Showing results by narrator "Cassandra Cassandra" in All Categories

In 1962, in the Soviet Union, eight-year-old Katya is bequeathed what will become the love of her life: a Blüthner piano, on which she discovers an enriching passion for music. Yet after she marries, her husband insists the family emigrate to America - and loses her piano in the process. In 2012, in Bakersfield, California, 26-year-old Clara Lundy is burdened by the last gift her father gave her before he and her mother died in a terrible house fire: a Blüthner upright she has never learned to play. In sudden frustration, she decides to sell it.

Reed Brennan came to superposh Easton Academy to make a brand new life for herself. At first it seemed as though her dream had come true---she was living in the ultraexclusive Billings Hall, hanging out with the all-powerful Billings Girls, and dating the very hot Thomas Pearson. But Thomas turned out to be different from what she thought...and then he turned up dead.

Sascha Nelson and her best friend, Nicole Miller, love to cook! After school, they spend their time concocting new dishes in the kitchen. So when their favorite TV show, Kids Big Chef Food Fights, comes to their school for a special competition, they're ecstatic! But with school cheaters, Ashli and Diggs, also in the show, things don't seem as fun anymore. When Sascha and Nicole buy a mysterious can called Monster Blood Is Back, they use it to get back at Ashli and Diggs. But as the Monster Blood grows and grows, can the two get the slime under control?

Celebrated children’s book author Agnes Lee is determined to secure her legacy—to complete what she knows will be the final volume of her pseudonymously written Franklin Square novels; and even more consuming, to permanently protect the peninsula of majestic coast in Maine known as Fellowship Point. To donate the land to a trust, Agnes must convince shareholders to dissolve a generations-old partnership. And one of those shareholders is her best friend, Polly.

Linc Salinger and I have nothing in common. He's a smooth PR executive; I'm his disciplined office rival. And he's just stolen the project I've been working on for months. After a tough negotiation, I managed to bargain my way back on, but there's a catch. We have to travel to a tropical island and present to the client together. Sharing a beach cottage with only one bed, we plan to stay professional. But the island's magic starts to thaw our animosity, sparking unexpected chemistry. Every laugh and touch intensifies our connection. It's obvious there's no future between us.

A wide range of women—actors, athletes, academics, CEOs, writers, small-business owners, birth workers, physicians, and activists—share their experiences of becoming mothers in this multifaceted, moving, and revealing collection.

Elizabeth Haberlin, of the Pittsburgh Haberlins, spends every summer with her family on a beautiful lake in an exclusive club. Nestled in the Allegheny Mountains above the working-class community of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the private retreat is patronized by society's elite. Elizabeth summers with Carnegies, Mellons, and Fricks, following the rigid etiquette of her class. But Elizabeth is blessed (cursed) with a mind of her own.

The night I got pregnant, the rest of my life went to sh*t. First, I woke up alone, the jerk not even willing to stick around. Then, I got thrown in jail for a crime I didn't commit. Now, I've been "volunteered" as a tribute for the dragons. It was either that or spend my life in prison. Of course, I didn't actually get to choose. The Feds shipped me off against my protests. Which is where I come face to face with the man who knocked me up. The man who is actually a dragon.

In this powerful and wide-ranging collection of essays, Rebecca Solnit turns her attention to the war at home. This is a war, she says, "[W]ith so many casualties that we should call it by its true name, this war with so many dead by police, by violent ex-husbands and partners and lovers, by people pursuing power and profit at the point of a gun or just shooting first and figuring out who they hit later."

Funny and scary, romantic and gruesome - and featuring a childless queen who devours the heart of a sea monster cooked by a virgin, and who then gives birth the very next day; a lecherous king aroused by the voice of a woman whom he courts, unaware of her physical grotesqueness; and a king who raises a flea to monstrous size on his own blood, sparking a contest in which an ogre vies with men for the hand of the king's daughter - The Tale of Tales is a fairy-tale treasure that prefigures Game of Thrones and other touchstones of worldwide fantasy literature.

Ruth and Nat are orphans packed into a house full of abandoned children run by a religious fanatic. To entertain their siblings, they channel the dead. Decades later Ruth's niece, Cora, finds herself accidentally pregnant. After years of absence, Aunt Ruth appears, mute and full of intention. She is on a mysterious mission, leading Cora on an odyssey across the entire state of New York on foot. Where is Ruth taking them? Where has she been?

The Triune's attention is a deadly thing to attract. The world's oldest and most powerful vampire queens devise a plan to ensure the fledgling Isador queen is eliminated before she can call enough Blood to protect her. But Shara has already drawn formidable and famously powerful Blood to her side: Leviathan, king of the depths; Guillaume de Payne, the headless Templar knight; Wu Tien Xin, the silent invisible assassin; Nevarre, the Morrigan's own Shadow; and, of course, her first two Blood, Alrik and Daire, inexperienced, but extremely powerful in their own right.

Two words: the bullet. That's all it takes to shatter her life. Caroline Cashion is beautiful, intelligent, a professor of French literature. But in a split second, everything she's known is proved to be a lie. A single bullet, gracefully tapered at one end, is found lodged at the base of her skull. Caroline is stunned. It makes no sense: She has never been shot. She has no entry wound, no scar. Then, over the course of one awful evening, she learns the truth.

For over three decades, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror listeners crave. Now, with the eighth volume of the series, Datlow is back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. Encompassed in the audio of The Best Horror of the Year have been such illustrious writers as: Neil Gaiman; Kelley Armstrong; Stephen King; Linda Nagata; Laird Barron; Margo Lanagan; and many others.

The historic houses in the seaside town of Beaufort, North Carolina, have held the secrets of their inhabitants for centuries. One of the most enduring refuses to be washed away by the tide: What happened to Rebecca and Townsend Saint James on that fateful night of their disappearance in 1976? Now, the granddaughter they never knew, Keaton Smith, is desperate for a fresh start. So when her mother needs someone to put her childhood home in Beaufort on the market, she jumps at the chance to head south.

Jim & Barry's Ice Cream factory is opening soon, and the town is abuzz. All the kids are excited about a super sweet contest to create a brand new flavor using any ingredients they want. But things go sour when a friend's Chock Full of Chocolate recipe goes missing. Now Nancy and the Clue Crew must race to find the missing formula before the contest is over.

Normally the arrival of an art exhibition at the Mayville Heights library would be cause for celebration. But thanks to the overbearing curator and high-tech security system that comes with it, Kathleen's life has been completely disrupted. Even Owen and Hercules have been affected, since their favorite human doesn't seem to have a spare moment to make their favorite fish crackers or listen to Barry Manilow.

Which Triune court is calling the last Isador queen to take her rightful seat? There are three Aima courts: one dead, one full of monsters, and one with an empty seat that's ruled by the queen of Rome. While Shara Isador loves her monsters, she has no plan to unseat a Skolos queen. Nor does she wish to work side by side with Marne Ceresa on a daily basis. Let alone the mysterious Dauphine, who might be closer than Shara ever suspected.

This spellbinding novel by bestselling author Ann Napolitano is a poignant reminder of how connected we are to those we love, even when we cannot find the words to say it. The unforgettable story of three generations of an Irish American family, Within Arm’s Reach is another rich and deeply satisfying novel from the author who captured the many dimensions of grief in Dear Edward and the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood in Hello Beautiful.

Fortune, Ida Belle, and Gertie are finally off to Florida on the vacation they’ve always talked about. Days filled with white sand, turquoise water, and fruity drinks are the only thing on the agenda. But when Gertie’s “hot date” turns up dead and she’s the number one suspect, they’re forced to hang up their bathing suits and shift to investigating mode.