Showing results by narrator "Brandon" in All Categories

What if the most dangerous serial killer is the one who hunts her own kind? By day, Leah Nachtnebel is celebrated as one of the greatest pianists of our time. By night, she becomes a ruthless killer, using her brilliant mind to hunt predators who believe they’ve escaped justice. But when her latest target unearths a connection to her dark past, Leah is thrust into the crosshairs of two relentless forces: an FBI agent determined to uncover her secrets and a sadistic serial killer who doesn’t just see her as a traitor—he sees her as a trophy he must possess.

Newly appointed Ocean Springs Police Chief Jay Delp is trying to rebuild a shattered department and reconnect with his family on the quiet Mississippi Gulf Coast—until the body of a teenage girl turns up on the beach and the town’s calm façade cracks. What first looks like an overdose quickly becomes a missing baby mystery, and when Jay discovers the girl had an infant daughter, he’s forced into a relentless investigation that points to exploitation, secrets, and people determined to keep the truth buried.

The first time Hale Calloway calls me little mouse, he has no idea how right he is. I spend my life in the shadows, hiding who I truly am, skittering away to avoid attention. From the outside, no one would suspect that Haven Bell, daughter of Senator Frederick Bell, is nothing more than a puppet. I'm poised and polite, smile at the right times, and only speak when spoken to. But most importantly, I don't act like the omega I am. Not by choice. My father's political aspirations have pigeonhole him as an extremist. An alpha who wants to abolish the designations and have everyone live like betas.

Risqué Business explores the rise and ongoing cultural reckoning of "breastaurants": sports bar-style restaurants like Hooters and Twin Peaks, which have long relied on the sexualized presentation of female servers to attract a mostly straight, male clientele. Ty Matejowsky, professor of anthropology at the University of Central Florida, is uniquely positioned in America's foundational, breastaurant-saturated landscape. From this vantage, he offers a well-balanced account that draws on pop culture, media analysis, and contemporary gender politics.

Leah’s never truly known what it means to feel at home until she settles at Amity Court. But Jackson Hale wants to take it all away. When Jackson inherits the historic mansion from his grandmother, Esther Hale, the last thing he needs is her bizarre final request: to allow Leah Raven, Esther’s perky tenant, to stay there until the house is sold. It’s infuriating and he doesn’t want her company. Leah’s found a sanctuary within the walls of Amity Court, and she isn’t going to let some frustrated city businessman cash in his inheritance without resistance.

Renowned author Nikki Grimes and debut picture book writer Stacy Wells (Choctaw) lend their resonant voices to award-winning artist E. B. Lewis’s (Lenni Lenape) rich watercolors in this story of a Black Choctaw boy who finds strength in the example and history of his ancestors. When Dante...

My life hasn't been typical. All I remember is waking up in an alley when I was ten, scrounging for scraps to survive until I was taken to the Bronzeheart estate. That's where my life began, where I've lived for the past eight years with the ruling family, the Blitz Clan. It's where I found my best friend Gage, the future leader of this clan. At the time, I didn't question my good fortune because I was happy to know I wasn't alone in this world anymore. But maybe I should have. After landing a shocking invite to Dark Imaginarium Academy, I realized how much of a safe haven the estate was.

Business has a bad name for many people. It is easy to point to unethical and damaging behavior by companies. And it may seem straightforward to blame either individuals or, more generally, ruthless markets and amoral commercial society. In Honorable Business, James R. Otteson argues that business activity can be valuable in itself. Done correctly, honorable business can enable flourishing for individuals and prosperity for society.

Daniel Asa Rose was a successful novelist, memoirist, book critic, and columnist for the New York Times magazine, Esquire, and others, when the top blew off his domestic life. His wife of sixteen years wanted out. Before he could slip into depression, doubt, and self-loathing, Dan's lifelong friend Tony made an irresistible proposition: go back to the place where, forty years earlier, their college road trip had come to a crashing halt, T-boned by a woman in the decidedly oddball little town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Money and Morons is a wake-up call for those who want to become wealthy and stay wealthy. It doesn't matter your background or age; if you desire to work hard and have the discipline to make money, save, and properly invest, this book can become a valuable tool in protecting yourself and your family. It’s not an easy first step to take, but nothing can be improved if that step isn’t taken. This is how you do it.

I'm trying very hard not to be in love with my best friend. After all, we've "been there, done that." Or rather, we dated for three amazing weeks last spring before Scarlett's overprotective dad found out and made her break up with me. And now that I've left her dad's church, there's no chance for us. I'm considered dangerous—a threat. Though, it's really the secrets I hold that scare Pastor Caldwell the most. As long as I don't talk about why I left The Fold, her dad won't transfer Scarlett from our private boarding school before graduation.

The early decades of the nineteenth century saw the expansion of slavery, Native dispossession, and wars with Canada and Mexico. Mass immigration and powerful religious movements sent tremors through American society. But even as the powerful defended the status quo, others defied it. Edward L. Ayers's rich history examines the visions that moved Frederick Douglass, Margaret Fuller, the Native American activist William Apess, and others to challenge entrenched practices and beliefs.

Matt Connell, a formerly successful literary agent who’s been in prison for four years for a crime of passion—homicide by strangulation after learning his wife slept with a friend—receives an early release from Sing Sing to join an FBI undercover investigation of multiple murders in Manhattan. Killings continue to mount as Matt does his best to calm his “Ferrari brain”—a condition in which his mind accelerates wildly into negative thoughts and worst-case scenarios—even as he falls in love with a suspect, then discovers disturbing truths about his past and hers.

Every forty seconds, someone takes his or her life. Anxiety, depression, and suicide are at all-time highs—and they're stealing our sons, daughters, friends, and spouses. With tender passion and bold hope, Jacob Coyne, founder of Stay Here, infuses life into the dark corners of mental health. Giving hurting souls a reason to live, he shows not only how Jesus brings life to the full, but also how anyone—regardless of their past or pain—can find healing.

This collection of prayers by noted Hebrew Bible scholar Walter Brueggemann can be used in both public worship and private devotion. These prayers run the gamut from particular days in the church year to special moments in the lives of worshiping communities to events playing out on the world stage. In all cases, the prayers show us how God accompanies us through all the moments and stages of our life, while simultaneously calling us to do the same for all those whom God has placed alongside us in the journey.

In December 1832 a farmer found the body of a pregnant young woman hanging near a haystack outside a New England mill town. When news spread that Methodist preacher Ephraim Avery was accused of murdering Sarah Maria Cornell, a factory worker, the case gave the public everything they found irresistible: sexually charged violence, adultery, the hypocrisy of a church leader, secrecy and mystery, and suspicions of insanity. Murder in a Mill Town tells the story of how a local crime quickly turned into a national scandal that became America's first "trial of the century."

Evil Professor Zeero has disappeared, Superintendent Atwater has been put in his place, and all is right again in Beechwood . . . or is it? When Rube Goldberg discovers the Null Corporation is building a giant machine in his beloved junkyard, he suspects something nefarious is at play. Then when he begins receiving anonymous messages from someone claiming to be an ally, he knows something is up.

Beginning with a handful of members in 1830, the church that Joseph Smith founded has grown into a world-wide organization with over twelve million adherents, playing prominent roles in politics, sports, entertainment, and business. Yet they are an oddity. Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction explains who Mormons are: what they believe and how they live their lives. 

The understanding of God that many Christians insist is so clear in the Bible makes faith seem like an all-or-nothing proposition. When much of that rigid projection seems in doubt, it's not surprising that many people leave behind this take-it-or-leave-it religion. Pastor Mark Feldmeir offers an introduction to a God that many people weren't aware existed—a mysterious, uncontainable, still-active God who loves and cares for real people with real problems.

When my college roommate tries to fix me up with her creepy cousin, I do the only thing I can think of to waylay her unwanted matchmaking—I invent a boyfriend in the Navy. Every week for four years, I send a letter to my fictitious soulmate, Officer Elijah O'Donnell, sharing my innermost thoughts and dreams for the future. Which is why no one is more surprised than me when my military hero appears at my place of work and asks me for a date. At six feet four and bristling with blue-eyed masculinity, Elijah O'Donnell is very real—and he's read every one of my letters.