Showing results by narrator "Allison McLemore" in All Categories

When Oakley Nelson loses her older brother, Lucas, to cancer, she thinks she'll never recover. Between her parents' arguing and the battle she's fighting with depression, she feels nothing inside but a hollow emptiness. When Mom suggests they spend a few months in California with Aunt Jo, Oakley isn't sure a change of scenery will alter anything, but she's willing to give it a try.

Teenage delinquent Angel Crawford lives with her redneck father in the swamps of southern Louisiana. She's a high school dropout, addicted to drugs and alcohol, and has a police record a mile long. But when she's made into a zombie after a car crash, her addictions disappear, except for her all-consuming need to stay "alive".

Our favorite white trash zombie, Angel Crawford, has enough problems of her own, what with dealing with her alcoholic, deadbeat dad, issues with her not-quite boyfriend, the zombie mafia, industrial espionage, and evil corporations. Oh, and it’s raining, and won’t let up. But things get even crazier when a zombie movie starts filming in town, and Angel begins to suspect that it’s not just the plot of the movie that's rotten. Soon she's fighting her way through mud, blood, bullets, and intrigue, even as zombies, both real and fake, prowl the streets.

Liana Clymer is running away - from her divorce, from her past, from herself. Leaving behind everything she knows, she finds herself ensconced in a fuchsia-colored cottage in the swampy hinterlands of the Florida panhandle. Far from the grown sons who don't return her calls, her only companion her dog, Liana decides to put her best foot forward and get to know whoever lives in the blue house across the street, the only neighbors within sight of her new home.

Angel Crawford is finally starting to get used to life as a brain-eating zombie, but her problems are far from over. Her felony record is coming back to haunt her, more zombie hunters are popping up, and she’s beginning to wonder if her hunky cop-boyfriend is involved with the zombie mafia. Yeah, that’s right—the zombie mafia. Throw in a secret lab and a lot of conspiracy, and Angel’s going to need all of her brainpower—and maybe a brain smoothie as well—in order to get through it without falling apart.

It’s zombie versus zombie as the Saberton Corporation declares war against the Zombie Mafia, kidnapping several of their party. It falls to Angel to lead the remnants of her gang halfway across the country to claw their way through corporate intrigue, zombie drugs, and undead trafficking to rescue her friends - and expose the traitor responsible for their abduction.

Audie Award, Paranormal, 2016. Angel finds herself in redneck hell when hordes of people descend on her hometown for the Deep South Zombie Fest - complete with zombie 5K runs, shamble-a-thons, costume contests, zombie paintball hayrides, and mock-zombie hunts. She intends to avoid the whole mess and focus on her upcoming college midterms - with the help of her stash of illicit zombie drugs - but that all changes when a decapitated body turns up at the edge of town.

Angel Crawford has finally pulled herself together (literally!) after her disastrous dismemberment on Mardi Gras. She's putting the pieces of her life back in order and is ready to tackle whatever the future holds. Too bad the future is a nasty bitch. There's a new kind of zombie in town: mindless shamblers, infectious and ravenous. With the threat of a full-blown shambler pandemic looming, and a loved one stricken, Angel and the "real" zombies scramble to find a cure.

An entertaining and revealing look at the science behind the emotion of disgust. Disgust originated to prevent us from eating poisonous food, but this simple safety mechanism has since evolved into a uniquely human emotion that dictates how we treat others, shapes our cultural norms, and even has implications for our mental and physical health.

Whether laughing to tears reading Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great or clamoring for more unmistakable "me too!" moments in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, girls all over the world have been touched by Judy Blume's poignant coming-of-age stories. Now, in this anthology of essays, 24 notable female authors write straight from the heart about the unforgettable novels that left an indelible mark on their childhoods and still influence them today. After growing up from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing into Smart Women, these writers pay tribute to one of the most beloved authors of all time.

It happens every year. A list is posted, and one girl from each grade is chosen as the prettiest, and another is chosen as the ugliest. Nobody knows who makes the list. It almost doesn't matter. The damage is done the minute it goes up.This is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, "pretty" and "ugly." And it's also the story of how we see ourselves, and how other people see us, and the tangled connection of the two.

"How dare you? I never asked for you to hunt me down!" No, Velma Martinez hadn't. But when you had once been Velveteen, child super-heroine and one of The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division, you were never going to be free, even if your only power was to bring toys to life. The Marketing Department would be sure of that.

Here, in her first collection in eight years, McCorkle collects 11 brand-new stories bristling with her characteristic combination of wit and weight. In honeymoon shoes, mud-covered hunting boots, or glass slippers, all of the women in these stories march to a place of new awareness, in one way or another, transforming their lives. They make mistakes, but they don’t waste time hiding behind them. They move on. They are strong. And they’re funny, even when they are sad.

He was the last great hero of his generation. Velma Martinez - Velveteen - had never intended to be a great hero, but she was out of choices. "Hello, Jolly Roger." "Hello, bunny-eared girl who's taken over my ship. Have you come to collect the bounty on my head?" "I've come because Dame Fortuna told me how to find you, and we need your help." Velveteen crossed her arms. "The Super Patriots are corrupt, and I think Marketing is evil, and they have my best friend, and we want her back."

Milo Mitchell's life used to be charmed, but that was before her family dissolved, she went a little crazy, and her best friends started acting more like strangers. Spending Saturday morning in a treehouse with a stun gun for company and a herd of deer for friends is the only exciting thing in her life...until she shoots a fawn and finds her dart stuck in a guy. Her gorgeous victim is dressed in a Brioni tux and armed with a hanky. He has no idea who or where he is. Afraid her dart caused his amnesia, Milo takes him in.

When Milo Mitchell falls for the beautiful, tuxedo-clad guy she found wandering her family's rural Colorado property, she never dreamed he was a scout from another galaxy, or that their relationship would leave him with an impossible choice: eradicating humankind, or initiating the end of his own people. Nick’s job is finding the elements his people need to power their elaborate interweb of minds.

Jill McCorkle's new collection of 12 short stories is peopled with characters brilliantly like us - flawed, clueless, endearing. These stories are also "animaled" with all manner of mammal, bird, fish, reptile - also flawed and endearing. She asks, what don't humans share with the so-called lesser species? Looking for the answer, she takes us back to her fictional home town of Fulton, North Carolina, to meet a broad range of characters facing up to the double-edged sword life offers hominids.

When Jill McCorkle feels a short story coming on, she goes right ahead and "wastes" wonderful ideas instead of hoarding them for a novel. The result is another extraordinary collection of stories and characters. In "It's a Funeral! RSVP," the storyteller is a woman who takes up self-styled "careers" that suit her circumstances. Now she's stumbled onto one that's so successful that she just can't quit. It's planning funerals, what she calls Going Out Parties, in which the clients are the soon-to-be-deceased themselves.

Wedding planner Meredith Sutton has a lot riding on the next wedding at Sutton Hall. And she's prepared for everything... except seeing her old crush in the wedding party. But not even Tom Campbell's filled-out physique can throw Meredith off her game. A killer, on the other hand, might mess things up.... Trapped in the midst of the fiercest blizzard the isolated town has ever seen, the guest list becomes smaller by the day. But it's Tom's searing kisses and scorching caresses that have Meredith wanting one last chance at love. Since they might not be alive once the storm breaks....

Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Someone dead...

Adam Sutton's instinct for trouble failed him once before - and nearly destroyed his sister's life. He'll do anything to make amends, even help her turn their family's mansion into a successful destination-wedding business. But when Jillian Jones suddenly arrives at Sutton Hall, this brooding businessman suspects the bride-to-be isn't what she seems.