Showing results by narrator "Lauren Fortgang" in All Categories

When her father descends into madness, Verity Pruitt and her little sister Lilah find themselves uprooted from New York, on an orphan train to rural Arkansas. In Wheeler, Lilah is quickly adopted by the town’s beloved schoolteacher - but Verity is not. Willing to do anything to stay close, she pawns herself off as a farmhand, but even charming farm boy Abel Atchley can’t completely distract her from the sense that something is not quite right in this little town.

Sally Miyake can't read, but she learns lots of things. Like bricks are made of clay and vitamin D comes from the sun. Sally is happy working in the kitchen at Sunnyside Plaza, the community center she lives in with other adults with developmental disabilities. For Sally and her friends, Sunnyside is the only home they've ever known. Everything changes the day a resident unexpectedly dies. After a series of tragic events, Detectives Esther Rivas and Lon Bridges begin asking questions. Are the incidents accidents? Or is something more disturbing happening?

Best-selling author Carla Cassidy brings danger and deception to Dead River Ranch for the Coltons of Wyoming. Ranch foreman Gray Stark and heiress Catherine Colton may live together on Dead River Ranch, but they're from different worlds. She made that clear when she broke his heart years ago. With their passionate, complicated past, marriage is not an option. Until he finds out that she - and her unborn baby - are targets. Making Catherine his wife is the best way to ensure her safety.

Cas Russell is good at math. Scary good. The vector calculus blazing through her head lets her smash through armed men twice her size and dodge every bullet in a gunfight, and she'll take any job for the right price. As far as Cas knows, she’s the only person around with a superpower...until she discovers someone with a power even more dangerous than her own. Someone who can reach directly into people’s minds and twist their brains into Moebius strips. Someone intent on becoming the world’s puppet master. Cas should run, like she usually does, but for once she's involved.

The police are called to stop two teens ransacking a small-town grocery store. They have no identification. And they won’t speak a word. And the small town of Kokanee Creek is suddenly plunged into a sinister mystery that only #1 bestseller James Patterson could have written.

Golden Age Hollywood - a city overflowing with gossip, scandal, and intrigue. Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary temptress. So when the film's mercurial director casts Vera Larios, an unknown Mexican ingenue, in the lead role, she quickly becomes the talk of the town. Vera also becomes an object of envy for Nancy Hartley, a bit player whose career has stalled and who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.

As heir to the throne, Ruben must choose an appropriate mate to preserve his royal bloodline - despite his fear that his true nature will destroy them both. Yet the female he craves above all others is a dangerous combination of fairy and shifter, a mesmerizing creature who inspires both passion and suspicion. Then violence strikes the castle, and the two are forced to track a killer into perilous magical territory. But with treachery everywhere, will Willow and Ruben's growing bond be enough to shift the fate of their two kingdoms?

Math-genius mercenary Cas Russell has stopped a shadow organization from brainwashing the world and discovered her past was deliberately erased and her superhuman abilities deliberately created. And that's just the start: When a demolitions expert targets Cas and her friends, and the hidden conspiracy behind Cas' past starts to reappear, the past, present, and future collide in a race to save one of her dearest friends.

One humiliating photo, a stupid prank, and a hashtag that goes viral. That's how my senior year goes from predictable to absurd in a heartbeat. This year is supposed to be easy. I've finally scored first chair in band, my college applications are done, and all my friends and I have to do is survive one more year of high school before our real lives can begin. Instead, I find myself in trouble with the principal, humiliated in front of the entire school, and fighting with my neighbor - AKA star quarterback, Prince Charming, and nicest guy on the planet.

With her long ponytail and sparkling green eyes, Tessa Donovan looks more like the girl next door than a businesswoman - or a heartbreaker. Which may explain why Detective Luke Asher barely notices her when he arrives to investigate a break-in at her family’s brewery. He’s got his own problems - starting with the fact that his partner, Simone, is pregnant and everyone thinks he’s the father.

The juniors at Paloma High School all have their secrets, whether it's the thespian who hides her trust issues onstage, the closeted pansexual who cares only about his drug-dealing profits, or the neurotic genius who's planted the seed of a school scandal. But it's Juniper Kipling who has the furthest to fall. No one would argue that Juniper - obedient daughter, salutatorian, natural beauty, and loyal friend - is anything but perfect.

Gamer vs Player. Some girls have a dream guy, but Suzie's ideal boyfriend is totally real. He’s just...virtual. Suzie doesn't need to see her online gaming buddy to know that he’s her perfect match. The problem lies in reality, AKA high school. Ever since a humiliating photo of her surfaced on the first day of senior year, she hasn't been able to escape the attention of Luke Warner. Suzie thinks he doesn’t know her at all, and she seems convinced that she doesn’t like him. But what if she knew that he was her online BFF? That would change everything.

A sweeping historical romance about a witch who foresees her own murder - and the one boy who can help change her future. Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe wants only to take her rightful place as the witch of Prince Island, making the charms that keep the island's whalers safe at sea, but her mother has forced her into a magic-free world of proper manners and respectability. When Avery dreams she's to be murdered, she knows time is running out to unlock her magic and save herself.

An unlikely pair of voices - the world's most recognizable beauty icon and "America's rabbi"- come together to diagnose how meaningful, passionate sex is on the decline in Western culture, and what is necessary to save it. Sex is dying in America. Inundated with sex and starved for it, obsessed with it yet clueless about it, we are slowly forgetting how to make love. The crisis of modern sexuality is seen in high divorce rates, in the degradation of sexuality through pornography, and tasteless displays of empty, counterfeit erotica.

Jen is just getting used to her life on Peapod Farm with her new stepsisters, Andy and Reese. But when the school year starts, there are even more changes in store for her. Jen has to navigate new friends and new challenges--but at least she'll have Andy with her, right? As she starts the sixth grade, she finds that her stepsister seems way more interested in crushes and boys than hanging out with her, while Jen wants to know when the world decided boys and girls couldn't be "just friends" anymore.

Once a week, three women get together for book club in Kingsland, a private, gated community full of neighbors looking to do their business away from prying eyes. On the same night, their husbands meet up to play poker, where much more is being planned than anyone could guess.

After college, Ryan Kowalski decided to leave Whitford, Maine, rather than watch Lauren Carpenter marry another man. Now his siblings need his help to refurbish the family-owned Northern Star Lodge and he's forced to face the past sooner rather than later when he collars a vandal - and learns the boy is Lauren's son.... The last person Lauren needs back in her life is Ryan Kowalski. With a bitter ex-husband and a moody teenage son, she has enough man trouble already. But her son needs to learn a few lessons about right and wrong, even if Lauren has to escort him to Ryan's door every day to work off his crime.

Meet Dahlia Moss, the reigning queen of unfortunate decision making in the St. Louis area. Unemployed, broke, and on her last bowl of ramen, she's not living her best life. But that's all about to change. Before Dahlia can make her life any messier on her own, she's offered a job. A job that she's woefully underqualified for. A job that will lead her to a murder, an MMORPG, and possibly a fella (or two?).

Brand-new stories by: Daniel Woodrell, Matthew Eck, Catherine Browder, Nancy Pickard, John Lutz, J. Malcolm Garcia, Kevin Prufer, Linda Rodriguez, Nadia Pflaum, Phong Nguyen, Andres Rodriguez, and others. Kansas City: where East and West collide, where naked ambition meets broken dreams, where blues and the night go together like rye whiskey, vermouth, and bitters. Yes, Kansas City is a surprising place of grit, gore, and betrayal, at least in the imaginations of our diverse lineup of contributors.

What’s more satisfying than brewing the perfect cup of tea? Brewing it from tea you grew yourself! Create your own tea garden with help from this beginner’s guide. It walks you through every step of the process, from planning your garden plot to preparing delicious tea blends.