Showing results by narrator "Zura Johnson" in All Categories

Strange magic is in the air... or rain, rather. Seeing the bravery of those being slaughtered by Winter and frustrated with those who can't help but refuse, Valentina vows never to return to the broken chair in Otti Theater ever again. Especially once she learns what she truly is. Life may flow on Spring's breeze but it's pulling Valentina into dangerous fae court games that are determined to send her into the ground. Or worse, back to the endless fire of Autumn Court.

My transformation from a poor, orphaned scullery maid into the enchantingly mysterious lady who snagged the heart of the prince did not happen - as the rumours insist - in a magical metamorphosis of pumpkins and glass slippers. Instead, with the help of a touchingly tragic past and the some highly illegal spells, my stepsisters and I infiltrated the ball and captured the attention of the prince. I became a princess, secured our fortunes, and ensured we'd all live happily ever after. But of course, there's always more to the story.

Mia Madden is pretty sure that the road to dating app hell is paved with suspiciously hot profiles. Take tonight's date, for example. Alex Conroy is unreasonably gorgeous—he's got that whole "board-room in the streets, lumberjack in the sheets" happening—but he also represents everything she loathes about corporate hustle culture. Yet another lousy date to laugh-cry about later. Except, it turns out that Alex is also the hot-shot new boss her dad can't stop complaining about—the Forbes thirty-under-thirty company fixer of his nightmares. Worse, their respective best friends are dating.

Cindi Ella Lass didn't have a career in Paris, Texas in mind when she graduated with a degree in fashion, but her grandmother's offer of a place to live (free rent!) entices her to the small town. When she arrives, she notices the most beautiful pair of crystal shoes in the shop next door...and she can't get them out of her head.

Jez and the crew of the Ungovernable are injured, exhausted, and out of time. Their long-time nemesis, Evka, has finally perfected the weapon the crew has been desperately fighting to stop for months—a protocol that will allow her to track down and kill anyone in the system with the click of a button. And the lives of the crew, and of everyone they love, are on the line. With their backs to the wall and no more tokens up their sleeves, they’ll need every bit of skill and ingenuity they possess.

After taking down the two most powerful mafia bosses in the system, ex-smuggler pilot Jez and the crew race back to the capital to head off an impending civil war in the ensuing power vacuum. But to stop a bloodbath, they need to buy themselves time to prepare. So while Masha, Ysbel, and Tanya provide a distraction, Jez and Lev infiltrate a government paralyzed by the news, while Tae goes out into the volatile streets to neutralize the gangs who are more than willing to prove they’re the mafia’s natural successors. But preventing a civil war is more complicated than it sounds.

Tirne is one of four humans rigorously selected to usher the turn of the seasons into the mortal world. Every year, she escorts the taciturn god Autumn between the godly and human realms. Autumn's seasonal stay among mortals brings cooler weather, changing leaves, and the harvest of apples and gourds until Winter takes his place. This year, the enchanted Mirror that separates their worlds shatters after Tirne and Autumn pass through, trapping both of them in the human realm. As the endless autumn stretches on, crops begin to fail and the threat of starvation looms.

Isaline is desperate to keep her identity a secret. In the space of one night, her future as a City Watch has crumbled before her eyes. And now she’s on a train across Benemourne with two complete strangers—dangerous treasure hunters that she can’t trust with her real name.

Dancer Beth Spence finally gets a shot at her dream—auditioning for the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. But her audition concludes with a torn Achilles tendon and possibly the end of her dance career. When her sister, Delaney, flies her to Meadow Valley, California, to recuperate, she is reluctant to go but out of options. Beth has no idea that Delaney has set her up with a job managing widower Eli Murphy’s veterinary clinic while staying in the guest house on his ranch.

Luckily for humanity, scientist Marie Curie applied her brilliant mind and indomitable spirit to expanding the frontiers of science, but what if she had instead drifted toward the darkness? At the cusp of between child- and adulthood, at the crossroads between science and superstition, a teen Marie Curie faces the factual and the fantastic in this fabulous collection of stories that inspire, delight, and ask the question: What if she had used her talents for diabolical purposes?

On the surface of the sea, a burning island beckons a mysterious man called the Collector. Approaching the fire, the Collector bears witness to a vicious crime. When he realizes an innocent life will be lost—a baby, swathed in a bundle and left to die in a floating rowboat—the Collector makes a choice that will change his course forever.

Russian enforcer Luka Zadorov is no fan of the South. Being traded to Alabama has meant swapping the glory of northern hockey for playing second fiddle to college football, but his plan to get traded back hits an interesting snag when he crosses paths with Ava Grace. Maybe the South has something to offer after all…

Honoria Talbott is just a quiet Irish girl who loves to swim and tinker with her clockwork inventions - until she meets Cathal mac Ler, a selkie lord charged with marrying a human female as part of a treaty negotiation between fae and humans. When her father and brother go missing at sea, Nora finds herself at the whims of her stepmother, who would see her married to a high-ranking cousin in order to keep her father’s wealth in the family.

Marta and her twin brother, Nick, have always been haunted and fascinated by an ancestral legend that holds that members of their family are doomed to various types of falls. And when their own family collapses in the wake of a revelation and a resulting devastating fight with their Catholic mother, the twins move to Prague, the city in which their 'falling curse' began.

Taken from her home. Forced to fight for sport. Will a magician’s thirst for adventure be quenched with blood? Aya Flandeen’s rare gift has always set her apart from the rest of her village. Though she yearns to venture into the outside world, she didn’t expect her journey to start with a brutal slave-trader’s raid. Revealing her powers to save the townsfolk, Aya’s heroism ends in disaster when she’s abducted and compelled to participate in a gladiatorial fight to the death.

In the village of Liver-and-Onions, there was a Potato Face Blind Man who used to play an accordion on the corner near the post office. The sometime narrator of these tales, he transports readers and listeners to Rootabaga Country, where the railroad tracks go from straight to zigzag, the pigs wear bibs, and the Village of Cream Puffs floats in the wind, looking like a little hat that you could wear on the end of your thumb. Carl Sandburg, the beloved folk chronicler and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, invented these stories for his own daughters.

Masha remembers her childhood in the former USSR but found her life and heart in Israel. Anna was just an infant when her family fled but yearns to find her roots. When Anna is contacted by a stranger from their homeland and then disappears, Masha is called home to Milwaukee to find her.

Looking back, Tara Carter wonders if what followed her first kiss was a warning of things to come. At the young age of 10, her heart broke when her best friend, Trey, moved 1,500 miles away. Crossing paths five years later, the two teens exchange beautiful letters that cement their love. They embark on an idealized relationship, despite trauma and heartbreak on both sides, only to be forced apart shortly after.

The search for Ramathule and Xirow involves a new cast of characters both bad and good. More fights take place on the planet Zarthala and even some in outer space. If they can't stop Ramathule from summoning Sulvaria, the universe itself will be destroyed.

Five strangers, thrust into a crisis situation that transforms them and forever solidifies their destiny. Mythical battles, legendary universal forces, and constant journeying further into chaos is a price you must pay to become a half dragon. Though with great danger and suffering come hope, motivation, and even love.