Showing results by narrator "Lauren Ezzo" in All Categories

As an orphan ward of the Sisterhood in the ancient Tarachand Empire, eighteen-year-old Kalinda is destined for nothing more than a life of seclusion and prayer. Plagued by fevers, she's an unlikely candidate for even a servant's position, let alone a courtesan or wife. Her sole dream is to continue living in peace in the Sisterhood's mountain temple. But a visit from the tyrant Rajah Tarek disrupts Kalinda's life. Within hours, she is ripped from the comfort of her home.

For as long as she can remember, Kugy has loved to write. Whimsical stories are her passion, along with letters full of secret longings that she folds into paper boats and sets out to sea. Now that she's older, she dreams of following her heart and becoming a true teller of tales, but she decides to get a "real job" instead and forget all about Keenan, the guy who makes her feel as if she's living in one of her own fairy tales.

After the woman is identified as the missing daughter of a yacht designer, the police—with the exception of Emma's friend Detective Jesse Whyte—hastily conclude she is a suicide, perhaps to quiet any scandal for the Morgans, since her body was found floating near their property. But Emma suspects the woman was murdered and begins to sort through a who's who of sportsmen, boat crews, and the Newport elite in search of a stone-cold killer . . .

Foster sisters Krystal and Nichole have always been there for each other, so when Nichole is committed to a psychiatric hospital after trying to kill her husband, Krystal drops everything to defend her. Scarred by a hard upbringing, Nichole and Krystal managed to construct comfortable lives for themselves. Krystal became a respected lawyer, and Nichole was happily married to an architect - until Nichole starts raving that her husband isn’t her husband, believing that he’s an imposter.

The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at 20. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds and a stranger in both. But life in a wagon train is fraught with hardship, fear, and death. Even as John and Naomi are drawn to each other, the trials of the journey and their disparate pasts work to keep them apart.

Blair Martin’s days rarely vary: she gets up, goes for a run, and then heads to work at a Manhattan literary agency where she nurtures authors through the publishing process. Her nights, spent alone in her too-large apartment, are similarly predictable. Then on an ordinary Wednesday, Blair enters her office building and spies a lost wallet. When Blair tracks down the owner, they arrange for a simple exchange. But the young woman, Maya, seems so vulnerable, much like Blair’s own daughter, Faith, who died tragically just last year, and Blair is unable to simply walk away.

Ren Sawyer and Lizzy Harper live completely different lives. He's a rock star with a secret he can no longer live with. She's a regular person whose husband stood her up for a long-planned anniversary trip. On a flight across the Atlantic headed for Italy, a drunken pity party and untimely turbulence literally drop Lizzy into Ren's lap. It is the last thing she can imagine ever happening to someone like her. But despite their surface differences, they discover an undeniable pull between them. A pull that leads them both to remember who they had once been before letting themselves be changed.

Andie Marks, known as "Party Girl" in her college days, is now a whip-smart lawyer on the fast track to success. Determined to move on from a bad break-up, she joins her girlfriends for a wild bachelorette weekend in Las Vegas, promising to let her hair down just this once. Vegas is a blur of cocktails and blackjack, and in the middle of it all she meets Mack, a real-life cowboy with a winning hand and an irresistible body.

Years ago, in the town of Saxon Falls, young Kelsey Willard disappeared and was presumed dead. The tragedy left her family with a fractured life - a mother out to numb the pain, a father losing a battle with his own private demons, and a sister desperate for closure. But now another teenage girl has gone missing. It's ripping open old wounds for the Willards, dragging them back into a painful past, and leaving them unprepared for where it will take them next.

Ashley Kelly is your typical American teenager - or she would be if it wasn't for the cluster bomb that crippled her. Seven years after the invasion, over a hundred million Americans have been displaced by the war, with millions more dead. Ash has spent seven years learning to walk again, and she'll be damned if she's going to lie down for anyone, human or otherwise.

Everyone at Pritchett High wants an invitation to the Senior Scavenge, and this year, Violet Warren and her friends are the lucky ones. Eight girls will break into the Poison Apple Carnival after hours for a scavenger hunt, a school tradition to welcome the best and brightest into their senior year. But warm welcomes turn into gory goodbyes as those hunting become the hunted. One by one, Violet's friends are viciously murdered by a mysterious masked figure running loose through the carnival grounds.

Aida is just six years old when her family escapes the war bearing down on their village in Bosnia. But survival comes at a price. The home they make in Italy is safe, though not their own. Aida watches, helpless, as her parents grapple with a guilt and nostalgia she doesn’t understand. They yearn for a place that no longer exists, a place she barely remembers yet comes to resent for its lingering ghost.

Sandie will do anything for her brother. When he is suspected of murdering not one but three young women, she is forced to show just how far she'll go to prove his innocence. As Sandie uncovers the clues, she discovers the investigating detective may have an ulterior motive for placing the blame on Will. Desperate to find the actual killer, Sandie enlists the help of her trusty dog Marlowe and her boyfriend. Unfortunately, time isn't on their side.

As bookstore owner Addie Greyborne shares the loving lesson of The Gift of the Magi, the spirit of the season falls prey to a thief and a killer....

Sandie's sister needs help. If she can't come up with a hefty chunk of change to save her struggling bakery, her wish for a fair settlement with her soon-to-be ex-husband will be dashed. When Sandie devises the perfect plan—a competition to save the bakery, all the pieces come together fairly quickly. Sandie believes she's done something that can help Kathy keep her business and finalize her divorce relatively unscathed. But her plan goes awry when not one but two bodies are discovered.

Born the daughter of a Powhatan chieftain and a woman of unknown origins, Matoaka enjoys a carefree life. When strange men from across the eastern waters appear near her home, she regards them at first as a mere curiosity. Soon, though, she finds herself torn between friendship with one of their leaders and the opinions and politics of her elders. Drawn to a young Englishman, John Rolfe, who has lost a wife and baby daughter, she shares his griefs. . .and perhaps something more.

No longer a member of the Culling, Flora was ready to find strength in herself and start a new chapter. Instead, she finds herself thrown to the wolves. Now she has to convince the heir of the Moon Ridge pack to help her try to stop an impending war. Only, he has something else in mind and offers her a deal she can't resist. This new adventure is dangerous and may end with her death.

Marcus Keller is the king of Silicon Valley. Now he’s returned to Lost Coast Harbor, ready to prove his success to his hometown. But when he should be focusing on the biggest achievement in his career, he’s distracted by an attack on his company and by an ex-wife he craves as much as he ever did. Marcus knows exactly how perilous Bree Rogers is to his heart, but as an old passion ignites, he dares to hope she won’t walk away a second time.

With the birth of their daughter, a new era is ushered in for the supernatural world, but not everyone is prepared to accept the terms. Archaic beliefs threaten to derail everything they've fought to protect. War looms on all sides as Sloane's army grows in ways they never could have imagined. In order to take on her sister, Emery must learn to embrace the darkness she's come to fear, even if the price could be her soul. With their enemies closing in and the fates demanding action, August and Emery must choose between the bond they share and the kingdom they've sworn to protect.

Swan Lake meets The Last Unicorn by way of the Brothers Grimm in a dreamy, original fairytale in verse which transports readers to the Bavarian Alps. Bavaria. 1880. Hilde was dreamed into existence by the god Odin, and along with her five sisters, granted cloaks that transform them into swans...