Showing results by narrator "Cassandra Cassandra" in All Categories

The Roman Forum, the Leaning Tower, the Piazza San Marco: these are the sights synonymous with Italy. But such landmarks only scratch the surface of this magical country's offerings. In See You in the Piazza, Frances Mayes introduces us to the Italy only the locals know, as she and her husband, Ed, eat and drink their way through all 20 regions - from Friuli to Sicily. Along the way, she seeks out the cultural and historic gems not found in traditional guidebooks.

The story of Stax Records unfolds like a Greek tragedy. A white brother and sister build a record company that becomes a monument to racial harmony in 1960’s segregated south Memphis. Their success is startling, and Stax soon defines an international sound. Then, after losses both business and personal, the siblings part, and the brother allies with a visionary African-American partner. Under integrated leadership, Stax explodes as a national player until, Icarus-like, they fall from great heights to a tragic demise.

It's summer in Mayville Heights, and Kathleen Paulson and her detective boyfriend Marcus are eager to attend the closing concert of the local music festival. The concert is a success, but then one of the band members is discovered dead shortly after it. At first it's assumed the death is a robbery gone wrong, but Kathleen suspects foul play - and she's certain that she, along with her trusty side-cats, Owen and Hercules, can help solve the murder.

Aliyah, a secretly powerful mage, has always been cautious with her deepest desires. Her most heartfelt wishes tend to come true—sometimes in ways she never imagined. But one full moon changes everything. When her long-dormant magic surges, it brings her gift from her long-distance paramedic boyfriend to life: a giant stuffed teddy bear. Yet this is no ordinary bear. He transforms into a captivating, sensual man devoted entirely to fulfilling Aliyah’s every longing—no matter how wickedly indulgent.

Ruth and Nat are orphans packed into a house full of abandoned children run by a religious fanatic. To entertain their siblings, they channel the dead. Decades later Ruth's niece, Cora, finds herself accidentally pregnant. After years of absence, Aunt Ruth appears, mute and full of intention. She is on a mysterious mission, leading Cora on an odyssey across the entire state of New York on foot. Where is Ruth taking them? Where has she been?

Best-selling writer Orson Scott Card founded the online magazine Intergalactic Medicine Show in 2006. It has been a big success, drawing submissions from well-known science fiction and fantasy writers, as well as fostering some amazing new talents. This collection contains some of the best of those stories.

Old Readers are supposed to live forever, magically inhabiting the spaces between stories. They're not supposed to die. But they can be murdered. When an ancient Reader is killed, seemingly by his own apprentice, the hierarchy of the magical world tumbles, and its spiderweb of alliances begins to unravel. Now it's up to Alice and the remaining apprentices to sort out the mess and catch the murderer....

Faye Longchamp has lost nearly everything, except for her quick mind and a grim determination to keep her ancestral home, Joyeuse, a moldering plantation. When the property taxes rise beyond her means, Faye sets out to save Joyeuse by digging for artifacts on her property and the surrounding national wildlife refuge and selling them on the black market. A tiny bit of that dead glory would pay a year’s taxes, and a big, valuable chunk of the past would save her home forever. But instead of potsherds and arrowheads, she uncovers a woman’s shattered skull, a Jackie Kennedy-style earring nestled against its cheek bone.

In the woodland community of Shady Hollow, you'll discover a secret. Moose and mice, owls and bears live side by side in civilised harmony. The town has a coffee shop and a bookshop, a haberdasher and a bank. Life is peaceful, until a skeleton is found buried deep under an apple tree. Danger has returned to Shady Hollow. Ace reporter Vera Vixen only wants a good news story as harvest time arrives with the promise of glorious feasts ahead. But the discovery of the body casts a darker shadow.

Angela’s back on home turf – and in her biggest romantic scrape yet…Angela Clark has fallen in love with New York – and it’s starting to love her back. But when she’s summoned home to England, she’s at risk of losing her shiny new life to rain, warm beer and bad memories. Talk about stepping back in time. There’s Mark, the ex-boyfriend – who she ran to New York to get away from. There’s Louisa, her best friend, with her terrifying new baby.

I was drunk-dialing my ex the night I met him. Six-three, sexy as sin, and so incredibly rude I could smack the asshole smirk right off his face. Long story short, we got off to a bad start. But when the tabloids interpret our sparring as Drew Maddox "groveling" with a "mystery brunette", his agent presents us both a proposal: shacking up as a couple this summer. It's an alleged "win-win". I need to prove to my ex that I'm fine. Drew needs to prove to his team that he's stable.

Discovering that you don’t have everything you thought you wanted is a surprise. Getting a promotion, finding new friends, learning you are attracted to women... Nia Toyomoto has worked hard all her life to prove she was the best; she graduated early from high school and college and got the dream job in Manhattan. Becoming a partner at the tender age of 30, she thought she had it all until the law firm made demands about her personal appearance and a few other things that made her change her life for the promotion.

From the author of the New York Times best-selling Pretty Little Liars comes a killer new series, The Lying Game. My killer is out there. And my sister might be next to die. Two months before I died, my best friend’s brother disappeared. I have no idea where Thayer went or why he left, but I know it is my fault. I did a lot of horrible things while I was alive, things that made people hate me, maybe even enough to kill me.

So, I have a third mate. No big deal. Except Auric punched my royal—descended from gods—betrothed right in the face. Novak has murder in his eyes, more so than usual. And my body is screaming at me to take all three males and teach them who’s in charge here. Because I believe the truth now. I’m a Noir royal descended from the gods themselves and destined to fix the history my fake-father forged: the one where black-winged angels were the result of sin and scandal instead of the truth.

Emily Covington has turned her life around after a drug addiction, but her family still has trouble trusting her. Though Emily has committed herself to a year-long treatment program and has been sober for almost a year beyond that, even her mother walks on eggshells around her, fearing she’ll relapse. After her behavior during her drug years, Emily realizes she has a lot to prove. When police discover a homemade bomb under Emily’s car, and she then learns the wife of one of her friends was murdered that same morning, she knows things are deadly serious.

It is 1909 in Spokane, Washington. The Dolan brothers live by their wits, jumping freight trains and lining up for day work at crooked job agencies. While 16-year-old Rye yearns for a steady job and a home, his dashing older brother, Gig, dreams of a better world, fighting alongside other union men for fair pay and decent treatment. When Rye finds himself drawn to suffragette Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, her passion sweeps him into the world of protest and dirty business. But a storm is coming, threatening to overwhelm them all....

With her sort-of boyfriend Marcus calling it quits and her ex-boyfriend Andrew showing up out of the blue, Kathleen has more than enough drama to deal with - and that’s before a local theater festival relocates to Mayville Heights. Now the town is buzzing with theatre folk, and many of them have their own private dramas with the director, Hugh Davis. When Davis is found shot to death by the marina, he leaves behind evidence of blackmail and fraud, as well as an ensemble of suspects.

It's been raining cats and dogs in Mayville Heights. The small town's been deluged, and now the local artists' co-op is on the verge of flooding. Kathleen has been up all night helping her friends move their creations to the safety of the upstairs studio.

The artwork survives, but when controversial mask maker Jaeger Merrill is found drowned in the co-op basement, Kathleen questions whether the death was accidental. After she discovers the artist was using an assumed name, she realizes she can't actually assume anything about him.

Victoria Donnelly wants to do something right at least once in her lifetime. Her plan to redeem herself requires her to return to her hometown of Eagle Harbor, where forgotten feelings for a man she can never have lie buried. Elijah Cummings has loved Victoria for 15 years. But fishermen's sons don't marry shipping barons' daughters. Resolved to keep his distance from Victoria, Elijah focuses on establishing a much-needed life-saving station...until he learns she's about to make an irreversible decision, one she'll spend the rest of her life regretting.

At Academy Absconditi, classes include everything from knife-throwing and poisons to the art of deception. The other students are all children of the world's most elite strategists, in training to become assassins, spies, and master manipulators. November Adley doesn't know why she's been sent to this place, but she'll quickly discover that allies are few in a school where competition is everything. When another student is murdered, all eyes turn to November, who must figure out exactly how she fits in before she is found guilty of the crime...or becomes the killer's next victim.