Showing results by narrator "Eric Dove" in All Categories

crushing on him all over the world, this woman does not trust him and wants nothing to do with him, seeking to escape every time his back is turned. Elena Navarro is running from an abusive husband with criminal ties. Terrified to trust anyone, she finds Josh's tender care a miracle, but his fame could be a death sentence for them both.

Clarice Sutton, daughter of privilege, was raised to lead society, but that life feels empty, and she's taken a job her parents abhor: police department psychologist. Santino "Saint" Valdez—hardnosed detective who is anything but saintly—is under investigation by Internal Affairs for killing a predator who richly deserved it. Now he's supposed to spill his guts to Miss Prim and Prissy? No way—not ever.

Yet the powerful attraction both feel from their first meeting complicates both their lives, and time spent together only makes their improbable bond grow.

Empire builder Dominic Santorini is surrounded by women angling to share the luxurious life his wealth will buy. Eccentric, colorful tomboy Lexie Grayson encounters a hot guy in a hotter classic car broken down on the side of the road, and an afternoon as his mechanic leads to a scorching night with a man she knows only as Nikos—but when dawn arrives, he’s vanished, never to be seen again. She buries her heartache in her new job, staging a launch for a video game that will give her a chance to snoop around for clues that the company is responsible for stealing from her best friend.

Jeanette Carson has been a fixture as a waitress in Ruby’s Cafe ever since high school. Walker Roundtree is country music’s brightest star, known by all for his laid-back charm and irresistible appeal to the opposite sex. Ever since his first visit to Sweetgrass Springs, there have been verbal fireworks between him and Jeanette as she proved to be the only woman immune to his charm. Now their paths have crossed in the outside world, and they’re seeing each other in a new light. Fireworks of a very different sort are sparking the sky—but then Walker’s world is upended by a tragedy.

It’s the first Christmas in Sweetgrass Springs, Texas for several newcomers who have found a real home for the first time—or found home again. As Jackson Gallagher works to save his hometown from withering away by relocating his business empire there, the only gift he really wants is to marry the teenage sweetheart he thought he’d lost forever—but Veronica Patton Butler has other hearts to care for, however much she loves Jackson. Bridger Calhoun is more than ready to make Penelope Gallagher his bride, but however much she adores him, Shark Girl is dragging her heels on tying the knot.

The apocalypse happened, but no one knows how. All that’s left are a smattering of bizarro cities called remnants, each ruled by a grotesque potentate known as an Odd. If you wind up in hock to the Odds, they ship you to a chain-gang that stretches thousands of miles across desert, steppe, and tundra. A good-hearted drifter named Eldridge is a longtime member of the Chain.

The apocalypse happened, but no one knows how. What’s left is a barren world ruled by a high-powered caste of bookies, The Odds. Scurrying around underneath is our hero, Eldridge - a big-hearted, bumbling drifter with an estranged family he loves dearly. He’s deep in debt and deathly sick, so he places a bet predicting the day he’ll die. If he wins, he can go to his grave knowing that his family will be safe, but when he returns to his hometown to collect, he gets some bad news: He’s going to live. So it’s on to plan B.

Peter, a disgraced meteorologist and chronic wanderer, has traveled the country for years in his Winnebago, in search of the only thing that gives his life meaning. He's just arrived in the middle of nowhere-Hokie, Kansas-for the same purpose, but when he meets a waitress named Melanie, another sufferer, he's faced not only with his first real human contact in years, but perhaps someone who can save him.

Tredup, a shabby reporter working for the Pomeranian Chronicle, leads a precarious existence... until he takes some photographs that offer him a chance to make a fortune. While Tredup contemplates his next move, the town is buzzing. Farmers are plotting their revenge against greedy officials, a mysterious traveling salesman is stirring up trouble, and all the while, the Nazi party grows stronger as the Communists fight them in the street.

Tragic events unfold in a snowy, sleepy Colorado town. From the first scene, in which a man sits alone in the cold, watching a father and son in a diner, you know something is about to go horribly wrong.

The Vietnam draft is removing the staff of a rural Wisconsin bar one by one. Dishboys, bouncers, and a bartender named Roger are the latest to get induction notices, each showing a proud face while secretly terrified to face the medical examiners who will determine their fate. When help comes from an unexpected place, new problems arise. Shortlisted for Best American Short Stories 2015, Larson's intimate psychological portrait of fear takes the familiar and turns it into something utterly original.

In Eoriel, the High Kings are legend: rulers who once stood against the darkness and ruled the world for two thousand turns of peace and prosperity. In the long turns since their fall during the Sundering, Eoriel's civilization has faded. Dark men and darker beings have torn down and destroyed the old works. While some have held out against the grind of history, other places have been reduced to primitive tribes of savages, worshiping dark spirits and demons as their gods.

A luxurious vacation cruise to the exotic locales of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden turns into a nightmare for passengers and crew when their ship is suddenly attacked and captured by a band of bloodthirsty Somali pirates. An initial rescue mission ends in failure, and the decks are covered in blood. Unless they are paid a ransom of $200 million within seven days, the pirates threaten to execute all their hostages. But information gleaned from a captured Al Qaeda operative indicates that there is a far more dangerous conspiracy afoot.

All the girl known as Brenda Jones has ever wanted is a home and family, but she's on the run from her past. She works hard and stays to herself, save only for her budding friendship with the equally shy Henry Jansen. Henry wants more than a simple friendship, but he’s convinced she’s too young, too innocent, too sweet. Brenda has a crush on Henry, as well, but she’s underage and terrified of being put back in foster care, where she’s spent most of her life since her mother abandoned her at age eight.

At his friend's wedding, Paul Gilbert meets Holly Foster. After one foolish night with her, he finds out that Holly is a professional escort. He is repulsed. However, when pressure from his wealthy family to find an appropriate wife mounts, he enlists Holly's help. But has he taken on something he can't handle?

For years, Trent Turner has worked in the shadows using his vigilance and determination to covertly defend his country. His anonymous days dispatching of the world's dark realities are interrupted when the unthinkable happens and sends him on a path that could destroy him. He finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy where political and financial powers collide when members of a hacktivist group are strong-armed into helping a sworn enemy of the United States rise to power once again.

Venice, Italy - early 1800s: Viola has been given three months to live but she refuses to die a virgin. She travels to Venice where she wants to experience physical pleasure with a man without causing a scandal for her family. Afterward, she plans to take her own life to ensure she exits the world painlessly and with dignity. Unfortunately, the man she meets in a disreputable club couldn't be a worse choice for her plans. Dante, a hedonistic vampire, saves Viola from a violent rake.

Venice, early 1800s. Isabella Tenderini, a wealthy merchant's widow, rescues a stranger from drowning in one of Venice's canals. And how does the man repay her selfless act? By kissing her - her, a respectable woman. Not only is Raphael di Santori grateful for his life being saved, he would also like to thank his rescuer very intimately - more intimately than decorum allows. But then, Raphael has never been one to play by the rules - as a vampire he doesn't have to.

After being cleared of his wife’s murder, Todd Norman returns to her small Connecticut hometown in order to finish building their dream house by the lake. He is eager to restart his life and cast aside any remaining suspicions, but all of that is dashed when a young woman’s body washes up on the beach next door. The Lakehouse is a domestic psychological thriller about the wayward and marginalized, the lies we tell those closest to us, and the price of forbidden love in an insular community, where it seems everyone has a story to tell.

Blind music teacher Emily Warner regains her eyesight through a transplant. But her newfound vision catapults her into danger. As she begins to investigate the strange things she sees, she realizes the visions she has belong to her cornea donor - and that her donor’s death was no accident. When she decides to prove that her donor was murdered, she draws the attention of the killer onto herself. But no matter the danger she’s putting herself in, she has to expose him, before another young girl dies, and before Emily becomes his next victim.