Sparks Fly

Charming, hilarious, and emotional...When Sparks Fly is Helena Hunting at her very best! Avery Spark is living her best life. Between her friends, her sisters, and Spark House, the event hotel her family owns, she doesn’t have much time for anything else, especially relationships. She’d rather hang out with her best friend and roommate, Declan McCormick, than deal with the dating scene. But everything changes when she is in a car accident and needs someone to care for her as she heals. Declan avoids relationships, giving him a playboy reputation that he lives up to when he puts a one-night stand ahead of a promise he made to Avery. While he may not have been the one driving the car, he feels responsible for Avery’s injuries and is determined to make it up to her by stepping into the role of caretaker. Little did they know that the more time they spend in compromising positions, the attraction they’ve been refusing to acknowledge becomes impossible to ignore. When they finally give in to the spark between them, neither is prepared for the consequences. Their love is fragile and all it will take is a blow from the past to shatter it all.

How does a leader manage for creativity? Many managers fall into the trap of assuming that only gifted individuals--readily identifiable "creative types"--can produce breakthrough thinking, and if you don't have an eccentric genius on your team, your efforts are doomed to mediocrity. Some even argue that creativity is an art that can't possibly be planned or managed without extinguishing the vital creative spark. Yet, say Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap, today's most innovative, complex services, products and processes spring from well-led, well-managed group interactions. Blending their backgrounds in business and psychology into a fresh perspective, Leonard and Swap sweep aside conventional thinking about creativity to show how managers can actively shape group processes to enhance creative output. They offer proven strategies based on a deep understanding of human behavior for stimulating and directing the group dynamics that lie at the heart of innovative thinking. The book clearly outlines and analyzes each step in the creative process and gives practical suggestions for managing creative teams, including specific techniques for composing groups to maximize creative abrasion, re-channeling the tensions of conflicting points of view into new ideas and alternative options, and failing forward to success. Leonard and Swap explore how all aspects of the work environment, from leadership style to the promotion of passion to the use of space to maximize serendipity, can enhance innovation. Drawing on examples in companies that range from small startups to Fisher-Price, Intel and Hewlett-Packard, When Sparks Fly shows how sophisticated managers can galvanize groups to maximize their creative potential.

Dr. Daniella Waveny is back from a medical posting in Guyana carrying more than just her suitcase. The difficult to diagnose virus that forced her return to her northern Canadian hometown could threaten much more than her livelihood. It could shatter her dreams. Luca McAffery has her own baggage. The iron sculptor and hockey coach carries the world on her shoulders, but when she runs into Daniella, her arms are—fortunately for them both—wide-open. So is her heart. A devastating hit at center ice first brought them together years ago. Will the consequences now tear them apart or will the spark of their passion be hot enough to thaw the secrets that stand between them?

Eliza Applegate weaves natural food ingredients with Biblical ideas in this collection of twelve seasonal, healthy recipes. Inspired by a mystical and dramatic image in the book of Job, Applegate has created an engaging cookbook with bountiful recipes and vibrant photographs. Savor Fiery Furnace Soup, Alpha and Omega Granola, and Crimson Christmas Conserve along with nine more recipes designed to nourish body and spirit. This book encourages Christians to treat their bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit through healthy home cooking and time well-spent in the kitchen.

A young man finds his calling as a doctor in Queen Elizabeth’s court in this Christian historical trilogy finale—a prequel to the House of Winslow series. Neither bold and rough like his brother, Adam, nor headstrong and spoiled like his sister, Adara, young Colin Winslow is a gentle soul with a special love for natural things. His interest in animals and healing brings him in contact with Meg Caradoc, a strange woman who lives in the woods, and teaches him the fine art of herbal medicine. At Oxford, an eccentric but brilliant professor, Dr. Phineas Teague, guides Colin toward a medical career. This formal training, combined with Meg’s herbal remedies, makes Colin an insightful and successful doctor—one with the approving eye of Queen Elizabeth. Colin’s skill quickly earns him many patients, some highly placed in the courts of both his queen and her sister, Mary Queen of Scots. Soon, this once shy young man finds himself amid court intrigue, acting covertly on the queen’s behalf. When Colin faces his most difficult case—curing the wounds his brave brother suffered in battle—he must confront his attraction to Adam’s wife, his unsteady faith in God, and the limits of his ability to heal.

Among the citizens of these stories you will find: The best man, secretly against his best buddy’s marriage, finds himself having to actually talk the panicking groom into going through with the ceremony. After Larry Dun’s name appears in the obituary section of the local newspaper, he goes to a bar to contemplate life as a ghost, and decide what second chances are about. Legendary rock ’n’ roller, Wolf Kearney, takes the stage and faces a tumultuous audience—a mirror reflection of his thirty years in the business—a crowd lost in the past?—finding himself more confined within the spotlight, than exalted by it. As a young man drives home one night following band practice, his car is nearly struck by something falling from a bridge overhead: an ordinary soda can-filled with ominous, though potentially profitable contents. Adam—living in Dublin, Ireland—one night sees a statue of Jesus Christ standing upon a pedestal inside a Plexiglas box. And attempts to rescue him. A rock ’n’ roll fan makes a pilgrimage to Bono’s estate in Killiney, County Dublin, where he reflects on art, fandom and hero worship.

The room is dark, except for the streetlights coming through the blinds. I can barely see her, but I feel her. She pushes me up against the wall and we kiss harder than we ever have before. I've been waiting so long for it to happen, and finally, it's going to. Then the bedroom door flies open, and someone screams her name... Britton Walsh has never had a home. After a lifetime in the care system, she doesn't expect she'll ever find one. But beginning her senior year with new foster parents in a new city, means starting over yet again. Tom and Cate Cahill seem okay. The hitch? Their daughter, Avery. Beautiful, popular and cool, Avery is everything Britton is not. She's all Britton could ever ask for in a sister, or even a friend--but having survived without either for so long, Britton knows the way her heart races whenever Avery enters the room can only mean one thing... But Avery has a secret. Something that is eating away at her and stopping her letting anyone in, least of all Britton. Will Avery's insistence on punishing herself for a mistake in her past make Britton's last year of high school, and finding a place to call home, impossible? Can two such different people ever find common ground, friendship, or maybe even something more? An unforgettable new adult lesbian romance for fans of Keeping You a Secret by Julie Anne Peters, Her Name in the Sky by Kelly Quindlen, or Nancy Garden's classic young adult coming out novel, Annie on My Mind. New Adult novel: recommended for 17+ due to mature themes and sexual content. Everyone loves Kristen Zimmer: 'BEST. BOOK. EVER. I swear... DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO FIND AN LGBT BOOK TO RELATE TO I DO!... have recommended it to literally all my friends. Read it. It's amazing!' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Wow!! What an amazing story!... very hard to put the book down... I couldn't wait to get back to where I'd left it. A book has never made me feel like that.' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐