Showing results by narrator "Alyssa Bresnahan" in All Categories

Denied a dog, a baby, and even a faithful boyfriend, Cat decides that she needs a snake: a glistening, writhing creature that can be worn like “jewelry, living jewelry.” But when the budding social influencer finally gives in to impulse, buying a Burmese python from a local pet shop, she sets in motion a chain of increasingly dire events that culminates in one of the most memorable denouements in recent fiction, one that ensnares her entire family, from her eco-obsessed parents, Ottilie and Frank, to her frat-boy-turned-husband, Todd.

Consider for a moment 55 words. It's an absurdly tiny number. No, it's an impossible tiny number. It's what O. Henry might have conjured up if he'd only had the back of a business card to write upon. You'll find murder and suspense, horror and intrigue, love and betrayal, plus distant worlds and inner demons. All in a measly 55 words!

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The last thing Maura Thomas remembers before her car careened over a steep embankment is having dinner with her college roommate - over 20 years ago. Everything in between is a blank. Maura has no recollection of her husband, her daughter, or her busy, glamorous existence as owner of a Beverly Hills boutique. Maura can't even be sure that everyone around her is who they claim to be. Is it paranoia or self-preservation that makes her uneasy?

Loreena Picket may be blind, but she's a dutiful niece and talented pianist for her uncle's congregation...but they're both hiding a terrible secret. Loreena can kill people with the touch of her hand. While her uncle sees her as an angel of mercy, helping usher the terminally ill members of his flock into the afterlife, Loreena has her doubts. The true nature of her talent will be tested and will force her to consider how far she is willing to go....

Loreena Picket is a young blind woman with a gift. In the rare moments when she's not wearing her gloves, if she takes your hand, she travels with you to your own personal afterlife. Loreena will return - you won't. Loreena's minister uncle says her power is a gift from God, and together they help terminally ill people die peacefully. Still, Loreena is conflicted, because she's seen the afterlife, and it's nothing like her uncle says it is.

During the 1980s, a disenchanted assistant editor at a women’s magazine is devoted to her fiance, a Wall street moneyman who personifies all her yuppie lifestyle fantasies. However, her bubble bursts when she discovers he’s secretly engaged to two other women. Crestfallen, the woman who hates her magazine job becomes devoted to it.

Alex Witchel is a New York Times culture writer best known for her theatre industry and fashion columns. Me Times Three is her first novel, soon to be a motion picture.

Carol Wiley Cassella burst onto the literary scene with her debut novel Oxygen, which became a national best-seller and won reams of critical praise. In this engaging follow-up, a Seattle physician has to reevaluate life and career when her husband’s business crashes. Through this tale of love and medical wonder, Cassella uses her 25 years of experience in the medical industry to inform a work of emotional distinction and penetrating insight.

Zee Finch has come a long way from a motherless childhood spent stealing boats—a talent that earned her the nickname Trouble. She’s now a respected psychotherapist working with the world-famous Dr. Liz Mattei. She’s also about to marry one of Boston’s most eligible bachelors. But the suicide of Zee’s patient Lilly Braedon throws Zee into emotional chaos and takes her back to places she thought she’d left behind.

In her fiction, Claire Messud "has specialized in creating unusual female characters with ferocious, imaginative inner lives" (Ruth Franklin, New York Times Magazine). Kant’s Little Prussian Head & Other Reasons Why I Write opens a window on Messud’s own life: a peripatetic upbringing; a warm, complicated family; and, throughout it all, her devotion to art and literature.

Maggie Messina knows that knitting is not only enjoyable, it also calms both the mind and soul. She's happy to visit two sisters, Holly and Rose Piper, and teach them some simple stitches, while the rest of the Black Sheep knitters tag along. Dana Haeger has known the young women since they were children and is the closest thing to family the Pipers now have. Dana is especially concerned about Rose, who has been easily overwhelmed ever since a car accident many years ago.

A Laurel Wreath and Aspen Gold Award winner, CBA best-selling author Delia Parr is acclaimed for her enthralling historical romances. In Love’s First Bloom, Ruth Livingston’s life changes drastically in 1835. When her father—a New York City pastor—is accused of murdering prostitute Rosalie Peale, Ruth flees with Rosalie’s daughter to a New Jersey village. There Ruth lives quietly as Widow Malloy. But when brash newspaper reporter Asher Tripp arrives, Ruth fears the newsman may discover her secret.

Alice wakes up in the Los Angeles Quake Zone in 2025 having no idea how she got there. As her memories slowly return, she finds she's being hunted by several armed groups intent on capturing her alive. At the same time, Este, a survivor of the quakes that destroyed Los Angeles, makes a living as a pathfinder for salvage teams in the city. Este rescues Alice from her pursuers and learns there is something not quite right about her - Alice is convinced it is 2003.

The moment Ivan stumbled upon a clearing in the dense Carpathian forest, his life was forever changed: atop a pedestal encircled by fallen leaves, the beautiful princess Katerina lay still as death. But beneath the foliage a malevolent presence stirred, sending the 10-year-old scrambling for the safety of Cousin Marek's farm. Now years later, Ivan is an American graduate students engaged to be married.

Celebrated stage actress Mona Zahid wakes up on Thanksgiving morning to the clamor of guests packed into her Manhattan apartment and to a wave of dread: her in-laws are lurking on the other side of the bedroom door; she’s still fighting with her husband; and in just a few weeks she will begin rehearsals as Shakespeare’s Cleopatra, the hardest role in theater. In an impulsive burst, Mona bounds out the door with the family dog in tow (“I forgot the parsley!” is her lame excuse) to find her estranged mentor, Milton Katz, who was recently forced out of the legendary theater company he founded.

It's 1825, four generations after Berggrund Island's women stood accused of witchcraft under the eye of their priest, now long dead. In his place is Pastor Silas, a widower with two wild young daughters, Beata and Ulrika. The sisters are outcasts: imaginative, oppositional, increasingly obsessed with the lore and legend of the island's dark past and their absent mother, whom their father refuses to speak of. As the girls come of age, and the strictures of the community shift but never wane, their rebellions twist and sharpen

Diagnosed with terminal cancer, retired marine biologist Delphine is on the brink of throwing in the towel. She has outlived her PI husband and worries she’s become a burden to her son and his growing family. One night, while contemplating how to go on, Delphine witnesses a violent argument between a man and his girlfriend. When Delphine discovers the woman has gone missing along with her young child, Delphine embarks on a quest to find them.