel.”—USA Today

"Avidly Reads Guilty Pleasures reclaims the femme fictions dismissed as "trash" to celebrate the surprisingly cathartic pleasures of domination, privilege, and the material trappings of patriarchal culture"--

A"hilarious and heartbreaking" (Jo Piazza) and unflinchingly honest memoir about one young woman's terrible and life-changing decisions while hoping--and sometimes failing--to find herself, in the style of Never Have I Ever and Adulting. Join Dana Schwartz on a journey revisiting all of the awful choices she made in her early twenties through the internet's favorite method of self-knowledge: the quiz. Part-memoir, part-VERY long personality test, Choose Your Own Disaster is a manifesto about the millennial experience and modern feminism and how the easy advice of "you can be anything you want!" is actually pretty fucking difficult when there are so many possible versions of yourself it seems like you could be. Dana has no idea who she is, but at least she knows she's a Carrie, a Ravenclaw, a Raphael, a Belle, a former emo kid, a Twitter addict, and a millennial just trying her best. This long-form personality quiz manages to combine humor with unflinching honesty as one young woman tries to find herself amid the many, many choices that your twenties have to offer.

Guilty pleasures in one’s reading habits are nothing new. Late-nineteenth-century American literary culture even championed the idea that popular novels need not be great. Best-selling novels arrived in the public sphere as at once beloved and contested objects, an ambivalence that reflected and informed America’s cultural insecurity. This became a matter of nationhood as well as aesthetics: the amateurism of popular narratives resonated with the discourse of new nationhood. In Guilty Pleasures, Hugh McIntosh examines reactions to best-selling fiction in the United States from 1850 to 1920, including reader response to such best-sellers as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Ben Hur, and Trilby as well as fictional representations—from Trollope to Baldwin—of American culture’s lack of artistic greatness. Drawing on a transatlantic archive of contemporary criticism, urban display, parody, and advertising, Guilty Pleasures thoroughly documents how the conflicted attitude toward popular novels shaped these ephemeral modes of response. Paying close attention to this material history of novel reading, McIntosh reveals how popular fiction’s unique status as socially saturating and aesthetically questionable inspired public reflection on what it meant to belong to a flawed national community.

For scholars invested in supporting or challenging dominant ideologies, the beauty of literature seemed frivolous, even complicit with social iniquities. Suspicion of aesthetics became a way to establish the rigor of one’s thought and the purity of one’s politics. Yet aesthetic pleasure never disappeared, Timothy Aubrey writes. It went underground.

Named a “Great Beach Read” by People Magazine “When you're packing your beach bag this summer, no doubt you'll want a copy of Guilty Pleasure tucked inside.” —E! Online Can Hollywood's hottest secret relationship survive a PRomance? Find out in this jaw-dropping sequel to Blind Item as three young Hollywood professionals strive to keep the industry’s most salacious scandals under wraps during awards season. Nicola faces her biggest challenge as a publicist when she is forced to represent her superstar ex-boyfriend, Seamus, when he returns from rehab. Her boss Gaynor is struggling to keep the PR agency afloat, and Seamus is one client who definitely won’t leave as long as Nicola is around. He’s willing to do anything to win her back—even start a fake relationship for some badly needed good publicity. Meanwhile, tabloid journalist Billy’s integrity is tested when he’s asked to print the inside scoop on a troubled star. And as for their bestie Kara? Miss Reality Show may have a sex tape on the market. With everyone's career and relationships in jeopardy, the three friends must trust each other again—before all their dirty secrets spill. An Imprint Book Named a “Summer Must-Read” by Life & Style Magazine An A grade from InTouch Magazine “Hollywood insiders ... pull back the curtain on celebrity scandals in this dishy sequel.” —People Magazine “Written by Hollywood insiders, this jaw-dropping novel is ripped from the headlines, and from the scandalous secrets that never made print!” —InTouch Magazine “Grab a bottle of wine, and let Dickson and Ketsoyan take you on a new dark yet refreshing Hollywood adventure. ... an A rating.” —Digital Journal Named one of the 10 Books You Must Add to Your Summer Reading List Right Now by Her Campus

Sofia always thought she got lucky in love. After marrying her college sweetheart and having three children, life was good. But when her husband of fifteen years came home and announced he'd fallen in love with a 25-year-old fitness model, her world shattered around her. To add insult to injury, she only had thirty days to move out.Broke and disheartened, Sofia scrambled to find an affordable home for her and her children. Just as she was about to give up hope, a rude stranger in a coffee shop gave her a tip that saved her from moving in with her parents. Overwhelmed with gratitude, she kissed the rude but thoughtful man before rushing out of the coffee shop. Santiago had always been the hottest guy in the room, and he had the ego to go with it. But that was before¿ Now he had a hideous scar that ran down his face and no filter over what came out of his mouth. He spent his days hiding from the world. It wasn't until that fateful day at the coffee shop that things changed. The sadness in her eyes called to his damaged heart. He never expected a simple cup of coffee would change everything. That a kiss from a sad stranger would turn his world upside down. He quickly realized one kiss wasn't enough, and he became determined to find this woman with the sad eyes and broken heart. When Sofia and Santiago run into each other again, would their last impressions hold a candle to the chemistry they now felt for each other? Would they be able to get past their own issues and meddling ex's to be together? Would it be possible for two broken people to love again?

#1 New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh has captivated millions with her sizzling tales. When FBI agent Marty Matthews is assigned to shadow Khalid, a dangerous, forbidden man who has haunted her dreams for years, she struggles against her desires for him. That is, until Khalid is cleared and Marty freed from her assignment. Now all bets are off . . . The beautiful, fierce Marty Matthews is the one woman Khalid hungers for like no other and is the one woman he dare not let himself have. His past dogs his every step and danger lurks around every corner. To save her he must keep away. But the power of their desire is something they cannot deny - and once Marty is his, Khalid will do whatever it takes to keep her in his arms forever.