Showing results by narrator "Krystal Hammond" in All Categories

Mara and Owen are as close as twins can get, so when Mara's friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn't know what to think. Can her brother really be guilty of such a violent act? Torn between her family and her sense of right and wrong, Mara feels lost, and it doesn't help that things are strained with her ex-girlfriend, Charlie. As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie come together in the aftermath of this terrible crime, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits into her future.

In Nebula Award-winning author Sam J. Miller’s devastating debut short-fiction collection—featuring an introduction by Amal El-Mohtar—queer infatuation, inevitable heartbreak, and brutal revenge seamlessly intertwine. Whether innocent, guilty, or not even human, the boys, beasts, and men roaming through Miller’s gorgeously crafted worlds can destroy listeners, yet leave them wanting more.

When a commercial flight goes down en route to Hawaii, all 184 people on board perish with the one exception of a two-year-old boy named Ethan. Before their untimely deaths, Ethan's parents, Tag and Amanda, chose their good friends Matthew and Nicole to be Ethan's guardians in the event that the worst ever happened. From the afterlife, grief-stricken Tag and Amanda watch as Nicole's addictions (which the family had hidden), the family's financial struggles, and the public obsession with their story ignite events that threaten Ethan's welfare.

The Boxcar Children tells the story of four orphaned children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. They create a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar in the forest. When a local baker and his wife learn that the children are orphans, they plan to send the children to live with their grandfather, but the children have been brought up to fear their grandfather, whom they have never met, because he did not like their parents' marriage. But their grandfather turns out to be a wealthy and kind man.

Sixteen-year-old Millie Novak is stuck in an "if only" rut. If only she were stronger and faster, maybe her roller derby teammates would take her seriously. If only she had the guts to go back to in-person learning, maybe she'd have a social life. If only she weren't such an awkward mess, maybe she could get the attention of that cute girl on the all-star derby team. And don't get her started on her family!

The official story is that the United States has no political prisoners. The reality is that there are hundreds of people rounded up, placed behind bars, and kept there for inordinately long sentences because of their political beliefs and activities. A project of abolitionist Josh Davidson and political prisoner Eric King, this book is filled with the experience and wisdom of over thirty current and former North American political prisoners.

Rachel and her partner, Detective Raul Santino, might not believe that the Department of Homeland Security is responsible, but the rest of the country does. As tensions mount and the city begins to burn, Rachel learns that none of her usual investigatory techniques apply—for the first time in her long career as a cop, finding the bad guys might not be as important as learning why they wanted the public to rise up against their own government.

Victoria Cage has one main objective in life: make sure that no one finds out she’s a necromancer. You know, a carrier of that pesky little power that caused zombies to rise back in World War III? Of course, it’s hard to stay hidden when you deal with dead bodies. Like, every freaking day. Maybe, taking over the family funeral home wasn’t the smartest choice in the world, but sometimes, being the local mortician and resident "crazy pants" has its benefits.

In her second collection from Trepidatio Publishing, award-winning author Gemma Files takes her listeners on journeys out beyond safe borders—from the trackless depths of the sea, to the empty desert frontiers of the Weird West, even to the edges of cracks between worlds. Here, in these narrow spaces between the known and the unknown, behind the paper-thin curtains of reality, lurk monsters both human and ancient: selkies and avenging revenants, voodoo priestesses and pirate sorcerers, ghosts and vampires, and the most famous murderer of all time.

Discover a wellspring of Celtic magic that is vibrantly contemporary yet draws heavily on ancient and mythological texts. Weaving together practices and lore gleaned from Irish, British, Scottish, and Continental Celtic traditions, this book guides you through rituals and deity work that you can apply to healing, empowerment, protection, social justice, and more.

I don't understand why the hospital director has insisted that Siena Collins work in oncology. She is a spoiled brat, unreliable, and causes too much trouble in a department where we must look into the eyes of death every day. To make matters worse, she can't even touch or talk to patients. She is still in medical school and considering quitting altogether.

Etta isn't like other kids at school, and she's proud of it. The class misanthrope and the owner of the greenest hair at Doolittle Middle School, she's still reeling from a painful friendship breakup, making her more than happy to burn middle-school bridges before she heads off to the local alternative high school next year.

Rachel Peng misses the army. Her old life in Criminal Investigation Command hadn’t been easy, but she had enjoyed it. Now, as the first cyborg liaison to the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police, Rachel is usually either bored senseless or is fighting off harassment from her coworkers. When she and her partner, Detective Raul Santino, stumble into a murder investigation with ties to Rachel and the other cyborgs, she realizes their many enemies will not allow them to quietly pick up the pieces of their lives.

Explore new and familiar worlds where the human consciousness can be uploaded into a body on Mars … an alien helps a girl decide if she should tell her best friend how she feels … two teens get stuck in a time loop at a space station … people are forced to travel to the past or the future to escape the dying planet … only a non-binary person can translate the binary code of a machine that predicts the future … everyone in the world vanishes except for two teen girls who are in love.

Winter is supposed to be beautiful. Snowball fights. Hot chocolate by a fire. Brightly-packaged presents. It’s definitely not supposed to be about frozen bodies, serial killers, and boyfriends with secrets. Victoria and Kyle are in the midst of a still-blossoming relationship, but she hasn’t told him the truth about herself yet. She’s not ready. Of course, he’s hiding something too. And he doesn’t even know it. Love’s complicated.

Victoria’s a necromancer, fairy, Blood Queen…hot freaking mess. Her identity is so twisted up in supernatural nonsense that all she wants to do is go back to embalming bodies and coffin brochures. Being in love should make things easier, but when your beau’s a bear and you’ve got a fairy suitor waiting in the wings, romance is just another complication. While preparing the victims of a tragic fire for their funerals, Victoria discovers that their deaths were not accidents, as the police have ruled. Soon, she’s hot on the trail of a Firestarter.

Darian Sabine Arden is haunted by a monster who claims to love her. Her only respite is the New England village where she spends summers with her three best friends. Kesuquosh is serene and idyllic, and the townsfolk’s odd worship of a godlike scarecrow only adds to the charming local color. But when Darian pays a surprise Halloween visit to her summer crush—a beautiful, unreadable girl named KJ—just in time to see her swept up in a bizarre harvest ritual, she’s forced to admit that Good Arcturus is more than a quaint superstition. He’s terrifyingly real.

Five sisters share one business like no other. Warded by fae magic, this shop’s inventory shifts to meet the needs of its customers, summoning the sister whose expertise is required. With Lily behind the counter, it’s a candle boutique. Aster manages the bookstore. Crystals are Iris’s specialty. Fern sells flowers and herbs. And Daisy tends to the apothecary and oils.

Reeling from her brother's death, Gianna Del Vecchio finds comfort in an online forum from a woman who suffered a similar loss. Theirs is a club no one wants to join—survivors of a loved one's suicide. Photos posted to the forum of the woman's cute therapy dog bring cheer when nothing else can, and Gianna is compelled to reach out to say thanks. After two years, Keenan McEvoy is still fighting her way back from despair after losing her partner, Annabel. She's surprised when she connects with Gianna, whose kindness and compassion ignite a spark she wasn't sure she'd ever feel again.

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.