Showing results by narrator "Janet Metzger" in All Categories

Like most mothers, Amy Reynolds has anticipated the moment when her son brings home his first serious girlfriend. But when he does, she’s shocked to meet the girl’s father. He is none other than Nick Lowry – the college boyfriend who captivated her heart and soul and then, without a word of explanation or warning, disappeared. She still remembers what she felt for Nick…and she still wonders what took him away from her.

Jewel Austin is a foster mother to dozens, but forms a special bond with five foster girls she welcomed under her roof long ago. Through handwritten letters, Jewel keeps in touch with these women she nurtured to adulthood. Now in her eighties, Jewel's time is short, and her last letter spells out an unusual request. The five women have never met but Jewel's last wish is for them to return to Lavender Valley Farm together, back to the refuge where they once found the love and support they craved.

Walking home wearily from an evening spent poring over the books of the Parchly Heights Methodist Ladies' Aid searching for a fifty-eight-cent error, Miss Jennifer Murdock becomes witness to a terrible scene: A man, stumbling drunk, arrives home–and just as he fumbles with his keys, gunfire erupts and kills him on the spot.

A strange encounter with a little girl named Claudia and a dead toad sparks elderly detective fiction fan Rachel Murdock's obsessive curiosity, and she winds up renting the house next door just to see how things play out. But soon after she and her cat Samantha move in, Rachel realizes they've landed right in the middle of a deadly love triangle that's created animosity among the three families who now surround her.

If you live on a rapidly changing planet, you'd be wise to learn how it works. The giant old forests on a skinny stretch of land on the far west coast of North America have a lot to say about living in a twitchy world.

Georgia Moore is still grieving from the loss of her dear husband, Lee, when she discovers she can't remain in their home. With nowhere to turn, she accepts the invitation to return to Lavender Valley in the hopes that she can once again find a purpose. Lavender Valley Farm needs her, and Georgia soon finds her place managing the household, using her skill with a needle, and assuming a motherly role to her sisters of the heart.

Lydia Morrow has always been a bit of a nomad, but she has upped her game recently and does her best to live off the grid—because that's what people do when they're hiding from something. The invitation to return to Lavender Valley Farm makes Lydia suspicious, but Harry's credentials in law enforcement and Lydia's love for Jewel wins her over. Lydia sets out from Yakima in her motorhome, heading toward the promise of safety, and the anonymity of a new small town.

Micki Armstrong lost her husband years ago when her children were very young, but with her love of computers and hard work, she built a wonderful home and life for them in Seattle. Now her son and daughter are in college and she's adjusting to her empty nest, living for their visits during their breaks. But Micki has kept a secret for years and when her daughter discovers it, the bond she thought was unbreakable threatens to shatter, and Micki is left questioning her life's choices.

Harriet "Harry" McKenzie is coming to terms with buttoning up her thirty-year career with the Salem Police Department when she finally sees the letter sitting in her pile of mail. She is shocked to read that Jewel Austin has put her in charge of her estate. The beloved woman was a foster mom and guide to Harry throughout her teenage years and now she's gone. If that isn't enough of a blow, Jewel's will threatens to uproot Harry's entire life.

Olivia Davis credits her foster mom for helping uncover her kind heart and gift for helping animals when she was only a child. With Jewel's encouragement, Olivia becomes a successful nurse in Spokane. Her career brings her immense satisfaction, but her true joy comes from her marriage and the son she loves more than anything. Simon is a rebellious teenager spiraling out of control, and Olivia and her husband are powerless to stop him. After years of heartbreaks and disappointments, Olivia is dealing with the unbearable loss of her family when she receives an unexpected letter.

Unable to stop herself from investigating another murder, Rachel Murdock gets plenty of help from Samantha, the cat who follows her wherever she goes; her much less adventurous sister Jennifer; and Lieutenant Mayhew, who is grateful to have another sharp mind on the case. Miss Rachel, her sister, and her cat are watching with undisguised interest a bandy-legged man who is spying on a house across the street until a speeding black sedan runs him down. The sisters are curious to know why the man was murdered.

The last decade has seen an explosion of urban beekeeping in the US, Canada, and Europe, a well-intentioned response to perceived threats to the global honey bee population. Many thousands of people have taken up this seemingly environmentally friendly hobby, tending backyard and rooftop hives (or paying a company to do so) and encouraging honey bees to make honey and pollinate flowers. What could be wrong with that? Quite a lot, in fact. In The Honey Trap, scientist and author Dana Church demonstrates that despite reports to the contrary, honey bees are nowhere near extinction.

The 1950s through the early 1970s are widely seen as American academia's golden age, when universities - well funded and viewed as essential for national security, economic growth, and social mobility - embraced an egalitarian mission. Swelling in size, schools attracted new types of students and professors, including radicals who challenged their institutions' calcified traditions. But that halcyon moment soon came to a painful and confusing end, with consequences that still afflict the halls of ivy.

What happens when freedom of expression comes under threat? In frank and wide-ranging interviews, historian and critic Leonard S. Marcus probes the experience of thirteen leading authors of books for young people.

Women around the country are running in - and winning - elections at an unprecedented rate. It appears that women are on a steady march toward equal representation across state legislatures and the US Congress, but there is a sharp divide in this representation along party lines. Most of the women in office are Democrats, and the number of elected Republican women has been plunging for decades. In The Partisan Gap, Elder examines why this disparity in women's representation exists and why it's only going to get worse.

As part of their own spiritual quest, miracle experts Katie Mahon and Joan Luise Hill discovered that when we are truly awake and present, miracles abound. It started by sharing their own stories which quickly prompted an unexpected outpouring of stories from others. Stories that had never been told, stories that didn't seem to matter, and stories that had been forgotten. While some defy explanation, others invite us to take a closer look, to discover common ground with each other, and to seek meaning in a whole new way.

In The Digital Transformer's Dilemma: How to Energize Your Core Business While Building Disruptive Products and Services, the authors show companies how to go digital while also advancing their core business. The book emphasizes how to strike a difficult balance between establishing a new (digital) business and revitalizing - and digitizing - the legacy business.

Great medical practices create an experience so positive that patients can't stop talking about it. Patients talk to friends, relatives, and acquaintances about the care they received. They can't help posting nice things about this great practice on social media. And they can't imagine recommending anyone else. Patient Care The Sandler Way shows how to create this experience. It offers timeless, proven principles for effective patient care, based on the communication skills and success principles of the Sandler Selling System.

When 22-year-old Susan Stachler was diagnosed with cancer, her mother, Laura, was struck by déjà vu. The same illness that took her sister's life was threatening to take her daughter's too. Heartbroken but steadfast, Laura pledged to help Susan through the worst of her treatments. When they discovered that Laura's homemade ginger cookies soothed the side effects of Susan's chemotherapy, the mother - daughter duo soon found themselves opening the business "Susansnaps" and sharing their gourmet gingersnaps with the world.

A seven-year-old girl breaks through the hysteria and violence of a dysfunctional mother in this story of small triumphs.