Showing results by narrator "Valerie Rose-Lohman" in All Categories

Alice Lawrence is the sole witness in her sister’s murder trial. And in the year since Claire’s death, Alice’s life has completely fallen apart. Her parents have gotten divorced, she’s moved into an apartment that smells like bologna, and she is being forced to face her sister’s killer and a courtroom full of people who doubt what she saw in the corn maze a year prior.

Twelve years ago, Avril’s mother drowned at Whisper Cove theater, just off the rocky Connecticut coastline. It was ruled an accident, but Avril’s never been totally convinced. Local legend claims that the women in the waves—ghosts from old whaling stories—called her mother into the ocean with their whispering. Because, as they say at Whisper Cove, what the sea wants, the sea will have.

A ravishing young mind reader stalks the streets at night in kitten heels, prowling for men to murder. A soft-spoken genius toils away in the city morgue, desperate to unearth the science behind his gift for shape-shifting. It’s a match made in 1928 Chicago, where gangsters run City Hall, jazz fills the air, and every good girl’s purse conceals a flask.

In the room beneath a stage's trapdoor, all of Shakespeare’s tragically dead teenage girls—Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia, and others—compare their experiences and retell the stories of their lives in their own terms. Enter the Body gives voice to a cast of the young women who die in Shakespeare's most iconic plays. Focusing on the stories of Juliet, Ophelia, and Cordelia, Joy McCullough brilliantly weaves retellings of Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, and King Lear into a larger story about how young women can support each other in the aftermath of trauma.

Shannon Carter never considered herself much of a theater person. Not like her two BFFs, Elise, an actress, and Fatima, a techie. Shannon’s always been content to stay backstage, helping wherever she can. But when the director of the summer musical hears Shannon singing, he encourages her to step out of the wings and into the spotlight. At first, Shannon is hesitant. She needs routine. But when she braves the audition, she discovers that center stage is the one place where she doesn’t feel anxious. She lands a lead role, and everyone in her life is ecstatic . . . except Elise.

Seventeen-year-old Avril doesn’t believe in ghosts, but she knows there are lots of different ways for places and people to be haunted. Twelve years ago, her mother drowned at Whisper Cove. Local legend claims that the women in the waves—the ghosts from an old whaling village—called her mother into the ocean with their whispering. Because, as they say at Whisper Cove, what the sea wants, the sea will have. She has spent the past twelve years trying to make sense of the strange bits and pieces she does remember from the night she lost her mother. 

After the attack on Zynon, our beloved group is on the run. They all know that Byron will kill them the moment he finds them. With nowhere to hide, as Byron has spies everywhere, Gabe has decided to come out and tell everyone the truth of who he is—the son of the Silurian monarch.

Fifteen-year-old Lola just said goodbye to life as a loner. One minute she’s living with her mom in Baltimore and hanging out with her best friend Jane and the next she’s receiving the keys to a southern mansion, boatloads of money, and an ancient family secret. She has no idea how she’s going to cope with a long-lost dad, an eccentric aunt, and a drop-dead gorgeous boy that keeps popping up everywhere she turns. Not to mention the magical book and the skeleton key that just appeared out of nowhere....

Jen is just getting used to her life on Peapod Farm with her new stepsisters, Andy and Reese. But when the school year starts, there are even more changes in store for her. Jen has to navigate new friends and new challenges--but at least she'll have Andy with her, right? As she starts the sixth grade, she finds that her stepsister seems way more interested in crushes and boys than hanging out with her, while Jen wants to know when the world decided boys and girls couldn't be "just friends" anymore. 

It has been three years since Elvira "Ellie" Ryder was betrayed by her ex-boyfriend Cor, which caused the destruction of her people by invaders from a different Zone. Now she will do anything to find him and make him pay.
 

Just when Lola Evers was settling into her new life in Virginia, making summer plans with her aunt and her new beau Jackson, she receives a letter summoning her to a two-week summer program at...wait for it... a magic school! It seems the magic traveling key she inherited comes with a catch: mandatory attendance at the Academy.

Living in a kingdom surrounded by ocean and filled with waterways, I'm supposed to love the sea creatures Atlantice is famous for. What the people don't know is that I'm a proud member of the Anti Mermaid League. My mission in life is to rid the kingdom's waters of the Merfolk that inhabit them. Or at least it was, until I met one of them....  

When she returned from the Summer Program at The Academy, Lola thought the rest of her summer would be filled with family trips to the beach, lounging by the pool, and getting to know her new brother. Instead, life at the Evers Mansion is even more complicated than it was before with the appearance of new magical artifacts for Time Travel and World Jumping - which have caught the interest of some unsavory players.... 

A famous 18-year-old fiddle player, Beau, is abducted from her parents’ huge Sierra home at a birthday folk jam in her honor one summer in the early part of the 21st century. As a fire burns up the mountain while she is buried on the land under a pile of brush, she is found just in time. A month later, much to her horror, she is abducted again, this time from a Berkeley music jam.

Enora Byrnes lives in the aftermath - a barren world where water has become the global currency. In a life dominated by duty to family and community, Enora is offered a role within an entity that controls everything, from water credits to borders. But it becomes clear that not all is as it seems. From the wasted confines of her small town to the bowels of a hidden city, Enora will uncover buried secrets that hide an unthinkable reality.

After an affair with her teacher, Rose’s parents ship her off to Livingston Academy, a stuffy all-girls’ boarding school. Ashamed of her past and herself, 16-year-old Rose just wants to chill, pass her classes, and make friends. The last thing on her mind is becoming a witch.... Until the enigmatic headmistress gives her the chance to join a coven secret from the rest of the school. Desperate to prove herself and looking for a purpose, the headmistress’s offer seems too perfect to pass up. Rose puts on her metaphorical pointy hat and becomes a Livingston witch.

In a country defined by scarcity and control, Enora Byrnes leaves the watchful eyes and secret agendas of the powerful and enters a society living on the fringes. Life beneath the surface brings her face-to-face with a world struggling to survive. Armed with knowledge and honed into a weapon for the resistance, she fights alongside those whom society deems rebels and uses her skills to steal a secret kept hidden from humanity.

What happened after the happily ever after? You all know the story of your favorite fairytale, but did you ever wonder what happened after the fairytale ending? Well we know. Not all afters end up happily, sometimes the real adventure starts much later...With the queen's curse returning, the Anti-Mermaid League are on the warpath and the merfolk aren't helping matters with their jealousy over my relationship with Fish. I'd never thought that enemies could turn to lovers, but my feelings towards my sworn enemy are deepening and I'm not the only one to notice.

As the Evers Series reaches its climax, Lola and Devlin uncover more about their peculiar heritage and ancestors and spend some time with the high elves on Summerset Isle - a world that no longer adheres to the constrictive notions of time and space. Between kidnappings, break-ins, the loss of her parents, and newfound magical abilities, will Lola find the happy ending she deserves?

Light a Fire is poetic, describing a girl's first, and what leads to a woman's reflection. BeeKels ArtOrigins describes a world of woman and man. The mindfulness that a young woman has when making choices made to ignite a relationship start with a single ember. The poetic fire builds, with timbers that describe trial and error that continues throughout a love story.