Showing results by narrator "Allyson Ryan" in All Categories

Lexie James escaped: After being abandoned by her alcoholic father and kicked out of the apartment to make room for her mother's boyfriend, Lexie made it on her own. She earned a master's degree, conquered terrifying panic attacks, got engaged to the nicest guy she'd ever met, and landed a counseling job at the prestigious Ruxton Academy, a prep school for the moneyed children of the elite. But as her wedding date nears, Lexie has doubts. Yes, she's created the stable life she craved as a child, but is stability really what she wants?

What do you want to be when you grow up? It's a familiar question we're all asked as kids. While seemingly harmless, the question has unintended consequences. It can make you feel like you need to choose one job, one passion, one thing to be about. Guess what? You don't. Having a lot of different interests, projects and curiosities doesn't make you a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none". Your endless curiosity doesn't mean you are broken or flaky.

There has always been some gap between rich and poor in this country, but in the last few decades what it means to be rich has changed dramatically. Alarmingly, the greatest income gap is not between the 1 percent and the 99 percent, but within the wealthiest 1 percent of our nation-as the merely wealthy are left behind by the rapidly expanding fortunes of the new global super-rich. Forget the 1 percent; Plutocrats proves that it is the wealthiest 0.1 percent who are outpacing the rest of us at break-neck speed.

Answering Shakespeare trivia comes with the job description for library director Lindsey Norris. But when the Briar Creek Community Theater mounts their newest production of the Bard, she has no intention of leaving the stacks for the stage. Unfortunately a villain is waiting in the wings....

When Loretta Simmons returns to Hope, Oklahoma, after a disastrous marriage, she's determined to remain independent for the sake of her daughter. The only thing standing in her way is Deacon Fox - the man she loved and walked away from years ago. Since Loretta owns the bookstore right next to his current renovation project, Deacon can't escape the woman who broke his heart. Throw in her adorable little girl and one ridiculously oversize dog, and they're almost a family. Only he can't be that guy - what they had was once in a lifetime.

Pregnancy is a profound journey. Navigating it while working—from figuring out how to tell your boss you’re pregnant to squeezing in doctors’ appointments between meetings, all while working even harder to prove yourself—can be a push and pull between a desire for privacy and the need for support. The good news is, it’s possible to thrive in both spaces. Carry Strong offers a new approach that will transform your pregnancy years at work from something to “get through” into a career opportunity to embrace with confidence.

Delivering books to the housebound residents of the Thumb Islands, just a short boat ride from the town of Briar Creek, library director Lindsey Norris has befriended two elderly brothers, Stewart and Peter Rosen. She enjoys visiting them in their treasure-filled, ramshackle Victorian on Star Island until she discovers that Peter has been killed and Stewart is missing. Now she's determined to solve a murder and find Stewart before he suffers his brother's fate.

Imagine a helpless, pregnant 16-year-old who's just been yanked from the serenity of her home and shoved into a dirty van. Kidnapped. Alone. Terrified. Now forget her.... Picture instead a pregnant, 16-year-old, manipulative prodigy. She is shoved into a dirty van and, from the first moment of her kidnapping, feels a calm desire for two things: to save her unborn son and to exact merciless revenge.

As a member of the thoroughbred horse-racing set in California, Conn was well-respected. But Honor was about to discover the real man beneath the controlled exterior. Too late she realized she was falling for someone who was seeking to avenge a legacy of murder and betrayal. A piece of her past was mysteriously linked to Conn, and now they were tangled together in the web of deception... and desire.

After an unexpected and unpleasant visit from her ex-husband, Oregon State Police Sergeant Maggie Blackthorne is called to a grisly crime scene. Her ex has been found dead — the victim of a vicious attack.

A natural born trapper and hunter raised in the Alaskan wilderness, Tracy Petrikoff spends her days tracking animals and running with her dogs in the remote forests surrounding her family's home. Though she feels safe in this untamed land, Tracy still follows her late mother's rules: Never Lose Sight of the House. Never Come Home with Dirty Hands. And, above all else, Never Make a Person Bleed. But these precautions aren't enough to protect Tracy when a stranger attacks her in the woods and knocks her unconscious.

In What We Wish Were True, Quinn achingly grapples with the possibility of leaving behind the husband and children she adores, and what it means to live with a terminal diagnosis and still find meaning. “I think about how my purpose may be the same in death as it continues to be in life—surrendering to the hope that our weaknesses can be made strong, that what is broken can be made whole,” she writes.

Rosetta doesn't want her new husband Jeremiah to enlist, but he joins up, hoping to make enough money that they'll be able to afford their own farm. When Jeremiah leaves, Rosetta decides her true place is by his side, no matter what that means, and to be with him, she follows him into war. With the army desperate for recruits, Rosetta has no trouble volunteering, although she faces an incredulous husband. Her strong will clashes with Jeremiah's, and their marriage is tested by broken conventions, constant danger, war, and the fear that Rosetta will be discovered.

Don’t be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard’s plays accessible and enjoyable.

Lucas and Margo are fed up. Margo is a brilliant programmer tired of being talked over as the company’s sole black employee, and while Lucas is one of many Asians at the firm, he’s nearly invisible as a low-paid customer service rep. Together, they decide to steal their tech startup’s user database in an attempt at revenge. The heist takes a sudden turn when Margo dies in a car accident, and Lucas is left reeling, wondering what to do with their secret—and wondering whether her death really was an accident.

Inspiring strategies from a wellness expert for keeping fit, relieving stress, and strengthening emotional well-being.

Seriously? Carrie would rather stay in bed than deal with the immoral, sex-obsessed hypocrites who seem to overrun her hometown, New York City. She's sick of trying to be like everybody else. She isn't! But when her own therapist gives her a five-point plan to change her social-outcast status, Carrie takes a hard look at herself - and agrees to try. Suddenly the world doesn't seem so bad. But is prodigy Carrie really going to dumb things down just to fit in?

Hundreds of thousands of people have totally lost the ability to sleep. Run by the wealthy and enigmatic Storch brothers, the Slumber Corps is at the forefront of the fight against this deadly new disease. But when Trish is confronted by "Baby A", the first universal sleep donor, and the mysterious "Donor Y", whose horrific, infectious nightmares are threatening to sweep through the precious sleep supply, her faith in the organization and in her own motives begins to falter.   

Finally free from his nightmare of a marriage, Toby Fleishman is ready for a life of Tinder dating and weekend-only parental duties. But as he optimistically looks to a future of few responsibilities, his life turns upside down as his ex-wife Rachel suddenly disappears. While Toby tries to find out what happened - juggling work, his kids and his new, app-assisted sexual popularity - his tidy narrative of a spurned husband is his sole consolation.

From Wendy Corsi Staub, the New York Times best-selling author of Nightwatcher and Shadowkiller, comes a gripping work of suspense.... For years, Rory Connelly has been haunted by the memory of her sister, Carleen, who vanished from her bed one night and was never seen again. When Rory returns home to care for her ailing mother and teenage sister, she discovers a family that has never recovered from the tragic events of so long ago.