Showing results by narrator "Natalie" in All Categories

Teresa "Toots" Amelia Loudenberry is a wealthy woman by anyone's standards. But the riches that mean most to her are the loving friends and family she's accumulated over the course of a life well lived. And now that her daughter, Abby, has married her beau Chris and settled down near Toots in Charleston, life is even more satisfying than the delicious pralines sold at Toots's bakery, The Sweetest Thing. Abby isn't the only one enjoying a little romance. Toots's friendship with Dr. Phil Becker has grown unexpectedly close…and that brings both joy and complications.

The emperor's reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire's many islands. Lin is the emperor's daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.

Luna da Rosa is America's vegan best friend. When she's not changing the cosmetics industry, she's dazzling her online fans with kombucha recipes - until Wild Heart is caught in a scandal, destroying her reputation as a cheerful do-gooder. Beck Mason is the prodigal son of Miami's most notorious biker gang. But Beck left his criminal family to start Lucky Dog, rescuing dogs who need the most help...except the surly ex-outlaw never realized leading a struggling nonprofit with a ragtag crew would be so damn hard.

When Hope Prescott's parents disappeared, her carefree teenage life vanished forever. She and her three siblings were separated and sent to different foster homes around the country. Now, seven years later, Hope is still searching for them. To support herself, she works for an answering service, and cares for her clients as if they were family. When wealthy businessman Zachariah Givens hires Hope's service, Hope initially mistakes Zack for his butler....

With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stories ever to be translated into English. In Japan, Murata is particularly admired for her short stories, which are sometimes sweet, sometimes shocking, and always imbued with an otherworldly imagination and uncanniness.

Your business success depends on your ability to align and develop the people who work for you. High-performance teams are built intentionally by leaders who understand the three essential components of growth: alignment, development, and transition. TeamWork breaks each of these components down into actionable processes, with steps you can take immediately to start making a difference today. Learn how to create teams that work the way you want them to. Then, discover ways to scale those teams, keeping them aligned with your objectives as your business grows.

Eli Strong got out of the military and all he wanted to do was get better. He never expected that the officer he was living with would have a daughter who tested his honor. Maggie Drummond has been moved around more times than she can count, and starting at a new high school sucks. But when a wounded Marine comes to live with her and her dad, suddenly Maggie figures out what home is. She's forbidden fruit, and he's trying to not to taste… But desire can only be denied for so long. Circumstances keep pulling them back together, and something truly unforeseen happens.

June, 1993. Claire has been dumped in rural Indianola, Texas, to spend her whole vacation taking care of mean, sickly Grammy. There's nothing too remarkable about Indianola: It's run-down, shabby, and sweltering, a pindot on the Gulf Coast. Except there is something remarkable. Memories shimmer and change. Lizards whisper riddles under the pecan trees. People disappear as if they never existed. Yesterday keeps coming unspooled, like a video tape. And worst of all, a red-lightning storm from beyond our world may just wipe the whole town off the map.

Fleeing a life of abuse, Sheri climbs aboard a mail-order-mate spaceship bound for a distant station but never arrives.... Fate intervenes, and her trip takes a quick, deadly turn when she crashes on the planet Atera. She's surrounded by endless sand dunes, dangerous creatures, and alien beings that remind her of Earth lizards. But one particular lizard hardly leaves her thoughts - a sexy, two-legged, muscular male bent on protecting and caring for her at all costs.

Annora thought the worst that could happen was behind her...until it's discovered that her blood carries the cure to death. Now people will go to any extreme to get their hands on her. Instead of escaping her past, she ends up dragging her guys into hell with her. When one of her men is taken, her world comes crashing down. Her psychic connection to him is the only thing keeping him alive - barely. To get him back, she must turn herself over to the enemy, knowing she would be facing a lifetime of slavery.

After her father’s death, Ellie Frasier takes over the feed store in Promise. Still in mourning, she relies on her friends for comfort. But now her long-standing relationship with one of those friends, rancher Glen Patterson, seems to be turning into something else.…

For the many admirers of Mary Oliver's breathtaking poetry of touch and transcendence, as well as for those coming to her words for the first time, Little Alleluias is a revelation. These works observe, search, pause, astonish, and give thanks to both love and the natural world. In constant conversation with the sublime, (i.e. "Are you afraid? / Somewhere a thousand swans are flying / through winter's worst storm."), Oliver has the rare skill of rendering life: her poems bring movement to stillness, and people to the Earth, themselves, and each other.

Once a city of enormous wealth and culture, Prague was home to emperors, alchemists, astronomers, and, as it’s whispered, hell portals. When music student Sarah Weston lands a summer job at Prague Castle cataloging Beethoven’s manuscripts, she has no idea how dangerous her life is about to become. Prague is a threshold, Sarah is warned, and it is steeped in blood. Soon after Sarah arrives, strange things begin to happen.

Like every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher and longs to be her pet. However, when a thief begins to target the school, Justine's sense that something isn't quite right grows ever stronger. With each twist of the plot, this gripping story of deception and the corrosive power of guilt takes a yet darker turn. Young as she is, Justine must decide where her loyalties lie.

Many have heard of NXIVM and its creator, Keith Raniere, the unassuming Albany man now prosecuted for ensnaring tens of thousands of people in the US, Mexico, Canada, and elsewhere to do his bidding and pay millions of dollars to participate in his self-improvement methodology. But where did Keith Raniere begin? Enter Toni Natalie, Keith's Patient Zero, the first one indoctrinated into Raniere's methodology and the first one to escape.

The fragments Awa Bryant trapped just after she learned she was a long-awaited Dreamweaver are terrifyingly close to breaking free—so close that even in the waking world she can hear their efforts to crack their giant glass prison.

From the outside, Awa seems like a normal teen, struggling with anxiety over school and friendships. Secretly, she holds a rare power. She is a Dreamweaver, one who walks between worlds: that of waking life and the Dreamrealm. Now, she's finally managed to master some of her powers and alchemize the shadow fragments that were plaguing the beautiful Dreamrealm. Still, she knows there's so much more that has to be done in order to face the terrifying shadow.

When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said. Stuff like why her best friend, Amber, isn't so friendly anymore. Or why her little brother, Curtis, never opens his mouth. Why her mom has two jobs and a big secret. Why her college-football-star brothers won't even call home. Why her dad would go ballistic if she tried out for the high school football team herself.

They've taken my father. They'll take me next unless I comply with their demands. Taking down the most powerful man in Italy. Cato Marino. The man is accompanied by his security team everywhere he goes. His fortress in Tuscany is impenetrable. He's the most paranoid man in the country.

The old Beaumont mansion is a rotting shell of its once-grand self, especially after a disastrous hurricane sweeps through Georgia. The storm does more than dislodge shutters and shingles. It leads to a grisly find in the cellar. Three graves. But only two skeletons… For Nikki, the discovery is a gift, the perfect subject for her next crime book—though Reed has made her promise not to keep involving herself in dangerous police business.