Showing results by narrator "Natalie" in All Categories

"You don't know God." The church elder’s eyes locked on me from across the conference table. “He’s absent from your narrative.” The room went woozy, and I struggled to bring my brain back online, managing to sputter, “God is the center of my narrative!” But he wasn’t listening. He already had his story about me. Here’s mine.

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.

Paradise, Idaho, may not be the largest town, but for newly minted professor Zoe Santangelo, it's the first step on the path to her big break. After teaching in a small Idaho school, her next stop is the Ivy League, and no one is going to stand in her way. She'll do what it takes to move up, to protect her students from a creepy campus stalker - and to protect her heart from Cal Jackson, the hot, hunky cowboy who keeps coming to her rescue.

Lin Sukai finally sits on the throne she won at so much cost, but her struggles are only just beginning. Her people don’t trust her. Her political alliances are weak. And in the northeast of the Empire, a rebel army of constructs is gathering, its leader determined to take the throne by force. Yet an even greater threat is on the horizon, for the Alanga - the powerful magicians of legend - have returned to the Empire. They claim they come in peace, and Lin will need their help in order to defeat the rebels and restore peace. But can she trust them?

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.

Teresa "Toots" Amelia Loudenberry has crammed a great deal of living - not to mention eight much-loved husbands - into her varied and rewarding life. Newly single, Toots is ready to taste life again, and fate has just handed her the perfect opportunity.

Mingshin outsmarted three princes to help the man she loved become king. But she doesn’t see Ren’s betrayal coming, not until she’s lying in a pool of her own blood on the palace steps. As she’s dying, Mingshin makes a desperate plea to the gods to turn back time and give her a chance to make things right. Mingshin wakes up two years earlier, her prayer granted, and swears two things: Ren will never become king, and she will never fall in love again. But the timeline in this life has changed.

September 10, 2001. Special Forces Major Kyle Mason is honeymooning at New York’s SoHo Grand Hotel with his bride, Padma Mahajan. The couple’s hotel is only a few hundred yards away from Padma’s place of work on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. When Padma steps out for coffee and a cigarette, a mysterious visitor enters the honeymoon suite, warning Kyle of an incomprehensible catastrophe that will result in the total destruction of the World Trade Center towers, killing his wife.

Championship bull rider Nick Wilde is the face of Montana Pro Rodeo, with all the acclaim and fans he can handle. But is that enough? Contemplating his next career move, he's come home to his family's cherry orchard - and to his childhood crush, helicopter pilot Harper Stone. But Harper's not quite the sexy, badass girl he once lusted after. Recently widowed, she's broken in two. Wanting to help her move on, Nick finds himself aching for the kind of stability he never had as a child.

Whether you’re struggling to get started, afraid of making a big decision, or clinging to a path no longer meant for you—this book is the kick in the pants you need to take the next step and go after what you want. Gutsy is your guidebook to uncovering the audacious courage within you and making an impact on this world that only you can make. This book will help you learn to turn off the expectations of others, ask for what you deserve, stick your neck out, and be brave enough to take that next step.

School teacher Marceline Bellini gave up everything - men, sex, anything resembling a social life - to raise her young daughter. To be the perfect parent. But when she attends an engagement party in her standard stick-in-the-mud mode, her friends begin plying Marcy with shots. Just enough to convince her that a little fun doesn't sound like a bad idea...and having some naughty fun is an even better one.

For centuries, the Eight Courts of Folk have lived among us, concealed by magic and bound by law to do no harm to humans. This arrangement has long kept peace in the Courts - until a series of gruesome and ritualistic murders rocks the city of Toronto and threatens to expose faeries to the human world. Four queer teens, each who hold a key piece of the truth behind these murders, must form a tenuous alliance in their effort to track down the mysterious killer behind these crimes. If they fail, they risk the destruction of the faerie and human worlds alike.

Tamara Barton has lusted after Connor Dunbar ever since she was old enough to know what those stirrings meant whenever he was near. Connor’s refusal to see her as anything but the young girl he’s befriended and protected for years soon drives them apart, but not before she catches an up-close, personal glimpse of him exerting the dominant control she’s heard rumors about.

The time has come for Cassiopeia Vitt to sell her ancestral home. It sits on a Spanish bluff by the Mediterranean Sea, and bears the name Casa de Hace Mucho Tiempo, House of Long Ago. Trapped inside its walls are memories from a time when Cassiopeia was growing from a rebellious adolescent into a thoughtful young woman - regretful times when she often found herself estranged from her parents. Also inside, are 15 paintings, each one a masterpiece, together representing an investment in the 10s of millions of euros - her father’s private art collection - which she intends to donate.

It's been a week since Sang has attended any classes at Ashley Waters, and since then, everything has changed. Her school schedule has been turned upside down, and now, thanks to her absences, the school counselor, Ms. Wright, has suspended her. The fear of school officials getting further involved and looking to contact her parents has Sang and the boys forced into their best behavior. It seems that the once perfect student, Sang Sorenson, is now one of the school's worst, and without explanation, because she needs to keep her lips tightly sealed.

In Grizzly Falls, Montana, Detectives Selena Alvarez and Regan Pescoli are struggling with a new commander and a department in the midst of upheaval. It's the worst possible time for a homicide. A body has been found, missing a finger. Alvarez hopes this means a murderer with a personal grudge, not a madman. But then a second body turns up…

A caravan driven at breakneck speed through the hills of Montana is the least of Magdalena Baxter's concerns. Evicted from their home, and due to soon give birth, the Gypsy woman is forced to follow her husband, Oswald, a drunk and abusive miner who hopes to find work in a neighboring town. Despite calling Sweetwater Springs home, wealthy banker Caleb Livingston clings to his elitist East Coast ways. While this may have brought him prestige, he's missed out on romance at every turn.

I'm Vanessa Barsetti, the daughter of the infamous Crow Barsetti. My father taught me how to fight. If a man lays a hand on me, I'll put him in his grave. As a Barsetti, I'm proud, stubborn, and don't take nonsense from anybody. I walk home from a bar and take the wrong path. And witness a brutal crime. The murderer won't let me go. He's handsome, lethal, and terrifying. With tattoos on his forearms and a presence full of threat, he's a shade of evil I've never encountered. And then he tells me the most terrifying thing of all. His name is Bones.

Spanning from a mediocre spa in Florida, to New York’s gritty East Village, to death row in Alabama, this collection reveals boundless suspense in small, quiet moments, offering startling twists in the least likely of places. From a powerful response to hateful bullying, to a fight for health care, to a gripping desperation to vote, these stories are equal parts shocking, devastating, and enthralling, revealing the tension pulsing through our everyday lives and affirming that mystery and suspense writing is better than ever before.

A groundbreaking book that boldly claims the key to success in business is not talent, connections, or ideas, but the ability to persuade people to take a chance on potential.