Showing results by narrator "Scott Merriman" in All Categories

When Heather McKinley dreamed of becoming a doctor, she imagined curing sick kids and sporting pink stethoscopes. She never anticipated the sleepless nights, grueling exams, and endless labs. And she certainly never knew that her medical school earned the nickname Dead Med thanks to the tragic history of students overdosing on illegal drugs. But Heather would never consider doing anything like that. That is, until her longtime boyfriend dumps her, she finds herself failing anatomy, and her world starts to crumble.

Adam and Sophie Warner and their three-year-old daughter are vacationing in Washington State’s Hood Canal for Memorial Day weekend. It’s the perfect getaway to unplug—and to calm an uneasy marriage. But on Adam’s first day out on the water, he sees Sophie abducted by a stranger. A hundred yards from shore, Adam can’t save her. And Sophie disappears.

Things started out so sweet. Everyone was going to be rich. All because of Trunk Man. He was the guy Papa and his meatheads stuffed in the back of a stolen Nissan and drove to a forest preserve outside Detroit. He owed Papa big-time. To save his own sorry neck, Trunk Man made an offer: a million dollars in bonds tucked away in a safe. Boost it, split it, and toss Trunk Man from a roof. Easy.

Kalinda has brought peace to the Tarachand Empire, at least for now. Bhutas no longer need to hide their gifts. The last of the rebels have been banished. And Prince Ashwin is set to take over as rajah. But for Kalinda, this came at a great loss. Her childhood home. Her best friend. The love of her life. Deven is still trapped in the Void, though he is able to find his way to Kalinda each night. He has been lucky so far—mortals are not meant to last in the Void for long, and Deven has lasted longer than most. But when he doesn’t visit one night, Kalinda knows that his luck has run out.

When Jackson St. James decided that six weeks in Vermont's Green Mountains would help him get his life together, he didn't anticipate replacing his craving for whiskey with a craving for his alluring new landlord, Gabby. Now, instead of prioritizing his sobriety and the resolution of the lawsuit threatening his business, he's making excuses to spend time with the spunky young landscaper whose candor is more than a little addictive.

Sacrificing his life to protect his best friend was a decision Hui Yue did not regret. Yet who could have known that death was not the final destination, but rather the beginning of a new adventure into a world filled with demonic beasts and martial arts cultivation? Hui Yue soon finds that within this world, strength is what determined your future accomplishments...and there is no space for the weak. Embarking upon this new life, Hui Yue meets friends, experiences betrayal, and embarks on his own journey of cultivation to overcome his limits and increase his strength.

Despite the odds, Kalinda has survived it all: Marriage to a tyrant. Tournaments to the death. The forbidden power to rule fire. The icy touch of a demon. That same demon now disguises itself as Rajah Tarek, Kalinda's late husband and a man who has never stopped haunting her. Upon taking control of the palace and the army, the demon brands Kalinda and her companions as traitors to the empire. They flee across the sea, seeking haven in the Southern Isles. To take back the empire, Kalinda will ally with those she distrusts.

Jon Talbot is a history professor who makes sense of the past by examining facts. He also knows how to speculate about the what-ifs. Jon’s doing both following the death of his wife, Pax. Driving home late from a volunteer assignment, she plunged off a mountain highway and died. The police find nothing suspicious about the facts: a deer in the road, a blown tire, a broken neck. But the what-ifs are leading Jon down a twisting trail of secrets. After five years of marriage, he is finally getting to know his wife.

Though the tyrant rajah she was forced to marry is dead, Kalinda's troubles are far from over. A warlord has invaded the imperial city, and now she's in exile. But she isn't alone. Kalinda has the allegiance of Captain Deven Naik, her guard and beloved, imprisoned for treason and stripped of command. With the empire at war, their best hope is to find Prince Ashwin, the rajah's son, who has promised Deven's freedom on one condition: that Kalinda will fight and defeat three formidable opponents.

Ruth and her little brother, Aubrey, are just teenagers when their older brother ships off to Iraq. When Joseph returns, uninjured, only three and a half months later, Ruth is happy he is safe but also deeply worried. How can it be that her courageous big brother has been dishonorably discharged for refusing to go out on duty? Aubrey can't believe that his hero doesn't have very good reasons.

Haunted by a tragic decision he made twenty years ago, veterinarian Dr. Carver Livingston has not once returned to his Vermont hometown. Now his parents’ impending divorce and his mother’s plea for support lure Carver to a reluctant homecoming. His mission: sweep into Teterbury, save a marriage, and get out before anyone else from his past knows he was even there. Fate has other plans.

Left raising his newly orphaned nephew after a tragic accident, Aaron Baxter fears he’s not cut out to be a single dad. But to give baby Jack the life he deserves - and to find a peaceful refuge for himself - Aaron moves to the idyllic Pacific Northwest town of Harper Landing. Julia Harper, descendant of the town’s founder and successful frozen yogurt shop owner, is mostly resigned to her role as the often-overlooked girl next door. But when the town newcomer, Aaron, reaches out for help with Jack, she finds herself yearning to take part in a sweet love story of her own.

Joe Arneson's ordinary life is upended by troubling dreams of himself as a different man in another place and time. It isn't until he visits his estranged grandmother, Pearl, in her Wisconsin hometown that a startling connection emerges. Drawn into his family's past, Joe discovers secrets weighing on the old woman's soul: the tragic death of her sister Alice a half century ago and its ripple effect on all who loved her.

Why the best way to drive growth might be to focus rather than expand When Sanjay Khosla took charge of developing markets for Kraft Foods in 2007, the business was floundering. Six years later, annual sales had soared from $5 billion to $16 billion with significant improvement in profitability. The secret? Making fewer, bigger, and bolder bets and stopping a lot of small stuff. Kellogg School professor Mohanbir Sawhney discovered a similar formula for stellar results - focus and simplicity - in advising Fortune 500 companies.

Our poor health and growing waistlines can be traced back to the hidden crisis of a micronutrient deficiency. More than 90 percent of all Americans are deficient in at least one of these health-promoting vitamins and minerals and don't even know it. According to nutritionists Jayson and Mira Calton, micronutrients - vitamins and minerals essential for optimum health - are being stripped from our diet and depleted by our lifestyle habits. And these deficiencies cause today's most common illnesses.

Life is not about you. It’s about what you do for others. That’s the realization that has driven Tom Rath - the mega-bestselling expert in self-development research - to evolve his focus from one’s inward search for strength to the larger outward search for purposeful contribution to others. It’s Not About You is a short introduction to the next chapter in the life and career of perhaps our greatest living self-help writer.

College sweethearts London Uphill and Jared Kraft were inseparable. He was a rising baseball star with a promising future, and she seemed destined to become "Mrs. Kraft". Then a tragic night and a series of devastating mistakes caused Jared to walk away from his life, leaving London without any explanation and tearing the couple apart.

Sandis has escaped Kazen’s grasp, but she finds herself unmoored, reeling from her thief friend Rone’s betrayal. Kazen has been hurt but not stopped, and he’ll do anything to summon the monster that could lay waste to the entire world. Sandis knows she must be the one to stop him, but with her own trusted numen now bound to another, and finding herself with no one she can trust, she is in desperate need of allies. Rone seems determined to help her, but Sandis has no intention of letting him get close to her again. What she doesn’t know is how much Rone gave up to protect her.

Sandis has finally freed herself from her master and his plans to use her as a vessel for the ancient beast Kolosos. But her master has found a new, impossible vessel: Sandis’s brother, Anon - a brother she long thought dead. Kolosos is ancient, massive, and seemingly unbeatable. Fortunately, Sandis has her own monster - an ethereal fire horse that she can summon at will. In addition, she and Rone may have discovered the secret to defeating Kolosos: ancient lore that details the creation of magic. It could be the key to victory and the key to saving Anon.

Do you dare step through the red door? Spencer Grant had no idea what drew him to the bar with the red door. He thought he would just sit down, have a slow beer or two, and talk to a stranger. He couldn’t know that it would lead to a narrow escape from a bungalow targeted by a SWAT team. Or that it would leave him a wanted man. But now Spencer is on the run from mysterious and ruthless men. He is in love with a woman he knows next to nothing about. And he is hiding from a past he can’t fully remember.