Showing results by narrator "Amanda Dolan" in All Categories

As soon as Gail and Jon Durbin bring home their adopted baby Maya, she becomes the glue that mends their fractured marriage. But the Durbin’s social worker, Paige, can’t find the teenage birth mother to sign the consent forms. By law, Carli has seventy-two hours to change her mind. Without her signature, the adoption will unravel.

Marianne is in a slump: barely able to support herself by teaching, not making progress on her poetry, about to lose her Brooklyn apartment. When her novelist ex-fiance, Eric, and his venture capitalist brother, Mark, offer her a job directing a low-residency school for Christian writers at a motel they've inherited on Florida's Gulf Coast, she can't come up with a reason to say no. Mark finds an investor in God's Word God's World, a business that develops for-profit schools for the Christian market, but the conditions that come along with their support become increasingly problematic.

They Killed Freddie Gray exposes a conspiracy among Baltimore leaders to cover up what actually happened to Freddie Gray, who was fatally injured in police custody in April 2015. After Gray’s death, Baltimore became ground zero for Black Lives Matter and racial justice protests that exploded across the country. State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby became a hero when she charged six officers in Gray’s death, and the trials of the officers generated national headlines for two years.

When Lady Mae turns eighteen, she’ll inherit her mother’s ghastly job as the Butcher: dismembering Settlement Five’s guilty criminals as payment for their petty crimes. But then their leaders, known as the Deputies, come to Lady Mae’s house, and there in the living room they murder her mother for refusing to butcher a child. Within twenty-four hours, now alone in the world, Lady Mae begins her gruesome job. But a chance meeting years later puts her face to face with the Deputy that murdered her mother.

Quinn LaPointe grew up on beautiful Butternut Lake, but after a high school tragedy, she left for college and never looked back. Becoming a successful writer in Chicago, she worked to keep out the dark memories of an accident that upended her life. After 10 years, she’s finally returned home. Butternut is the same, and yet everything is changed. Everyone, it seems, has a secret. Quinn begins writing down her memories of the year before the accident. Her journey though the past leads her to some surprising discoveries about the present.

A mysterious force is seeking inroads: vulnerabilities to exploit, friendships to hijack, untapped rage to harness toward its own ends. Who will serve it best? Claire is abrasive and aimless, embarrassed by her privileged upbringing. Weak-willed David is consumed by a recent breakup and harbors fantasies of violent, cultish orgies.

Back on Earth, Sasha expected everything to go back to normal. But her old life no longer seems to fit, and her heart breaks daily for Thomas, the boy she left behind. Troubled by mysterious, often terrifying visions and the echoes of a self she was just beginning to discover, Sasha makes the difficult decision to journey once more through the tandem.

Kara Hart is on track with turning the old mansion her father left her into a creative retreat and event space, but after a successful holiday season that included hosting the Ladies' Auxiliary Open House and an amazingly joyous Christmas celebration with her friends and family, now winter has settled in. The brightest spot in the shorter darker days is the man she’s fallen in love with. But she’s worried. Suppose it isn’t meant to be? She's failed at marriage before and love doesn't guarantee anything.

As a child, horses consumed Halimah Marcus' imagination. When she wasn't around horses she was pretending to be one, cantering on two legs, hands poised to hold invisible reigns. To her classmates, girls like Halimah were known as "horse girls," weird and overzealous. Decades later, when memes about "horse girl energy" began appearing across social media, Halimah reluctantly recognized herself. The stereotypical horse girl is also white, thin, rich, and straight, a daughter of privilege. Yet so many riders don't fit this narrow, damaging ideal.

Jenna Fossey's life is about to change. An unexpected inheritance and the chance to meet relatives she never knew existed has her heading to the charming town of Magnolia Harbor. But long-buried secrets lead to questions, and the only person who can help her find the answers is a sexy-as-sin sailing instructor. Nothing makes Jude St. Pierre feel more alive than racing on the open sea - at least not until Jenna comes strolling down his dock asking for sailing lessons. But it feels wrong to be attracted to her - especially when he learns why she came to town.

Everyone in Phoebe Ferris' life tells a different version of the truth. Her mother, Meg, ex-rock star and professional question evader, shares only the end of the story - the postfame calm that Phoebe's always known. Her sister, Luna, indie rock darling of Brooklyn, preaches a stormy truth of her own making, selectively ignoring the facts she doesn't like. And her father, Kieran, the cofounder of Meg's beloved band, hasn't said anything at all since he stopped calling three years ago.

In a world that is often overwhelming, it’s time to return to the simple things, the AWESOME things, all around us...if only we take a moment to see them.

Sophie Stark begins her filmmaking career by creating a documentary about her obsession, Daniel - a college basketball star. But when she becomes too invasive, she finds herself the victim of a cruel retribution. The humiliation doesn't stop her. Visionary and unapologetic, Sophie begins to use stories from the lives of those around her to create movies. And as she gains critical recognition and acclaim, she risks betraying the one she loves most.

A young interfaith chaplain is joined on her hospital rounds one night by an unusual companion: a rough-and-ready dog who may or may not be a ghost. As she tends to the souls of her patients - young and old, living last moments or navigating fundamentally altered lives - their stories provide unexpected healing for her own heartbreak.

Denmark, 870 AD. Yrsa knows her place in the village of Mimir’s Stool. Though she was born with a crooked foot, she’s never let anyone underestimate her; after all, she’s the daughter of Toke the helmsman and granddaughter of the fearsome warrior Gudrun the Torch (who, according to legend, stood before the walls of Paris, splattered in the blood of Frankish warriors). And no one else in the village shares her ability to see what the Norns, the three weavers who live under the roots of Yggdrasil, the world tree, and craft people’s fates, have in store for them.

Amra and Holgren's comfortable - if decidedly unexciting - life is rudely interrupted when Amra receives an old enemy's head in a box. A longstanding debt calls her back home to Bellarius, the scene of many childhood horrors she would much rather forget about. Bellarius must be saved from utter destruction and civil war. After Amra suddenly vanishes, Holgren crafts a plan that teeters between impossibility and insanity. But first, he'll have to deal with three separate armies vying for control, all of which view him as either a threat, an inconvenience, or a potential tool.

Kara is looking forward to a quiet holiday, just like the ones she’s always had. This year, instead of celebrating the holidays with her father in the city, she’s at Wildflower House, and she’s alone. Kara is okay with a low-key Christmas, because after hosting the hectic first official event at Wildflower House, she’s ready to enjoy some rest and relaxation before January arrives and the final renovations begin. But fate - with an extra dose of Christmas spirit - intervenes as the people now in Kara’s life show up.

It’s the brightest light that casts the deepest shadows...Magic, blood, and politics hide an enemy the pack never saw coming. One with more power than anyone understands. Enemies are closing in on all sides, but they’re nothing more than a distraction to hide the real threat. It isn’t just the pack at risk - not anymore. Magic itself is being threatened. Amber and her pack are trapped in the middle of a centuries long war, and the time has come to pick a side. But it’s a choice she won’t be able to take back.

Freya was never meant to be queen. Twenty-third in line to the throne, she never dreamed of a life in the palace and would much rather research in her laboratory than participate in the intrigues of the court. However, when an extravagant banquet turns deadly and the king and those closest to him are poisoned, Freya suddenly finds herself on the throne. She may have escaped the massacre, but she is far from safe.

Poppy, Lily, and Belladonna would do anything to protect their best friend, Raven. So when they discovered he was suffering abuse at the hands of his stepmother, they came up with a lethal plan: petals of poppy, belladonna, and lily in her evening tea so she’d never be able to hurt Raven again. But someone got cold feet, the plot faded to a secret of the past, and the group fell apart.