Showing results by narrator "Rachel Dulude" in All Categories

The leisure class has been replaced by a new elite. Highly educated and defined by cultural capital rather than income bracket, these individuals earnestly buy organic, carry NPR tote bags, and breast-feed their babies. They care about discreet, inconspicuous consumption. In The Sum of Small Things, Elizabeth Currid-Halkett dubs this segment of society "the aspirational class" and discusses how, through deft decisions about education, health, parenting, and retirement, the aspirational class deepens the ever-wider class divide.

Look out over the world today. Pain, conflict, and uncertainty dominate the headlines. Our daily lives are noisy and chaotic - filled with too much information and too little wisdom. No wonder we often find it easier to retreat into safe spaces, hunker down in likeminded tribes, and just do our best to survive life. But what if God wants you to do more than simply survive? What if he wants you to thrive in this world and be part of its redemption? What if you could rediscover the beauty and goodness God established in the beginning? By learning the lost art of discernment, you can.

The focus of my life as an urban druid is to stand as a guardian of nature. The focus of my life as Fiona Cumhaill to stand as a guardian of my family. Seriously. Don't screw with my family. It's a no-brainer, drop everything, and take up the fight topic for me—If you need me, I will come. So, when darkness conspires to overtake the light and people I love are sucked into the wake of evil, the Toronto crew grabs the go-bags and answers the call.

Assuming my role as the druid representative for the Lakeshore Guild of Empowered Ones is both an honor and a curse. It puts me in a position to make important changes in a flawed system but also puts me in the crosshairs of a lot of powerful people. Demons, tricksters, and wizards I can handle, but when my worlds collide and the police get involved, I'm afraid for not only me but the men in my family.

An unflinching and hilarious memoir about recovery as a mother of young kids, Bottled explains the perils moms face with drinking and chronicles the author's path to recovery, from hitting bottom to the months of early sobriety - a blur of pain and chaos - to her now (in)frequent moments of peace. Punctuated by potent, laugh-out-loud sarcasm, Bottled offers practical suggestions on how to be a sober, present-in-the-moment mom, one day at a time, and provides much needed levity on an issue too often treated with deadly seriousness.

Maggie Turner happily works as an assistant professor in the criminal justice department and lives a quiet life near campus. That is, until Jackson Lockhart bursts into her life unexpectedly. Then a cyclone of emotions erupt as she remembers the tragedy that once tore them apart. She'd often thought of him, but they'd agreed never to see each other again, and so far, they'd kept their promise. But today, Jackson has a good reason for breaking his promise. Maggie's life depends on it.

Cat Cooper never imagined selling off her in-demand marketing firm would mean going from the pinnacle of success to a walking hot mess. Gouged from an unexpected divorce, Cat suddenly finds herself struggling through a new career as a business-savvy life coach for the hopelessly adrift in East Hampton and contending with Heather Holland - a spiteful neighbor who will do anything to bully her out of town. But her second act may very well continue behind bars when Heather's dead body turns up next to a shattered punchbowl...and Cat's pinned as the murderer.

Hailey Wyatt's life is finally settling into a sort of normalcy after the tragedy that struck her family. Or it seems that way until an investigation into the homicide of two powerful San Francisco residents is suddenly the center of a media frenzy. Because someone is taking a strong stance against guns... and they're willing to kill to make sure they're heard. The department has a message for Hailey, as well. Solve the case. Quickly. Or else. Worse, the only connection between the victims is a friendship with Hailey's father-in-law.

Seventeen-year-old Veronica Smith has it all: a loving family, a funky car named Jezebel, and a plan to go to college after graduation. On the first day of senior year, she meets Dimitri Glenn - a mysterious transfer student with gray eyes and a mischievous smile who seems determined to win her heart. But there's something odd about Dimitri, leading Veronica to wonder if there's more to him than meets the eye.

A friend is missing and presumed dead, and detective Jade Hollis is determined to track down the killer. To do that she must team up with private investigator Bryce Kingsley - who doesn't know he is the father of her child. But she'll have to put personal secrets aside because the killer will strike again to keep the truth from being exposed.

The Tour de Cascade is the brainchild of Charming Books proprietor Violet Waverly's Grandma Daisy. But not everyone in this Niagara Region village supports the race. As if the bike race weren't tiring enough, pesky private investigator Joel Redding is snooping around Charming Books. When Redding perishes in an accident during the race, David discovers that the brake line of the private eye's bike was cut. Worse, Violet tops his list of suspects. As Emerson the tuxedo cat and resident crow Faulkner look on, Charming Books steers Violet to the works of Walt Whitman to solve the crime.

Unfazed after finding a body behind the dumpster of her bar, Janet Black is ready for business as usual until police start eyeing her boyfriend as the possible killer. When the victim's teetotaling daughter decides to take up residence in the corner booth until the murderer is caught, Janet is forced to get involved.

Raised on her father's South Carolina plantation, Callie Parker wanted for nothing, and now she is about to marry wealthy local scion Wyn Archer. But her wedding wouldn't be complete without the three people she grew up with under the sheltering branches of the angel oaks at Parker Manor.

Focused and unassuming fifth generation cider-maker Sanna Lund has one desire: to live a simple, quiet life on her family's apple orchard in Door County, Wisconsin. Although her business is struggling, Sanna remains fiercely devoted to the orchard, despite her brother's attempts to convince their aging father to sell the land. Single dad Isaac Banks has spent years trying to shield his son, Sebastian, from his troubled mother.

When Ren Sharpe was 14, she was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called FATE and trained to be a human weapon. Now, four years later, she receives her assignment: protect Gareth Young at all costs. Currently a student at Texas A&M, Gareth will someday change the world. FATE calls people like Gareth "FIPs" - future important people - and they're everywhere, each with a FATE-trained shadow.

Shiloh Bellamy has saved her family's farm from financial ruin - but now what? She's barely scraping by on the farm's new organic business model, and the fall festival she organized to drum up business comes to a screeching halt when the body of a prominent townswoman is discovered underneath a scarecrow in a nearby field. Worst of all, the evidence points to Shiloh's childhood best friend, Kristy, as the prime suspect.

Forensic artist Hannah Perry's taking a much-needed vacation on a secluded island with her young son. But a young woman has been murdered - her body unidentified, her skull recently discovered by the police - and Hannah feels compelled to help find the killer. She decides to work on the reconstruction in the evenings while her son sleeps. But as the woman's face takes shape, an assailant invades Hannah's cabin and tries to end her life.

Since being marked as the heir apparent, I've been stabbed, kidnapped, black-listed, tortured, targeted, and accused of being the cause of pretty much every magical mishap that's hit the streets of Toronto. To some, I'm a nuisance, to others a curiosity, and others still - a problem to be eliminated. Whatevs, haters gotta hate.

After barely escaping with my life, returning to Faerie is the last thing I want to do. But my mission has grown only stronger now that I've sworn to save more held trapped in that realm. If only I know about their fate, then I'm sure as hell going to save them. Even if it means returning to hell.

The last thing Blue Hendricks needs six months into his uneasy reentry into civilian life is trouble in the form of his old friend's kid sister, all grown up and smack in the middle of a dangerous murder investigation. But he didn't become a SEAL to turn his back on the hard stuff, and he can't bring himself to ignore Everly's call for help - no matter how much he knows he's not fit to be around the soft, vibrant woman she's become. Not after the things he's done.