Showing results by narrator "Laura Bannister" in All Categories

In DNA, Ell’s five-year-old son Zage has become interested in the effects of certain genes on obesity. He’s obtained permission to do research in a university lab where he hopes to test some of his ideas. Work is being done to evaluate the possibility of terraforming the planet Mars by using Ell’s port technology to bring in water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen from various other worlds in the solar system.

In “Impact,” Ell’s been taken off the “Most Wanted” list and is resuming somewhat of a normal life. Her old friend Phil Zabrisk is on his way to Mars. One of her exploration rockets is about to land on an earthlike world. Then an enormous comet crashes into Tau Ceti three, threatening the lives of the teecees there. Aliens that Ell and others have come to think of as friends. Phil falls on Mars, breaking his hip in a fashion that needs surgery soon if he’s not to be crippled.

When a couple is found murdered and no suspects are apparent, 55-year-old empty-nester Kate Wise, after a 30-year career with the FBI, finds herself called out of retirement and her quiet suburban life to come back and work for the bureau. Kate’s brilliant mind and unrivaled ability to enter the mind of serial killers is just too indispensable, and the FBI needs her to crack this baffling case.

Chloe feels life is finally perfect as she moves back into her hometown and into a new house with her fiancé. Her career with the FBI looks promising, and her wedding is on the horizon. But, she learns, all is not as it seems in suburbia. Chloe begins to see the underside - the gossip, the secrets, the lies - and she finds herself haunted by her own demons: her mother’s mysterious death when she was 10, and her father’s imprisonment. And when a fresh body is found, Chloe soon realizes that her past, and this small town, might hold the key to solving both.

When I was younger, my mother saved my settlement from the unblessed dead that would have killed us all. It cost her everything to reveal her necromancy and sent shockwaves through our stringent religious settlement. Convicted of heresy against our sacred lost texts, she died soon after. Since then, I have worked hard to maintain my pious standing so that when I turn 18 I will be selected by a suitable husband at the bridal auction. As the large clock in town square ticks down to my 18th birthday, the dead have been appearing in my garden.

Thanks to the mindspeech lessons she’s receiving from the black dragon, Lily is temporarily benched from Unit Twelve - until her brain acclimates and the risk of total burnout passes. At least she has her new husband, lupi Rule Turner, to keep her occupied. But when her mentor calls in a favor and sends Lily to a murder scene, she’s suddenly back on active status - despite the hallucinations she can’t keep at bay. With one touch, Lily knows the man was killed by magic, but her senses don’t warn her how far the conspiracy goes....

Time ran out on climate change. Super-storms. Government surveillance and breakdown. Tech whisperer Dee Baker seeks safety. Weather disasters spin out of control. Food prices skyrocket. Refugees spill everywhere, including Americans fleeing the dust bowl, floods, and hurricanes. Congress has a plan, the Calm Act. Its public face is martial law. The secret measures are worse. Dee's job provides her classified access to the truth. They promise her an ark berth, secure in a sealed biosphere. But she doesn't trust them to deliver....

Celia is in desperate need of a change - a change of scenery, a change of pace, and a complete redo of all relationships. Not knowing what else to do, she opens a map, closes her eyes, and lets fate decide her future. Then she packs her meager belongings and buys a one-way ticket to a little town on the fringes of Oregon's Deschutes National Forest called Sisters. She's wanted a family for years. Will she find one in Sisters?

Eleven-year-old Cranberry Wilkes runs away from a bad foster situation. With the help of her friend Hammer, she survives homeless for a week, but then circumstances change. She is placed with grandmotherly Gracie Sullivan. With her help, Cranberry relearns how to trust adults and regains her belief that she can be happy.

Aral Kingslayer has nothing to lose - and only justice to gain. Torn apart by the death of his goddess, he must avenge her in order to save himself from being lost forever.... It’s been nine long years since the death of his patron, Namara, and exalted assassin Aral Kingslayer desperately misses the thrill and glory of being a higher power of justice. Now he is haunted by the ghosts of the past - and by the ghost of the lost goddess herself.

Have you ever gotten to the place where you just couldn't take it anymore? Dreams. Programs. Jobs. Relationships. There are so many different areas where we feel like calling it quits. It's time for an honest conversation on how not to give in to the temptation to give up. Nicki Koziarz is a woman who has thrown in the towel a time or two. In fact she's quit just about everything in her life. But with God's help, she's discovered a few habits that have helped her and others conquer the choice to quit.

Though I’ve been exonerated through the Necromancer Trial, there are those who are convinced that I am a devil-woman who should be exiled, or worse, killed. I’m trapped by the Laws of the Lost Texts. I can’t simply buy a ticket to the train and leave. I have to endure the Bridal Auction and hope my newfound friend, Quade, will be able to purchase my hand in marriage. If he fails his bid, I will be married off to one of the Crats. I’d rather be declared Unclaimed and condemned to a life of servitude to the community.

She only feeds on those who deserve it. But what happens when the one person she loves is about to die? Vampire Yelena Solodnikova has spent years drowning in guilt—guilt for the blood she’s spilled, and for the lover who abandoned her. Then she meets Orly Bialek—a twelve-year-old girl dying of cancer, whose supernatural drawings reveal the evil in others. Orly draws. Yelena kills.

For Jay Hutchin, the line blurs on a sultry night in a cheap motel on Tango Key. One moment's jealous rage is all it takes for the esteemed judge to murder Diane Jackson, a beautiful starlet whose fatal mistake was to underestimate her married lover's devotion - and the depth of his jealousy. Having made a name for herself taking on high-profile cases, defense attorney Kit Parrish has everything to lose this time around.

In the final installment of the Black Wax Vampire Trilogy, Orly Bialek retreats from the world and her responsibilities as the new empress of her bloodline as she buries herself in sorrow over the deaths of her mother, lover, and friends. An uprising within the Cobălcescu that aims to usurp her rule and end her life forces Orly to put her mournful sentiments aside to protect her coven from those seeking to destroy it.

A forgotten magical power lying dormant in the shadows. Human civilization on the brink of destruction. A young elf looking to find her place in the world. The future of magic falls into Petra's hands when she first sets out to explore the world, only to discover a prophecy that foretells of her role in a great revolution. She's keen to seize her calling, until she discovers that it requires her to face off against her own mother. When she succumbs to her curiosity and enters the human world, Petra feels rebellious.

Fatherless and poor in a remote village where men, money, and faith determine everything, her only hope for a decent life is to marry before her 18th birthday. Though her prospects aren’t good and her options aren’t appealing, to live as an unmarried woman is a life sentence of silence and solitude. Emma has to try to make a match. But when a beautiful, antlered boy appears in her dreams and tempts her to join him in the forbidden woods, another path opens to her. Finally, after a life devoid of possibilities, Emma has a choice to make: to run from her future, or fight for it.

The Last Midnight shares the brief romantic interlude between rock star Dixon Day and his most devoted fangirl Emily Dunkel, who died in a car crash while driving home from his concert. In death, Emily finds herself walking toward the fabled bright light at the end of the tunnel of her afterlife, but she is never quite able to reach it. Her soul will never know peace until she finds the true love she never experienced while living.

Lizzie Ashton thought being a professional fire impeder was dangerous, but using her magic to stop bombs, guns, and fires before they start is nothing compared to what happens when Abel storms back into her life. Abel needs assistance with a dangerous task that only Lizzie can do. She hesitates to accept his job offer, as what little she knows of his dark past unnerves her, despite their moments of attraction. But when the local police department calls her in on a disturbing murder investigation, Lizzie must put aside her misgivings and partner up with Abel.

What lengths is someone willing to go to for power? How many lives need to be destroyed or ruined to gain the highest level of control possible? Will a simple colony takeover be the answer, or do you need to hold an entire nation hostage? These are the questions everyone should be asking themselves when selecting a new premier, but no one believes someone could be that corrupt or harmful.