Showing results by narrator "Amy McFadden" in All Categories

After losing his leg, former Army Ranger Holt Steele is building a new life and a new business with his friends. Sure, he never expected to put small-town baker on his resume, but he finds he likes the quiet, simple life. If only he didn't like the single mom who works across the street—or her kid—quite so much. After escaping a controlling husband, Cayla Black has one focus—growing her business and maintaining a safe home for her daughter. She has no time or interest in a man. Not even one who charms her child with Disney songs and keeps turning up to help without being asked.

Ten years ago, I was seventeen, spending summers with my wealthy family, and friends on Hawk Island. One terrible night, I blacked out. The next morning, my best friend, Melanie, was gone—vanished without a trace. Today, I go back. To the island. To my sister's wedding. To a group of privileged people with whom I've never belonged. To secrets that someone will kill to keep. A storm is coming. A storm that could allow a kidnapper to escape, or a killer to murder again, and reveal the true faces of All the Pretty People.

With her daughters more settled than ever, it’s time for Beck to live her life in Coconut Key to the fullest. Coquina House Bed & Breakfast is open and running, and with every new challenge, Beck and her mother discover they were born for the life of hospitality. So it’s not her new business that keeps Beck awake at night now...but the temptation of starting a new, uncharted course for her heart. Will those waters be warm and welcoming, or does she risk drowning once again?

After the death of her US senator father, Marlow Madsen travels to the small island off the coast of Florida where she spent summers growing up to help her mother settle the family estate. For Marlow, the trip is a chance to reconnect after too long apart. It’s also the perfect escape to help her feel grounded again—one she’s happy to share with friends Aida and Claire, who are hoping to hit reset on their lives, too.

Natalia is not the kind of girl who takes risks. Six years ago, she barely survived the house fire that killed her baby brother. Now she is cautious and always plays it safe. For months, her coworker Wyatt has begged her to come hiking with him, and Natalia finally agrees. But when a wildfire breaks out, blocking the trail back, a perfect sunny day quickly morphs into a nightmare. With no cell service, few supplies, and no clear way out of the burning forest, a group of strangers will have to become allies if they're going to survive.

They call them "pretty parties", and they're the latest rage among Dallas debutantes - get-togethers with light refreshments, heavy gossip, and Dr. Sonja and her magic Botox needles. Former socialite Andy Kendricks normally wouldn't be caught dead at such an event, but she's attending as a favor to her friend Janet, a society reporter in search of a juicy story. And, boy, does she find one when aging beauty queen Miranda DuBois bursts into the room - drunk, disorderly, and packing a pistol.

Zander Keller survived an addiction recovery center and being on reality TV, but he should never have agreed to do an undercover boss stunt to help his father. The beautiful manager of the southern bed and breakfast makes him laugh and forget his troubles, until she tries to solve his commitment issues like every woman has since his mother's murder. Trin Dean has no intention of becoming besotted with Zander like every other red-blooded female who watched him on television.

Peyton and her sisters have inherited Bishop’s Cove, a small, luxurious oceanfront resort, but it comes with conditions: The girls must run the resort for one year and show a profit - only then will they own it. A graduate of a prestigious French culinary school, Peyton has just lost her job as a food critic after rightfully accusing her boss of sexual harassment. Out of work and in a bad place personally, to Peyton a year doing something completely different sounds wonderful. Peyton dives into learning the resort business but is quickly derailed by an escalating chain of events that puts her life in danger.

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through L.A., Allie Parker’s famous twin sisters/ were driving her cray. She fled to the mountains with a hostage in tow, hoping to sleep through the holidays, which were a sh*t-show. A crash in a blizzard, and a hot mountain man, definitely wasn’t part of her evacuation plan.

As a kid in the 1970s and 80s, Carina Chocano was confused by the mixed messages all around her; messages that told her who she could be - and who she couldn’t. Dutifully absorbing all the conflicting information the culture has to offer on how to be a woman, Chocano grappled with sexed up sidekicks, princesses waiting to be saved, and morally infallible angels who seemed to have no opinions of their own. She learned that "the girl" is not a person, but a man's idea of what a woman should be - she’s whatever the hero needs her to be in order to become himself.

Debutante dropout Andrea Kendricks is beyond done with big hair, big gowns, and big egos - so being dragged to a high-society Texas wedding by her socialite mama, Cissy, gives her a bad case of déjà vu. As does running into her old prep-school bully, Olivia La Belle, the wedding planner, who's graduated to berating people for a living on her reality TV show. But for all the times Andy wished her dead, nobody deserves Olivia's fate: lying in a pool of blood, a cake knife in her throat - but did the angry baker do it?

Allegra Simpson is the vice president of Simpson Fashion. She's always handled life like her mother taught her - with manners and a smile. But Allegra learns being nice can get you in trouble as someone haunts her from the shadows and turns her life to one of secrets. She fears she'll never be able to have a relationship with Finn because it would put everyone she loves in danger.

Antalek's tale of the trials and many tribulations of the hapless and more than a little dysfunctional Haas family recalls the work of Sue Miller and Ann Beattie - and is a wonderful introduction to a superb writer whose short fiction has been nominated for numerous awards, including the Glimmer Train's Family Matter's and Short-Story Award and the Bellingham Review's Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction.

All Doctor Dire wants to do is save the world. But those pesky heroes keep getting in the way, and it's all she can do to give them a good fight without killing them. Supervillainy is such an underappreciated job these days....

Colin Sullivan has a vision - the painting of his career, with Cassidy St. John as his model. She’ll be a challenge to paint, with her passion for life and captivating beauty. But as Cassidy stands in front of him every day, Colin begins to realize that the real test won’t be capturing her image…it’ll be capturing her heart.

Megan Barnes' life is in free fall. After losing both her job as a reporter and her boyfriend in the same day, she retreats to Chicago and moves in with Helen, her overprotective mother. Before long, the two are clashing over everything, not to mention Helen's run for US Congress, which puts Megan's career on hold until after the election. Desperate to reboot her life, Megan gets her chance when an altercation at a campus rally brings her face-to-face with Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Jocelyn Jones, who offers her a job on her PR team.

From Pinterest boards and Instagram posts to shop windows and ad campaigns, fashion is everywhere. We shop and dress for practical reasons like job interviews or to make a good impression at the board meeting. We shop and dress for more adventurous reasons - for dates, to woo a lover, to catch someone's eye. Clothes are armor for women, and we wrap a lot of meaning in what we choose to wear. As plus-size spokesmodel and blogger Brittany Gibbons knows, what we choose to wear is especially important, and especially emotional, for curvy women.

When an FBI Internal Affairs investigation lands the Preternatural Crimes Unit in a bureaucratic spank-fest, it feels like the perfect time for Marnie Baranuik to skip town and lend her expertise to a bear-sized Canadian cop who doesn't want her help with his case, his love life, or his car stereo. Back in her childhood stomping grounds, Marnie leaps into action, facing an exorcist in skinny jeans, a slap-happy specter, and an old friend up to new tricks. Are ghosts behind a string of unusual deaths?

Betrayed by an FBI agent while in protective custody, MacKenzie Gunthrie escapes a crime lord and is left hiding from the authorities and her enemies. She finds solace in the peaceful mountain town of Crested Butte, Colorado. With help from a longtime camp friend and a new identity, she's starting to feel safe. The only problem is the overconfident and much too good-looking Isaac Turnbow. Protecting her identity has become second nature, but Isaac poses a threat to her heart.

Actions have consequences—a lesson Scarlett Bernard is learning the hard way. As a “null,” Scarlett has always been able to negate the powers of the supernatural beings that surround her. But now her reckless decision to permanently change Eli from a werewolf to a human has left the Los Angeles werewolf pack in shambles, and upset the balance of power among the city’s supernatural factions. To make matters worse, Scarlett’s employers discover that a newly changed werewolf is running amok in the city. To catch the rogue werewolf, Scarlett will need help from both Eli and Detective Jesse Cruz of the LAPD…a situation that will force her to finally choose between them.