Showing results by narrator "Christina Traister" in All Categories

This year, Ali and Stephen are both just trying to make it through the holidays. Stephen is fresh out of a relationship and dreading the prospect of Christmas alone. Ali, on the other hand, can't celebrate with friends or family. The most important man in her life is dying - decorating cookies and hanging tinsel aren't even on her radar. When the two meet during a chance encounter, Stephen's instant attraction to Ali spurs him into action.

In her journal, writer Piper George notes the change of seasons. Each entry marks the passage of time since she became a teen mother and put her baby up for adoption. Her words flow together, painting a picture of loss, hope, and enduring love for the daughter she's never forgotten. But one autumn, a new presence appears in its pages and in her life: her neighbor, Edward "Ned" Chesterfield.

A missing son returns - only to vanish again within 24 hours. Can a secret from his mother's past unlock the mystery of his disappearance? When Carrie Morgan's young son is snatched from the backseat of her car, she prays for one more day with him. Months later, she comes home to find Ben safe and sound in his crib. But the next day he's gone again, and the police suspect her involvement. Carrie is convinced that Ben is dead and that his brief return was a miracle sent to help her move on.

Caecilia, Roman born but Etruscan wed, forsakes Rome to return to her husband, Vel Mastarna, exposing herself to the enmity of his people while knowing the Romans will give her a traitor's death if Veii falls. Semni, a reckless Etruscan servant in the House of Mastarna, embroils herself in schemes that threaten Caecilia's son and Semni's own chance for love. Pinna, a destitute Roman prostitute, uses coercion to gain the attention of Rome's greatest general at the risk of betraying Caecilia's cousin.

It's the 1970s, and the fight for women's rights is gaining speed. In the sports world, Billie Jean King is breaking gender barriers on the tennis court. Janet Guthrie doesn't consider herself a "women's libber," but to racing's good ol' boys, she's a threat. When Guthrie makes a bid for Indy in 1976, the other drivers slam her mercilessly, even suggesting she's really a man. Fans heckle her, hoping she'll crash. Guthrie smiles through the pain and qualifies for Indy in 1978.

A stifling heat wave rolls into New York City, amplifying the already critical level of tension in the fragile concrete ecosystem. The air tastes of electricity - the negative charge of bad things to come - but everyone hopes it’s just the temperature. Then, on the morning homicide detective Alexandra “Hemi” Hemingway finds out she is pregnant, a twisted serial killer makes his debut. And the heat goes up.

Overmatched and far from home, torn between revenge and duty, Elena Aureli is running out of time. She has youth, beauty, and money, all of which she pours into her obsessive hunt for the man she believes murdered her father. Betrayed in an attempt to secure proof of the crime, she finds herself alone in an unfamiliar city—mysterious Old Montreal—her prey now the predator, and only five days left to finish the job for which she has sacrificed so much.

At a time when nothing seems real, it takes something truly unusual to put your life into focus. When her beloved husband, Jackson, disappeared without a trace, popular novelist Sia Dane stopped writing, closed down her house, stuffed her heart into a cage, and started floating. It wasn’t the normal response to heartache, but Sia rarely did things the normal way. Exactly one year, one month, and six days after Jackson’s disappearance, Sia discovers a mysterious man on the beach. He’s mute, unresponsive, and looks as if he has just walked out of the sea.

Kate McKenna is a photojournalist with a renegade reputation - and a fearless streak that lands her in an experimental hot air balloon, flying over the Rio Grande with the infamous Nick O’Brien. She wants to capture the real man behind the brilliant inventor, but to do that she needs to survive a crash landing in a lawless land and the ruthless bandits who take them hostage. As they conspire to escape their captors, Nick’s fierce protective instinct ignites a deep, primitive desire.

Waiting for Prince Charming to ride up on his white horse and make you happy? Don’t waste your time.You hold the reins of your own happiness. We women have all the power, knowledge, and confidence necessary to create the life we want - without relying on a man to do it for us. We just need to learn to use our innate gifts and start living deliberately today.

When runners aren't running, they are talking about running, planning their next run, shopping for running. This audiobook contains 101 stories from runners, telling their stories to other runners about. Running - how it has changed their lives, their bodies, and their spirits. Runners will love these inspirational stories of fellow runners challenging themselves, recovering from injuries, and staying motivated.

The jockey, the wealthy owner, the veteran trainer: one by one they die. All players in the high-stakes world of horse racing - and all complicit in its terrible sins. By making them pay, one killer earns the chance to make his point…while the mastermind behind it all draws closer to the fatal finish line. San Diego CSI Holly Jennings has seen enough violence in her career to know the difference between a killer bent on revenge - and a killer bent on chaos. She knows there’s more to these murders than meets the eye.

Magnolia Kelch is no stranger to pain. Beautiful and powerful, she’s spent her entire life at the mercy of her sadistic father and the rest of the Kelch clan, who have tortured her and tested the limits of her powers. After one particularly heinous night that leaves Magnolia nearly dead, she finally sees her chance for escape….

But this first taste of freedom is short-lived when she collides with Thirteen, head of the Network - a secret organization dedicated to fighting supernatural criminals - who recruits her into the group.

Imagine how it would feel to be fully valued for what you do best. What if your boss, your customers, and your family really appreciated what you have to offer? How proud would you be if your organization won the top spot among Fortune Magazine’s “Most Admired Companies?” What if Jim Collins rated you a “Level 5 leader?” In this audiobook, you’ll find 21 simple and powerful strategies that will help you become more valued in a crowded and competitive world.

Nicholas, Kevin. Age 19. Died at York Hospital, July 19, 2012. Kev's the first kid their age to die. And now, even though he's dead, he's not really gone. Even now his choices are touching the people he left behind. Rita Williams-Garcia follows one aimless teen as he finds a new life in his new job - at the mortuary. Ellen Hopkins reveals what two altar boys (and one altar girl) might get up to at the cemetery at night.

Each year, a down-and-out America looks to the Gauntlet games for sheer spectacle and - for one lucky state - a better chance at survival. In 2023, former-police-detective-turned-paramedic Lara Evans is poised to enter the punishing endurance competition, determined to bring glory and a major economic boost back home to Oregon. But treacherous tests of physical and mental prowess - and a pack of cutthroat rivals - are far from the greatest obstacles Lara faces. Saving a hit man’s victim has made her a target, and the murder of a fellow contestant has branded her a suspect.

Anna Reuben intends to get out of Summer Breeze - the quaint seaside resort where she's just inherited a house - and back to the city as quickly as possible. The last thing she wants to do is stick around and dredge up old emotions about the mother who abandoned her as a child. But her plans are foiled by an encounter with Scott Murray, a sexy single dad and a neighbor and close friend of Anna's late mother.

Death has always stalked single mother Allie Callahan. For the first time in her life, she has found a fragile sort of happiness living a quiet, peaceful existence in East Texas with her young son, Sammy, and her adoptive mother. Still, Allie fears she may be susceptible to the same mental illness that destroyed her serial-killer mother and brother. She's haunted by the idea that she could become incapable of caring for Sammy.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs returns to sun-drenched Bella Vista, where the land's bounty yields a rich harvest…and family secrets that have long been buried.

Isabel Johansen, a celebrated chef who grew up in the sleepy Sonoma town of Archangel, is transforming her childhood home into a destination cooking school—a unique place for other dreamers to come and learn the culinary arts. Bella Vista's rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchards, bountiful gardens and beehives, is the idyllic venue for Isabel's project…and the perfect place for her to forget the past.

But Isabel's carefully ordered plans begin to go awry when swaggering, war-torn journalist Cormac O'Neill arrives to dig up old history. He's always been better at exposing the lives of others than showing his own closely guarded heart, but the pleasures of small-town life and the searing sensuality of Isabel's kitchen coax him into revealing a few truths of his own.

The dreamy sweetness of summer is the perfect time of year for a grand family wedding and the enchanting Beekeeper's Ball, bringing emotions to a head in a story where the past and present collide to create an unexpected new future.

From "one of the best observers of stories of the heart" (Salem Statesman-Journal), The Beekeeper's Ball is an exquisite and richly imagined novel of the secrets that keep us from finding our way, the ties binding us to family and home, and the indelible imprint love can make on the human heart.

By the best-selling author of The Dress Lodger, Sheri Holman’s new and most ambitious novel to date, Witches on the Road Tonight, uncovers the secrets and lies that echo through three generations of one Appalachian family. It is a deeply human, urgent exploration of America’s doomed love affair with fear. On the eve of World War II, eight-year-old Eddie Alley lies in bed watching his first horror movie, hand-cranked and flickering on the bare wall of a backwoods cabin. In 2011, Eddie’s daughter, Wallis, an anchorwoman for a 24-hour news channel, lies in bed with a stranger, spinning ghost stories.