Showing results by narrator "Christy Lou" in All Categories

Abby and Manny Blair anticipate the birth of their first child. Nausea plagues Abby every morning, and fears keep her awake at night. Orphaned at age eighteen, she prays daily for a safe delivery and a future with her child. Now more than ever, Manny yearns for guidance from his own father. Good news can’t be shared with a man who’s been dead for years. Sheriff Williams delivered the devastating news of Mark Blair’s death at the hands of an unscrupulous card shark when Manny was only five years old.

Nightmares of her parents’ deaths 15 years earlier haunt Victoria’s dreams. During her search for clues, she discovers she has a paternal aunt and uncle in Denver who may be able to shed light on the mystery of her parents. Against the wishes of many, she travels from the safety of her life on the Texas Panhandle to Denver, and then on to the booming mining town of Silverton, Colorado, to find answers.

We are a people of stories. We use them to entertain, to teach, and to instruct. Sometimes they warn us of the dangers of wandering too far into the woods, or they can be a detailed story to explain how magnificent landscapes came to be. Story has always been the way we pass time, the way we connect to each other, and most importantly, how we promote our values. Parables, especially, have a dual purpose. Not only do they keep us entertained, but they also make a point. Consider Aesop’s fables—tales of talking animals who learn valuable life lessons.

Acadia Powers nearly lost her faith at an early age due to what she saw as the hypocrisy of her parents’ generation. In college - where the novel begins - she meets and falls in love with Peter O’Neil, who is fervent in his faith and wants to share the good news with the world. Despite serious doubts about her ability to survive as a preacher’s wife, Acadia finally agrees to marry Peter. The two embark with high hopes on a new life in Sugar Sands, Alabama, where Acadia takes a position as a high school teacher while Peter becomes pastor of a small church.

Joy marries a widowed bank executive caught in an ethical dilemma. She misreads his obvious frustration while at the same time, struggles to integrate into her new family. This novel explores the challenges of second marriages and dealing with stepchildren during the crucial years of puberty and teenage angst. A college professor coming up shortly for the huge tenure decision, Joy finds herself falling apart as her career and her home issues deteriorate and collide. Can this marriage survive a failure to communicate?

At her father’s funeral, Wendy Moylan is confronted by Randall Whitmore, her dad’s corrupt business partner who gives her a choice—pay her father’s outstanding debts within sixty days or marry him. Penniless, Wendy embarks on a desperate quest to locate hidden gold, deep in the deserts of New Mexico Territory. She enlists Kurt Jordan as her guide, a stubborn and impatient cowboy who holds Wendy’s future in his hands. Danger threatens as they search for treasure in hostile Indian lands, racing against a deadline.

Gracie Howard, at eleven, tragically lost her parents, sister, and her hand. Older now, and on the cusp of winning a national ice cream contest, she still fights nightmares. Never has she known someone who truly understands her heartache—until she meets Kage. Tossed out the doors of a Greyhound bus in front of her grandfather's ice cream shop, Kage, nineteen and homeless, is working his way to Louisville to meet his sister for the first time. Outsiders aren't welcome in the tiny Kentucky town of Ridgewood, nor is Kage's interest in Gracie.

Within the palace of Sunkai, evil stirs. Loyalties are tried, love tested. And amidst these strange events, the Winter Queen prepares her storm...and Nfaros is not ready for her rage.

Zane was born in a parallel reality and was brought to his present reality when he was four years old in a desperate attempt to protect him from Zar Nero, the madman from Mars Colony who is determined to destroy Earth. Zane learns moments before his father’s death, his dad implanted secret plans to a powerful weapon in Zane’s brain before his evacuation. Deagan must find a way to retrieve the weapon design, while Zane is forced to deal with echoes of the past—images that lead him on a wild journey across parallel realities and on to an Earth hovering on the brink of war.

Jadzia Mills never wanted to be a killer, but when war erupts, she’s torn from her family and forced to join the military. When her best friend is killed, she embarks on a perilous cross-country journey, trying to stay ahead of the ones hunting her.

Love is in bloom in this inspiring collection of romances. In these seasonal stories, meet a young Loyalist who discovers a wounded patriot hiding in her barn, forcing her to choose between turning him in or first nursing him back to health. When a king issues a one-year challenge between sisters, who will become the next queen and who will find love?

A broken and forgotten man fighting the demons of dementia, he longs for the past when both he and his beloved military town of Ginger Ridge once thrived.

Librarian Emma Baker, a young and childless widow, believes her dream to build a family is over. It’s been two years since a student accidentally stabbed Emma’s husband to death, and her grief has stifled any interest in romance—until she meets Pastor Luke Davis....

Disaster strikes a wagon train en route to Texas, leaving 18-year-old Abby in charge of the survivors—all children younger than her. After an attempted kidnaping, the others convince her to disguise herself as a boy. Initially reluctant, Abby soon realizes life on the trail is much easier without bulky skirts. The disguise allows her to do things as "Abner" she couldn't do as Abby. It's intoxicating.

The survivors have each other. ARABELLA "BELLE" ST. JOHN: city girl and daughter of wealthy, five-star restaurant owners. CAPTAIN ADAM SUTHERLAND: former fighter pilot turned commercial airline pilot. COLTON MORGAN: rancher and hunting outfitter. LIAM SWANSON: missionary's son and worship and praise leader. Will the four overcome their differences and pull together to live?

She’d known her family hid secrets. Will she ever learn the truth? It’s 1972 and Fiona Kasey-Boyd is living her dream life in Shaker Heights, Ohio. She's married to a wonderful, successful man and eight months pregnant with his child. So, why is she wracked with sadness? Is she suffering from the baby blues or from deep-seated resentments from her childhood?

Fifteen-year-old Nova Hawthorne would give anything to be a regular kid. But her unusual ability to see sounds—what the doctors call Synesthesia—has branded her a freak. When she’s attacked by a stranger and accidentally punches a hole in reality, all hope of being like everyone else disappears on the doorstep of a whole new world. Her unique differences are actually a powerful magic. But an ancient prophecy could require the ultimate sacrifice to avoid a deadly destiny.

After narrowly graduating from bootcamp...Cadet Zane Banach and his Section 8 friends are on their way to the Lunar Defense Forces to undertake flight training. While exploring Artemis Dome, Zane is flooded with a series of memory blitzes that lead them to discover his father’s secret labs hidden under the Moon’s surface. Meanwhile, the Section 8 crew suspects Drake Bounds of planning to steal the replica of the Wolf Egg crystal and plot how to stop her. But their efforts place the entire moon at risk.

As Keena Listor travels toward Vindor with her new family, she knows she will be hated because of the physical differences that identify her as a foreigner and because of her refusal to worship at the altar of idols, but she hopes to postpone the conflict until she is established in her new home. Though King Galien and Crown Prince Terric honor her for her part in saving Vindorans from death by famine, she is not foolish enough to believe the king can command the hearts and minds of people whose loved ones died by Trezlandian swords.

Casey grapples with telling those closest to her what really happened. That includes Daniel, the man she loves. Daniel’s a cop, and Casey is afraid of how he’ll react. Little does she know, Daniel has his own secret he’s keeping. As each day passes and they face more trials in the African wilderness, their hidden truths tear them further apart.