Kirjahaku

Pioneer your own journey.Part guidebook, part self-help manual, Grit is a 4-Letter Word covers mental preparedness for living with only the gear on your back and a nimble mind. But it isn't a "how to" set of instructions, mostly because there are as many ways of enjoying the wilderness as there are backcountry travelers.The beauty of wilderness travel is discovering what works for you.Ann Gimpel is a clinical psychologist. She's also a mountaineer and a vagabond. The wilderness has played a huge role in her life.Stories speak to us at a bone-deep level, so this book is packed full of stories from the author as well as others. Read them with an open heart. It's how they were written.Appendices covering gear and backcountry kitchen ideas have been added, along with a resource guide, but this is only a starting point.Read. Absorb. Ask questions. Live your dreams.

One of three remaining demon assassin witches, Colleen is almost the last of her kind. Along with her familiar, a changeling spirit, she was hoping for a few months of quiet, running a small magicians' supply store in Fairbanks, Alaska. Peace isn't in the cards, though. Demons are raising hell in Seattle. She's on her way to kick some serious demon ass, when a Sidhe shows up and demands she accompany him to England to quell a demon uprising.The Sidhe might be the best-looking man Colleen's ever stumbled over, but she doesn't have time for him--or much of anything else. She, Jenna, and Roz are Earth's only hedge against being overrun by Hell's minions. Even with help from a powerful magic wielder like the Sidhe, the odds aren't good and the demons know it.Sensing victory is within their grasp, they close in for the kill.

Last of the demon assassin witches, Roz, Jenna, and Colleen have escaped disaster so far, but their luck is running low. Demons strike at Colleen's wedding, and Roz launches desperate measures. As she shapeshifts to stay one step ahead of evil, at least it takes her mind off her other problems. Personal ones. She burned through a couple of marriages and hooked up with a string of loser men before, after, and in between. Though she wants to be happy for Colleen, the jealousy bug bit deep and hasn't let go.Ronin set his sights on Roz the day he met her, but she's so prickly getting close to her requires scheming. He casts an enchantment to lure her at Colleen's wedding, but she rebuffs him. Demons swarm out of the ether before he can come up with another strategy. Killing them trumps everything.Roz is used to calling the shots. So is Ronin. Sparks fly. Tempers run hot, right along with an attraction too heady to ignore.

Jenna's a special witch, sort of, when her magic works, which it often doesn't. One of three remaining demon assassins, she and her sister witches, Roz and Colleen, are Earth's only hedge against being overrun by Hell's minions. On the heels of Roz's and Colleen's weddings, Jenna is headed for the U.K. when a demon confronts her. Any other witch could teleport out of the plane, but not her. Frustration about her limited power eats at her. It would be pathetic to get killed for lack of skills a teenager could master. Startling truths surface about Jenna's magic, and then there's the problem that she's falling in love with two very different men. At first she believes she has to pick one of them, but her spirit refuses to walk away from either. It's impossible to choose between a seer with dreams in his eyes and a beautiful man who intuits her every need. Standing on the verge of Earth's destruction, will she defy convention and follow the song in her heart?

Tarnished Beginnings, the prequel for the Soul Dance series, is included in this paperback, so you'll get two books for the price of one Tarnished Beginnings: 1700s Egypt is a haven for magic-wielders of all kinds. Vampires hold court, staying one step ahead of priests who want them dead. Gypsy caravans roam the Nile, plying their wares.Tairin Jabari was born in a caravan and has always believed she's Romani. Why wouldn't she? Her mother and father never suggested otherwise. When Tairin's first shift catches her unaware at thirteen, her father disappears, and the elders move with deadly speed to punish her mother for mating outside the blood.Hurt, lost, confused, and fearing for her own life, Tairin runs away, leaving her mother's smoking funeral pyre behind. With her survival on the line every single day, she and her wolf have some hard choices to make. Tarnished Legacy: Half Romani, Tairin's no stranger to hiding her mixed blood from gypsy caravans. What she can't hide is her perpetual youth, courtesy of her shifter heritage. She's overstayed her welcome where she is, but Germany is at war, and travel has become impossible for everyone targeted by the Reich.Elliott's clairvoyance is strong. Seer for all the caravans in Germany, he catches Tairin eavesdropping outside their leader's wagon. He should turn her in, but he can't bring himself to do that. Instead, he interrogates her. Her magic is different, but he can't figure out quite what she is.Any association between Romani and shifters is forbidden. Tairin should leave right now, tonight--before he discovers what she is and destroys her.

Be sure to read the first two books of this series. They're bundled into the Tarnished Legacy paperback. Germany, 1940 Magic runs strong in Ilona, a gypsy seer. Powerful ability isn't valued in Romani women, so she focuses her fortunetelling on inconsequential details. Nothing that could come back to haunt her caravan if a prediction went bad. Rounded up and dumped in Dachau prison camp, she has plenty of time to rue her decision to downplay her ability. If she'd taken the time to scry her own future, she'd still be free. A wolf shifter, Jamal made the mistake of wedding a Romani woman centuries ago. His arrogance caused both death and heartache, and he's been alone ever since. The recent threat of vampires joining the Third Reich has provided ample reason for shifters and Rom to lay their ancient enmity aside and work together, but their d tente is fragile. Jamal and a group of shifters come across Ilona after her escape from Dachau. Vulnerable, terrified, she's fully prepared to fight. Her courage and mettle touch places in him he'd thought were dead, but she's Romani. His last relationship ended so badly, the last thing he needs is to fall for another gypsy woman. He wrestles his tumbling emotions into submission, but when she trains her enigmatic, gray gaze on him, his resolve first weakens and then vanishes entirely.

Long before Germany rounded up Romani and sent them to prison camps, the Netherlands declared them undesirables. Yara's caravan disbanded when she was fifteen to avoid being driven out of the country. Ten years have passed, and she's been alone for most of that time hiding in caves and abandoned buildings. It's been a lonely life, but at least she still has one.Stewart conceals his true identity for the best of reasons. He's not actually Romani, even though he's been a caravan leader for many years. In a bold and desperate move, he joins a small band of shifters and Rom to fight the Reich's chokehold on Europe. When they're crossing the border into the Netherlands, vampires attack.Yara senses Romani near her cave. The stench of vampire comes through loud and clear too, along with shifters. While not nearly as bad as vampires, her people have always steered clear of them. Another type of magic plucks at her. She can't identify it, but it draws her from her hiding place. That decision tilts her world on its axis when she comes face to face with Stewart's raw masculinity and savage presence. She could still turn tail and run. If she stays, it doesn't require magical ability to recognize her life will change forever.

The sea may have been a harsh mistress, but Viktor longs for the challenges of wind and weather, for the sound of waves crashing over his hull. Turned by a Master Vampire, he hates what he's become, but there's no escape. Not from Ushuaia that's turned into a city of bones, or from the Vampire who rules him.Ketha and eleven other Shifters traveled to Ushuaia to harness the power of an eclipse and were trapped there when the world turned upside down. Ten years later, they're staying one step ahead of Vampires who blame them for the cataclysm.With her luck running low, Ketha turns her badly depleted magic on the Vampire assigned to lock her away and gets sucked in by her own spell. Maybe magic can't save the world, but love might be able to salvage what's left.

A small group of Shifters sails south from Ushuaia, determined to assess what's left of the world. A Vampire attack, a possessed priest, and a gateway to Hell mean fallout from the spell gone bad that pinned them in Ushuaia for years is far from gone.Back on a ship again, Juan reconstructs what's always been a comfort zone. The sea is the only life he's ever known--if you don't count the ten years he spent as a Vampire. His new magic, fueled by a bond with a mountain cat, brings its own set of challenges, but they pale in comparison with the white-hot need knifing through him whenever Aura is anywhere close.A historian by trade, Aura deals in prophecies for her Shifter pack. Attraction for Juan ignited when they fought the Cataclysm, but she figures he left a string of broken hearts during his years as chief navigator on cruise ships. They have to work together. A self-indulgent affair could ruin everything. She does her damnedest to keep distance between them, but the ship's not big enough to escape yearning for a future together.

A handful of Shifters. A hardy ship. An upside-down world where evil runs rampant and none of the old rules apply. Taking a stand against the Cataclysm solved a few problems. Others rushed in to fill in the void.Recco misses his cozy lab and well-organized veterinary clinic, but ten years as a Vampire stripped him of any illusions. Life is done handing him everything he wants. He could rail against fate--which never bought him much--or suck it up and keep going. Defeating the Cataclysm broke Vampirism's hold on him, though. Even better, it threw Zoe square in his path.When Zoe left Ireland for a visiting professorship in Wyoming, she assumed she'd be home in a year. That assumption swung around and bit her in the ass. The Cataclysm, a spell trapping her in Ushuaia for a decade may be gone, but it left a hell of a legacy. One that's far from done pursuing her.Darkness stalks the ship. Evil that will stop at nothing to protect itself.

Karin's watched magic ebb and flow over her long life. A healer by nature, as well as a wolf Shifter, she fixes what she can and buries her personal needs deep. In a race against time, she and a small group of Shifters and humans are sailing toward a gateway in the Arctic. If they can't close it, Earth will be doomed, but getting that far is proving tricky.Daide's a scientist, first and foremost. Once a world-renowned expert on treating cetaceans, his skills are rusty. Ten years as a Vampire altered a whole lot, and he's still exploring his brand-new Shifter magic. Karin caught his eye before they left Ushuaia, but she seems to be in love with a dolphin Shifter. Immersed in jealousy, Daide considers walking away, but he can't give up. The only woman he's ever loved is worth fighting for. Consequences be damned.Vampires, Witches, high-handed gods, Kelpies, and a host of others all want either the ship or the Shifters' magic. Even the simplest tasks develop thorny edges, and misunderstandings threaten to destroy everything.

Aislinn Lenear lost her anthropologist father high in the Bolivian Andes. Her mother, crazy with grief that muted her magic, was marched into a radioactive vortex by dark creatures and killed. Three years later, stripped of every illusion that ever comforted her, twenty-two year old Aislinn is one resilient, kickass woman with a take no prisoners attitude. In a world turned upside down, where virtually nothing familiar is left, she's conscripted to fight the dark gods responsible for her father's death. Battling evil on her own terms, Aislinn walls herself off from anything that might make her feel again in this compelling dystopian urban fantasy. Fionn MacCumhaill, Celtic god of wisdom, protection, and divination has been laying low since the dark gods stormed Earth. He and his fellow Celts decided to wait them out. After all, three years is nothing compared to their long lives. On a clear winter day, Aislinn walks into his life and suddenly all bets are off. Awed by her courage, he stakes his claim to her and to an Earth he's willing to fight for. Aislinn's not so easily convinced. Fionn's one gorgeous man, but she has a world to save. Emotional entanglements will only get in her way. Letting a wolf into her life was hard. Letting love in may well prove impossible.

In a post-apocalyptic world where most people have been slaughtered, the Celtic gods and a few humans with magic are all that stand between survival and Earth falling into chaos. The combination of dark sorcery leveraged by the enemy is daunting. Destruction is all but certain if the small enclaves of humans who are left can't get past their distrust of the Celts.Captured by the enemy, Aislinn Lenear wonders if she'll ever see her bond wolf or Fionn, a Celtic god, again. She's had nothing but her wits to rely on for years. They haven't failed her yet, but escape from her current predicament seems remote.An enticing blend of dystopian urban fantasy and romance, this second volume of the Earth Reclaimed Series provides fertile ground for Aislinn and Fionn's relationship to deepen. Headstrong and independent, the pair run up against each other's demands time and time again. Fireworks spark. In the end, they learn to savor every moment in a bittersweet world where each day may well be the last.

Aislinn Lenear has traveled a long road since the dark gods invaded Earth better than three years ago. After seeing her father slaughtered in front of her, and her mother sink into madness, Aislinn built strong walls around her heart. First her bond wolf, and then Fionn MacCumhaill, changed all that, but she and Fionn are far from home free.Four of the six dark gods are still sowing destruction, and they've joined forces with Lemurians, a desperate lot, running just ahead of the tide of their own mortality. In a bold move, they try to coopt a group of young dragons, and very nearly succeed. Dewi, the Celtic dragon god, and Nidhogg, the Norse dragon god, banish their brood to the dragons' home world, but they refuse to stay put.In a fast-paced, tension-riddled closure to this dystopian, urban fantasy series, Earth's Hope sweeps from Ireland to the Greek Islands to the Pacific Northwest to borderworlds where the dark gods live. Fionn's and Aislinn's relationship is strained to the breaking point as they struggle to work together without tearing one another to bits. Fionn is used to being obeyed without question, but Aislinn won't dance to his tune. If they can find their way, there may be hope for a ravaged Earth.

Furious and weary, Angus Shea wants out, but he can't stop the magic powering his visions. The Celts kidnapped him when he wasn't much more than a boy and forced him to do their bidding. He's sick of them and their endless assignments, but they wiped his memories, and he has no idea where he came from.Arianrhod prefers to work alone, mostly because she harbors a dirty little secret. She's not exactly a virgin, and she'd be laughed out of the Pantheon if the truth surfaced. Despite the complications of leading a double life, she's never found a lover who tempted her to walk away from her fellow Celtic gods.That comes to a crashing halt when she meets Angus in Fire Mountain, the dragons' home world. Attraction ignites, hot and so urgent Arianrhod's carefully balanced life teeters on the brink of discovery. Angus is everything she's ever wanted, but he's far too close to her Celtic kin to keep her secret safe. Angus wants her too, but she's a Celt. He's hated them forever, and she's part of everything he's lain awake nights plotting to escape from.

When pressed, Jonathan Shea admits magic runs through his blood, but he's always been ambivalent about it--until a dragon and her mage show up in the Scottish Highlands, and then all bets are off. Jonathan's charmed and captivated by the dragon--a creature fresh out of myth and legend--but the woman bonded to the dragon is so enticing, he tosses caution to the winds and dives into the magical power he's avoided for so long.Britta and her dragon prepare for a battle to save Earth. Freshly transplanted from a much earlier time, she feels awkward, out of place. The first person she lays eyes on is Jonathan. There's something about him. She can't quite pinpoint it, but he has way more magic than he lets on. Magic aside, it's deeper than that. For the first time ever, she questions the wisdom of remaining a maid. If she doesn't make up her mind damned fast, though, her choices will fritter away. Beset from every side, she's never needed her magical ability more.Surrounded by dragon shifters, Celtic gods, Selkies, time travel, and a heaping portion of magic, Jonathan comes into his own fast. Fell creatures target him, Britta, and her dragon. In the midst of chaos, he and Britta find scorching passion and love so heartbreakingly tender, it will change their lives forever.

Bloated on chaos, the Morrigan leaves the Scottish Highlands to gather power. A trip through Hell yields quite the assortment of allies tagging along behind her. Fell creatures straight out of myth and nightmare that haven't darkened Earth's boundaries for centuries heed her call.Heartily sick of the Morrigan's maneuvering, the dragons are close to shutting their world off from everywhere, Earth included. If they do that, every single dragon shifter bond will end up broken. Horrified, Lachlan and Britta launch a desperate campaign to hang onto their dragons.Magic may bite back, but if the dragons take their magic ball and go home, Earth will fade, along with all other worlds. That suits the Morrigan fine. War and anarchy are her favorite companions, and she collects misery like children gather beloved toys.Arianrhod's fellow Celts found out about her fall from grace and her half-Druid son, Jonathan. With nothing further to hide, she goes back in time hunting Angus, Jonathan's father. Forty years apart was a steep price to pay. The world needs Angus' magic. And Jonathan needs all the help he can get. Late to accept the power thrumming through him, he holds a key role in keeping the world from spinning off its axis. Reluctant at first, Jonathan finally gets it.Absolute focus.Absolute commitment.Anything less and everyone he loves will pay an unthinkable price.

One virgin + three wolf shifters = e-reader ecstasy.It's 1936. Thirty-year-old Alice has given up on finding a husband. Between civil engineering and mountain climbing, her interests are so masculine, she scares men away. A poor route choice strands her--lost, hungry, and scared--next to Lon Chaney's cabin deep in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.Jed senses a woman stumbling down the steep, inhospitable mountain behind his borrowed cabin. Her scent tantalizes and excites him. Mates are scarce these days, and if his nose is right, she's his fated one. His and his two pack mates, that is, who are mercifully gone at the moment. Jed crafts a careful strategy, knowing the mate bond might not be enough to convince her to stay once she finds out it will link her to all three of them--forever.Alice adds Jed to her list of problems when he melts out of the shadowed darkness. At first she declines his offer of help, but he keeps talking until she ends up inside the cozy log cabin in front of a roaring fire. His skilled hands and a shot of whiskey heat her blood to molten, and her carefully tended world explodes into desperate hunger to make love with the man rubbing her weary feet.As caught up in lust as Alice, Jed takes a chance. A big one. Will mating with her before disclosing everything turn out to be a huge mistake?

Calgary, Alberta 1936After witnessing what might've been a murder, Megan is frantic to escape the Garden of Eden cult, so she catches the night train north out of town. Her lifetime commitment to the cult may well be her death sentence, but she's not sticking around to let them frame her.Wolf shifters, Les and Karl, eke out a primitive existence on the flanks of the Canadian Rockies. Between Hunters who want to kill them and a wildfire raging out of control, they're glad when Jed, their clan leader, shows up. And even more delighted when they see who's in his car.Jed's mate, Alice, spied Megan by the side of the road looking lost and desperate and offered her a ride. Before Jed's car even stops rolling, Les and Karl know she's their mate. So skittish she's barely willing to exit the car, Megan busies herself helping Jed and his pack mates unload supplies. Can Les and Karl convince her to join her life to theirs? If she does, will the risks she faced as a cult member pale in comparison to being mated to shifters?

The winds of change are blowing hard as shifters gather deep in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for a war powwow. Tempers run high as they argue their next move. An unexpected attack from more Hunters than they've ever seen forces their hand, and Blake, alpha for the coyote clan, fights alongside his brothers. He's grimly pleased when every single one of their enemies is finally dead, the bodies chucked into glacial crevasses.Sophie Laughing Wolf tracked her hated brother into the mountains. Gifted with foreseeing, she wants to make certain he ends up just as dead as he was in her vision. When the large group of men he's with are set upon by shifters, mythical dual-natured beings who can take animal forms, she hides, calling on earth power to shield her.It doesn't work. Two shifters, back in their men's bodies, haul her from her hiding place once the battle ends and drag her before their chief. He spares her life--for now--but she senses the animosity the others have for her. They see her as a threat, a witness to multiple murders.When the mate bond strikes, she fights its pull. So does Blake. He can't believe the gods would be so cruel as to bind him and his lieutenants to a woman with blood ties to Hunters--their ancient enemy. She runs from her fate. So does he, but the bond burns bright, transcending everything.