Showing results by narrator "Jennifer O'donnell" in All Categories

Obedience. Self-restraint. Endurance. Silence. These are the duties of a Highborn lady, and like the veils, masks, and tight-fitting underskirts female Kencyr students are obliged to wear, Jame finds them damnably constricting. Sent here by her brother Torisen, Highlord of the Kencyrath, she has tried valiantly to fit in, but throws the quiet Women's Halls into an uproar. It's not entirely Jame's fault, though. While Tori's vain and vicious consort treats her like an underling, the Kencyr Matriarchs, determined to winnow out her secrets, scheme to use her to their own advantage.

Kothifir the Great, ruled by an obscenely obese god-king, peopled with colorful, dueling guilds, guarded by the Southern Host of the Kencyrath. Here Jame arrives, only to find that the turbulent city claims more of her attention as the Talisman than the Hosts training fields do as a second year randon cadet. Mysteries abound: Caravans plunge deep into the hostile Southern Wastes and return laden with fabulous riches from what source, and why do they crumble to dust if not claimed by the god-kings touch?

Eighteen years ago a teenage pregnancy changed Kate Worthington's life forever. Faced with many difficult decisions, she chose to follow her heart and embrace an uncertain future with Glenn Ferguson, her devoted first love...and the father of her baby. At the same time, in another part of the world, sixteen-year-old Ryan Hamilton makes his own share of mistakes, but learns important lessons along the way.

Jamethiel Knorth, Priest’s Bane and Dream-Weaver, has returned victorious from Tai-tastigon, but trouble dogs the Kencyrath. There is intrigue among the Highborn. The Randir and his allies want the larger houses to decide for all nine, which would strip the Highlordship from the Knorth. At Omiroth, a senile king struggles against his venal son-in-law—but if neither of these can rule, the next in line is a mother-dominated child.

Twelve years ago, 18-year-old University of Iowa freshman Abby Hartmann disappeared. Now, Jon Allan Blue, the serial killer suspected of her murder, is about to be executed. Abby’s best friends, Bree and Chelsea, watch as Abby’s memory is unearthed and overshadowed by Blue and his flashier crimes. The friends, estranged in the wake of Abby’s disappearance, and suffering from years of unvoiced resentments, must reunite when a high-profile podcast dedicates its next season to Blue’s murders.

It was supposed to be a fun weekend at our family cabin. I was going to surprise my husband, Mike, with a small get-together for his 40th birthday. Something is wrong, though. Mike isn’t himself lately. He goes out often and by himself, leaving me and our young son. Our happy marriage is fading away, and I don’t know why. This weekend is just what's needed to cheer him up. It’s what we need for us. When I get to the cabin and set up, I hear sounds coming from the basement. That’s when I see her. A young woman tied up and scared.

A colony survives among the icy rings of a planet, hiding from alien robots determined to destroy them … at a remote site on the edge of the Arctic Circle, a group of scientists, engineers, and physicians gather to gamble humanity’s future on one last-ditch experiment … a man who can’t feel pain has been bioengineered to be a killing machine, but he refuses to give in to his fate … a man is contacted by three future versions of himself, each trying to save their world from destruction.

In the year 2035, robots, artificial intelligences, and neural implants have become commonplace. The Institute for Ethics keeps the peace, using social reputation to ensure that robots and humans don't harm society or each other. But a powerful AI named Adam has found a way around the restrictions. Catherine Matthews, nineteen years old, has a unique gift: the ability to manipulate the net with her neural implant. Yanked out of her perfectly ordinary life, Catherine becomes the last firewall standing between Adam and his quest for world domination.

What began for Molly as a simple journey to retrieve her father’s old spaceship has turned into an epic adventure with far-reaching consequences. For years, she dreamed of reconnecting with her past. Now she’s going to meet it in a way she never expected: head-on. Her father is alive. Her mother’s memories are trapped inside his old ship. She’s on the run from her very own Navy, and now has been tasked with the impossible: Rescue her parents. Save the galaxy. End a war.

They live in the shadows, Jack and Jill, feuding twins who can never stop running. From earliest memory, they've been taught to hide, to hunt, to survive. Their prowess is outdone only by Clare, who has always been mentor first and mother second. She trained them in the art of espionage and sharpened their minds with nerve-racking psychological games. As they grew older, they came to question her. But when Clare's safe house explodes and she goes missing, they're forced to believe the unthinkable: Their mother's paranoid delusions have been real all along.

Jane is haunted. Since she was a child, she has carried a ghost girl that feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her, whispering to Jane what they are thinking and feeling, even when she doesn't want to know. Henry, Jane's brother, is ridden by a genius ghost that forces him to build strange and dangerous machines. Their mother is possessed by a lonely spirit that burns anyone she touches. In Swine Hill, a place of defeat and depletion, there are more dead than living.

When her husband's medical bills become overwhelming, Paula starts a side job as a rideshare driver. One night, she picks up a quiet stranger and drops him off at a Chicago apartment with a beautiful woman waiting for him in the window. When she later recognizes the passenger as a famous musician, and realizes the woman in the window is not his also-famous wife, Paula does what any down-on-her-luck woman would do: She asks for money to keep quiet. But the biggest risk of her life quickly becomes her biggest mistake.

Melanie Mooney thought she was just doing her job when she came upon an unusual accident in the deep woods late one night. Acting alone, what she found was nothing like she’d expected. What followed was even more unexpected. Recruited by emissaries of a galaxy-spanning civilization, Melanie is thrust into a world she thought only existed in supermarket tabloids. As the first human in the Galactic Union Medical Corps, she cares for extraterrestrials in desperate need of a medic who can ignore the fact that they’re nothing like any patient she’s ever seen, even on their best days.

Exiled Charmer Leena Edenfrell is running out of time. Empty pockets forced her to sell her beloved magical beasts - an offense punishable by death - and now there's a price on her head. With the realm's most talented murderer-for-hire nipping at her heels, Leena makes Noc an offer he can't refuse: powerful mythical creatures in exchange for her life. Plagued by a curse that kills everyone he loves, Noc agrees to Leena's terms in hopes of finding a cure.

Fame has a price and Trystan doesn't want to pay. Everything he worked so hard to hide is about to be revealed. Nothing he can do will stop it. Within a few short hours everyone will know about his father and the sordid details of his past. There are four words Trystan's father said that haunt him - four words that he ignored - never fall in love. But it's too late. This is the complete collection of the prequel series to Broken Promises (A Trystan Scott novel).

Since moving to Mystic Harbor, Maine, I've made it my life's mission to avoid Reese Blackburn at all costs. Sure, he has cheekbones that could cut glass, not to mention bedroom eyes that could melt any girl into a puddle on the floor. Too bad that doesn't change the fact he's completely stab-worthy. When a fun night out on the town turns deadly, I quickly discover the quaint little hamlet of Mystic Harbor houses more than sandy beaches and adorable B&Bs. Beneath the New England charm rests a world where shifters, demons, vampires, and angelic hunters all vie for power.

A deeply emotional tale about Sophie Duncan, a successful columnist whose world falls apart after her daughter's unexpected illness and her husband's shocking affair. When it seems nothing else could possibly go wrong, her car skids off an icy road and plunges into a frozen lake. There, in the cold, dark depths of the water a profound and extraordinary experience unlocks the surprising secrets from Sophie's past, and teaches her what it means to truly live...and love.

It's finally time for the Alandrian Central Magic Academy's famous Spring Tournament. For Lesti, it's her best opportunity to prove her strength before turning fifteen and becoming an adult. She'll have to do it alone, though. The academy has forbidden Astria from participating. Still, the tournament isn't all about fighting. People from across the alliance gather to watch the spectacle. Amongst the masses and gathered lords, threats new and old plot their moves. As Astria works to neutralize these threats, she finds herself with a choice that could change the course of her new world.

Arizona Turner has been my best friend since fourth grade, even when we hated each other. We've been there for one another through first kisses and first times, and we've been each other's constant when good relationships turned bad. (We even went to colleges that were minutes away from each other.) Throughout the years, and despite what anyone says, we've never crossed the line. Never thought about it. Never wanted to...until one night changed everything. At least, it should've....

These are the chronicles of Jamethiel Priest’s-bane, otherwise known as Jame, as she struggles to find a place in a universe full of danger, intrigue, and more than a bit of downright lunacy. The current novel’s title, To Ride a Rathorn, comes from the Kencyr phrase that refers to someone attempting something insane, but it is too dangerous for them to stop. The reference is also to a certain young rathorn (think of an armor-plated, carnivorous unicorn with a nasty temper) who is after Jame for killing his mother and about to catch up with her.