Showing results by narrator "Julia Motyka" in All Categories

Dozing in the backseat of her father's car, Mary Ann Hubbard is the happiest eight-year-old in the country. It's 1935, and she and her parents are going to spend Fourth of July weekend with her headmistress and the Zimmerns, whose daughter, Lolly, is Mary Ann's best friend from school. While the two little girls frolic in the attic, endowing the rambling old house with wonder, creativity, and imagination, their parents are downstairs, mired in all the pleasure, pain, and occasional childishness of adulthood.

Kidnapped by a mysterious warrior, she's swept away to a hidden island paradise filled with pleasures…and secrets. Abducted from a trade fair, Lady Avril de Varennes awakens on Asgard Island, an enchanted paradise cloaked in mists and mystery, kept secret from the world for centuries. Against her will, Avril weds her arrogant captor, Hauk Valbrand - even as she vows to escape. Hauk believes himself beyond the reach of love, until his fiery captive bride begins to melt his heart of ice.

Haunted by a past filled with violence and abuse, Claire Ashier must protect her new home and her battered heart from Boyd Grayson, the charming saloon owner who is ruining her boardinghouse business. That’s not an easy task when her only friend in town is Boyd’s dog Sailor. While marching on Boyd’s noisy saloon, Claire matches wits with the handsome saloon owner, and what begins as a test of wills becomes a test of courage. During their confrontations, they develop an unexpected friendship that changes the game for them.

Eighteen years ago a teenage pregnancy changed Kate Worthington's life forever. Faced with many difficult decisions, she chose to follow her heart and embrace an uncertain future with Glenn Ferguson, her devoted first love...and the father of her baby. At the same time, in another part of the world, sixteen-year-old Ryan Hamilton makes his own share of mistakes, but learns important lessons along the way.

Desperate circumstances set Faith Wilkins on the run and straight into Sheriff Duke Grayson’s protective arms. Hiding her true identity to keep her family safe, Faith hopes her past won’t find her. She believes she can build a good life with the dutiful lawman, but their relationship is built on lies because the truth could get them killed. If her shocking secrets are ever revealed, is the sheriff the kind of man who will stand beside her? Or will he be the one to crush her dreams forever?

When Amelia Drake is forced to marry her father’s business competitor, Kyle Grayson, she thinks things can’t get worse. Despite their undeniable attraction to each other, Kyle has been wounded, and guards his emotions as closely as she guards her secrets. She vows to make the best of her arrangement with her handsome new husband, but can she ever trust him enough to share the truth about her past or forgive his own dark revelations? Will the warm, passionate man he conceals behind his staunch business demeanor show himself before their secrets tear them apart?

She may never reach her royal wedding if she can't resist the rugged mercenary assigned to protect her. Disgraced ex-knight Royce Saint-Michel was banished from his homeland because of an impulsive act that cost him all he held dear. Now, he has the chance to reclaim his birthright - if he agrees to protect a princess on a journey that may prove deadly to them both.

Five years ago a night of forbidden passion between Remi and Julien, the heirs of two powerful and competitive horse-racing families, led to a feud that is threatening to ruin both farms. Now Remi must find Julien again - but when she does, her need for Julien is just as strong and just as forbidden...

Erin McCabe is taking the trip of a lifetime to Soviet Russia. Before she even crosses the border, she has a series of run-ins with the ruggedly handsome American diplomat Jarod Steele. But how coincidental are these encounters? In a flash, Erin finds herself at the center of a wild spy plot, where truth is indistinguishable from falsehood, and the difference between good guys and bad guys is impossible to tell.

Maya Alexander is the organized-and-in-charge office manager of the Bond Agency, Los Angeles's premier PI firm, specializing in catching cheating husbands. But when Maya is thrust into the field to catch her first mark in the act, she realizes this case is personal. Her mark just happens to be her ex-fiancé... and things did not end well between them. Can Maya prove that he's repeating his past mistakes with his current wife? Or is something more sinister happening in this Beverly Hills couple's life?

He's always looked to the stars. Now she's the brightest light in his universe. Brilliant astrophysicist Dr. Owen Shaughnessy feels more connected to the cosmos than to people. He's great with calculations, but when he leads a team of scientists to study a famous meteor shower, he doesn't factor in his free-spirited artist assistant, Brooke Matthews.

Riley Shaughnessy knew that to stand out in his large family, he'd have to go big. Making a name for himself as a musician wasn't easy, but he followed his dreams to rock-star success. But the relentless expectations of fans is not helping the slump he's in now. So of course the person who attracts him is the woman who is not impressed by fame. Which gives Riley Shaughnessy a lot to prove.

The Shaughnessy brothers have spent the years since their mother's untimely death taking care of each other and trying to make their father proud. The oldest son, Aidan, is hardworking, handsome, successful - and still single. Sure, he'd like to have his own family someday, but who has the time?

Like an electric current, arcing from ear to ear through the New York underworld, the word comes; he’s here. The city has a new Master of vampires, House Altau, and the existing, unaffiliated community is now facing a sentence of death.

The storm builds, and one of the leaders of that community, Livia or Julius, must chose to be the lightning conductor to save the rest from destruction. But will that be an acceptable sacrifice to Altau?

Detective Gabriel Hugo has never been able to forget Kate Franklin. Eight years ago he let down his barriers and made love to her, but guilt and regret tore them apart.

Now she's the prime suspect in the murder of her second husband, an ambitious congressman. The FBI wants Gabe to use his connection to Kate to prove her guilt. Unfortunately his desire for Kate is as intense and forbidden as ever. Kate is shocked to be a suspect and that the lead detective is the man she always wanted. Eight years ago Gabe hadn't been willing to hear that she was in love with him, and nothing has changed.

Ambitious Paige Walters is ecstatic when she's hired to recruit musicians for a literacy campaign - it's her chance to prove she's got the chops to make it in the family business. When Dylan steps in, she immediately dislikes him and vows not to let the fallen idol screw it up. But as the work brings Paige and Dylan closer together, their attraction grows...and so do their challenges....

Aubrey Burke is on the run from an about-to-be-disastrous mistake when resort owner Hugh Shaughnessy catches her climbing through his office window. Until Aubrey tumbled into his life, Hugh had relied on work and discipline to safeguard a heart damaged by family tragedy. Now his careful world will never be the same.

Jamie Bond is a former cover model who switches gears to take over the family business: The Bond Agency, a high-powered P.I. firm located in Los Angeles that specializes in domestic espionage - catching cheating husbands. Jamie's assembled a team of other disenchanted former models to help her take names and kick derrieres among L.A.'s wealthiest philandering husbands.

Her name is Bond. Jamie Bond. And she is licensed to kill any pre-nup you can throw at her. Catching cheating husbands became Jamie Bond's life when her father was shot and wounded on the job, forcing Jamie to take over the family business: The Bond Agency. But three years later, the P.I. is shocked when the gun that wounded her father surfaces during a high-profile murder trial. Is this the connection Jamie's been waiting for to finally nail her father's shooter?

When Charlotte Clark offers to pay for Julian Grayson's coffee, the world-famous drummer assumes she wants something from him. But Charlotte has no idea who he is, and Julian can't resist keeping up the charade - being incognito is a novelty and a relief. He'll have to tell her...eventually. But as Charlotte cheerfully undertakes to transform his life, Julian realizes there's something about her that gives him what he hasn't felt in years: hope.