Showing results by narrator "Cindy Kay" in All Categories

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets. Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it.

Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can't escape. Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart. But when he's forced to look after his best friend's sister, he starts to feel something in his chest. Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can't remember. But despite her past, she's never stopped seeing the beauty in the world . . . including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn't want.

Stoic, broody, and arrogant, elite bodyguard Rhys Larsen has two rules: 1) Protect his clients at all costs 2) Do not become emotionally involved. Ever. He has never once been tempted to break those rules...until her.

Five years ago, he broke her heart. Now, he'll do anything to win her back. Farrah: When Farrah walked into her lunch meeting, she didn't expect to see him. Blake Ryan. Her first love. Her first heartbreak. And now, her first client as a freelance interior designer. It's been five years, but she'll never forget the way he shattered her. He whispers pretty words, but she'll never believe him. Her body craves his, but she'll never give him her heart. Not again. Not ever.

Charming, deadly and smart enough to hide it, Christian Harper is a monster dressed in the perfectly tailored suits of a gentleman. He has little use for morals and even less use for love, but he can't deny the strange pull he feels towards the woman living just one floor below him. She's the object of his darkest desires, the only puzzle he can't solve. And when the opportunity to get closer to her arises, he breaks his own rules to offer her a deal she can't refuse. Every monster has their weakness. She's his. His obsession. His addiction. His only exception.

Gorgeous, cocky, and fast on his way to becoming a hotshot doctor, Josh Chen has never met a woman he couldn't charm—except for Jules f**king Ambrose. The beautiful redhead has been a thorn in his side since they met, but she also consumes his thoughts in a way no woman ever has. When their animosity explodes into one unforgettable night, he proposes a solution that'll get her out of his system once and for all: an enemies with benefits arrangement with simple rules.

After reuniting with their friends in Qin, Jia and Eui are welcomed to the Spiritual Flowing Purewater Sect as honored guests, but their peaceful reprieve is not to last. Yan Yue's upcoming wedding has drawn the attention of Qin's ruling class, who are using the gathering as a pretense to hold a summit to determine the future of the empire.

Zero, Nyx, and the other Pathfinder colonists have adjusted to life on Kaguya. But Earth has built much faster starships-the Dreamcatcher arrives 10 years early, and the Stargazer arrives so early it actually got there before the Pathfinder did! Now the Stargazer is a lost shipwreck, and the race is on to find it, and who should show up looking for it but Nyx's dangerous family: Big Mama, Jim, and Kratt. Nyx and Zero will face kidnappers, pirates, shipwrecks, warlords, dragons, and maybe a new ally or two on their way to save the day once again.

One year, two opposites, and a love that will blindside and, ultimately, shatter them. She's an aspiring interior designer who dreams of falling in love. He's an ex-football star who thinks love is a con. She's a virgin, and he doesn't do virgins. He's cocky, infuriating, and not her type. She wants the fairytale. He wants freedom. Blake and Farrah shouldn't have fallen for each other the way they did: totally, completely, and irrevocably.

Wired called Dr. Fei-Fei Li “one of a tiny group of scientists—a group perhaps small enough to fit around a kitchen table—who are responsible for AI’s recent remarkable advances.” Known to the world as the creator of ImageNet, a key catalyst of modern artificial intelligence, Dr. Li has spent more than two decades at the forefront of the field. But her career in science was improbable from the start. The Worlds I See is the moving memoir of a scientist coming of age as an immigrant in America who finds her calling at the forefront of the AI revolution.

Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached. Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work but when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution.

Nellie Rivera is trading traffic for tranquility. When the quiet streets of small-town Montana beckon, she leaves Denver behind and moves to Calamity. It would be the perfect adventure if not for Cal Stark. When her archnemesis dares to show his face one Saturday morning, declaring he is moving there too, she vows to make his life a misery. The town isn’t big enough for the both of them and besides… She was here first.

She offered him $10,000 to seduce her father's gold-digging fiancee. He countered with $15,000 and a kiss—from her. At any time he chose. Kris should've said no, but she was desperate to get rid of her stepmother-to-be, and the gorgeous actor with the wicked grin was perfect for the job. So she agreed to his terms—not knowing that doing so would cost her a lot more than money and a kiss . . . He did it for the money—which he desperately needed. The kiss was just a bonus-or so he told himself.

Talia Eden loved Foster Madden for one year, two months, and eleven days. It was on day 438 that her love died. The day he chose to marry her best friend. The day she vowed never to think of Foster again. Until years later, when he has the audacity to show up in her small hometown of Quincy, begging for her help. The ink on his divorce papers is barely dry, yet he comes armed with apologies and promises. She knows it’s all a ploy. Foster is the king of games and secrets. But he’s got delusions the size of Montana if he thinks she’ll help him train for a world championship fight.

Despite the sweltering summer, Maddie's problems keep snowballing. A freak accident sends her K-9 search and rescue team racing to locate the victim, but a gruesome discovery makes her question everything . . . and everyone around her. Her partner, Sheriff Oliver Desjardins, is keeping secrets. Her flirtatious veterinarian friend is spending a suspicious amount of time with an enticing widow. A loathsome new deputy threatens her. And Maddie must work with wild and extraordinary Vixen.

Two exes, one house. What could go wrong? Olivia had a plan: MBA, Wall Street VP by thirty-two, marriage and two children (preferably twins because #efficiency). Not in her plan? Losing half her belongings in an apartment flood and being forced to turn to her ex for help. Definitely not in her plan? Moving into said ex's house and watching him walk around shirtless, bake her cupcakes, and look at her with those smoldering-Wait, what was she talking about again?

Drawing on her own experiences as a hostess and adult film actor, Gifted—Suzumi Suzuki's first novel to be translated into English—offers a nuanced, frank, and intimate portrayal of the lives of a mother and daughter getting by (or not) in an industry rarely depicted authentically in literary fiction.

In Geisha, a Life, Mineko Iwasaki tells her story, from her warm early childhood, to her intense yet privileged upbringing in the Iwasaki okiya (household), to her years as a renowned geisha, and finally, to her decision at the age of 29 to retire and marry, a move that would mirror the demise of geisha culture. Mineko brings to life the beauty and wonder of Gion Kobu, a place that "existed in a world apart, a special realm whose mission and identity depended on preserving the time-honored traditions of the past."

Set in the underground bar and club scene of 1970s Tokyo, Set My Heart On Fire tells the story of Izumi in her turbulent twenties. Through a series of disarmingly frank vignettes, author Izumi Suzuki presents an unforgettable portrait of a young woman encountering missteps and miscommunication, good music and unreliable men, powerful drugs and disorientating meds. Izumi usually keeps her relationships short but complicated, until she meets Jun.

Everyone comes from someplace. Everyone has somewhere they feel safe. Some people have found their home and are content where they are. Others feel trapped and yearn to go somewhere else. Many are somewhere else and yearn to go back. But even in these safest of places, sometimes…crime hits home. What happens then?