Showing results by author "Monica Murphy" in All Categories

This was supposed to be the best year of Rowan Lancaster's life. Instead, thanks to a massive linebacker, his ankle is broken and his last football season at Lancaster Prep is done. Just like that. Now his days are dull and gray. Boring. Except for the days that include Arabella Hartley Thomas. She's the girl everyone wants to be friends with. Beautiful but approachable. Stylish. Quirky. Yet she gets under Rowan's skin like no other, and he doesn't understand why. Sure, they flirt and banter and give each other grief.

Eden: Josh Evans and I have been best friends forever. He knows all my secrets, and I know all of his. So when he randomly asks me to help him lose his virginity, I sort of flip out. That's a question that sends your mind to places you've seriously never considered before. Like, you know. Having sex. With your best friend. Except Josh doesn't want to have sex with me-he wants me to help him find a girl. A nice girl who's funny and smart and cute. Except he already knows a girl just like that....

One moment I'm the forgotten daughter of one of the most wealthy families in the country, and the next I'm the blushing bride in an arranged marriage. My fate is sealed in my wedded union with a complete stranger. In public, Perry Constantine is the life of the party. Easygoing. Adored. In private, he's brooding. Dark. Angry. But so am I. It's a contest of wills to see who will break in the bedroom first, and while I try to remain strong, I find myself craving the very man I swore to hate. My husband.

Knox Maguire is the king of our college campus, the star offensive tight end on the football team. He is the complete opposite of me in every way. I'm quiet. He's loud. I'm shy. He's definitely not. Everyone loves him. No one knows me. Fresh out of a breakup, I don't really trust him, and why should I? Knox is the ultimate player. When I become his English tutor, I tell myself we need to keep things between us strictly business. Watching my mother deal with my ex-athlete father long ago taught me to stay far away from that type of man. Yet Knox is impossible to resist.

It's bad enough Jade Frost's boyfriend dragged her to a boring poker game. It's even worse that he actually threw her into the betting pot during an intense round - and lost. Talk about the perfect excuse for Jade to make him her ex-boyfriend. Now she supposedly belongs to the ultrarich, extremely gorgeous Shep Prescott. He could have anything he wants, yet he seems to be in hot pursuit of her. No matter how rude, how snarky, how impossible she acts, it doesn't stop him.

Annie McFarland is sick of being a shy nobody. A session at summer camp seems like the perfect opportunity to reinvent herself - gain some confidence, kiss a boy, be whoever she wants to be. A few days in, she's already set her sights on über-hottie Kyle. Too bad her fear of water keeps her away from the lake, where Kyle is always hanging out.

El siempre obtuvo lo que quiso, hasta que la conoció Whit Lancaster llegó a mi vida como una tormenta que arrasó con todo. A pesar de que muchos le temen, nadie puede negar que es tan hermoso como las estatuas griegas que adornan los jardines de nuestra preparatoria, la misma que fundó su familia. Aunque traté de mantenerme lejos de él, todo cambió la noche que lo golpearon por defenderme. Mis instintos me gritaban que debía abandonarlo a su suerte, pero decidí ayudarlo. Al final, caí en sus mentiras: me sedujo con sus fríos ojos azules y, cuando se fue de mi cuarto, se llevó mi diario.

Over. That about sums up everything in my life. Suspended from my college football team and forced to cut back my hours at The District bar because of my crappy grades, I can’t keep turning to my sister, Fable, and her pro football–playing husband, Drew, to bail me out. I just can’t seem to find my own way. Weed and sex are irresistible temptations—and it’s messed up that I secretly hand over money to our junkie mom. A tutor is the last thing I want right now—until I get a look at her.

Caroline Abbott loves her job - helping engaged couples pick out the perfect save-the-date cards and invitations for their dream wedding. Working at Noteworthy means she has to deal with the occasional bridezilla, but Caroline’s always up for the challenge. Until one particular bridezilla, whose fiancé happens to be the boy Caroline shared her first kiss with, walks into the stationery store. Alexander Wilder is all grown up now, helping run his family’s successful luxury hotel chain, and is somehow even better looking than she remembers.

Everyone loves Willow Lancaster, and every girl wants to be her. She's the perfect student. Stylish, kind to all, and always flashing that beautiful smile. After spending her junior year studying in Europe, she returns to Lancaster Prep, eager to kick off being a senior with her friends and maybe even start something up with her old crush? But everything has changed. Her supposed best friend is dating her crush, new cliques have formed, and everyone is obsessed with the new guy on campus.

Commitment. That’s what I really want from Colin. Ever since my brother, Danny, died in Iraq, Colin’s done so much to help me, including giving me a job at his popular restaurant so I can leave my crappy waitressing job at the strip joint. But lying in bed with him every night to comfort him from his horrible nightmares isn’t enough anymore. I know he feels guilty about Danny’s death, about not going to Iraq, but I can’t keep living this double life.

In Our Kindred Creatures, Bill Wasik, editorial director of The New York Times Magazine, and veterinarian Monica Murphy offer a fascinating history of this crusade and the battles it sparked in American life. On the side of reform were such leaders as George Angell, the inspirational head of Massachusetts’s animal-welfare society and the American publisher of the novel Black Beauty; Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; Caroline White of Philadelphia, who fought against medical experiments that used live animals; and many more.

Billionaire bachelor Archer Bancroft is hot as sin and always gets what he wants. But what he wants is Ivy Emerson, his best friend’s sister, and the one person he can’t—shouldn’t—crave. But Ivy isn’t the only thing Archer wants—there’s also the million-dollar bet with his friends to be the last bachelor standing. Ivy knows Archer is nothing but trouble: he’s infuriating, arrogant...and completely intoxicating. But everything changes when a stolen kiss leads to a night neither can forget.

Whit Lancaster burst into my life like a storm. Dark and thunderous, furious and fierce. Cold, heartless, and devastatingly beautiful, like the statues in our prep school gardens. The school with his family name on the sign. He can do no wrong here. This is his domain. He’s a menace on campus. Adored and feared. Hated and respected. His taunting words carve into my skin, shredding me to ribbons. Yet his intense gaze scorches my blood, fills me with a longing I don’t understand.

I've moved through life doing what's expected of me. I'm the middle daughter, the dutiful daughter. The one who braved a vicious attack and survived. The one who devoted herself to her family's business empire. The one who met an ambitious man and fell in love. We were going to run Fleur Cosmetics together, Zachary and I. When Zachary got a promotion, however, he left me in the dust. Maybe it's for the best, between his disloyalty and his wandering eye. But another man was waiting for me. Wanting me.

Designing wedding cakes is Maisey Henderson’s passion. She puts her heart and soul into every cake she makes, especially since she’s such a believer in true love. But then Tucker McCloud rolls back into town, reminding her that love is a complete joke. The pro football player is the hottest thing to come out of Cunningham Falls - and the boy who broke Maisey’s heart back in high school. He claims he wants another chance. She says absolutely not. But Maisey’s refusal is the ultimate challenge to Tucker.

Jackson Rivers. My not-so-secret crush. He’s popular. Gorgeous. Talented. Also my biggest weakness. I’ve stood by him for years. Been a friend every time he needed one, but he doesn’t see me. Not like I want him to. Move on, my friends said. Find someone new. Someone who sees your worth. Someone who gets you. I know they’re right. I’m only a friend to him. He’s never going to see me like I see him. So I take their advice, and try to move on. But Jackson is always right there.

Camden Fields is the star quarterback of our college football team. Quiet. Smart. Absolutely gorgeous. He's the man all the women on campus rave about. While he's had a few casual hookups over the years, it's never anything serious. Cam doesn't do serious. He also doesn't do me. See, I'm his best friend's little sister, and whenever we're around each other, he's always warning me that I'm off limits. That nothing can ever happen between us. But I see the way he looks at me when he thinks I'm not watching.

I started flirting with a guy while waiting for my car to be serviced. Now granted, he wasn’t just any guy. Tall. Dark. Hot. Mysterious. Can you blame me for wanting to talk to him? He’s in town visiting his parents. So am I. He goes to the same college as I do. Such a coincidence. Almost as if our meeting is destined. But I shouldn’t believe in that sort of thing. I am single as a Pringle and always ready to mingle. Until I keep running into Mr. Tall, Dark, and Mysterious everywhere I go.