Showing results by narrator "Emily Smith" in All Categories

Three spectacular stories all set on New Year's Eve. First, Stephanie Laurens enthralls us with a New Year's scandal, when a rake awakens in the bed of the temptress who seduced him years before. Then, Victoria Alexander enchants with her tale of a love promised, then foiled and then rekindled on another midnight. And Rachel Gibson delights with the reunion of two estranged friends and the passionate sparks that fly when the clock strikes 12. 

Arriving in Little Havana in Miami, Cole creates a list of potential victims while Warren tracks down an old confidential informant. Desperate to reach a reclusive financier, Cole then makes an unusual friend, who leads her on a wild-goose chase through Miami. All the while, news is breaking around the world that implicates Cole and Warren in the killings, and a mysterious pair has followed them to Miami.

Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as an "utterly irresistible heroine", Darlene O'Hara - the brilliant, hard-living, obsessive, and somewhat self-destructive detective introduced in Peter de Jonge's acclaimed crime fiction masterwork Shadows Still Remain - returns in Buried on Avenue B. An edgy and suspenseful noir thriller, Buried on Avenue B traverses the gritty landscape of New York's Lower East Side and the more sordid corners of Sarasota, Florida, as a gruesome and unexpected discovery in a makeshift Alphabet City grave heats up a 17-year-old cold case.

Daisy Miller is a beautiful American girl abroad. Assured, flirtatious, and at odds with reserved European etiquette, she meets two men: Mr. Winterbourne, a world-weary compatriot in full pursuit, and Mr. Giovanelli, a passionate Italian with questionable motives. Unmindful of the scandals she incites and of the risks to her reputation, Daisy believes that she is also impervious to fate.

Cancer stole everything from Ceelie - her peace of mind, her self-image, perhaps even her 23-year marriage to her college sweetheart, Nate. Without the support of Darlene, her quirky elderly friend, she may not have been able to endure so much loss. So when Darlene’s own prognosis turns dire, Ceelie can’t refuse her seemingly impossible request - to find a WWII paratrooper named Cal, the father who disappeared when Darlene was an infant, leaving a lifetime of desolation in his wake.

Growing up, all Lithia wants is to go on the Journey with her father. But as she gets older, a dark secret seems to cloud their idyllic world. The neighbors ask questions about where her father goes, if he ever brings anything back from his trips around the galaxy. Lithia and her brother, Bobby, are instructed to be careful with whom they talk. One day, her father comes home in a daze, and her mother announces they are leaving Venus to go on the Journey together. Lithia is elated - until tragedy strikes. The two siblings are left with nowhere to go.

Lithia’s father tells the story of Hoban Boson, a long-ago captain of a ship on Earth, and his defiance against those who would try to take their freedom. Hoban convinced his crew to go up against the Falcon, the ship that had landed in Buzzard Bay to lay claim to the town. Hoban’s crew and ship, the Success, was much smaller than the Falcon, but to him, that didn’t matter. What mattered was standing up to those who would subjugate and terrorize. Lithia is old enough to know that bad guys don’t win in the end, and young enough to be scared when all seems lost.

Catherine Madison left her small town in Nebraska after her husband deserted her. She’s also left behind her most shameful secrets - of a family and a marriage that have plagued her with self-doubt. On the road, she’s trying to become a new person. But running away from the past isn’t as easy as she’d hoped. Her journey leads her to Las Vegas, where she forms surprising new friendships that compel her to reveal what she’d sworn she’d keep hidden, and teach her what human connection really means.

When a rainmaker is bludgeoned to death in the pitch-blackness of a colossal dust storm, small-town sheriff Temple Jennings shoulders yet another burden in the hard times of the 1930s Dust Bowl. The killing only magnifies Temple's ongoing troubles: a formidable opponent in the upcoming election, the repugnant burden of enforcing farm foreclosures, and his wife's lingering grief over the loss of their eight-year-old son. As the sheriff and his young deputy investigate the murder, their suspicions focus on a teenager, Carmine, serving with the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Clover O'Reilly is super psyched to run for class president. As the second oldest of five sisters, she struggles to be heard in her ginormous family. But when you are president of the seventh grade, everyone has listen to you! Comedy magician Mike the Unusual feels confident onstage. Offstage, life can be tricky. It's okay that his classmates don't understand him, but it bugs him when his dad suggests he needs more friends. Is he willing to give up his passion to win friends...and votes? Clover and Mike compete to rule their school in this uproariously funny sequel.

Fleeing an abusive marriage and tormented by her past, Alexandra Turner finds solace in a small coastal town on Puget Sound and a job with a local marine biologist studying orcas. After befriending a group of locals, Alex learns that she has moved to a place that has a reputation of being the "most haunted town in Washington." Such superstitions would be easy to dismiss...if Alex wasn’t already on edge. Haunted by shreds of memories of her days with her husband, Alex can’t keep from looking over her shoulder.

Falling through the window of their family's cozy house into a dark and bitter world, riven by sectarian violence and struggle, five siblings search for a way out - and discover extraordinary talents deep within themselves on their path toward love.

Swept away by a cyclone from the Kansas prairies to the Land of Oz, Dorothy and her dog, Toto, must find their way home. Traveling to the Emerald City with a new band of friends - the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion - Dorothy's fate is in the hands of a great and terrible wizard. But a wicked enemy stands in her way. For those familiar only with the iconic 1939 film, delightful surprises are in store along Baum's original yellow brick road.

At forty-five, Hannah Smith is at a crossroads. That's her spin on it. The reality is she's divorced, jobless, and moving back to her family home in Iowa to keep an eye on her mother, who's slipping into dementia. Her return stirs up the same unnerving sense of disconnect Hannah has felt since childhood - always the odd girl out, the loner outshone by her two older sisters. Hannah knew the feelings of hurt would come back. But she never expected fear....

Rebecca Meer's hometown of Ward, Nebraska, is small - so small that she can't even sneak home after a drunken girls' night without running into at least three people she knows. But she has bigger problems than her reputation. The head doctor at her fertility clinic is losing his mind, and his wild behavior could cost them the business. Her supersuccessful ex-boyfriend has blown back into town and somehow become her son's fifth-grade teacher.

On an island in Maine, four siblings arrive at their sprawling, old summer place for the Fourth of July. It's the Willoughbys' first summer without their parents, and their beloved house is falling apart. When a substantial offer is made on the estate, the two brothers and two sisters are forced to confront issues they had hoped to keep hidden. An homage to the layers and limits of the family bond, North Haven explores the shifting allegiances between siblings as they contend with their inheritance.

Char Hawthorn, college professor, wife and stepmother to a spirited fifteen-year-old daughter, loves her family and the joyful rhythms of work and parenting. But when her husband dies in a car accident, the "step" in Char's title suddenly matters a great deal. In the eyes of the law, all rights to daughter Allie belong to Lindy, Allie's self-absorbed biological mother, who wants to girl to move to her home in California.

Called to investigate an ancient secret long kept buried by the church, the Bishop of Bamberg is found brutally murdered, tortured to death by medieval means. His nephew, Lukas - a young Jesuit priest living in Rome - is summoned by the superior general of his order for a special mission: retrieve a cache of long-hidden documents that could rock Christianity to its core.

As a professional bodyguard, Hilja Ilveskero rarely loses her cool. But one day, she and a client have an argument in a Moscow fur salon, and Hilja quits on the spot. When the client turns up dead, Hilja quickly discovers that she is a suspect. In an attempt to clear her name and find the killer, she uncovers ever-deeper layers of subterfuge. Amid all the covert treachery and intrigue, Hilja finds herself falling in love with a suspicious yet irresistibly sexy man - but is her heart clouding her judgment?

Lawyer Robert Tarza is surprised when his young, beautiful and wealthy French girlfriend, Tess, proposes marriage. It's not that he doesn't love her, but even after five years, there's a lot about her he doesn't know.