Showing results by narrator "Amy McFadden" in All Categories

It's been 12 years since ER nurse Frankie Stapleton fled the quiet banks of Stillwater, but with her sister's pregnancy taking a dangerous turn and a string of failed relationships in Chicago hanging over her, Frankie is back and hoping to put the past behind her. Within minutes of arriving at Stillwater General Hospital, however, she ends up saving a man's life, only to have him turn up dead hours later - and the hospital blames Frankie.

Decade of Change features insights and wisdom into how to manage, and make the most of, change. Vinton Cerf, co-creator of the Internet, peers into the Web's future. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman probes the nature of decision making. Lieutenant General Russel Honoré, the Hurricane Katrina hero, offers leadership lessons he applied in that crisis. Visionary executive Ray Anderson makes a powerful business case for environmental sustainability.

The previous Ansibles found themselves marooned, but Zahid, last survivor of Ansible 15718, commands an interstellar fleet, and Sahira, the psionic savant we meet in Ansible: Night Land and Ansible: Strike Force, will take the battle to the pneumavores, humanity's fiercest predators.

Navy SEAL Brody Hawke gets a letter from his father - who died when Brody was three. Not only is Giancarlo Hawke alive, he begs his son to come to California. He believes he's in grave danger and warns Brody to trust no one. Taped to the back of the letter is a photo of a man who's a dead ringer for Brody - the twin brother he never knew existed. Victoria Anderson thinks she's found an ideal partner in loyal, levelheaded vintner Elliott Hawke. But then his father dies under suspicious circumstances, and she meets the brother who was separated from Elliott.

For Patricia Curren, the summer of 1978 begins with a devastating discovery: an unfamiliar black pearl button in the bed she shares with her controlling husband, Jack. Seeking the courage to end her desolate marriage, Patricia spends a quiet summer alone on beautiful Kiawah Island. But when she meets Terry Sloan, a collegiate tennis player trying to go pro, their physical attraction sparks a slow burn toward obsession.

Blake Caster has been in an emotionally abusive relationship with Justin for so long, she can't tell what is normal anymore, and so she clings to the one thing that is solidly hers - her passion for extreme weather. Three years into her meteorology degree, Blake meets professional storm chaser Dash Lexington, who is as gorgeous as he is daring. Instantly recognizing her passion and skills in analyzing weather data, he makes a spot for her on his tight-knit storm chasing team.

Marked for sacrifice by her own father, a young woman flees to the hills, knowing her father may appear with his stone blade at any time to claim her - while the unburied dead of her people also hunt her in the low ravines. Guided by the memory of how her mother stood bravely against the dead, Jepthah's daughter begins her long flight in the dark.

Marooned in an alien body on an alien world. It is the 25th century. The planet's most ambitious project is Starmind, an Islamic research institute that transfers the minds of volunteers, called Ansibles, across gulfs of space and time to make first contact with other sentient beings in the universe. Each of the Ansible stories follows one team of brave minds across the void. These are their reports, their transcripts, the only accounts of what they have found.

It's 1864 in downtrodden Lowell, Massachusetts. The Civil War has taken its toll on the town - leaving the economy in ruin and its women in dire straits. That is, until Asa Mercer arrives on a peculiar, but providential, errand: he seeks high-minded women who can exert an elevating influence in Seattle, where there are ten men for every woman. Mail-order brides, yes, but of a certain caliber.

Liz McGinnis never imagined herself living in a luxurious gated community like The Palms. Ever since she and her family moved in, she's felt like an outsider amongst the Stepford-like wives and their obnoxiously spoiled children. Still, she's determined to make it work - if not for herself, then for her husband, Phil, who landed them this lavish home in the first place, and for her daughter, Danielle, who's about to enter high school.

Brimming with life and unforgettable voices, the stories in Austin Bunn's dazzling collection explore the existential question: what happens at the end, and what lies beyond it? In the wry but affecting "How to Win an Unwinnable War", a summer class on nuclear war for gifted teenagers turns a struggling family upside down. A young couple's idyllic beach honeymoon is interrupted by terrorism in the lush, haunting "Getting There and Away".

Can the misfortunes of one woman's ancestors give her the strength to fight for her freedom? When Alice inherits a wooden chest from her deceased mother, she suddenly finds herself swept away by the devastating stories contained within.

Debutante dropout Andrea Kendricks is beyond done with big hair, big gowns, and big egos - so being dragged to a high-society Texas wedding by her socialite mama, Cissy, gives her a bad case of déjà vu. As does running into her old prep-school bully, Olivia La Belle, the wedding planner, who's graduated to berating people for a living on her reality TV show. But for all the times Andy wished her dead, nobody deserves Olivia's fate: lying in a pool of blood, a cake knife in her throat - but did the angry baker do it?

Eva Hanover hits 40 years of age...and she has it all: a brilliant career, a gorgeous brownstone in Brooklyn, and a sexy husband. Or, at least, she thought. In the wink of an eye, Eva's husband leaves her. She loses the brownstone and throws away her career in a fit of pique. With only the clothes on her back, she flees New York for the sunnier climate of Key Largo.

Lillian is a 40-something mother whose life is miserable. Her husband hits her when he drinks and her grown daughter treats her as a servant. Realizing that she is wasting time on two people who just don't care, Lillian leaves her little family of self-indulgent narcissists in search of a more meaningful life.

Three years after a series of massive waves takes out New York City and apocalyptic weather continues to shrink US coastlines, Julian and Kate's daughter returns to their Midwestern home...what's left of it. They should be thrilled, but while Kate is happy to have her daughter home, Julian can't quite believe it's really her. Since their daughter worked in New York City at the time of the first disaster, it seems impossible for her to be alive.

In the wilds of Alaska, Assistant District Attorney Shyla Pierce is supposed to be dead, killed in the pursuit of justice. But in fact she is very much alive, quietly in hiding and slowly recovering from her near-fatal injuries.

Cynical single gal Larissa has been to too many weddings. Nonetheless, when her friend Malena asks her to be a bridesmaid, she's a good sport, despite the floor-length aqua satin nightmare she's made to wear.

When Faith Garrity's twin sister died, she lost a part of herself. Unable to move past the pain, the once-driven ornithologist is at risk of losing her career as well. To save her job, she heads to the oil-ravaged wetlands of Louisiana. There, in the bayou community of Chenoire, she encounters the handsome but guarded Zackary Préjean, still suffering from a great loss of his own.

Zelda Lane...her very name made the local gossips raise their eyebrows. She'd scandalized an entire town and filled upright Taylor Matthews with enough young love to burst all bounds of propriety. But that was long ago. Now a pillar of the community, Taylor privately rued the day he'd let Zelda go.