Showing results by narrator "Renée Raudman" in All Categories

Imagining the best way to destroy a person’s happiness is Crystal Love’s favorite game. Devious and unpolished, the plus-sized loan analyst couldn’t be more out of place in her new town of Santa Barbara, where the beautifully manicured women never age and the ocean views stretch farther than the million-dollar lawns. And yet her eye for the power dynamics at play in this tony community is dead accurate. Kathi Wright, on the other hand, has made it her life’s work to fit in with the plastic people who surround her. But when her husband - a wealthy bank president - dies suddenly, she’s left with nothing.

When Joy Montrose received her commission to paint a mural depicting the healing miracles of Jesus at Good Samaritan Hospital, she never anticipated forming a close friendship with Evan Marshall. But the bond between the talented young artist and the gifted surgeon has grown, even though their lives are worlds apart. Now, with the family estate falling suddenly and unexpectedly into Joy's hands, she finds herself sifting not only through the memorabilia of generations but through her own heart and aspirations. Is it truly love that she feels for Evan?

The bones reveal a more recent murder, with her deceased uncle leading the suspect list. As Tai struggles to clear Dexter's name - and save the business he left her - she uncovers deadly secrets also buried in the red Georgia clay and realizes there's a live murderer on the loose, a clever killer who has tried to conceal the crimes of the present in the stories of the past.

Willa Muir can't remember her fourth year of life. An early, undefined childhood trauma blacks her memory behind what feels like an impenetrable wall. And with her parents in the hereafter, she can't ask them to clarify what happened. She can't see the invisible, so she researches to obsession, aching to know the truth.

Six months ago, New York restaurant owner Alexis "Lexi" Moreau walked in on her husband, Jeff, and their sous chef mixing business with pleasure. Now, Lexi is back in her hometown of St. Helena, California, rebuilding her life and hoping to turn her grandmother’s patisserie into the bistro of her dreams. All she needs is luck, lots of hard work, and a way to avoid the 30 blind dates her matchmaking grandmother arranged. Enter Marco DeLuca - Jeff’s handsome, commitment-phobe best friend who has always had his sights set on Lexi.

With everything happening on Helen Peppe's backwoods Maine farm - ferocious sibling rivalry, rock-bottom poverty, feral male chauvinism, sex in the hayloft - life was out of control, even for the animals. Despite the chaos, in telling her family's story, Peppe manages deadpan humor, an unerring eye for the absurd, and a touching compassion for her utterly overwhelmed parents. While her feisty resilience and candor will inevitably remind listeners of Jeannette Walls or Mary Karr, Peppe's wry insight and moments of tenderness with family and animals are entirely her own.

Before arriving at Oberlin in 1973, Clare Mann had never met anyone like Sally Rose. Rich and beautiful, Sally is utterly foreign to a middle-class, Midwestern Protestant like Clare - and utterly fascinating. The fascination only grows when Sally brings her home to L.A. Mr. Rose - charismatic, charming, and the owner of a profitable business shrouded in secrecy - is nearly as compelling a figure to Clare as he is to his own daughter.

Behind Michael Raney’s good looks lies a string of ex-girlfriends…and a web of secrets. A former CIA agent, stunt coordinator, and one of the dashing, sexy members of Thrillseekers Anonymous, Michael earned the nickname Extreme Bachelor after dating and dumping countless women over the years. But there’s one woman he can’t forget: actress Leah Klein. Still devastated that Michael dumped her - especially since she thought a marriage proposal was on his lips - former Broadway star Leah almost faints when she sees him coordinating the stunts on the set of her first movie. This film was supposed to be her big break, not another heartbreak.

Can Chris forgive the unforgivable?If not, is she willing to pay the cost? A cost that may be more than she ever imagined.... There's nothing Chris McIntyre hates more than child abuse. And now one of the children at Kimberley Square's new gymnasium is showing the signs - signs Chris knows all too well. With no evidence to take to the police, the tough-as-nails former soldier knows it's time to take matters into her own hands. But her anger at the abuser goes deeper than defending an innocent child....

Niki had come to France to seek her true identity and to experience the richness of her French heritage. But what begins as a romantic, carefree summer holiday for Niki; her stepbrother, Luc Montrose; and their friend Paul Duval, ends with the outbreak of war, changing their lives forever. As World War II ravages Europe, Niki wants desperately to serve her native country in its time of need. She finds herself making dangerous decisions and facing dramatic challenges, aware of - but unable to do anything about - the impact the war is having on her loved ones back at Montclair.

It was to be a very special summer, the summer of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, the 60th year of the English monarch's reign. It was the summer Faith Devlin had looked forward to with great anticipation - the pressures of her debutante year were over, Jeff Montrose was back in London, and her American cousins were coming for a family reunion at the beautiful country estate of Birchfields. It was the summer of unexpected encounters and romantic enterprises....

Natalie Black, the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James, has returned to Washington, her job in jeopardy. Her fiancé, George McCallum, Viscount Lockenby, has died in a car accident, and mysterious rumors that she's responsible begin to surface: she broke off the engagement and, heartbroken, he killed himself. Then someone tries to force her off the M-2 outside London. Again, rumors claim it was a sympathy ploy.

Tennis has been Willy Novinsky's one love ever since she first picked up a racquet at the age of four. A middle-ranked pro at 23, she's met her match in Eric Oberdorf, a low-ranked Princeton grad who also intends to make his mark on the international tennis circuit. Eric becomes Willy's first passion off the court, and eventually they marry. But while wedded life begins well, competition soon puts a strain on their relationship - and an accident sends Willy sliding irrevocably toward resentment, tragedy, and despair.

At the end of Operation Desert Storm, close friends and female soldiers Chris and Erin go their separate ways--without even saying good-bye. When tragedy reunites them four years later, one's fear of God and the other's faith in Him collide in a different kind of war only one of them can win.

Alicia, Brice, and Caroline are the ABCs - three close friends who have been brought together while working at the cozy medical practice of Drs. Markowitz and Strub in Midburg, Ohio. But when Alicia and Dr. Strub begin an affair, a dramatic chain of events ensues that gradually but drastically alters the office environment - ultimately requiring all five coworkers to redefine their relationships to one another.

Carry the One begins in the hours following Carmen's wedding reception, when a car filled with stoned, drunk, and sleepy guests accidently hits and kills a girl on a dark, country road. For the next 25 years, those involved, including Carmen and her brother and sister, connect, disconnect, and reconnect with one another and their victim. As one character says, "When you add us up, you always have to carry the one."

Trouble is brewing in the first book of the Tales from the Five Kingdoms series. The sorceress Lady Lamorna wants a skull-studded gown of deep black velvet but finds her treasure chest empty of gold. That doesn't stop her from kidnapping, blackmailing, and using more than a little magic to get what she needs. Will all her plans be foiled by the heroic Gracie Gillypot, two chatty bats, a gallant prince, the wickedest stepsister ever, a troll with a grudge, and some very Ancient Crones?

Tai Randolph thinks inheriting a Confederate-themed gun shop is her biggest headache—until she finds a murdered corpse in her brother’s driveway. Even worse, her supposedly respectable brother begins behaving in decidedly non-innocent ways, like fleeing to the Bahamas and leaving her with both a homicide in her lap and the pointed suspicions of the Atlanta Police Department directed her way. Suddenly, she has to worry about clearing her own name, not just that of her wayward sibling.

It's been a brutal year for rookie New Orleans cop Maureen Coughlin. Her first arrests, her first black eye, and, after a stinging brush with the corrupt heart of her adopted city, her first suspension. As she waits out the suspension, hoping to save her badge, Maureen finds increasingly dark and dangerous ways to pass the time. Justice, she tells herself, is being served. No need for the NOPD to know what she's doing.

Venus Rasmussen, a powerful eighty-six-year-old woman who still runs Rasmussen Industries, an international conglomerate, believes someone is poisoning her. Who's trying to kill her and why? A member of her rapacious family, or her grandson who's been missing for ten years and suddenly reappears? Savich and Sherlock must peel away the layers to uncover the incredible truth about who would target Venus.