Showing results by narrator "Cris Dukehart" in All Categories

Audrun, Davyn, and their four children have fled their war-scourged homeland, joining a karavan headed toward a haven of peace where diviners have said their fifth child - the one Audrun now carries - must be born. But now, desperate to reach safety before the child comes, they have chosen to break off from the karavan and take a dangerous route too near the sentient hell called Alisanos.

The scream Lena Riddle hears in the woods behind her house is enough to curdle her blood-she has no doubt that a woman is in real danger. Unfortunately, with no physical evidence, the local law officers in small-town Ash, Kentucky, dismiss her claim. But Lena knows what she heard-and it leaves her filled with fear and frustration. Ezra King is on leave from the state police, but he can't escape the guilty memories that haunt his dreams. When he sees Lena, he is immediately drawn to her.

Eve's Diary," is the comic tale of Eve, the first woman in the Judeo-Christian creation story. Written in diary form, Eve offers a first-person account of her relationship with Adam, life in Eden, and their experiences after the Fall. "Eve's Diary" is one of many in a series of stories that Twain wrote, all revolving around Adam and Eve. Proceeds from sale of this title go to Reach Out and Read, an innovative literacy advocacy organization.

In 11 beautifully wrought stories - ranging from occupied Czechoslovakia to California's Central Valley to the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest - Mark Slouka explores moments in life when our backs are to the wall. Alternately harrowing and redemptive, these are stories of ordinary men and women, doing everything possible to tighten their grip on life.

A year ago, Aimee Spencer's world imploded, and she has been running ever since. She doesn't want to feel. She doesn't want to remember. To bury the ghosts that haunt her, she is living a life that has become unrecognizable. Cole Everly has grown accustomed to girls throwing themselves at his feet, but when Aimee trips and literally lands in his lap one afternoon, she's not at all what he expects - difficult, damaged, and closed-off. If Cole needed to make a list of qualities to avoid in a girl, Aimee would probably match up with every single one of them.

Cat in an Alien X-Ray takes the Las Vegas gang on a science-fictional roller-coaster ride, as Midnight Louie, feline PI, and company encounter UFO enthusiasts, conspiracy nuts who are too bizarre even for tin foil hat therapy. An Area 51 attraction on the Strip threatens to bring more than starry-eyed enthusiasts to town. Once again it is up to that furballed PI Midnight Louie to keep his crew in line and save them from the attack of the creatures from the beyond...or common criminals that prey on the innocent.

When my college besties both ditch me for other living arrangements, I have no other choice but to accept an offer to share a room with Killian "Killer" Palmer. Sharing an attic space with the junior tight end for the Clearview Falls University football team is far from the ideal situation. We are opposites in every way possible. I'm a city girl and computer programmer with a penchant for cleaning. He's an outgoing farm boy who couldn't keep his room clean if his life depended on it.

Ileni is losing her magic. And that means she's losing everything: Her status as the renegade sorcerers' most powerful rising star. Her purpose in life. The boy she loves. Her home. Exiled to teach sorcery to the assassins hidden deep within the mountains, she expects no one will ever hear from her again. The last two tutors died within weeks of each other. As Ileni unravels the mystery surrounding their deaths, she'll uncover secrets that have been kept for decades...and she'll find an unexpected ally and dangerous new love.

In the lonely years following the death of her fiancé, Helen is unable to move on with her life. But life itself is moving on around her literally: The building of a dam is forcing her small town and her family home to relocate. But the construction project means more than the loss of a home. Helens brother, Robbie, who disappeared without a trace 15 years earlier, suddenly resurfaces. As he re-enters his sisters life, he reveals the secret of why he left in the first place: a secret that tore their family apart, and affected Helens life in more ways than she ever realized.

Whether breathlessly enthusiastic serenely calm, or really concentrating on their personal zombie issues, Crane's happy cast explore the complexities behind personal satisfaction. You Must Be This Happy to Enter exists in a world very much like our own but infused with more joy and magic. It's a place where the happy are jailed, the sincere cause confusion, and pop culture so seamlessly melds with real life that characters can walk right out of the television and come live with you.

No-nonsense jewelry designer Iris Fortune yearns for a normal life. But life as Vegas magician Cosmo Fortune's daughter is anything but normal, especially since dear old Dad is also a scam artist. When Cosmo's latest scheme goes awry and he pulls a real-life disappearing act, Iris is left holding the bag.

Emmett Hudson is just trying to play college football at Clearview Falls University while keeping all the balls from spinning his life apart. He thought he had everything under control until the coach threatened to bench him if he didn't get his grades up with the help of a tutor. Lucy Parker isn't into football players, except the one she's crushed on since high school. But he's the star quarterback and doesn't even know she exists.

Raised by her older sister in the small town of Blueberry Springs, all Beth Wilkinson wants is to create a family so big she’ll never be alone. Things are going great until her fiancé, Oz, rethinks everything from his own career to their nuptial plans—forcing Beth to do the same. As Beth works to rediscover herself in hopes of reattracting Oz, she catches the eye of the charming new city doctor, Nash. Not only does he see her as she’d like to be seen, but he knows exactly what he wants from life—and that includes Beth.

An everyday visit to the library becomes an unexpected adventure through the pages of classic children's book favorites! Like Goldilocks, Isabella searches for a book that is juuust right. Should she host a silly tea party in Wonderland with the Mad Hatter? Take a Technicolor trip through Oz with the Cowardly Lion? Or have a swashbuckling good time with the Lost Boys?

Seduced by Slim's stories of the privations of a cross-country trek that ended in the violence of an historic riot and tales of Depression-era work camps, Edie MacDonald has followed him from mine to mine, where he finds work and she cares for their son, Belly, in the thin shelter of canvas tents. Until now. Edie has left Slim behind, passed out in an unheated apartment on the coldest day of the year. Boarding a train with Belly, she travels westward. When the train struggles through a snowstorm and possible calamity, the lens shifts between Belly's perspective and Edie's.

At 17 Ileni lost her magical power and was exiled to the hidden caves of the assassins. She trained the assassins in magic - and fell in love with one of them. And she discovered her entire life had been built on a lie. After all of this, she wants to see the truth for herself. She infiltrates the Imperial Academy of Sorcery. She will see everything she despises about the corrupt empire - its thirst for power, merciless control, and careless violence.

Trained to be a courtesan for the vampire elite, Lucy Drake is finally free...and dying from the effects of being a blood slave. The vampire responsible continues to collect humans, discarding them at will. Vowing revenge, Lucy is determined to see him meet his end before she meets hers.

Abram and Juliette know each other. They've lived down the street from each other their whole lives. But they don't really know each other - at least not until Juliette's mom and Abram's dad have a torrid affair that culminates in a deadly car crash. Later, when they see each other, it's uncomfortable, to say the least. They don't speak.

In a city built on dreams, Trisha Holiday makes her living moving like one. But out of her dancer's costume, she's as down-to-earth as they come. That's why she ignores the admiring note - and the accompanying $1,000 bill - that arrives backstage after one of her ethereal performances. Yet the sender, a wealthy foreign prince, isn't easily dissuaded. Seven years living and studying in the United States have made Malik long for the freedom to choose his own bride - and the woman he wants is Trisha.

The Great Charleston Earthquake catapults Penrose Heatherton from the 1880s into the present day. Though she's still residing in Arundell Manor, it's a very different world - with a different man inhabiting the ancestral estate. And Keat Arundell is every bit as brooding and intriguing as his ancestor - her former lover - had been.