Showing results by narrator "Emily Lawrence" in All Categories

In the magical boroughs of New York City - filled with supernatural races like the Vamps, shifters, Fae, and witches - evil lurks, waiting for its chance to kill again. Things are bad for Aspen Rivest, the newest - unwanted - Mage of New York. The Council of Mages is in shambles, Lucien's confession has left her wondering if she can trust anyone, and Isak, the boy she cares about, is nowhere to be found. Now she's running out of time.

After decades of concealing the full account of her experiences, Holocaust survivor Beatrice Sonders (Basia Gadzuik) writes her story of survival and courage in the face of ultimate horrors.

How amazing would it feel to finally get what you've always wanted? Is it a loving, blissful relationship? Is it a youthful, healthy body? Is it enough money to live your life freely on your terms? Whatever your deepest desire may be, if you don't have it yet, you need to stop winging it and start using science.

Kira vividly remembers the moment Cady Bennett and one of her search and rescue dogs found her as a child, living alone in the wild, with no memories of her life before. Years later, now adopted into the Bennett family, Kira has spent most of her life training in search and rescue herself. So, when Cady’s estranged father appears with news of a missing child out in the wilderness, Kira vows to bring the girl home. As the search intensifies, danger mounts and long-buried secrets begin to come to light. To find one missing child, Kira will have to question everything she thinks she knows.

Expelled from her prestigious boarding school, eighteen-year-old Lark returns home in disgrace to discover her family on the brink of financial ruin. Desperate to save them, she accepts a marriage of convenience . to Therion, an underworld god worshipped by Lark's isolated coastal hometown. Her only hope is to seek help from Alastair Felimath, the brilliant, arrogant boy who was her first heartbreak, and his alluring older sister, Camille.

It's branding week at the ranch, Sadie's favorite time of the year, and this is the year she is old enough to help with the cattle roundup. It starts out well, but then.... The Tagger Herd is healthy enough for training, and a horse meeting is called to decide if each horse is with the right rider in the best discipline for the horse. Scarecrow has been Nora's responsibility, but Sadie loves the big palomino and dreams of barrel racing with her. When Nora's selfishness drives Sadie over the edge, her temper takes over with disastrous consequences.

Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her. But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn't exist, hidden inside a massive volcano. As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission she's devoted her life to, and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E's future for generations to come.

Mary Murphy feels like she's drowning. Her violent father is home from prison, and the social worker is suspicious of her new bruises. An aunt she's never met keeps calling. And if she can't get a good grade on her science project, she'll fail her favorite class. But Mary doesn't want to be a victim anymore. She has a plan: build a real submarine, like the model she's been making with Kip Dwyer, the secretly sweet class clown. Gaining courage from her heroine, Joan of Arc, Mary vows to pilot a sub across the Chesapeake Bay, risking her life in a modern crusade to save herself.

Lithuania, 1943. A father drowns in the all-consuming grief of a daughter killed by the Nazis. He can’t bring Chaya back from the dead, but he can use kishuf — an ancient and profane magic — to create a golem in her image. A Nazi killer, to avenge her death. When Vera awakens, she can feel her violent purpose thrumming within her. But she can also feel glimpses of a human life lived, of stolen kisses amidst the tragedy, and of a grisly death. And when she meets Akiva, she recognizes the boy with soft lips that gave warm kisses.

Three-year-old Vangie is mute and unresponsive. She shows no interest in the people or world around her, much to the frustration of her callous foster parents. Little do they know, Vangie is otherwise occupied observing “ghosts”—an infinite number of versions of herself, in an infinite number of parallel universes. When a tornado hits their trailer and Vangie is severely injured, she makes a desperate leap into another timeline where she survives the tornado, but her foster parents do not.

The nine stories in Morgan Thomas’ shimmering debut collection, Manywhere, witness Southern queer and genderqueer characters determined to find themselves reflected in the annals of history, at whatever cost. As each character traces deceit and violence through Southern tall tales and their own pasts, their journeys reveal the porous boundaries of body, land, and history, and the sometimes ruthless awakenings of self-discovery.

Victoria and her dad have shared a love of the undead since the first vampire revealed his existence on live TV. Public fear soon drove the vampires back into hiding, yet Victoria and her father still dream about finding a vampire together. But when her dad is diagnosed with terminal cancer, it’s clear that’s not going to happen. Instead, Victoria vows to find a vampire herself—so that she can become one and then save her father.

The continuing saga of the rescued horses known as the Tagger Herd. Nikki deals with two mysteries over the holiday vacation. Her adopted mother, Dru, tells her the new client has the same unique name as her birth mother. The two women investigate the stranger; is she or isn't she? If she is, does she know? Rescued horse Arcturus is losing weight, and Nikki needs to find the reason why before the mystery illness becomes life threatening.

The glass slippers might be her dreams come true...or her worst nightmare. High King Alexander rules the Seven Kingdoms of Tallahatchia - a divided nation on the brink of yet another war. When an invitation arrives from the king of Pohatomie, Alex knows it must be a trap, but could it also be his opportunity to unite the kingdoms?

It’s been a busy - and expensive - few years for Matt and Elise Sorenson and their young daughter, Gracie. Matt, a Manhattan lawyer, has just been offered a partnership, and Elise’s equestrian ambitions as a competitive dressage rider may finally vault her into the Olympics. But her long absences from home and endless hours of training have strained their relationship. Now, they’re up in the Adirondacks, preparing to sell the valuable lakefront cabin that’s been in Matt’s family for generations. But as they navigate the memories the cabin holds, Gracie disappears.

There have always been castles in the valley, and the people have always been under threat. They have always needed those thick walls, the protection of that enclosing stone. Non feels like she needs it more than most because her mother was infected by the demons that live in the woods. As the doctor’s daughter, Non had planned a career in medicine, partly to please her father but also because it would keep her inside the protective walls of the citadel. When plague strikes the citadel, all the teenagers are evacuated to the ruined Cirtop Castle.

It’s summer 1977 and closeted lesbian Tammy Larson can’t be herself anywhere. Not at her strict Christian high school, not at her conservative Orange County church and certainly not at home, where her ultrareligious aunt relentlessly organizes antigay political campaigns. Tammy’s only outlet is writing secret letters in her diary to gay civil rights activist Harvey Milk...until she’s matched with a real-life pen pal who changes everything.

With divorce and infidelity hanging from nearly every branch of her family tree, Katherine Fuller sees no point in marriage. Boyfriends? Sure. Wedding vows? No, thanks. Still, when her younger sister Amy gets engaged, Katherine gathers all the enthusiasm she can. She won't let Amy down. She's done enough of that for a lifetime. As the sisters embark on wedding plans, Katherine's college love resurfaces. It nearly killed Katherine to part from sexy Irish musician Eamon more than a decade ago, but falling under his spell a second time forces her to confront everything she hid from him.

Vanished tells the stories of women and girls in upstate New York who are often overlooked or unseen. The characters range from an aging art professor whose students are uninterested in learning what she has to teach, to a young girl who becomes the victim of a cruel prank in a swimming pool, to a television producer who regrets allowing her coworkers into her mother’s bird-filled house to film a show about animal hoarding because it will reveal too much about her family and past. Humorous and empathetic, the collection exposes the adversity in each character’s life.

Welcome to the world of Droll Tales, in which reality is a mutually agreed-upon illusion and life is painful, paradoxical, beautiful, and brief. With an oddball cast of characters who reappear in various guises throughout these interrelated stories, Smyles reveals an off-kilter world overlapping this one. And in giving us a tour of this enchanted, sometimes absurd place, with its own workings and ways of expression, she gives us a new way to understand our own.