Showing results by narrator "Kate Rudd" in All Categories

Ransom Barton and his wife, Claire de Murrow, have arrived in Legault to reclaim the title that was Claire’s birthright. Claire intends to rebuild a war-ravaged palace to its former glory and to teach Ransom about the magical history of their new home. But when Ransom is summoned to return to King Benedict, his loyalty to Claire is tested. Fealty prevails, however questionable the king’s motives.

After a pilgrimage to the East Kingdoms seeking a blessing from the Fountain, source of the land’s magic, Sir Ransom Barton returns home in search of two dreams: Claire de Murrow, the heiress he loves, and a patron for his warrior skills. Unexpectedly, Ransom finds himself in the favor of Devon, the notorious Elder King. Brought into the ruler’s mesnie and given two wards of his own, Ransom is devoted to his privileged new position. He’s also privy to the running of the realm and to all its courtly intrigues.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. A brutal war of succession has plunged the court of Kingfountain into a power struggle between a charitable king who took the crown unlawfully and his ambitious rival, Devon Argentine. The balance of power between the two men hinges on the fate of a young boy ensnared in this courtly intrigue. A boy befittingly nicknamed Ransom.

History is turned inside out when off-world travelers challenge Tyson Reyes and Madi Grace to a real-life game of Temporal Dilemma. Three rounds from the opponents and Hitler takes Europe, Pearl Harbor never happens, a fascist cloud hangs over the postwar United States, and CHRONOS itself is erased from existence. Now Tyson, Madi, and a team of seasoned players must make their moves - in 1930s New York. Jazz and the blues waft from Village clubs. The World’s Fair draws assassins. Madison Square Garden hosts Nazis. And the Manhattan Project never gets off the ground.

Raine Campbell and her friends arrive to team up with another school to tackle the Magical Multitudes Project, ready for a little fun during the school break. But the island is full of secrets and creatures not normally found on Earth. And the island doesn’t stay quiet for long. Earthquakes plague the area, and Raine even thinks she sees other people on the island - people who aren’t supposed to be there. When the students find a dead creature, they finally know for certain - there’s trouble on the island.

It’s anything but a calm, quiet semester at the School of Necessary Magic. Dangerous magical criminals are near, and Homeland Security puts the school on alert. Can Raine Campbell finally show her future boss - the FBI - what she can do, or will it all go sideways? The criminals think they can convince Raine and her friends to help them. But Agent Connor has taught her well. Their junior year gets even more challenging when students’ secrets are exposed. Do Raine and friends help their fellow students or turn them in? Should they follow the rules or do what’s right?

Their senior year is wrapping up. Finals are coming up, and decisions are being made for college and life after high school. Movie nights, pranks, louper finals, and trips to the kemana - Raine and her friends are busy. Too bad the bad guys didn’t get the notice that Raine and her friends are good at multitasking - because they’re not so busy that they won’t take a break to deal with trouble one more time and save their friends and save their school.

Senior year. Two semesters remain before Raine Campbell and her friends graduate from the School of Necessary Magic. Louper finals are in full swing. Raine’s friends are trying to figure out their plans post-high school. A teacher is being threatened. And it wouldn’t be a complete semester without Dark Wizards getting involved. Some evil never learns. Also, Raine and her friends encounter a witch with a strange necklace in the kemana. When she invites them to a meeting of a secret society, things get interesting - quick.

Falling for a bad-boy rock star is the last thing single mother Casey Anderson-Bovier should do. Embroiled in a custody battle with her ex, Casey is fighting to raise her boys in their quaint Colorado hometown - a secret haven for celebrities. But when it comes to her hotel's newest guest, Casey can't connect the dots. Is Zane Steele the out-of-control rocker plastered all over the media, or the captivating man with a killer smile who's charming her and her two boys?

Single mom Vanessa Holt has a daughter she loves, a supportive family, and her art. Having given up on finding true love - if that even exists, which she doubts - she's content to put romance on the back burner. But not everyone agrees. Those nearest and dearest are ready to see Vanessa let down her long blonde hair and have some fun. To put their grumbling to rest, Vanessa agrees to go on a date with the next man who asks.

An electromagnetic-pulse attack has destroyed the country's power grid, sending the United States back to the Dark Ages. Now Dee and Grandpa must face a world without electricity and clean water - let alone cell phones and the Internet - as well as the chaos brought on by this sudden catastrophe. Soon their town begins to collapse as disease and lawlessness run rampant.

Felicity Wright never expected to inherit the hotel where she works as head chef. But now, she'll do anything to keep the Bancroft Hotel operating - even if that means mixing it up with the late owner's handsome nephew, Blake Bancroft. He's here to challenge her unexpected inheritance of the Bancroft Hotel, and there's no way either of them are walking away without a fight.

Recovering from a past shaped by violence, Matt Holloway has sworn to live a different life than his parents did. Matt has found a purpose that keeps his lingering pain and fear at bay: helping others to heal. Yet the nightmares continue to haunt him. Grace has lived a life of luxury, sheltered by her family’s money and connections. When a betrayal forces her to question everything, she leaves her family and accepts an ambitious position in a career for which she may not be ready.

Like many people, you've done your best to gain control of your life - to force reality to fit into the confines of your high expectations. Reality, though, has a way of repeatedly dashing your hopes and crushing your dreams. You've been told to believe God is in control, but countless dark and painful circumstances have your mind filled with questions that desperately beg answers: Why can't life ever go according to my plan? How do I trust God in the midst of chaos?

In this captivating collection from the Shaanxi region, considered the cradle of Chinese civilization, twenty disparate and unique voices come together to show a China caught between new-world advancements and old-world traditions. From the homeland of China’s first dynasty and the world-famous terra-cotta warriors, these tales show rugged rural life colliding with fast-paced city life; hollow arranged marriages juxtaposed with torrid forbidden love affairs; and the vanity of newly minted millionaires clashing with the desperation of the poor.

Caroline used to have it all: she was madly in love with her husband, Peter, and they worshiped their beautiful baby girl. But as Lily grows into a toddler, Caroline notices that her daughter seems to live and act with a disconnect, and soon the perfect future Caroline had envisioned, along with her marriage, begin to crumble. Now she and Peter are no longer lovers, they're plaintiffs in the throes of divorce while still struggling to care for Lily.

When the security director of the powerful corporation Nebulaco dies under mysterious circumstances, courier Sai Collins has one last top-secret delivery to make on his behalf. Sai has come a long way from her street-kid childhood, but she has her secrets - namely that she’s a cyber-psi, a computer telepath who can connect to the grid without hardware. A talent she’s going to desperately need.

From a brilliant new literary voice, a collection of stories that follow a young woman from college into her early thirties - from delayed adolescence to (delayed) adulthood. Through college, careers, love affairs, and marriages, Linden’s characters try to sort out what separates the passing from the permanent, the actual from the possible, and exactly how involved you really have to be in the basic questions of your life.

Being popular in the college music scene doesn’t solve all your problems; at least that’s what the hot musicians of indie band Luminescent Juliet discover. In this compelling novel, trouble begins when 18-year-old Riley, trying to regain her rhythm after throwing away her percussion scholarship to a top school, wins an audition to become the band’s new drummer. This sets her on a collision course with Romeo, the band’s sexy dark-haired guitarist, whose ambitions do not include performing with a girl.

"My name is Colette. This book is about me. Who am I? To be perfectly honest, I'm not exactly sure who I am. I guess you could say I'm the 15-year-old daughter of an annoyingly famous movie star. Or maybe I'm the 18-year-old daughter of a famous movie star's stand-in. Or maybe I'm the thousand-year-old daughter of a vampire.... Having trouble guessing which one of these stories is true? Join the club. My friends have a joke about me: 'How can you tell if Colette is lying? Her mouth is open.'"