Showing results by narrator "Zura Johnson" in All Categories

Blame the booze, her shaky marriage, her troubled son, or a thousand other things, but Jewelann Jordan has one thing on her mind when she attends her class reunion: making sure her old crush Christian Campbell sees exactly what he lost all those years ago. A late night, a hotel room, a rekindled flame that burns even hotter than it did back then—what could go wrong? Everything. The night with Christian isn't the first secret Jewelann has kept from her husband Ken, so one more shouldn't be much harder—except that Christian shows up without warning.

Since her parents were killed, Vivienne has always felt ungrounded, shuffled through the foster care system. Just when liberation finally seems possible - days before her 18th birthday - Vivienne is hospitalized with symptoms no one can explain. The doctors may be puzzled, but Deacon, her mysterious new friend, claims she has an active Nevergene. His far-fetched diagnosis comes with a warning: She is about to become an involuntary test subject for Humanitarian Organization for Order and Knowledge - or H.O.O.K.

In the village of Liver-and-Onions, there was a Potato Face Blind Man who used to play an accordion on the corner near the post office. The sometime narrator of these tales, he transports readers and listeners to Rootabaga Country, where the railroad tracks go from straight to zigzag, the pigs wear bibs, and the Village of Cream Puffs floats in the wind, looking like a little hat that you could wear on the end of your thumb. Carl Sandburg, the beloved folk chronicler and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, invented these stories for his own daughters.

Breck, the dungeon core, has been captured by a group calling themselves The Scorpion. The god of living death essence now has his claws around him. The remaining dungeon mobs and bosses are struggling to keep the dungeon from falling apart in his absence. Zach is gathering allies to form an alliance to combat the growing dark forces on the rise. More gods are being reborn as these two massive armies are getting ready to clash.

Breck isn’t alone. After months of being in this strange new world full of swords and magic, trapped as a dungeon core, he’s desperate to communicate with a fellow Earthling. He’ll stop at nothing to advance up the essence ranks and make contact with Zach. During his attempts to rank up, his experiments turn deadly. He’ll need to call upon help from everyone and everything he can.

Lost, frightened, and thousands of feet underground, Isaline is trying to hold herself together. The expedition to find King Faraday’s workshop has begun, and deep in Benemourne’s deadly Adrudian mines, anything can happen. With the help of her companions, Isaline is ready to discover who she is. But lies and forgotten memories are catching up to her.

I live so that I can dream. I trudge through work so that I can go home and close my eyes, awakening in the real world - one where dreams really do come true. A place where I can fight a king instead of my ever-disappointed boss, where I’m a warrior instead of a glorified telemarketer. A place where I matter.

Happily married with two wonderful children, Dom and Stacey are living the dream. He runs a successful design agency; she's finding fame as an author of children’s books. Everything is perfect. But then they meet the mesmerizing Tamara, and their lives are changed forever. Tamara is a woman with a plan. She executes it step by step—patient, systematic, methodical. And as her plan unfolds, Dom and Stacey find their lives slipping out of control, taking them from heaven into the deepest, darkest hell....

The great wizard Merlyn prophesized that his seventh descendant would do wonderful, miraculous things—baffling everyone when his great-great-many-times-great grandchild turns out to be twins. Soon enough, however, it becomes clear which sibling is the Septimum Genus: Percy is a natural with magic. Merlynda (to put it simply) is not.

Get ready to put your feet on the dash, turn up the music, and travel in a 1969 Mini Cooper with two witty, laugh out loud sisters in this romantic comedy. A heart-warming tale of misadventures, music, soul-searching, love, and a rescue dog named Lone-Lee. Mar and Joan have always had an unbreakable bond. More than sisters, they are best friends. When a life-changing event tries to drag Joan down, her headstrong and playful little sister, Mar, comes to the rescue. The only cure - an epic road trip from California to New York.

Masha remembers her childhood in the former USSR but found her life and heart in Israel. Anna was just an infant when her family fled but yearns to find her roots. When Anna is contacted by a stranger from their homeland and then disappears, Masha is called home to Milwaukee to find her.

Every family has secrets, and Natalie Morrigan was used to being kept in the dark. But when her childhood home is destroyed following the mysterious disappearance of her parents, Natalie soon discovers her secrets are darker than most. With nowhere else to turn, Natalie and her four lifelong friends seek out their estranged uncle for guidance, and he cannot wait to tell her the truth. Her entire life has been a lie.

Tomorrow isn’t promised, no matter how immortal you think you are. In the aftermath of Vivienne’s capture, she discovers she's destined to become one of the Forgetful P.A.N. The devastating diagnosis leaves her questioning her relationships - and her place in Neverland. While on her second recruitment mission, she ignores a cardinal rule, and one of her fellow P.A.N. pays the ultimate price for her mistake.

Five months ago, an accident left Diana Sparrow badly injured and missing a few months of her memory. As if that's not enough, she's started having recurring nightmares about the night of the accident. Dreams that feel so real, she's left questioning: maybe she didn't just slide off the road into a ditch. Maybe, just maybe, she hit something. Or someone. She can't turn to her former best friend Val, who's been sleeping with Diana's husband Jonathan for months, but she might find some comfort in newcomer Cole Pelham. But is Cole connected to what happened that night?

Luckily for humanity, scientist Marie Curie applied her brilliant mind and indomitable spirit to expanding the frontiers of science, but what if she had instead drifted toward the darkness? At the cusp of between child- and adulthood, at the crossroads between science and superstition, a teen Marie Curie faces the factual and the fantastic in this fabulous collection of stories that inspire, delight, and ask the question: What if she had used her talents for diabolical purposes?

The award-winning memoir When All That's Left of Me Is Love is poignant and powerful. Linda Campanella provides an intimate look inside her family and her heart as she relives the joy-filled year and long good-bye leading to her terminally ill mother's death. In the process, she comes to terms with the permanence of her loss and finds comfort in profound gratitude for many unexpected gifts.

Marta and her twin brother, Nick, have always been haunted and fascinated by an ancestral legend that holds that members of their family are doomed to various types of falls. And when their own family collapses in the wake of a revelation and a resulting devastating fight with their Catholic mother, the twins move to Prague, the city in which their 'falling curse' began.

As queen of the Shadow Kingdom, Amala Ashcroft spent her days providing for her people whose skin shone as brilliant as a thousand stars. She was loved. Exalted. Treasured. Until a god descended upon their land. The god warned of a cloud of darkness approaching that would enslave her people and crush her reign. To save all she holds dear, Amala must strike deals with dangerous enemies and swear blood oaths to powerful allies.

There are rumors of a crown that will show the true whereabouts of those who were chosen to replace the gods. A crown that once belonged to the late queen of shadows. Nefari Ashcroft doesn’t care about rumors. She plans to take it for herself because with it, she can claim what’s rightfully hers: Her title as her peoples’ fated queen. First, Nefari must travel to her kingdom - a kingdom that hasn’t witnessed a living soul for a decade. This harrowing journey will test everything and everyone she thought she knew.

With the mafia after their heads, ex-smuggler pilot Jez and the crew have two choices - run or fight back. Problem is, there’s nowhere in the System to run. So instead, they’re going to take the entire crime syndicate down. But pulling a sting on the mafia - and living to tell the tale - is going to take a hell of a lot more than just good intentions. And when you can’t even trust the people you’re working with - well, let’s just say they’ll have to master the art of subterfuge, or die trying.