Showing results by narrator "Amanda Ronconi" in All Categories

"I drew a deep breath. I’d spoken more in one burst to this stranger whose room I’d invaded than anyone else in weeks. And with a single word he could alert the Pop Cops and send me to the Chomper. We stared at each other for a few heartbeats. Before I could retreat he said, 'My name’s Riley Narelle Ashon. Any time you need peace, you’re welcome to use my hideaway.'"

It was supposed to be a fun day, shopping at the mall with her best friend. Then the panic attack started and Kaylee Cavanaugh finds herself screaming, unable to stop. Her secret fears are exposed, and it's the worst day of her life....Until she wakes up in the psychiatric unit. She tries to convince everyone she's fine--despite the shadows she sees forming around another patient and the urge to scream which comes burbling up again and again.

My name is Dixie. I'm a Demon - a lousy Demon. I'm a 21-year-old virgin, and I have a battery-operated boyfriend. My magic is iffy at best and downright dangerous at worst. Leaving Hell to represent my race is not high on my list of things to do. Hell was exact. Hell was simple. All I want to do is get to home base with the hotter-than-Hades Demon of my dreams and work on my dark side so Satan, my dad, will get off my ass.

Miranda Puckett has failed at every job she’s ever had. Her mother just wants her to come home, join the family law firm, and settle down with Jason, the perfect lawyer boyfriend. But when Jason turns out to be a lying cheater, Miranda seizes on a job that gets her out of town: long-distance vampire transportation. Her first assignment is to drive vampire Collin Sutherland from Washington to sleepy Half Moon Hollow without incident—no small feat for a woman whom trouble seems to follow like a faithful hound dog!

Tracking down Aunt Lavender's kidnapper is proving to be more difficult than running through a swimming pool filled with peanut butter. Every lead we uncover ends with more questions than answers.

Generations of werewolves have been secretly residing in a secluded valley a stones throw from Grundy, Alaska. So when a snooping Outsider comes to Grundy to investigate rumors of lycanthropic shenanigans in the area, the valleys pack alpha, Maggie Graham, resolves to chase him away, even if doing so takes a quick bite on the butt. What a pity that researcher Nick Thatcher turns out to be so drool-worthy, and that his kisses make Maggie want to sit up and beg.

I've always wanted to meet a mermaid, but when I finally get my chance on New Year's Eve, the circumstances are far darker than I'd imagined. One of the mermaids isn't what she appears to be, and if I don't find a way to break the spell, she will never be herself again. With strange magic in the air and a dangerous force lurking in the shadows, I have to find the truth and keep myself from being the next one to wind up caught in the sorcerer's web.

When fragile 16-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. And she's alive, though currently trapped in the 12th century, during the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Hope has 77 hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time.

For the first time in her life, Hope Walton has friends...and a (maybe) boyfriend. She's a Viator, a member of a long line of time-traveling ancestors. When the Viators learn of a plan to steal a dangerous device from the inventor Nikola Tesla, only a race into the past can save the natural timeline from utter destruction. Navigating the glitterati of the Gilded Age in 1895 New York City, Hope and her crew will discover that high society can be as deadly as it is beautiful.

After landing my first official journalist job I thought the ideas would be spilling out faster than I could type. But it turns out life in the shadow of my debut piece is a little...make that a lot, harder than I expected. So, when a convicted murderer reaches out begging for help in proving her innocence, I jump at the chance to dig into another investigation. The only problem? This trail is ice cold.

Kelsey is known around the office for having everything under control. So it's not surprising that she and her boss, Sadie, have everything planned to the second for the office winter retreat. But there are things even Kelsey can't micromanage. An unprecedented snowstorm smothers half of Kentucky and knocks out the power, closes the roads, and generally shuts down the state.

Our media environment is in crisis. Polarization is rampant. Polluted information floods social media. Even our best efforts to help clean up can backfire, sending toxins roaring across the landscape. In You Are Here, Whitney Phillips and Ryan Milner offer strategies for navigating increasingly treacherous information flows. Using ecological metaphors, they emphasize how our individual me is entwined within a much larger we, and how everyone fits within an ever-shifting network map.

Top toy designer Star Clearwater is convinced that Christmas is cursed. What's supposed to be her hard-earned vacation turns into chaos when her mother lures her to the North Pole only for all spell to break loose at her arrival. A heinous hex threatens the entire toy production inside Santa's Toy Workshop, putting millions of children's wishes in jeopardy. If her mother - who reports directly to Mrs. Claus - can't get things under control, Christmas won't be the only thing getting canned.

Cassidy Kincaide runs Trifles and Folly in modern-day Charleston, an antiques and curios shop with a dangerous secret. Cassidy can read the history of objects by touching them and together with Teag, a hacker and weaver witch, and Sorren, a 600-year-old vampire, they get rid of cursed objects and keep Charleston and the world safe from supernatural threats.

Witty, snarky, and (deep down) sincere, Elizabeth Paulson offers advice and encouragement for 20- and 30-somethings on their quest to find love - or at least requited lust.

Lumi Northrop is having the best summer of her life. She's earned the respect of the entire haven after her role in recovering Rudolph and saving Jack Frost, her family's reindeer sanctuary is thriving, and she's even got herself a date to the Summer Solstice Celebration. Life is sweeter than a bowl full of jelly. Right up until the beloved frost pixies start going full gremlins-after-midnight, wrecking havoc around the sanctuary, and threatening to invade the entire magical Christmas village. Can they save the pixies before they are lost forever?

Tylene McClaine, black sheep of the McClaine Half Moon Hollow werewolf pack, has spent a lifetime blocking out the criticisms of her boisterous pack. They say she’s too bookish, too sarcastic, and worst of all, too picky when it comes to finding a nice werewolf boy and settling down. But when she meets vampire and Half Moon Hollow music teacher Alex Bonfils, Tylene starts to wonder if she could create the life she’s always wanted.

Iris Scanlon, Half-Moon Hollow's only daytime vampire concierge, knows more about the undead than she'd like. Running all their daylight errands - from letting in the plumber to picking up some chilled O neg - gives her a look at the not-so-glamorous side of vampire life. Her rules are strict; relationships with vamps are strictly business, not friendship - and certainly not anything else. But then she finds her newest client, Cal, poisoned on his kitchen floor, and only Iris can help.

Lacey Terwilligers shock and humiliation over her husband’s philandering prompt her to add some bonus material to Mike's company newsletter: stunning Technicolor descriptions of the special brand of "administrative support" his receptionist gives him. The detailed mass email to Mike's family, friends, and clients blows up in her face, and before one can say "instant urban legend", Lacey has become the pariah of her small Kentucky town, a media punch line, and the defendant in Mike's defamation lawsuit.

The truth of what happened to Aunt Lavender has finally been dragged into the light—so why does everything feel darker than before? With the help of Selene and an unexpected ally, we have one final mission to accomplish. It's not going to be easy, but we're not going down without a fight.