Showing results by narrator "Aven Shore" in All Categories

Originally published in 1852, Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie, with contributions from her husband John Wedderburn Dunbar Moodie, is a vibrant, humorous, and wry description of their arrival and life in the young country of Canada after their immigration in 1832 and settlement in the rugged backwoods of what is now Ontario - unimaginably difficult but also breathtakingly beautiful by turns.

Cerah Passel is a farm girl, a shepherd, but a seemingly accidental animal attack sets in motion an adventure that spans a planet. Along with her brother Beru, Slurr a boy who grew up with her family but who she can barely tolerate, and Kern, the healer of indeterminant act, they must discover the source of the great evil that is befalling the planet of Quadar.

When Owen Galloway, the track star son of a prominent US senator, is found dead of an overdose in his bedroom, LAPD Detective Cari Garcia suspects that he’s just another teenager who hid a drug addiction. In Vancouver, Dr. Julie Rees, an experienced toxicologist, notices a growing number of overdoses among the eating disordered and body builders, and mentions it to her boyfriend, Detective Anson Chen.

Ten-year-old Ginny and her mother are opening the cabin. On an otherwise quiet day, Ginny hears a male loon, Yudel, sparring with a younger bird over territory. Canoeing with her friend Wes, Ginny discovers a loon nest on an island. They quickly find themselves protecting the defenseless eggs against predators. During the summer, the loons raise three loonlings. Now faced with many dangers, Yudel and his mate, Owala, will put their courage to the test.

Jani freaks when her parents tell her they are moving to the country, away from the home she loves, the friends she’s had since kindergarten, and all the horses at the riding stable. Her only consolation is that she can bring Keeta, her beautiful pinto mare, with her. But adventures await. While cleaning out the barn on their new property, Jani sees a swirl of movement beside the black, twisted stone in the corner. The barn is haunted! With the help of a new friend, Jani sets out to solve the mystery behind the wild, angry spirit and set it free.

The life of a sword-for-hire was often uncertain, but for beautiful, sensual Corson Brenn Torisk it was the only one worth living. When Corson was hired by the Lady Nyctasia, it seemed that fortune was smiling at last. The Lady was pretty, amusing, and rich, and her reputation for sorcery, she assured her new bodyguard, was greatly exaggerated. For Corson had little liking for magic, and less for magicians. But she had a high regard for her own skin, and when her employer's enemies proved both numerous and determined, she soon decided a sword was not enough.

Fourteen years ago, Bryn Collins moved to the Eastern Tennessee mountains and never looked back - after her fiancé, Sawyer, jilted her for her despised sister, Del. Sawyer was later killed in a plane crash, but Bryn has never been able to forgive her sister for what she did and chooses to spend her days in the idyllic beauty of the rugged landscape instead. Although a life-threatening accident ended her days navigating the perils of whitewater, she still finds refuge kayaking in the local lakes. But Bryn's placid life hits the skids when an unwelcome cast of characters reenters it.

Farya Navurian seems like an ordinary young woman trying to get ahead in the city while struggling with depression. But her depression is anything but ordinary - it has the power to destroy time and space. Growing up the moody daughter of a space-faring hero of the Greater Anointed Imperial Ohioan Commonwealth, Farya annihilated most of that world and its history, leaving behind the husk-like Buckeye State. One day at a record swap, she meets Bryan, a divorced telecom CEO. More than record collecting, what they share is that they each carry a howling secret.

On the day when Paisley Sutton goes to salvage barn board from an old chicken coop on her neighbor’s land, she thinks the worst thing she may find is rotten eggs. Little does she know...she’s about to unearth a mystery that has lingered for decades. She can’t help but research the story, but when she does, she finds far more than she hoped.

She thought she was just going to reminisce, enjoy the Northern Lights, and celebrate an author, but a murderer had other ideas.

Fran Stewart has fallen in love with the little boy she is set to adopt from the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan. Just as she enters the final stage of the adoption process, a sinister coalition of politicians, bureaucrats, and cynics, begin working to halt international adoptions. Fran's fight get her son home, based on the real life six year drama over international adoption in Kyrgyzstan, is the subject of Kyrgyzstan 2008-2009: A Love Story.

It’s been two centuries since the boom of the Industrial Revolution sent the Victorian world into a devastating climatic shift. Now, chivalry is dead, and the frills and frivolities of the romantic era are no more than a fading memory. In Sagebrush Canyon, thirst rules, ignorance is power, and nothing is as it seems.

Nicholas Nicastro revisits a haunting mystery that still fascinates a nation a century later. His masterly re-imagining of these tragic events sees beyond the prejudices that destroys families and taints small communities but corrodes civilization itself. Nicastro’s simple storytelling style with its kaleidoscopic perspectives is moving, beautiful, and profound.

From best-selling author James Raffan comes an enlightening and original story about a polar bear’s precarious existence in the changing Arctic, reminiscent of John Vaillant’s The Golden Spruce.

In the System Apocalypse, a single title can make or break a build. And in the entire Galactic System, there are Title Seekers, those who make it their life quest to acquire the most unusual and rare titles possible. Earth, a new Dungeon World offers multiple possibilities. Not least among them, the one from a familiar set of golden arches. For the Kyaz, it’s a chance in a million to get a rare title. If he can manage to evade the machinations of a fellow Title Seeker and trust his human sidekick, Xi Ping.

We All Need to Eat is a new collection of linked stories from award-winning author Alex Leslie that revolve around Soma, a young Queer woman in Vancouver, chronicling her attempts to come to grips with herself, her family, and her sexuality.

Cobb wanted a simple life. He wanted excellent steaks, great coffee, friends, and a quiet place to restore his favorite ship. Working for a recovery operation turned out to be the best place to find parts cheap. She had other plans for him. He wanted the staff of the deep space salvage ship, Oxcart, to treat him just like another member of the crew. Not the man he really was. Light years from Earth, he thought his secrets, his past, wouldn't matter. Especially not to her.

Enjoying his day off, Deputy Brody Katz made the catch of his life while fishing in the South Platte River. The beaten woman had been shot and was on the brink of death by the time her body made it to the riverbank. When she wakes, she has no recollection of who she is, where she came from, or why someone tried to kill her.

At 31, Tricia Downing was in the best shape of her life. In the summer of 2000, Tricia, an avid cyclist, drove across the country for what amounted to 18 races in 23 days. She returned from her adventure to a fresh start: a new job awaited her, and determined to make the next summer the year she would make her mark on the world of cycling, she began a rigorous training strategy. But on September 17, 2000, Tricia Downing's life took a detour. While training on her bicycle, Tricia collided with a car that turned directly in her path, and instantly became paralyzed from the chest down.

The year is 2154. Kate Genet, a renowned geneticist, suddenly confronts the mysterious death of a bio-mod couple's newborn while visiting a maternity ward. The shock rattles her, awakening long forgotten memories and suppressed fears. Determined to figure out what actually happened, Kate is catapulted on a quixotic and dangerous adventure in a world where engineered harmony cannot eradicate basic human conflict.