Showing results by narrator "Amy Landon" in All Categories

In the 1980s, Jill Dodd determines that her ticket out of an abusive home is to make it as a top model in Paris. Armed with only her desire for freedom and independence, she embarks on an epic journey that takes her to uncharted territory - the Parisian fashion industry, with all its beautiful glamour and its ugly underbelly of sex, drugs, and excess.

Glimmering like a jewel behind its gateway, The Kingdom™ is an immersive fantasy theme park where guests soar on virtual dragons, castles loom like giants, and bioengineered species - formerly extinct - roam free. Ana is one of seven Fantasists, beautiful “princesses” engineered to make dreams come true. When she meets park employee Owen, Ana begins to experience emotions beyond her programming including, for the first time....love. But the fairy tale becomes a nightmare when Ana is accused of murdering Owen, igniting the trial of the century.

The first message is found in a playground. A few feet away, a pair of human ears hang from the monkey bars. Deputy sheriff Brynn Callahan isn’t sure what to make of this grisly scene. Do the ears belong to a murder victim? And if so, where is the body? One thing Brynn is sure of: the earring on one of the earlobes belongs to a man she met at a party the previous night. The second message is discovered next to a human tongue on a park pavilion. Once again, no body is found. Brynn can’t help but wonder if the crimes are rooted in the town’s long-simmering tensions.

In the second volume of the Native Tongue trilogy, the time has come for Láadan - the secret language created to resist an oppressive patriarchy - to empower womankind worldwide. To expand the language's reach, female linguists translate the Bible into Láadan and a group of Roman Catholic nuns are tasked to spread the language. But when outraged priests detect their sabotage, they send a double agent to infiltrate and destroy the movement from the inside.

Best-selling author Patricia A. McKillip (The Riddle-Master of Hed) is one of the most lyrical writers gracing the fantasy genre. With the debut of her newest work, Dreams of Distant Shores is a true ode to her many talents. Within these chapters you will find a youthful artist possessed by both his painting and his muse and seductive travelers from the sea enrapturing distant lovers. The statue of a mermaid comes suddenly to life, and two friends are transfixed by a haunted estate.

In the early years of World War II, Josef Stalin issued an order that made the Soviet Union the first country in the world to allow female pilots to fly in combat. This is the story of Marina Raskova’s three regiments, women who enlisted and were deployed on the front lines of battle as navigators, pilots, and mechanics. It is the story of 1,000 young women who wanted to take flight to defend their country and the woman who brought them together in the sky.

Everyone wants the Star of Erebus. Space-pirate Nyx Marcus is no exception. With it, she can prove to her father that she is worthy of his legacy. But she’s come up empty-handed aboard the space-ship Thanatos and now Malcam, her father’s first officer, is mutinying. As Nyx flees with a loyal skeleton crew, she discovers that the planet-killing weapon, named after one of the seven gods, is more than what it seems. Erebus isn’t a simple weapon. It’s an ancient AI and a technological god.

When thirty-three-year-old Athena Matthias is asked, yet again, to be a bridesmaid, she’s not exactly enthusiastic about the idea. Still reeling from a messy divorce from her wife, she’s never felt less inclined to celebrate love. But Athena can't say no, especially to one of her oldest friends, and at least it's a destination wedding, which means three days of sun and sand.

Aurora was raised to lead, with the expectation that she will one day become ruler of the Mer of Triste Island. There’s just one problem. Nobody’s bothered to ask Aurora if she wants to be queen. Chafing at the confines of her role, Aurora risks everything for a chance at a new life. Ready for adventure, Aurora washes up on Siren Island at the feet of one very bewildered video-game designer. The clock is ticking before the Royal guards find her, and Aurora is determined to experience everything that life on Siren Island can offer.

This book spotlights female scientist Temple Grandin, whose experience being on the autism spectrum has informed her advocacy and her work as an animal behaviorist. Temple Grandin's pride in being different and how it shaped her world is celebrated in this biography.

Rose Valrois thought she’d sacrificed everything to save her sister, the man she loved, and her entire world—but fate has other ideas. Now that the red priests have arrived, hidden truths are revealed that force Rose to make yet another impossible choice. With her sister trapped in the magical land of the Dark Elves, and her heart given to the guardian of the Darkwood, Rose must travel to the heart of enemy territory to discover her own powerful magic, and find the answers she so desperately needs.

An alien threat lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is supposed to win a war against it. In a desperate attempt to find a diplomatic solution, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy to contact the mysterious invaders. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass - both still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire - face an impossible task. They must attempt to negotiate with a hostile entity, without inadvertently triggering the destruction of themselves and the Empire.

In the tradition of his best-selling debut novel The Lost Books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason's Metamorphica transforms Ovid's epic poem of endless transformation. It reimagines the stories of Narcissus, Pygmalion and Galatea, Midas, and Atalanta and strings them together like the stars in constellations - even Ovid becomes a story. It's as though the ancient mythologies had been rewritten by Borges or Calvino.

I Hold a Wolf by the Ears draws listeners into a world of wholly original, sideways ghost stories that linger in the mouth and mind like rotten, fragrant fruit. Both timeless and urgent, these eleven stories confront misogyny, violence, and the impossible economics of America with van den Berg's trademark spiky humor and surreal eye. Moving from the peculiarities of Florida to liminal spaces of travel in Mexico City, Sicily, and Spain, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears is uncannily attuned to our current moment, and to the thoughts we reveal to no one but ourselves.

The drought has discontented the bees. Soil dries into sand; honeycomb stiffens into wax. But Cynthia knows how to breathe life back into her farm: offer it as an artists' colony with free room, board, and "life experience" in exchange for backbreaking labor. Silvia, a wide-eyed graduate and would-be poet, and Ibrahim, a painter distracted by constant inspiration, are drawn to Cynthia's offer, and soon, to each other. But something lies beneath the surface. The Edenic farm is plagued by events that strike Silvia as ominous: taps run red, scalps itch with lice, frogs swarm the pond.

At once intimate and sweeping, Bottomland - the anticipated second novel from Michelle Hoover - follows the Hess family in the years after World War I as they attempt to rid themselves of the anti-German sentiment that left a stain on their name. But when the youngest two daughters vanish in the middle of the night, the family must piece together what happened while struggling to maintain their life on the unforgiving Iowa plains.

The are few forces more powerful than the Will of a fully trained Warden, but those who endeavor to become Wardens must first escape the crucible fires of Black Mark Academy. Very few who enter will leave as Wardens, and many will never leave at all. Lillin ends up at Black Mark Academy not as a willing volunteer, but as forced penance for a past wrong. She soon discovers that the training involved in becoming a Warden is more nightmarish than she could have imagined. With her face marked permanently for her past crimes, she has to either survive the Warden's cruel training program or die in the process. She must discover the determination within herself to move forward and kindle the flames of the eternal fire, the Warden's Will.

From New York to Paris, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald reigned as king and queen of the Jazz Age, seeming to float on champagne bubbles above the mundane cares of the world. But to those who truly knew them, the endless parties were only a distraction from their inner turmoil and from a love that united them with a scorching intensity.

Marjorie Plum never meant to peak in high school. She was Queen Bee. Now, 10 years later, she's lost her sparkle. At her bleakest moment, she's surprised by renewed interest from a questionable childhood crush, and the bickering with her cranky boss - at a potentially game-changing new job - grows increasingly to resemble flirtatious banter. Suddenly, she's faced with a choice between the life she always dreamed of and one she never thought to imagine.

Adalyn Stalling's clients convinced her to be a contestant on their reality TV show, The One. Adi appeared on the show twice - once as a potential love match for the bachelor, once as the bachelorette. As much as she wanted to stay professionally removed, she ended up giving her heart to both Adam and Connor. Both times, the men broke it off. Now America's most famous "loser at love", Adalyn is trying to pick up the pieces of her life. Given the media frenzy and the paparazzi that chase her, she's finding it difficult.