Bücher von Ann Gimpel

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.

Hope's had her eye on Charlie for a long time, for all the good it's done her. He's not even aware of her existence-other than as a fellow agent working Black Ops for the CIA. Her friends, Glory, Honor, and Charity, found men to love, so Hope knows it's possible. But the odds aren't in her favor. Not in a world of normal humans where she's a genetically modified aberration. Hell, even she refers to her kind as freaks. What man in his right mind would want one of those in his bed?Charlie swore off women after his last marriage went down in drama-tipped flames fifteen years ago. His first mistress is danger. He fell in love with the adrenaline rush when he signed on as a Navy Seal right out of college, and he never got over the thrill of pitting himself against the impossible.Hope caught his eye the night she escaped her compound, but years of ignoring anything resembling a feeling made it easy to ignore the attraction-until they're paired on a mission. Her intelligence and resourcefulness impress the hell out of him, but her half-naked body, exposed after an animal attack, forces him to face feelings he was certain he'd buried for good.

.Charity's luck never ran strong because her original configuration was unstable. Her handlers designed experiments to fix the problem, but only made it worse. Sick to death of living under their thumb, she jumps at a chance to escape. She's barely settled in as a CIA special operative-a role where she can put her augmented mind and body to use-when her wobbly genetics decompensate.Tony's a freak-a genetically altered superhuman waging war against the government. He snaps up an offer of amnesty, walking away from his role as a genetic researcher to work for the CIA. When Charity collapses in a severe seizure, he labors to save her life, but nothing's working. In a last ditch effort, he joins his mind to hers and discovers he wants her more than he's ever wanted anything. Only problem is she hates every single male freak for how they treated women in the compounds.Charity recovers from her medical crisis, but all she can think about is Tony. Furious, determined to never let anyone like him near her, she blocks him from her mind, but he seeps back in anyway. Loving someone like Tony is a huge risk, a gamble that could throw her already volatile genes into a tailspin.Knowing all that, why the hell is she considering it?

Honor takes a huge chance and flees her compound one wintry night. A genetically altered woman, she has no memories from before her kin staged a rebellion seven years before. Because of her enhanced physiology, she finds a home working for the CIA alongside four other women just like her. There are still plenty of rules, but they're different, and she's figuring out how to blend in.Milton Reins burns through women and marriages. After the third one implodes, he swears off hunting for a replacement. Running the CIA is a more than fulltime job. There's no time for anything else in his life, which is fine until Honor comes along. Training in the gym throws their bodies together, and makes him remember the feel of a woman in his arms. Milton aches for her, but she's a freak, the CIA term for test tube humans designed by scientists.Honor wants Milton with every bone in her body, but it's a terrible idea, especially after she delves into his head and sees his ambivalence toward her kind. Need drives them together, but their differences create roadblocks every step of the way. Fueled by anger and fear, she shuts him out. So what if the sex was great, she's done.Or is she?

After years as a black ops CIA agent, nothing surprises Roy Kincaid, yet his current assignment is close to a bust. How could his target-renegade genetic freaks-drop off the radar as if they never existed? Burnt out and discouraged, he hunches over a meal in a backwater diner when a half-frozen woman with the look of an abused runaway staggers through the door. On his feet in an instant, Roy kicks himself. His first instinct is to help her, make certain she stays long enough for the bluish cast to leave her lips. His second is to finish his meal and leave. The world is full of broken women. It's not his job to fix them, but he can't take his eyes off her. Glory's telepathic ability blares a harsh warning. Roy hunts those like her, but damn if he didn't buy her dinner. Maybe she can fool him, just for tonight. Add a dry motel room to the meal. If she plays it very cool, he'll never find out she's on the run from the same group he's targeted for death.Enhanced genetics only go so far. A roadblock and her face on a Most Wanted flyer shatter her fragile truce with Roy. If her Handlers find her, they'll kill her. If Roy finds out what she is, she'll be worse than dead.

Lara and Trevor flee Seattle in the wake of rising chaos. Demons converge on what's left of civilization, urging it to implode even faster.Constantly hungry, besieged by dark forces, Lara and Trevor need every resource they've developed as a couple to keep from ripping each other apart. Neither of them trust Lara's half-baked magic, but it's all that stands between survival and certain death for them and their unborn child.The remote location that was supposed to solve all their problems actually made them worse. Rash choices throw Trevor into a confrontation with his deepest fears, but he doesn't back down. Lara's life hangs in the balance, and he'll do anything to get her back. Anything.

Widespread rioting, plus shortages of fuel, food, and electricity lure demons across the veil to invade Earth. Drawn by anarchy, they're out of control, drunk on their own power, and growing stronger by the day.With her life crumbling around her, Lara McInnis is reluctantly roped into channeling her psychic talents to locate a missing teen. Her lack of skill strands her in the murky underbelly of a world inhabited by dark forces.Trevor Denoble's Celtic blood yields unexpected gifts. After years of uncertainty, Lara is really and truly finally his, and he's determined to keep her by his side. No stranger to violence, more blood on his hands is a small price to pay to keep the woman he loves safe.

Lara McInnis reads auras and flirts with an elusive ability to foretell the future. Ambivalent about her magic, she's done a fine job sidestepping most of it. After several patients-and a student or two-describe the same cataclysmic dream, ancient evil bursts its bounds, and she can't ignore her power anymore.Trevor Denoble shields his secrets with a stunning body and a boatload of British charm. The airline he works for folds. Lara's changing into someone he barely recognizes, and the rest of his carefully crafted life isn't in much better shape.Living in a world teetering on the edge of anarchy, Trevor and Lara face painful decisions. Her burgeoning paranormal ability scares the hell out of him. Meantime, she does her damnedest to survive her magic in a world gone mad. A world where the rules have changed and there's no one left to trust.

Head of the shifter underground's security force, Johannes has his hands full. When Max, the underground's leader, is almost killed by sniper fire, Johannes breaks a cardinal rule to save his friend and makes a discovery about himself that changes everything.Daria's been a healer in one capacity or another for hundreds of years, but wholesale slaughter aimed at wiping out her kin is something new. Called to the governor's mansion after Max gets shot, she finds him wallowing in a river of his own blood. By rights he should be dead. She questions Johannes, but he remains stubbornly silent-after telling her an outright lie.If Johannes wasn't so knockout gorgeous, and she wasn't so wiped out, Daria would've left after treating Max. Instead, Johannes talks her into staying, then orders her to work for the underground. As head of security, it's his right to commandeer personnel. Daria is torn. Johannes is the most compelling man she's ever met, but he's also arrogant. Compounding the problem, her cat thinks he's their mate. After he runs roughshod over her, she doesn't care about anything except getting as far away from him as she can, but escape isn't possible.A series of lethal attacks throw Daria into Johannes's path-and keep her there. He's desperately attracted to her, but anything beyond sex with any woman isn't part of his life plan. His cat says she's their mate, but it doesn't alter Johannes's staunch refusal to consider anything that might turn into love. He has his reasons. They've served him well, and he sees no reason to change them now.

Author's Note: Wolf Born is book two in the Underground Heat Trilogy. All three novels are full length shifter romances with happy-ever-after endings!You can buy the books individually, or in the boxed set titled Underground Heat.Max leads a double life in a futuristic California that's almost out of resources. Despite grave risks, he ran for state governor to protect his people. He's also leader of the shifter underground. Threatened with genocide, many shifters have gone into hiding. Some blame Max and the underground for their plight, rather than the governmental edict that's meant death for so many.Audrey works for Max. Unlike most humans with low levels of shifter blood who bless their lucky stars they avoided the purge, she wants to be a shifter. If she could find a way to finesse it, she'd quit her job in a heartbeat and go to work helping the shifter underground. The only sticking point is Max. She's been half in love with him forever.Against a dog-eat-dog political backdrop where no one knows who their allies are, Max and Audrey spar with one another. Max fears she's part of the group trying to kill him. Audrey has no idea about Max's double identity and worries she won't be able to walk away from their fiery attraction to help the underground.After a second attempt on his life, Max faces critical choices. Will he follow his head or his heart?

Author's Note: Roman's Gold is the kickoff volume for the Underground Heat Trilogy. All three books are full length shifter romances with happy-ever-after endings!You can buy the books individually, or in the boxed set titled Underground Heat.Once respected members of society, shifters are running for their lives. In a futuristic world where resources are scarce, Kate uses her human form to work as a sex surrogate. Furious at what looks a lot like genocide for her people, she joins the shifter underground.Devon's been a cop for a long time. He has shifter blood, but not enough to change into anything, at least not until the police department insists on a series of infusions to make him better at tracking shifters so they can be imprisoned-or killed.Devon's latest assignment is Kate. From the moment he sees her, he can't get her out of his mind. But she's the enemy he's sworn to eradicate. As he tracks her, the line between hunter and hunted explodes.Against reason and wisdom, Kate and Devon defy the rules. If their passion doesn't save them, it'll doom them forever.

Tamara MacBride has a much bigger problem than hiding her shifter side from the world. By the skin of her teeth, and with a smattering of Irish luck, she manages to kill her sister's murderer. Escaping from the scene of the crime is much harder than she anticipated. Just when she thinks she might be safe, her cab driver shrieks and slumps over the wheel.An unknown assailant terminates Lars Kinsvogel's target. Pleased by the outcome-after all dead is dead-he exchanges the glitz of Monte Carlo for a nearby airport, intent on collecting the private plane he left there. He's no sooner arrived when a cab jumps the curb, and he races over to investigate. There's not much he can do for the cabbie, but his passenger is still very much alive.Trying to hustle Tamara out of the cab is tough. She's frozen by fear, but when Lars lays out the rest of his plan to move her out of danger's path, her temper flares. He can't leave her alone in Monte Carlo. Can he convince her to trust him in time to save her life?

As an agent for an international espionage firm, Miranda has her hands more than full. Between secretly lusting after her boss, Garen, and making sure the dirty little secret about her double life as a wolf shifter remains hidden, she's still a virgin at nearly thirty.Sent to eliminate the head of a human trafficking organization in Amsterdam, she barely escapes with her life. Injured, frightened, and under attack the second her private jet lands in the U.S., she's not certain where to turn.Garen's watched Miranda just as surreptitiously as she's been eyeing him. Unfortunately, the fact that she works for him is a showstopper. Plus, he has a few secrets of his own that have kept him single. When Miranda insists on heading up a covert operation, he can't come up with a plausible reason to stop her. Watching her sprint headlong into danger damn near kills him. He wants to hold her, love her, protect her.Miranda's life is on the line. Will Garen risk exposure to save her?

Magic levies a steep price on anyone brave enough or stupid enough to dabble in it.Wizards never forgave Ned for not being one of them. They didn't exactly come out and say his life was expendable, but they didn't have to. He figured it out fast enough when they conscripted him into their long-running war the second he was old enough to fight. Isolated, different, he puzzled out how his brand of magic worked on his own.Fleeing the tide of doom wiping out humanity, Amanda and her family escape to a remote corner of California, where they eke out a hardscrabble existence. With her parents at each other's throats and her brother mysteriously gone, Amanda encounters malevolent power beyond her wildest imaginings. Captured by the Undead, she's about to join their ranks when Ned shows up.Defying a direct order from his wizard battle lord, Ned dives into the fray. He might not know Amanda, but it doesn't matter. She's in trouble and needs his magic.It's good enough for him.

Cara, a mountain guide with a hard luck past and John, a doctor running as hard as he can from his own demons, become unlikely allies. Fire raging through the Sierras forces them away from their planned route and makes escape a dicey proposition.Cara struggles to outwit the inferno before it's too late. John's long-denied psychic side escapes its bonds, refusing to be ignored any longer. He recognizes the fire for what it is: magical creatures bearing the worst news of all. Fire dragons want Earth for themselves, and they'll stop at nothing to make it theirs. Protecting Cara from the destiny that's finally hunted him down turns into John's top priority, but spirit guides shanghai him, forcing his hand.He never wanted a woman in his life. Too many complications-but something about Cara touches his heart.She was burned out on men and vowed she'd spend the rest of her life in the mountains, guiding clients-but something about John sings to her soul.If they can survive the dragons that set the earth ablaze, a different kind of heat just might bind them to each other.

Hello Darkness:Earth magics collide, forcing Moira Shaughnessy to take a chance on a man who hurt her so badly she never forgave him.A ranger for the U.S. Park Service, Moira is in serious trouble. Fleeing from her cheating husband, who's a Native American shaman, she stumbles into the arms of a man she never thought she'd see again. He hurt her once by choosing his magic over her. Would she be a fool to take a chance on him now?Alpine Attraction:Tina made a pact with the devil seven years ago. It's time to pay the piper-or die.Independent to the nth degree, Tina meets everything in her life head-on-except love.Caught between misgivings and need, Tina signs on as team doctor for one of Craig's climbing trips to the Andes. Though he was the love of her life, she pushed him away years before to keep him safe. Even if he doesn't love her anymore, there's still no one she'd rather have by her side in the mountains. And if she's going to die, she wants to make things right between them.A Run For Her Money:Sara's day begins like any other. A routine extraction in tandem with a local Search and Rescue team. Routine crashes to a halt when she ends up trapped in a hut, high in the Sierras. Four days later, running out of food for herself and her dog, she makes a bold dash for safety.Jared's walking the Muir Trail when all hell breaks loose. After hunkering beneath a boulder pile for days, he dares a difficult cross-country route, hoping it'll put him into position to approach a backcountry ranger station. He locates the station, but it's locked tight. He's packing up to leave when a helicopter lands, with Sara at the helm. There's no time to trade war stories. It takes a leap of faith, but they throw in their lot together. Can they face the impossible and come out the other side unscathed?

An idealistic woman.A naïve man.A life-shattering mistake.Juliana is relentless, driven, focused. An archaeologist, she's clawed her way to the top of the heap. It's a lonely heap, but the only man she ever loved proved men aren't worthy of her time.Discarded by the woman of his dreams midway through college, Brice never offered his heart again. A world-recognized expert on lung diseases, he has his work. Usually it's enough.It's almost Christmas, and Juliana is called home from a dig to see her dying twin one last time. She and Brice are thrown together after a fifteen-year hiatus. She tells herself nothing's changed, but her heart sings a different song. If she listens to it, there's only one true love.

Dark, dangerous, magical men who live to annihilate evil.Not all witches join the Coven. Fiercely independent, Isla heads up her own small band in the San Francisco area. She's never needed help before, but dark sorcerers drive her and her group into hiding, trapping them.Sam's worked for the Coven as one of their enforcers forever. He's been there so long, the Coven is the only mistress he knows. It's a lonely life on the road thwarting wickedness and Black Magick with his guns, his magic, and his horse, but it's been enough to satisfy him. Until now.A group of witches is in deep trouble. They're not part of the Coven, but Sam is sworn to protect all witches and he rides to their assistance with several of his brothers. Nothing prepares him for the outspoken spitfire who ends up riding double with him. She's forthright, opinionated, and downright hostile, but he's drawn to her self-sufficiency-and her undeniable beauty. Soon, Isla is all he can think about.Dark forces are on the move. Protecting the woman he's falling in love with is at the very top of Sam's list. If they manage to survive, he'll tame her. Claim her. Make her his.

Dark, Dangerous, Magical Men Who Live to Annihilate Evil.Joshua committed his life to fighting Black Magick. Not sure who he hates worse, dark sorcerers or the clerics who tortured and mutilated his family, he lives on the road with his horse and his magic, working as a Coven enforcer. Breana Giraud is the only woman he's ever loved, and until very recently she was married to someone else.Breana's husband, Don, sold his soul to the devil, embracing dark practices. Along the way, he corrupted their daughter. While Breana could've turned him in to Coven justice without a second thought, she couldn't bring herself to implicate her child. Still reeling from her daughter's death at the hands of evil, and grateful her husband met the vicious end he deserved, she feels broken, damaged. The last thing on her mind is falling in love.Joshua tries to hold back, give Breana room to mourn her losses, but if he has his way, she'll become his wife. With Don dead, and the path to his heart's true love finally clear, he'll do anything he can to make her his. Even if it means fighting his way past the dark mages' leader, who wants her for his own.

Magic didn't just find Luke Caulfield. It chased him down, bludgeoned him, and has been dogging him ever since. Some lessons are harder than others, but Luke embraces danger, upping the ante to give it one better. An enforcer for the Coven, a large, established group of witches, his latest assignment is playing bodyguard to the daughter of Coven leaders.Abigail Ruskin is chaperoning a spoiled twelve-year-old from New York to her parents' home in Utah Territory when Luke gets on their stagecoach in Colorado. A powerful witch herself, Abigail senses Luke's magic, but has no idea what he's doing on her stagecoach. Stuck between the petulant child and Luke's raw sexual energy, Abigail can't wait for the trip to end.Unpleasant truths surface about the child. While Abigail's struggling with those, wraiths, wolves, and dark mages launch an attack. Luke's so attracted to Abigail, she's almost all he can think about, but he's leery too. The child is just plain evil. Is Abigail in league with her? It might explain the odd attack that took out their driver and one of their horses. In over his head, he summons enforcer backup.Will they help him save the woman he's falling in love with, or demand her immediate execution?

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.

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?

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?