Showing results by narrator "Suzanne Elise Freeman" in All Categories

It's August 2011, and Tropical Storm Irene has just wreaked havoc on Vermont, flooding rivers and destroying homes. One thousand miles away - while tending bar in New Orleans - Vale receives a call and is told that her mother, Bonnie, has disappeared. Despite a years-long estrangement from Bonnie, Vale drops everything and returns home to look for her. Though the hometown Vale comes back to is not the one she left eight years earlier, she finds herself falling back into the lives of the family she thought she'd long since left behind.

The right reasons to fall in love with The Bachelor When it debuted in 2002, The Bachelor raised the stakes of first-wave reality television, offering the ultimate prize: true love. Since then, thrice yearly, dozens of camera-ready young-and-eligibles have vied for affection (and roses) in front of a devoted audience of millions. In this funny, insightful examination of the world’s favorite romance-factory, Suzannah Showler explores the contradictions that are key to the franchise’s genius, longevity, and power and parses what this means for both modern love and modern America.

Poppy Sinclair kept her feelings for Isaiah Grayson secret for a decade. When her infuriatingly gorgeous Stetson-wearing boss enlists her help in finding him a convenient wife, she threatens to quit. Until Isaiah counters with an interesting proposal: Why doesn’t she marry him? Can she say yes to sharing his life and his bed, but not his heart?

Earth, not so very long from now: the silent, inscrutable alien visitors who bathed the planet in transforming rains have moved on, leaving behind a world much changed. Penn Roma, age sixteen, is blessed - or cursed - with supernatural talents she has always concealed. Her sisters, likewise afflicted, are prisoners of the Commission, the government agency tasked with controlling these strange children. Penn's determination to save them only gains urgency when she learns of the horrifying plans the twisted Warden Dodge has for the peculiar charges.

In You Will Never Be Forgotten, Mary South explores how technology can both collapse our relationships from within and provide opportunities for genuine connection. Formally inventive, darkly absurdist, savagely critical of the increasingly fraught cultural climates we inhabit, these 10 stories also find hope in fleeting interactions and moments of tenderness. They reveal our grotesque selfishness and our intense need for love and acceptance, and the psychic pain that either shuts us off or allows us to discover our deepest reaches of empathy.

With Halloween just a week away, tea-shop proprietor Kylie Strange doesn't have much in the way of holiday spirit. She's just learned that the last day of October also heightens the power of magic - which means the potential for a tidal wave of evil creatures to emerge from that supernatural Booke of the Hidden. Destroying the ancient Booke once and for all is the ultimate solution. But the only way to accomplish this task involves a journey to the Netherworld and the help of the only being powerful enough to destroy the Booke: Satan himself.

When Alberta Scaglione and her black cat, Lola, stumble across a tree house hidden in the trees and a dead body underneath it, they take a detour from their morning jog into solving a murder. Now, the Ferrara ladies will have to exercise extreme caution to avoid a permanent decline in their health....

Addison should be ecstatically happy, she’s about to marry a wonderful man. But something is wrong—she doesn’t know who she really is. A year ago, she was found bleeding on the side of the road, unable to remember how she got there. Or her own name. Or if she has a family.

Cowboy Caleb Dalton has loved single mom Ellie Bell, and her little daughter, Amelia, for years. But since Ellie is his best friend’s widow, Caleb’s head knows Ellie will always be strictly off-limits. If only his heart got the memo. So when Caleb discovers that Ellie has a Christmas wish list - and hopes for a kiss under the mistletoe - he's throwing his cowboy hat into the ring. If anyone’s going to be kissing Ellie and sharing this magical time with her and her daughter, it’s him.

On the surface Sloane has the perfect life - an adoring husband, a precocious daughter, and enough financial security to be a stay-at-home mom. Still, she can't help but feel as though something - or someone - is missing.

Finally, Brienna is a mistress of knowledge and is settling into her role as the daughter of Davin MacQuinn, a disgraced lord who returned to Maevana to reclaim his house. Though she’s just survived a revolution, one that will finally return a queen to the throne, she faces another difficult challenge. She must prove herself trustworthy to the MacQuinns. But as Queen Isolde Kavanagh’s closest confidante, she’ll have to balance serving her father’s house as well as her country. And then there’s Cartier Evariste, a wholly separate factor in her new life.

For five years, Levi Tucker had no control over his life, locked up for a crime he didn’t commit. Never again would any woman - any desire - overtake this cowboy’s common sense. Now, Faith Grayson, the sexy, brilliant architect he’s hired to design his grand new house, is sorely testing his resolve. Faith is too young. Too innocent. Maybe just too tempting.

1947. Fires are racing along the coast of Maine after a summer-long drought, ravaging thousands of acres, causing unprecedented confusion and fear. Five months pregnant, Grace Holland is left alone to protect her two toddlers when her difficult and unpredictable husband, Gene, joins the volunteers fighting to bring the fire under control. Along with her best friend, Rosie, and Rosie's two young children, the women watch in horror as their houses go up in flames, then walk into the ocean as a last resort.

Raven can breathe life into you, or siphon the life from you - the choice is yours. They say your life flashes before your eyes when you die. But what you didn't know - your last thoughts determine whether Raven becomes your grim reaper or your saving grace. Death has a sinister plan, but his favorite female reaper has been given a new power that will combat his secret mission. The only issue - she hasn't discovered it yet. Will Raven put the pieces together in time, or will Purgatory be destroyed forever?

This novel-length story collection includes Melissa Marr's 2019 and 2020 short fiction (all previously published in magazines, anthology, or ebook), including the new Wicked Lovely Stories "Love Hurts", "Summer Bound", and "Winter Dreams", as well as "Nameless", "Changing Guards", "The Devil's Due", and "Knee Deep in the Sea" and "Of Roses and Kings."

When magical mermaid Sereia saves her little sister and overshadows brother and the sea’s rightful heir, Triton, the position of next ruler of the sea is in question. Determined to keep his throne, Triton curses Sereia, transforming her into a human and stripping her of magic. Banishing her from their underwater kingdom, he gives her a final warning: if you should ever return, you will become a monster. Left for dead, Sereia washes up on the shores of Atlantis, where she is discovered by a kind merchant with a tragic past.

Danielle Kelly is perfect for Joshua Grayson’s scheme. He’ll pretend he’s marrying Danielle to keep his father from meddling. He won’t be tempted to touch her, to claim her…or to fall in love!

From an acclaimed and original writer comes a new collection of stories bursting with absurdist plot twists and laced with trenchant wit. The title story delivers a cringingly biting dissection of racial attitudes in contemporary America, and Clarke also turns his eagle eye to subjects like PTSD, the fate of child actors, and, most especially, marital discord in stories like "Considering Lizzie Borden, Her Axe, My Wife" and "The Misunderstandings".

Taz is a member of a very successful rogue-hunting team. The rogues she and her teammates hunt include rogue vampires, ghouls, and shapeshifters, among others. Vampires have been legal citizens in the world for 500 years, but they do still have rogues from time to time.

After surviving the battle that erupted after Lo and the Bosha clan attacked, now Mya is looking ahead to her future with Kol. All the things that once felt so uncertain to her are finally falling into place. But the same night as Kol and Mya's betrothal announcement, Mya's brother Chev reveals his plan to marry their youngest sister, Lees, to his friend Morsk. The only way to avoid this terrible turn of events, Morsk informs Mya when he corners her later, is for Mya to take Lees' place and marry him herself.