Showing results by narrator "Emily Durante" in All Categories

Johanna Shelby could never have anticipated where that 'fateful encounter' would lead her. She could not have known then how love for the young, rough-hewn, mountain doctor would cause her to turn her back on her privileged lifestyle, threaten to estrange her from her family, and bring her to the wild mountains of Appalachia. If she had known... But no! Nothing could hold her back. Not her adoring, worried parents. Not her snooty, so-called 'friends.' Not even her own flashes of doubt and fear. No, this love would not be denied.

Photographer Ivy Culpepper is soon to make a home with her husband-to-be in the California beach town of Santa Sofia—but the Yeast of Eden bakery remains her second home. A regular who used Yeast of Eden as a workspace, Josh Prentiss always turned heads with his startlingly good looks and thousand-watt smile. But Ivy can’t help noticing one morning that he seems off his game. Later, during a visit to the park where she and Miguel plan to hold their engagement party—with plenty of baked goods on the menu—her pug Agatha sniffs out Josh lying in a bed of poppies…scone cold dead.

Everything is connected. We weave in and out of one another's lives, like circles within circles, and everything is for a purpose. Helen has always been the "crazy" one among the girls of Wyldcliffe, scarred by her bleak past and her troubled relationship with her mother, the former headmistress and leader of the Wyldcliffe coven, Mrs. Hartle. But Miss Scratton promised Helen that a love "beyond the confines of this world" is waiting for her. Could this be Lynton, the mysterious music student who visits Wyldcliffe?

In the shadow of a threatening volcano, long-haul trucker Kit Garrido wakes up in her crashed big rig, unable to recall what happened or why she's suddenly in possession of someone's baby. Fiercely independent, she has to admit that perhaps this time she could use a little help. As the threat of eruption grows, former cop Cullen Landry refuses to leave his cabin in the evacuation area, which is why he's the only one left who can help Kit escape the crumpled cab of her truck.

How often have you seen a teenage girl pretend to be perturbed, but secretly smile, when she is told that she acts or looks just like her mother? Fathers, brothers, and friends sometimes shake their heads in wonder as girls "turn into their mothers". This new collection from Chicken Soup represents the best stories from Chicken Soup's library on the special bond between mothers and daughters, and the magical, mysterious similarities between them.

Vincent van Dough focaccia is being touted on Instagram as the best thing since sliced bread. By strategically placing chives, olives, and yellow peppers to look like poppies and sunflowers, bakers create a mouthwatering masterpiece in the style of the great postimpressionist painter. At Yeast of Eden, where bread making has always been an art, they're baking their own version for the school district's Spring Fling. But one person won't be tasting the Mexican bakery's latest specialty. Ambitious school-board president Nessa Renchrik has been murdered.

Find my long-lost birth parents? Check. Kiss the man I've been crushing on for years? Check. Finally kick back and enjoy my happy ending? Yeah, no such luck. With literal demons out to kill me and my loved ones in trouble, I'm starting to wonder if I'll make it out of this one alive....

Jess enlisted in the Marines immediately after graduating from high school in 2001, and in 2004 she volunteered to serve in the Marine Corps' first officially declared Mortuary Affairs unit in Iraq. Her platoon was tasked with recovering and processing the remains of fallen soldiers. With sensitivity and insight, Jess describes her job retrieving and examining the remains of fellow soldiers lost in combat in Iraq, and the psychological intricacy of coping with their fates, as well as her own.

A woman steals a baby from a shelter in an attempt to recoup her own lost motherhood. A phone sex operator sees divine opportunity when a lavender-eyed cowboy walks into her life. A mother and a son selling dream catchers along a highway that leads to a toxic beach manifest two young documentary filmmakers into their realm. And two teenage girls play a dangerous online game with destiny. Told in bright, snapping prose that reveals a world of loss and love underneath, Chelsea Bieker illuminates a golden yet gothic world of longing and abandonment under an unrelenting California sun.

There's more to celebrate this Halloween when Bailey's college friend Raven prepares to walk down the aisle in spooky seasonal style. As a bridesmaid, Bailey is overwhelmed helping with wedding preparations while the annual holiday festival scares up business for her bookstore. She also finds herself playing peacekeeper between fellow bridesmaids Colby and Ivy, whose arguments add even more conflict to the already simmering tensions within the wedding party between the groom's traditional family and the bride's bohemian parents.

The Collected Stories of Diane Williams brings together over 300 new and previously published short fictions - distilled works of "unsettling brilliance" (Vanity Fair) that have rewritten the rules of the American short story.

Griffins lounged all around them, inscrutable as cats, brazen as summer. They turned their heads to look at Kes out of fierce, inhuman eyes.... Little ever happens in the quiet villages of peaceful Feierabiand. The course of Kes' life seems set: she'll grow up to be an herb-woman and healer for the village of Minas Ford, never quite fitting in but always more or less accepted. And she's content with that path - or she thinks she is. Until the day the griffins come down from the mountains....

Candace used to be the one to take the easy way—but after three seasons working at a crazy amusement park, challenge seems to be her middle name. Then why does the idea of leaving her hometown to attend college on the other side of the country scare her so much? It doesn’t help that her boyfriend, Kurt, and her friend Tamara are both encouraging her to attend the local college and just relax. Or that the more she dreams about her future, the less she sees Kurt being a part of it.

It isn't easy being able to read minds - guys' minds, especially. Gusty Peterson, the hottest bimboy in school, is always thinking I'm sick, as in totally gross to look at. Not that it matters, since I don't have a crush on him or anything. And Mallory, my first real friend since forever, has disturbing, romantic ideas about me bouncing in his brain. Even worse, scrawny Jacob has bizarre fantasies about decorating my ginormous gazungas with mascarpone cheese.

Getting a shot is a lot easier than getting sick, but what exactly are we putting in our bodies, and how did it all get started? Vaccines for Dummies is the simple way to clear up the confusion. Packed with the latest facts on how vaccines can conquer an army of diseases, including COVID-19, this book can help you navigate the vaccination maze. It also uncovers the reasons why vaccine hesitancy contributes to disease outbreaks. You'll find it easy to make big vaccine decisions with the help of this easy-to-understand guide.

Ally is finally outside the City walls, with her brother and her best friends. Luke is still inside the City walls, with no memory of the girl he once loved. Life in the Wilderness is dangerous, and Ally and her friends soon find out that they are not alone. Will Ally continue her journey to the Southern City, or will she risk it all to help the boy she loves?

Eve Monroe is a stock-car PR pro who puts her career first - until an on-track wardrobe malfunction reveals more than the sexy smile of jackman Nolan Ford. The video's become an internet sensation, and it's Eve's job to calm the sponsors and put a spin on the unexpected exposure.

It may be a public relations job, but now that Eve's seen what's under Nolan's crew suit, it's gotten personal. After a few dates she has Nolan pretty revved up. If only she'd learn to relax and enjoy it.

This previously rare, out-of-print collection is being republished with a new prefatory meditation by the author. Featuring Fowler's characteristic imagination, sly wit, and penetrating insight, Black Glass will be a welcome treat for fans new and old.

Faulty grammar can slow you down and diminish your credibility as a business writer. Essential Grammar has just one objective: to help you use correct English in the documents you write for work. Correct writing is an excellent way to boost your professional credibility. Here are some of the skills the book helps you master: writing grammatically correct sentences, using the right forms of pronouns and verbs, distinguishing between commonly confused words, and knowing when and where to use punctuation marks.

With my seer powers finally under my control, I'm ready to plunge into the unknown to find my father. He may have abandoned me, but I’ll go to the ends of the Otherlands to save him from his torment. Only problem? With unexpected allies and even more surprising enemies, this rescue mission might be more than I bargained for.