Showing results by narrator "Carlotta Brentan" in All Categories

On the heels of a difficult break-up and a devastating diagnosis, Shakespearean scholar Lizzie Delford decides to take one last lavish vacation on Elba, the sun-kissed island off the Italian coast, with her best friend and his movie-star boyfriend. Once settled into a luxurious seaside resort, Lizzie has to make big decisions about her future, and she needs the one thing she may be running out of: time.

Foster children are society's throwaway kids, the children no one wants—until someone finally does. Saving Michael provides an inside look at Keri Vellis's struggle to secure the best possible services for two severely abused and traumatized siblings. Listeners get a glimpse of Keri and her family's day-to-day life as she went from mother of three to adoptive mother of three more children and then the temporary caregiver of another seventeen.

Wren of Edgewood is no stranger to suffering. With her parents gone, it is Wren’s responsibility to ensure she and her sister survive the harsh and endless winter, but if the legends are to be believed, their home may not be safe for much longer. For three hundred years, the land surrounding Edgewood has been encased in ice as the Shade, a magical barrier that protects the townsfolk from the Deadlands beyond, weakens. Only one thing can stop the Shade’s fall: the blood of a mortal woman bound in wedlock to the North Wind.

A juicy, heartwarming novel set against stunning Spanish settings, where delicious food, romantic adventures, and the transformative magic of starting over in Spain lead Dahlia Delaney to uncover family, friendship, self-discovery, and an unexpected new beginning.

A feisty princess befriends a mage’s apprentice—and finds she’s uncannily linked to a dragon—in a suspenseful fantasy charged with warmth and wit. Calen, a lonely young mage-to-be, never dreamed that Princess Meglynne would become his friend. And impulsive Meg never imagined that tending a baby dragon would "link" her to the creature -- for life. And now Meg’s sister is about to marry a prince to end a war between kingdoms, a celebration that Meg and Calen know is endangered by a murderous plot.

Henry, Frances and Lukas are neighbours, and they used to be best friends. But in middle school Frances got emo, Lukas went to private school and Henry just felt left behind. When they come together again for the funeral of a pet gerbil, the three ex-friends make a mind-blowing discovery: a radio, buried in Henry’s garden, that allows them to talk to another group of three kids in the same town in New Jersey, USA ... in the same backyard ... eighty years in the past.

After her parents' deaths on Cape Cod, reclusive 20-something Margo Sharpe lives alone in a crap apartment in South Boston. One problem: she can't afford it. So she rents her spare bedroom to Lucy Somers, a shy, allergic-to-everything schoolteacher. At first, they peacefully coexist; Margo manages to keep Lucy at arm's length. But Lucy starts to ask questions about Margo's past. Too many questions. Then, money goes missing. Relationships are hijacked. Dead rats appear all over the house. And it becomes clear, far too late, that Margo chose...poorly.

Frederieke Teitler and her older sister, Astra, live in a house, in a city, in a world divided. Their father ran out on them when Rieke was only six, leaving their mother a wreck and their grandfather as their only stable family. He’s done his best to provide for them and shield them from antisemitism, but now, seven years later, being a Jew has become increasingly dangerous, even in their beloved home of Czernowitz, long considered a safe haven for Jewish people.

Monsters are still lurking on Barrow’s Bay. Dare Coates is sure of it. No drifter or ruffian could have killed her father, the Captain of the Guard, while he was on patrol. But everyone insists that monsters have been gone for years now. Dare’s mother. Her classmates. Even the governor, who swiftly marries her mother just months after her father’s death. Dare’s suspicions grow even stronger when the governor suddenly ships her off to the mainland, away from any hope of uncovering the truth about her father’s death. Or so she thinks.

Mairead Small Staid’s debut, The Traces, is a work of memoir and criticism that explores the nature of happiness in art, literature, and philosophy, structured around a season spent in Italy and a reading of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Poised between plummeting depressions, the author considers the intellectual merits of joy and the redeeming promise offered by the beauty, both natural and manmade, that surrounds her.

In 1942, Hazel Francis left Wichita, Kansas, for California, determined to do her part for the war effort. At Douglas Aircraft, she became one of many “Rosie the Riveters,” helping construct bombers for the U. S. military. But now the war is over, men have returned to their factory jobs, and women like Hazel have been dismissed, expected to return home to become wives and mothers. Unwilling to be forced into a traditional woman’s role in the Midwest, Hazel remains on the West Coast, and finds herself in the bohemian town of Laguna Beach.

Non dover mai più dire addio a nessuno. Non è l’idea più meravigliosa del mondo? Di sicuro è quello che pensa Cora, brillante ragazza neurodivergente, quando finalmente scopre di che cosa si occupa la misteriosa azienda in cui lavora suo fratello Gregor. Il Melograno, fondata dal miliardario Magnus Hawkins, è una corporation hi tech con grandiosi piani per il futuro: sotto la visionaria guida dell’ingegner Gold, sfruttando l’intelligenza artificiale, mira a creare degli ologrammi—i Gram—del tutto identici alle persone reali.

There has always been tension in "the blind house," where Valentina lives with her mother and grandmother in the Italian countryside. Valentina's pious grandmother often hints at a family curse, while Valentina's mother scoffs at superstition; it's one of the battlegrounds on which they fight to control Valentina's upbringing. But in the summer of 1996, when Valentina is twelve, she gets her period for the first time—and the curse suddenly becomes frighteningly real. Blood leaks from the walls; the house and farm are overrun with frogs; the kitchen crawls with flies.

1918 - America is at war with Germany, and, for the first time in history, the US Navy has allowed women to join up alongside the men. Ten thousand of them rush to do their part. German-American Marjory Kunwald enlists in the Navy to prove her patriotism. Suffragette Blanche Lawrence to prove that women are the equal of men. And shy preacher’s daughter Viv Weston in a desperate attempt to hide from the police.

Fleeing war-torn Kosovo, 10-year-old Drita and her family move to America with the dream of living a typical American life. But with this hope comes the struggle to adapt and fit in. How can Drita find her place at school and in her new neighborhood when she doesn't speak any English? Meanwhile, Maxie and her group of fourth-grade friends are popular in their class, and make an effort to ignore Drita. So when their teacher puts Maxie and Drita together for a class project, things get off to a rocky start.

1938, Italy. Six-year-old Lia loves to build sandcastles at the beach and her biggest problem is her shyness and quiet, birdlike voice—until prime minister Mussolini joins forces with Hitler in World War II, and everything changes. Now there are laws saying Jewish children can’t go to school, Jews can’t work, or go on vacation. It’s difficult for Lia to understand why this is happening to her family. When her father loses his job, they must give up their home and move from city to city.

Welcome to small-town Connecticut, a place whose inhabitants seem to have it all - the status, the homes, the money, and the ennui.

Hector lives with his family at the Marina in an Italian coastal town where they organize tourist expeditions to explore the many wonders of the sea. Hector’s dream is to become a deep-sea diver, just like his father. Then, one day, an unscrupulous entrepreneur opens a much newer center next door, forcing them to close their business. This man has a single purpose, to find the legendary Pearl in order to sell it and make money. Hector decides to find a way to thwart the plan and save what matters most to him: the sea, his family, and his dream.

Surviving the ill-fated expedition to Knnot, Valeria, Alik, and the others have found refuge in Valeria's village. Though Val should find comfort in reuniting with her family, everything has changed—including herself. For now, Val is the Pale God's chosen champion. And she is ready for revenge on the Czar.

Everything is perfectly organized in Amber’s life: her days at work, in the offices of a prestigious magazine in New York; her time with her beloved husband, Mike, and their adventurous vacations around the world. When Amber finds out she is pregnant, her immediate reaction is sheer denial: This can’t be true. She always knew she would want children one day, but now it feels so sudden, so unexpected. She tries to play for time, but Mike’s reaction to the news, with pure delight and anticipation, is the exact opposite. Wasn’t he happy before? Was it all a lie?