Showing results by narrator "Ann Osmond" in Literature & Fiction

During the pandemic, our homes and apartments have transported us to new places, different experiences, and changed our understanding of ourselves and others. This collection of 12 tales explores those journeys through the lens of fantasy and science fiction, accentuating the strange and unexpected to reveal the relatable, human dimensions of our continuing migration from what’s normal to a new normal...or even paranormal.

In this mosaic horror/crime novel, ghosts and old gods guide the hands of those caught up in a violent struggle to save the soul of the American Southwest. A man tasked with shuttling children over the border believes the Virgin Mary is guiding him toward final justice. A woman offers colonizer blood to the Mother of Chaos. A boy joins corpse destroyers to seek vengeance for the death of his father. These stories intertwine with those of a vengeful spirit and a hungry creature to paint a timely, compelling pulpy portrait of revenge, family, and hope.

Set largely in the 1990s, the 12 linked stories in Joel Mowdy’s first book take place in and around Mastic Beach, a community on New York’s Long Island that’s close to the wealthy Hamptons but afflicted by widespread poverty. Mostly in their teens and early 20s, the characters struggle to become independent in various ways, ranging from taking typical low-paying jobs - hotel laundry, janitorial, restaurant, and landscaping work - to highly ingenious schemes, to exchanging sexual favors for a place to stay.

Justine de Montclaire has always idolized her father, decrying the fact that she is a female, wishing to be a strong, noble knight. She is well past the age when she should be married, has entertained numerous suitors, and found all of them unacceptable. Her mother and father are desperate. But the de Montclaire family has one big advantage: They are among the handful of most powerful Norman leaders. When an opportunity to arrange a marriage between Justine and Lionel d'Auberge arises - an alliance between two families that would be highly advantageous - her parents jump at the chance.

Set in a small coal-mining town, a debut novel full of secrets, love, betrayal, and suspicious accidents, where Catholicism casts a long shadow and two courageous women make choices that will challenge our own moral convictions.

It begins when a vision appears in a carwash window in the tiny, dusty desert town of Infidelity, a blip on the map just outside of Joshua Tree, California. Seven-year-old Luz Reyes, whose family was killed by death squads in her native land and whose mother is gravely ill, is the first to see it. Then Walt Adair, the divorced owner of the carwash. Then Zoe Luedke, the golden-haired stranger in search of her runaway husband. And even the child's skeptic mother, Josephina Reyes, sees it.

Kate is enjoying being engaged - that it's a hoax is beside the point. To succeed at her ultra-conservative finance job she needs to reform her flighty, party-girl reputation, and a good old fashioned marriage of convenience is exactly what she needs to put her one step closer to the promotion of her dreams. But when Adam, Kate's best friend from high school, arrives for a visit, her perfect arrangement suddenly isn't so perfect anymore.

She is Kavalaris—the most magnificent singer ever to grace the international operatic stage. Her talent is the stuff of legend and has made the men around her rich. Mark Rutherford first saw her when he was a young boy—and he cannot forget her. It will be almost two decades—separated by a depression and a world war—before they meet again and fall deeply in love. Beginning in 1928 and continuing for almost six decades, Ariana tells the story of a performer whose extraordinary gift touches everyone who hears her.