Showing results by narrator "Emily Zeller" in All Categories

Cross and Crescent continues the story of the Empire of Byzantium, once the center of the world. After centuries of power, the Imperial Throne is in danger. The citizens of that great nation must play a dangerous game to save their land, from infidel and barbarian Christian both - and the things done in God's name may condemn an entire generation.

Meet nine courageous young adults who have lived in the United States with a secret for much of their lives: they are not U.S. citizens. They came from Colombia, Mexico, Ghana, Independent Samoa, and Korea. They came seeking education, fleeing violence, and escaping poverty. All have heartbreaking and hopeful stories about leaving their homelands and starting a new life in America. And all are weary of living in the shadows.

The past never really leaves us. Crime reporter Julia Gooden sees proof of this every day in her stories. A dark childhood, a negligent parent, early abandonment - any one of them can seal a person's fate as either a villain or victim. Julia, who experienced all three, seems to have beaten the odds, finding happiness raising her two sons and a blossoming relationship with detective Raymond Navarro. But now, after three decades of absence, Julia's conman father has resurfaced to throw her life into turmoil again.

Looking forward to her girls-only college reunion vacation, Jaymie's on cloud nine at the idea of lazy trips to the beach, dinner cruises on the nearby river, and snug sleeping in the vintage trailer she's renovated. But no sooner does the group reconnect than her hopes turn to tension as petty squabbles and old acrimonies surface, along with tagalong friends, unexpected guests, and stalkerish ex-husbands. And when a local tool belt Romeo with an eye for one of the women is found murdered, his home ablaze, the simmering hostility in the group suddenly shifts to secrecy.

Vintage cookware enthusiast Jaymie Leighton is thrilled at the prospect of meeting an elderly descendant of her town's founding father, not least because she's known to possess an enviably large collection of antique spice graters. But the curmudgeonly woman also has substantial real estate holdings, and at the moment she's engaged in a fierce battle with a property developer who wants her to sell off her old buildings in the name of progress.

From the author of book-club favorite The Salt House comes a deeply affecting novel about a teenage girl finding her voice and the military wife who moves in downstairs, united in their search for the true meaning of home.

Things I will never forget: my name, my made-up birthday...the dark of the hospital at night. My mother’s face when she was young. Things other people will forget: where they come from, how old they are, the faces of the people they love. The right words for bowl and sunshine...what is a beginning and what is an end. Joy spends her days working the graveyard shift at a store outside Boston and nursing an addiction to cough syrup, an attempt to suppress her troubled past.

Lin Zhe is one of China’s foremost authors. In this gripping novel, Zhe incorporates the War of Resistance against Japan, New China's arduous journey from Liberation in 1949 through Mao's Cultural Revolution, and up to the present day to form a compelling backdrop for her portrayal of three generations of a Chinese family struggling to survive war, revolutionary politics, the demands of a timeless patriarchal social order, and the conflict between family obligations and individual aspirations.

Vintage cookware collector Jaymie Müller is stunned when an irate woman accuses her pharmacist friend Val of tampering with her prescription. When more unfounded accusations follow, it seems clear the woman has a personal grudge against Val. But before they can figure out why, Jaymie and Val stumble upon the woman's dead body on the steps of Val's pharmacy. Given her altercations with the woman and the location of the body, the police naturally suspect Val.

One extraordinary night, Esta dreamed of a mysterious gray mare named Lava Lady, who spoke to her so rapidly that she was difficult to understand. When Esta woke, she was unable to shake the name Lava Lady, and wondered whether there were horses in “real life” by that name.

Fresh from their victory over the frightening chimerae monsters, Kie and N'Rah are looking forward to a quiet life on her uncle's orchard, far from the turmoil of the capital city. They miss the friends they made there, but as sky couriers, their job keeps them busy. Then Kie unexpectedly receives a message from the emperor himself! He has an urgent mission for Kie and N'Rah—they need to find the Sky King, the elusive ruler of the wild skysteeds that soar across the land.

Pears is a divorced 40-something living with her mother in Queens when the unsexiest pandemic ever hits the country and smatters her potential love life. If her mother wasn’t enough to cock block her, this virus does a double cock block of trapping her in masks while dosing her in hand sanitizer.

As Seiiki, now escorted by a military contingent from Earth United, draws ever closer to New Eden, Kim Teng must learn to split her role of Caretaker with another, navigate a new relationship with Wren, and deal with the suffocating guilt of having been part of the Crusaders, all while maintaining her cover as social media star Hannah Monksman. What could possibly go wrong?

Laura has always seemed supernaturally gifted at everything from school projects, to karate, to writing epic storylines for Wren’s long-running superhero comic; her having literal magic barely seems like a stretch. Before inter-dimensional fairies called Volta brought their rivalry to the sleepy town of Hartwood, Wren’s biggest fear was that Laura would abandon her for cooler friends when they started high school. Now, as light and dark forces converge on Laura’s burgeoning magical signature, Wren will do anything to protect her friend—magic or none.

Nietzsche called homo sapien the “murderer of all murderers” when he declared that “God is dead” at the turn of the 20th century. Yet the great god Pan died nearly 2,000 years ago. Thamus, are you there? Take care. The Obsolescence of Oracles followed. All Earths’ mightiest Heroes swallowed. And what of the Poets hallowed? “Who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves?”

When electrical engineer and depressed plushie enthusiast Rose Pang decides to go out alone one evening, she certainly doesn't expect to meet easygoing landscaper Cal. They spend an enjoyable night together, and the next day, romance is on her mind. Cal promises to text . . . but he never does. Hurt, Rose tries her best to forget about him. But several months later, in a terrible twist of fate, Rose discovers that her new roommate, Caleb Dempsey, is actually her former one-night stand.