Showing results by narrator "Emily Smith" in All Categories

Annie O'Connell runs a business she loves, has a daughter she raised entirely on her own, and protects two younger brothers the way she has all their lives. She's the foundation of her family, but sometimes being solid as a rock means she has sharp edges. After a lifetime of fighting to succeed, there is only one person she trusts not to let her down: herself. When Annie's carefully constructed life is shattered, Marcus is determined to stand by her, help her through disaster, and prove that what they share is stronger than the tragedy that changes the lives of everyone in its path.

Bess Curran, 40, is an interior designer in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, still lonely and bitter after her traumatic divorce six years earlier. Her adult daughter, Lisa, anxious for her parents to reconcile, arranges a surprise dinner meeting where she informs them that she is pregnant and about to marry. Bess and former husband, Michael (he left her for another woman, who, in turn, has just left him), can barely control their mutual animosity yet must come to grips with the startling news.

1902: Upon arriving in Kenworthy, California, mail-order bride Juniper Cohen is met by the pounding of the gold mine, an untamable landscape, and her greatest surprise of all: the kind and charming man who awaits her. But when the mine proves empty of profit, and when Juniper’s husband, John, vanishes, Juniper is left to fend for herself and her young daughter in the dying town that is now her home.

Growing up, all Lithia wants is to go on the Journey with her father. But as she gets older, a dark secret seems to cloud their idyllic world. The neighbors ask questions about where her father goes, if he ever brings anything back from his trips around the galaxy. Lithia and her brother, Bobby, are instructed to be careful with whom they talk. One day, her father comes home in a daze, and her mother announces they are leaving Venus to go on the Journey together. Lithia is elated - until tragedy strikes. The two siblings are left with nowhere to go.

Lithia’s father tells the story of Hoban Boson, a long-ago captain of a ship on Earth, and his defiance against those who would try to take their freedom. Hoban convinced his crew to go up against the Falcon, the ship that had landed in Buzzard Bay to lay claim to the town. Hoban’s crew and ship, the Success, was much smaller than the Falcon, but to him, that didn’t matter. What mattered was standing up to those who would subjugate and terrorize. Lithia is old enough to know that bad guys don’t win in the end, and young enough to be scared when all seems lost.

From his position behind the pulpit, Reverend Peter Taylor has a unique view of his affluent congregants. By and large, they appear respectable and morally upstanding, but they have their share of troubles - and perhaps even more than their share of sins. Liza Howard is a notorious Jezebel who seduces young and old alike, and who now has her sights set on Judy Bennett’s son, despite his engagement. Meanwhile, Judy hides her own family secrets behind her relentless judgment of others.

Falling through the window of their family's cozy house into a dark and bitter world, riven by sectarian violence and struggle, five siblings search for a way out - and discover extraordinary talents deep within themselves on their path toward love.

Megan Jacobs always wished for a different heart. Her entire childhood was spent in and out of hospitals, sitting on the sidelines while her twin sister, Crystal, played all the sports, got all the guys, and had all the fun. But even a heart transplant three years ago wasn’t enough to propel Megan’s life forward. She’s still working as a library aide and living with her parents in her small Minnesota hometown, dreaming of the adventure she plans to take "once she’s well enough." Meanwhile, her sister has the perfect life - or so Megan thinks.

A heartbroken and humiliated Ricky Graves took the life of a classmate and himself. Five months later, the sleepy community is still in shock and mourning. Ricky's sister, Alyssa, returns to confront her shattered, withdrawn mother and her guilt over the brother she left adrift. Mark McVitry, the lone survivor of the deadly outburst sparked by his own cruelty, is tormented by visions of Ricky's vengeful spirit. Ricky's surrogate older brother, Corky Meeks, grapples with doubts about the fragile boy he tried to protect but may have doomed instead.

Six Award-Winning Authors have contributed new stories to A Timeless Romance Anthology: Autumn Collection. In Heather Horrocks' charming story, A Hound Dog Named Elvis, interior designer, Kaitlin Hartley returns to her hometown of Aspen Grove, California, to the job of her dreams after a year of specialized training in New York. During the town's Autumn Festival, she enters her dachshund, Elvis, into the Running of the Hallowieners race.

Another addition to the popular Timeless Romance Anthology series. All Hallows' Eve is not to be missed. Romance, thrills & chills. Need we say more?

Called to investigate an ancient secret long kept buried by the church, the Bishop of Bamberg is found brutally murdered, tortured to death by medieval means. His nephew, Lukas - a young Jesuit priest living in Rome - is summoned by the superior general of his order for a special mission: retrieve a cache of long-hidden documents that could rock Christianity to its core.

Kirsten Hammarstrom hasn't been home to her tiny corner of rural Wisconsin in years - not since the mysterious disappearance of a local teenage girl rocked the town and shattered her family. Kirsten was just nine years old when Stacy Lemke went missing, and the last person to see her alive was her boyfriend, Johnny - the high school wrestling star and Kirsten's older brother. No one knows what to believe - not even those closest to Johnny - but the event unhinges the quiet farming community and pins Kirsten's family beneath the crushing weight of suspicion.

Number-one New York Times best-selling author Iris Johansen offers listeners a classic tale of a love that seems impossible - and a hunger that is undeniable.

Jenny Cashman longs to escape the refined, rarified air of her exclusive Swiss education. At 19, she’s desperate for independence - and to once again see the man she loves. So she sells her belongings, leaves Europe, and heads to Las Vegas. The sight of Steve Jason’s newest palatial hotel and casino thrills Jenny - but not as much as the sight of the man himself....

The only male to be adopted into the notorious Parish family, Tony Parish always did right by his vigilante sisters. But when an attempt to protect one of them went horribly wrong, he had to fake his own death to escape his fanatical family. Tony set sail and ended up in Dominica - face to face with the woman of his dreams.... After the death of her mother, Honor Silva moved to Dominica, where her family could help her heal and move on. But her activist mother left her more than money, she left her proof that could take down one of the richest and most powerful men in the world.

Celebrated for more than fifty years as a world-renowned novelist, essayist, and political figure and commentator, Gore Vidal is less known for the exquisitely crafted short fiction he wrote as a young man. Like the work of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, his stories have been overshadowed by the author’s triumphs writing in other genres. Still, Vidal’s short fiction offers us a portrait of the young artist in the 1940s and 1950s. His subtle and comic tales often center on adolescence and homosexual themes.

Two unlikely heroes. One unthinkable crime. In the final episode of The Crime Beat, everything comes together in Los Angeles. On New Year's Eve, a brutal terrorist attack threatens the city. But is it connected to the nine murders? And will Cole and Warren reach the mastermind of the killings before the plan reaches completion?

Cole and Warren reconvene in San Francisco, hot on the trail of the mastermind of the nine murders. But when a Brazilian media mogul is killed while taking a selfie on the Golden Gate Bridge, they realize that the plot was even bigger than they imagined.

Cole and Warren must split up. Cole travels to Tokyo as the ramifications of her article shock the world and her fame nearly drowns her. Meanwhile, Warren travels back to Washington DC to pursue an investigation of his own.

Arriving in Las Vegas, Cole and Warren meet an FBI agent who may have information about the assassinations. Then a mysterious retirement party for the leader of the New Vegas Mafia has them questioning everything they thought they knew. Meanwhile, a chance encounter with one of Warren's old buddies leaves Cole shaken to her core and longing for home.