Showing results by narrator "Saskia Maarleveld" in All Categories

Set in France and America, News of Our Loved Ones is a haunting and intimate examination of love and loss, beauty and the cost of survival, witnessed through two generations of one French family whose lives are all touched by the tragic events surrounding the D-Day bombings in Normandy.

A young woman’s life seems perfect until her family goes missing. A writer lives alone with her dog and collects arcane murder statistics. What each of them stands to lose as they sneak around the do-not-enter tape blocking Reef Road beach is exposed by the steady tightening of the cincture encircling them. In a nod to the true crime that inspired it, Deborah Goodrich Royce’s Reef Road probes unhealed generational scars in a wrenching and original work of fiction.

Rosa Guerrero beat the odds as she rose to the top of the corporate world. An attractive woman of a certain age, the longtime chief of human resources at Ellery Consumer Research is still a formidable presence, even if her most vital days are behind her. A leader who wields power with grace and discretion, she has earned the devotion and loyalty of her staff. No one admires Rosa more than her doting lieutenant Leo Smalls, a benefits vice president whose whole world is Ellery.

For 17-year-old Flannery Fields, the only respite from the plaid-skirted mean girls at Sacred Heart High School is her beloved teacher Miss Sweeney's AP English class. But when Miss Sweeney doesn't show up to teach Flannery's favorite book, Wuthering Heights, leaving behind her purse, Flannery knows something is wrong.

It is the summer of 1921, and a group of Bolsheviks have taken over Irina and Lili Goliteva's ancestral home in Moscow, a stately mansion falling into disrepair and decay. The remaining members of their family are ordered to move into the cramped attic, while the officials take over an entire wing of grand rooms downstairs. The sisters understand it is the way of things and know they must forget their noble upbringing to make their way in this new Soviet Russia. But the house begins to whisper of a traumatic past not as dead as they thought.

The year is 1915 and the world is at war. Marta and her father are passengers on the Lusitania, desperately trying to get back home to Germany. While aboard, they must keep their identities hidden or risk being mistaken for enemy spies. Then the Lusitania is attacked by a German submarine. They just make it off the sinking ship, but her father is discovered and detained. Marta suddenly finds herself alone in enemy land. To survive, Marta must draw upon a deep well of bravery she never knew she had.

Jacob fears their time is running out. The full focus of Belldorn and Bollwerks tinkers is centered on the construction of the carriers. While Jacob is concentrating on overseeing the work, he worries for Alice who faces a dire challenge of her own. They need to launch an attack on Ballern, but their forces cannot cross the Crystal Sea without the new warships. To deploy their ground forces they must secure a base, requiring a strengthened alliance with the forest city of Karn.

Up-and-coming stage actress Margaret Shoard has just taken a bow as Lady Macbeth, the role she has always believed was destined for her. At home, she plays wife to her best friend Wesley, even if she doesn’t hold his sole attention romantically. After a public breakdown threatens all she holds dear, Margaret’s doctor prescribes her uppers—just a little help to get through the days.

It's not easy being a teenage witch. Seventh grader Abby Shepherd is just getting the hang of it when weird stuff starts happening all around her hometown of Willow Cove. Green slime bubbling to life in science class. Giant snakes slithering around the middle school gym. Her best friend suddenly keeping secrets and telling lies. Things only begin to make sense when a stranger named Miss Winters reveals that Abby isn't the only young witch in town—and that Willow Cove is home to a secret past that connects them all.

A year after the chilling death of her mentor, criminologist Harley Frasier is still rattled. Secretly she's suspected murder all along. Now the unveiling of the Amenmose exhibit is triggering a series of unexplained attacks, and there's only one man she can trust. FBI special agent Micah Fox is used to charging into dangerous territory to solve a case. Working with a civilian is new ground, especially when she's as irresistible as Harley. He can't say no to her sharp instincts and sexy smile. And with a threat closing in, there's no way in hell he'll leave her unprotected.

Even after a decade, Sarah Hampton is haunted by the night that nearly ended in a bloody massacre and destroyed her high school romance with handsome Tyler Grant. Now the horror has returned. It's a reckoning from the events of that terrifying night—and a love they never let go. Only this time Tyler must protect Sarah from the killer hiding in the darkness...or lose her forever.

Growing up in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the lean child of working-class Chicago transplants, Judy Grahn hungered to connect with the larger world, to create a place for herself beyond the deprivations and repressions of small-town 1950s life. Refusing the imperative to silence that was her inheritance as a woman and as a lesbian, Grahn found her way to poetry, to activism, and to the intoxicating beauty and power of openly loving other women.

Cabaret dancer Sylvie Devereux and Sheikh Arkim Al-Sahid have never seen eye to eye—not from their first antagonistic meeting to their last intoxicating kiss. And certainly not when she publicly stops his convenient society wedding to her beloved sister! Now Arkim wants revenge on the sinful seductress who cost him the respectable reputation he needs.

With the death of his wife still raw, Jack Connolly's mood is dark and dangerous. He's not looking for a woman, until he meets buttoned-up but beautiful Grace Spencer, who stirs his senses back to life. Yet Jack cannot act on his feelings, as Grace belongs to another! Trapped in a fake relationship to safeguard her family, Grace knows crossing the line with Jack would risk everything she holds dear. Beneath the hunger she sees in Jack's eyes is the promise of something more...but is it enough for her to surrender to a taste of the forbidden?

From young author Coco Ma comes a dazzling tale of adventure, power, and betrayal, weaving together a stunning world of magic with a killer cast in an explosive, unforgettable collection.

In the last 350-odd years, the international “scientific community” has come to be the bastion of consensus and concerted action, especially in the face of two global crises: disastrous climate change, and a deadly pandemic. How did “the scientific community” come into existence, and why does it work? Rivals is an attempt to answer these questions in the form of a brief historical overview, from the late seventeenth to the early twenty-first centuries.

Solveig and her shieldmaiden have finally made it to Waterstone, a fabled city hidden in a world of frost by ancient magic. Shrouded from the Enemy’s gaze, they are safe to rest and regroup—or so they think. Sol suspects their hosts are not as benevolent as they seem. Whispers race through the halls, hinting at self-serving agendas and secret plots. So, as Sol attempts to harness her awakened magic, she must fight for her voice to be heard or risk being used like a pawn in the greater game.

Life has gone according to plan for Anna—she stays in the background, letting her sister, Emily, shine in the spotlight. But on Emily’s wedding night, Anna learns that her sister is moving away, abandoning her—and all their shared dreams. Devastated, Anna leaves the reception in the middle of a raging storm, taking shelter in a hotel she’s never seen before: the Houdini. The Houdini is a hotel unlike any other, with sumptuous velvet couches, marble tiled floors, secret restaurants, winding passageways, and an undercurrent of magic in the air.

Two years have done little to ease veterinarian Audra Hughes' grief over her husband's untimely death. Eager for a fresh start, Audra plans to leave Portland for a new job in Philadelphia. Her seven-year-old son, Jack, seems apprehensive about flying - but it's just the beginning of an anxiety that grows to consume him. As Jack's fears continue to surface in recurring and violent nightmares, Audra hardly recognizes the introverted boy he has become.