Showing results by narrator "Cris Dukehart" in All Categories

Miranda Cruz isn't just the best darned waitress in town anymore; she's Red River's newest innkeeper. But first, she has to find the contractor who's disappeared with her life savings so she can start renovations. Not so easy for a woman who never depends on anyone, especially a man. And when a gorgeous old flame shows up, the fire between them is reignited and threatens to send her dreams up in smoke.

Diviners have told Audrun that the child she carries must be born in a haven of peace, far from her war-scourged homeland, but as she flees she finds only far greater danger. For her karavan is overtaken by Alisanos, the deepwood - a dangerous magical forest that harbors not only demons, gods, and other otherworldly creatures, but also its own sinister intentions - and which may have already claimed Audrun and her child for its own.

Ileni is losing her magic. And that means she's losing everything: Her status as the renegade sorcerers' most powerful rising star. Her purpose in life. The boy she loves. Her home. Exiled to teach sorcery to the assassins hidden deep within the mountains, she expects no one will ever hear from her again. The last two tutors died within weeks of each other. As Ileni unravels the mystery surrounding their deaths, she'll uncover secrets that have been kept for decades...and she'll find an unexpected ally and dangerous new love.

After nearly a year and a half of grieving the loss of her husband, 27-year-old Alexa Sullivan Tate is headed back to her hometown after a decade of being away. She has no idea her high school crush, Jace McAllister, the guy who stole her heart the same night that he broke it, is more than ready to pick up the pieces.

One day after school, Maggie Keene and her friends sneak into the abandoned courthouse in the middle of town to explore the old jail cells. Maggie doesn't know that there's a terrible secret buried in the basement - and a cold-blooded killer nearby who's determined to keep it that way.

Midnight Louie goes along when PR whiz Temple Barr and her fiancé, rising media star Matt Devine, head to Chicago so she can meet his family. Matt's mother has a tragic past primed to rise and bite anybody in reach. When Louie is snatched, the catnapping's surprising motive loops back to Vegas and a string of unsolved murders connected to magic...and ex-magician Max Kinsella, Temple's former significant other. A skeptical homicide lieutenant has commissioned Max to investigate the cold case murder she suspects he committed. With amnesia from a recent attempt on his life, Max is more sitting duck than predator.

When Judith Newman shared the story of how Apple's electronic personal assistant, Siri, helped Gus, her son who has autism, she received widespread media attention and an outpouring of affection from listeners around the world. Basking in the afterglow of media attention, Gus told anyone who would listen, "I'm a movie star". Judith's story of her son and his bond with Siri was an unusual tribute to technology. While many worry that our electronic gadgets are dumbing us down, she revealed how they can give voice to others.

Almost a year ago, Delia Caswell’s husband died suddenly. That same night, she gave birth to a baby girl. Grieving her husband and battling postpartum depression, her life unravels one day at a time. But fate is not done with her yet...Just as she pulls herself together and learns to be a good mom to her daughter, she walks into the nursery to find her baby gone, snatched from her crib in broad daylight. Her daughter's kidnapping sets in motion a chain of events that turn her world upside down all over again.

You don't mess with Atlanta Burns. Everyone knows that. And that's kinda how she likes it - until the day Atlanta is drawn into a battle against two groups of bullies and saves a pair of new, unexpected friends. But actions have consequences, and when another teen turns up dead - by an apparent suicide - Atlanta knows foul play is involved. And worse: She knows it's her fault. You go poking rattlesnakes, maybe you get bit.

Alisanos, the deepwood, is more than just a forest...it is sentient, and predatory. Home to demons and worse, its mercurial boundaries can suddenly shift miles in any direction to encompass previously safe human lands - and those taken by the deepwood are forever changed. Audrun, a human woman trapped within the forest, is reunited with her four children, only to learn that each has been marked by the deepwood’s wild magic. And her newly born fifth child, captured by a winged demon, is still missing.

In Suzanne Palmieri's thrilling novel The Witch of Belladonna Bay, Bronwyn is forced to return home to Magnolia Creek, Alabama - a place she hasn't been since her mother, Naomi, died 14 years earlier - and the troubled family she left behind. With her brother Patrick behind bars for the murder of her childhood friend and her eccentric father, Jackson, at wit's end with her 11-year-old niece, Byrd, Bronwyn finds herself back at her childhood home, the Big House, and surrounded by ancient Magnolia trees dripping with Spanish moss.

It's the most picturesque time of the year in Santa Fe, and Chef Rita Lafitte of Tres Amigas Café hopes the twinkling lights and tasty holiday treats will charm her visiting mom. Rita is also planning fun activities, such as watching her teenage daughter, Celia, perform in an outdoor Christmas play. What she doesn't plan for is murder. Rita discovers a dead actor during the premier performance, but vows to keep clear of the case. Sleuthing would upset her mom. Besides, there's already a prime suspect, caught red-handed in his bloodied Santa suit.

A year ago, Aimee Spencer's world imploded, and she has been running ever since. She doesn't want to feel. She doesn't want to remember. To bury the ghosts that haunt her, she is living a life that has become unrecognizable. Cole Everly has grown accustomed to girls throwing themselves at his feet, but when Aimee trips and literally lands in his lap one afternoon, she's not at all what he expects - difficult, damaged, and closed-off. If Cole needed to make a list of qualities to avoid in a girl, Aimee would probably match up with every single one of them.

Tres Amigas Café chef Rita Lafitte is busy baking her green chili soufflés and chocolate flans for Cinco de Mayo. If only her friend, Linda, the daughter of Rita's octogenarian boss, Flori, could get into the festive spirit. Linda's cart, Tía Tamales, is losing business to Crepe Empire, the hottest food cart in Santa Fe. Napoleon, Crepe Empire's owner, is a pompous celebrity chef who wants to squeeze out the competition.

When Jesse Crane returned to his roots to serve on the Miccosukee police force, he'd hoped to leave behind the violence of the city and the memories of his murdered wife. But bodies start to pile up in Jesse's corner of the sultry Florida swampland. As he probes these crimes, Jesse is drawn to the beautiful Lorena Fortier, a new hire at the local gator farm and research facility. Lorena is a little too interested in Jesse's investigation, but before he can uncover her true motives, they're both pulled into a dangerous web of greed, ambition, and animal cunning.

It's Atlanta's senior year of high school, and she is officially infamous. Not only has she saved herself from a predator, brought down an untouchable dogfighting ring, and battled a pack of high school bullies, but she's also proclaimed to the Internet her willingness to fight for anyone who needs help. And Atlanta can't believe what's coming out of the woodwork. From an old friend to a troop of troubled girls with connections to a local fracking company, there's definitely fire in the water.

Skye Sebring is a hospitality greeter inside the pearly gates of an unorthodox Heaven, where carefree and lusty angels get tipsy in the Live a Little Lounge, practice cloud art, and are guided by a brassy female deity who sounds and looks like Bette Midler. During the course of her duties, Skye meets lawyer Ryan Blaine, who has a brush with death due to a motorcycle accident. It's not Ryan's time to die yet, so he returns back to Earth, but Skye can't get him out of her mind. Why does Ryan seem so familiar to her, and why does she feel an unexplainable attraction to him?

Ground-breaking band Black & White was platinum before it imploded from an overdose of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll years ago. Now, the Las Vegas reunion show revives the old troubles between its two divas, and efforts to sabotage end in murder. Petite PR powerhouse Temple Barr and her faithful feline roommate Midnight Louie, assisted by the Vegas Cat Pack, must sniff out clues to save the Crystal Phoenix hotel's reputation and any at-risk lives, including their own.

Cat in an Alien X-Ray takes the Las Vegas gang on a science-fictional roller-coaster ride, as Midnight Louie, feline PI, and company encounter UFO enthusiasts, conspiracy nuts who are too bizarre even for tin foil hat therapy. An Area 51 attraction on the Strip threatens to bring more than starry-eyed enthusiasts to town. Once again it is up to that furballed PI Midnight Louie to keep his crew in line and save them from the attack of the creatures from the beyond...or common criminals that prey on the innocent.

The interwoven tales of three women unfold in the voices of Sarah, Miriam, and Beth, whose unshakable friendship takes root in a Buffalo college dorm in the late 1960s. Fueled by the optimism and bravado of that era, they charge into adulthood with high expectations and lofty ideas. They were, as Beth would later observe, the first generation of women to feel entitled to interesting lives. At times, they find themselves living long distances from each other as each of them seeks new directions and new locales. Nonetheless, they remain deeply connected in the decades after college.