Showing results by narrator "Emily Durante" in All Categories

It's time for Blue Plum's annual historical festival, and everyone-including Kath and her spunky fiber and needlework group, TGIF-is getting in on the action. Expert spinners are being gathered, and a businessman has approached Kath about using the second-floor windows of her store for part of a reenactment. But the reenactment ends in real-life bloodshed when local baker Reva Louise Snapp is shot-with a bullet from a modern-day gun.

Struggling photographer Ivy Culpepper has lots of soul-searching to do since returning to seaside Santa Sofia, California - that is, until the 36-year-old enters a bread-making class at Yeast of Eden, the Mexican bread shop in town. Whether it’s the aroma of fresh conchas in the oven or her instant connection with owner Olaya Solis, Ivy just knows the missing ingredients in her life are hidden among the secrets of Olaya’s bakery.

Miramont Castle, built in 1897 and mysteriously abandoned three years later, is home to many secrets. Only one person knows the truth: Adrienne Beauvier, granddaughter of the Comte de Challembelles and cousin to the man who built the castle. Clairvoyant from the time she could talk, Adrienne's visions show her the secrets of those around her.

Magic itself has been poisoned, and Allie Beckstrom's undead father may have left the only cure in the hands of a madman. Hunted by the Authority - the secret council who enforces the laws - wanted by the police, and unable to use magic, she's got to find the cure before the sickness spreads beyond any power to stop it.

The Morgan sisters spent many blissful summers at their family’s lake house growing up, but as they grew older, their lives took very different paths. Hope adores her twin girls, but she doesn’t love being a stay-at-home mom. When her workaholic husband doesn’t support her career aspirations, she packs up the kids and goes to Sunset Cottage, thinking that some time apart will help her decide what she really wants. But when the life she dreamed of becomes a possibility, she is more torn than ever.

Framed for her foster brother’s murder, FBI special agent Wren Santino must clear her name - but someone’s dead set on stopping her from finding the truth. Her estranged childhood friend, Titus Anderson, comes to her aid…but standing by her puts him in the killer’s crosshairs, too. Now unraveling a conspiracy may be the only way for either of them to survive.

How to Be an American Housewife is a novel about mothers and daughters and the pull of tradition. It tells the story of Shoko, a Japanese woman who married an American GI, and her grown daughter, Sue, a divorced mother whose life as an American housewife hasn't been what she'd expected. When illness prevents Shoko from traveling to Japan, she asks Sue to go in her place. The trip reveals family secrets that change their lives in dramatic and unforeseen ways.

With Portland about to descend into chaos, Allie Beckstrom needs to find a way to purify the wells of tainted magic beneath the city. But the only options left to her are grim: attempt to close down magic forever or follow her father's plan to set magic into the right hands - even though she's learned to never trust his word. Now Allie will have to make a choice and face the darkness of her own deepest fears before time runs out for them all....

What do the Minotaur, Rasputin, the first man hung for murder in America, and the Countess of Blood all have in common? No, they aren't related. They all appeared on the Bombay Family's Hit List! In this collection of Bombay Bedtime Stories, you'll find out what Bombays did before Gin Bombay came along. From pet dodo birds to Ancient Greece and twentieth century Russia, get the stories Bombay children have been told for thousands of years. Stories that have been shrouded in blood - sworn to secrecy . . . until now!

So I’m a seer. A Cognizant under the Mandate. Life should be easy now, right? Wrong. With all the “accidents” that keep befalling me, I’ll be lucky to survive the week. That is, if my crazy boss doesn’t work me to death first....

It's not every day that you get to move to New York City and reinvent yourself. I was tired of being boring, predictable Emma Mills. I was convinced that my life would be totally different in the Big Apple. And I was right. Jackson Reynard was irresistible and I had no plans on resisting him. Jackson was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome and I was more than happy to let him sweep me off my feet. I expected a summer fling but instead I got a heart-stopping romance. I realized that I had met the love of my life. I just didn't realize that sometimes love isn't enough.

Photographer Ivy Culpepper is soon to make a home with her husband-to-be in the California beach town of Santa Sofia—but the Yeast of Eden bakery remains her second home. A regular who used Yeast of Eden as a workspace, Josh Prentiss always turned heads with his startlingly good looks and thousand-watt smile. But Ivy can’t help noticing one morning that he seems off his game. Later, during a visit to the park where she and Miguel plan to hold their engagement party—with plenty of baked goods on the menu—her pug Agatha sniffs out Josh lying in a bed of poppies…scone cold dead.

The last place widowed single mother Tamara Briggs wanted to find a man was at the racetrack. Been there, done that. But rookie driver Elec Monroe sure does get her heart racing.

The sound of the gavel crashing down has my life flashing before my eyes. Learning to play ball. Falling in love, marrying an incredible woman, and starting a family. Becoming a starting pitcher for the Indianapolis Lightning. Everything I ever wanted . . . Until I struck out. The same success that gave me the life I dreamed of, took it all away. I'd do anything for a second chance, even throw the perfect pitch.

For once, Ivy Culpepper feels fulfilled. An apprenticeship at Yeast of Eden has opened her world to time-honored baking techniques under owner Olaya Solis’s guidance - as well as the freshest small-town gossip, courtesy of chatty regulars known as the Blackbird Ladies. Ivy even begins accepting that she and restaurateur Miguel Baptista may never again rekindle their romance - despite the undeniable tension between them. But she’s tied to Miguel again when his trusted produce supplier goes missing.

A holiday costume party in the sleepy coastal town of Santa Sofia could be just the boost Ivy needs for her fledgling photography business. At the party, Ivy enters a Victorian fantasy come to life, all courtesy of the fabulous Ms. Eliza Fox. Ivy gets to play shutterbug while hanging with Scrooge, Marley, the Cratchits, and other classic Dickens characters.

Linda Olson and her husband, Dave Hodgens, were young doctors whose story had all the makings of a fairy tale. But then, while they were vacationing in Germany, a train hit their van, shattering their lives - and Linda's body. Inspiring and deeply moving, Gone asks listeners to find not only courage, but also laughter in the unexpected challenges we all face. The day of the accident, no one envied Linda and Dave. Today, many do.

When professional home stager Laura Bishop enters a competition to become the next TV home staging star, she figures it will be murder - but she doesn't expect it to include a body. As tensions rise and rivalries rage, a coded notebook flips the script, and Laura's on the case.

Adult children of narcissists have been conditioned to downplay, dismiss, and ignore their experiences. This survival skill of staying below the radar can cause even very skilled clinicians to miss subtle opportunities to connect. It is paramount that clinicians understand the scope of these clients' experiences in order to support their healing—and to avoid the common clinical mistakes and pitfalls that often lead to inadvertently repeating harmful cycles.

After a small-town southern girl turned New Yorker watches her American Dream implode, she musters the courage to begin again - resurrecting the powerful woman her daughters had glimpsed during their family's darkest times. A raw and riveting memoir, Disassembly Required invites listeners along, moment by gut-wrenching moment, on one woman's journey from betrayal and devastation to resilience and recovery.