Showing results by narrator "Michael Holland" in All Categories

In Invisible Strings, poet, professor, and dedicated Swiftie Kristie Frederick Daugherty has brought together 113 contemporary poets, each contributing an original poem that responds to a specific Taylor Swift song.

It's Christmastime in Boston, and this year the silver bells will be wedding bells as FBI agent Jules Cassidy ties the knot with the man of his dreams, Hollywood heartthrob Robin Chadwick.

Rafael owns my heart. He stole it with the first clumsy bump in a Parisian bookstore, and I never asked him to return it. He gifted me a night to remember, a night that shaped the person I would become. And then, I lost him. I lost every trace that could have helped me find him. Until fate meddled again and put Rafael and me on the same cross-European train through the Alps.

Gay bars have been closing by the hundreds. The story goes that increasing mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, plus dating apps, have rendered these spaces obsolete. Beyond that, rampant gentrification in big cities has pushed gay bars out of the neighborhoods they helped make hip. Who Needs Gay Bars? considers these narratives, accepting that the answer for some might be: maybe nobody. Greggor Mattson embarks on a journey across the country to paint a much more complex picture of the cultural significance of these spaces, inside "big four" gay cities, but also beyond them.

This trip to Greece was supposed to be simple—play the part of the perfect boyfriend, soak up the sun, and help my best friend's billionaire boss survive his family's relentless questions. I thought he would only be my ticket out of New York and away from the man whose dangerous secrets I stole. But nothing about Percy Davenport is simple. He's a genius with a yacht and a private jet but can't handle turbulence or, apparently, telling his mother no.

Greg Abimbola is a language teacher at the prestigious Calderhill Academy in Pittsburgh. Only that's not his real name or the only secret he's hiding. Greg has a closetful. When the murder of a wealthy parent on school premises shines an unwanted spotlight on Calderhill Academy, Greg is determined to avoid attention—that is until the closest person to a true friend he has is arrested for the murder. To prove her innocence, Greg will reluctantly emerge from the shadows. But doing so will put him in danger. His past is determined to find him, and his past is full of bad things.

Finding love wasn't in my playbook - especially not with Sadie Benson. As an offensive coordinator for the Nashville Fury, I'm on the fast track to becoming the youngest head coach in professional football history. Until a feisty sports reporter with big brown eyes, a seductive smile, and the most irresistible curves I’ve ever seen shows up in the locker room. Given my job, she’s completely off-limits - but I can’t stay away from her, no matter how hard I try. If our relationship becomes public, it could ruin everything we’ve spent our professional lives working for.

A team of Oxford-educated Islamic finance gurus deliver a one-of-a-kind investing roadmap for Muslims who want to watch their savings grow while abiding by Islamic law. You'll learn to distinguish between halal and haram investment products, get key strategies for saving on your taxes, learn to build a variety of portfolios, and more.

A dark and gritty trip into the imagination of one of science fiction's most gifted authors, this collection presents all nine tales of the Budayeen gathered together in one must-listen volume. Here is the Budayeen: a gritty fusion of Bogart's Casablanca, New Orleans' notoriously seedy French Quarter, and a futuristic Muslim city, all welded together and serving as the perfect backdrop for Marid, a drug-addled policeman and anti-hero of world-class proportion. T

After spending the year suffering as a reality TV villain IRL, Alec Braud will do anything to get his redemption arc. Alec Braud may have won his season of the hit teen reality TV show Campfire Wars, but he’s lost the war of public opinion. At seventeen, he’s the most hated teen in America just because he betrayed his showmance, Joaquín Delgado. Alec only did it to use the cash prize to help his parents’ wildlife rehabilitation center. And Joaquín forgave him―so why can’t everybody else?

The official story is that the United States has no political prisoners. The reality is that there are hundreds of people rounded up, placed behind bars, and kept there for inordinately long sentences because of their political beliefs and activities. A project of abolitionist Josh Davidson and political prisoner Eric King, this book is filled with the experience and wisdom of over thirty current and former North American political prisoners.

Peter Thorne has a secret—he can bring the dead back to life. When Peter’s mother died, she passed him the touch of life and made him promise to use his abilities wisely. Unable to bring her back and afraid of being caught or causing too much imbalance in the world, Peter vowed to use his gift only on plants. After all, with people, sometimes dead is better.

Summer, 1989. It is a time for splashing in the lake and exploring the wilderness, for nine teenagers to bond together and create friendships that could last the rest of their lives. But among this group there is a young man with a secret—a secret that, in this time and place, is unthinkable to his peers. When the others discover the truth, it will change each of them forever. They will all have blood on their hands. Odd Man Out is a heart-wrenching tale of bullies and bigotry, a story that explores what happens when good people don't stand up for what's right.

Intersexion is a life-giving true story about choosing between social acceptance or health, fear or authenticity. Cynthia, an adjunct professor with a trunk full of ungraded papers and snack wrappers, has been an LGBTQIA+ ally for years—in convenient ways. She enjoys the company of her queer friends—but her support isn’t risky; it hasn’t cost her anything. Until she meets Danny.

Sir Augustus Wall, antiquities dealer and amateur sleuth, knows there's more to the crime than it seems. With little to go on but an exotic murder weapon, a map of a desert oasis, and some gilded Greek mummies, he sets out across the Sahara with his assistant Moustafa Ghani and the street urchin Faisal, who is the only person to have seen the killer's face. They soon find themselves in the midst of international intrigue on Egypt's remote border with Libya.

When life has taught you to hide, can you ever spread your wings in the light? Writing songs has always been the way that Beatrice Cipriani processes the world around her, but as a painful introvert, none of those songs are ever performed. She excels at being invisible—she’s the best server in a fancy restaurant. Sometimes, though, it feels like she’s dying a little more with every passing day. Easton Moorland has finally made it big, but with a public company comes a board that has demands. As the chairman of a luxury brand, all eyes are on him, and they want him to look the part.

I'm a hybrid from an unknown planet and a pleasure female up for auction. He's a Lemoran clan chief, among the wealthiest in all the quadrants. With horns that shoot to the ceiling, the male shaped like a mountain is not one of the bidders supposed to purchase me. But he's here and he doesn't seem to want to leave.

After nightmares begin in the small town of Custer Falls, Montana, in 1992, it’ll be thirty years before they end. Just outside of Custer Falls, something is sleeping. Life in the small town was never ideal, but it was safe, quiet, and predictable. After Wes Henson and his friends’ field trip to Bloodtooth Caverns, all of that changes. All they did was stray off the path.

Sir Augustus Wall came to Egypt to escape his old life, but when a comrade from the trenches is found murdered in a Cairo hotel, Augustus realizes his past has finally caught up. Now he must discover the reason for the baffling murder, leading him and his friends Moustafa and Faisal on a dangerous hunt for the most sought-after treasure in Egypt.

Moustafa Ghani El Souwaim has come far in life. Raised illiterate in a remote village in the Soudan, he set out at sixteen to better himself. His journey took him to the great archaeological sites of Africa, where he became a leading researcher versed in several ancient and modern languages. His life took an even stranger turn when he teamed up with Sir Augustus Wall and his street boy sidekick Faisal to solve murders.