Showing results by narrator "Joe Hempel" in All Categories

Never fall in love with a sports star. That's what my stepfather always said. He told me athletes are complicated and moody - that the higher their paycheck, the lower their morals. As public relations for the New York Stingers, I know exactly what he means, but I can’t seem to say no to a friendship with one beautiful, damaged man. What started out as hate turned into something else. We tried to stay away, to keep our distance, but the pull was too strong.

Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America and winner of countless awards—including the Hugo, Nebula, Edgar Allan Poe, and Bram Stoker—Harlan Ellison proved once more that he was both unpredictable and irrepressible in this second collection of innovative science fiction. Again, Dangerous Visions—the middle installment in a planned three anthology series—includes award-winning stories from incomparable writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Piers Anthony, Dean Koontz, and James Tiptree, among many others.

Dive into the moral philosophy at the heart of all four seasons of NBC's The Good Place, guided by academic experts, including the show's philosophical consultants Pamela Hieronymi and Todd May, and featuring a foreword from creator and showrunner Michael Schur.

A man content with his life has no idea what he's missing. Clay lives a quiet and steady life. He's a simple man with few needs. Or at least that's what he told himself. One out of town business trip. One sweet and tenacious cowgirl with a zest for life. One night they'll never forget. Meeting Winnie not only disrupts his careful routine but changes his life forever.

Bella: Meeting him was a fluke. Dating him was a mistake. Watching him become a drug addict put me through hell. Running was my only option. Jackson: I'm running from my demons and when I find out she's trying to escape her past, I know what I have to do. One broken cop. One woman fighting for her life. A fragile love. Sinister secrets that threaten to tear them apart. They've been to hell. The hard part will be finding their way back together.

Across the Pacific Northwest, a twisted killer stalks victims representing ancient archetypes: The Ruler. The Warrior. The Scholar. The Priest. Four are dead, leaving FBI investigators puzzled by the macabre, color-coded shrines the killer left behind. And clues now point to a fifth victim.

Alexander Madison is part lawyer, part pastor, and part con artist. When a Muslim imam is accused of instigating honor killings, Alex must decide whether to take the case that every other lawyer in town is running away from. He doesn't realize until it's too late that defending the imam may cost him the one thing in life he cares about most. Fatal Convictions is the story of a lawyer willing to risk it all and the women who must choose between faith and love.

Grant Phillips has always been a team player. He lives his life for the Force and worked hard to land a coveted spot with Team Bravo. He follows the rules, keeps his head down, and never causes trouble. Grant does everything for everyone else and wants for very little. The mission always comes first, until she waltzes into his life.

The blizzard begins pummeling the Midwest on Christmas Eve, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Todd Curry doesn't need another reason to disappoint his son, so he joins three other people in renting the last four-wheel drive available and they set out into the blinding snow. Only two hours into the treacherous trip west, Todd swerves to avoid a man in the middle of the highway. The stranger claims his daughter is lost somewhere out in the snow.

After the failure in Straken, Otto is forced to accept that as long as Garenland’s enemies can send reinforcements through the portals, the Northern Army has no hope of taking Marduke. But Otto has a plan: Seize control of the portals, and turn the enemy’s strength against them. To accomplish this seemingly impossible goal, Garenland’s top spies are dispatched to place magical patches on the portals in every capital. Behind enemy lines and on their own, it will be a miracle if the spies can survive, much less complete their missions.

Jade Michaels is a coyote shifter who rebels against society and embraces the negative stereotypes of her kind. Her father bailed on her mother the second she found out she was pregnant, leaving Jade to believe that true mates are nothing more than fabricated fairy tales. At the start of her senior year at the ARC, Jade is determined to leave her mark and embarks on a campus wide inclusion campaign. Her number one goal is to take down Greek Row.

For the four years Kaitlyn has been at Archibald Reynolds College, she has been watched over and cared for without question by each and every member of Delta Omega Gamma. Most don't even know why and they never ask. Now, she's about to graduate and leave the safe haven they've created for her. She can't go back home. She's not sure she can survive on her own in the human world. But it's time she stands on her own two feet. Scared and alone, Kaitlyn must face her life head on if she is ever going to rise above the demons of her past.

A must-listen fantasy novel from the author of the Soul Force Saga series.

Almost since her first shift, Emma has lived in her fur as a leader amongst the gorillas in Africa. With her kind nearing extinction, she worked tirelessly to protect and guide her band. Even when that meant sacrificing herself to the Raglan. They hadn’t been looking for another shifter, just a strong beast that would make them a lot of money in illegal underground animal cage fighting to further their experiments on shifters. Instead, they got Emma.

Luke Larken gets the surprise of his life when his howl is returned while out on a run. He knows immediately it's his one true mate, and it's coming from Collier territory. His once rival and now friend Thomas Collier and his mate Lily are more than happy to help him with the hunt to find her. Coming face-to-face with her should be the greatest moment of his life but instead is met with contempt and prejudice. He doesn't know that when his predecessor split the packs, Luke's mate had her family broken in pieces.

The Aegis of Merlin Omnibus: Vol. 2 contains four complete novels: Escape the Dragon Czar, Wrath of the Dragon Czar, The Four Nations Tournament, and Death Incarnate.

Fifteen years ago, the quiet streets of a peaceful neighborhood were shattered by an unspeakable tragedy: Peter Garrett went to jail the same night his five-year-old daughter, Jamie Garrett, mysteriously disappeared from her bedroom, never to be seen again. The chilling events cast a shadow over the town, one that has lingered ever since. Now, the neighborhood is once again gripped by terror as a sadistic killer, cloaked in a grotesque Santa mask, embarks on a bloody rampage-slaughtering women and brutally castrating men, all while leaving cryptic clues that lead back to the Garrett house.

I Love You, More offers insight into the various perspectives and experiences of family members who have dealt with the harrowing disease of addiction. The goal of this quick, accessible book is to be the conduit that allows you to enter the body and mind of a substance abuser and their family, to see the world through their eyes as they navigate their way through one of the most heart-breaking and gut-wrenching hardships they will ever face.

The Rising is the story of Jim Thurmond, a determined father battling his way across a post-apocalyptic zombie landscape, to find his young son. Accompanied by Martin, a preacher still holding to his faith, and Frankie, a recovering heroin addict with an indomitable will to survive, Jim travels from state to state and town to town facing an endless onslaught of undead hordes and the evils perpetrated by his fellow man.

It all began when the wizards of the White League were under attack by their opponents of the Black League and one of their most powerful members cast a spell to bring forth a mighty wizard to aid their cause. What the spell delivered was master hacker Walter "Wiz" Zumwalt. But spells are a lot like computer programs, and, in spite of the Wiz's unprepossessing appearance, he was going to defeat the all-powerful Black League, win the love of a beautiful red-haired witch, and prove that when it comes to spells and sorcery, nobody but nobody can beat a Silicon Valley computer geek!