Showing results by narrator "Therese Plummer" in All Categories

Cassidy Kincaide owns Trifles & Folly, an antique/curio store and high-end pawn shop in Charleston, South Carolina, that is more than what it seems. Dangerous magical and supernatural items sometimes find their way into mortal hands or onto the market, and Cassidy is part of a shadowy Alliance of mortals and mages whose job it is to take those deadly curiosities out of circulation.

RITA Award nominee Karen Witemeyer is acclaimed for her winning blend of history, humor, and romance. In this heartstirring tale, repentant exconvict Levi Grant comes to Spencer, Texas, in 1887 - hoping to put his past behind him and start out fresh as the town’s new blacksmith. To promote civility, Eden Spencer runs her own lending library, where she discovers Levi’s love of literature. But just as romance begins to bloom, Eden learns of Levi’s prodigal past.

Alice Sullivan feels like she’s finally found her groove in middle age, but it only takes one moment for her perfectly curated life to unravel. On the same day she learns her daughter is struggling in second grade, a call from her son’s school accusing him of bullying throws Alice into a tailspin.

Jesse Keyes has done some serious growing up. With a steady job and a vibrant four-year-old son, Gabe, she's in a far better place than when she left Seattle five years ago...pregnant and misunderstood by almost everyone in her life.

St. Peter's Square, Rome. White smoke signals that a new Pope has been chosen. Is it possible that the new Pope...is a woman?The world is watching as massive crowds gather in Rome, waiting for news of a new pope, one who promises to be unlike any other in history. It's a turning point that may change the Church forever. Some followers are ecstatic that the movement reinvigorating the Church is about to reach the Vatican, but the leading candidate has made a legion of powerful enemies who aren't afraid to kill for their cause.

The time is the early '80s. The characters go to the same schools and eat at the same restaurants. Their voices enfold us as seamlessly as those of DJs heard over a car radio. They have sex with the same boys and girls and buy from the same dealers. In short, they are connected in the only way people can be in that city.

Joan Sample is not living the life she expected. Now a widow and an empty-nester, she has become by her own admission something of a recluse. But after another birthday spent alone, she is finally inclined to listen to her sister, who has been begging Joan to reengage with the world. With Emmie’s support, Joan gathers the courage to take some long-awaited steps: hiring someone to tame her overgrown garden, joining a grief support group, and even renting out a room to a local college student. Before long Joan is starting to feel a little like herself again.

It’s almost Halloween, and the small island of Charm, North Carolina, is decked out for the festivities. When Everly Swan agrees to close her iced tea shop early to help her aunts host their annual haunted historic walking tour, she expects some good-natured spooks. But the night turns grave when one of the ghostly actors is found dead. To complicate matters, the victim scratched Everly’s name into the ground before she died, making her a key suspect.

When Rachel Shaw and Jack Fletcher meet on a sunny Georgia barrier island, it seems like the perfect start to a romance. There's just one problem—neither is the least bit interested in falling in love. They're simply looking for peace, and time to work through their losses. But Rachel's Aunt Eleanor and Fletch's Gram have a few surprises in store for these two wounded souls.

Joe Lattimore, homeless and trying desperately to provide for his young family, agrees to fight in a no-holds-barred illegal bout, only to have his opponent die. Lattimore now finds himself at the mercy of the fight's organizers who blackmail him into burglarizing a house. However, when he breaks in, he finds a murdered woman on the floor and the police have received an anonymous tip naming him the murderer. Robin Lockwood, an increasingly prominent young attorney and former MMA fighter, agrees to take on his defense.

Psychiatrist Evelyn Talbot has dedicated her life to solving the mysteries of the psychopathic mind. Why do psychopaths act as they do? How do they come to be? Why don't they feel any remorse for the suffering they cause? And are there better ways of spotting and stopping them? After having been kidnapped, tortured, and left for dead when she was just a teenager - by her high school boyfriend - she's determined to understand how someone she trusted so much could turn on her.

Deep in the Yukon wilderness, a town is being built. A place for people to disappear, a fresh start from a life on the run. Haven’s Rock isn’t the first town of this kind, something detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, know firsthand. They met in the original town of Rockton. But greed and deception led the couple to financing a new refuge for those in need. This time around, they get to decide which applicants are approved for residency.

Twin sisters Becca and Cassie barely got out of the Crazy House alive. Now, they're trained, skilled fighters who fear nothing - not even the all-powerful United regime. Together, the sisters hold the key to defeating the despotic government and freeing the people of the former United States. But to win this war, will the girls have to become the very thing they hate?

When her photographer fiancé is killed in an act of violence overseas, journalist Caroline James goes home to grieve, regroup, and take a job as editor of a local newspaper—all while dealing with a boatload of guilt. In no way is she ready for her fiancé’s brother to show up almost two years into her new life.

Today’s fans of science fiction and fantasy have an appetite for stories that address a wide variety of voices, perspectives, and styles. There is an openness to experiment and pushing boundaries, combined with the classic desire to hear about spaceships and dragons, future technology and ancient magic, and the places where they intersect. With a diverse selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and Diana Gabaldon, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020 explores the ever-expanding and changing world of SFF today.

It has been two years since the death of Merritt Heyward's husband, Cal, when she receives unexpected news - Cal's family home in Beaufort, South Carolina, bequeathed by Cal's reclusive grandmother, now belongs to Merritt. Charting the course of an uncertain life - and feeling guilt from her husband's tragic death - Merritt travels from her home in Maine to Beaufort, where the secrets of Cal's unspoken-of past reside among the pluff mud and jasmine of the ancestral Heyward home on the Bluff.

In her new collection, Story Prize finalist Maureen F. McHugh delves into the dark heart of contemporary life and life five minutes from now and how easy it is to mix up one with the other. Her stories are post-bird flu, in the middle of medical trials, wondering if our computers are smarter than us, wondering when our jobs are going to be outsourced overseas, wondering if we are who we say we are, and not sure what we'd do to survive the coming zombie plague.

Best-selling author and Sookie Stackhouse creator Charlaine Harris crafts the eighth riveting tale starring Aurora "Roe" Teagarden. Roe's stepsister-in-law Poppy has achieved social distinction - she's been elected into the Uppity Women Book Club. Unfortunately, membership has its deadly consequences.

To hotel manager B. J. Clark, the Lakeside Inn is more than just a historic New England landmark, it’s a place both staff and guests call home. So when wealthy hotelier Taylor Reynolds decides to add it to his global hospitality empire with plans to modernize its charm and character, B. J. prepares herself to resist this hostile takeover. But she didn’t prepare for their heated discussions to take place behind closed doors where more passionate desires would arise.

Ivy Bauer is a young, bright soil scientist and inventor of a game changing organic irrigation system. She’s on top of the world when, suddenly, her husband is killed in a biking accident. Needing space to grieve, she takes a summer job as a gardener in Malibu. Conrad Reed is a wealthy Hollywood has-been who, after the death of his wife, feels overwhelmed by the care of his anxious stepson Hudson, massive cliffside estate, and deteriorating career.