Showing results by narrator "Raquel Beattie" in All Categories

In the Los Angeles suburbs, the Crawfords seem like the average American family. Leo is a rising star in advertising. His wife, Rose, is brilliant, restless, and pregnant with their second child. Their teenage daughter, Melinda, is already leaning toward rebellion. Then Rose vanishes during a family vacation. When she comes back, she’s not the same.

A fake marriage to my best friend is a temporary measure. My dad dreams of walking me down the aisle. With his health now at risk, who better than Leon "Bear" Karlsen to step up and be my pretend husband? All we have to do is act like we're suddenly in love. Me, a cynic who swore off dating...

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.

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. 

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.

El has trained all her life to do two things—to fly the skies on wings of roaring flames, and to burn her enemies to the ground. Now, having graduated the academy, she's ready to do both those things. . . . until she's dispatched in the opposite direction of the war effort. To a city named after vegetables of all things. Seriously, who names a place after those? But, despite it being a routine mission, El and her unit find a new enemy waiting for them. One who isn't afraid of a little fire.

Rosa Mandolini knows in her heart that her family are the greatest painters of magical illuminations in the city. But the eccentric Studio Mandolini has fallen on hard times and the future is no longer certain. While trying to help her family, Rosa discovers a strange magical box protected by a painted crow. But when she finds a way to open the box, she accidentally releases the Scarling, a vicious monster determined to destroy the Mandolini family at any cost.

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.

Cate thought she knew darkness. As a trauma nurse, she had witnessed the worst of humanity. But nothing could have prepared her for the fae underworld. A realm where beauty is a weapon, desire is a trap, and mortals who stray too far don't return. She almost didn't. Until Lachlan Gage—shadowed, ruthless, and feared—bound her to him with a deadly bargain. As the prince of New Orleans and ruler of the Nether Court, he is as much a curse as he is salvation. And with the Wild Hunt at his heels and war stirring, even his protection may not be enough. 

A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing: a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else. But now Deniau's been dead a year, and Rose House is locked up tight, as commanded by the architect's will: all his possessions and files and sketches are confined in its archives, and their only keeper is Rose House itself. Rose House, and one other.

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.

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.

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.

'A staggeringly honest exploration of how shame, cruelty and the hunger for acceptance can make us feel sub-human. Visceral and vicious, horrifying, unflinching and unputdownable' RACHEL HARRISON You'd kill to look this good... Over three hundred pounds, Emmett Truesdale has never fit the...

Detective Veranda Cruz’s single-minded mission to destroy the Villalobos crime family has cost her more than she ever would have imagined, both professionally and personally. And put her squarely in their sights. A brutal enforcer has agreed to turn state’s evidence, offering vital information that will end the Villalobos dynasty’s thirty-year reign of terror. But when an extradition operation crashes and burns, a new series of murders terrorizes the city.

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.

This is a New York rotten to its magical core. This is the Secret City, where gargoyles roost on fire escapes, were-rats work the night shift at hex-diners, and sorcery and circuitry sing the same siren song. Navigating these garish canyons is Nova Swann, a renegade urban druid and veil-walker...

Horror fan and aspiring film director Yuiza gets a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school. But something is not quite right. As one of the few students of color at Our Lady of Perpetual Mercy, Yuiza immediately feels out of place. A brutal work-study schedule makes it impossible to keep up...

Beck Daines has everything he needs—at least that's what he wants everyone to believe. As the starting first baseman for the Blues, he has his dream job, amazing friends, and, while he's a romantic at heart, watching his friends find the love they deserve is more than enough. However, love for himself is an idea he's benched for good. After his mother was diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer's, Beck stopped planning a future that could fall apart. No feelings and no forever loves to potentially forget, zero exceptions. That is, until Jensen James.

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...