Showing results by publisher "Simon & Schuster Audio" in Holidays

Thinking no one is reading, a blogger who calls herself LBH writes about her most personal feelings, especially her overwhelming loneliness. She goes from day to day showing a brave face to the world while inside she longs to know how it would feel if one person cared about her. Alex Bartlett cares. He's reading her posts in Daytona Beach, Florida. Nursing his own broken heart and trust issues, he finds himself falling for this sensitive, vulnerable woman whose feelings mirror his own.

When Eddie was 12 years old, all he wanted for Christmas was a bike. Although his life had gotten harder - and money tighter - since his father died and the family bakery closed...Eddie dreamed that somehow his mother would find a way to have his dream bike gleaming beside their modest Christmas tree that magical morning. What he got from her instead was a sweater. "A stupid, handmade, ugly sweater" that young Eddie left in a crumpled ball in the corner of his room.

Nathan Hurst hated Christmas. For the rest of the world, it was a day of joy and celebration; for Nathan it was simply a reminder of the event that destroyed his childhood. But then a snowstorm, a canceled flight, and an unexpected meeting with a young mother and her very special son show him that Christmas is indeed the season of miracles.

After nearly two decades, Noel Post, an editor for a major New York publishing house, returns to her childhood home in Salt Lake City to see her estranged, dying father. What she believed would be a brief visit turns into something more as she inherits the bookstore her father fought to keep alive. Reeling from loneliness, a recent divorce, and unanticipated upheavals in her world, Noel begins receiving letters from an anonymous source, each one containing thoughts and lessons about her life and her future.

The Christmas season has arrived in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive holiday production of Jack and the Beanstalk to raise money for a new church roof. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking among the amateur theater enthusiasts with petty rivalries, a possibly asbestos-filled beanstalk, and some perennially absent players behind the scenes. Of course, there’s also the matter of the dead body onstage. Who could possibly have had the victim on their naughty list?

At 32, Kimberly Rossetti, a finance officer at a Lexus car dealership, has had her heart broken more times than she wants to remember. With two failed engagements and a divorce, and again alone with no prospects, she hardly seems the type to dream of being a published romance author. Dreading another holiday alone, she signs up for The Mistletoe Retreat, a nine-day writing retreat in Savannah, Georgia. Deep inside Kimberly knows she's at a junction in her life, and it's time to either fulfill her dream or let it go.

On the night of her high school graduation, Richelle Bach’s father gives her and her identical twin sister, Michelle, matching opal necklaces. “These opals look identical,” he tells them, “but the fire inside each is completely unique - just like the two of you.” Indeed, the two sisters couldn’t be more different, and their paths diverge as they embark on adulthood. Years pass, until - at their father’s behest - they both come home for Christmas. What happens then forever damages their relationship, and Richelle vows never to see or speak to her sister again.

From number-one New York Times best-selling author Karen Kingsbury comes this prequel to her upcoming novel The Bridge, shedding light on the love story behind the bookstore and how it came to be a place of hope and encouragement.

Sally Walther feels like her world is imploding. Publicly humiliated after her husband, a councilman, is arrested for bigamy, and her subsequent divorce, she has isolated herself from the world. When her only friend insists that Sally climb out of her hole and embrace the season, Sally decides to put up a Christmas tree and heads off to buy one - albeit reluctantly. She is immediately taken by Andrew, the kind, handsome man who owns the Christmas tree lot and delivers her tree. She soon learns Andrew is single and new to her city and, like her, is also starting his life anew.

Noelle Mitchell never explained why she abruptly ran away from home at the age of fifteen. All anyone knew was that her boyfriend Reno convinced her to abandon her family. But when she shows up at the family house on Christmas thirteen years later what’s revealed about her absence will either tear her family further apart or bring them closer together.

Joe is forced out of the family business by his jealous siblings. Moving on to another company, he soon becomes chief advisor to the CEO. But when the economy turns, Joe's siblings need his help to save the family business. Based on the Old Testament story about Joseph and the coat of many colors and including a love story, A Winter Dream can be embraced for its message of forgiveness by believers and nonbelievers alike.

Molly Allen lives alone in Portland, but her heart is back in Franklin, Tennessee, where five years ago she walked away from a man she cannot forget, a rare sort of love she hasn’t found since. Ryan Kelly lives in Franklin and spends plenty of time at The Bridge - the oldest bookstore in historic downtown Franklin - remembering the long hours he and Kelly once spent there. Now, Ryan and Molly’s favorite bookstore is in trouble....

In this new offering from “the king of Christmas fiction” (The New York Times), number one best-selling author Richard Paul Evans shares a story of heart, loyalty, and hope as he explores the deeper meaning of the holiday season and asks what it truly means to love and forgive. The year is 1975. Elle Sheen - a single mother who is supporting herself and her six-year-old, African-American son, Dylan, as a waitress at the Noel Street Diner - isn’t sure what to make of William Smith when his appearance creates a stir in the small town of Mistletoe, Utah.

When eldest daughter Caroline and her husband announce they are divorcing - and 15-year-old daughter Vivi acts out in response - Caroline, at her wits end, can’t think of anything to do besides leave her with her mother Ansley in Peachtree Bluff for the holidays. As the “storm of the century” heads toward Peachtree Bluff, Ansley and her husband, Jack, with Vivi in tow, are grateful they’re planning to leave for the trip of a lifetime. But Vivi’s recklessness forces the trio to shelter in place during the worst hurricane Peachtree has ever seen.

Eli and Chelsea lost touch with each other over the years, until Eli bought a house in his father’s hometown of Edilean, Virginia, and invited Chelsea for a visit. She had her own life, and was certain that a childhood friendship couldn't be anything more, but she went nonetheless - and found herself quite unprepared for the changes she saw in Eli. And neither of them were prepared to run into a mystery, with a family that needed to be rescued.

Thirteen-time #1 national bestselling author Glenn Beck realized years ago that somewhere along the way, his four children had become more focused on Santa than the meaning of Christmas. No matter how he tried, he could not redirect their attention away from presents and elves to the manger instead. Glenn didn't want to be the Grinch who spoiled the magic of Kris Kringle, so he had to find a unique way to turn his kids back toward the true meaning of Christmas. He decided the best place to start was by first turning Santa himself back toward Christ.

All of Alvirah's deductive powers and Willy's world-class common sense are called upon as the two stumble into a Christmas mystery. A woman abandons her newborn at a Manhattan church. Simultaneously, a thief is absconding with a treasured artifact, a chalice adorned with a star-shaped diamond. To elude police, he grabs the stroller and disappears.

It’s 1967, and for young Richard it’s a time of heartbreak and turmoil. Over the span of a few months, his brother, Mark, is killed in Vietnam; his father loses his job and moves the family from California to his grandmother’s abandoned home in Utah; and his parents make the painful decision to separate. With uncertainty rattling every corner of his life, Richard does his best to remain strong—but when he’s run down by bullies at his new school, he meets Mr. Foster, an elderly neighbor who chases off the bullies and invites Richard in for a cup of cocoa.

At the tender age of 13, Holly fell in love with Lorrie Beaumont, who inherited the Revolutionary-period estate when his heiress mother died during childbirth. Though more than a decade has passed since Holly last locked eyes with her childhood love, the passion she felt in her young heart has never come close to extinguishing - that is, until charming, ruggedly handsome Nick Taggert unexpectedly waltzes into her life and treats her to an unforgettable weekend of laughter and intense passion.

When Luke graduates from Wharton with his MBA, his father, CEO and co-founder of Fortune 500 Crisp’s Copy Centers, is ready to share some good news: he wants to turn the family business over to his son. But Luke has other plans. Taking control of his trust funds, Luke leaves home to pursue a life of wanton pleasure seeking. But when his funds run out, so do his friends. Humbled and alone, Luke takes a job at one of his father's copy centers.