Showing results by narrator "Raquel Beattie" in All Categories

Khalani Kanes has never stood on the surface of the earth. In the underground city of Apollo, faith and dreams are as absent as the sun. She longs to visit Genesis, the infamous Domed City and the final place where humanity lives aboveground. But when Khalani is given a life sentence and thrown into prison for a theft she didn't commit, that wish shatters into oblivion.

Haunted by the Governor of Apollo's dark secrets, Khalani and her crew of criminals embark on a new perilous journey. Now, the true test begins as Khalani ventures through the treacherous Death Zone toward the nearest underground city, Hermes. Abandoned relics of a once-great nation are not the only threats on the barren road. Violent storms sweep across the Death Zone, the deadly Takeshi Steele has resumed his cold detachment, and unsettling signs suggest they might not be alone on the surface.

At Breakneck Bay, the rides are fast, the injuries frequent, and the lawsuits endless. But when a teenage employee vanishes after closing, leaving behind a blood-soaked crime scene, it’s clear this summer will be the deadliest yet. Suspicion falls on park manager Mitch Blue, forcing his newlywed wife Kit to confront the cracks in their marriage—and the unsettling secrets he’s been keeping. But Kit and the police aren’t the only ones looking for answers. Someone is watching from the shadows, waiting to finish what they started years ago.

Amber Patterson Parrish has come a long way. Hard work and immaculate planning turned her from invisible wallflower to prominent socialite, but there have been bumps along the way. Less than a year after her husband Jackson's tax-evasion scandal, Amber reigns supreme over the Bishops Harbor community. But with Jackson being released from prison, Amber's free time - and money - is vanishing. With shocking turns and entertaining characters, The Next Mrs. Parrish will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about duplicity and betrayal.

Blackmail isn’t the most romantic way to propose, but with the history between us…I had no choice. Long story short: I broke her heart and pushed her away. Years later we reconnected, and this time she walked away. Neither of us knew she was pregnant. So, when we had a second chance to be a real family, I led her to believe our marriage was fake—that one football season by my side was the only way to prevent another scandal for my career.

It is 1984 in Chile, in the middle of the Pinochet dictatorship. A member of the secret police walks into the office of a dissident magazine and finds a reporter, who records his testimony. The narrator of Nona Fernández's mesmerizing and terrifying novel The Twilight Zone is a child when she first sees this man's face on the magazine's cover with the words "I Tortured People". His complicity in the worst crimes of the regime and his commitment to speaking about them haunt the narrator into her adulthood and career as a writer and documentarian. 

When Winona rents a room at the eccentric Mirror House, she hopes to make new friends. What she gets instead is a “family” led by the charismatic psychologist Simon Spellmeyer. But if she wants to stay at Mirror House, Winona must join in following Simon’s strange protocols for self-improvement. Warning bells chime inside her, but the allure of transformation keeps her hooked. While his methods are disturbing, the results are undeniable.

Scarletta: bastard, daughter of a traitor. To the Italian Don of New York, I’m nothing more than a tool to be wielded. My obedience was the price I had to pay for the sins of my father. But Dominick Romano should have worked on gaining my loyalty because the chains he shackled me with have been undone. The Four Families have always run New York: Italian Mafia, Irish Mob, Russian Bratva, and the Jirocho Yakuza Clan. An alliance cloaked in proclamations of peace while they hold knives to one another’s backs. But a new player has emerged: The Syndicate.

To survive in the Los Muertos Cartel, you have to stay useful, especially when you're a woman. So I made sure I couldn't be replaced. Now my name is whispered about in the shadows—La Brujita de Los Muertos. Too bad I forgot that lies and deceit are the lifeblood of this toxic paradise. I should have seen the betrayal coming. My hands were always destined to be drenched in the blood of guilty men.

Running away and becoming someone new would be far easier if the demons of my past didn't insist on showing up at my doorstep. Turns out that leaving an evil Russian Bratva leader at the altar after helping stage his assassination only pissed him off and made me a target. I tried blending, but hiding in the shadows under a fake alias is no longer enough. It should have been easy to keep my distance from the MC member burdened with protecting me. He is just as averse to commitment as I am, yet he's been the only person ever to see me, even through all the smoke and mirrors I keep between us.

Personal branding and reputation management expert, Lida Citroën guides leaders through this new paradigm of executive presence and influence. Through inspiring examples, compelling stories, and practical exercises, Citron helps leaders tap into their passion, connect authentically with others, and create space for inclusivity and community.

I risked my life to help fae flee a tyrant king. When my own escape goes wrong, I'm left stranded in the wilderness with an injured, arrogant fae mercenary. The last thing he wants is to claim his mortal soulmate, but we have to rely on each other, or die. Unfortunately, he's half-basilisk, and a single glance will kill me. Unless we mate . . . every three days.

Stolen from the mortal world by the fae, the last thing I expect is a crown. Enslaved at a mine and with no hope of escape, my life is a grim exercise in survival until the magic of the Court chooses an unexpected ruler: Me.

Thus Were Their Faces offers a comprehensive selection of the short fiction of Silvina Ocampo, undoubtedly one of the twentieth century's great masters of the story and the novella. Here are tales of doubles and impostors, angels and demons, a marble statue of a winged horse that speaks, a beautiful seer who writes the autobiography of her own death, a lapdog who records the dreams of an old woman, a suicidal romance, and much else that is incredible, mad, sublime, and delicious.

Supernatural investigator Mina Summers is only one undercover mission away from the promotion she's worked for her entire career. Her assignment is simple: figure out why several unregistered vampires are going rogue—including one that ruined her best suit—and attacking humans. Her investigation leads her to Thinner, a new celebrity-endorsed weight loss company that's shrouded in mystery and promises seemingly impossible results. When she face-plants into Carma Nicks, Thinner's smart and sexy vice president, Mina's suddenly out of her depth. 

Caroline Brennan just wants to be good. A good daughter, a good friend, a good person. It shouldn't be that hard, right? Hunter Whitlock doesn't care about being good. He just wants to be left alone. Turns out, that's not so easy. Turns out, when it comes to the pretty girl in the flowery...

Unlikeable Female Characters traces the evolution of highly memorable female characters, examining what exactly makes them popular, how audiences have reacted to them, and the ways in which pop culture is finally allowing us to celebrate the complexities of being a woman. Anna Bogutskaya, film programmer, broadcaster, and cofounder of the horror film collective and podcast The Final Girls takes us on a journey through popular film, TV, and music, looking at the nuances of womanhood on and off-screen to reveal whether pop culture—and society—is finally ready to embrace complicated women.

Cate Holloway knows the unspoken rule of New Orleans: avoid the powerful Gage crime family at all costs. Of course, that was before her brother got caught in their chaos. Now Cate has no choice but to confront the dark and forbidding prince of New Orleans himself . . . and beg for her brother's life. But Lachlan Gage is as lethal as he is beautiful . . . and the only currency he's interested in is her soul. Because Lachlan isn't just some ruthless criminal. He's fae. And he has his own secret reasons for binding her to him.

After thirteen-year-old Samantha Morris almost drowned in her parents' lake, the nightmares that followed paled in comparison to the real-life horrors of watching her mother descend into madness. By the end of the summer, Kate Morris disappeared without a trace. Now an adult, Samantha is faced with another unexpected loss in her partner Ellie as well as the return of the nightmares. Only now, they're bleeding into her waking hours, forcing her to question her own sanity, and they're only getting worse.

Shadows & Ciders is the third book in a series of interconnected standalone fantasy romance novels that take place in a cozy, small town where folk of all species reside. Grab a warm cup of tea or a strawberry sage cider and dive into this world of romance, magic, and mayhem.