Showing results by narrator "Meredith Mitchell" in All Categories

Ivy and Rose Adams may be sisters, but they're nothing alike. Rose, the eldest, is the responsible one, while Ivy is spirited and brazen. After the unexpected death of their father, the women are left to reconcile the estate, but they make a shocking discovery: not only has their father left them in financial ruin, but he has also bequeathed their beloved family house to a brother they never knew existed.

From an important new American writer comes this powerful collection of personal essays on fear, creativity, art, faith, academia, the Internet, and justice. In this poignant and inciting collection of literary essays, Megan Stielstra tells stories to ward off fears both personal and universal as she grapples toward a better way to live. In her titular piece, "The Wrong Way to Save Your Life", she answers the question of what has value in our lives - a question no longer rhetorical when the apartment above her family's goes up in flames.

After a wild work-sponsored Halloween party, entomologist Sam McLean wakes up with a spotty memory-and a pointy set of fangs. Sam's one-night stand wasn't just dressed as a vampire; she had the bite to match. Somehow, Sam's unconscious body ends up at the OOPS office, where paranormal crisis counselors Nina, Marty, and Wanda give him the down-low on accidentally becoming a creature of the night.

Accountant Harry Ralph Emerson has always been a by-the-numbers kind of guy. But when he finds himself trapped at work sprouting an obscene amount of hair, he knows his odds for maintaining normalcy are zero to none. After a frantic Internet search, Harry goes through the OOPS - Out in the Open Paranormal Support - checklist and comes to a disheartening conclusion: He's turning into a werewolf and needs help ASAP.

Katie Woods never thought that she'd be forty-one, divorced, and thrust back into the dating world. To start fresh, Katie uproots her veterinary practice to upstate New York - not exactly the hottest dating scene on the planet. But when an unconscious cougar appears at her clinic, Katie's newly single life gets a much needed jolt of the supernatural kind. After Katie examines the cougar and leaves him caged overnight, she's shocked to find a big strapping specimen of young, hot man in its place.

In the charming small beach town of Marshbury, Massachusetts, preschool teacher Sarah has the heartbreak of a messy divorce behind her and the promise of a second chance with John ahead. When she finds out that buying the family house also means hosting the holidays, her only goal is survival. They've got a house full of animals and a renovation in full throttle. Sarah's single and pregnant teaching assistant Polly is staying with them, too, as is her brother Johnny, whose marriage is on the rocks, and Sarah has just been made chair of the Bayberry Preschool holiday performance.

Marriage is hard work. After the fairy tale "I Dos" come chores, bills, fights, and plain weariness. Many couples are unsure how to fix their problems and wonder if their relationships really have what it takes to go the distance. (Hint: They do!) Luckily, relationship experts Jim and Elizabeth Carroll have created a program proven to mend marriages, revive relationships, and make the happily-ever-afters come true.

In her warm and inimitable way, M. J. Ryan guides us to look at our lives from a different perspective. To imagine what they would be like if we practiced an attitude of self-trust, if we received the gifts trusting ourselves might give us. In an age of constant media messages and so-called expert advice telling us to be richer, thinner, smart, and faster, we're all dogged with worry and self-doubt. Best-selling author M. J. Ryan believes we've become so dependent on "experts" to tell us how to live our lives that we listen to everyone except ourselves.

Semiretired bookseller and former single parent to a challenging teen, the not-so-newly remarried Claire Malloy finds herself entangled in yet another case of felonious doings in this latest cozy.

Chocolate always makes things better, or so Emily Harris believes until even a dozen boxes of her favorite chocolates can't put her world back together. Returning home from a trip to New Orleans, she is pushed down the airport's arrival escalator, and despite evidence to the contrary, she believes the push was deliberate. If this weren't enough, her lawyer husband begins to act strangely, her oldest son brings a tramp home as his girlfriend, and two friends are murdered. Simple sayings from her childhood thread their way through her thoughts as she struggles to identify the common denominator, even as she is confined to her home, munching on chocolates.

In the 1940s, Coden, Alabama, was a hideaway for movie stars - an isolated playground tucked among live oaks and placid bay waters where pleasure and vice could be indulged. By the summer of 1974 Coden’s glamour has faded, but it doesn’t bother Mimi Bosarge, who is just happy to have a job as a live-in tutor with the wealthiest family in town, the Hendersons. When the Hendersons generously open their arms to Annie, a troubled teenager with no recollection of her past, Mimi’s greatest concern is creating a curriculum for the family’s new ward.

Pulling a raisin out of a two-year-old's nose probably wasn't on the Buddha's path to enlightenment, but it was one of the obstacles for author Polly Campbell. For many people, stuck raisins and other real-life moments provide the day's only opportunity for spiritual growth--and it's easy to miss the lesson in these ordinary challenges. Imperfect Spirituality explains how to integrate those everyday moments with traditional spiritual techniques to allow personal growth and greater well-being.

After a perfect storm of events leaves Sam high, dry, and jobless, she has to head home to Harvest Cove to regroup. Growing up, she was the town misfit, and a brief high school romance that resulted in heartbreak made her realize she was never going to fit in. But now with the support of her mother and an unexpected circle of allies, Sam starts to wonder if she's misjudged the town all these years. Life's been good to Jake Smith.

A debutante's missing body, murder most foul, and weird spectrallights in the fog make for a thrilling gas light-era tale of mystery and detection. In 1895 San Francisco young debutantes don't commit suicide at festive parties, particularly not under the eye of Sabina Carpenter. But Virginia St. Ives evidently did, leaping from a foggy parapet in a shimmer of ghostly light.

June, 1998. Paris' sticky summer heat is even more oppressive than usual as rowdy French football fans riot in anticipation of the World Cup. Private investigator Aimée Leduc has been trying to slow down her hectic lifestyle, take on only computer security assignments, and maybe try to learn how to cook (quelle catastrophe!). She's vowed not to let herself get involved in any more dangerous shenanigans - she's five months pregnant and has the baby's well-being to think about now, too.

For more than 25 years and counting, Rebecca Eatonhas presided over PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, the longest-running weekly prime-time drama series in American history. From the runaway hits Upstairs, Downstairs and The Buccaneers to the hugely popular Inspector Morse, Prime Suspect, and Poirot, Masterpiece Theatre and its sibling series Mystery! have been required viewing for fans of quality drama.

First someone tries to kill him. Then an achingly familiar beauty from his past drops the bombshell of a lifetime: He has a son. Two years ago Sheriff Jericho Crockett's attraction to Laurel Tate became a brief but intense affair - until an unsolved murder made them enemies. Now, with their son's life hanging in the balance, the Texas lawman must put aside the pain of Laurel's long-held secret in order to keep the little boy safe.

They say that behind every great man is a woman. Behind Edith Wharton, there was Anna Bahlmann - her governess turned literary secretary, and her mothering, nurturing friend. When, at the age of 45, Edith falls passionately in love with a dashing, younger journalist, Morton Fullerton, and is at last opened to the world of the sensual, it threatens everything certain in her life - but especially her abiding friendship with Anna.

Breaking into the home of the woman who shared his bed three months ago isn't Weston Cade's usual MO. But the Texas Ranger is on a personal vendetta to catch a killer, and Addie Crockett is the man's biological daughter. The beautiful rancher also happens to be carrying Wes' child....

Can the true identity of the Sherlock Holmes imposter be revealed at last? Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon are no stranger to mysteries. In the five years since they opened Carpenter and Quinncannon, Professional Detective Services, they have solved dozens, but one has eluded even them: Sherlock Holmes or, rather, the madman claiming his identity who keeps showing up with a frustrating - though admittedly useful - knack for solving difficult cases.