Showing results by narrator "Lyssa Browne" in All Categories

Eleven-year-old Lydia Green doesn’t want anything to change. She lives happily in Mulberry Glen with her mismatched family of a fairy guardian, a philosopher, and twin troublemakers known as the Zs. But now, rumors swirl about The Darkness, a powerful force that dwells in the forest Tenebrae. Lydia knows The Darkness is nothing to be trifled with, but when a foolish choice by the Zs puts her family in danger, she must leave home and face the strange magical world of The Valleylands.

Meredith's family's annual game of assassin at Martha's Vineyard during a summer wedding is the perfect chance to honor her sister's legacy, and finally join the world again. But when she forms an alliance with a cute groomsman, she's at risk of losing both the game . . . and her heart.

At the age of 55, record-breaking ultrarunner Mimi Anderson embarked on her most ambitious adventure yet. She wanted to become the fastest woman in history to run across America from Los Angeles to New York. For 40 days, the determined mother of three pushed herself on and on for more than 2,000 miles across the vast continent, despite the onset of severe pain, until she was forced to make a crushing decision: carry on and risk never being able to run again, or give up on her all-time goal.

In her 20s, Emily Watson was on top of the world: she had a best-selling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of GQ, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after. Ten years later, the tide has turned on Emily's good fortune. So when her great-Aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. Researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal startling connections to her own life. The Violets of March announces Sarah Jio as a writer to watch.

Three Wise Cats is an inspirational tale about three cats and their journey to witness the first Christmas. The old Siamese Ptolemy was alongside his master when a star of unusual brightness was seen in the heavens, indicating an event of momentous significance, and leading to a great place and fulfill the prophecy: The three shall find the one.

Contemporary relationships are in a state of rapid evolution. These changes can and should empower people with the opportunity to develop partnerships based on their own sexualities, understandings, and agreements. This makes it possible to create what Kenneth Haslam, founder of the Kinsey Institute's Polyamory Archive, has called designer relationships. The possibilities are limitless, and thinking about a partnership as something people can craft allows for flexibility and change.

Secrets lurk in these hallowed halls… Jess and Hannah Ballard’s time in Edinburgh has revealed a formidable new enemy in the form of Alasdair MacLeod, the vicious spirit of a former Caomhnóir whose deranged and dangerous experiments on other ghosts have led to chaos in the spirit world. While Hannah works to reverse the terrible and mysterious Collection Alasdair left behind in the city’s underground closes, Jess and Finn track Alasdair to Kingshurst University, where they suspect Alasdair first encountered the Necromancers.

Some cryptic words wake college student Jess Ballard from a terrifying dream into an even more terrifying reality. Jess’ life has never been what anyone would call easy; doing damage control in the wake of your nomadic, alcoholic mother doesn't exactly make for a storybook childhood. But now, her world has fallen apart just when it should be coming together: her mother gone—dead under mysterious circumstances; her life uprooted to stay with estranged relatives she’s never met; and there’s something odd about some of the people she’s been meeting at school: They’re dead.

Thirteen-year-old Evan Hanson is always the last in her family to know what's going on. Her father, Gene, who's been meaner since he began serving in Vietnam, isn't around much, and she likes it better that way. But then her brother, Adam, gets drafted and her anti-war mother, Endura, takes him across the border to Canada, leaving Evan alone with Gene and her younger, special needs brother, Teddy. When he realizes Endura isn't returning, Gene takes Evan and Teddy to Eat and Get Gas, his mother's cafe and gas station.

A series of brutal murders has the homicide division of San Francisco's Hub 9 working overtime. But as the bodies mount, they begin to question whether the attacks are random or somehow connected. When one of their own falls victim, Detective Salvi Brentt and her homicide team join forces with the narcotics and cyber divisions to track down those responsible. They soon discover that a volatile new drug-tech experience, involving black market neural implants, has hit the streets, causing the epidemic of violence and missing persons.

Jess and Hannah Ballard's determination to protect the Gateways brings them to Edinburgh's Old Town, where a strange phenomenon threatens to disturb the delicate balance between the worlds of the living and the dead. Spirits who wish to cross over are vanishing, and it is up to the Ballard sisters to discover why.

The Romans have a famous saying: "The stars incline us; they do not bind us." The words hold so much weight and importance they're stained on my skin—just like she is. The ink may not be visible, but the binds are indisputable, pulling me back to her like a rough tide. Impossible to leave. However, time has proven, free will or not, it will take more than bending the rules to be with her. It will require breaking them.

It's been more than a year since Jess and Hannah Ballard fought to return the power of the Gateways where it rightfully belongs, and the Durupinen world is slowly adjusting to its altered relationship with the spirit world.

Ten years ago, in the pine-shaded town of Savage Ridge, Nick, Emmy, and Pete murder their high school classmate, Sammy Saint John. His body is never found, and no arrests are made. The three friends make a pact to leave Savage Ridge and never return. Now, each is drawn home, seemingly by chance or fate. But it's neither: Private Investigator Sloane Yo has brought them back to finally answer for their crime.

The notion of “housewife” evokes strong reactions. For some, it’s nostalgia for a bygone era, simpler and better times when men were breadwinners and women remained home with the kids. For others, it’s a sexist, oppressive stereotype of women’s work. Either way, housewife is a long outdated concept—or is it?

New York City flight attendant Annie Taylor is grounded, putting a halt to weekends in Rome and her jet-setting lifestyle. Soon her noncommittal boyfriend's true nature is revealed, and to top it all off, she loses her apartment. With nowhere else to go, Annie leaves the city for the family farm in Kentucky, a place she's avoided for years. She finds a shotgun-wielding grandmother, a farm in disrepair, and a suspicious stranger renting the old stone house.

"A Hunger Artist" is a short story by Franz Kafka first published in 1922. The protagonist, a hunger artist who experiences the decline in appreciation of his craft, is typically Kafkaesque: an individual marginalized and victimized by society at large. "A Hunger Artist" explores themes such as death, art, isolation, asceticism, spiritual poverty, futility, personal failure, and the corruption of human relationships.

As Jess Ballard is struggling to adjust to her new life in London without Finn Carey to watch over her, she has thrown herself into her role as a tracker, using her gift to communicate with and help as many spirits as she can. But just as she begins to settle into a new city, the city reveals a mystery too intriguing - and dangerous - to ignore. Something sinister is drawing restless spirits to a tiny old museum, luring them with a promise of salvation it cannot deliver upon.

After uncovering and destroying a Necromancer plot to take over Skye Priosún, Jess and Finn are united at last and longing to move on with their life together. But the Durupinen world has other plans. An enigmatic rune keeps revealing itself to Jess - in artwork, in dreams, and even scrawled upon the ancient stones of the Geatgrima at Fairhaven. No one can identify it, but its warning is clear: Something dangerous is coming, a revelation that could end the Gateway system forever.

For Jess Ballard, the signs could not be clearer; if the Durupinen want to maintain their control over the Gateways to the spirit world, they will have to battle for them at the ancient Skye Priosún, where even now a rebellion is brewing, ready to burst the barriers of the ancient stronghold. It is a near-impossible proposition. The only chance the Durupinen have is to infiltrate the priosún from within-with nothing left to lose, Jess volunteers herself for the job.