Showing results by narrator "Liisa Ivary" in All Categories

Rosie Mortimer, celebrity gardener with a successful TV show, has a pleasantly uneventful life with her undemanding beau. Her gay son and his partner live nearby. When her estranged daughter Susannah, product of a fractured family, returns to Rosie's Connecticut town with her husband, a former priest, to open a restaurant, the tense relationships among these three build to a near-tragedy.

They have been dared and double dared, and they've flirted with the truth, but as Kat and Simon tumble deeper into their sexual odyssey, their love for one another blooms magnificent and fierce. Soon their love is threatened, but Kat's certain nothing can tear them apart. Then duty calls, and Simon's betrayal is revealed.

When a woman is found murdered in her North Beach apartment in San Francisco, Casey McKie takes on the case as a favor to her friend Dee Jefferson. The singer and club owner wants Casey to prove the man accused of the crime, jazz drummer Greg Sanderson, is innocent. Casey discovers the crime scene is free of forensic evidence. She figures it's the work of an experienced killer, and more murders with the same tactics prove her hunch correct.

New York City in the Jazz Age was host to a pulsating artistic and social revolution. Uptown, an unprecedented explosion in Black music, literature, dance, and art sparked the Harlem Renaissance. While the history of this African-American awakening has been widely explored, one chapter remains untold: The story of a group of women collectively dubbed “Miss Anne.” Kaplan’s formidable work remaps the landscape of the 1920s, and alters our perception of this historical moment.

Michael Ruane is an obscure American opera singer who arrives in Naples to play a small part in an important production of Tosca and star in his own staging of a little-known Benjamin Britten opera. The work comes at a particularly trying time, when he’s still raw with grief after his New York lover’s death from AIDS. As the productions get under way, Ruane is offered an unusual part: That of the “uncle from Rome” at a local wedding.

One morning can change everything. Five mornings can change a life. Friends. Lovers. Enemies. Allies. Alex McCann and Teodora "Ted" Vasquez never had a simple relationship. But you couldn't call it a boring one, either. Five mornings in their past shape who they will become to each other. To their families. And to the mysterious town they call home.

"Kalopsia", a word meaning "the delusion of things being more beautiful than they actually are", is what happens to us when we think we've fallen in love. Almost-love Stories is a collection of four short stories that almost ended well. Love isn't the way romance novels make it seem. Happily ever after doesn't exist and love is blind, but perhaps we should open our eyes.

Feisty. Ballsy. Bold. And not your average 70-year-old woman. After a late-night tryst with a much younger man, Maisie Fezziwig wakes to a harrowing scream outside. Curious, she removes a pistol from her dresser drawer and walks outside to investigate. The sleepy street is still and calm at first, until Maisie stumbles on a grisly murder that will change her life forever.

Victoria Lowell grew up in the privileged world of the Boston Brahmins. She had everything she could want...except love. After being jilted, the society miss travels a thousand miles to marry a man she's never met whose romantic letters won her heart. To her surprise, and dismay, the groom who meets her at the train station exhibits little interest in romance.

When everything you've longed for is standing right in front of you, would you find the courage to chase it when you've given up on dreams? Fox shifter Alison Smith gave up on happy endings when her ex-husband walked out, but that didn't mean she was allowed to give up on happy. With four growing kids, Allie is determined to look on the bright side and carry on, even when life seems to keep kicking the girl who's fallen down.

In When Good Wishes Go Bad, Becca Morris thrives in her job as a dramaturg/producer - at least until her current production is derailed by threatened copyright litigation. Even worse, her boyfriend has gone on the lam, stealing her life savings and most of the theater's funds. That's when a brass lamp enters the picture - a brass lamp with a wish-granting genie. Before Becca knows it, she's juggling magic, a brilliant new play by a hot new playwright, and a battle of guerilla gardeners (yes, really!) the likes of which New York City has never seen.

Schoolteacher Maggie O'Brien comes home for Christmas on a mission - to gather toys for orphans living on poor farms in Kansas. She's made her list, but there's no Santa in sight. Not until a local shopkeeper volunteers his services. Gordon Sumner sets his mind on winning the black-haired Irish beauty, but Maggie's brother is his fiercest competitor, and O'Brien's loyal sister gives him the cold shoulder. Undaunted, he comes up with a clever plan - Santa will deliver gifts with a "wife" at his side.

Time travel is a dream long held by human beings. Who hasn't had fond thoughts about showing Nicola Tesla their personal Tesla coil or taking him for a drive in an electric car that bears his name? The devil is in the details of the technology, which is what ties together this collection of short fiction. The stories in this collection appeared in Analog science fiction magazine between 1990 and 2000.

Alex McCann and Teodora "Ted" Vasquez left Cambio Springs together. Ted came back. Alex didn't. Now, years later, the future alpha of the McCann wolves has returned with plans to bring new life to the dying desert community. Plans that could change everything for the isolated enclave of shapeshifters in the California desert. Some love the plan. Others hate it. As the town's doctor and one of the strongest daughters in the cat clan, Ted has her own concerns about exposing her community to outsiders.

Fly to a luxurious, five-star resort in St. Barts with your personalized dating coach, Elisa Henderson. Show up on the plane with a guy you just picked up. Find out Brett Jordan isn't just a drool-worthy hottie with a rockin' hard bod-he's also a total player...and Elisa's former best friend! Day Two:

Be problematic. Disappear with a cute paparazzo. Besides, Elisa and Brett are now alone in a tropical paradise, and Elisa's about to break the first commandment of date coaching: Thou Shall Not Sexily Ravage Your Client's Date.

Elections are the bedrock of any democracy, but they are under attack in the United States. State legislatures are moving to limit voting rights and seize control of election administration, candidates are refusing to accept election results, and antidemocracy forces are sowing lies and encouraging political violence. The States United Democracy Center is fighting back by equipping state and local officials, law enforcement leaders, and prodemocracy partners with the tools and resources they need to protect free, fair, and secure elections.

She didn’t look like a fraud and a liar, and after years in Army Intelligence, Col. Sam Oliver should know. Instead Elizabeth Hardy was a pale, vulnerable-looking waif, though he didn’t buy her innocent act. He’d always made it a rule to keep his hands off his targets. Some rules were made to be broken.