Showing results by narrator "Stephanie Németh-Parker" in All Categories

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, a wish-granting spirit rapidly approaches burnout. Meanwhile, a banished fairy answers a Craigslist ad, a Victorian orphan navigates an occult situationship, and a multiverse assassin contemplates the one who got away. With both iconic fan-favorite stories and entirely original pieces, Januaries features modified fairy tales, contemporary heists, absurdist poetry, and at least one set of actual wedding vows. Escape the slow trudge of mortality by diving into these enchanting new worlds with a master of imagination.

Jessie is well on her way to learning her new life and settling in. The tough alpha, Austin, has joined her team, and she has painstakingly learned to fly. At the moment, life couldn’t get any better. But it can get a whole lot…more irritating. Her parents have decided to visit. They don’t know anything about magic, about Jessie’s new digs, or about the crazy crew living in and around Jessie’s house. She must do everything in her power to keep the truth away from them. Which would be much easier without the unfelt presence lurking within Ivy House’s borders.

A mysterious signal from deep space may hold humanity’s last chance of survival. And could reveal the ultimate truth of human origins. The race to unravel the secrets of the Atlantis world has begun.

He was a rockstar. A legend. And a single father. I should’ve stayed away. I just couldn’t resist him. We were happy until he texted. We need to talk. The last famous words. But I knew I needed to let him go. It was over. We were never meant to be together. Just like everyone else, he left. I couldn’t handle touring with his rock band and a relationship.

Keep my head down and make it through my final year of school without attracting any attention. That was my plan. The thing about plans? They change. One day, I was an invisible loner, the next, my name was on everyone’s lips. Why? I caught the attention of the wrong person. I tricked Carter Blackthorne, the king of Alstone High. He found out. And now? Now, he’s making me pay.

What do you do when you’re tired of being the loser? You make up the perfect fiancé, of course. I know it sounds desperate, but hear me out. In my family, everyone is someone. But me? I’m just a small-town librarian with no prospects and no future. At every family reunion, my older sister reminds me of that fact. So when she announced her own upcoming nuptials, I knew I had to act fast. I needed a fake fiancé to bring to the wedding and prove that I was happy and successful too.

A divine war shattered the world leaving humanity in ruins. Desperate for hope, they struck a deal with the devious god Kluehnn: He would restore the world to its former glory, but at a price so steep it would keep the mortals indebted to him for eternity. And, as each land was transformed, so too were its people changed into strange new forms—if they survived at all.

From some of the biggest names in horror comes an Advent calendar of short holiday horror stories perfect for the darkest nights of the year.

Feared just as much on the streets as at a crime scene, homicide detective Max Jagger has dedicated his life to one thing: speaking for the dead. Everyone and everything else be damned, including his own demons. During one of the most oppressive heat waves to hit the small, southern town of Berry Springs, the former Navy SEAL is called to a scene where a real estate heiress is found standing over a dead body, holding the murder weapon.

Being a widow and a single mom wasn’t part of my plan. But here I am. I suppose I should consider myself lucky Ben offered us a place to stay. Without him, who knows where we would’ve ended up. Now all I have to do is figure out how to ignore the way my entirely too sexy new roommate sometimes looks at me… and the way those looks make me feel…

Riley Sanders didn’t plan on losing her job as a content marketing manager right before Christmas. When she calls her sister Amy to vent, she learns that their mother has broken her leg and could really use some help at the inn. Riley decides to head home to the inn, nestled along the shores of Cape Cod, in time for the Christmas rush. She is happy to help and needs something to distract her as mistletoe is hung and snowflakes begin to fall.

1916. The two-street town of Wallace is not exactly what Ellen Webster had in mind when she accepted a teaching position in Wyoming, but within a year’s time she’s fallen in love—both with the High Plains and with a handsome cowboy named Charlie Bacon. Life is not easy in the flat, brown corner of the state where winter blizzards are unforgiving and the summer heat relentless. But Ellen and Charlie face it all together, their relationship growing stronger with each shared success, and each deeply felt tragedy.

He and his father have fought their way out of the Abyssinian Plains and returned home stronger than before, but Aster Fall is never peaceful for long, and the tiny village of Cliff’s End is no longer a place they can live.

Brooklyn psychiatrist Dr. Caroline Strange is certain she knows what's best for her patients, her family, and pretty much everyone else, but that all changes when a troubled young man arrives for his appointment and makes a pair of alarming confessions: I am going to kill someone, and I know who you really are. Dr. Caroline is accustomed to hearing her patients’ deepest, darkest secrets, but it seems Nelson Schack may be one step ahead when detectives show up later that day, inquiring about a missing woman.

Astral threads cut across the world, drawing Sam to them like a fire from the past. He discovers that his new race is intrinsically tied to the Void and the stars. Meanwhile, hints of the First War are returning to Aster Fall as the dimension trembles. Flaws are appearing more rapidly than ever, putting pressure on cities across the kingdom. In the shadows, dangerous artifacts related to Outsiders reveal a troubling connection. The relic also holds ancient secrets, some of them powerful enough to change the balance of power in the land.

Every summer, Mane Cantú came to Luna Harbor to visit his grandfather. When we were teenagers, we fell in love. We promised to be each other’s forever. He promised to come back for me. Spoiler alert: he broke all of the promises. I grew up, but that big heartbreak was it for me. All is well until Mane’s grandfather falls ill and all the Cantú family comes back to Luna Harbor. What’s worse is that Mane’s now famous. He made a name for himself with his band, and he and his perfect face dare to open a bar next to my store with his band mates.

What happens when you break the cardinal rule? I’m good at following rules. Like don’t sleep with your hot employees. That’s a good rule. At least I was until that night. I blame the champagne and the tuxedo he wore. There are several reasons why I shouldn’t be attracted to Elliot McPhee. He’s emotionally unavailable. He’s in his mid-forties—too old for me. He’s my employee. He’s jaded after a disastrous divorce. He’s leaving soon. But he has gray eyes, and a deep velvety voice…did I mention he looks like Joshua Jackson?

If I ever cross paths with Gatsby Spearman I might just push him from the tallest building in San Francisco. Saying that I don’t like him is an understatement—I hate him. The prick ghosted me in college, stole the program we created to start a billion-dollar company—oh and I failed a class because of him. I want revenge. And I want it to be petty. I created an infallible five-step plan to make him pay for what he did to me.

Three full-length standalone stories by USA Today Bestselling author Claudia Burgoa about the men who created HIB Securities and the women behind them.

In The Time of My Life, celebrated music journalist Andrea Warner excavates the layers of Dirty Dancing, from its anachronistic, chart-topping soundtrack, to Baby and Johnny’s chemistry, to Bergstein’s political intentions, to the abortion subplot that is more relevant today than ever. The film’s remarkable longevity would never have been possible if it was just a throwaway summer fling story. It is precisely because of its themes—deeply feminist, sensitively written—that we, over 30 years later, are still holding our breath during that last, exhilarating lift.