Showing results by narrator "Linda Stephens" in All Categories

Critically acclaimed author Gish Jen is a National Book Critics Circle Award nominee and the person John Updike proclaimed as the young novelist most likely to become his successor. In The Love Wife, Jen poignantly explores the explosive dynamics of a mixed-race modern family.

This inspiring romance by Christy Award winner Deeanne Gist sets a spirited gal and an enterprising lumberjack on a collision course in 1866 Washington Territory. Set to lose half his timberland unless he finds a wife soon, widower Joe Denton places an order for a bride who can cook. When she arrives, the bonnie lass certainly cooks up a storm - but she knows nothing about marrying Joe.

An outcast teacher and her former student pursue life and love on the unforgiving frontier in the acclaimed author's tender Western lesbian romance. Pennsylvania, 1870s. Schoolteacher Imogen Grelznik is unashamed of who she is, even if she's had to escape her neighbor's hateful judgments more...

Eleanor Braddock, a spinster at 30, has long since dismissed any hope of marriage. But when a dying soldier whispers his final words, she believes her life can still have meaning and determines to find his widow. But this compassionate deed takes a harsh turn, and Eleanor finds herself dependent upon the richest woman in America and the most despised woman in Nashville--her aunt, Adelicia Acklen, mistress of Belmont Mansion.

As a family clinic administrator, Michele Layton has seen her share of suffering. But never anything like this. Not here in St. Cloud, Minnesota. A local activist has been found murdered, his body frozen like a statue and placed in a Winter Carnival ice sculpture display. Next a vicious hate crime puts a man in the ICU. And locked away in the Holy Rest mental ward, a deranged man of the cloth prays for more sinners to be punished - and waits for a sign from above.

In Cathy Holton’s winning novels, the popular author sketches insightful portraits of women even as she displays a rare talent for balancing humor and heartache. Beach Trip finds four middle-aged friends convening at a beautifully appointed beach house - and reexamining their lives.

Young and recently widowed, Jasmine Houston confronts the vital issues of freedom and slavery, love and hate, life and death, when she decides to harbor former slaves at her horse farm. Best-selling inspirational authors Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller pen a gripping historical romance set in 1849.

Best-selling author Tamera Alexander has won numerous awards, including the Christy Award and RITA Award for Best Inspirational Romance. Set in Nashville’s historic Belmont Mansion, A Lasting Impression is an affecting tale of romance between an aspiring artist and a man determined to rise from near ruin.

Award-winning authors Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller launch an enthralling 1890s trilogy set in the St. Lawrence River's opulent Thousand Islands - summer playground of the privileged. A Daughter's Inheritance explores the ever-changing fortunes of 17-year-old Fanny Broadmoor.

For the inimitable Lee Smith, place is paramount. For 45 years, her fiction has lived and breathed with the rhythms and people of the Appalachian South. But never before has she written her own story. Set deep in the rugged Appalachian Mountains, the Grundy of Lee Smith's youth was a place of coal miners, mountain music, and her daddy's dimestore. It was in that dimestore - listening to customers and inventing life histories for the store's dolls - that she began to learn the craft of storytelling.

A master violinist trained in Vienna, Rebekah Carrington manages to wheedle her way into an audition with the maestro at the newly formed Nashville Philharmonic. But women are "far too fragile and frail" for the rigors of an orchestra, and Rebekah's hopes are swiftly dashed. Because the conductor - determined to leave his mark on the world of classical music - bows to public opinion.

The beautiful young Esther has been chosen as queen by the king of Persia. Surrounded by servants, each day she wears gorgeous dresses and eats delicious foods in his luxurious court. Still, she remembers the promise made to her uncle when she was a child. She tells no one that she is Jewish. One day the prime minister, angry because Esther’s uncle does not bow to him, arranges a decree ordering all Jews to be killed. Will Esther find the courage to stand up for her people, even if it means revealing her religion to the king?

Oliole Fontenot has moved to Cantrell from New York City to set up her own photography studio. When she is commissioned to do a series on women in the West, she realizes that this is the chance she needs to establish her reputation as an artist. But a handsome rancher begins to capture her heart, and she must reevaluate what she wants. Is God being too bountiful with his blessings?

Isabel Leon, the Marquesa, is an actress who has appeared in performances across the country, yet now she finds herself living in the small western town of Cantrell, Montana. With the town booming, the Marquesa decides it needs a grand hotel. It will take the help, and the heart, of a handsome stranger to make her dream a reality. As their relationship grows, the Marquesa finds her faith getting stronger, too.

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, The Devil's Dream is an animated, lyrical novel that is meant to be savored as spoken word. Consummate storyteller Lee Smith's creation will delight anyone who enjoys the sound of language and a good story.

A storyteller in the very best southern tradition, Lee Smith pens unexpected plots vibrant with luminous prose. Her powerful short stories in Me and My Baby View the Eclipse capture those extraordinary moments in everyday life when greatness and tragedy shimmer through the surface. This collection was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Lee Smith, author of the acclaimed The Last Girls, delights with a tale of dry wit. Smith has won many prizes, including the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Academy Award in Literature.

A consummate storyteller in the Southern tradition, Lee Smith tugs at her listeners' heartstrings with this haunting narrative that reads like a country ballad. Touching, funny, and sad, its down-to-earth characters are somehow familiar and endearing as they do their best to meet the demands of daily life.

The Saturday Review of Literature proclaims The Edge of Time is "a fundamentally honest and literate telling of one of the lesser-known chapters in the American saga." Revered by readers for over 50 years, Loula Grace Erdman tells the story of a young couple settling in the Texas Panhandle in the 1800s.