A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives, from America’s most visible death doula. "A truly unique, inspiring perspective on the time we have, what we do with it, and how we let go of this world.... There is no one I'd trust more to guide me through an understanding of death, and how it informs life." — Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Mad Honey and The Book of Two Ways "Briefly Perfectly Human is a beautiful, raw, light-bringing experience. Alua's voice is shimmering, singular, and pulses with humor, vulnerability, insight, and refreshing candor.... Be prepared for it to grab you, hold you tight, and raise the roof on the power of human connection." — Tembi Locke, author of From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country’s leading death doula, she’s spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death—whether imminent or not—will breathe wild, new potential into your life. Warm, generous, and funny AF, Alua supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels. The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air—or maybe not shown up at all—and her clients become deeply contemplative and want to talk. Aching, unfinished business often emerges. Alua has been present for thousands of these sacred moments—when regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally said aloud. When this happens, Alua focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients’ anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace. This has had a profound effect on Alua, who was already no stranger to death’s periphery. Her family fled a murderous coup d’état in Ghana in the 1980s. She has suffered major, debilitating depressions. And her dear friend and brother-in-law died of lymphoma. Advocating for him in his final months is what led Alua to her life’s calling. She knows firsthand the power of bearing witness and telling the truth about life’s painful complexities, because they do not disappear when you look the other way. They wait for you. Briefly Perfectly Human is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmers on the page. Alua Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care—what she calls “death embrace.” Hers is a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives, by embracing the fact of our own mortality. “Hold that truth in your mind,” Alua says, “and wondrous things will begin to grow around it.”

She married my ex. She needs my help. But can I trust her?I came to live in my run-down little cottage in this peaceful village ten years ago. I don’t let anyone into my home, I don’t tell anyone about the man I ran away from, and so far, I’ve kept myself safe. But then Jade and her baby girl appear at my garden gate.Jade married Ryan when I left. Now her hands tremble like mine did, and her face is tired and worn like mine was. I look at the sweet little child cradled in her arms, realising she must be his daughter. In a quiet voice, Jade asks to stay, and I find myself letting her in.Jade is the one person I can finally confide in, and as time passes, I expect us to grow close. But instead she sits in silence rocking her daughter, and sneaks around my house as if she’s looking for something…I start to wonder if I’ve trusted the one woman I shouldn’t have. But, then again, perhaps she has come looking for safety in the place where she is most in danger. Because as I look at her sweet baby girl, I know, I can never let them leave…Fans of Liane Moriarty, Jodi Picoult and Linda Green will be completely gripped by this jaw-dropping page-turner filled with heart-stopping twists.What readers are saying about Sam ‘WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW… If I could rate this above 5, believe me I would!!… Wow… A true page-turner… The twists, the turns, had me holding my breath… HONESTLY the plot twist in this book you just won’t see it coming!!… Truly an amazing book!!’ whatsarahreads.x, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘What an amazing unputdownable story! I started reading this book just before bed last night and the next thing I knew it was the early hours and I’d finished it. I couldn’t stop reading, I just had to know how it would end… My heart broke… I was on the edge of my seat… One that will stick with me forever!’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Wow!!… Absolutely breathtaking and heart-stopping… Just completely blew me away… It sucked me in from page one.’ Bookworm 86, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘I can’t get over what I just read, my head is spinning, my mind is reeling, my heart is beating way too fast!… Completely gripping.’ live_love_read_review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Wow!… Fantastic in EVERY way!… Literally NO WAY of working out what’s actually happened until the end… Literally had me holding my breath and I just couldn’t stop reading until the end – I had to know!’ Sharon Valler, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Wow just wow!!! I’m gonna need a minute… absolutely amazing. Literally could not put this down – made me lose my mind!! I don’t have enough words to describe how much I enjoyed this… A must-read!’ Readingismy_happy_place, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘I genuinely couldn’t put this down!… I didn’t see the twists coming…

Into the Wild meets Helter Skelter in this riveting true story of a modern-day homesteading family in the deepest reaches of the Alaskan wilderness – and of the chilling secrets of its maniacal, spellbinding patriarch. When Papa Pilgrim appeared in the Alaska frontier outpost of McCarthy with his wife and fifteen children in tow, his new neighbors had little idea of the trouble to come. The Pilgrim Family presented themselves as a shining example of the homespun Christian ideal, with their proud piety and beautiful old-timey music, but their true story ran dark and deep. Within weeks, Papa had bulldozed a road through the mountains to the new family home at an abandoned copper mine, sparking a tense confrontation with the National Park Service and forcing his ghost town neighbors to take sides in an ever-more volatile battle over where a citizen’s rights end and the government’s power begins. In Pilgrim’s Wilderness, veteran Alaska journalist Tom Kizzia unfolds the remarkable, at times harrowing, story of a charismatic spinner of American myths who was not what he seemed, the townspeople caught in his thrall, and the family he brought to the brink of ruin. As Kizzia discovered, Papa Pilgrim was in fact the son of a rich Texas family with ties to Hoover’s FBI and strange, oblique connections to the Kennedy assassination and the movie stars of Easy Rider. And as his fight with the government in Alaska grew more intense, the turmoil in his brood made it increasingly difficult to tell whether his children were messianic followers or hostages in desperate need of rescue. In this powerful piece of Americana, written with uncommon grace and high drama, Kizzia uses his unparalleled access to capture an era-defining clash between environmentalists and pioneers ignited by a mesmerizing sociopath who held a town and a family captive

Into the Wild meets Helter Skelter in this riveting true story of a modern-day homesteading family in the deepest reaches of the Alaskan wilderness – and of the chilling secrets of its maniacal, spellbinding patriarch. When Papa Pilgrim appeared in the Alaska frontier outpost of McCarthy with his wife and fifteen children in tow, his new neighbors had little idea of the trouble to come. The Pilgrim Family presented themselves as a shining example of the homespun Christian ideal, with their proud piety and beautiful old-timey music, but their true story ran dark and deep. Within weeks, Papa had bulldozed a road through the mountains to the new family home at an abandoned copper mine, sparking a tense confrontation with the National Park Service and forcing his ghost town neighbors to take sides in an ever-more volatile battle over where a citizen’s rights end and the government’s power begins. In Pilgrim’s Wilderness, veteran Alaska journalist Tom Kizzia unfolds the remarkable, at times harrowing, story of a charismatic spinner of American myths who was not what he seemed, the townspeople caught in his thrall, and the family he brought to the brink of ruin. As Kizzia discovered, Papa Pilgrim was in fact the son of a rich Texas family with ties to Hoover’s FBI and strange, oblique connections to the Kennedy assassination and the movie stars of Easy Rider. And as his fight with the government in Alaska grew more intense, the turmoil in his brood made it increasingly difficult to tell whether his children were messianic followers or hostages in desperate need of rescue. In this powerful piece of Americana, written with uncommon grace and high drama, Kizzia uses his unparalleled access to capture an era-defining clash between environmentalists and pioneers ignited by a mesmerizing sociopath who held a town and a family captive

Me: Ask me what happens in Vegas… Samantha: What happens in Vegas? Me: Let me tell you. What happens is that you get “make out with strangers and pee in a parking lot” drunk. TIE THE KNOT WITH A GUY YOU JUST MET. Then *allegedly* participate in depraved group activities with him and his friends in the honeymoon suite of a five-star hotel. But that’s not even the worst part. Because after an epic walk of shame, you find out he’s some insanely famous bad-boy quarterback who’s in the midst of cleaning up his act. So now, you have to pretend to like him… sober…until you can skip town with an annulment and a shirt that reads, “I’d hit that.” Except for bam—tiny hiccup, his personality cancels out his hot AF face. And let’s not mention how you definitely took a trip to pound town with his friends. So, yeah. That’s what happens in Vegas. You get Knot so Lucky even when you think you hit the jackpot.

Me: Ask me what happens in Vegas… Samantha: What happens in Vegas? Me: Let me tell you. What happens is that you get “make out with strangers and pee in a parking lot” drunk. TIE THE KNOT WITH A GUY YOU JUST MET. Then *allegedly* participate in depraved group activities with him and his friends in the honeymoon suite of a five-star hotel. But that’s not even the worst part. Because after an epic walk of shame, you find out he’s some insanely famous bad-boy quarterback who’s in the midst of cleaning up his act. So now, you have to pretend to like him… sober…until you can skip town with an annulment and a shirt that reads, “I’d hit that.” Except for bam—tiny hiccup, his personality cancels out his hot AF face. And let’s not mention how you definitely took a trip to pound town with his friends. So, yeah. That’s what happens in Vegas. You get Knot so Lucky even when you think you hit the jackpot.

Imagine being snowed in with four hot successful men. P.S. they've all played the hero in too many of your naughtiest dreams. Problem is, you work for them, and that makes them off-limits. Except now they're looking at you like you're Santa's cookies. And they definitely want to take a bite. Talk about making you reconsider your life choices. These four are aiming for Santa's naughty list, and I'm pretty sure I'm getting: Jace Reed Alec ...and Cole for Christmas. It might've started as a decorating job. But it ended Tangled in Tinsel.

Imagine being snowed in with four hot successful men. P.S. they've all played the hero in too many of your naughtiest dreams. Problem is, you work for them, and that makes them off-limits. Except now they're looking at you like you're Santa's cookies. And they definitely want to take a bite. Talk about making you reconsider your life choices. These four are aiming for Santa's naughty list, and I'm pretty sure I'm getting: Jace Reed Alec ...and Cole for Christmas. It might've started as a decorating job. But it ended Tangled in Tinsel.

Playboy. Socialite. Frivolous and Wicked. Alexander Caldwell needs to settle down. Hence the giant white house he just bought in the suburbs. The one that backs up to the house filled with three single women living in it. They all have their sights set on him...but it’s her he can’t get out of his head. Alexander has absolutely no place getting involved with a teenage girl with the world in her eyes. But he does. Tortured. Lonely. Desperate to run. Sunny Thorn needs to get out of her mother’s house. To do that, she needs money. Hence taking the job painting a mural in Alexander Caldwell’s pool house. The man whose eyes follow her. The man with the sculpted jaw and commanding presence. The man who is way too old for her. When Sunny has the chance to get out of Pineridge and start a future of her own, he should let her go. But he doesn’t. Beautiful Monster is a standalone age-gap forbidden romance from the author of the Wicked Hearts series.

Playboy. Socialite. Frivolous and Wicked. Alexander Caldwell needs to settle down. Hence the giant white house he just bought in the suburbs. The one that backs up to the house filled with three single women living in it. They all have their sights set on him...but it’s her he can’t get out of his head. Alexander has absolutely no place getting involved with a teenage girl with the world in her eyes. But he does. Tortured. Lonely. Desperate to run. Sunny Thorn needs to get out of her mother’s house. To do that, she needs money. Hence taking the job painting a mural in Alexander Caldwell’s pool house. The man whose eyes follow her. The man with the sculpted jaw and commanding presence. The man who is way too old for her. When Sunny has the chance to get out of Pineridge and start a future of her own, he should let her go. But he doesn’t. Beautiful Monster is a standalone age-gap forbidden romance from the author of the Wicked Hearts series.