Showing results by narrator "Vanessa Johansson" in All Categories

When Cassie Walsh returns to her small Minnesota hometown for her mother's funeral, she intends to leave as quickly as possible. But a shocking discovery in the basement freezer of her childhood home changes everything. The discovery of the body of Cassie's long-lost teenage crush in her mother's chest freezer shatters her world and forces her to confront a buried secret from fifteen years ago.

Cari Porter's in France. She's hoping that her former apartment holds some answers in helping her to remember who she used to be. And maybe she's found something. There's a name, a passport, and a bank account. But is it actually hers? Or is it something that Dark Sky has planted in her apartment, hoping to draw her into a trap?

Porter has made her way to the UK. She finds the hotel that she and Chesney supposedly stayed at, hoping that the room would somehow bring back a few of her memories. But Dark Sky is still in pursuit of her, and this time, after leaving a few dead bodies in their wake, they finally catch up to her. Will Dark Sky finish Porter off for good? Or will they try to bring her in to help her regain her memory and put her back into the program?

After an unbelievable makeover gave her the confidence to strut her stuff at a charity ball, Kate Crosby went from harmless flirt to a bedroom vixen. But she wasn't about to let a single night of oh-so-sultry passion with archenemy Peter Logan become anything more. Of course, she didn't count on seeing their lip-lock featured in the local paper! Finally able to track the mysterious beauty down to a remote cabin, Peter learned the truth about her identity—and that she was going to have his baby.

In an era of “hot takes” and easy generalizations, this collection reclaims the absurdities and paradoxes of life as it is actually lived from the American fantasy of “niceness”. In Macy’s world, human desires and fatal blind spots slam headlong into convenient social-media-driven narratives that would sort us into neat boxes of insider or outsider; good or bad; with us or against us.

Cari Porter’s made it to Italy. But she hasn’t escaped. Dark Sky is still coming for her. Hidden in a safe house, Porter continues her search for answers about her past. Unfortunately for her, her past catches up with her. Just like everywhere else she’s been, people connected to her are killed, and she goes on the run again. This time, though, she’ll come face to face with someone who seemingly knows who she is. Will he give Porter the answers that she’s seeking, or will he be the one to finally bring her in…dead or alive?

Anna Wilks went straight from her parents' house to her husband's. After 13 years of trying to give him a son, she's told she's sterile. Her marriage crumbles and her husband leaves her for a younger woman who's pregnant with his child. Then, Anna finds her deceased aunt Annabeth's journal and discovers her secret. Having no idea who she is now that she can't be a wife and mother, Anna shocks her family by setting out on a desperate search to find herself. She follows her aunt's journal to Mystic Valley, Vermont.

Porter is still on the run after barely escaping the grasp of Dark Sky. After narrowly avoiding danger by a local gang, Porter winds up at a motel in Mozambique. It’s there that she receives a mysterious call from someone who seems to know all about her. The caller turns out to be Jason Chesney, also an agent in the Dark Sky project. Is he a friend from her past that wants to help her get out of the CIA’s crosshairs?

Claire and her brother Jake have always been close. But after a devastating accident, Jake went through a downward spiral, losing all touch with reality and his family. Claire's found family and small-town bakery have become her sanctuary, but unfortunately, Jake's circumstances have taken a turn for the worse, and he finds himself at rock bottom, with a looming 15-year prison sentence. And now, she finds herself in a desperate battle to save the brother she loves.

His Second-Chance Family by RaeAnne Thayne: Julia Blair is hoping for a fresh start. So when she sees an apartment-for-rent sign on Brambleberry House, she can’t help but feel that it’s a good omen. Having spent summers as a teen in a cottage near the rambling Victorian home, Julia easily pictures herself and her two children starting over in the one place that’s always felt welcoming to her. Katie’s Redemption by Patricia Davids: After two years away, Katie Lantz returns to her Amish community nine months pregnant - and unmarried.

When Quinn Southerland discovers his foster mom's hospice nurse is Tess Claybourne, he's surprised—and not in a good way! He still hasn't forgiven the former high school queen bee for how she treated him. But recently widowed Tess has learned a lot about life—and herself. And Quinn starts to wonder if he could be wrong about her. Is there room in his damaged heart for forgiveness…or love?

When Quinn Southerland returns home to see his dying foster mom and finds her hospice nurse is Tess Claybourne, he's surprised—and not in a good way! He still hasn't forgiven the former high school queen bee for how she treated him back in the day. But recently widowed Tess has done a lot of growing up since then. Living through devastating loss has taught her valuable lessons about life—and herself. And as the two reconnect, Quinn starts to wonder if he could be wrong about Tess. But with everything in his past, is there room in his damaged heart for forgiveness…or love?

Consummate journalist Maggie Devlin has a rule: never get involved with the men she interviews. It's never been an issue and shouldn't be one this time around; her subject, the egotistical filmmaker George MacDonagh, holds zero appeal for her. But on-site in misty, magical County Cork, the faeries can bewitch even the most level-headed of women....

Past skeletons have a way of resurfacing despite our most diligent attempts to bury them away. Thirty years have elapsed since Adán and Eva reveled in their first love amid 1980s union strife in the Mexican port of Tampico. Flash forward to the present. Tampico is engulfed in yet another war, this one brought on by the drug trade. The former lovers find their way into each other’s arms again as the setting shifts from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, New York to Costa Rica and the Guatemalan jungle.

An editor at a small Manhattan publishing house, Frances Girard, is plagued with the curse of self-awareness. She knows she will never write a book and is resigned to living a dull, sensible life in which people like her "are not allowed to have a nervous breakdown". But she secretly envies those with creative aspirations. When she meets Paul Treat - the man fated to change her life - the avant-garde theater director is clad only in a towel. Frances is instantly attracted to his unpredictable, larger-than-life persona. They act out scenes from plays and embark on an erotic relationship like nothing Frances has ever known.

A moment can change everything...Charlotte Gates is tired of being Charlie Rae. She loves the lake she was raised on, their rental cabins, and spending her nights under the stars…but inside she yearns for more. After his freshman year, Nathaniel Chase’s family spends their first summer at The Village. From the beginning Charlotte intrigues him. She’s the girl who always says what’s on her mind, wins at night games, and gets lost in the sky, each time she looks through her telescope.

Here is a moving story of personal triumph - and a prescription for how to tame a disease that afflicts millions of Americans and is doubling among children. The former Miss America, a diabetic herself, offers an inspirational guide to living with diabetes, discussing the need for early detection and treatment of the disease and explaining how, with proper diet, exercise, medication, and attitude, to cope with it.

Christmas, a kidnapping, Jake Porter, and a stray reindeer - oh my! Sofie’s mother tells her it is the season for miracles, but Sofie’s convinced it’s more of a season for whackos and flashing Santas. After nearly losing a battle with the local strange vampire a month ago, she regrets ever having bitched about boring cheating spouse cases and process serving. She’s ready for a quiet spell doing nothing but finding people’s lost pets. But Sofie’s life will probably never be boring again. After all, kidnapping is never boring. Especially when it’s Sophie who’s being kidnapped.

Sofie Metropolis is back and in the deep end of the coffee pot when she's retained by the neighborhood vampire to prove he isn’t responsible for a recent string of grisly murders, and her mother talks her into looking for a missing woman neither of them knows, but Thalia has adopted in absentia nonetheless. And if her plate isn’t full enough, things heat up on the romantic front when ‘bounty hunter’ Jake Porter and yummy Greek baker Dino both decide to vie for her undivided attention.

After exploring the Eastern Caribbean for several years on their 34-foot Creekmore, Connie McBride, her husband, and their 16-year-old son sailed away from their adopted home of St. Croix, west across the Caribbean to Bocas del Toro, Panama. What they found there will delight the reader as the archipelago comes alive in Eurisko Sails West: A Year in Panama. Howler monkeys, red frogs, and sloths in the jungle are accompanied by a symphony of parrots, oro pendula, toucans, and macaws.