Showing results by narrator "Vanessa Johansson" in All Categories

Ever, Lindsay, and Josie have ushered their daughters—Bea, Olive, and Savvy—through years of dance classes. They've tended bloodied feet, stitched ribbons to countless pairs of pointe shoes, and forged friendships that seem to transcend rivalry. But now Etienne Bernay, enfant terrible of French ballet, has come to their conservatory. Not only will he direct this year's production of The Nutcracker, but he's brought along a film crew to document his search for one special student who will receive a full scholarship to the Ballet de Paris Academie.

Anna Wilks went straight from her parents' house to her husband's. After 13 years of trying to give him a son, she's told she's sterile. Her marriage crumbles and her husband leaves her for a younger woman who's pregnant with his child. Then, Anna finds her deceased aunt Annabeth's journal and discovers her secret. Having no idea who she is now that she can't be a wife and mother, Anna shocks her family by setting out on a desperate search to find herself. She follows her aunt's journal to Mystic Valley, Vermont.

It's not Fourth of July on Mackinac Island without fireworks and fudge. The Historic McMurphy Hotel and Fudge Shop is supplying the treats-and Allie McMurphy has hired Rodney Rivers, the biggest name in aerial displays, to create an unforgettable spectacle. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a case of red, white, and boom when Allie finds him dead, covered with screaming chicken fireworks, just before the entire warehouse of pyrotechnics goes up in smoke. Is it arson or is it murder?

Allie McMurphy is up to her neck in renovations at the grand old hotel that's been in her family for generations. With its quaint Victorian charm - and world-famous fudge shop - the place is one of Mackinac Island's most beloved landmarks.

Life is sweet for Allie McMurphy, proud owner of Historic McMurphy Hotel and Fudge Shop on Michigan's Mackinac Island - until murder and deception leave a bitter taste.... 

 The true enemy has been revealed. The clock is ticking. Everything comes down to one girl. One legend. One. Last. Battle. And Alex is either going to win it, or she's going to meet her end in a flurry of flames and fangs.... 

One evening, Carolina says good night to her partner, Aksel. Things have been tough for both of them recently, especially with an eight-month-old son to raise. So when Aksel dies unexpectedly in the night, Carolina’s world is turned upside-down. Based on the author's own experiences, Let’s Hope for the Best details the small moments of life before and after tragedy. It’s a story about motherhood, family and the difficulties of loving someone who is distant, and then who is gone.

In a breakthrough book for the series, Mallory says good-bye to Stoneybrook and hello to the Riverbend School. The boarding school in the Berkshires introduces Mallory to a new group of friends - and a not-so-friendly roommate.

Loving the holiday season but hating its commercialism, Mallory coordinates an old-fashioned family Christmas of baking and trimming that attracts media attention, but Mallory begins to fear that the chaotic film crews will spoil her plans.

Mallory is delighted when the subject of the new Short Takes class turns out to be children's literature, but she is bitterly disappointed by the new young teacher, Mr. Cobb, who unintentionally favors the boys in the class, until Mallory decides to stand up for her rights.

Mallory loves horses. She loves reading about them. She loves writing about them. And most of all, she loves daydreaming about them.

Mallory Pike has always wanted to be a member of the Baby-Sitters Club - they're so much fun to be around, and she's practically a baby-sitter already. Now the club members have invited Mallory to a meeting. This might be her big chance! But the BSC isn't making it easy - they make Mal feel like a baby on a job, and make her take an impossible written test. Mallory's beginning to think she doesn't want to be a part of the BSC...or maybe she and her new friend Jessi should start a club of their own. It's time to show those baby-sitters what a couple of new girls can do!

Mallory lands a job as part-time assistant to her favorite children's author and discovers some troubling things about the author's past. 

Being a "total spaz" in gym is bad enough, but now Mallory's worst nightmare has come true. Gym class has gone co-ed! Pre-teen girls are sure to relate to this latest book in the phenomenally popular Baby-Sitters Club series.

Mallory discovers that the terrible twins she baby-sits on a regular basis are not really bad - they just want to be treated as individuals.

In March of 2009, Erin Byers Murray ditched her pampered city-girl lifestyle and convinced the rowdy and mostly male crew at Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, Massachusetts, to let a completely unprepared, aquaculture-illiterate food-and-lifestyle writer work for them for a year to learn the business of oysters. The result is Shucked - part love letter, part memoir, and part documentary about the world's most beloved bivalves.   

It starts innocently enough. Julie Hayes and her husband have just returned to Manhattan from a month in Paris. Julie looks forward to spending quality time with Jeff, whose career as a journalist takes him away from home for months on end. Now if they could just find the perfect work of art to hang over their mantel. Julie's quest takes her to a trendy SoHo gallery where she meets an itinerant artist named Ralph Abel.

In 1908, 16-year-old Bridey runs away from her small town in Ireland with her same-age sweetheart, Thom. But when Thom dies suddenly of ship fever on their ocean crossing, Bridey finds herself alone and pregnant in a strange new world. Forced by circumstance to give up the baby for adoption, Bridey finds work as a maid for the Hollingworth family at a lavish, sprawling estate. She cares for the Hollingworth children as if they were her own, until a mysterious death changes Bridey and the household forever.

Consummate journalist Maggie Devlin has a rule: never get involved with the men she interviews. It's never been an issue and shouldn't be one this time around; her subject, the egotistical filmmaker George MacDonagh, holds zero appeal for her. But on-site in misty, magical County Cork, the faeries can bewitch even the most level-headed of women....

Lieutenant Sully Jax saved his unit during an IED attack, but he couldn't save his marriage. He can't even remember it. Recovered from his injuries, he's come home to the family and friends he knows-and an ex-wife who's a stranger to him. Lucy Crabtree was heartbroken last Christmas when Sully announced his plan to go on one last tour of duty, and devastated when he asked for a divorce after he awoke in the hospital with no memory of her.