Showing results by narrator "Erin Bennett" in All Categories

It's Christmas at the Dane Crown Inn, and the much-needed renovations at the resort once known as "the gem of Florida's Treasure Coast" have been put on hold for the holidays. Amy Sommer Peterson and the rest of the family deck the halls with festive garland, decorate towering Christmas trees, and hang sparkling lights. When surprise guests arrive to share the season, everyone soon gathers in the kitchen to decorate cookies, sing Christmas carols, reminisce about the past, and make new memories. While the rest of the family celebrates, Amy faces a host of challenges.

All my life, I've been at war. Fighting for my survival. Never knowing my worth. Never believing that love could be mine—until my enemy stood by my side and fought for me. The alpha of the ruthless Grudge Clan asks for my heart. He offers me the heat of his body, the warmth of his home, and the liberty to explore my new strength. Peace is at my fingertips. And yet... Across the city, shadows grow. With the darkness come whispers of a rising power—a dragon who could destroy the light that forged our freedom.

Pru Parke takes on the most serious challenge of her life: cooking an entire Christmas feast alone. But she is distracted by a mysterious plant vendor at a local holiday market, who appears and disappears into the night. He seems familiar, and yet... Join Pru and Christopher as they suss out this stranger while Pru contends with cooking a turkey fit for a crowd. Just how many potatoes and sprouts can two people eat?

At age twenty, Julia Gonzaga was one of the most envied women in Italy. A property owner, she entertained artists, poets, and musicians at her castle; and she was the prettiest woman in the country! Yet Julia was confused and anxious about God and her own sin. No matter how hard she tried not to sin, she often put her desires to please other people before obeying God. She finally found peace when she understood the gospel, and then she devoted her life to sharing the good news with others.

Elsa's middle child, Mallory, is often described as the quietest and sweetest of all the Remington women—just as happy-go-lucky as Elsa, agreeable as Janine, and punctual as Nancy. Needless to say, it never pleased Mallory to be overlooked. But after her accidental pregnancy with her on-again, off-again boyfriend Lucas, plus the death of her father and grandfather in the span of a year, she's had very little time to ask herself that pivotal question: Who am I?

No matter where she lived, Kimberly Ann Dane considered the Dane Crown Inn her home. As a child, Kim looked forward to frequent visits to the inn, where she enjoyed building sand castles on Emerald Bay's sandy beaches, learning to cook in the inn's spacious kitchen, and hunting for buried treasure with her cousins. As she grew older, she paid her way through college by working summers and school holidays at the inn. It's no wonder that—divorced, at odds with her grown children, and hoping to make a fresh start—Kim returns to the one place she's always been welcomed with open arms.

For the past twenty years, Lola Sheridan has worked tirelessly as a single mother to Audrey and a renowned journalist across the eastern seaboard. Now, she finds herself in a particularly strange and beautiful scenario. She’s fallen in love with the handsome Italian sailor, Tommy Gasbarro, and made a home with him on the Vineyard. But life circumstances are ever-shifting. And when Tommy pops a question Lola never imagined anyone would ask her, she is shocked.

After a blizzard roared across the island in February, Lola Sheridan was forced to postpone her wedding to Tommy Gasbarro, the handsome Italian sailor who stole her heart two summers back. Their June wedding approaches—and the Sheridan women have a surprise party up their sleeves, one that will shock all involved and make Lola question her allegiances.

Quentin's at the top of his game. He's the nightly news anchor for the biggest broadcast company in the United States. On top of that, he has three beautiful children and a wonderful wife, Catherine. What more could he want? Life isn't done with him yet. Out of the blue, his wife is diagnosed with cancer, and Quentin finds himself reeling. With Catherine so sick, his career no longer matters to him, and his father's invitation to Nantucket is looking more and more appealing. Maybe he should take his family out of the city for a while.

Cleo Jaffray was an American. A war in Europe had nothing to do with her. She told herself that right up until the man she loved went missing in Poland and Cleo was forced to turn to the only person who might be able to help—her aunt Daisy, the US Minister to Norway. Daisy Harriman has never shied away from a challenge, be it canvassing for women’s suffrage or driving Red Cross ambulances in WWI, so as only the second woman ambassador, she is determined to prove the naysayers wrong and succeed in her post.

No one could have imagined that the frail seven-year-old slave girl who arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1761 would become the first published African American, achieving fame for her poetry in both America and England. Upon her arrival, Phillis quickly learned to read the Bible and other classic literature, publishing her first poem in 1767 when she was thirteen and a book of poetry in 1773. Her poetry encouraged freedom for all people, and she proved to a doubting generation that intelligence and creativity are not limited to a particular race.

In 1730, nineteen-year-old Marie Durand was arrested and taken from her home in a village in Southern France for the crime of having a brother who was a Protestant preacher. Imprisoned in the Tower of Constance, Marie would spend the next thirty-eight years there. Simonetta Carr introduces us to the inspiring life of a woman who could have recanted her Protestant faith and gained release, but held fast to the truth and encouraged others to do so as well.

For family-focused Charlotte, the chance to compete on her favorite trivia game show is a dream come true. But when she arrives on set, who does she see among the other contestants? Eli, her high school first love, at least until their shattering breakup. He has his own reasons for competing, not least of which is the stress of multiple jobs, college courses, and a father who has had multiple run-ins with the law. When the casting department pairs them on a team, both Charlotte and Eli are determined to grit their teeth and make the best of it.

Elsa's eldest, Cole Steel, is on the brink of the rest of his life. Like his father before him, he's a remarkable sailor—but unlike his father, he has no wife, no children, and just the open ocean at his feet. Elsa's not entirely pleased with his reckless nature. But she knows he has the same adventurous spirit his father always had. Aiden lives through Cole every day. Recently, Cole signed a contract to sail professionally. It's the opportunity of a lifetime—with a caveat. His boss is widely known as the toughest in the business.

Before Jesse Owens was an Olympic gold medalist, he was a poor kid in a big family. When his speed caught the eye of one of his high school teachers, he began to train seriously and his running took him all the way to the Olympics, where he was against fierce competitors and racist assumptions, breaking world records while winning medals.

Sisters Cassie and Sid Sunday have not done a bang-up job of keeping in touch. In their defense, it hasn't been easy: Life veered in sharply different directions for the once-close sisters. Today, beautiful and bighearted Sid lives an expat's life of leisure in far-off Singapore while harried, iPhone-clutching Cassie can't seem to make it work as a wife and mom to twin toddlers in Manhattan.

Diana Cannon-Ragsdale was born into a Mormon dynasty. Her father Ted Cannon was a local celebrity in Salt Lake City, and her family’s ancestors were contemporaries of Brigham Young—and they had many dark secrets to keep. In Loose Cannons, Diana traces her rebellious 1970s girlhood—amidst her father’s multiple suicide attempts and remarriage to her mother’s sister. As she and her siblings barreled into adulthoods they weren’t ready for, they tried to rely on each other while reproducing broken relationships of their own.

Carol Cash Large, longtime friend of Blake Shelton, helped move the award-winning musician to Nashville just two weeks after he graduated high school at the tender age of seventeen and has been with him every step of the way since. In Blake Shelton: Happy Anywhere, she takes you backstage for personal and unique insight into the life of the young singer. From Shelton's work with producer Bobby Braddock, recording his number one song "Austin," and performing on the Grand Ole Opry to his record-breaking seventeen consecutive number one songs and beyond, she has been right there.

In this haunting memoir that reflects on the Holocaust and its legacy, award-winning author Sandell Morse discovers stories of bravery and resistance enacted during WWII in Southern France. In the course of six years at a writing residency in France, during which she met with survivors and historians, she painstakingly pieces together the puzzle that had been beguiling her over the years: What was the real story of the French Jews under the Vichy government during The Second World War?

What goes through the mind of a mother who must send her child to school across a minefield or the men who belong to groups of volunteer body collectors? In Ukraine, such questions have been part of the daily calculus of life. Greta Uehling engages with the lives of ordinary people living in and around the armed conflict over Donbas that began in 2014 and shows how conventional understandings of war are incomplete. Everyday War considers where peace can be cultivated at an everyday level.