Showing results by narrator "Tara Sands" in All Categories

Kelly Crosby is the new kid in school. So far, it’s not going so well. He’s already gotten lost, had trouble making friends, and annoyed the monster that lives in the school basement. That’s right. This new school has a monster. Every year, at a party called Friiight Night, one (un)lucky kid is chosen to be the monster’s special guest of honor. Guess whose luck is about to run out?

Meet Patrick Dunn, a fifty-something ex-cop, scarred by both physical and emotional wounds, who had just begun his journey to finalizing his third divorce when disaster struck. As an EMP plunges the country into darkness and winter's icy embrace tightens its hold, Pat's plans are shattered. His central desire is clear—protect Holly, a vulnerable woman he encounters on the desolate road. Holly, a victim of wrongful institutionalization since the age of 14, seizes her chance for freedom during the EMP chaos with her steadfast canine companion, Butler, by her side.

Jen is just getting used to her life on Peapod Farm with her new stepsisters, Andy and Reese. But when the school year starts, there are even more changes in store for her. Jen has to navigate new friends and new challenges--but at least she'll have Andy with her, right? As she starts the sixth grade, she finds that her stepsister seems way more interested in crushes and boys than hanging out with her, while Jen wants to know when the world decided boys and girls couldn't be "just friends" anymore.

Everywhere he goes around the globe, Pig the Pug offends the locals and causes destruction and devastation. However, in the end, Pig's rudeness comes back to bite him....

Rory McGovern is entering the prime of her life when her husband loses his dream job and announces he feels like "taking a break". Rory was already spread thin and now, without warning, she is single-parenting two kids, juggling their science projects, flu season, and pajama days, while coming to terms with her disintegrating marriage. Without Blake, her only hope is to accept a full-time position working for two full-time 20-somethings.

Much like her hit TV show, I Love Lucy, Americans in the 1950s fell in love with Lucy. Born in New York in 1911, Lucille Ball was always a natural performer. She danced in the chorus of Broadway shows and acted in small parts in Hollywood movies. But Ball's true gift was comedy. She found a way to showcase her gifts in 1951 when CBS gave her the chance to star in a sitcom.

Patrick Dunn, a fifty-something ex-cop, thought his days of action were over after a gunshot forced early retirement. But when an EMP plunges the country into darkness, Pat's mission to reach his children in Salem becomes a race against a brutal winter and devastating chaos. Alongside Holly, an escaped patient with a troubled past, and her steadfast dog Butler, they navigate treacherous terrain where danger lurks at every turn.

Seattle, 1933: Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, good night and reluctantly leaves for work. She hates the night shift, but it’s the only way she can earn enough to keep destitution at bay. In the morning - even though it’s the second of May - a heavy snow is falling. Vera rushes to wake Daniel, but his bed is empty. His teddy bear lies outside in the snow. Seattle, present day: On the second of May, reporter Claire Aldridge awakens to another late-season snowstorm. Assigned to cover this "blackberry winter" and its predecessor decades earlier, Claire learns of Daniel’s unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth.

Haven Equals Safety. This slogan is emblazoned on the minds of every Haven employee. But for Glory, life inside Haven is anything but safe. Most of all, she must keep her special "Deviant" gift - the ability to kill with her eyes - a secret from those who would want to expunge her. Far from her family, Glory faces danger at every turn as she trains to be a Compliance Officer - to terminate her own kind - while she works undercover to rescue as many Deviants as she can.

I've seen so many freaky things since I started attending Mythos Academy last fall. I know I'm supposed to be a fearless warrior, but most of the time, I feel like I'm just waiting for the next Bad, Bad Thing to happen. Like someone trying to kill me—again.

When it comes to family, Annie is in the losers bracket. While her foster parents are great (mostly), her birth family would not have been her first pick. And no matter how many times Annie tries to write them out of her life, she always gets sucked back into their drama. Love is like that. But when a family argument breaks out at Annie’s swim meet and her nephew goes missing, Annie might be the only one who can get him back. With help from her friends, her foster brother, and her social service worker, Annie puts the pieces of the puzzle together, determined to find her nephew.

When 17-year-old Paige Townsen gets plucked from obscurity to star in the movie adaptation of a blockbuster book series, her life changes practically overnight. Within a month, Paige has traded the quiet streets of her hometown for a bustling movie set on the shores of Maui, and she is spending quality time with her costar Rainer Devon, one of People's Sexiest Men Alive.

The most important tradition in tiny St. Polonius is the annual Tasting of the Sacred Bear Liver. Each citizen over 12 must eat one bite of liver to prevent the recurrence of the Great Hibernation, when the town founders fell asleep for months. This year is Jean Huddy's first time to taste the liver. It doesn't go well. A few hours later, all the adults fall into a sleep from which they cannot be woken, and the kids are left to run things. At first, they have a blast. But then the town bullies take over the mayor's office and the police force....

Derry and her eight siblings live in an isolated house by the lake, separated from the rest of the world by an eerie and menacing forest. Frank, the man who raised them after their families abandoned them, says it’s for their own good. After all, the world isn’t safe for people with magic. And Derry feels safe - most of the time. Until the night her eldest sister disappears. Jane and Derry swore to each other that they’d never go into the forest, not after their last trip ended in blood, but Derry is sure she saw Jane walk into the trees.

As a warrior-in-training at Mythos Academy, I've battled the Reapers of Chaos before—and survived. But this time I have a Bad, Bad Feeling it's going to be a fight to the death. . .most likely mine. Yeah, I've got my psychometry magic, my talking sword, Vic, and even the most dangerous Spartan on campus—Logan Quinn—at my side. But I'm still no match for Loki, the evil Norse god of chaos. I may be Nike's Champion, but at heart, I'm still just Gwen Frost, that weird Oracle girl everyone at school loves to gossip about.

Air Force pilot Andromeda "Andie" Kim dreams of being chosen to join NASA so she can go to space. Instead she's stolen by savage kidnappers from a dystopian future where fertile women are needed for breeding purposes. All she wants is to escape and find a way back to her time before she's sold as broodstock and stuck in this ruined world forever.

Elizabeth O'Connell has survived one of the worst betrayals a wife can imagine. Finding out that she wasn't the only woman in her husband's life meant the end of her marriage and a year of personal hell. Now she's focusing on her new business and raising her two kids. Carter Hudson isn't part of her plan. When he's introduced to Liz by well-meaning friends, her dislike is instant. But as she spends time with him, Liz realizes she likes having Carter in her life.

Life is pretty much a bag of treats when you're an endlessly energetic Jack Russell Terrier. For Fenway, days are filled with important things like defending the Dog Park from wicked squirrels, snuggling with Hattie, and catching up on the neighborhood gossip with the next-door dogs Goldie and Patches. But that all changes the day a fiendish new intruder enters Fenway’s turf: he's fluffy, he twitches evilly, and he smells worse than squirrels.... He's a bunny. An evil bunny.

Every evening for eight years, at his request, President Obama was given 10 handpicked letters written by ordinary American citizens - the unfiltered voice of a nation - from his Office of Presidential Correspondence. He was the first president to interact daily with constituent mail and to archive it in its entirety. In To Obama, Jeanne Marie Laskas interviews President Obama, the letter writers themselves, and the White House staff who sifted through the powerful, moving, and incredibly intimate narrative of America during the Obama years:

Seventh grader Hazel Hill is too busy for friends. No, really. She needs to focus on winning the school-wide speech competition and beating her nemesis, the popular and smart Ella Quinn, after last year’s embarrassing hyperbole/hyperbowl mishap that cost her first place. But when Hazel discovers Ella is being harassed by golden boy Tyler Harris, she has to choose between winning and doing the right thing.