Showing results by narrator "Rick Barr" in All Categories

In the wake of the Civil War, Merry Sherman and her sisters were forced to accept untenable situations that left them at the mercy of wealthy men’s capricious whims. But when Merry is forcefully expelled from the estate she served, the specter of homelessness and hunger is all she can see.

A fascist administration rounds up undesirables. Terrorist groups strike governmental and religious targets. The constitution is under assault. Erec Stebbins’s China Girl is a controversial look at an America that is all too close to reality, radioactive in its timely examination of extremism in the nation.

Across continents and into and out of the hands of royalty, revolutionaries, smugglers, thieves, and the world's greatest tech engineers, was Marie Antoinette's watch, the "160" worth an estimated $40 million in today's dollars. Perhaps the most sought after personal technology device of the last 200 years, the timepiece, designed by the legendary Abraham-Louis Breguet, is the launching point for a thrilling and fluidly woven set of narratives that are, in part, forbidden love story, historical document, and police procedural.

When detectives respond to a crime scene in Orlando, Florida, during the "summer of hurricanes" in 2004, they find Charlie Brandt hanging from the rafters in the garage of his niece Michelle Jones' home. Inside the house, they find a scene of horror that reminds them of other murders.

Ugly reality kept young Nicolet Sherman tied to the oldest profession in the world - at least until a determined Yankee soldier stole her away from her mother’s house of ill repute. But years of broken trust and abuse left the exquisite beauty with scars no eye could see. And what could one very determined army chaplain change . . . except her mind?

Roseanna Sherman escapes the wealthy man who is determined to steal her children. But will the ruse of becoming a proxy bride fall apart when she’s thrust into the arms of a small-town sheriff? Only time and the wanted poster stuck to the jailhouse wall will tell. Southern grace meets Western grit, and love becomes the greatest gift of all. Join these Southern Belles on a Christmas journey to bridge the North and the South.

Celebrate the season with a getaway to the Holiday Cottage Farm near the quaint mountain town of Sprucewood, Colorado – a place where relationships are kindled, dreams come true, and guests find themselves and their hopes renewed. At least, that is what the ad boasts when Danni Brandt stumbles across the picturesque posting on social media. But the true draw is the majestic snowcapped mountains and holiday festivities of Sprucewood, Colorado. Escaping her enormous and exuberant family for a bit of peace and quiet is exactly what the doctor ordered.

In March 2012, a serial killer provokes terror in South Bend, Indiana, near the University of Notre Dame. The notorious FBI agent Jack Savage is hunting the serial killer, desperately trying to stop another brutal murder in the town where he "Woke up the Echoes" and led the fighting Irish to a national championship in 1977. The serial killer brutally tortures his victims while always keeping one heart-pounding step ahead of law enforcement.

Detectives link gruesome murders to the Eunuch Maker, a serial killer targeting men. The stakes soon escalate to global proportions.

Katie was born into a cult. Her family lived there for generations. As she got older, she realized the Elders were keeping secrets from the community. Risking everything, she leaves the cult and searches for the truth. With the help of outsiders, Katie and her young husband David are put in touch with an organization called Purple Haven, which provides medical care, shelter, counseling and job training to individuals who have escaped from cults. She soon discovers she’s pregnant.

Roxane Quinn has worked for years toward becoming the event coordinator for the hotel her father runs in Quinn Valley. As soon as she starts the new position, she hears that the only man she has ever loved has moved back to town and is now running a business out of a taco truck. She’s worried she won’t be able to keep her heart intact with her high school sweetheart so close.

Detective Levin must find the cause of an outbreak of mass murders in his hometown. Norcastle was the first town to fall. Not long after entire cities fell one by one to The Decay. It seems that everyone who enters Norcastle...goes insane. No one has come out alive. Some believe The Decay is a virus spread by the government. Others say it was brought by a cult known as the Ravelim. Can Detective Levin solve the mystery before he falls victim to The Decay? Or will he go insane like all the others who have tried?

The last thing Orchid Canning expected when she traveled West with her father was to lose him to smallpox. Alone and desperate to fulfill his dream of photographing people’s plights along the Oregon Trail, she finds herself in Last Chance, Nebraska, seeking a husband who will help her accomplish this goal. Will her life’s savings of 10,000 dollars be enough to convince a man to marry her? Aidan MacVeigh is going under. The drought has ruined everything he has worked for all these years. Can one young woman with a camera and an ambitious dream save him?

When America declared war on the German Empire in 1917, young men were drafted and thrown into the conflict on the Western Front. A group of young women decided to help the war effort by writing to the soldiers. As Matrice Hamilton corresponds with several young men, only one claims her heart. Will he come home to her if he survives the carnage on the frontlines? If so, can they find love and fulfillment together, or will the dark clouds of war overshadow them forever?

To say Maeva Stewart is not a patient young woman is an understatement. Full of ideas, she meets life head on—usually with her best friend and neighbor, Ruby Risler. Aside from Ruby’s good qualities as a friend, she also has a brother, Leo. After giving cookies to the men leaving the train station for Camp Douglas, Maeva begins writing letters to those she doesn’t know. Then, drawing upon an untapped well of courage, she writes to tell Leo how she feels about him. A telegram changes everything when Leo is injured in France, and Maeva wants to go to him.

Tatianna Murray joins her best friends in writing to the men headed for Europe during World War I. Ryan’s letters stand out from the others. Two strangers find within the words something they both share: loneliness and the loss of their parents. As the correspondence continues, they find love, although they’ve never met. While in the horrific war, Ryan carries a bit of Tatianna with him, a golden cross. When Ryan’s letters stop, Tatianna worries. Is he wounded, dead, or imprisoned by the enemy?

When an explosive conflict is determined to destroy lives the world over, Ruby Rose Risler undertakes her patriotic responsibility to the Doughboys being called to defend liberty “over there.” But Ruby’s civic duty becomes a labor of love when her newest pen pal sparks a sweet interest. Farm boy Earnest Steiner cannot fathom the scope of the task before him when he’s pulled from small town America and dropped into the trenches of France. But the touching letters he receives from a gentle young woman provide a lifeline during his time on the Western Front.

Lara Cummings came to Last Chance with her sister for a new life, far away from the farm where her inquisitive nature always seemed to land her in trouble. Living on her cousins' ranch sounded ideal...until the drought came. Mitchell King wants as far away from Colorado as he can get. But opportunities to work are slim, and when he arrives in Last Chance, he's more than willing to take a job on a ranch in exchange for room and board. Of course, the pretty, mischievous redhead who lives there makes it all the easier to decide to stay.

Rosella Tihold and her family spent years as travelling musicians with Hammerman’s Cultural Musicale. But when her brother is injured at Gettysburg, the young singer’s priorities shift, and the lure of a place to call home settles in Rosella’s heart. Longing for stability, Gier Knudsen risks everything when he sends for a mail-order bride. But the secret he is hiding will certainly be a detriment to his well-laid plans. So he requests that the marriage be performed by proxy, in hopes that by the time the truth is known, the new Mrs. Knudsen will give him a chance.

When his girlfriend disappears, Jack Mathews' only option is to drive if he ever wants to see her again. He's got nothing but time, which is quickly running out. Five Hours is a nonstop thrill ride that never slows down. This short story is an adrenaline rush where nothing is what it seems.