Showing results by narrator "Susan Bennett" in All Categories

It’s George and Mara Spencer’s 25th wedding anniversary, and the Spencer daughters are finally back under the same roof again: Lottie, the youngest, Mara’s adored only child, and Lottie’s two older half-sisters, Dinah and Vaughan, the daughters of George’s first marriage - a marriage that ended in a terrible tragedy, with the death of his beautiful young wife. In the years since, their father has found happiness again...but on this hot summer day in Birch Bend, when catastrophe strikes at the anniversary party.

The Silent Sister is a gripping novel from Diane Chamberlain, the best-selling author of The Midwife's Confession. What if everything you believed turned out to be a lie? Riley MacPherson is returning to her childhood home in North Carolina. A place that holds cherished memories. While clearing out the house she finds a box of old newspaper articles - and a shocking family secret begins to unravel. Riley has spent her whole life believing that her older sister, Lisa, died tragically as a teenager.

Ever since his mother was killed, 17-year-old Cayder Broduck has had one goal - to see illegal users of magic brought to justice. People who carelessly use extradimensional magic for their own self-interest, without a care to the damage it does to society or those around them, deserve to be punished as far as Cayder is concerned. Because magic always has a price. So when Cayder lands a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to apprentice under a premier public defender, he takes it.

At an obscure South Carolina nursing home, a lost world reemerges as a disabled elderly woman undergoes newfangled brain-restoration procedures and begins to explore her environment with the assistance of strap-on robot legs. At a deluxe medical spa on a nameless Caribbean island, a middle-aged woman hopes to revitalize her fading youth with grotesque rejuvenating therapies that combine cutting-edge medical technologies with holistic approaches and the pseudoreligious dogma of Zen-infused self-help.

Fan favorite Sharyn McCrumb teams with professional race car driver Adam Edwards for this high-speed tale of horsepower and high jinks. When hotshot stock car driver Camber Berkley crashes his ride on a winding mountain road, the wreckage interrupts the funeral of a wealthy racing fan. The folks of Judas Grove, Tennessee, give Camber a choice. He can either spend three months in the slammer, or he can train the local ministers as they prepare for a lucrative two-million-dollar race.

In 1944, 23-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life when she marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina. Hickory is a small town struggling with racial tension and the hardships imposed by World War II. Tess' new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife and shows no interest in making love. Tess quickly realizes she's trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out.

Set against the backdrop of America emerging from World War I, Cakewalk provides an entertaining look at a small town straddling the Mason Dixon line, where the townsfolk remain split between good and bad, or love and sex, or male and female, or politics and sobriety, and the inimitable, irrepressible, distinctly free-thinking Hunsenmier sisters, Louise and Julia - otherwise known as Wheezie and Juts - and their wide circle of equally indelible friends are coming of age.

A much-loved early classic from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson, this heartwarming holiday tale is set in small-town Oregon, where a little girl’s letter to Santa ends up bringing the gift of romance to a widowed mom and a single dad.

What is it about the South that has inspired so much of America's greatest literature? And why, when we think of Flannery O'Connor or William Faulkner or Harper Lee, do we think of them not just as writers but as Southern writers? In South Toward Home, Margaret Eby - herself a Southerner - travels through the South in search of answers to these questions, visiting the hometowns and stomping grounds of some of our most beloved authors.

For thousands of years, practitioners of shamanism have found healing and wisdom by connecting to their own spirits and the spirit that lives in all things. Shamanism can be practiced by anyone. Wherever we are, the powers within the web of life and the keys to our personal evolution are available. In these pages, longtime shamanic practitioner and intuitive consultant Mara Bishop introduces the simple yet profound method of shamanic journeying.

Dr. Jessie Drake, in her mid-60s, following the sudden deaths of her parents and Kat, her partner of 20 years, has fled the Vermont life she has known for decades. In an effort to escape the oppressive constancy of grief, she accepts a job from an old flame from her residency in New York City's Roosevelt Hospital and agrees to assist Ben as the ship's doctor on a British liner.

Amanda Eyre Ward stormed onto the literary scene with this resounding first novel that commanded immediate acclaim. In Sleep Toward Heaven, Karen sinks inside herself as she awaits execution for murder. Karen’s prison doctor, Franny, is drowning in her own guilt over the death of a patient, and Celia, the widow of one of Karen’s victims, tries desperately to move on with her life.

On the surface, Maureen’s life appears no different from any other stereotypical 54-year-old housewife's: a suburban home in a small Pennsylvania town, two loving kids, grandchildren, and a husband to dote on at the end of the day with a home-cooked meal and a crisp martini. But fat bitch, dumb bunny, slut, tramp: these are just a few of the cruel words that echo in Maureen’s ears every day and define the harsh reality she actually lives in.

In middle school, Gabrielle "Gabe" Ford developed a degenerative muscle disease, and was harassed by bullies as a result. She did her best to keep her head high, but it wasn't easy. Then Gabe got a dog, Izzy, who developed an uncannily similar disorder. They were invited to appear on Animal Planet to talk about their bond, which in turn led to an invitation to speak at a school. And so began Gabe's career as an anti-bullying advocate.

Against the backdrop of the wave of demonstrations known as the Arab Spring, in 2011 hundreds of thousands of Syrians took to the streets demanding freedom, democracy, and human rights. The government's ferocious response, and the refusal of the demonstrators to back down, sparked a brutal civil war that over the past five years has escalated into the worst humanitarian catastrophe of our times. Yet despite all the reporting, the video, and the wrenching photography, the stories of ordinary Syrians remain unheard.

The moment for "I do" has arrived, and all eyes are on the bride - until she turns heel, hijacks a Ducati, and speeds out of town! Now everyone entangled in the wedding that wasn't takes off on an unexpected adventure of the heart: a down-on-her-luck B&B owner who needs a little help finding her own bluebird of happiness. A big city cop with small-town roots who pulls over the girl he could never have.

There's no place like home - especially when home is Crocker County, Iowa. Jane Willow may have moved to Los Angeles to become a famous film critic, but when a family tragedy prompts her return to Crocker County, Iowa, for the first time in 18 years, she is forced to confront everything she left behind - including her local fame for the 1993 Corn Queen crowning fiasco. Before Jane can escape her past a second time, disaster strikes, and she will have to find a way to right her mistakes and save herself from her regrets.

Agatha Award winner Jill Churchill has delighted fans for years with her Jane Jeffry mysteries. Jane is finally getting married to longtime boyfriend Mel, who’s convinced her and her best friend Shelley to take a self-defense class. But when two people in the class are murdered, all thoughts of learning karate are put on hold. And of course, there’s still that pesky matter of a wedding to plan.

Phoebe has loved Jake Pierce since childhood, and that love continues without hesitation while she watches him create a financial dynasty. But when Phoebe learns that her husband's triumphs are the result of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, her world unravels. Lies underpin her life and marriage. And as Jake's crime is uncovered, the world obsesses over her. Did she know her gilded life was fabricated by fraud?

Open your heart to the holidays with these stories of unexpected love from best-selling authors Lisa Jackson, Maisey Yates, Stacy Finz, and Nicole Helm.