Showing results by narrator "Jesse Vilinsky" in All Categories

Mercenary Casia Greythorne cares about two things: completing whatever her latest job is and earning enough coin to buy the expensive medicine that's keeping her mentor alive. So when the king himself offers her a job, she can't resist the massive reward he offers - even if it means working with Captain Elander, the arrogant, mysterious right-hand to that king. Her partner may be infuriating, but at least their mission seems simple and quick enough: investigate the origins of the strange plague that's been ravaging their empire, help find a cure, and then call it a day.

What makes love stick? Is it the irresistible spark when you lock eyes across a piazza in Rome? Is it feeling the earth move under your feet? (Wait—that was an actual earthquake.) In these six serendipitous short stories, bestselling authors turn improbable first encounters into hopelessly romantic happy ever afters.

Once every two generations, the young adults of Whitecliff must face the trial of Mother's Wrath, during which they will either receive magical powers or be swept away in the tempest. Dorea hopes the storm will bring her one of its elemental powers: lightning, water, or wind. To her shock, when the trial ends and the earth stops trembling, she finds herself gifted with all three.

Four years ago, Brynn quit Saint Ambrose School following the shocking murder of her favourite teacher. The case was never solved, but Brynn's sure that the three kids who found Mr. Larkin's body know more than they're telling. When Brynn gets the internship of a lifetime working on a popular true-crime show, she decides to investigate what really happened that day in the woods. But the further she dives into the past, the more secrets she uncovers.

We live in a close-knit community. Thirty houses surrounding a square of garden that is perfect for our kids. We congregate here on major holidays, each family bringing a plate and sharing food and conversation. It’s in the garden that I first met her. The woman who would worm her way into my family and piece by piece tear it apart.

Decades ago, the High King of Sundolia waged a war that vanquished the Serpent clan and drove them out of the empire. But they did not leave peacefully. Their parting gift included curses that now rest within the empire's soil, growing more and more dormant as the years pass under the rule of that increasingly tyrannical high king. Until Alaya - a young woman with a hidden Serpent mark who shouldn't exist - accidentally wakes one of them up. Then another. She must seek the truth about her lost clan and the so-called curses they left behind. About her true home.

Halla is a housekeeper who has suddenly inherited her great-uncle's estate...and, unfortunately, his relatives. Sarkis is an immortal swordsman trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. When Halla draws the sword that imprisons him, Sarkis finds himself attempting to defend his new wielder against everything from bandits and roving inquisitors to her own in-laws...and the sword itself may prove to be the greatest threat of all.

The kingdoms are shattering. A tyrant rules from the north. The Dragon clan, once exiled beyond the edges of the empire, has joined forces with a bloodthirsty, opportunistic king in the south. And the crown prince of Rooks is running out of options to keep the people and places he loves safe. His best chance to save his world and take the crown from his mad father may lie in the most dangerous of those exiled Dragons-a woman who is just as likely to ruin him as she is to save him.

Nothing will get in the way of Millie Price’s dream of becoming a Broadway star. Not her lovable but super introverted dad, who raised Millie alone since she was a baby. Not her drama club rival, Oliver, who is the very definition of Simmering Romantic Tension. And not her “Millie Moods”, the feelings of intense emotion that threaten to overwhelm. Millie needs an ally. And when an accidentally left-open browser brings Millie to her dad’s embarrassingly moody LiveJournal from 2003, Millie knows just what to do - find her mom. 

Lexi Sobado is a young woman with a special gift: She's psychic. But even knowing things others don't, Lexi's unable to avoid genuine danger when a stalker focuses his evil on her. As the situation escalates, she must navigate through a sinister web of fear and danger to stay alive.

Still reeling from an unimaginable loss and the revelation of an identity she isn't sure she wants to embrace, Casia has one plan: Try to control the strange magic awakening inside of her. Mastering that magic will take her and her friends on a quest through cursed lands, into the dwellings of old gods, and deep into a Southern empire filled with deadly foes and unlikely allies. 

It's the summer before her 16th birthday, and Sabrina Spellman knows her world is about to change. She's always studied magic and spells with her aunts, Hilda and Zelda. But she's also lived a normal mortal life - attending Baxter High, hanging out with her friends Susie and Roz, and going to the movies with her boyfriend, Harvey Kinkle.

Lieutenant Abby Mullen is no stranger to crisis. As the hostage negotiation instructor for the NYPD, she deals with worst-case scenarios every day. Nothing fazes her anymore. That all changes when she gets a call from Eden Fletcher, a fellow survivor of the infamous Wilcox cult. The two haven’t spoken since the night of a tragic, fiery massacre, when their paths diverged. But now Eden needs Abby’s help: someone has kidnapped her son and is demanding a $5 million ransom. As Abby throws herself into the case, she can’t help but wonder why the kidnapper has targeted Eden.

Sabrina Spellman has just made the hardest decision of her life: She's leaving behind her beloved friends at Baxter High. Now it's time to follow the path of night and find her way among the witches and warlocks at the Academy of Unseen Arts. Sabrina has always been good at the school thing, but now she has a whole new world to navigate. Her power is growing daily, but it comes with a high price. She must always remember her new allegiances and the cost they have on her friends...and on herself.

It’s been 18 months since the Raxter School for Girls was put in quarantine. The Tox turned the students strange and savage, the teachers died off one by one. Cut off from the mainland, the girls don’t dare wander past the school’s fence where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure as the Tox takes, their bodies becoming sick and foreign, things bursting out of them, bits missing.

Casia has survived her brother's attempts to crush her and her growing army, but the battle for their empire is just beginning. Bitter and wounded, carrying the curse of a dark and dangerous upper-god, and desperate for more allies, she charges northward to seek the elves who once walked alongside the divine beings. The elven Court of Moreth holds knowledge. Secrets. And power. The kind of power that could shift all of Casia's wars in her favor. If she can survive the dangerous politics and treacherous magic of the elf-kind.

A young girl discovers an infinite variety of worlds in this standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-wining Wayward Children series from Seanan McGuire, Lost in the Moment and Found.

Iniquus is an elite, top secret group run by some of America's most formidable retired special forces operators. Their jobs include intelligence gathering, hostage recovery, and taking on black-ops assignments when the US government needs plausible deniability. One of their newest intelligence hires is Lexi Sobado, code named Lynx. While Lynx tries to make a name for herself as a the only female operative on the team, a new neighbor moves into her neighborhood - their pasts are dangerously linked together. Lynx becomes a pawn in a deadly international game.

Professional bakers and a local food blogger are participating in the Baking Spirits Bright holiday baking competition and they aren’t about to go down without a fight. The competition quickly heats to a boiling point, with flaring tempers and mysterious happenings. When one of the entrants is found dead, stabbed with Becca’s chocolate chipper, Becca tries to salvage the season by finding the killer. But the heat is on, and Becca is in danger of getting burned.

S. M. Gaither presents Book 5 in the Shadows and Crowns series.