Showing results by narrator "Jess Wright" in All Categories

The living aren’t the only ones listening. People think cemeteries are quiet. They aren’t. Not the old ones. Not the kind with crooked stones and names worn thin by weather and grief. They hum, they breathe, they watch. After a decade tending the dead, the sounds have stitched themselves into me—roots rubbing bones, frost shifting in the dirt, whispers caught in the cedars. It was supposed to be just another burial. Another evening alone with a backhoe and the wind. But this time the dark spoke back.

Cassie Linden worries about every word she can’t remember, terrified of the early-onset Alzheimer’s that stole her mother. Now, recently divorced, she’s back home to care for her aging father, who can no longer manage his beloved bees. To pay for her dad’s care, she puts her misgivings aside and convinces him to sell to a developer who’s putting up a luxury project next door. She also enlists the help of beekeeper Glenn Marsden, who fiercely opposes development of this last open space in town.

If Lora Hamilton was ever going to live a normal life and love again, she will have to follow through on her father’s dying request to put her tragic past behind her. For four years, Lora used work to isolate herself from others, to hide the guilt and shame she’s carried. Now she’s trapped in a lonely, meaningless life.

In the game of love, she is his last shot. Everyone loves the tall, funny, successful, and ridiculously handsome pool shark, Johnny Givens. He’s the guy every woman wants. So why hasn’t he found the? At forty-five years old, he’s tired of the dating scene, tired of not clicking with any woman that crosses his path. He’s over it. Rachel Garcia hopes for a better life, but for now, she bartends at her overbearing Uncle Dexter’s bar. And as for love, she has a few rules. No dating customers, no dating older men. Sounds simple enough.

Julie Adler’s perfect facade is shattered by grief when her husband commits suicide. His death reveals that their luxurious California life was a house of cards, and his secret business dealings have left Julie penniless. As she strikes out on her own, Julie feels drawn to her old stomping grounds in Banff, a charming and isolated ski town where she once trained for the Olympics. She finds work as a housekeeper at a luxury resort, but just as she starts to piece together a new life, an eccentric guest turns up dead. And Julie, the last person seen in her hotel room, is the prime suspect.

Billie Campbell, a Massachusetts adoption specialist grappling with fertility issues, dreams of adopting a baby, but not just any baby—her pregnant client’s baby. While her longing threatens to send her down a dark path, her husband, Tyler, is keeping secrets: he’s full of doubts about becoming a father, and he’s also trying to figure out who is sending him upsetting anonymous texts and photos. On the other side of town, Anne, a woman scarred by childhood abuse, obsesses with a second chance at becoming a family with the two people she regrets ever having let go of.

An earth-shattering choice. A long-lasting love story. Since their first date in the school cafeteria back in the tenth grade, Sam and Maria have been inseparable. Before long, they fall madly in love. With every aspect of their lives mapped out, the future feels bright and full of hope. As adulthood approaches, Maria faces a life-changing choice. Her decision results in their separation and sends their lives in different directions. Maria’s inability to prioritize herself leads to the heartbreaking loss of her one true love and thrusts her into an agonizing marriage.

The Musician They were the perfect couple—or so she thought. Harper had it all: a husband who adored her, a beautiful daughter named Peyton, and a life filled with Sunday mornings at church and cozy family dinners. Dorian, her high school sweetheart, had turned his musical dreams into a thriving recording studio. Harper gave up her nursing career to raise their child and support him. Love was supposed to be enough. But love turned into something unrecognizable. Dorian changed—first slowly, then violently. The late nights, the distant eyes, the explosive temper.

Just before Christmas, Jane Sperling is headed from Montana to Texas, to the hometown she once abandoned, in a car she doesn’t fully trust, for a job that’s a leap of faith and the only line she has on a better life for herself and her eleven-year-old daughter, Claire. In Texas, Jane puts a long-dormant teaching credential to use at the middle school she once attended. She navigates a fraught relationship with her widower father and the growing pains of her daughter.

In her first book of comic strips, Emma reflects on social and feminist issues by means of simple line drawings, dissecting the mental load, ie all that invisible and unpaid organizing, list-making and planning women do to manage their lives, and the lives of their family members. Most of us carry some form of mental load - about our work, household responsibilities, financial obligations and personal life; but what makes up that burden and how it's distributed within households and understood in offices is not always equal or fair.

Quinlan, Texas is the kind of town that prides itself on church suppers, fishing tournaments, and minding its own business. But when a fisherman pulls a bloated body from the lake—its chest carved with a single teardrop—the illusion of safety shatters.

As a Seer, everybody seems to want something from Hanna, especially dead people. She tries to ignore their overwhelming pleas for help and live a normal life, but when she starts high school she can’t avoid the ghost haunting her history class. He lectures so loudly, he makes focus impossible and passing the class even more difficult.

She never meant to fall for the country star. He never expected to find his muse in the woman with walls higher than his fame. Dottie Monroe has spent years hiding in plain sight. Working backstage at the Nashville's most famous country music showcase, keeping her past locked tight behind a quick wit and a no-nonsense attitude. Music was once her escape, but it’s been a long time since she let herself dream of anything more. Enter Chandler York, country music’s golden boy with charm for days, a career on the rise, and a complicated heart of his own.

In Point, people smile, wave, and mind their business. But when the first body is discovered, the illusion shatters—because the victim isn’t alone. A handcrafted doll sits beside the body. Carefully made. Deliberate. A perfect reflection of how they died. As more victims are found, the pattern becomes impossible to ignore. The dolls aren’t trophies. They’re messages. Detectives Loretta and David Smitty are pulled into a case where murder is treated like ritual and silence protects more than the killer. Every crime scene is staged. Every doll is intentional.

After Halloween night reveals a death close to Hanna, she has to use her ghost powers to rescue some kids from school. While there, she runs into a tall stranger who she later finds out is Mr. Tyler’s nephew, Gryphin. Mr. Tyler and Gryphin enlist Hanna’s help to find a dead werewolf from their pack. It is one thing for Hanna to talk to ghosts when she meets them, it’s quite another for her to go hunting for a specific ghost.

After Rose takes something deeply important to Hanna, the Seer is determined to hunt the tricky magic user down, no matter what. Hanna pools all her resources together, tugging on any string she can think of, including going to the necromancers and employing the help of a surly ghost named Frank. When Hanna discovers the necros are also hunting Rose and if they kill her all the enslaved spirits will be trapped forever, she must find the witch first or else risk losing everything that means anything.

Trina and her mom, Michelle, go on a ghost-finding mission, visiting all the spirit’s favorite places in hopes of finding her haunt. In the meantime, they’ve made a deal with the necromancers and are trying to complete the tasks the order wants from them, which start with contacting a familiar face.

Now that Hanna has accepted her powers, she and her ghostly best friend Brandon are ready to help another ghost cross over. When a friend at school admits to not being able to sleep well due to some strange wailing she hears at night, Hanna knows this is the job for her. That same day, Caleb asks Hanna to contact a poltergeist. This job seems daunting as she is barely coming to terms with her powers—not to mention still struggling with regular high school issues and newly separated parents.

The Magician's Daughter: A Memoir is a coming-of-age story set within the motion and light of a traveling magic show. Fourteen-year-old Katy is the daughter of Lee Grabel, a former professional magician stuck behind a desk in the suburbs who yearns to rekindle the past fame of his old magic show. When he decides to hit the road again in a grand bid to be a Las Vegas headliner, Katy has her chance for the spotlight she yearns for as his stage assistant.

Mariatu refused to let traumatic and life-altering experiences define her. Instead, she persisted in reinventing her life by hustling to become a successful businesswoman and an educator. As a visionary, Mariatu was determined to make her dreams a reality. Along the way, tested were her strength, faith, and dedication. Her sacrifices and struggles were exhausting.