Showing results by narrator "Hollis McCarthy" in All Categories

I can remember a time when I baked for fun. I loved dreaming up new recipes, trying different combinations of flavors. Sharing my creations with friends and family. Now? I have nightmares where the TV cameras are on me and I’m baking naked. Or I open my oven and my cake pans are empty. You don’t need to be Freud to figure out I’m freaking out. This week on The Great British Baking Contest could be my last. I am one bad bake away from being waved good-bye.

Caina is now a Ghost nightfighter, with the cunning of an elite spy and the skill of a master assassin. But this time, it might take more than that to keep her alive. Caina has been sent to hunt a murderous pyromancer, a master of fiery sorcery, and she soon discovers that more is at stake than just a few murders. Because if she doesn't find the pyromancer soon, the entire world might burn. Starting with her.

Tempers are fraying and the cream is melting as summer temperatures hit the competition tent at Broomewode in the UK just in time for patisserie week. With only four contestants left, the pressure is mounting in the race to be chosen the best amateur baker in the UK. Poppy's working hard to find out who her parents were and what happened to them, even as she's trying to become a more accomplished witch, so she definitely doesn't have time for romance. Then someone dies and it looks like a crime of passion. Can she unmask a killer before she's the one who gets creamed?

Caina has foiled several plots of the Cult of Rhadamathar. Unless she can find the Cult's leaders, she and her family will never be safe. But the Cult's leaders lurk within the powerful city of New Kyre, and the journey there is filled with dangers. Dangers that even Caina might not overcome...

My name's Nadia, and I serve the High Queen of the Elves. My friend Neil Freeman also works for her, and he's the deadliest assassin who ever lived. He paid a high price for his abilities, including a damaged memory. But his memory holds secrets that might destroy the world. So when the mad wizards of Singularity come to rip open Neil's mind and steal those secrets, it's up to us to stop them.

If there's anything Joy "Rocky" Rookwood loves more than the plants she tends to at Tenwick Abbey, it's a challenge; that's precisely why she's agreed to become the latest spy in Morgan Graylocke's household. When she's tasked with going undercover as gardener in another house to ferret out a high-level traitor she jumps at the chance. The only fly in the ointment is that she has to take fellow botanist, and also newly minted spy, Edgar Catterson III with her as backup. Rocky and Catt rarely see eye to eye.

It’s Pepper Dunn’s first Halloween in magical Magnolia Cove, Alabama. She can’t wait to experience all her home has to offer—haunted houses, real ghosts, great fried food. And for one night, regular folks are invited to enter this town of witches.

I’m Dove Agnew and I was settling into a routine of working at my mom’s quilt shop in the sleepy town of Harland Creek. Just my luck, on the one day I go back to church, there’s a dead body in the baptismal. It’s not just anyone, it’s Pastor John’s sister, Eleanor Simmons!

Ever-turbulent humanity has reached out to the stars and found itself challenged by several “exosapient” species whose motivations are as unusual as their physical forms. But no world is defined just by the characters who occupy center stage. Lost Signals digs deep into the lives - and struggles - of those beyond the spotlight by bringing together 20 new voices and new stories.

It’s the big finale of the Great British Baking Contest. Who will fall flatter than an eggless soufflé? And will amateur baker and witch Poppy survive to find out? Dark forces are at work in the picture-perfect village of Broomewode, Somerset. Poppy’s getting closer to solving the mystery of her beginnings, but so many questions remain. Will she finally meet her birth mother? Is the local coven helping or hindering her search? Will she and sexy Viscount Benedict finally have their first date? There are old and new mysteries to solve in this final installment of the series!

A gripping and empathetic work of reportage, Free reveals what awaits them and the hundreds of thousands of others who are released from prison every year: the first rush of freedom followed quickly by institutionalized obstacles and logistical roadblocks, grinding bureaucracies, lack of resources, societal stigmas and damning self-perceptions, and the sometimes overwhelming psychological challenges. Veteran reporter Lauren Kessler, both clear-eyed and compassionate, follows six people whose diverse stories paint an intimate portrait of struggle, persistence, and resilience.

What really happened to Johanna Blackmoore seven years ago? Jolene Blackmoore has been asking that question about her mother's mysterious death for a long time - and now she's determined to get an answer. Little does she know, her quest will change the course of her and her three sisters' lives forever. A magical locket, a long-estranged aunt that shows up out of the blue, and a diabolical bad guy all play a part in pulling the girls into the heat of danger, and they are forced to put their newly-found paranormal skills to the test in a battle where losing could be deadly.

My name is Nadia, and I’m a shadow agent of the High Queen of the Elves. I don’t have many friends, but I look after the ones I do have...and I pay my debts. So when Hakon Valborg’s teenaged granddaughter Lydia is arrested for the murder of her computer science teacher, I agree to help. But there’s more going on here than just murder.

Brook Ridge Falls' favorite bakery owner, Lexy Baker, has everything she ever wanted. A new husband she adores. A thriving bakery business. Everything is going great.... Until a new bakery springs up across the street and tries every trick in the book to put her out of business! Lexy smells something rotten about the bakery, and it isn’t just their stale brownies. When her own bakery is broken into, she knows who did it...but what she can’t figure out is why. Could the new baker be after her great-grandmothers prize winning scone recipe, or is there another more sinister reason?

Every baker has their weak spot. For Poppy, it’s bread. So, when The Great British Baking Contest hits bread week, she’s as fragile as an overbaked croissant. Just when she needs to keep all her focus on flour, water, yeast, and salt, another ingredient enters the mix. Death. Someone is not who they appear to be, and secrets from the past are bringing deadly consequences to the present.

There's a serial killer on the loose, and Lexy Baker’s grandmother, Nans, could be the next victim. The bodies are piling up at the Brook Ridge Falls Retirement Center. Healthy people are dropping like flies. And yet no one believes a murderer is on the loose... except for Lexy Baker and the troupe of iPad-toting grandmothers who live at the center. When Lexy's detective boyfriend, Jack, refuses to believe that foul play is involved, Lexy has no choice but to find the killer on her own.

Until she stumbles across the dead body of judge Amanda Scott-Saunders. ? What starts out as a bad day for Lexy becomes even worse when the police discover the judge was strangled with Lexy's apron. Now Lexy's sitting at the top of the suspect list with a motive, means and opportunity...but no solid alibi. Lexy soon finds herself in a race against time to find the real killer before she ends up disqualified from the contest, or worse, in jail. But that's no easy task. There's a bakery competition full of suspects who all hated the victim and have a $100,000 motive for murder. And then there's the gorgeous, smart police detective who has mysterious ties to Lexy's boyfriend and thinks Lexy is the killer.

The Blackmoore sisters learn about this secret from the dying lips of the historian they hired to decipher their centuries old family journal. Too bad he never gets the chance to tell them exactly what he has uncovered - or where to find it. But someone else knows where to find it, and they are prepared to take it from the Blackmoore's no matter what the cost.

The Earl of Frome gets a shock when a gaggle of nosy bird watchers gang up on him. When one of them winds up dead, it doesn't look good for the Earl. Amateur baker Poppy Wilkinson gets embroiled in yet another murder mystery. It's a good thing she's got witchy powers as she has to solve a murder, try and learn more about her own mysterious beginnings, and turn out a winning cake, because it's cake week in the competition tent.

Garrett Hamilton is the quintessential ladies' man, a sexy, wealthy corporate lawyer whose work keeps him far too busy to think about romance. Yet he's lost his drive to win cases and finds himself hopping on a plane to visit his brother at Last Frontier Lodge in Alaska. Delia Peters is a single mother who learned the hard way that lust often doesn't translate to love. She figures life is good enough if she can pay the bills. Love is the stuff of dreams, not real life.