Showing results by narrator "Valerie Lohman" in All Categories

Aidan Thomas is a hardworking family man and a respected member of his community. He's also a kidnapper and serial killer who has murdered eight women. And there's a ninth, a woman he's renamed Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed where she fears for her life. When Aidan's wife dies, he and his thirteen-year-old daughter, Cecilia, are forced to move. Aidan brings Rachel along, introducing her to Cecilia as a family friend who needs a place to stay. After five years of captivity, surely Rachel is too brainwashed to attempt to escape.

Alice Lawrence is the sole witness in her sister’s murder trial. And in the year since Claire’s death, Alice’s life has completely fallen apart. Her parents have gotten divorced, she’s moved into an apartment that smells like bologna, and she is being forced to face her sister’s killer and a courtroom full of people who doubt what she saw in the corn maze a year prior.

Juliette doesn't hate Priya Pendley. At least, not in the way teen movies say she should hate the hot popular girl. They don't do cat fights, love triangles, or betrayal. To survive their intertwined small town lives, they’ve agreed to a truce. They complete group projects without fighting, never gossip to mutual friends, and stand on opposite sides of photos so it’s easy to crop each other out. Priya seems to have everything during the school year—social media stardom, the handsome track captain boyfriend, and millions of adoring fans—and Juliette is at peace with that.

The year is 1522 and King Henry VIII has been married to Queen Catherine of Aragon for thirteen years. But they have no son. Then Anne Boleyn arrives at the royal court from France accompanied by her maid Margery Hallows. Her remarkable gifts make her the most desirable lady at court. And her extraordinary dresses make her the mirror of fashion. “The Tudor Maid” tells the story of the fascinating woman who captured the heart of a king through the eyes of her seamstress.

Enora Byrnes lives in the aftermath - a barren world where water has become the global currency. In a life dominated by duty to family and community, Enora is offered a role within an entity that controls everything, from water credits to borders. But it becomes clear that not all is as it seems. From the wasted confines of her small town to the bowels of a hidden city, Enora will uncover buried secrets that hide an unthinkable reality.

1926, Hyde Park, New York. Born to modest means but befriended by the wealthy, aspiring dress designer Pandora Carmichael has been surrounded by privilege yet never at home in it. That hasn’t stopped her from dreaming—of a romance in a rarified world that could also give her the status and resources to start a business of her own. When she’s introduced to a charismatic Princeton student, Pandora’s future begins to fall into place.

Living in a kingdom surrounded by ocean and filled with waterways, I'm supposed to love the sea creatures Atlantice is famous for. What the people don't know is that I'm a proud member of the Anti Mermaid League. My mission in life is to rid the kingdom's waters of the Merfolk that inhabit them. Or at least it was, until I met one of them....

Seventeen-year-old Avril doesn’t believe in ghosts, but she knows there are lots of different ways for places and people to be haunted. Twelve years ago, her mother drowned at Whisper Cove. Local legend claims that the women in the waves—the ghosts from an old whaling village—called her mother into the ocean with their whispering. Because, as they say at Whisper Cove, what the sea wants, the sea will have. She has spent the past twelve years trying to make sense of the strange bits and pieces she does remember from the night she lost her mother.

A ravishing young mind reader stalks the streets at night in kitten heels, prowling for men to murder. A soft-spoken genius toils away in the city morgue, desperate to unearth the science behind his gift for shape-shifting. It’s a match made in 1928 Chicago, where gangsters run City Hall, jazz fills the air, and every good girl’s purse conceals a flask.

Seventh-grader Viv never looks forward to picture day. It’s just another day where she wears a boring braid and no one notices her. (Her two best friends, Milo and Al, don’t count, of course.) But enough is enough. This year, she’s taking matters into her own hands. Literally. Viv grabs a pair of scissors, her phone for live-streaming, and, well, bye-bye braid. Suddenly Viv is an over-night influencer at Brinkley Middle School. Everyone wants her help planning their next big moment—from haircuts, to dance proposals, activist rallies and mathlete championships.

Shannon Carter never considered herself much of a theater person. Not like her two BFFs, Elise, an actress, and Fatima, a techie. Shannon’s always been content to stay backstage, helping wherever she can. But when the director of the summer musical hears Shannon singing, he encourages her to step out of the wings and into the spotlight. At first, Shannon is hesitant. She needs routine. But when she braves the audition, she discovers that center stage is the one place where she doesn’t feel anxious. She lands a lead role, and everyone in her life is ecstatic . . . except Elise.

In the room beneath a stage's trapdoor, Shakespeare’s dead teenage girls compare their experiences and retell the stories of their lives, their loves, and their fates in their own words. Bestselling author Joy McCullough offers a brilliant testament to how young women can support each other and reclaim their stories in the aftermath of trauma.

It has been three years since Elvira "Ellie" Ryder was betrayed by her ex-boyfriend Cor, which caused the destruction of her people by invaders from a different Zone. Now she will do anything to find him and make him pay.

A famous 18-year-old fiddle player, Beau, is abducted from her parents’ huge Sierra home at a birthday folk jam in her honor one summer in the early part of the 21st century. As a fire burns up the mountain while she is buried on the land under a pile of brush, she is found just in time. A month later, much to her horror, she is abducted again, this time from a Berkeley music jam.

As the Evers Series reaches its climax, Lola and Devlin uncover more about their peculiar heritage and ancestors and spend some time with the high elves on Summerset Isle - a world that no longer adheres to the constrictive notions of time and space. Between kidnappings, break-ins, the loss of her parents, and newfound magical abilities, will Lola find the happy ending she deserves?

When she returned from the Summer Program at The Academy, Lola thought the rest of her summer would be filled with family trips to the beach, lounging by the pool, and getting to know her new brother. Instead, life at the Evers Mansion is even more complicated than it was before with the appearance of new magical artifacts for Time Travel and World Jumping - which have caught the interest of some unsavory players....

In a country defined by scarcity and control, Enora Byrnes leaves the watchful eyes and secret agendas of the powerful and enters a society living on the fringes. Life beneath the surface brings her face-to-face with a world struggling to survive. Armed with knowledge and honed into a weapon for the resistance, she fights alongside those whom society deems rebels and uses her skills to steal a secret kept hidden from humanity.

Just when Lola Evers was settling into her new life in Virginia, making summer plans with her aunt and her new beau Jackson, she receives a letter summoning her to a two-week summer program at...wait for it... a magic school! It seems the magic traveling key she inherited comes with a catch: mandatory attendance at the Academy.

What happened after the happily ever after? You all know the story of your favorite fairytale, but did you ever wonder what happened after the fairytale ending? Well we know. Not all afters end up happily, sometimes the real adventure starts much later...With the queen's curse returning, the Anti-Mermaid League are on the warpath and the merfolk aren't helping matters with their jealousy over my relationship with Fish. I'd never thought that enemies could turn to lovers, but my feelings towards my sworn enemy are deepening and I'm not the only one to notice.

Fifteen-year-old Lola just said goodbye to life as a loner. One minute she’s living with her mom in Baltimore and hanging out with her best friend Jane and the next she’s receiving the keys to a southern mansion, boatloads of money, and an ancient family secret. She has no idea how she’s going to cope with a long-lost dad, an eccentric aunt, and a drop-dead gorgeous boy that keeps popping up everywhere she turns. Not to mention the magical book and the skeleton key that just appeared out of nowhere....