Showing results by narrator "Gail Shalan" in All Categories

Ginger Davies is on the boring and predictable track to take over the family business in London, but she craves so much more from life. Rhys Baker is a DJ from America, incapable of staying still anywhere, loving his vagabond lifestyle but restless and unsatisfied, always seeking more adventure. When the two meet by chance in Paris their bond is instantaneous. Living worlds apart, their daily contact becomes the brightest spot in both their lives.

A small town where pickup trucks rule, the farmer's market is bigger than the grocery store, and just about everyone goes to church on Sunday is the last place Henley Warren expects to find herself three months after her grandmother's death. But Gran left a list of things she needed Henley to do after she died, and fulfilling those wishes means spending a summer in the same place her mom fled from when she was only seventeen years old. With each task that is ticked off the list, events are set in motion that uncover secrets surrounding Henley's life.

Twelve-year-old Autumn Malog is a servant at the enchanting Inglenook School, where young magicians study to become the king’s future monster-hunters. Along with her Gran and three too many older brothers, she works as a beastkeeper, tending to Inglenook’s menagerie of terrifying monsters. But when she isn’t mucking out the wyvern stalls or coaxing the resident boggart to behave, Autumn searches for clues about her twin brother’s mysterious disappearance.

In 1906, 15-year-old Forrestina Bradley runs away from her stifling life of ease and joins the circus as a tightrope walker. After a tragedy forces her to leave the circus, she embarks on a life of nomadic adventure, running a carnival rat-game and becoming involved in an illegal dance hall and moonshine business near the banks of the White River in Arkansas during Prohibition.

If you're starting a thousand mile journey with a single step, you better make sure you're wearing comfy shoes. Abby Archer's life has rarely been better. As a newlywed, she and Steve have things just as she wants them. But when a big surprise leaves Abby confused, can she trust Steve to do things the way she needs them handled?

In a future where humanity has scattered itself across the stars and Earth itself is now a dimly remembered place of legend, two worlds of near-supernatural strangeness challenge two naive but courageous heroes.

During a hot summer of June moods, grubworms, and dark storms, Sunshine discovers stones in her chest—and learns the dangers her coming of age will bring about in the yellow house she shares with her father. Without the vocabulary to comprehend Billy's actions or her own changing body, Sunshine turns to an apocryphal story passed down from her grandmother: In the dark waters of the Black Bayou lives a crocodile with an insatiable appetite and a woman with a mysterious healing gift.

A novel of wild women, unbreakable friendships, a madcap road trip, and help found in the least likely places. In 1905 Kansas, ex-dancehall girl and outlaw Ruby Calhoun has settled into a (mostly) quiet and (mostly) lawful life. But out of the blue her past comes hustling into town when her ex-dancehall partner, Pip Quinn, shows up with a grim message and dangerous mission: Cullen Wilder, an old enemy with a long memory, is determined to see them six feet under.

Without a mom and with her dad busy running the museum, Liberty Jacobs was practically raised by the tarantulas, leopard geckos, and rare butterflies of the Walnut Street Insectarium. She loves being the resident “Bug Girl,” but unless Liberty and her dad can snag a big investor, they’ll lose the museum, their home, and the funding Liberty needs to launch her dream business: a butterfly release program called Life & Liberty. The investor meeting is a week away, but there’s a big problem: Liberty has reason to suspect there’s going to be a "buglary" of the museum’s rarest animals.

Abigail made a sacred vow before her husband passed, a vow she could never, would never, break. But life hasn't been easy without him by her side, and her children grow and change more with every passing day. Sometimes it feels like the world is passing her by, like she'll be lonely forever. Amanda thinks Abigail's husband, as perfect as he may have been, was wrong to ask what he did. She thinks it's time for Abigail to move on, but Amanda has problems of her own to tackle that make it hard to preach. Her business is flailing and her daughters are spinning out of control.

Amanda Saddler has lived a long and happy life. She's not ready to die or anything melodramatic, but she's long since given up on finding her fairytale ending. But when her adoptive granddaughter Emery picks up a box that was delivered to her doorstep, some new stories from the past come to light. Amanda Saddler may have spent her life pining for her neighbor, Jed Brooks, but that's not the only man she ever knew.

Painfully shy Grace dreads starting fifth grade, now that her best friend has moved away. Jada hopes she'll stop feeling so alone if she finds the mother who left years ago. And Malia fears the arrival of her new baby sister will forever change the family she loves. When the girls each find a mysterious treasure box in their library and begin to fill the box with their own precious things, they start to feel less alone. But it's up to Grace, Jada, and Malia to take the treasures and turn them into something more: true friendship.

Nine-year-old Magdala and her father have been exiled from their home; they flee through the harsh landscape of the American West, searching for refuge. As violence pursues them, they join a handful of survivors on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Las Vegas, where it is said that vigilante saints reside, bright with neon power.

Elizabeth Tanner has one goal: to find her mother in whatever dimension she's imprisoned. But to do that, she has to face her estranged father, and to do that, she needs a shot of whiskey...or seven. But after an attempt on her life and the return of her lost love, she wakes up with one hell of a hangover and a whole barrage of questions. Finn O'Connell doesn't know why the Fianna want him to aid Elizabeth in her search, but he'll take any excuse to be near her again. Together, they dive headlong into the shadows of her mother's secrets.

When Mr. Jams is called away from the Agency on a secret mission, Clover and Oliver are put in charge of the Agency once again. But when Picnic the invisible puppy starts turning visible, and the Agency's green cat, Dipity, begins to look white, Clover and Oliver realize that all of the amazing creatures are becoming ordinary. Even Oliver's trusty magical wands aren't enough to cure them! Will Oliver and Clover learn to work together in time to restore the animals' magical powers?

It’s Pairing Day in Terrafamiliar! Marina has been waiting for this moment—anxiously—for as long as she can remember. Because today’s the day she gets to bond with her animal familiar for life, like every other ten-year-old in the land. Except after the ceremony ends, Marina doesn’t have one. And she’s not alone . . . four other girls also didn’t get their animal companions. The leaders of Terrafamiliar realize something special is happening: Marina and the other four girls—Kit, Ember, Pippa, and Hailey—are called Mythics.

Unplug, relax, and return to the simpler life with these easy, step-by-step ideas for your favorite cottagecore activities including baking from scratch and easy container gardening. Returning to the simpler life has never been easier. If you’re craving the aroma of freshly baked bread, spending more time in nature, or seeing the sunlight filtering through homemade curtains, then cottagecore is for you!

Hester, Anadil, and Dot are legendary across the Endless Woods as vigilante detectives and protectors of the peace. The famed trio are not only talented witches but also ride-or-die friends who’ve never left a case unsolved. That is, until the Coven answers a call for help from a mysterious new world—Red Isle, where the Light and Dark Lands are on the brink of all-out war, each blaming the other for a grim spree of deaths. Now the Coven must work together and unmask the killer before Red Isle tears itself apart. Little do they know: The real enemy might be hiding in plain sight.

At 8:53 pm, thousands of people watched as Jake Foster secured the state title for his basketball team with his signature fadeaway. But by the next morning, he's disappeared without a trace. Nobody has any idea where he is: not his best friend who knows him better than anyone else, not his ex-girlfriend who may still have feelings for him, not even his little brother who never expected Jake to abandon him. Was he abducted? Did he run away to try to take his game to the next level? Or is it something else, something darker—something they should have seen coming?

There's a new resident at the Magical Animal Adoption Agency-but this one hasn't hatched yet! Mr. Jams brought home an enchanted egg from his last journey, and Clover can't wait to find out what kind of creature the polka-dotted shell contains.