Showing results by narrator "James Michaels" in All Categories

I’ve spent too many nights caught between reality and nightmare, each bleeding into the other like a twisted dream I can’t wake from. The Devil’s Backbone Society continues to host our deepest terrors. The weight of betrayal crushes me, pressing down on my chest—bitter and suffocating. I don’t know what would be worse: losing the ones I love, the ones who have become my anchors, or losing myself entirely. In the end, is there even a difference?

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

After my Yaya passed away, I didn't have anyone that cared for me. I mean, not even a month after Yaya was in the ground, he sat me down in the living room and sold me to a thirty-year-old man. I was sixteen, and my big brother, the man who was supposed to protect me, sold me off like cattle on a farm. My entire life has been to please Zayne. I'm his fourth wife and the youngest wife. Nobody has ever protected or cared for me. I was tossed the cards that life handed me and had to make do with them. That is until Cappadonna Delgato and I cross paths—again.

Chef Vanessa "Nessy" Blackmore never imagined that a Christmas incident would send her life into a whirlwind of confusion. On one hand, she has Dirty Santa #1, a charismatic politician. On the other, she has Dirty Santa #2, an alluring junkyard owner. Both are amazing. Both are mesmerizing. Neither is making her decision easy.

I came home and ended up with two enemies because of the women I choose to love. Kendra was the one I thought I loved, but the feeling I felt when I looked into Alaia's eyes told me that I had never experienced love with Kendra. When I looked into my Joy's eyes, I wanted to give her the stars, moons, and the sky wrapped up with a big fat ass bow. So, for her, I would go to war to make sure Tweety had no part in touching her ever again.

There were a lot of things that I could live without. I had lived without freedom for the past fifteen years. My wife was someone that I couldn't live without, and I needed her. Alaia saved a lot of people with just a touch of her hand on my arm. She calmed the beast within me, reminded me what I had at home. Alaia was someone that I refused to live without, and now, they took her from me. They touched my wife and thought they would be able to live to talk about it. You didn't touch a Delgato and thought you would live. You didn't touch what was mine and think you could live.

I'm a protector, and my family is my responsibility. When it comes to my team, I'm the same way. They are family and the reason that me and Capone are able to do us in the streets, knowing they are tucked away safe. As a man, you sometimes fall short, and something—someone—falls through the cracks. I know one thing; I put that on my grandson that I'm going to crack his uncle's skull. He has hurt his own family, tossed them out to the wolves, and has hurt mine. I don't take too kindly to people hurting mine.

You want my advice? Never look a gift horse in the mouth. You don’t want to see the rotten teeth. In this case, the gift is a scholarship to attend the prestigious Neveah University. The rotten teeth? Well, they came in the form of my brand new stepbrother and his little cohort of entitled, arrogant best friends. Four dangerously handsome and stupidly wealthy men who made up their minds about me long before we met. Men who are used to getting everything they want no matter what the price.

I knew how to love because I loved my Yaya more than life. I knew that I could love because of the baby I had grown within me and now held; I loved her more than I loved myself. As I watched this man sleep peacefully beside me, one arm around me, keeping me close, I knew that I loved him. I knew that I could see forever with him, and I knew that he would kill any and everything moving when it came to protecting me.

Just when you think it can’t get any worse, the universe seems to take that as a personal challenge. The Devil’s Backbone Society has their fingers everywhere. It’s more than a secret society―it’s a leash and a prison sentence. The elders insist it’s about making connections that will help you for the rest of your life, but what they don’t tell you is how long―or, in this case, short―your life might be.

You are cordially invited to the wedding of Amerie Cross and Arnold Hightower.

When The Sandman, also known as Lord Morpheus - the immortal king of dreams, stories and the imagination - is pulled from his realm and imprisoned on Earth by a nefarious cult, he languishes for decades before finally escaping. Once free, he must retrieve the three “tools” that will restore his power and help him to rebuild his dominion, which has deteriorated in his absence.

How long does someone have to be out of your life before your every waking thought doesn't revolve around them? Olivia Harding bulldozed her way into my life at twelve years old. She broke my heart at nineteen and I haven't seen her once in the thirteen years since. She chose her career over me. And now, because life is cruel, I'm praying that she gives me a chance to help her save it. The smart thing to do would be to keep my distance, to keep it strictly professional. But I've never been smart when it comes to her.

Michelle and Kelsie have never had it easy, but the one thing that has remained consistent in each of their lives are each other. Both in their early twenties and with the stress of the world on their shoulders, they both manage to still be there for each other through it all. Michelle's dream is to be a top stylist, well her dream was a reality until she was fired from Naomi's shop because of her boyfriend. Tasheem is all Michelle knows, and that's being physically and mentally abused by the man she has loved since she was younger.

I had my chance at love and I threw it away. I don't deserve another. I've dedicated my entire life to my community. There's no time for anything else. But then I met her. Ciara Jeffries is everything I told myself I didn't want but she might be everything I need. If I can just hold on to her.

Nicole Richardson is a woman with a purpose—prove herself worthy of her place in a male-dominated field. Fiercely competitive, wielder of tough love and motivation, and terrible at dealing with things outside of her control. Between making sure the players are thriving, and coping with a changing family dynamic, a relationship isn't even on her radar.

“Brooks’ chronological and cross-disciplinary leaps are thrilling.” —The New York Times Book Review “Horse isn’t just an animal story—it’s a moving narrative about race and art.” —TIME “A thrilling story about humanity in all its ugliness and beauty . . . the evocative...

I had my chance at a family and it was stolen from me. I was told I was a joke, so that's just what I'll be. But then she gives me news that turns my whole life upside down. Nina Williams is my second chance at a family, and she might just be the missing key to my heart. I just need to prove to her I'm not the joke I pretend to be.

Quentin Darnell was only a boy when his anthropologist parents were overcome by a professional failure so crushing it led to his father's suicide. Now a schoolteacher, Quentin is looking for answers that can only be found in the wild terrains of Indonesian Papua, where years ago his parents studied an isolated aboriginal tribe. Quentin leads his wife, son, and six students on a field trip to experience Papua’s pristine tropical forests. When their plane tragically crashes in the wilderness, Quentin becomes trapped in a vicious fight to protect the ones he loves.

For Nala Stanton, love has not always been kind. She fell in love with a façade, and now she's desperate to free herself before it's too late. When opportunity arises, she takes it, even though being found would surely bring her a death sentence. Armed with a new identity and half a million dollars in stolen drug money, she disappears to start a new life for herself. For six years, she's had the freedom she craved, but that is all about to change when he is on her trail.