Showing results by narrator "Sandy Rustin" in All Categories

Every small town has one unsolved case that haunts its memory, festering for generations below the surface. Over sixty years ago, Daisy Doe was murdered and discarded outside Pineville, Alabama, buried without a name or anyone to mourn her loss. When Star Cavanaugh's father tried to solve the case, he too was killed. Now a cold-case detective with resources of her own, Star is determined to get to the bottom of both crimes. But to do so, she’ll have to face an entire town locked in corruption, racism, silence, and fear—and the same dangerous killer who took two other lives. 

Meg Lowman was always fascinated by the natural world above her head—the colors, the branches, and, most of all, the leaves and mysterious organisms living there. Meg set out to climb up and investigate the rain forest tree canopies—and to be the first scientist to do so. But she encountered challenge after challenge. Male teachers would not let her into their classrooms, the high canopy was difficult to get to, and worst of all, people were logging and clearing the forests. Meg never gave up or gave in. 

Flight 133 disappeared over the ocean. No wreckage. No distress signal. Just gone. Suddenly, everyone on the news and social media is talking about whether the pilot intentionally crashed it?everyone but me. Because I know her. The pilot was my mom, and there's no way she would hurt anyone. No one else knows that before she left, she wrote me a note. Trust me, it said.

As Aerieville, Tennessee’s Flower House finally gains in popularity, Sierra Ravenswood finds herself feeling ready for new challenges. Luckily, the shop has grabbed the attention of the mayor’s daughter, and bride-to-be, Marissa Lakely. Sierra is thrilled, and nervous, to land her most important job yet: providing flowers for the biggest wedding Aerieville has ever seen. Everything seems to be under control until Sierra makes a startling discovery: the wedding planner, lying in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. He survives only long enough to mutter: “It was the snake.” 

Mara Holdfast is a young woman gifted with the ability to see and use all the colors of magic. Two other people share this talent: the Autarch, who draws upon the very life-force of his subjects to retain his control over the kingdom, and the legendary Lady of Pain and Fire, the only person who has ever truly challenged his despotic reign. After a devastating battle that takes a dreadful toll on both the rebel unMasked Army and the forces of Prince Chell, their ally from across the sea, Mara and her fellow survivors have no one to turn to for help but the Lady of Pain and Fire.

Eleven-year-old Ash McNulty is one of the “gifted and talented” kids at her school, spending most of her day in a special class with a few other advanced students. As the end of fifth grade rolls around, she should be on top of the world. According to everyone, she’s going to rock junior high! But Ash has a secret: She can’t keep up with her advanced classmates anymore.

Charlotte Anne Mattas longs to turn back the clock. Before her husband, Sam, went to serve his country in the war, he was the man everyone could rely on—responsible, intelligent, and loving. But the person who's come back to their family farm is very different from the protector Annie remembers. Sam's experience in the Pacific theater has left him broken in ways no one can understand—but that everyone is learning to fear.  

Evie Baker is a great story-teller, an avid prankster, and a fantastic baker. And while she loves her parent’s bakery, she has no plans to stay in their small town and become stuffy or static. Evie wants to go on adventures and she knows just what she needs to do it! With her best friend, Cecily, by her side, Evie sets off into the Old Forest to find one of the Fel, a group of crow-like magical creatures who can’t lie. 

Twelve-year-old Emmie is working to raise money for a tricked-out wheelchair to get serious about WCMX, when a mishap on a poorly designed ramp at school throws her plans into a tailspin. Instead of replacing the ramp, her school provides her with a kind but unwelcome aide and, seeing a golden media opportunity, launches a public fundraiser for her new wheels. Emmie loves her close-knit rural town, but she can’t shake the feeling that her goals—and her choices—suddenly aren’t hers anymore.

In Jen Doll's young adult debut novel, Unclaimed Baggage, Doris - a lone liberal in a conservative small town - has mostly kept to herself since the terrible waterslide incident a few years ago. Nell had to leave behind her best friends, perfect life, and too-good-to-be-true boyfriend in Chicago to move to Alabama. Grant was the star quarterback and epitome of "Mr. Popular" whose drinking problem has all but destroyed his life.  

Sierra has embraced her role as owner of Flower House floral shop. Sierra’s team members are enjoying their new jobs too. At least until everyone realizes their lack of experience might be contributing to their lack of customers.... Sierra decides they need a change in luck, so she creates a special window display featuring lucky bamboo and auspicious flowers. The shop is flooded with customers the next day, including a van full of college students on a horticulture club field trip. Unfortunately, the students’ distracted professor has gone missing.

Annie McIntyre has a love/hate relationship with Garnett, Texas. Recently graduated from college and home waitressing, lacking not in ambition but certainly in direction, Annie is lured into the family business—a private investigation firm—by her supposed-to-be-retired grandfather, Leroy, despite the rest of the clan’s misgivings.

June, 1993. Claire has been dumped in rural Indianola, Texas, to spend her whole vacation taking care of mean, sickly Grammy. There's nothing too remarkable about Indianola: it's run-down, shabby, and sweltering, a pin-dot on the Gulf Coast. Except there is something remarkable. Memories shimmer and change. Lizards whisper riddles under the pecan trees. People disappear as if they never existed. And worst of all, a red-lightning storm from beyond our world may just wipe the whole town off the map, if Claire and her maybe-girlfriend Julie can't stop it.

Ten years ago, Grace saw something that would forever change the course of history. When evil in its purest form is unleashed on the world, she and others from their religious community are already hidden deep in the hills of Tennessee, abiding by every rule that will keep them safe, pure - and alive. As long as they stay there, behind the red perimeter. Her older brother's questions and the arrival of the first outsiders she's seen in a decade set in motion events that will question everything Grace has built her life on.

Two young women who've dated the same man navigate love, destiny, loss, and choice in this powerful debut. Peter Herring was the center of Anne's universe in college, and now, a few years later, he's become the center of Anna's, and merely a minor player in his ex-girlfriend's world. That is...

Bina has never forgotten the time she and her mother ran away from home. Her mother promised they would hitchhike to the city to escape Bina's cruel father and start over. But before they could even leave town, Bina had a new stepfather, two new stepsisters, and a humming sense of betrayal pulling apart the bond with her mother - a bond Bina thought was unbreakable. Eight years later, after too many lies and with trouble on her heels, Bina finds herself on the side of the road again, the city of her dreams calling for her.

Merritt Wenner has been self-destructing ever since the tragic deaths of her grandmother and her horse, and after an epic all-night bender she walks out of the SAT and disappears. Her parents, looking for a quick fix, ship her off to a residential equine therapy program. At Good Fences, Merritt meets Red - a failed racehorse and a terror in the barn. Red has never bonded with anyone, but Merritt is not afraid of him, which makes all the difference.

Reliance, Illinois tells the story of a young woman faced with choices that will alter the course of her own future, and offers a brilliant window into American life during a period of tumultuous change. Illinois, 1874: With a birthmark covering half her face, 13-year-old Madelyn Branch is accustomed to cold and awkward greetings, and expects no less in the struggling town of Reliance. After all, her mother, Rebecca, was careful not to mention a daughter in the Matrimonial Times ad that brought them there.

Since 16-year-old Riley Strout lost her mother two years ago, her saving grace has been her quirky little family in the grief support group she joined as a freshman. Jay, Kate, and Noah understand her pain; each lost a loved one, and they've stuck together in spite of their differences, united by tragedies only they understand.

In the mid-21st century, dogs are all but extinct. An experiment gone awry caused every canine on Earth to become hyperintelligent. When as a species they stopped wagging their tails, hysteria ensued - followed by a program of mass euthanasia. Now the only surviving dogs are relegated to a sanctuary off the coast of Florida: Dog Island. There, they are studied in a wild, feral, and protected state. And there, too, their robot replacements are tested before being sold for mass consumption. Seventeen-year-old Nano Miller was born and bred on Dog Island, as were her two best friends, Jack and Wolf.