Showing results by narrator "Maria Marquis" in All Categories

We all know it. Demanding accountability in the workplace is the quickest way to get your employees to start fidgeting nervously and looking at the door. Traditional accountability methods leave leaders frustrated with limited, ineffective tools and leave employees feeling criticized, discouraged, and even disengaged. Using a foundation of neuroscience and human dynamics, Inspiring Accountability in the Workplace brings a much-needed modern approach to inspiring employee engagement, productivity, and results.

Daith's father is dead. His death caused a rip in the galaxy's peace. The remains of his army are fighting to restore it. But Daith knows nothing of this. Her memories have been stolen. She has been kidnapped. All she knows is that she has unparalleled abilities that could help end the devastation. Except without her past, how can she know if she's on the right side? Time is running out, and Daith must choose - to search for who she was, or use her gifts to restore order.

After breaking the 100m world record, 16-year-old Calli is whisked away to a secret facility where she's placed with other teens who possess superhuman speed. She soon finds herself in a deadly situation involving other superpowers, a magical diamond, and a centuries-old clan vying for world domination. Calli will have to rely on her quick wit and gut instinct to navigate her new world, which includes secretly carrying a power-infusing diamond, all the while steering clear of the young man who mistakenly believes she's his soul mate. 

A detective, conspiracy thriller. Some people can’t let go of a grudge. Homicide Detective Sean Trann is learning this the hard way. He made the mistake of interrupting the killing spree of Boston’s most notorious serial killer, Spider. Intent on finishing what he started and infuriated at Sean’s previous involvement, Spider has decided to use those closest to Sean as pieces in his twisted game. Sean is the only one who can stop this executioner, but can he stay professional when his loved ones are on the line?

In the fourth volume of The Fourth Talisman series, Nazafareen risks everything on a desperate gamble to stop the Vatras, once and for all. Determined to confront Culach and make amends, Nazafareen goes to Val Moraine, setting off a chain of events that ultimately leads her deep into the perilous wasteland called the Kiln and the faceless enemy waiting there. But the ancient hatred that shattered the world a millennium before is stronger and far more devious than she and her companions imagine. Is the Viper truly dead? And can Nazafareen triumph without facing her own heart's darkness?

In the last volume of the Fourth Talisman series, the worlds of the living and the dead collide in a final confrontation that will leave Nocturne and Solis forever changed...Three talismans adrift. Two mad kings. One poisonous crown. As dark forces gather at the Rock of Ariamazes in Samarqand, Nazafareen discovers that there are worse places than the afterlife. The twisted creature pulling the Vatras’ strings is holed up in the deepest level of the Dominion - and only she has the power to follow him there, though at the potential cost of her own soul.

On the White Sea, realm of smashers and sea monsters, a ship is carrying Nazafareen and Darius to the Isles of the Marakai, where the wise woman Sakhet-ra-katme has guarded the secret of the talismans for centuries. But another is searching, too - a daeva born in the brutal prison of the Kiln, who plans to use the talismans to free the Vatras and their mad king. 

A Western terrorist organization targets Muslims around the world, and FBI agent John Savas must put aside the loss of his son and work with a man who symbolizes all he has come to hate. Both are drawn into a race against time to stop the plot of an American bin Laden and prevent a global catastrophe.

Bekk cannot seem to stay awake. As a sophomore in high school, it doesn't bode well for his education or the social services agent breathing down his older brother - and guardian's - neck. But Bekk can't help it. He's being plagued by dreams - dreams from his childhood, about a land called Iyah. If he doesn't snap out of it soon, he'll be taken away from the only family he has left. But when the school psychologist insists it's a childhood reaction to the trauma of his parent's death, Bekk's only recourse is to figure out the meaning of his dreams, before it's too late.

Ness Opute will not fail again. The woman who murdered his wife, who has eluded him for many years, has killed again. To bring her to his own personal justice, Opute must give up his identity as a notorious smuggler and work his way up the ranks of her empire. If he can climb to her inner circle, he will claim victory over her lifeless body. But Opute isn’t the only one on the hunt.

Calli learns about Chris's motives and tries to understand his dilemmas. Given no choice, the two of them travel with a mysterious companion back to General Harding's facility. They make an effort to dismantle the programs that are exterminating people with powers and wiping Diamond Bearers from the face of the Earth.

Trinity Morris, cofounder of You're Not Alone, has a domestic violence past that still haunts her 10 years later. She is devoted to helping victims find freedom and to sharing information on how to help them through their emotional and violent trials. While Trinity is presenting at a seminar, she comes across Gavin, a police officer who knows her past all too well. It's been 10 years since he last saw her, but the moment Gavin's eyes land on her, he's intent on getting to know the woman who has haunted his dreams all these years.

The Diamond of Freedom, book three in The Unaltered series, melds together history, geology, metaphysics, science, and fantasy in this non-stop nail biter. Calli and Chris race against the clock to identify the power-neutralizing stone that prevents Calli from healing her life-threatening injuries. She must also learn how to counter its effects before she can fight against the rogue Diamond Bearer named Freedom to save the boy she loves and the world of her friends. 

As her search draws closer to uncovering the twisted truth, she begins receiving ominous warnings to stay quiet and drop the story. The young journalist is in danger. Her cameraman and best friend, a person with his own secret past, says he wants to protect her. But Shelby is headstrong, dodging anything that could lead to love. She can't allow anyone to distract her as she fights for the two women who deserve justice. She never expects that, along the way, she'll have to stop and save herself.

Set in New Orleans at the close of the 19th century, The Awakening follows Edna Pontellier, who, while vacationing with her husband and their two sons, finds liberation from her prudish behavior and repressed emotions and desires. At the coastal resort of Madame Lebrun, Edna struggles to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century American South. 

When refugee Guyen arrives in the land of his enemy, he knows he will fight, but soon falls down a well of wonder and improbability as a mysterious power invades him. And when his brother falls ill to the same deadly force, he will only save him if he can master his newfound abilities.

Nazafareen is a Breaker, a mortal who has the rare ability to shatter spell magic - although her power carries a high price. With the memories of her former self erased and nowhere else to turn, she comes to Nocturne hoping to start a new life under the triple moons of the darklands. But when an assassin forces Nazafareen to flee to the sunlit mortal city of Delphi, she finds herself embroiled in a deeper mystery whose origins lie far in the past. Why was the continent sundered into light and dark a thousand years before? 

Trials are supposed to be the last step for a criminal. Cops catch them; the law books them. But every police officer knows that's not always the case. Detective Sean Trann couldn't wait to put the Spider murders behind him. The strain of the trial brought some of the people in his life closer together, others now at each other's throats. 

It’s been a thousand years since the Avas Vatras tried to burn the world to ashes. A thousand years since they were imprisoned in the brutal wasteland called the Kiln. But revenge is a dish best served cold - even, apparently, by the children of fire. In Delphi, Nazafareen joins forces with the followers of Dionysius to rescue her friends from the Oracle’s dungeons and seek out the three talismans whose extraordinary powers stopped the Vatras before. With her own breaking magic growing stronger by the day, she must walk a razor’s edge to control her volatile temper. 

Reader, Writer, and Maker: All three novels of the Daughter of Time series in one book. Speculative fiction with time travel, alien armageddon, metaphysical mysteries, action, adventure, cosmology, cybernetics, religion, and romance!