Showing results by narrator "Jill Smith" in All Categories

There’s a lot of noise out there about how to spend (and not spend) your hard-earned money. But what if you made financial decisions based on what you value—instead of what others are telling you to value? This is the empowering approach Jen Smith and Jill Sirianni, hosts of the Frugal Friends podcast, want you to take to improve your spending habits. They believe you can value anything (yes, anything!), whether that’s a daily latte, fancy dinners out, or vacations. But, despite what social media is saying, you don’t value everything.

For three years, I’ve been daydreaming excuses to get my gorgeous, older, mysterious neighbor into my apartment. I was thinking of a burst pipe, small cooking fire, dress that I can't zip up, or a massive sign that said “I adore you, please take my V-card”. I didn’t think he’d invite himself in to save me. Mafia thugs came looking for my parents, and money. Hours later, I’m cowering in my wardrobe, still shaking, covered in bruises and dried unthinkable liquids, when soft footsteps echo through my apartment.

As much as Beatrice Hyde-Clare relished the challenge of figuring out who murdered a fellow guest during a house party in the Lake District, she certainly does not consider herself an amateur investigator. So when a London dandy falls dead at her feet in the entryway of a London Daily Gazette, she feels no compulsion to investigate. It was a newspaper office, after all, and reporters are already on the case as are the authorities.

Having solved the two murders that somehow fell in her path, Beatrice Hyde-Clare is on the lookout for a third. Through a absurd quirk of stupid fate, the shy spinster has fallen in love with the thoroughly unattainable Duke of Kesgrave and is desperate for something, anything, to occupy her mind. A dead body would do nicely.

The former Beatrice Hyde-Clare is having a little trouble adjusting to her new situation. Now installed as the duchess of Kesgrave in elegant splendor in Berkeley Square, she is confounded by the stately residence’s seemingly endless array of rooms. And every time one of the maids addresses her as "your grace", she flinches.

Twenty-six-year-old Beatrice Hyde-Clare is far too shy to investigate the suspicious death of a fellow guest in the Lake District. A spinster who lives on the sufferance of her relatives, she would certainly not presume to search the rooms of her host's son and his friend looking for evidence. Reared in the twin virtues of deference and docility, she would absolutely never think to question the imperious Duke of Kesgrave about anything, let alone how he chose to represent the incident to the local constable. And yet that's exactly what she does.

From an MIT scientist, mounting evidence that the active ingredient in the world’s most commonly used weedkiller is responsible for debilitating chronic diseases, including cancer, liver disease, and more....

As eager as Beatrice, Duchess of Kesgrave, is to meet her husband’s newly discovered illegitimate half sister, she does not want it to happen like this: in the keeper's house at Newgate. Yes, that Newgate, the abject prison filled with squalor and misery to which Verity Lark has been consigned for murder. Found standing over the slain corpse of an old tormentor with a still-warm pistol in her hand, she is obviously guilty. It is an open-and-shut case with little for an unduly curious duchess to investigate. Except it all seems a little too simple and straightforward.

Having inexplicably nabbed the duke of Kesgrave, 26-year-old spinster Beatrice Hyde-Clare is determined to marry him at once, and no amount of hand-wringing from anxious family members, worried friends, and well-meaning acquaintances will convince her to delay. Except, maybe, she is a little swayed by her uncle’s efforts to make amends for treating her with cold indifference during her childhood.

To be clear: Beatrice, Duchess of Kesgrave, does not think every dead person in London is the victim of a sinister plot. The city is large, after all, and some of its inhabitants had to have died from innocent causes. Like Peter Huzza, who was killed in a horrifying steam engine accident. It is shocking, yes, the way his body was torn apart by the explosion of his very own machine, but not entirely surprising. High-pressure steam is notoriously dangerous to harness. There is no reason to suspect foul play. Nope, none at all.

Now that my business is in the crosshairs of the SEC, I’ve got to watch my step, stay alert. So Jessa Walton’s incomparable hotness is a distressing distraction. Not to mention the knack she’s got for drawing me out of my shell. She doesn’t understand that the idea of us—together—has “NO!” written all over it. She wants all of me, but I don’t give that to anyone.

When I kissed her in that crowded bar, I had no idea she was my coach’s daughter. I know better, believe me. It’ll never happen again. I’m on the cusp of hanging up my hockey skates forever while embroiled in a custody battle for my daughter. I have no business getting involved with any woman. Least of all the one that’s totally off limits. But Chloe’s looking for a little fun in life and she has no problem flaunting her impressive hockey skills and sultry good looks. In fact, I think she enjoys torturing me.

Stormy Morgan should be on top of the world. She’s engaged, about to move into her dreamhouse, and her magic is stabilizing. In fact, she’s becoming one heckuva witch. Too bad trouble keeps finding her. This time, it comes in the form of a gang of kids who appear to be stealing cars from various townsfolk. It’s become a big enough issue that everybody in town is becoming unnerved, paranoid even. Their solution is to form a Neighborhood Watch, which should be okay in theory. Unfortunately, the reality is anything but.

I'm the coach's daughter, watching from the shadows as my father's best friend and star player wins the World Series for his team. Trick Lowry is almost twice my age and a bonafide celebrity, and I love him with my entire heart. It's the kind of secret, off-limits crush that feeds wild fantasies and reckless ideas—like sneaking into his hotel room while he's celebrating, just to have a little slice of him to myself. I innocently surround myself with his smell, thinking he doesn't have to know.

Axel Fairchild is the eternal outsider, both in his elite MBA program and in the world of NYC finance. Powering through on charm, swagger, and smarts has always worked for him—and it’s poised to pay off in a big way as he prepares to launch his very own finance business with his brothers after graduation. There’s only one thing left on his to-do list: prying the love of his life, Cora Margulis, away from her controlling and manipulative family.

Stormy Morgan is flying high. She’s engaged. She’s used to her new routine. She’s even learning about being a witch. All of that changes when a local podcaster’s house goes up in flames and a body is found inside. Carl Winslow was not a nice man. He spent his time stalking local family vloggers so he could cast aspersions on their life choices. One family in particular draws his ire, and he fights with them the night of the fire. Are they to blame for the podcaster’s death, though?

I locked myself in the bathroom when my date pulled out a knife. Then a tall dark rescuer crashed through the door and kidnapped me. I know it's risky, posting my darkest fantasies anonymously online. Especially when they start going viral. But how was I to know the first guy I've ever dated would turn out to be an obsessed stalker-fan? Although I write about wanting a man to force himself upon me, this reality isn't nearly as appealing. It's locked bathroom, panic texting, terrified-for-my-life.

Bedeviled by Colson Hardwicke’s treatment—summarily dumping her via tersely worded message!—Verity Lark is lying awake in her bed seething over his behavior when she hears a floorboard creak. Immediately alert to the presence of a late-night intruder, she deftly thwarts the attack. Taking her would-be kidnapper captive is easy. Figuring out what he wants with her—well, that part is tricky and she wonders if it could have something to do with one of her many alter egos.

He was given another chance at life and from the infinite possibilities available, he chose to come back as a mechanical man, a Metalman, named Repair. Now he has to contend with a research lab full of gnomes who say he owes them for bringing him back from death, a strange city that is going through a magical industrial revolution, and adversaries that want to see him broken into pieces.

He's powerful, gorgeous, twice my age… and obsessed with me? I might be an innocent runaway, but I’m at my friend’s funeral to avenge her murder by the mafia boss: King. He has other ideas. I should have guessed he’d retaliate with kidnap. Now I'm under his control, still intent on his demise, and honestly so turned on I could cry. When he offers me pleasure, I can't refuse.