Showing results by narrator "Michael Crouch" in All Categories

Salem, Massachusetts, 1692. Thomas is marked as an outcast the moment he steps off the ship from England. As a Quaker, he’s outnumbered and distrusted by Salem’s Puritans. And as an orphan without any useful skills, he has nowhere to live and no way to earn his keep. In a stroke of luck—perhaps good, perhaps not—he’s taken in by the aged widow Prudence Blevins, who’s rumored to be a witch.

Things have quietened down for lovable troublemaker Rafe Khatchadorian, and after all the mishaps and adventures he's been through, he's feeling a little restless. So when he's invited to attend an all-expenses paid art field trip in California, Rafe jumps at the opportunity. But things go sideways, as they always do for Rafe, when he arrives and realises his trip isn't the Hollywood vacation he thought it would be. Instead, he'll be participating in a 'Cultural Campout' in the desert.

Thomas and Viv Adler have a picture-perfect family. Affluent and attractive, with two well-mannered kids almost out of the nest, they live in a beautifully restored Craftsman house in a well-to-do neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. Their jobs are secure; their children are thriving; the world is their oyster. Until one morning, when they wake up to find that their house and car have been pelted with eggs. Thomas dismisses it as the work of a few out-of-control kids, but when a smoke bomb is tossed on their front lawn, and the tires on their BMW are punctured, he begins to worry.

Cutthroat political consultant Thom Morgan is thriving, working on the governor of California’s presidential campaign. If only he didn’t have to deal with Clay Parker, the infuriatingly smug data analyst who gets under Thom’s skin like it’s his job. In the midst of one of their heated and very public arguments, a journalist snaps a photo, but the image makes it look like they’re kissing. As if that weren’t already worst-nightmare territory, the photo goes viral — and in a bid to secure the liberal vote, the governor asks them to lean into it. Hard.

Aidan and Olivia live in a creaky old house on the edge of a dirty, swampy lake. Craving some excitement, they convince their parents to let them camp out by the lakeshore under a full moon, with only their dog for company. Aidan loves to scare his sister and has plenty of funny tricks up his sleeve for their campout. But the twins are about to find out that the creepy old book that washed ashore, Tales from the Scaremaster, has a mind of its own - and its mind is set on scares beyond Aidan's wildest dreams!

After thwarting the man behind the gruesome ironborn murders—and breaking several fae laws to do so—all Arlo wants is a quiet summer. As the deity of luck's Hollow Star, capable of bringing about endless possibilities, this shouldn't be too much to ask, right? But someone is still trying to summon the mythical Seven Deadly Sins. All signs point to immortal meddling, and if this is the gods' attempt at returning to the Mortal Realm, it's Arlo they're going to use to do it.

Rafe and Jimmy, two misunderstood troublemakers, are finally up to something good. They're in charge of a huge celebration of books and reading - but when a small issue snowballs into a big problem that threatens to derail the whole event, they need to work fast to keep things on track!

When Adeline, a wealthy art student, chances upon a young man from the Midwest known only as Baby in a shady East Village squat, the two begin a fiery friendship that propels them through a decade of New York life. In the apartments and bars of downtown Manhattan to the infamous nightclub The Limelight, Adeline is Baby's guardian angel, introducing him to a city not yet overrun by gentrification. They live through an era of New York punctuated by the deaths of Warhol, Basquiat, Wojnarowicz, and Tompkins Square Park.

One year ago, there was a party. At the party, someone died. Five teens all played a part, and up until now, no one has told the truth. But tonight, the five survivors arrive at an isolated mansion in the hills, expecting to compete in a contest with a $50,000 grand prize. But of course...some things are too good to be true. They realise they’ve been lured together by a revenge seeker who wants to unravel the truth about what actually happened that deadly night, one year ago. Five arrived, but not all can leave. Will the truth set them free?

Ten years ago, a tragic accident tore through a community. Ever since, the nine survivors - just teenagers at the time - have met on the anniversary to remember those they lost. They made a promise to keep each other safe from harm. For Cassidy, always the outsider at school, this group has felt almost like friendship. But this year, their reunion is overshadowed by death and the disappearance of one of their own. As the week unravels, Cassidy begins to fear something darker than survivors' guilt has bound them together. Was their pact to protect one another a promise, or a threat?

An ancient religion grotesquely modernized, The Purpose, deifies children for their deformities - a beautiful girl with three arms, a brave boy with one eye...the exceptional list goes on. Painted and costumed, they are worshiped on stage. Shy and exposed, they are ridiculed in the streets, often by the same faces. Glorious or repulsive? Gods or freaks? How deep will the identity divide be dredged, and to which side will the truth finally tip?

In the fall of 1863, the Union Army is in control of the Mississippi River and much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The retreating Confederate army is being replaced by Red Legs, irregulars commanded by a maniacal figure, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous.

A brand-new, heart-wrenching story from the best-selling author of If I Stay and I Was Here, Gayle Forman. Around the time that Freya loses her voice while recording her debut album, Harun is making plans to run away from home to find the boy that he loves, and Nathaniel is arriving in New York City after a family tragedy leaves him isolated on the outskirts of Washington state. After the three of them collide in Central Park, they slowly reveal the parts of their past that they haven't been able to confront, and together they find their way back to who they're supposed to be.

In the wake of his parents’ tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne, where he quickly earns a reputation as an outcast. When a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects that the angry new boy is responsible for his disappearance. And no one believes Richard when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie.

There’s a NEW WITCH in town. And everyone wants to be her friend! She lives at the local island resort and gets to enjoy all the perks. Dolphin acrobats! Enchanting spa! Portal to the Underworld! Meanwhile, THE TERRIBLES hold a class election for the next Line Overlord (that’s like their student leader or whatever), and the results are TERRIFYING! Then Frankie (you know, the daughter of an INFAMOUS SCIENTIST) helps Quade the SASQUATCH build a greenhouse. Finally, YOU (as a wereskunk) go to a sleepover in an INVISIBLE HOUSE.

Thomas and Viv Adler have a picture-perfect family. Affluent and attractive, with two well-mannered kids almost out of the nest, they live in a beautiful house in a well-to-do neighborhood. Their jobs are secure; their children are thriving; the world is their oyster. Until one morning, when they wake up to find that their house and car have been pelted with eggs. Thomas dismisses it as the work of a few out-of-control kids, but when a smoke bomb is tossed on their front lawn, and the tires on their BMW are punctured, he begins to worry.

Life is tough for 13-year-old Lenny Kidd. He's constantly being tormented by the school bully, Hunter Machammer. He can't stay awake in math class and is bored out of his mind by his crazed teacher, Ms. Drazula. And he has no money to buy the only thing he wants in life: an Xbox. Then he makes a bizarre discovery at home that could change his life forever. The only people he tells his secret to are his best friends, Alex and Shelly. Together, the three of them plot and scheme their way to success. But just when Lenny thinks he's got it made, life throws him a curveball.

Leaving Jamie Cole was the hardest thing Ellie Pearce ever had to do. Somehow she moved on. She made a new life in a new city with a new man. So when a family tragedy calls Ellie back home, she believes all her old feelings for Jamie - the hunger, the heat, the heartbreak - are safely behind her. But the second she lays eyes on him, the intensity of their connection is as strong as ever.

Jamie Cole has just been released from juvenile detention. Determined to go straight, he tries to cut ties with crime boss Brett Reyes - but Brett has no intention of letting him go. Jamie's life is already more complicated than it needs to be, yet it's when he meets a beautiful stranger at a bar that Jamie knows he's really in over his head. Ellie Pearce has just come out of a terrible relationship and isn't looking for anything serious...until she meets Jamie.

It is April 1995. Kosovo is a country on the cusp of a dreadful war. Arsim is 22, newly married, cautious - an Albanian trying to keep his head down and finish his studies in an atmosphere of creeping threat. Until he encounters Milos, a Serb, and begins a life in secret. Bolla is the story of what happens when passion and history collide - when a relationship, already forbidden and laced with danger, is ripped apart by war and migration, separated by nations and fate.