Showing results by narrator "Nicol Zanzarella"

Jane’s days at a Midwest insurance company are perfectly ordinary. She blends in well, unremarkably pretty and extra efficient. She’s just the kind of woman middle manager Steven Hepsworth likes - meek, insecure, and willing to defer to a man. No one has any idea who Jane really is. Least of all Steven. But plain Jane is hiding something. Nothing can distract Jane from going straight for his heart: allowing herself to be seduced into Steven’s bed, to insinuate herself into his career and his family, and to expose all his dirty secrets. So she can take it all away. Just as he did to her.

Fifteen years ago, summer camper Emma Davis watched sleepily as her three cabin mates snuck out of their cabin in the dead of night. The last she - and anyone - saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips. Now a rising star in the NYC art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings, massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. They catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of the very same Camp Nightingale.

When Laura Fry returns to her childhood home to care for her invalid mother, she hopes the writer’s block that has swallowed her writing career will disappear. She doesn’t plan on turning into a “yard girl” but her mother’s long neglected lawn beckons her to return it to the lush and colorful display it had been before her mother’s accident. She also doesn’t plan on making friends with the “nympho lesbian” next door but she finds it impossible not to watch the parade of playmates the neighbor brings to her pool.

When the Colonial Marines set out after their deadliest prey, the Xenomorphs, it's what Corporal Hicks calls a bug hunt - kill or be killed. Here are fifteen all-new stories of such "close encounters", written by many of today's most extraordinary authors. Set during the events of all four Alien films, sending the Marines to alien worlds, to derelict space settlements, and into the nests of the universe's most dangerous monsters, these adventures are guaranteed to send the blood racing - one way or another.

In the second half of the 20th century New York was the source of new sounds, including the Greenwich Village folk scene, punk and new wave, and hip-hop. But as the end of the millennium neared, cutting-edge bands began emerging from Seattle, Austin, and London, pushing New York further from the epicenter. The behemoth music industry, too, found itself in free fall, under siege from technology. Then 9/11/2001 plunged the country into a state of uncertainty and war.

A riveting investigation of the myriad ways that parasites control how other creatures - including humans - think, feel, and act. These tiny organisms can live only inside another animal, and, as McAuliffe reveals, they have many evolutionary motives for manipulating their host's behavior. Far more often than appreciated, these puppeteers orchestrate the interplay between predator and prey.

Life in the windswept village of Rantum in the North Sea is fraught with peril and hardship. Most families must rely on arranged marriage just to survive. But free-spirited Maren Luersen doesn't care for riches - her heart belongs to handsome but poor Thies Heinen. He may not have prospects or fortune to offer, but Maren knows their intense love can overcome any obstacle, and she is determined to be his bride.

The story of rookie pilot Lt. Halley's first drop ship command. (A short story in the Terms of Enlistment universe.)

All Aubrey Ellis wants is a normal life, one that doesn't include desperate pleas from the dead. Her remarkable gift may help others rest in peace, but it also made for an unsettling childhood and destroyed her marriage. Finally content as the real estate writer for a local newspaper, Aubrey keeps her extraordinary ability hidden - until she is unexpectedly assigned the story of a decades-old murder.

Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie educate listeners on one of the hottest trends in business development: "design thinking", or the ability to turn abstract ideas into practical applications for maximal business growth. Jeanne Liedtka's recent book, The Catalyst: How YOU Can Lead Extraordinary Growth, was named a Top Innovation and Design Thinking Book by Business Week. Tim Ogilvie has been hailed as a visionary for his pioneering contributions to service innovation, business model innovation, and customer experience design.

Bullies aren't limited to the playground. These days, they roam our offices and can be found everywhere from break rooms to boardrooms. They don't steal your lunch money, but they can make your work life a living hell - and even ruin your career. Whether the bully is a boss or a coworker...whether you're the target of manipulation, intimidation, verbal abuse, or deliberate humiliation, Beating the Workplace Bully will show you how to fight back.

Schumann: The Faces and the Masks draws us into the milieu of the Romantic movement, which enraptured poets, musicians, painters, and their audiences in the early 19th century and beyond, even to the present day. It reveals how Schumann (1810-1856) embodied all the contrasting themes of Romanticism - he was intensely original and imaginative but also worshipped the past; he believed in political, personal, and artistic freedom but insisted on the need for artistic form based on the masters: Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. 

Megan Phenix - bar and grill owner in gay-friendly Eureka Springs - is labeled as "playing hard to get" and finds herself the object of much unwanted attention. If only she were seeing someone...maybe the women would leave her in peace. Leah Rollins thinks 50 is too young to retire, so instead she opens a store in the touristy shopping district of Eureka Springs, next to the popular Phenix Grill. She soon learns that Megan Phenix is a bit on the grumpy side as they spar over parking spaces....

Life has never been easy for the three Campbell sisters. Jess, Courtney, and Dani live on a remote ranch in Western Canada where they work hard and try to stay out of the way of their father's fists. One night a fight gets out of hand, and the sisters are forced to go on the run, only to get caught in an even worse nightmare when their truck breaks down in a small town. Events spiral out of control, and a chance encounter with the wrong people leaves them in a horrific and desperate situation.

Sleepy little North Bend just woke up. The newly promoted Sergeant Jade Monroe and her partner, detective Jack Steele, have just been informed of an unidentified male body found at a local lake. The town is in an uproar. The victim was nearly decapitated, and murder simply doesn't happen in North Bend. As more bodies turn up, the single connection between all of the victims becomes clear - it's Jade, herself. With each new victim getting one step closer to Jade, time begins to tick away. She must find the person responsible before her loved ones, or herself, are targeted next.

It’s the age of whaling and beachcombing, and life is hard on Sylt - especially for women forced to get by on their own. Ever since the death of her parents, Jordis has lived with her grandmother in the village of Rantum. The two of them survive by beachcombing and by secret fortune-telling, using the oracle runes that are a crucial part of the ancient Norse religion. Under the local minister’s skeptical eye, Jordis befriends his daughter, Inga. Jordis confides her love for the young blacksmith, Arjen, to her new friend, only to discover that Inga, too, hopes that Arjen will propose to her.

From enemies to allies...When archaeologist Isabel Dawson stumbles upon an unconscious man deep in the Alaskan wilderness, her survival skills are put to the test. She tends his wounds and drags him to shelter, only to discover she's saved the life of Raptor CEO Alec Ravissant - the man who may have covered up her brother's murder to save his senatorial campaign. With no memory of the assault that landed him five miles deep in the forest, Alec doesn't know what to believe when he wakes in the clutches of the beautiful redhead.

Photojournalist Reagan Bryant has just returned from six-month stint in Afghanistan. Haunted by the tragedy that ended her last assignment, she's searching for some peace - something to end the guilt and chase the trauma away. Two weeks at the resort hotel owned by her future sister-in-law's father seems like the perfect escape.

In 21st-century India, tradition is colliding with Western culture, a clash that touches the lives of everyday Indians from the wealthiest to the poorest. While ethnicity, class, and religion are influencing the nation's development, so too are pop culture and technology - an uneasy fusion whose impact is most evident in the institution of marriage. The Heart Is a Shifting Sea introduces three couples whose relationships illuminate these sweeping cultural shifts in dramatic ways.

Leo is a ghost and he wants to be a good friend. When a new family moves into his home and Leo's efforts to welcome them are misunderstood, Leo decides it is time to leave and see the world. This charming tale of friendship is destined to become a modern classic that will delight children for years to come.