Showing results by narrator "Jeanine Bartel" in All Categories

A rainy-day ritual - a tea party between three little girls - becomes the framework of not only their friendship, but their lives. Blonde, curly-haired Zoe Alexander is openhearted, kind, and free-spirited, but struggles with body image. Emily Waters is shy, diminutive, and would prefer to live vicariously through books. And Shannon Morell - tall, athletic, strong - has a deep sense of loyalty, but will always fear abandonment. As years pass, they forge careers, have their hearts broken, marry, and have children, but the one constant that remains is each other and their tea parties.

When Jillian James lands in the small town Texas community of Laurel Springs, she's definitely not planning to stay. Connor Larady is a single dad, and the only one caring for his grandmother, Eugenia, who has Alzheimer's. And now he has to close Eugenia's quilt shop. When Connor meets down-on-her-luck Jillian, he's out of options. Can he trust the newcomer to do right by his grandmother's legacy? Jillian is done with relationships. But as she grows closer to Connor and Eugenia, she must consider giving up her nomadic life for a future with those who need her.

Abbey has barely arrived in the quaint, quiet town of Hideaway Grove before things turn from blissful to bloody—as the new librarian is mowed down by a car. The only witness on the scene isn’t much help, aside from handing Abbey the bag of books dropped by the victim. Even worse, the sheriff’s office seizes Abbey’s car because of a suspicious dent in the right front fender.

Nine months ago, Sadie Greene shocked friends and family by ditching her sensible office job in the Chicago suburbs and buying a sight-unseen French bicycling tour company, Oui Cycle. Now she’s living the unconventional life of her dreams in the gorgeous village of Sans-Souci-sur-Mer. Sans souci means carefree, but Sadie feels enough pressure to burst a tire when hometown friends arrive for a tour, including her former boss, Dom Appleton. Sadie is determined to show them the wonders of France and cycling—and to prove she made the right move.

After being kidnapped as a child, heiress Emma Grace McMurray has seen firsthand the devastation that greed causes in the world, and she wants nothing to do with it - including her father's offering her hand in a business deal. She sneaks away to be a Harvey Girl at the El Tovar Grand Canyon Hotel, planning to stay hidden even if it means always looking over her shoulder. Ray Watkins arrives at the hotel wanting to impress his father by finding success on his own. Then maybe he can take on more of the family business and do something good with the profits.

One Night at The St. Nicholas: To escape her stepmother's plot to marry her off, Texas heiress Jacqueline Hartman spends Christmas Eve sharing a hideout with an accused bank robber. After a night in Nathanial Ward's arms, Jacqueline is certain she has met her match after all. But will his heartfelt promise of love lead to his demise at the hands of the law?

Emily Leland sheds no tears when her abusive husband is killed in a bar fight, but what awaits her back home in Sweetwater Crossing is far from the welcome and comfort she expected. First she discovers her father has died under mysterious circumstances. Then the house where the handsome new schoolteacher, Craig Ferguson, and his son are supposed to board burns, leaving them homeless. When Emily proposes turning the family home into a boardinghouse, her sister is so incensed that she leaves town.

Members of the legendary Hanger’s Horsemen, Mark Wallace and Jonah Brooks arrive in Llano County, Texas, to deliver a steed, never expecting they’d help deliver a baby as well. Left with an infant to care for, they head to a nearby foundling home, where Mark encounters the woman he nearly married a decade ago.

Abbey’s life in Hideaway Grove is comfortable, and she’s grateful for her small sewing studio in the back room of her aunt’s bakery, but she’s feeling stuck. To make ends meet, she takes a part-time job at the town’s bustling Visitor Center. Abbey is soon sorting items with her co-workers for the Visitor Center’s annual Lost and Found Day when unclaimed items are displayed and offered for sale. Thanks to tourism, there’s enough to fill a huge stockroom. But something is amiss. Eleanor Franklin hasn’t shown up for work—and when Abbey discovers her whereabouts, it isn’t pretty.

Seven-year-old Keighly Barrow never forgot the night she spied a boy her own age at her grandmother's Redemption, Nevada, mansion. He was staring at her from an antique mirror in the ballroom, standing among gaudily dressed women in an old-time western saloon. Keighly could only discover that his name was Darby Elder - and that he lived a century ago. Twenty years later, engaged to be married, Keighly inherited her grandmother's house. Back before the ballroom mirror, she faces a handsome cowboy whose roguish air radiates trouble.

Beatrice Carraway has dreams. Although she’s aged out of the childhood pageant circuit, she’s intent on carrying her talents all the way to the big screen—if only she can escape the poverty of West Dallas first. But as the Great Depression drags the working class further and further under, Beatrice struggles just to keep herself, her mother, and her younger sister afloat. After a string of failed auditions, she feels defeated. And then in walks Jack Turner.

Julia Schultz has a reputation for being a storyteller, or as others see it, a liar. But with her dark, painful past, stories are all that have kept her company throughout her life. Longing for a fresh start and a second chance, Julia takes a job as a Harvey Girl at the El Tovar Hotel. Learning the trade of a master jeweler is hard work, but Christopher Miller takes pride in running his family's shop and earning the respect of the people around him. But when he discovers that he has six weeks to buy his building before it is sold, he must find a way to save his grandfather's legacy.

Some of the independent shops in this sleepy town are barely hanging on financially—and that includes Sarah's Sweets, Abbey's aunt's bakery. The shop's advantage—aside from the deliciousness of its products—is the fact that it's the only bakery in the area. But it looks like that's about to change. The second wife of a wealthy businessman wants her own bakery—and money is no object. When murder unravels the plans for the competing shop, Aunt Sarah is an immediate suspect.

Starri Knight is a big believer in fate. How else to explain the compelling connection she feels to the stranger she pulls out of a wrecked car on the very same road where her parents died twenty years earlier? Alongside Auntie OnaMay, the only mother she’s ever known, Starri saves Rusty O’Sullivan’s life—just as Ona-May once did when Starri was an orphaned babe. But convincing Rusty he has something to live for is going to take all of Starri’s faith in miracles …

Lillian Doyle has lived her entire high-society life with her widowed mother, believing her father died long ago. But when news arrives that her estranged father only recently passed away—in jail—Lillian is startled to find that the man has left a business and all of his possessions to her, making her a rather unusual heiress. When she goes to take possession of her father's house in a backwoods Georgia town, the dilapidated structure is already occupied by another woman who claims it was promised to her son, Jonah.

Widowed in Memphis during 1932, Cecile Dowd is struggling to provide for her three-year-old daughter. Unwittingly trusting a neighbor puts little Millie Mae into the clutches of Georgia Tann, corrupt Memphis Tennessee Children's Home Society director suspected of the disappearance of hundreds of children. With the help of a sympathetic lawyer, the search for Millie uncovers a deep level of corruption that threatens their very lives.

Melody Doyle has spent years following her father across the country as the transcontinental railroad is built. When she announces her desire to settle down in Cheyenne, her father presents her with an unconventional challenge: he will allow her to stay if she finds a husband before his departure. As word spreads and the men in town vie for her hand, she wonders if she could ever be happy with a husband chosen in such a way.

The trees that circle Someday Valley near Honey Creek are dressed in their fall finest, providing a pretty backdrop for the local businesses—including the little bookshop loved by schoolteacher Cora Lee Buchanan. There, under the watchful eye of owner Noah O’Brien, Cora Lee and her sister, Katherine, meet each Wednesday. Their talk mostly revolves around one subject: their father, known to everyone in town as Bear. Both Cora Lee and Katherine worry about Bear Buchanan. They’ve no idea Bear has a secret life of his own.

A fresh new contemporary romance from New York Times and USA Today best seller Roni Loren that will rock your world. Twelve years ago, tragedy struck the senior class of Long Acre High School. Only a small number of students survived, a group the media dubbed as The Ones Who Got Away. Now, web designer Liv Arias, along with the rest of the survivors, have returned to the small Texas town to tell their stories for a documentary. Which means Liv seeing former star-athlete and old flame Finn Dorsey.

Laura Evans, a spirited young woman with a deep-rooted faith in God, returns home from college to her father—unaware of his dark secrets. Determined to live by her faith while respecting her father’s contrasting views, Laura’s world shifts when she crosses paths with a devoted preacher. Wilson Porter is driven by a calling to work with the Shoshone people but faces constant delays from government officials. Then tragedy strikes, shaking his faith and causing him to question everything he once believed.