Showing results by narrator "Laural Merlington" in All Categories

Determined to live his own life, Richard Allen took to the sea and settled in the Caribbean, joining a band of treasure-hunting pirates and adopting the persona of a carefree, seductive Frenchman named Jean Paul to guard the secrets of his past. Abandoned by her ex-fiance, heiress Julia Miller is ready for the marriage mart and hopes to find that perfect someone at her friend Georgina’s ball. Charmed by a masked Frenchman who gives her her first kiss, she can’t help but pursue this mysterious man....

Twelve-year-old Mary Hayes can't stand her orphanage. But when an attempted escape doesn't go quite as well as she'd hoped, Mary fears she'll be stuck in the Buffalo Asylum for Young Ladies forever. The very next day, a mysterious woman named Madame Z appears at the orphanage requesting to adopt Mary. The matron's all too happy to get the girl off her hands. Soon Mary is fed a hearty meal, dressed in a clean, new nightgown, and shown to a soft bed with blankets piled high.

In this tell-all memoir, the only daughter of the man who was considered the "brains of the Mob" opens the door on her glamorous - and tragic - life. Sandi Lansky Lombardo, daughter of Mob boss Meyer Lansky, was raised in New York City in upper-class Jewish splendor and spent her childhood in the undeniable glitz of Havana and Las Vegas in Lansky's heyday in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. She dined out with her father and his associates when she was six and was introduced to Frank Sinatra when she was 11.

They were best friends, four talented and charismatic young men who lived charmed lives among the evergreens of Washington state: Kevin, the artist; Steve, the sculptor; Scott, the nature lover and unabashed ladies' man; and Mark, the musician and poet. With their stunning good looks, whip-sharp minds, athletic bodies - and no lack of women who adored them - none of them seemed slated for disaster. But few knew the reality behind the leafy screen that surrounded Seven Cedars, Scott's woodland dream home....

Caring for someone with dementia means devotedly and patiently doing a hundred little things each day. Few care providers are trained to meet the challenges of dementia, however - and that is where A Loving Approach to Dementia Care can help. The book offers practical, compassionate advice on overcoming caregiving obstacles and maintaining meaningful relationships with loved ones who have dementia and memory loss.

After years of trying to become pregnant without success, Rachel Dawson and her husband Thomas felt their dreams had finally come true the day they brought home their newly adopted twin babies. Though the lawyer Baron Bell who arranged for the surrogate mother charged a hefty six-figure fee, one glance into the eyes of their precious children told them it was all worth it - until the birth mother reappeared, first demanding more money, then the twins themselves.

It’s been a year and a half since the women of the Sisterhood received their presidential pardons, but the freedom they craved has come at a high price. The lucrative positions handed out to them by the Global Securities company have turned out to be golden handcuffs - scattering them around the world, cutting off communication, and leaving them in miserable isolation. But a homecoming at the old Virginia farmhouse is marred by the hijacking of Nikki and Kathryn’s private jet.....

It has been 20 years since the publication of How to Defend Yourself Against Alien Abduction by Ann Druffel. This new book by UFO researcher Kathleen Marden is the handbook for this generation. It is the essential reference guide for those who have experienced contact with nonhuman intelligent entities, families and friends of those "experiencers," and anyone interested in alien abduction/contact and UFOs. Wide-ranging, informative, and helpful, this is a book that will find a place as an essential component of anyone fascinated by visitations from other worlds.

George Koval was born in Iowa. In 1932, his parents, Russian Jews who had emigrated because of anti-Semitism, decided to return home to live out their socialist ideals. George, who was as committed to socialism as they were, went with them.

Ann Rule presents another collection of fascinating and disturbing true-crime stories - drawn from her real-life personal files - in this seventeenth volume in the #1 New York Times bestselling Crime Files series.

Vegas Heat is the powerful story of the Thornton dynasty...of Fanny's twin sons, Sage and Birch: alienated from each other, one is content in his conventional life while the other's search for happiness leads to tragedy - and renewed hope. It is also the story of Fanny's two daughters....

The doctor is in! America's best-loved therapist, Dr. Ruth, is known for her wise counsel on all matters of the heart. Here she shares private stories from her past and her present and her insights into living life to the fullest at any age.

As Dr. Daria McGowan readies an important project, she finds that many of the pieces her great-grandfather unearthed a century earlier have vanished. Panicked, she turns to the FBI. Connor Shields is more than happy to accept the assignment: he's had Daria on his mind for over two years. Daria and Connor soon discover a trail of bodies - collectors who have met brutal ends at the hands of a killer whose methods are based on the rituals of an ancient civilization.

When Elizabeth Mooney escaped the shame of her "white trash" family to marry the crown prince of her small town, Howell Whittington, she never dreamed that 30 years later she'd end up trapped in a loveless marriage to the cruel banker who's foreclosing on all her friends. Then Howe has a stroke in church, and when he wakes up, he's transformed. He wants to be a real husband - which scares proper, repressed Elizabeth to death - and sets out to right past wrongs....

His quest might be the salvation she needs… Cowboy-turned-banker Sam Castlerock arrives in Bear Creek, Wyoming, in a last-chance bid to prove himself to his father. He has one job to do: make the local bank profitable. The last thing he needs is a distraction—but she's the first thing he runs into. Emily Sands has never forgotten the cowboy she fancied as a teenager. And now he's back in town. But she's not the carefree youngster she once was. She's a woman now—with a woman's worries. Top on the list: keeping the family store afloat. Next: caring for her younger sister who needs extra help.

Police psychologist Dot Meyerhoff's caseload is usually filled with cops—which is why she's hesitant to help an adopted teenager locate her birth parents. But the teen's godmother is Dot's friend Fran and a police widow to boot. How could Dot possibly say no? Once Dot starts digging into the case, though, she's drawn into a murky world of illegal adoptions and the choices a young pregnant woman might make as a last resort. Soon there's only one thing Dot knows for sure: the painful truth of what happened all those years ago might heal one family—but it's certain to destroy another.

Only Ann Rule, who unknowingly worked alongside the smart and charming Ted Bundy - America's most notorious serial killer - could lend her razor-sharp insight into these cases of the spouse, lover, family member, or helpful stranger who is totally trusted but whose lethally violent nature, though masterfully disguised, can and will kill.

Nevada is home to Hope Gardener, its rugged, majestic beauty a balm for the aches of her heart and spirit. But the cattle ranch she owns and loves is dying, thanks to the worst drought the area has ever seen. Hope needs a miracle or she will lose the land that has been in her family for generations. And then, the miracle appears on horseback.

In an eye-opening sequence of personal meditations through the cycle of seasons, Diane Ackerman awakens us to the world at dawn---drawing on sources as diverse as meteorology, world religion, etymology, art history, poetry, organic farming, and beekeeping.

Artist Lexie McCain spends her days literally weaving the story of her life into a gorgeous tapestry. But on Monday nights, she walks to the Corner Bar, drinks a Killian’s, and answers the same question every week from Sam the bartender: “One thing?” She starts with her name, then her cottage, slowly moving on to the devastating tragedies that tore her life apart.