fantasy books without romance Audiobooks

Avery couldn’t accept the sudden changes in him. “Why are you being nice and sweet all of a sudden?” Anderson inched closer and she could feel his breath on her face. “Because you are my wife. Only my wife deserves my sweetness.” At twenty four, Anderson Crown was the acting CEO of his father’s trillion dollar multinational company. He was hot and a die for yet, he was so cold. When it was time for him to assume the position of CEO wholly, he wouldn’t accept it without Avery Smith by his side as a wife. Therefore, an arranged marriage was the best option, but why? Avery Smith was the shy intern in the accounts department. When she reluctantly succumbed to her parents' demand to marry Anderson to save their business, she grew hatred towards him because her heart was already taken. She vowed to her boyfriend that she would frustrate Anderson’s life to make him divorce her but was surprised when she realized after the marriage, that Anderson wasn’t who she thought he was. So what happens when she begins to fall head over heels in love with Anderson, and her ex boyfriend appears to claim her as promised? Will she keep to her vow or will she stay true to what her heart feels? This book is a read alone, though a sequel to *The CEO silenced me with a kiss*

AN AMAZON BEST SELLING BOOK FOR KIDS! Only Losers Don't Have Cell Phones... That's what Sophie thinks in the beginning of this hilarious and heartwarming, illustrated chapter book about fitting in. She feels like an outsider because she's the only one in her class without a cell phone, and her crush, new kid Toby Johnson, has been calling her best friend Chloe. To fit in, Sophie changes who she is. Her plan to become popular works for a while, and she and Toby start to become friends. Things get more complicated when Sophie "borrows" a cell phone and gets caught. If her parents make her tell the truth, what will her friends think? Turns out Toby has also been hiding something, and Sophie discovers the best way to make true friends is to be yourself. Here's what Goodreads reviewers say about Sophie Washington: Things You Didn't Know About Sophie: "Sophie is a real character with flaws and it is fun reading how she matures. The story line was funny and realistic." "Virtues like honesty, friendship and being true to yourself are always in style, and this book teaches that in a fun way. Also, it's great to learn a little bit about Texas too!" "Very well written middle school book." This is the third book in the Readers' Favorite five star rated Sophie Washington book series.

You won’t hit pause, and you won’t forget Billy.

Today more than ever, everyone must be her or his own healer, and this is especially true in the management of anxiety and depression. In the first major conceptual leap in mental health care in forty years, Mind Easing's Three-Layered Healing Plan harmonizes wellness approaches, therapy, and, when needed, medicine into a safe and effective plan tailored to the needs and wishes of the individual. Written by noted psychiatrist Bick Wanck, MD, one of the founders of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and an experienced clinician, writer, and educator, Mind Easing shows how to relieve and often resolve anxiety and depression by assisting the mind's natural ability to heal. Along with non-medicinal healing methods, Mind Easing shows how to use psychiatric medicine (if needed) safely and effectively as part of a mindfully constructed healing plan. Because some psychiatric medicines can blunt feelings and dull thinking, they can impede the flow of healing and interfere with the pleasures of living. Mind Easing suggests when and how psychiatric medicines may be stopped when they are counterproductive to healing. Mind Easing presents a comprehensive Three-Layered Healing Plan for anxiety and depression. Some readers will find all they need in Layer One: Enhancement of Healing without needing the help of a professional. Others will benefit from Layer Two: Guidance which describes how psychotherapy, body and energy work, and spiritual guidance may be used to assist healing. Those readers who experience severe anxiety and depression will find helpful information in Layer Three: Restoration of Healing. where Dr. Wanck explains the concepts of "soft" and "hard" anxiety and depression. Soft anxiety and depression are generally caused by stressful current life events or past genetically inherited conditions or by physiologic hardening of symptoms resulting from persistent or severe adversity or trauma.

Staying happily married has become a difficult proposition in recent times. Although the institution is still firmly embedded in our culture, divorce rates have steadily climbed since the 1960s. While some marriages are truly divorce-worthy, many other broken marriages can be saved. Recent emphasis on personal needs and greater social acceptance of divorce and alternative lifestyles may have weakened the resolve of partners to work through their problems. Furthermore, many couples may not realize that problems in their current marriages are likely to surface in other relationships. Consequently, while they may consider divorce a solution, it may in fact only be a stepping stone to the next relationship where patterns may repeat. Solving marital differences can be difficult. They tend to be linked to or caused by other problems, and that can make it hard to identify the real reasons for conflicts. Without knowing the true nature of their problems, couples cannot arrive at solutions that actually work. To understand the underlying issues that plague many marriages, the authors look to the research conducted on the subject over the past fifty years and to real life stories of success and failure to outline the major issues that detract from marital stability. Drawing on Louis Primavera’s twenty-five years in private practice as a marriage counselor, each chapter is peppered with anecdotes that every married person can relate to, and that help bring issues to life. The authors also propose frank and honest solutions that can help couples have more satisfying relationships. Anyone looking to improve their marriage will find suggestions for sussing out the underlying problems they may be experiencing and guidance for addressing those problems.

Five years ago, Esther Quill, who was six months pregnant, was sent to prison by her husband, Bradley Warner, himself.Five years later, Esther went to Bradley with a DNA paternity test paper in her hand and tearfully questioned, "Bradley Warner, how does it feel to kill your flesh and blood with your own hands!?"Ten years of secret love in exchange for five years of imprisonment; ten months of pregnancy in exchange for five years of separation from her flesh and blood.After Esther redeemed her sin with her life, Bradley turned white overnight and offered a sky-high reward, desperately searching for his wife and vowing to find her even if he had to overturn the world.The world thought that Bradley loved Esther to death... Only Esther knew that the man had no heart.It was until Esther appeared on the news with her two daughters and son one day.Bradley looked at the woman he had been yearning for and apologized, "Sweetheart, I was wrong!"The three little ones put themselves in front of Esther."Mr. Warner, our mommy is single, and there are too many people who want to be our daddy. Please go to the end of the line!”

“It’s like the meanest, wildest monkey running around my head, constantly looking for ways to bite me.” That was how Kirsten Pagacz described her OCD to her therapist on their first session when she was well into her 30s she’d been following orders from this mean taskmaster for 20 years, without understanding why. Initially the tapping and counting and cleaning and ordering brought her comfort and structure, two things lacking in her family life. But it never lasted; the loathsome self-talk only intensified, and the rituals she had to perform got more bizarre. By high school she was anorexic and a substance abuser, common "shadow syndromes" of OCD. By adulthood, she could barely hide her problems and held on to jobs and friends through sheer grit. Help finally came in the form of a miraculously well-timed public service announcement on NPR about OCD -- at last her illness had an identity. Leaving the OCD Circus reveals the story of Pagacz’s traumatic childhood and the escalation of her disorder demonstrating how OCD works to misshape a life from a very young age and explains the various tools she used for healing including meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy, yoga, exposure therapy, and medication.

The first novel from award-winning author Gianfranco Calligarich to be published in English, Last Summer in the City is a witty and despairing classic of Italian literature. Biting, tragic, and endlessly quotable, this translated edition features an introductory appreciation from longtime fan New York Times bestselling author André Aciman. In a city smothering under the summer sun and an overdose of la dolce vita, Leo Gazarra spends his time in an alcoholic haze, bouncing between run-down hotels and the homes of his rich and well-educated friends, without whom he would probably starve. At thirty, he’s still drifting: between jobs that mean nothing to him, between human relationships both ephemeral and frayed. Everyone he knows wants to graduate, get married, get rich―but not him. He has no ambitions whatsoever. Rather than toil and spin, isn’t it better to submit to the alienation of the Eternal City, Rome, sometimes a cruel and indifferent mistress, sometimes sweet and sublime? There can be no half measures with her, either she’s the love of your life or you have to leave her. First discovered by Natalia Ginzburg, Last Summer in the City is a forgotten classic of Italian literature, a great novel of a stature similar to that of The Great Gatsby or The Catcher in the Rye. Gianfranco Calligarich’s enduring masterpiece has drawn comparisons to such writers as Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, and Jonathan Franzen and is here made available in English for the first time.

Prior to 1990, fewer than five percent of domestic infant adoptions were open. In 2012, ninety percent or more of adoption agencies are recommending open adoption. Yet these agencies do not often or adequately prepare either adopting parents or birth parents for the road ahead of them! The adult parties in open adoptions are left floundering. There are many resources on why to do open adoption, but what about how? Open adoption isn't just something parents do when they exchange photos, send emails, share a visit. It's a lifestyle that may feel intrusive at times, be difficult or inconvenient at other times. Tensions can arise even in the best of circumstances. But knowing how to handle these situations and how to continue to make arrangements work for the child involved is paramount. This book offers readers the tools and the insight to do just that. It covers common open-adoption situations and how real families have navigated typical issues successfully. Like all useful parenting books, it provides parents with the tools to come to answers on their own, and answers questions that might not yet have come up. Through their own stories and those of other families of open adoption, Lori and Crystal review the secrets to success, the pitfalls and challenges, the joys and triumphs. By putting the adopted child at the center, families can come to enjoy the benefits of open adoption and mitigate the challenges that may arise. More than a how-to, this book shares a mindset, a heartset, that can be learned and internalized, so parents can choose to act out of love and honesty throughout their child’s growing up years, helping that child to grow up whole.

You will be known by the company you keep! Successfully steer your own life instead of having it determined by others, advises Tobias Beck in this German bestseller narrated in his pithy, to-the-point style. Tobias provides the coaching needed to liberate ourselves from chronic complainers. Killjoys, energy vampires, and chronic complainers. Everyone knows a Debbie Downer, moaning the whole day long because nothing ever goes right. The weather is miserable, it’s Monday, and to top it all off, the doughnut has a hole! Tobias shows us a way out: simply not to bother with such acquaintances at all. Positive thinking for peak performance. Polarizing, provocative and exaggerated, the Liberated® philosophy urges readers to free themselves from negative people in order to live successfully and authentically. With success factors based on 15 years of personal experience in the field of personality development and behavioral psychology, you’ll learn how to: Think in terms of chances and opportunities rather than problems and risks Motivate yourself, forge your own path, and let yourself be guided by your dreams and vision Seek out people who support you and who let you grow and move forward Amusing stories, funny illustrations, and proven techniques. With success stories that are as entertaining as they are instructive, this book is as easy to read as it is unconventional. Part workbook and part self-help and nonfiction, this narrative book includes funny comics to illustrate proven-to-work strategies. If you enjoyed books like The Four Agreements, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, The Empath’s Survival Guide, and The 5 Types of People Who Can Ruin Your Life, then you’ll love Unbox Your Life.