Showing results by narrator "Natasha Soudek" in All Categories

In Aspen, Colorado, in 1941, Rachel Brewster is a slalom skier at the National Downhill and Slalom Championships. Little Ray, as she is called, finishes nowhere near the podium, but she manages to get pregnant. Back home, in New England, Little Ray becomes a ski instructor. Her son, Adam, grows up in a family that defies conventions and evades questions concerning the eventful past. Years later, looking for answers, Adam will go to Aspen. In the Hotel Jerome, where he was conceived, Adam will meet some ghosts.

Midnight, June 13, 1942: Peter Burger stands on a foggy beach, ears primed as a submarine hull scrapes the sandy sea bottom. He has endured seventeen months in a Gestapo prison and seventeen days on a Nazi U-boat only to have landed on American shores with six boxes of explosives and no escape. After slipping into New York City, Peter finds himself at a massive military parade where he meets Grete Baum, a German-Jewish refugee grappling with loneliness and loss. Grete is drawn to Peter’s brooding vulnerability, and the pair instantly bond.

It is 1618 in the German duchy of Württemberg. Plague is spreading, the Thirty Years’ War has begun, and fear and suspicion are in the air throughout the Holy Roman Empire. In the small town of Leonberg, Katharina Kepler, an illiterate widow, is accused of being a witch.

When the Russian Revolution came to Saint Petersburg, Princess Irina went into hiding. A stunningly beautiful ballerina, she knew she had to escape the Bolsheviks - or else die. With her jewels sewn into her cloak, Irina made a mad dash for the border. But the Cheka caught up with her, stole her jewelry, and left her naked, bloody, and dead along the riverbank. Her murder was never avenged. Such is Tatiana "Tatty" Chase's heritage.

The Wyatt brothers and their special ladies are back to celebrate a wedding in a final novella. Three couples. Six points of view. Three stories tied up and resolved - more or less.

I may be newly divorced, stranded in a small mountain town, and working as an elf at a cut-your-own-Christmas-tree farm, but I'm finally rid of my ex and putting food on the table. Independence rocks, and I've got zero interest in the former-SEAL-turned-firefighter who literally falls out of the sky and lands at my feet. Okay. Not zero interest. Jacks Benson is the foul-mouthed, irritating, way-too-sexy bad boy who tormented me through high school.

Ann Decker fixes computers for a living, and in the evenings she passes the time sharpening her hacking skills. It's not a very interesting life, but she gets by - until one day she's contacted with a job offer for a company called Transformations Incorporated. None of her coworkers has ever heard of it before, and when Ann is finally told what the company does, she can hardly believe it: TI has invented technology to travel in time.

When her fiancé destroyed her with a "Dear Katie" letter a week before their wedding, Kate Stillman still took a vow - it would be a cold day in hell before she gave a man anything more than one night. Free from emotional entanglements, her photography career is skyrocketing, there's the occasional hot one-night-stand, and her heart is off-limits. It's the perfect plan until a Miami getaway brings her face-to-face with Peter Barrett.

Salma Lowe understands better than anyone how Hollywood chews up and spits out starlets. She is the offspring of Hollywood royalty, a former child-star turned guide on a true crime bus tour and sister to Tawney, dubbed the ‘Hurricane Blonde’, who was murdered in the mid-’90s. The case remains unsolved. Then she discovers another dead woman with an uncanny resemblance to Tawney on the very property where her sister was killed.

The plague is spreading. The hundred year war is beginning. Katharina Kepler is believed to be a witch. Known for her herbal remedies and successful children–among them Johannes, Imperial Mathematician and author of the laws of planetary motion–Katharina’s life is changed by an accusation of witchcraft. Facing financial ruin, torture and even execution, she tells her side of the story.

At the close of WWI, moonshine and bootlegging rule the night in the Kentucky hills, but two damaged souls manage to find light and love amidst the darkness. Nearly destroyed by a grenade blast, Shadow Robeson returns home from war only to be trapped by family expectations he has no energy to fight - until a secret romance with a loving woman sets him on a new course. Bound by poverty and a ruined reputation, Lettie Calloway seems destined to spend her days serving at the local tavern. It takes a kind and gentle man entering her life to expand her dreams.

Given as a sexual toy to a violent warrior, Katya fights for freedom. In her world, a sect of indoctrinated fighters protect the villages and occasionally "brides" are given to the caged men. Katya finds her warrior is an innocent and gentle man, just as much a prisoner as she is. Passion blooms as the lovers search for a way to save themselves, overcome their masters, and change their world.

It's 1986 and a nuclear reactor has exploded in Chernobyl. Syvert Løyning returns home from military service to live with his mother and brother on the outskirts of a town in Southern Norway. One night, he dreams of his late father, and can't shake him from his mind. Searching through his father's belongings for clues and connections, he finds a cache of letters that lead to the Soviet Union.

After an abruptly ended engagement, Graciela Ramirez is dying of a broken heart and has to attend her friend's wedding as the only member of her old group who's still a virgin. On a quest to reinvent herself as bolder, braver, and sexier, she tries crazy new things and intends to have a one night stand. Catapulted into the dating game once more, Graci never expects that Neal, the hot musician she literally runs into at a bar, might be her second chance at love. He's supposed to be her transition guy, but love doesn't arrive on a schedule.

A man travels to his son's school to deal with the fallout of a violent attack and to make sure his son will not lose his college place. But what exactly has his son done? And who is to blame? A young woman trying to make it in LA, working in a clothes shop while taking acting classes, turns to a riskier way of making money but will be forced to confront the danger of the game she's playing. And a family coming together for Christmas struggle to skate over the lingering darkness caused by the very ordinary brutality of a troubled husband and father.

Adya Parish has drifted through life for too long and vows to take back control, not relying on any man to take care of her. Her pledge to become more self-reliant requires time spent alone - not with the sweet man, his adorable daughter, and crazy dog that careen into her life. But with one chance meeting in the park, Adya begins to find the family she has always longed for. It will take real strength of will to refuse to fall for them and continue to stand on her own two feet for the first time in her life.

It is 2085 and Laisve is learning to use the ancient waterways to travel through water and time. Sifting through the detritus of a fallen city known as The Brook, she discovers a talisman that will connect her with people from the past two centuries, including a squad of laborers at work on a huge national monument to liberty. As waters rise and a police state encroaches, Laisve must find her way back to the early days of her imperfect country, to forge a bond that might save all their lives—and their shared dream of freedom.

A young girl’s life is torn apart when her parents are killed in the NATO bombing of Belgrade, Serbia, during the 1999 Kosovo War. An embittered Katarina Petrovic grows up with a hatred for Americans and becomes a willing candidate for special training by Russian agents. Alex Baker commanded an Air Force Office of Special Investigations unit until an incident forced him to resign his military commission. Still in his thirties, he finds a new career as the owner of a Manhattan-based travel agency specializing in tour packages.

Joelle Gordon is leaving Chicago and her cheating husband to head for her hometown of Landon, Minnesota. There, she returns to the Shore Leave Café, the lakeside diner the Davis women have run for decades. Joelle's family, including her three teenaged daughters, Camille, Tish, and Ruthann, is made up of strong women who have long believed in a curse upon them - a curse that robs them of the men they love.

Adventurous Amanda McCormick travels west to marry a man she's met through correspondence and create a home of her own at last. Gambler Spencer Teague intercepts the bride-to-be waiting for her fiancé at the Kansas City train station. On a whim, he pretends to be the man, seduces her, and they spend a torrid night together. Travis Baxter arrives to claim his bride, welcoming her into his home and heart. Though racked by guilt, Amanda hides the misguided affair and focuses on forging a relationship with her new husband.