Books published by Blue Crow Books

**Winner of the GOLD Medal in the 2019 INDIE Book of the Year Awards.**Higher education has changed-and we have to change with it. The Freelance Academic will show you how.When Katie Pryal started her career in higher education, she did everything right-she thought. With a law degree, a doctorate, and a federal clerkship, how could her career go off track? But this is higher ed in the new millennium. "Off track" is the new normal. So, slowly, she made her own career, one she dubbed "the freelance academic" in a long-running column in The Chronicle of Higher Education of the same name.Five years after leaving academia, Pryal has created a living for herself. In The Freelance Academic, she tells her story and provides accurate (and sometimes blistering) critique of how higher ed has pushed its workforce to the margins. Best of all, she gives plain, practical advice for how to make the career you want, one that uses your strengths, and your creativity, to thrive."With candor and vulnerability, Pryal shares her own experiences and hard-fought wisdom to make a compelling case for a rewarding professional life beyond the walls of traditional academia." -Amy Impellizzeri, award-winning novelist and author of Lawyer Interrupted: Successfully Transitioning from the Practice of Law-and Back Again

Louisiana gets a whole lot hotter in this spellbinding story of secrets, betrayal, and seduction. When Enza Parker inherits her estranged grandmother's house, it dredges up a haunting mystery-and puts her in the path of the most alluring man she's ever met.For Enza, Bayou Sabine means pain and heartache: a mother who left her and a father whose lies have caught up with him. Her only fondness for the bayou comes from the summers she spent there with her grandmother, Vergie. Now that Vergie's gone, Enza wants to flip the house and put her past to rest-but this small town is full of big secrets-and it has one more surprise for her.When Enza finds her grandmother's house occupied by sexy firefighter Jack Mayronne, she wants to kick him out. But Jack turns on the charm and convinces her to let him stay in exchange for helping her flip the house. Sparks fly as they share the same roof, and as their fling intensifies, Enza learns that Jack has dangerous secrets of his own. When the truth about her mother's disappearance begins to surface, Enza must decide: how much is she willing to sacrifice to start over-and can she trust Jack with her heart? Note: This book was previously published with the title Bayou My Love."Faulkenberry creates a world of magic, suspense, and desire. An engrossing romance with just the right amount of heat!" -Julie C. Gardner, author of Letters for Scarlet

"A collection blazing with seduction, trickery, conflict, and grief, Wicked South: Secrets and Lies is a saga of bitter deceits and breathtaking victories." -Heather Ezell, author of Nothing Left to BurnFor good or ill-on the page or in life-few things are more alluring than the siren song of a secret.At the heart of each story in this genre-crossing collection lies a secret. A boy who is not a boy at all, a neighbor with a mysterious identity, a tortured student with a list that isn't what it seems, a girl who abandoned the person she used to be at the bottom of a river.Conflict and possibility are embedded in a secret's very nature…betrayal and conspiracy are encoded in its DNA. Secrets can transform. They can alienate, anger, or inspire.One thing is for sure: They make a great story.Wicked South: Secrets and Lies is an anthology featuring young adult stories by authors from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Contributors are New York Times Bestselling author Emily Colin, Elizabeth DeVido, award-winning author Lauren Faulkenberry, Amy Hyatt Fonseca, Lauren Fulcher, award-winning author Robin Kirk, John Klekamp, Karissa Laurel, and Katie Rose Guest Pryal."Menacing fairy folk and locker room monsters. Forbidden love and time-traveling adventures. The nine twisty tales in Wicked South: Secrets and Lies take readers to atmospheric corners of the American South (and beyond) filled with heartfelt characters and alluring mysteries." -John Claude Bemis, award-winning author of The Wooden Prince and The Clockwork Dark Trilogy

Academia isn’t an easy place to be if your brain isn’t quite right.Colleagues carelessly call each other “schizo” and “bipolar.” Another colleague is fired—easy enough to do these days, when most college teachers no longer have tenure—for “instability.” In these ways and many more, psychiatrically disabled people working in higher education are reminded every day that their privilege, their very livelihoods, can be stripped away by the groundless suspicions of others. Their lives can be, in an instant, interrupted.The essays in this book cover topics such as disclosure of disabilities, accommodations and accessibility, how to be a good abled friend to a disabled person, the trigger warnings debate, and more. Written for a popular audience, for those with disabilities and for those who want to learn more about living a disabled life, Life of the Mind Interrupted aims to make higher education, and the rest of our society, more humane."Katie Rose Guest Pryal is one of the foremost writers of disability and higher education we have today." —Catherine J. Prendergast, Ph.D., Professor of Disability Studies

From the IPPY-award-winning author of Entanglement comes a novel of family tragedy, a young woman's sacrifice, and how love can save us from our darkest places.Fractured family, deadly secrets, and a woman on the run in L.A. ...The day she buries her mother, Miranda George jumps on a plane from North Carolina, telling no one where she's heading. She wants to disappear and start over. She arrives on the Los Angeles doorstep of college friend Daphne Saito, and even though Miranda hasn't seen Daphne in years, Daphne welcomes Miranda into her home and her makeshift L.A. family.The problem is, Miranda is on the run from family. All family. Family, in Miranda's experience, can get you killed.Miranda takes off again, but this time her plan is much more sinister. She certainly doesn't expect her friends to track her down. They bring her back from the edge, but will Miranda be able to save herself and her newfound friendships? Or will she remain strangled by the past?"A love story wrapped inside a heart-rending struggle for personal freedom." -Washington Post bestselling author Sonja Yoerg"A dangerous, sexy, motorcycle ride of a story, which pulls off the feat of being both humorous and heartbreaking at the same time." -Sandra Block, author of What Happened That NightThe Hollywood Lights Series is a series of standalone, romantic women's fiction full of suspense, family drama, deep friendship ties, and happily ever afters. The series is now complete.

"Beautifully descriptive and engaging. A delightful story about learning to let go of who you think you need to be and take a risk on happiness." -Orly Konig, author of The Distance Home and founding president of the Women's Fiction Writers Association Sometimes a little trouble-and a lot of Louisiana heat-can help you find your way…This lighthearted novella from award-wining author Lauren Faulkenberry is part romance, part comedy, and all small-town fun.Kate McDonnell has a problem: a problem with four legs and a howl loud enough to wake the whole Bayou. She can't remember why she agreed to dog-sit her best friend's Catahoula, until sexy Sheriff Andre Dufresne stops by and her memories come right back. But Kate can't get seriously involved with anyone right now-she just got cheated on by her scoundrel fiancé, and besides, Bayou Sabine is just a temporary refuge. Maybe Andre would be interested in a light-hearted fling.When Andre Dufresne first met Kate, she was naked as a jaybird and tried to brain him with her hairdryer. But that was months ago. Now, all he wants is to get to know her better. After all, they don't make girls like her where he comes from-whip-smart, fast-talking, straight-shooting, and foxy as all get out. He has his work cut out for him though-Kate is no country girl. She might like him all right, but she can't stop talking about going home.Kate can't resist a short-lived affair with Andre, and Andre isn't about to tell Kate no. Can he convince her that he's worth the trouble? Or will her fear of being hurt again ruin any chance they have of love?

"Bayou Whispers is a rich and emotional story that will draw readers into the heat of the bayou and leave them wanting more." -Tina Ann Forkner, award-winning author of The Real Thing and Waking Up JoyNew love is put to the test in the sultry bayous of Louisiana.Enza Parker has finally found love with sexy firefighter Jack, and through him, she has gained a family, years after her mother abandoned her. With her friend Kate in town, Enza's looking forward to her first Christmas in Bayou Sabine, surrounded by those she cares about most. But instead the holiday brings disaster. One guest puts someone Enza loves in danger, and threatens her relationship with Jack. Another guest brings news that makes Enza question the circumstances surrounding her mother's departure and doubt everything she believed to be truth about her parents.Enza, fleeing Jack and the turmoil in Bayou Sabine, sets off with Kate on a road trip that could bring her solace-or might destroy everything. Will she find answers about her mother's disappearance and the strength to accept the truth? Will she return home in time to save everything that's important to her, and can her bond with Jack be salvaged?

From the IPPY-award-winning author of Entanglement comes a novel of friendship, tragedy, and one woman's journey to self-forgiveness and love.Underneath the glitter of Hollywood, nothing is truly as it seems.Daphne Saito is a talented screenwriter with a seemingly perfect life-a life so fragile it might crumble at any moment.For Daphne, love always brings disaster. She's worked hard to bury her troubled past, but now that her best friend is getting married, her world is upended as her past mistakes catch up with her-and threaten the people she loves most.While planning her friend's wedding, she meets Marlon-he's surly on the the outside, and maybe just as damaged as Daphne. But he makes her feel something she hasn't felt in years-hope. She dares to get close to him, but a tragic turn leaves her with an impossible choice.The night of the wedding brings a perfect storm of chaos: A dangerous ex-boyfriend is bent on revenge. A woman from Daphne's past blows into town with a vendetta of her own. Someone Daphne loves gets caught in the middle, a friend she'll do anything to protect-even if it means committing a horrible act that she can never take back."As glamorous and mercurial as Hollywood itself, Chasing Chaos is a novel that glitters." -New York Times bestselling author Eileen Goudge"Pryal deftly portrays relationships that are under the magnifying glass, obsessive and dysfunctional, while still capturing the complexity and love." -New York Times bestselling author Kate MorettiThe Hollywood Lights Series is a series of standalone, romantic women's fiction full of suspense, family drama, deep friendship ties, and happily ever afters. The series is now complete.

From IPPY-award-winning author Katie Rose Guest Pryal, the #1 Amazon bestseller full of romance and suspense, Hollywood style.One deadly night will change two friends forever in this dazzling story of love and betrayal.For Greta Donovan, happiness was always out of reach. Everyone betrayed her. No one could be trusted.Desperate to leave her painful past behind, she flees to Los Angeles and moves in with her best friend, Daphne, an ambitious Hollywood up-and-comer, and befriends an aging movie star who's like the father she never had.Soon, Greta has it all: a blossoming career, friends she can trust, and a new love who wants to give her the world. She can't imagine her life being any better. But in Hollywood, nothing is truly as is seems.In one tragic night, Greta may lose it all. Daphne makes an outrageous decision that puts Greta in the path of a dangerous man who's bent on revenge. With the attacker on the loose, Greta's world spins out of control-and her future hinges on one secret she doesn't want to tell. Her friends rally to save her-but will they be too late?"Equal parts heartbreaking and heartening, Entanglement shines a light on the interior lives of two flawed and fascinating women." -Camille Pagán, bestselling author of Life and Other Near-Death ExperiencesThe Hollywood Lights Series is a series of standalone, romantic women's fiction full of suspense, family drama, deep friendship ties, and happily ever afters. The series is now complete.