Showing results by narrator "Devon Sorvari" in All Categories

An important medical breakthrough has a shameful history. In 1840s Alabama, a slave-owning doctor performs medical experiments on involuntary subjects - enslaved women - in an effort to solve the problem of fistulas, a post-childbirth anomaly. As the experiments proceed, and he gets close to a solution, the women try to survive and even find dignity in the face of inhuman treatment.

How to Like Yourself offers a quirky, inspiring, and practical guide to help you overcome feelings of self-criticism, improve self-esteem, and be the true star in your life. With all the pressures of school, friends, and dating, you're especially vulnerable to low self-esteem in your teen years. But often the biggest threat to your confidence is your own inner critic - whose unrelenting negativity can result in feelings of inadequacy, depression, and anxiety. This must-have guide offers real ways to help you fight back, be kind to yourself, and move forward with confidence.

Ranging in age from six to 40, 38 sons and daughters of lesbians offer brief essays that could be valuable to like offspring, as well as to relatives and friends trying to understand the problems such children face. Homophobia, visited upon the children as well as their mothers, is the most commonly cited concern; some younger contributors feel isolated from their peers, and a couple of boys endure rejection from radical lesbian acquaintances.

Colby Blaine has been a loner his whole life. And he isn't about to change now. But that doesn't mean he can ignore people in trouble. When he rides up to an inexperienced wagon train under attack, he doesn't hesitate to jump into the fray. Naomi Kessling is certainly grateful to Colby for saving her family and agreeing to lead their train to safer territory.

In the ancient river kingdom, where touch is a battlefield and bodies the instruments of war, Mia Rose has pledged her life to hunting Gwyrach: women who can manipulate flesh, bones, breath, and blood. The same women who killed her mother without a single scratch. But when Mia's father announces an alliance with the royal family, she is forced to trade in her knives and trousers for a sumptuous silk gown. Mia plots a daring escape, but could never predict the greatest betrayal of all: her own body. Mia possesses the very magic she has sworn to destroy.

Journalist Nellie Wilkerson has spent the bulk of the war in London, photographing pilots taking off and landing - and she's bored. She jumps at the chance to go to France, where the Allied forces recently landed. She enlists Jean-Paul Breslau of the French underground to take her to the front lines. On the journey, they come upon an orphanage where nuns shelter children with disabilities. Can they help save them before the Nazis come to liquidate it?

The gateways linking the great libraries of the world don’t require a library card, but they do harbor incredible dangers. And it’s not your normal bump-in-the-night kind. The threats Gia Kearns faces are the kind with sharp teeth and knifelike claws - the kind that includes an evil wizard hell-bent on taking her down.

The Buchanan sisters all share special childhood memories of their Aunt Sassy's beloved Juniper Inn. There, they frolicked in the snow, baked sugar cookies, and celebrated the town's annual Christmas extravaganza. They haven't been back to Colorado in nearly 15 years, but when their aunt invites them for one last Christmas, they can't say no....

Zara Evans has come to the Aurelia Theater, home to the visionary director Leopold Henneman, to play her dream role in Echo and Ariston, the Greek tragedy that taught her everything she knows about love. When the director asks Zara to promise that she will have no outside commitments, no distractions, it's easy to say yes. But it's hard not to be distracted when there's a death at the theater - and then another - especially when Zara doesn't know if they're accidents, or murder, or a curse that always comes in threes.

When their newest hairstylist, Misty, is caught scamming clients’ debit cards and selling beauty products during off hours to pocket the profits, Olivia fires her. But Misty retaliates by hitting back with a defamation lawsuit - which she is more than happy to drop if Olivia pays her 10 grand. But neither blackmail nor courtroom fees are accrued after Misty’s body is discovered in the salon with Olivia’s scissors stuck in her chest. Olivia may be the number one suspect, but her murdered employee had a reputation for making enemies.

La La’s world stops being whole when her mother, who never wanted a child, abandons her twice. First, when La La falls through thin ice on a skating trip, and again when the accusations of “unfit mother” feel too close to true. Left alone with her father - a locksmith by trade and a thief in reality - La La is denied a regular life. She becomes her father’s accomplice, calming the watchdog while he strips families of their most precious belongings. When her father’s luck runs out and he is arrested for burglary, everything La La has painstakingly built unravels.

Sephardic Jew Mathilda Nissim watches in horror as the Germans invade her beloved city of Salonika, Greece. What angers her most is the lack of resistance her people put up to their captors. In secret and at great risk to her life, she continues to publish her newspaper, calling her people to action. She doesn't trust God to help them. When she and her husband find out they are expecting a child, Mathilda may have to resort to desperate measures to ensure her daughter's survival.

In 1997, seventeen-year-old Madeline Williams is torn between continuing her family ranching legacy and accepting her Army-bound boyfriend's marriage proposal. But when an assault by John David Billings, the son of a wealthy rancher, leaves her pregnant, Madeline sacrifices both options, choosing to leave town and raise the child alone. It's been several years, and when she returns to her hometown to meet with her father, rumors circulate about John David's trial—for assaulting other women.

A puzzle box continues to stump Cheyenne. Time to look elsewhere, but will the Goth Drow find the answers she needs without it? Classes continue, and the FRoE is finally taking the hint that her work has to be extracurricular activities. She has just as much to learn from them as she does from college. Their lessons are just a lot more dangerous and deadly. Who can Cheyenne trust while she learns to control her growing powers? Then there's her father. Can she give him another chance?

This time, Jazzi isn't called to solve murder. Ansel is. His uncle Len, who promised him a job when he came to River Bluffs and then let his sons drive him away, calls to ask for help. One of the workers on his construction site is buried when a retaining wall gives and dirt pours into the trench where Xavier is laying pipe. But is Xavier's death an accident? Or did someone purposely sabotage the retaining wall?

When friends are enemies and enemies are friends, it's hard for Cheyenne to know who to trust - especially within the FRoE. Things are changing with Cheyenne's mom and not for the better. A new rune appears on Cheyenne's skin, and they know they have to do something.

The Fixer-Upper Cathy’s new home is handsomely furnished - by an amorous male ghost. If only she had something she could…touch. Paradise Bossed While traveling in the Cayman Islands, Nikki loses her life in a tragic accident, but has no intention of cutting her vacation short. Driftwood A Cape Cod werewolf agonizes over the death of a woman by his own paw. Well, to be fair, he never really killed her. She’s a vampire. Witch Way For centuries their families have been embroiled in a violent, irreversible feud. Today, can a witch and a witch-hunter find common ground?

The opulent furnishings and period theming of Hotel 1911 invite guests to experience the charm of the early 20th century. But for hotel clerk Ivy Nichols, the mansion also harbors secrets about her past and the family she never knew. When the Pittsburgh chapter of the Association for Gravestone Studies checks in for their national conference, Ivy is intrigued to learn that one of them has connections to her family. The group plans to kick off their event by touring the historic graves. But they didn’t plan to find one of their fellow members strangled to death afterward.

When Sloane sees a child in tears in a playground one afternoon, she can't help herself – she tells the girl's (very attractive) dad she's a nurse and helps him pull a bee sting from his daughter's foot. With this lie and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for Jay and Violet Lockhart who seem to have everything: a beautiful brownstone house, a daughter in private nursery school, and long summers on an idyllic island just off the coast of New York. Sloane wants to be just like them. But Sloane isn't the only one lying.

Her Drow aunt is off the throne and all of Ambar'ogúl is looking to Cheyenne to guide them. Can the Goth Drow find a replacement for the throne? Better be fast. There's a long list of dangerous to-do's and not a lot of time.