Showing results by narrator "Chelsea Stephens" in All Categories

One second, Gem Hawkins is on her way to being the number one drag racer in the state, and the next, she's burying her father, a badass demon hunter. The agency calls it a fluke. The official report claims some low level demon caught him off guard while out on patrol. But Gem knows that's a lie. When the dirty Nephilim running the investigation refuses to help, Gem takes matters into her own hands.

In Dreams of the Overworked, Christine M. Beckman and Melissa Mazmanian offer vivid sketches of daily life for nine families, capturing what it means to live, work, and parent in a world of impossible expectations, now amplified unlike ever before by smart devices. We are invited into homes and offices, where we recognize the crushing pressure of unraveling plans, and the healing warmth of being together. Moreover, we witness the constant planning that goes into a "good" day, often with the aid of phones and apps. 

Grada was only 17 years old when she met her soulmate, Peter. By 19 she was married and had migrated from Holland to live in Peter’s homeland, Tasmania, Australia. Grada lived her dream - homesteading at the "back of beyond" with the love of her life, six children, and a menagerie of farm animals. In 2000 she and Peter opened a wellness clinic in their back yard. At the pinnacle of her life, Grada was hit by a truck - literally. During the near-death experience that followed, Grada had to make the decision to return to her body.

Never should have been the end of my problems. I should be back on Grimm. With Hook. Hating Crowley. And working alongside my partner, the Hatter. But life rarely turns out how I expect. The Sea Witch, and oh, incidentally my mother, has told me I'm a witch. Not just any witch either, but one of the biggest bad. I wouldn't believe her, except I can do magick now. Unfortunately, I can't do enough to escape the predicament I'm in. Hook's dead. Crowley's dead. And I'm alone in a realm that hates my guts. And there has been a murder. My sister's, Aquata's. The realm blames me.

For months, Doctor Rowan Dupont has been staring death in the face. It followed her back to her hometown of Winchester, Tennessee 10 months ago, cloaking the walls of her family’s Victorian funeral home like a shroud. In investigating the mysterious deaths of her loved ones, Rowan has unearthed enough family secrets to bury everything she’d previously thought true. But each shocking discovery has only led to more bodies and more questions; the rabbit hole is deeper than she ever imagined.

The first collection of short fiction from Lambda Award-winning novelist Dale Peck spans 25 years of writing, including two O. Henry Award winners and the recipient of a Pushcart Prize. The stories in What Burns examine the extremes of desire against a backdrop of family, class, and mortality.

Bianca Fair's hard work was paying off. After slaving for years as an event planner, the partnership of her dreams was in her grasp. The respect and admiration of her peers was only a wedding away. Finally. Enter Nash James...heartthrob...sex symbol...rock god.... His band was number one on the charts. Rock music's "It Boy" was marrying Hollywood's "It Girl", and Bianca's career hung in the balance. No problem. Piece of cake. She could plan this wedding in her sleep. Too bad the last time she saw Nash James, he was skipping town after crushing her heart.

Detective Abish Taylor left Utah for a reason. But with her husband’s passing, it’s time to come home. Reconnecting with her family means dealing with her past: the father she abandoned and the community she left behind. Her one escape is serving as the sole police detective in the small town of Pleasant View. But when the quiet Mormon suburb in the Wasatch Mountains is shaken by a macabre death - with the hallmarks of a sacred ritual dating back to the days of Brigham Young - Abbie is called into action. 

What would it be like if the moon was your friend? Find out as you walk alongside a little boy who journeys through life to achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut. Then blast off with your little one as you zoom to the moon together! 

Even if it means exposing an unsettling past, Rowan is determined to get to the bottom of her mother's suicide before the serial killer who's tracking her finds her. 

Bea Hughes had put the past behind her. Until an anonymous caller phoned to say they knew what she'd done. To make matters worse, Bea suspects someone else in the house was listening in on the line. Fearful she's been found out and desperate to keep her family together, Bea must identify and silence the person who stands in the way of her happiness.

Birth control offers women the opportunity to prevent pregnancy, plan and space their births, or have no births at all. And yet, in the United States, half of all pregnancies remain unintended, and access to birth control is beset by inequities in education, access, and coverage. Birth Control: What Everyone Needs to Know will offer more than a user's guide to available means of contraception: it will examine how supported family-planning infrastructure impacts society as a whole. 

The idea of voting is simple, but the administration of elections in ways that ensure access and integrity is complex. In How We Vote, Kathleen Hale and Mitchell Brown explore how election officials work, how ballots are cast and counted, and how jurisdictions try to innovate while also protecting the security of the voting process.

The war we feared has come, and leading the invading army is the only remaining dragon, the "Black Death". If it's not stopped, the dragon will slaughter thousands. I'm Angie Ritter, former army mage and the first source mage to be born in centuries. I might be able to stop the dragon. If I can learn to control my new magic. If I can master the ancient entity possessing me. If I can act like a grown-up and stop fantasizing about the sexy were-jaguar I'm traveling with.

I was five when the dragons first appeared...and the lights went out for good. Now, 18 years after the cataclysmic appearance of the four great dragons over Mount Fuji, humanity shares a shattered Earth with the Fey - fairies, elves, and other supernatural creatures. Trust is short, magic is common, and each day is a struggle for survival in the Awakened World of 2053. I'm Angie Ritter, a former army mage who can't cast spells anymore. I have some issues. I'm working on them.

A rundown apartment in Koreatown. A Los Angeles winter. A strung out, worn out, wrecked, and used government agent is scraped up off the pavement, cleaned up, and reluctantly sent out into battle one last time. Ellison Nicodemo has seen and done terrible things. She thought her only remaining quest was for oblivion. Then the Signalman comes calling. He wants to learn if she can stop the latest apocalypse. Ellison, once a unique and valuable asset, can barely remember why she ever fought the good fight.

A government special agent known only as the Signalman gets off a train on a stunningly hot morning in Winslow, Arizona. Later that day he meets a woman in a diner to exchange information about an event that happened a week earlier for which neither has an explanation but which haunts the Signalman. In a ranch house near the shore of the Salton Sea, a cult leader gathers up the weak and susceptible - the Children of the Next Level - and offers them something to believe in and a chance for transcendence. The future is coming, and they will help to usher it in.

Gem's life has gone from bad to worse faster than her secret demon baby can say "baby daddy". What started as a crappy job and a possible killer to bring to justice has become a full-blown conspiracy from hell. Literally. Demons are being summoned into New Orleans and Gem is sure there's a Nephilim behind it. Now, all she has to do is prove it. Oh yeah, and not get herself killed in the process. Too bad for Gem, everyone has secrets, including her. And when the powers-that-be find out what she's capable of, they'll stop at nothing to silence her once and for all.

Even the circus that is Gem's personal life can't distract her from the danger that still lurks among the Nephilim council. Demons no longer slip through secret portals to terrorize Earth. Why ship them in from afar when they can be created right here? One by one, Gem's friends are being targeted until what began as a random science experiment becomes terrifyingly personal. This time, they have her dead to rights.

It was the time of the Moon of the Three Rings when the Free Trader ship Lydis landed on the planet Yiktor and junior crew member Krip Vorlund visited a beast show. He was strangely attracted to the owner of the show animals, a delicate and mysterious woman named Maelen. Soon Krip was caught in a vicious struggle by powerful opponents over the fate of Yiktor - and he learned the nature of Maelen's sorcery when he found his mind trapped in the body of a wolf-like creature.