Showing results by narrator "Karissa Vacker" in All Categories

"Ageless" Hollywood diva Jessica Gray is finishing the last leg of her one-woman show in St. Louis, Missouri, and the nearby town of Chouteau Forest is dazzled. During the show, she humiliates three homeless women onstage, fires her entourage - not for the first time - and makes a bitter enemy of the town's powerful patriarch. After she collapses at an after-show party and is rushed to the hospital, she ignores the advice of her doctors and discharges herself in order to return to LA.

Going home for Christmas this winter just might turn Drew Cannon into a real Grinch. When his college sweetheart Lauren Kincaid broke off their engagement a year ago, Drew retreated to Tokyo to run the Asia-Pacific division of the family's toy company and lick his wounds. If that weren't enough, his attempt at a high-profile holiday doll for the company was a bust. Now he's headed back to New York City to spend the holidays with his love-struck dad, his pissed-off twin brother, and the ex who broke his heart.

Ad exec Cassie Wilkerson is on the fast track to a Manhattan corner office when she’s suddenly called to quaint Honey Springs, California. She hasn’t visited the town since she was 16, but her aunt has passed away and inexplicably left Cassie her honeybee farm, her matchmaking cat, Belle, and the job of acting mayor. But Cassie’s quick trip to sort this out turns into a three-week stay. This fish-out-of-water needs the help of the farm’s foreman and her former crush, Nick Porter, to win over the locals.

Rosie's led a charmed life with her loving dad, who runs the town donut shop. It's true her mother abandoned them when Rosie was just a baby, but her dad's all she's ever needed. But now that her father's had a stroke, Rosie lives with her tough-as-nails grandfather. And her beloved dog, Gloaty Gus, has just gone missing. Rosie's determined to find him. With the help of a new friend and her own determination, she'll follow the trail anywhere...no matter where it leads. If she doesn't drive the whole world crazy in the meantime.

It has always been Eda's dream to become empress, no matter the cost. Haunted by her ambition and selfishness, she's convinced that the only way to achieve her goal is to barter with the gods. But all requests come with a price and Eda bargains away the soul of her best friend in exchange for the crown. Years later, her hold on the empire begins to crumble and her best friend unexpectedly grows sick and dies. Gnawed by guilt and betrayal, Eda embarks on a harrowing journey to confront the very god who gave her the kingdom in the first place.

Sixteen-year-old Talia was born to a life of certainty and luxury, destined to become empress of half the world. But when an ambitious rival seizes power, she and her mother are banished to a nowhere province on the far edge of the Northern Sea. It is here, in the drafty halls of the Ruen-Dahr, that Talia discovers family secrets, a melancholy boy with a troubling vision of her future, and a relic that holds the power of an ancient star. On these shores, the eerie melody of the sea is stronger than ever, revealing long-forgotten tales of the goddess Rahn.

What if your best days ever happened when you were 11? It's not easy being the only cast member of a 1990s song-and-dance show who didn't become famous. When Holly Danner was 11, she used to do anything for a laugh on Diego and the Lion's Den. Only for her childhood best friends to grow up and dominate the worlds of pop, film, and TV while she had a few near misses and a nanny gig for her niece. She even made peace with the whole thing years ago. But when she finds out there's a 25th anniversary for the show and she wasn't invited, it's time to set the record straight.

In this poignant, funny, and romantic novel, four nights of epic partying will see two teens through their highest highs and lowest lows over the course of one unforgettable year.

Motherhood is tough. But then, so is daughterhood. When we first meet Claire, she’s living in Sedona, Arizona, with her boyfriend Cal and ducking calls from her mother. Her mom is a world class psychic on the East Coast, and Claire doesn’t want her to discover the truth. Claire works in the family business and calls herself a psychic, but she doesn’t really have “the gift” and hasn’t for a long time. She’s a fraud.

Savannah is on a mission to reconnect the Prestly sisters the best way she knows how: reliving their carefree childhood summers at the beach. She's booked the same beach house, convinced her sisters to take the month off, and even made a bucket list to fit in all their favorite coastal fun. It's going to be perfect . . . or else. (And if planning this trip has anything to do with a certain secret she's hiding . . . well, let's not dwell on that.) Sun, sand, and some sisterly bonding--what could possibly go wrong?

Kim and Grant are at a turning point. A couple for thirty years, their "separate but together" partnership is running up against the realities of late middle age: Grant’s mother has died, the college where he taught philosophy was shuttered, and their twin girls are grown and gone. Escaping the bitter cold of a Midwestern winter for the hot desert sun of Palm Springs seems as good a solution as any to the more intractable problems they face.

It's the mid-1950s and Margot Thornsen is growing up between a Park Avenue apartment in New York and her family's sumptuous Oyster Bay estate as the presumed heir to her late grandfather's steel fortune. Her domineering mother has charted a course for her-to forego education and marry well-but Margot is more interested in microscopes and beetles and books. When a devastating fire brings the family legacy crashing down and the sexual revolution dawns, a new path opens up.

Jacs, now the rightful Queen of Frea, seems to be Queen in title alone. She scrambles to learn the customs and traditions of a Realm she had only read about in books. The Council of Four have her firmly under their thumb, and their ideas for the Queendom are oppressive and outdated. Their knowledge of her mother and Master Leschi’s whereabouts is the only leverage they need to make the new Queen dance to their tune.

This uplifting book is a heartfelt wish for all children and a timeless introduction to the Grammy Award-winning and multi platinum singer and songwriter. YOU ARE FEARLESS presents Taylor Swift’s inspirational journey, encouraging children to be fearless, defy limits, and follow their hearts.

When nineteen-year-old aviatrix Katie Burke crash lands her biplane on the only street in No Name, New Mexico, her arrival changes her life and the lives of everyone around her. As Katie and her craft need repair, locals take her in and help her, including a schoolteacher who longs for Katie's friendship, an interracial couple who own the town's diner, a handsome young mechanic who lives in a teepee, and a shell-shocked veteran of World War I.

Jordan Edelman’s messy dating days are over. After a few too many broken hearts, and a father who worries a bit too much, she’s sworn off boys—at least for the summer. And since she’ll be tagging along on her father’s research trip to Nantucket, she doesn’t think it’ll be too hard to stick to her resolution. But hooking up with the cute boy on the ferry doesn’t count, right? At least, not until that cute boy turns out to be Ethan Barbanel. As in, her father’s longtime research assistant Ethan Barbanel, the boy Jordan has hated from afar for years.

With bouncy rhyming language, What Can A Mess Make? inspires listeners to embrace their imaginations, linger in the beautiful messes on every page, and make some messes themselves.

Have you ever wondered how to measure your pizza, or how much ice cream is in your ice-cream cone? Basic principles of geometry, including measuring two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes, attributes of various shapes, and formulas for finding area and volume, are explored through informative and engaging text in this newest addition to the How Do series.