Showing results by narrator "Chelsea Stephens" in All Categories

The last time Margot Callaway saw her sister, Lottie, the girl was 12 and clinging to their blood-covered mother over the asphalt in a gas station parking lot. Reeling and in shock, Margot fled her home state of Florida, choosing a path that would take her far away from the pain. She left everything behind, including Lottie. Now, seven years later, mysterious happenings on the island lead Margot to the realization that she must return home and face the ghosts of their shared past. Will Margot and Lottie have what it takes to protect each other?

When Katherine Miller was first asked to train chefs to be advocates, she thought the idea was ludicrous. But she quickly learned that chefs and other leaders in the restaurant industry are some of the most powerful forces for change in our troubled food system. Chefs are leading hunger relief efforts, supporting local farmers, fighting food waste, confronting racism and sexism in the industry, and much more.

Bea Hughes had put the past behind her. Until an anonymous caller phoned to say they knew what she'd done. To make matters worse, Bea suspects someone else in the house was listening in on the line. Fearful she's been found out and desperate to keep her family together, Bea must identify and silence the person who stands in the way of her happiness.

When a demon king demands the repayment of a favor, Karian Vanador finds herself prisoner to his wishes. But all is not as it appears.... Working behind enemy lines, Kari must turn the unexpected into an advantage. War between the worlds of Citaria and Mehr’Durillia is inevitable, but the question of where it will be fought lies in her hands. If she can strike just the right blow, Kari may keep the battle far from the realms of her people.

Even the circus that is Gem's personal life can't distract her from the danger that still lurks among the Nephilim council. Demons no longer slip through secret portals to terrorize Earth. Why ship them in from afar when they can be created right here? One by one, Gem's friends are being targeted until what began as a random science experiment becomes terrifyingly personal. This time, they have her dead to rights.

As a watcher, Sawyer Russo has sworn to protect her fellow humans. But the bots and carbons that overran her city are evolving, and are picking off her comrades one by one. Embarking on a desperate mission to save humanity from extinction, Sawyer discovers that the line between friend and foe is no longer easily drawn when one of her own betrays them. Faced with a choice between fulfilling her vow and avenging those who have fallen, she must ultimately decide who can be saved...and who can’t.

In Dreams of the Overworked, Christine M. Beckman and Melissa Mazmanian offer vivid sketches of daily life for nine families, capturing what it means to live, work, and parent in a world of impossible expectations, now amplified unlike ever before by smart devices. We are invited into homes and offices, where we recognize the crushing pressure of unraveling plans, and the healing warmth of being together. Moreover, we witness the constant planning that goes into a "good" day, often with the aid of phones and apps.

The undead still roam. But the war has just begun. Rachel North barely survived the horrors of Lost Rabbit. Now, deep into a brutal winter, Whispering Pines teeters on the edge of all-out war. Torn between gathering supplies and preparing for a siege, Rachel and her allies must face the grim reality: this won’t end without blood. Every choice risks lives. Every run into the wild might be their last. And in the distance, Mallory Graves sharpens her knives—ready to finish what she started. Meanwhile, a lone healer named Naomi shelters a wounded child in her isolated home.

After being demoted to the position of "cleaner" for the SSF, Gem's not sure life gets much worse. But when she stumbles upon a level six demon in her last trimester hiding in downtown New Orleans, she realizes she was very, very wrong. Apparently, maternal instincts apply even to demon babies. Gem can't let the council destroy such an innocent creature. Even if it is destined to grow up and try to eat her someday. On a mission to protect, Gem must figure out who's opened a portal for high level demons and what it has to do with her own father's murder.  

Cupid's aim sucks worse than his curse. Noel was one craptacular boyfriend away from taking a vow of celibacy when she found her dull-but-reliable fiancé. Maybe he didn't get her, ahem, juices flowing, but so what? At least he wouldn't break her heart. But then Cupid had to go and shoot her in the ass with his ill-timed arrow and ruin everything by saddling her with the worst soulmate ever. Grayson Adler. He was everything she swore she'd never fall for again - arrogant and sexy in an obvious, Greek god kind of way.

When a new girl, Becky Rusett, joins the Evermore Publishing team, she'll start to realize no office setting is as safe as it appears. The secrets, lies, and underhanded dealings of the publishing house are unsettling enough—but now some sinister events are putting the entire office in real danger. Decades before Evermore Publishing existed, a group of five meanspirited children terrorized a young child in a small town. The Fab 5, as they were called, set off the chain of events that would lead to the horrific events at Evermore.

As a child, Angela Mathers was the victim of a top-secret experimental program that implanted neural chips in children to correct disorders and enhance intelligence. Shunned by society, she, and others like her were locked away in camps. Now an adult Luman, she is both brilliant and calculating. Her quest for redemption brings her to DC, where she works to get a government bill that would free the Lumans passed into law.

Widow Kelly Carlsen has been through a lot since the death of her husband three years ago. Reported to the police for murder by her vindictive mother-in-law, she was suspected of poisoning her husband, jailed away from her son, and nearly went to prison before an autopsy proved her husband died of an undiagnosed nut allergy. 

Wibble & Pplimz, the Crucible's most unusual private investigators, must set off from their office in Hub City to clear the name of a former client. Along the way, their investigation broadens from a simple accusation of theft to include a missing person, a potential murder, and a highly unusual gem. Four interlinking incidents take them across the Crucible, as they attempt to solve the case. But there's something more sinister lurking underneath: evidence of a secret society that aims to discover the power of the Architects, and forever change the nature of the Crucible itself.

Ready for war, Rayna embarks on a daring and perilous quest, plunging deep into the Nest, where rebellion against the tyrant Lord Corvus and his ruthless Crows is the only hope for salvation. But as she unravels the secrets within, Rayna stumbles upon a chilling revelation—Corvus seeks the Stave, an ancient relic of unimaginable power that could seal the fate of humanity.

The first collection of short fiction from Lambda Award-winning novelist Dale Peck spans 25 years of writing, including two O. Henry Award winners and the recipient of a Pushcart Prize. The stories in What Burns examine the extremes of desire against a backdrop of family, class, and mortality.

Vampire Alexis Black is stuck between two worlds… and not wanted by either. Alexis Black believed a dagger to her little sister Lysette’s heart would end her reign of terror, but she left one last parting gift before she died. A death-bomb that splintered the city of Chicago in two. Humans on one side. Vampires on the other. Leaving Alexis stuck in the crossfire of a race war no one asked for. But when Delano Melazi, the self-proclaimed leader of the vampire race declares her public-vampire-number one, she must face him fang-to-fang to protect the innocents she has sworn to save.

Within the sprawling ruins of Seattle, the Nest looms high above as a stronghold of the aristocratic Crow class, ruled with an iron fist by Lord Corvus. Rayna and her resilient Hydrans have long toiled at the depths of Lake Union, crawling for valuable scrap metal to trade with the Crows.

In 1927, 17-year-old Elsie is dropped off in a new city with three other teenage girls, who have each trained since childhood to become the wife of a powerful man. And when they learn that their next target is earmarked to become president, their mission becomes more than just an assignment; this is a chance at the most powerful position in the society. But as these ambitious girls compete for the heart of a boy who has been given everything, Elsie starts to wonder what would happen if the name on that future ballot was hers.

Days after her capture, Rayna finds herself locked in a merciless desert prison, enslaved, beaten, and hopeless. But inside those eternal walls, she discovers new alliances that share her visions of liberty, fueling her determination to choose between the chains of oppression or the battle of her life - Freedom.