Showing results by narrator "Candace Thaxton" in All Categories

Ten-year-old Grace is in search of a subject for her fifth-grade history project when she learns that her four times-great grandfather once stabbed his lover to death. His grisly act was memorialized in a murder ballad, her aunt tells her, so it must be true. But the lessons of that revelation—to be careful of men and desire—are not just Grace’s to learn. Her family’s tangled past is part of a dark legacy in which the lives of generations of women are affected by the violence immortalized in folk songs like “Knoxville Girl” and “Pretty Polly” reminding them always to know their place.

He calls himself Tarot. His first victim was a mother, killed while her daughter slept in the next room. His second was a truck-stop waitress, murdered - like the first woman - while she slept. After each one, he sent letters to the newspapers, boasting of his crimes and promising more to come. The third victim will die soon, he tells them. But first, she must be warned.

Suddenly thrust into the role of primary caretaker for her family following the tragic death of her husband, Ellie Robbins is appointed to serve out his term as sheriff of their rural Tennessee mountain town. The year is 1936, and her role is largely symbolic except for the one task that only a sheriff can do: execute a convicted prisoner.

Rachel has always idolized her older brother, Micah, but she knows he also secretly struggles with addiction. So when Micah doesn’t come home one night, Rachel panics. Then Rachel gets an anonymous note telling her that Micah is a few hours away - and on the brink of destruction. Accompanied by Micah’s best friend Tyler, Rachel sets out to find her brother. With no concrete leads, Rachel and Tyler spend hours wandering the streets.

Dr. Helen Rothberg, a sought-after consultant to CEOs and entrepreneurs, reveals memorable insights about leadership developed while she worked as a bartender and restaurant manager. Good managers and good leaders are not always the same. Dr. Helen Rothberg trains leaders, from Fortune 500 executives to start-up entrepreneurs, with her particular brand of ADVICE - Action, Determination, Vision, Integrity, Communication, Empathy.

Olivia Locke, formerly the Greek titan Mnemosyne, has built a nice little life for herself. She's bound her ancient powers, has a steady job performing inspections for an insurance company, and even goes to the dentist. But when Olivia is sent to a traveling carnival, she discovers that the claims she's reviewing aren't accidents at all but rather symptoms of a depraved bargain struck to keep the operation afloat. And, at the heart of the carnival is a force intent on capturing her very soul.

From New York Times best-selling author Seanan McGuire, a haunting urban fantasy short story in the Carniepunk anthology - for fans of all things circus, supernatural, and mysterious.... It's been 17 years since the last time Ada's carnival passed through her father's hometown in Alabama.... and no one is expecting the reception she gets.

Jeanie and Ben arrive in Paris just in time for a festive New Year’s Eve celebration with local friends. They eat and drink and carry on until suddenly, at midnight, all the lights go out. Everywhere they look, buildings and streets are dark, as though the legendary Parisian revelry has somehow short circuited the entire city. By the next morning, all hell has broken loose. Fireballs rain down from the sky, the temperatures are rising, and people run screaming through the streets.

Having just quit Julliard, disillusioned fiddler Melanie St. James finds herself as part of a group of traveling musicians en route to an OtherFolk carnival. Eager to break the chains of a lifetime of conformity, Melanie throws caution to the wind and enters a reckless bargain, plying her musical skills for the chance to win a violin that can open Doors to the CrossRoads. But the competition turns out to be far more than she expected.

Set in the enchanting land of Sang, a Blud series urban fantasy short story by the winner of Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Steampunk, Delilah S. Dawson, from the thrilling Carniepunk anthology. The question isn't whether Charlie Dregs has met Lydia, a Sang riff on Lydia the Tattooed Lady, but rather whether the woman has even met herself. Enter the mysterious steampunk world of Sang, and prepare to be amazed.

A Charlie Madigan short story - from the series praised for "intricate world-building and richly complex characters" ( Publishers Weekly) - as it first appeared in the Carniepunk urban fantasy anthology.

From the internationally best-selling author of four books, including The Opposite of Me, a vibrant, compulsively readable novel about two married couples who pursue a dream to open a bed-and-breakfast in small-town Vermont. As Kira and her husband, Peter, step into a brand new life, she quells her fears about living with the B&B’s co-owners: Peter’s sexy, irresponsible brother Rand, and Rand’s wife, Alyssa…who is essentially a stranger.

In 1898, a woman forsakes the comfort of home and family for a love that takes her to a remote lighthouse on the wild coast of California. What she finds at the edge of the earth, hidden between the sea and the fog, will change her life irrevocably. Trudy, who can argue Kant over dinner and play a respectable portion of Mozart's Serenade in G major, has been raised to marry her childhood friend and assume a life of bourgeois comfort in Milwaukee. She knows she should be pleased, but she's restless instead, yearning for something she lacks even the vocabulary to articulate.

The Undying: Shades finds American student Jeanie and her young charge, Ren, 15 years after the EMP that wiped out Paris and sent them on the run from the undying. Walking the highways and hiding out in abandoned buildings across France, they eventually find their way to Spain and the walled city of Ronda, where a few dozen survivors have gathered - safe enough from the hunting undying but facing a new threat on the scorched planet: starvation.

Author of the Amanda Feral series Mark Henry lends his brilliantly twisted imagination to the gripping Carniepunk anthology in this creepy zombie short story. When the zombie apocalypse overtakes New York City, a trip to Coney Island is the most frightening thing of all. A gruesome tale of transformation, Ferris wheels, and transsexuals.

A new and long-awaited novel exploring what happens when untested people are put to a hard test and in its aftermath find themselves in a newly uncertain world.

Dino doesn’t mind spending time with the dead. His parents own a funeral home, and death is literally the family business. He’s just not used to them talking back. Until Dino’s ex-best friend July dies suddenly - and then comes back to life. Except not exactly. Somehow, July is not quite alive and not quite dead. As Dino and July attempt to figure out what’s happening, they must also confront why and how their friendship ended so badly and what they have left to understand about themselves, each other, and all those grand mysteries of life.

Henry Quantum has several thoughts going through his head at any given time, so it's no surprise when he forgets something very important - specifically, a Christmas gift for his wife, which he realizes on the morning of December 23. Henry sets off that day in search of the perfect present for her: a bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume. But much like Henry's ever-wandering mind, his quest takes him in different and unexpected directions, including running into the former love of his life, Daisy.

Alys was seven when the soul eaters came to her village. These soul eaters, twin sisters who were abandoned by their father and slowly morphed into something not quite human, devour human souls. Alys, and all the other children, were spared - and they were sent to live in a neighboring village. There the devout people created a strict world where good and evil are as fundamental as the nursery rhymes children sing. Fear of the soul eaters - and of the Beast they believe guides them - rules village life.

In the best-selling tradition of A Man Called Ove and the beloved film Love Actually, a quirky, socially awkward man goes on a quest to find his wife a last-minute Christmas gift and encounters several distractions - including bumping into his ex-girlfriend who was the one who got away.