Showing results by narrator "Patricia Santomasso" in All Categories

Who would want to kill a clown? Lucky O’Toole, Chief problem solver for the Babylon Hotel, the primo property on the Las Vegas Strip, isn’t in any mood to find out. For one, it’s New Year’s Day and Lucky’s birthday. And she hasn’t caught her breath after a chase to the death in Hong Kong and Macau. Her French chef is pushing to set the wedding date. Her former lover, wounded in the China chase, needs TLC. A young woman, in town with the rodeo, shows up at her office with a secret that could blow the lid off Lucky’s life as she knows it.

Eighteen years ago, tragedy struck The Refuge cult in northern Minnesota. Forty people committed suicide, and the entire compound burned to the ground. At just 13, Clare was the sole survivor found wandering miles from the encampment, hands blistered, memories of the horrific event wiped from her mind. Now a sociology professor and liaison to the FBI specializing in cults, Clare has fought to put the past behind her. But intrusive memories and fear of inheriting her cult-leader father’s mental illness threaten to strangle Clare’s budding life when she receives a call from the past.

In the dystopian 22nd century, Lauren Ramirez is an Assassin 13, the best at her profession. Betrayed by her employer, the president of the United States, on an off-planet op, she escapes when her spacecraft hurtles through time and crash-lands in 1927 Prohibition Hollywood, with its silent film stars and bootlegging gangsters. She finds herself an alien in an alien land.

It was 1969, and all the rules were changing, when Betty, a woefully single French teacher on Long Island, met the handsome but edgy new teacher at her school -- a hippie just back from Woodstock. His vitality opened up a new world to her, but when they married his rages turned against her, and often ended with physical violence. Like millions of women who discover they've married an abusive man, Betty was forced to make daily decisions to suppress her feelings or risk confrontation, to keep it secret or report, and ultimately, to live with it or leave. Part gripping story, part warm-hearted look at the '70s, and part therapeutic journey.

Elwyn is remarkably unremarkable, and she prefers it that way. Perhaps it is a talent owed to the training of the notorious syndicate that reared her, or it may be a gift from her invisible friend—a clever and capricious creature who, unlike most invisible friends, has only grown more real with time. Either way, Elwyn's unremarkability is about to fail her.

Middle school is a dungeon… At least, that’s how Jess sees it. Luckily, she and her best friend Olivia know how to escape into the sprawling worlds of their own imaginations. The two friends have always loved making up stories, first with little kid games of make-believe, and more recently with the fantasy roleplaying game, Dungeons & Dragons. When they play, Olivia runs the game as Dungeon Master and Jess is the solo party member, playing a take-no-prisoners, lone-wolf fighter of her own design named Sir Corius.

Gwyn has been raised at Maludom, an orphanage run by Morgan Le Fey where children were trained to become thieves. And Gwyn is the best thief of them all. So when she finds a crystal sphere in an old, abandoned house, her first instinct is to steal it.

The couples in this collection will do everything they can to find love, even when riches get in the way. The six-book Inherit Love collection follows six couples' romantic journey to inheritance and love. Inside, you can escape to a tropical paradise or an Irish castle. Listen to stories of arranged marriages, second chances at love, office romances, enemies to lovers, and even amnesia. You'll find marriages of convenience (and inconvenience), babies, football teams, bodyguards, and other smoking hot heroes.

"Christian vocation," says Kathleen Cahalan, "is about connecting our stories with God's story." In The Stories We Live, Cahalan rejuvenates and transforms vocation from a static concept to a living, dynamic reality.

Huntsmen, according to the Church, were damned, their blood unclean, unholy. Yet for Rosemary and Aaron Harker the Church was less important than being ready to stand against the Uncanny as not being prepared could lead to being dead. The year is 1913. America—and the world—trembles on the edge of a modern age. Political and social unrest shift the foundations; technology is beginning to make its mark. But in the shadows, things from the past still move. Things inhuman, uncanny. And the Uncanny are no friend to humanity.

Jen is just getting used to her life on Peapod Farm with her new stepsisters, Andy and Reese. But when the school year starts, there are even more changes in store for her. Jen has to navigate new friends and new challenges--but at least she'll have Andy with her, right? As she starts the sixth grade, she finds that her stepsister seems way more interested in crushes and boys than hanging out with her, while Jen wants to know when the world decided boys and girls couldn't be "just friends" anymore.

Erin Lansing will search every inch of the mountains to find her missing teen daughter—even with someone dead-set on stopping her. Teaming up with search-and-rescue K-9 handler Dillon Walker and his dog, Scout, is her only chance at living long enough to see her daughter again. But to save them all, can Dillon and Scout help Erin confront the dangerous truth about her past?

Lucky’s story comes full circle in the conclusion of the Lucky O’Toole Vegas Adventures. Home: A refuge. An escape. Where the heart is. After a high-body count trip through Europe, Lucky O’Toole, the Chief Problem Solver for the Babylon, Las Vegas’s most over the top Strip casino, is home and searching for peace, quiet and a quick fix for a broken heart. She should know better.

Can artificial intelligence write a novel? In 2174, authors are obsolete. With the exception of a few human "author" titles printed in the small basement and back room libraries, all stories are created by the Artificial Intelligence of the Archive. Most believe the "authors" are only brands to lure people into spending their credits on print. One woman believes that one of them, author Hugh Howey, is real and still alive.

Sick of heartbreak, Kate decides to devote her life to making fine chocolates and forget about relationships altogether. But when she opens a gourmet chocolate shop across the street from a deli run by a handsome Italian, she discovers she's not the only one dishing out temptation. Gio wants to help Kate overcome her fears about love, but his big, boisterous Italian family gets in the way.

Dangerous Odds - a true crime thriller memoir - is the explosive, never-been-told, behind-the-scenes look into the world of illegal sports betting, revealed by an insider. Marisa Lankester, a young beauty with a privileged New York upbringing, stumbles into the back door of the largest illegal sports betting organization in the US, run by Ron (The Cigar) Sacco. Marisa, a thrill-seeker, maneuvers herself into this mob-run men-only bookmaking operation and becomes a trusted insider.

Seventeen-year-old Rogue has always classified herself as socially awkward, preferring video games over a trip to the mall. When she wakes up in a forest, she finds that life as she knew it has changed forever, and she cannot remember how. In fact, she can't remember the last six months at all. As she navigates this new world she soon discovers a talent for combat and survival she'd never had before. A handy ability in a world where humans compete in a game governed by rules she can't remember.

Joey Darling thought she’d take a quick acting gig between filming her hit TV show, Relentless, and prepping for an upcoming movie. The peaceful island of Lantern Beach seemed like a perfect getaway, especially when her fiancé joins her on location.

After being rescued before drowning in a glass coffin, Gwyn now knows why she ended up on the lawn to Wickmore Academy and who sent her. But now everything just got more complicated, as she is tasked with breaking out of the strange prison, not only to save herself but all the villains as well.

After rising to queen, Rogue now must deal with a lot more than she bargained for. Royalty doesn’t just sit around and give orders in Skaki. No, the best of them participate in the much-acclaimed Grand Match that could change their race’s status forever - if they win. But no one except an Ilintian has ever won it. So it’s time for her to team up with an old friend, some new ones, and an unlikely ally to go for the gold. But this is no normal match. There is only one single-player winner. Meanwhile, in the Real, Jewel has challenges to face of her own.