Showing results by narrator "Ann Marie Gideon" in All Categories

Julia Dorning thought she would die a lonely spinster. That was until nine months ago, when her world was turned upside down. Now she's got a dream career as a bakery owner, and a relationship with handsome Jared Moody - a life she never thought possible. Just as she's starting to feel comfortable in her new life, Julia is invited to battle it out on national television making cupcakes. An amazing opportunity, if she can muster up the confidence to do it, that is. Then, out of the blue, Jared goes and throws a wrench in their relationship, causing Julia to have to make some decisions.

Aaron Whitworth hasn't had control over most aspects of his life, but he's always taken pride in being an honorable businessman and better-than-average horseman. When both of those claims are threatened, he makes the desperate decision to hire the horse trainer of a traveling circus as a temporary jockey for his racehorses. Sophia Fitzroy knows that most horsemen don't take her seriously because she's a woman, but she can't pass up the opportunity to get away from the tumultuous world of travel and performing.

Five-year-old Sloane McBride couldn’t sleep that night. Her parents were arguing again, their harsh words heating the cool autumn air. Then there was that other sound - the ominous thump before all went quiet. In the morning, her mother was gone. The official story was that she left. Her loving, devoted mother! That hadn’t sat any better at the time than it did when Sloane moved out at 18, anxious to leave her Texas hometown in search of anywhere else. But not even a fresh start working as a model in New York could keep the nightmares at bay. Or her fears that her father is deadly.

1938: She was one of the six sparkling Mitford sisters, known for her stinging quips, stylish dress, and bright green eyes. But Nancy Mitford’s seemingly dazzling life was really one of turmoil: with a perpetually unfaithful and broke husband, two Nazi sympathizer sisters, and her hopes of motherhood dashed forever. With war imminent, Nancy finds respite by taking a job at the Heywood Hill Bookshop in Mayfair, hoping to make ends meet, and discovers a new life.

Acclaimed author Lian Tanner's Icebreaker was shortlisted for Australia's Aurealis Award for Best Children's Book. Here 12-year-old Petrel is an outcast surviving in the shadows aboard the Oyster, a 300-year-old icebreaker. Risking everything to save a frozen boy found adrift, Petrel quickly uncovers the disturbing truth about both the ship and a secret mission of death and destruction.

For Jackie Pierce, everything changed the summer of 1979, when she spent three months of infinite freedom at her bohemian uncle's sprawling estate on the California coast. As musicians, artists, and free spirits gathered at The Sandcastle for the season in pursuit of inspiration and communal living, Jackie and her cousin Willa fell into a fast friendship, testing their limits along the rocky beach and in the wild woods... until the summer abruptly ended in tragedy, and Willa silently slipped away into the night.

In 1932, New York City, top reporter Lorena "Hick" Hickok starts each day with a front page byline - and finishes it swigging bourbon and planning her next big scoop. But an assignment to cover FDR's campaign - and write a feature on his wife, Eleanor - turns Hick's hard-won independent life on its ear. Soon, her work, and the secret entanglement with the new first lady, will take her from New York and Washington to Scotts Run, West Virginia, where impoverished coal miners' families wait in fear that the New Deal's promised hope will pass them by.

The Faerie Race has proven more grueling and deadly than Jacqueline thought possible. With one trial down and two to go, it seems the reality show's producers will stop at nothing to get their ratings - even murder. It will take all of Jacq's cunning to get through the next trial unscathed, but all she can think about is her discovery that her sister is alive. Too bad her search for answers has only left her with more questions, and more enemies.

When her estranged uncle attempts to sabotage her family’s reindeer ranch, K-9 team assistant Katie Kapowski heads home to help save it—and becomes his target. With their rocky past, Alaska State Trooper Brayden Ford and his furry partner are the last team Katie wants assigned to protect her. But with the ranch under siege, they must work together…or risk falling victim to a killer.

New York, 1937: When estranged sisters Clara and Madeleine Sommers learn their grandmother is dying, they agree to fulfill her last wish: to travel across Europe - together. They are to deliver three letters, in which Violet will say good-bye to those she hasn’t seen since traveling to Europe 40 years earlier. Clara, ever-dutiful, sees the trip as an inconvenient detour before her wedding to millionaire Charles Hancock, but it’s also a chance to embrace her love of art. Budding journalist Madeleine relishes the opportunity to develop her ambitions....

Juliet Townsend is used to losing. Back in high school, she lost every track team race to her best friend, Madeleine Bell. Ten years later, she’s still running behind, stuck in a dead-end job cleaning rooms at the Mid-Night Inn, a one-star motel that attracts only the cheap or the desperate. But what life won’t provide, Juliet takes. Then one night, Maddy checks in. Well-dressed, flashing a huge diamond ring, and as beautiful as ever, Maddy has it all. By the next morning, though, Juliet is no longer jealous of Maddy - she’s the chief suspect in her murder.

A satire of teenage life follows cynical soon-to-graduate Flannery Culp on a raucous journey through high school in the 1990s, covering SATs, college applications, friends, boyfriends, tabloid journalism, and TV talk shows. A first novel.

When Chelsey Glasson landed her dream job at Google, she was thrilled to join what she viewed as a progressive and inclusive organization. But from the moment she received her job offer, she began to experience instances of discrimination and harassment—eventually culminating in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit. Friends, family, and even lawyers told Chelsey to move on, but she knew holding Google accountable was the path to proper healing. Although Google would spend significant resources to discredit and silence her, the truth eventually prevailed.

The heart of many hospitals is the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). It is a place where humanity, ethics, and science collide in dramatic and deeply personal ways as parents, doctors, and nurses grapple with sometimes unanswerable questions: When does life begin? When and how should life end? And what does it mean to be human? Nearly 20 years ago, Dr. John D. Lantos wrote The Lazarus Case, a seminal work on ethical dilemmas in neonatology. He described the NICU as “a strong, strange, powerful place”. The

Julia Dorning is a spinster, or at least on the road to becoming one. She has no social life, hates her career, and lives in her parent's basement with her cat, Charlie. With the arrival of Jared Moody, the new hire at work, Julia's mundane life is suddenly turned upside down. Her instant (and totally ridiculous) crush on the new guy causes Julia to finally make some long-overdue changes, in hopes to find a life that includes more than baking and hanging out with Charlie. But when the biggest and most unexpected change comes, will the new and improved Julia be able to overcome it?

As the fourth daughter of the perpetually in-mourning Queen Victoria, Princess Louise’s life is more a gilded prison than a fairy tale. Expected to sit quietly next to her mother with down-cast eyes, Louise vows to escape the stultifying royal court. Blessed with beauty, artistic talent, and a common touch, she creates a life outside the walled-in existence of the palace grounds by attending the National Art Training School—where she shockingly learns to sculpt nude models while falling passionately in love with famed sculptor Joseph Edgar Boehm.

These days, a college resume without internship experience is considered "naked". Indeed, statistics show that internship experience leads to more job offers with higher salaries - and in this tough economy, college grads need all the help they can get. Enter Lauren Berger, internships expert and CEO of Intern Queen, Inc., whose comprehensive guide reveals insider secrets to scoring the perfect internship, building invaluable connections, boosting transferable skills, and ultimately moving toward your dream career.

Once happily married, Jenna Jones is about to turn 40, and this year for her birthday - lucky her - she’s getting a divorce. She’s barely able to support herself and her teenage daughter. Her aging aunt Edie is finding it difficult to keep up her business running The Driftwood Inn, so she invites Jenna to come live with her and run the place. It looks like Jenna’s financial problems are solved! Or not. The town is a little more run-down than Jenna remembers, but that’s nothing compared to the ramshackle state of The Driftwood Inn.

On the first day of summer, Mara Jameson went out to water her garden—and was never seen again. Years after her disappearance, no one could forget the expectant mother whose glowing smile had captured the heart of everyone who'd known her: Maeve Jameson, still mourning the loss of a granddaughter she had struggled to protect . . . Patrick Murphy, a dogged police detective obsessed with a vanished woman . . . and Lily Malone, drawn to the rugged beauty of the Nova Scotia coast and its promise of a new life.

Jane Morris makes a living cleaning the houses of the wealthy residents of Pine Valley, and she tries hard not to judge their extravagant lifestyles. But when one of her clients goes through a devastating breakup with his fiancee, Jane finds herself in the middle of his emotional mess. She wants to help him, but Cameron Vance is a man to whom she could easily lose her heart. Yet, Jane agrees to be his date to the charity event of the year, organized by Cameron's mother. The magical night shows Jane that if she's a Cinderella, then Cameron is definitely a candidate for Prince Charming.