Showing results by narrator "Madeleine Maby" in All Categories

1934. Ruth has been single-handedly raising four young daughters and running her family's Indiana farm for eight long years, ever since her husband, John, was infected by the infamous "sleeping sickness" devastating families across the country. If only she could trade places with her older sister, June: blonde and beautiful, married to a wealthy doctor, living in a mansion in St. Paul. And June has a coveted job, too, as one of "the Bettys", the perky recipe developers who populate the famous Betty Crocker test kitchen.

Bolivar Randy Heart (a.k.a. Brady) knows exactly what he wants next in life: the perfect wife. Raised in a strict traditional family household, he seeks a woman who is sweet, conservative, and eager to settle down. With his well-known protective and dominant streak, he needs a woman to offer him balance in a world where he relishes control.

When her estranged father goes missing, Jude is persuaded by her mother to find his will. She travels to the family cottage on remote Gull Island, glad to be away from the city and to have the chance to sort through old memories, but is unsettled by what she finds there. While contending with the neglected cottage and encroaching wild animals, Jude looks not only for her father’s will, but also for photographs of herself as a baby, desperate for proof that she was loved as a child. However, loneliness and terrifying dreams soon wear on her, bringing back frightening memories.

All systems are go! Ovulation cycle? Check. Estrogen level? Check. Nothing can stop Ellie Sterling's baby-making attempt at the fertility clinic. Nothing but her CEO boss - and good friend - who offers her an alternative to leaving their island headquarters: Let's make a baby the old-fashioned way.

Brought up in the savage captivity of her unstable grandmother's rural Pennsylvania home, Mari Calder once yearned for rescue. Now she struggles every day to function as an adult in the confines of normal society. Left with only a foggy recollection of her childhood, she's consumed with being a dutiful wife to her husband, Ryan, and mother to their two children. But an unexpected twist of events returns her to that long-forgotten house in the woods.

Everything you need to know about self-care - especially for Aquarius!

The future is looking bright for Sidney Moore as she as she gets ready to leave the small island of Benediction behind for one of Boston's top veterinary schools. Now a storm is bearing down on Benediction - a hurricane that will bring devastating winds and rain, rising tides...and something else. Something deadly; something that will transform all the things that creep, crawl, and flutter into instruments of terror and death. The future is looking bright for Sidney Moore...if only she can survive.

Most people know about President FDR, but do you know the woman who created his groundbreaking New Deal? As a young girl, Frances Perkins was very shy and quiet. But her grandmother encouraged Frances to always challenge herself. When somebody opens a door to you, go forward. And so she did. In this empowering, inspirational biography, discover how the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet led the charge to create the safety net that protects American workers and their families to this day.

What Would Cleopatra Do? tackles issues by reminding us of inspiring feminists from the past, telling their stories with warmth, humor, and verve. From sticking up for yourself, improving body image, deciding whether to have children, finding a mentor, getting dumped, feeling like an impostor, being unattractive, and dealing with gossip, we can learn a lot by listening to the motivational stories of heroic women who, living in much tougher times through history, took control of their own destinies and made life work for them.

When Isabella MacKenzie tries to move on from her disastrous past, Officer William Devine is determined to show her that love is the only way to heal. This sexy novella, the final installment in Jennifer Probst's heartwarming Searching For series, follows the high-powered women of the popular matchmaking agency Kinnections, located in the small, picturesque town of Verily, New York.

Connor Dunkle knows what he wants in a woman, and it's the three B's. Beauty. Body. Boobs. Other women need not apply. With his good looks and easygoing charm, he's used to getting what he wants - and who. Until he comes face to face with the one woman who's slowly making his life hell...and enjoying every moment.

Lana used to know what was real. That was before, when her life was small and quiet. Her golden stepbrother, Ben, was alive. She could only dream about bonfiring with the populars. Their wooded island home was idyllic, she could tell truth from lies, and Ben's childhood stories were firmly in her imagination. Then came after. After has Lana boldly kissing her crush, jumping into the water from too high up, living with nerve and mischief. But after also has horrors.

On Ichabod Island, a jagged strip of land 13 miles off the coast of Massachusetts, 10-year-old Sky becomes an orphan for the second time after a tragic accident claims the lives of her adoptive parents. Grieving the death of his best friends, Leo’s life is turned upside down when he finds himself the guardian of young Sky. Back on the island and struggling to balance his new responsibilities and his marriage to his husband, Leo is supported by a powerful community of neighbors, many of them harboring secrets of their own.

Originally published in 1969, The Inland Island is Josephine W. Johnson’s startling and brilliant chronicle of nature and the seasons at her rambling 37-acre farm in Ohio, which she and her husband reverted to wilderness with the help of a state forester. Over the course of 12 months, she observes the changing landscape with a naturalist’s precision and a poet’s evocative language. Listeners will marvel at the way she brings to life flashes of beauty, the inexorable cycle of growth and decay, and the creatures who live alongside her, great and small.

Hazard’s a military kid, best known for his prowess at football, and his short fuse. His dad’s been in Afghanistan, third tour. The worry and the pressure over school and his dad are getting to Hazard until one day, the fuse sets off and the repercussions have him benched for six games and assigned to go to therapy. Which is where his dad is as well, at Walter Reed Medical Center, because he’s home now—well, most of him. Hazard’s dad’s now learning to walk with a prosthetic, but that’s not his primary injury.

American consultant Kat is staffed on a six-month project in London and has two very small, very reasonable ambitions before returning home: get promoted to partner and fall in love with a handsome English aristocrat. No problem, right? But work is a grind, and the British men she meets are a far cry from her royal ideal. Then one morning, she sees a man on a double-decker bus and just knows that he’s her person. But when Kat finally musters the courage to board the bus and introduce herself, he turns out to be very different from the Prince Charming she expected.

They said that the first generation of man was brought low by its appetites: for knowledge, for power, for wealth. They said mankind's voracity was so great, the Lord sent his own Daughter to bring fire and devastation to the world. The survivors were few, but over the course of centuries they banded together to form a new civilization - the Descendancy - founded on the belief that the mistakes of the past must never be repeated. Brothers Clive and Clover Hamill, the sons of a well-respected Descendant minister, have spent their lives spreading that gospel.

Raised in a funeral home, Caroline Connors saw her mother miscarry when she was just a young girl and realized that she had a calling. Unlike her family, who guided souls on their way out, Caro chose to bring them in. As a doula, Caro spent years providing comfort and emotional support to women in labor. But when her best friend, Mary Grace, experiences complications, she makes a quick decision, taking the baby’s life into her hands as her lifelong friend passes away.

Rising literary star and Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award finalist Sarah Gerard uses her experiences growing up along Florida's Gulf Coast to illuminate the struggles of modern human survival - physical, emotional, environmental - through a collection of essays exploring intimacy, addiction, obsession, religion, homelessness, and incarceration.

Sisterhood, motherhood, marriage, baking, and books - these are a few of the things that make this delightful novel a recipe for getting through the tough stuff of life. Filled with love, humor, and the scent of delectable puff pastry, Three Good Things tells the tale of two sisters who find their bond invaluable as they navigate marriage, heartache, poor grammar, and the surprising challenges that ultimately become the most fulfilling blessings.