Showing results by narrator "Kate Reinders"

Secondborn Roselle St. Sismode was pressed into military service to battle the rebel uprising threatening the society that enslaves her. Now, powerful factions conspire to subvert the lines of succession, positioning Roselle to replace her mother as leader of the Republic's armed forces. But the woman who bore her would sooner see Roselle dead than let her usurp her firstborn brother's command.

Firstborns rule society. Secondborns are the property of the government. Thirdborns are not tolerated. Long live the Fates Republic. On Transition Day, the second child in every family is taken by the government and forced into servitude. Roselle St. Sismode's eighteenth birthday arrives with harsh realizations: she's to become a soldier for the Fate of Swords military arm of the Republic during the bloodiest rebellion in history, and her elite firstborn mother is happy to see her go.

Sarai was only fourteen when her mother uprooted her to live in Mexico with a notorious drug lord. Over time she forgot what it was like to live a normal life, but she never let go of her hope to escape the compound where she has been held for the past nine years. Victor is a cold-blooded assassin who, like Sarai, has known only death and violence since he was a young boy. When Victor arrives at the compound to collect details and payment for a hit, Sarai sees him as her only opportunity for escape.

When Alice was 10, Ray took her away from her family, her friends - her life. She learned to give up all power, to endure pain. She waited for the nightmare to be over. Now Alice is 15 and Ray still has her, but he speaks more and more of her death. He does not know it is what she longs for. She does not know he has something more terrifying than death in mind for her. This is Alice's story. It is one you have never heard, and one you will never, ever forget.

Summer never meant to lie. She just wanted to keep the most perfect guy she ever met interested in her. She had been surprised when David began hanging out with her every day...and dizzy with happiness when he kissed her. David seemed to like her unconventional Irish family, even her eccentric Grandpa. Everything was going great - until Ann entered the picture. She collected boys like trophies. How could Summer compete with someone like that? Before she knew it, Summer was boasting to David about her passion for long-distance running. She never dreamed he’d enter them in a six-mile race....

This is a story about accepting the people we love - the people we have to love and the people we choose to love, the families we’re given and the families we make. It’s the story of two women adrift in New York, a widow and an almost-orphan, each searching for someone she’s lost. It’s the story of how, even in moments of grief and darkness, there are joys waiting nearby. Lorca spends her life poring over cookbooks, making croissants and chocolat chaud, seeking out rare ingredients, all to earn the love of her distracted chef of a mother, who is now packing her off to boarding school.

It is 1863 and Emily Blue Hatchett has been told by her father that, come spring, their family will leave their farm, family and friends in Quincy, Illinois, and travel the Overland Trail to a new home in Golden, Colorado. Emmy and her mom have mixed feelings about the trip and are saddened by all they must leave behind. The journey by wagon train is long and full of hardships, and Emmy's experiences along the way bring the period of westward expansion, as well as issues facing women, to life for young listners.

For twenty-two-year-old Hadley Foster, life has not always gone according to plan: Family tragedy and her abrupt split from her true love, Jason Kelly, during high school have left painful scars. However, she has picked up the pieces and moved on: She has been dating wealthy investment banker Tucker for six years, and her life is falling comfortably into place. But on a trip to Europe with her best friend, a series of unforeseen events turns her life upside down, and all of Hadley’s well-laid plans begin to fall apart.

Since devastating secrets were uncovered by Nora Kessler, Niklas Fleischer and Victor Faust have been divided as business partners and brothers. Ultimately, Niklas is persuaded to lead a mission to Italy, and he sees it as an opportunity to set in motion forgiveness - or retribution - for his brother's betrayal. The mission: play the role of a wealthy German investor and kidnap a beautiful, notorious madam named Francesca Moretti. No stranger to these types of roles, Niklas is the best man for the job. But this time the risks will be much greater, as he will not be doing it alone.

After a peaceful hiatus at home in Rockabill, Jane True thinks that her worst problem is that she still throws like a girl - at least when throwing fireballs. Her peace of mind ends, however, when Anyan arrives one night with terrible news...news that will rock Jane’s world to its very core. After demanding to help investigate a series of gruesome attacks on females - supernatural, halfling, and human - Jane quickly finds herself forced to confront her darkest nightmares as well as her deepest desires.

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and Ryu — Jane’s bloodsucking boyfriend — can’t let a major holiday go by without getting all gratuitous. An overwhelming dose of boyfriend interference and a last - minute ticket to Boston later, and Jane’s life is thrown off course.

Philippa Fisher is just your average eleven-and-a-half-year-old girl - she’s a bit shy and not the most popular girl at school. But all that changes one day when a new girl named Daisy arrives at school and reluctantly confesses that she is Philippa’s very own fairy godsister. Unfortunately for Philippa, Daisy is one fairy who is not too fond of humans, and so she isn’t pleased about having to help Philippa. In fact, she wants nothing more than to grant Philippa her three wishes quickly so that she can move on to a new assignment. However, things aren’t that simple.

This is a tale of missing persons. Madeleine and her mother have run away from their former life and settled in a rainy corner of Cambridge (in our world). Elliot, on the other hand, is in search of his father, who disappeared on the night his uncle was found dead. As Madeleine and Elliot move closer to unraveling their mysteries, they begin to exchange messages across worlds - through an accidental gap that hasn't appeared in centuries. But even greater mysteries are unfolding on both sides of the gap...

Fredrik Gustavsson never considered the possibility of love, or that anyone could ever understand or accept his dark and bloody lifestyle - until he met Seraphina, a woman as vicious and blood-thirsty as Fredrik himself. They spent two short but unforgettable years together, full of lust and killing and the darkest kind of love that two people can share. And then Seraphina was gone. It's been six years since Fredrik's lover and sadistic partner in crime turned his world upside-down.

During her nightly, clandestine swim in the freezing winter ocean, a grisly find leads Jane to startling revelations about her heritage: she is only half-human. Now, Jane must enter a world filled with supernatural creatures that are terrifying, beautiful, and deadly — all of which perfectly describe her new “friend,” Ryu, a gorgeous and powerful vampire.

Princess Ko's been bluffing about the mysterious absence of her father, desperately trying to keep the government running on her own. But if she can't get him back in a matter of weeks, the consequence may be a devastating war. So under the guise of a publicity stunt she gathers a group of teens - each with a special ability - from across the kingdom to crack the unsolvable case of the missing royals of Cello.

Victor Faust's new Order is growing. Business is good, as there is no rest for the wicked in an underground world of hardcore criminals and contract killing. Relationships among the operatives have changed little over the past year - but things are about to change now, and all six high-ranking members of the new Order will be blindsided by an unlikely enemy. Loved ones whose only ties to Victor's organization are their relationships with its members are abducted.

Philippa Fisher is feeling lonely. She misses her fairy godsister, Daisy. But while on vacation with her parents, she befriends a local girl named Robyn. Though she’s excited to have a friend again, Philippa can’t help but feel that there’s something strange about Robyn and her father. Meanwhile, Daisy, who is hard at work on a new mission, misses Philippa as well, so she decides to break the rules to visit her friend. Though the girls are happy to be reunited, things soon begin to go horribly wrong with Daisy’s assignment.

Determined to live a dark life in the company of the assassin who freed her from bondage, Sarai sets out on her own to settle a score with an evil sadist. Unskilled and untrained in the art of killing, the events that unfold leave her hanging precariously on the edge of death when nothing goes as planned. Sarai's reckless choices send her on a path she knows she can never turn back from and so she presents Victor with an ultimatum: Help her become more like him and give her a fighting chance, or she'll do it alone no matter the consequences.

On a sunny day at the beach with her mom and brother, 15-year-old Jane Arrowood went for a swim. And then everything — absolutely everything — changed. Now she’s counting down the days until she returns to school with her fake arm and kids will whisper, "That’s her. That’s Shark Girl," when she passes. But right now there are only questions. Why did this happen? Why her? What about her art? What about her life?