Showing results by narrator "Alexandra O’Karma" in All Categories

The advice and concepts outlined in Automatic Wealth are best suited for those in their 30s-50s who recognize that their current job will never afford them true financial independence. Rather than encourage readers to quit their day jobs today and launch into a new scheme tomorrow, Masterson shows how to turn your skills and experience into significantly more money within seven to 15 years.

Seventeen-year-old Orchid belongs to an aristocratic family that has fallen on hard times. Unexpectedly, she is chosen as one of the emperor's lesser concubines. Within the Forbidden City are thousands of women hoping to bear the emperor a son and become his empress. Orchid, determined and resourceful, schemes her way into the royal bed and seduces the emperor. But as the opium trade erodes the might of the Ch'ing dynasty, Orchid find herself at the center of a crumbling nation.

Avi’s swashbuckling tale of murder and mutiny on the high seas has a fascinating twist: the heroine is a 13-year-old girl. In 1832, Charlotte Doyle boards a ship bound for America and is caught in a battle between a mad captain and his ruthless crew. If you’re looking for an action-packed adventure story for girls, you’ll find it in The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.

As Opal begins, it's 1886 in the wild and untamed Dakota Territory. To avoid a drifter's murderous clutches, tomboy Opal Torvald is forced to leave the ranch she loves. But when she returns - older and more lady-like - she meets Jacob, a new ranch hand from back east. Now Opal must choose between an old friendship and a new romance.

This scandalous turn-of-the-century story follows 28-year-old Edna Pontellier, wife and mother, who one day awakens to the pangs of passion for the first time in her life. But societal restraints place limits on any kind of authentic expression of desire. Her final gesture is a defiant, desperate reach for freedom.

Happily married with four children, Virginia Lewis is perfectly content with her peaceful existence on the family farm. But change looms on the horizon. Grandma Marty and Grandpa Clark have always been a source of emotional strength, but their health is failing. And Virginia's adopted daughter, who has long been a blessing, may be torn from the family when her absentee birth mother resurfaces and pursues custody. Virginia may fear the unknown, but her unshakable convictions will help her embrace it.

Reeling from tragedy, Orchid reluctantly assumes greater power over late 19th-century China. And as her nation is divided by opposing factions, only she can keep China from tearing itself apart.

Few mystery writers can match Ruth Rendell’s ability to get inside the dark, tangled psyches of everyday criminals. Rendell takes a single emotion - in this case a sister’s all-consuming jealousy - and shows how even the most unsuspicious people are capable of the worst kind of horrors.

Award-winning author Lauraine Snelling delivers her first installment of the Dakotah Treasures series. Ruby, a Crossings Book Club Main Selection, is the story of a young woman who must leave behind the life she has grown accustomed to in order to start a new life in the bleak Dakota Territory.

When Amethyst O'Shaunasy reluctantly travels west to find her nephew, her faith is restored by a group of pioneers and their reliance on God's guidance. Now, with prayers in her heart and a growing interest in a handsome rancher, Amethyst has no wish to leave.

A princess of White Russian descent, Marie Vassiltchikov was 23 years old when she was trapped in Berlin by the outbreak of World War II. In these secret diaries, she chronicles the glamorous rise and shattering fall of the Nazi Party, as seen from the vantage point of her desk at the Foreign Ministry. She also describes how she and her friends became involved in a desperate conspiracy to murder Hitler.

Twelve-year-old Ariel is a strange, solitary girl. Recently, Ariel and her mother have seen a ghostly figure in their house. As a result, they are both having dreams that are becoming stranger, yet more and more real. What is the link between this frightening manifestation and the house? Lawrence Block carefully blurs the boundaries between fear and obsession as he steadily increases the suspense. As Ariel's family moves toward tragedy, so does the reader's certainty that a terrible force is at work.

Robin Lee Hatcher has won the Christy Award for Romance Fiction, two RITA Awards, and multiple careerachievement awards. Perfectly blending human drama with inspiring themes, Firstborn is a riveting novel about making difficult choices and dealing with the consequences. Twenty-three years after concealing her pregnancy, Erika Welby’s secret is revealed. Now she must come to terms with the decision she made so long ago.

Mary Davis finds herself alone and somewhat estranged from her only daughter, Liz, after her husband's death. To Liz's dismay, Mary is steadfastly determined to travel to Paris, where she intends to have a private reconciliation with an old flame in their favorite romantic garden. But Mary's well-kept secrets are about to be exposed.

Sometimes there is an entire year that sparkles in the memory as a time brimming over with the fullness of life. By the age of 10, Annie’s intervals of awakening began to occur more frequently; the hours and minutes of the years that followed were spent reveling in the delights and the anguishes that accompany being fully alive.

With her mother newly settled in Paris, Liz Davis returns to Omaha to oversee the family business and estate. But her well-ordered world soon begins to unravel when she finds troubling information stored on her deceased father's computer. Then her fiancé considers a job promotion that will take him to California, making the attention Liz is receiving from an intern at the office all the more tempting. The sequel to the best-selling A Garden in Paris.

Award-winning author Lauraine Snelling continues the story of Ruby Torvald in book two of her Dakotah Treasures series. Ruby's most recent boarder at the Dove House is schoolteacher Pearl Hossfuss. Avoiding an arranged marriage, Pearl has deserted her home in Chicago to teach in Little Missouri. There she has befriended Ruby and fallen for carpenter Carl Hegland. But her father threatens to take her back home. Ruby must turn to God for the strength to stand up to her father.

Best-selling author Karen Kingsbury has been a RWA Rita finalist and Gold Medallion Award finalist. Sarah’s Song is book three in The Red Gloves Series. For years Sarah Lindeman, now in her 80s, has carried out a special tradition over the 12 days of Christmas. This year, Sarah notices a young nurse listening, and in her recognizes pain and longing. Sarah prays that through her story, she can ease this young woman’s sorrow and help her realize the importance of God’s gift of love.

Orange Prize-winning author Suzanne Berne's A Perfect Arrangement is the thought-provoking story of a typical, small-town family entering a confusing time in their lives. When the Cook-Goldmans hire a new nanny for their children, but fail to check her references carefully, their convenient arrangement soon leads to a string of troubling events.

The coroner has ruled Barry Logan’s death as the latest in a string of teen-age suicides. Marti Lewis was Barry’s best friend, and she knows that he was murdered. She just can’t get anyone to believe her. The evidence is clear to Marti. Barry was excited about being accepted at Texas A&M and had everything to live for. Why would he shoot himself in the head after watching a music video that disgusted him? The police found the gun in his right hand, but he was left-handed. Everyone is refusing to accept the obvious.