Showing results by narrator "Laura Darrell" in All Categories

I’m not supposed to be on vacation with my best friend’s older brother. I’ve wanted him for so long, and now we’re unexpectedly alone in a tropical paradise. Naturally, I packed a lot of bikinis, but I should have brought armor if I want to have any hope of surviving my week away with Noah Martin…or should I say, Dr. Martin. 

Paige Barrett was living her dream as a journalist in New York City, racking up bylines as a staff writer at The Razor, a cutting-edge online magazine. But when she’s suddenly fired from her job and dumped by her boyfriend, she finds herself back home in the quaint seaside town of Shoreham, Florida, waiting tables and living in her sister’s guesthouse. Restless and itching for something meaningful to occupy her time, she decides to launch a true-crime podcast about the death of Jessica Cady, a beloved teacher who died mysteriously 20 years earlier.

Sixteen years is a long time. In a marriage, it’s a milestone. On the gridiron, it’s a miracle. Reed Johnson wants more time for everything, but time is funny that way. It can be cruel. With a body that can’t quite take the hits it used to and a heart tired of being torn in two different directions, Reed is faced with a reality he’s not quite ready for - life without the game. He became a man under Friday night game lights and in college stadium tunnels, and without the grit and the glory that’s earned 10 yards at a time, he’s afraid of what kind of man he’ll be.

Indy Zimmerman has a new stalker who won't leave her alone, no matter what she says to him. Never mind the fact that he's one of the most popular guys at school - she's positive Bryant Bailey is only trying to appease his own conscience after pretty much destroying her life. But when Bryant doesn't back down and insists on having some sort of bizarre friendship with her, his magic works, and her walls slowly start to crumble. He's not her type. She's never been into guys like Bryant, but then again, she's never really known anyone quite as stubborn, or caring.

French women seem to have a special knack for life's most important things - food, love, raising children. And in matters of beauty and style, they appear to be at an unfair advantage. But the good news is that everything French women know can be learned...French women are not born more attractive than anyone else. They simply learn at a very young age how to feel beautiful, confident, and sexy, inside and out. It's an allure that outlasts youth.

American women have been missing out on a few secrets when it comes to the opposite sex. French women believe that the gift for attracting men has nothing to do with beauty, work, or even motivation. There are no rules. And they don't listen to Dr. Phil's advice. They don't worry about the care and feeding of their boyfriend. And they certainly don't travel to Mars to communicate with men. On the contrary, French women's love lives are romantic, sensual, playful, and intense.

I shouldn't have remembered him. He was just a guy who walked through a restaurant. I didn't know his name. We never made eye contact. There was no connection between us at all. But I could feel him. The tingle down my spine. The command in his presence. The snap of tension in the air around him. That was the first time I saw him, and I was captivated.

Nolan Lennox had things figured out. Named after a baseball legend, she enjoyed being the tomboy. Her closet was filled with her brother's hand-me-downs, cut-off jeans, and soccer shorts. But when her first trip to high school results in a broken heart from the first boy to ever make her heart flutter, and cruel words from an older girl she once thought a family friend, Nolan starts to question the very person she thought she was.

We evolved to eat berries rather than bagels, to live in mud huts rather than condos, to sprint barefoot rather than play football - or did we? Are our bodies and brains truly at odds with modern life? Although it may seem as though we have barely had time to shed our hunter-gatherer legacy, biologist Marlene Zuk reveals that the story is not so simple. Popular theories about how our ancestors lived - and why we should emulate them - are often based on speculation, not scientific evidence. Armed with a razor-sharp wit and brilliant, eye-opening research, Zuk takes us to the cutting edge of biology to show that evolution can work much faster than was previously realized.

Cordelia “Coco” Cline is over the moon when she learns mega-influencer LaTàge wants Center of Attention Consulting to handle her rebranding campaign. But things come crashing down when Coco arrives for a brainstorming meeting only to find LaTàge dead on the floor of her rented mansion. While the Central Shores police don’t suspect Coco of the disturbing crime, the Internet has other ideas. Coco is horrified to see the hashtag #CocoClineistheProblem trending everywhere on socials, with anonymous accounts accusing her of having a hand in LaTàge’s tragic death.

They fell in love in high school and found their way back to one another despite the odds. But can first loves really be forever? For Reed Johnson the dream was always football. But then Nolan Lennox took over his heart. Is he willing to give up his first love just to keep his true love? Or will he be too late?

A Look at the History of the Emo and Indie Music Era. Explore the cultural, social, and psychological factors surrounding the genres.

Social media on the internet can be a nightmarish place. A primary shield against hateful language, violent videos, and online cruelty uploaded by users is not an algorithm. It is people. Mostly invisible by design, more than 100,000 commercial content moderators evaluate posts on mainstream social media platforms: enforcing internal policies, training artificial intelligence systems, and actively screening and removing offensive material. Roberts, an award-winning social media scholar, offers the first extensive ethnographic study of the commercial content moderation industry.

Jessica Hansen's success and icy calm hide painful secrets and a past that shapes her life. That is, until she meets Springer MacDowell, her best friend's son. One decision sets off a series of cataclysmic events that rip apart her safe life.

After selling a tech startup to Facebook in a multimillion-dollar deal, blogger Coco Cline has returned to her hometown of Central Shores, Delaware, to launch her own social media consulting firm. Her new clients, Sean and Olivia Chen, are ten days away from the grand opening of their specialty consignment shop when Coco stumbles across their assistant Stacy dead behind the register. Worried that a cloud of suspicion will ruin their chances of a successful business launch, the Chens ask Coco to work alongside the inexperienced Central Shores police to speed up the investigation.

Interior designer Holly Carrington worked hard for her success. Then tragedy struck, leaving Holly the sole guardian of her infant niece. Now she's swapped her designer purse for a diaper bag, and is going ahead with plans to renovate - and sell - her childhood home in Red River. But facing her past also means coming face-to-face with Quinn Manning all over again...

For almost three hundred years, people have searched for one of the greatest treasures in history—the lost gold of the Scottish Jacobites. Following his father’s death and a brazen late-night break-in at the United States Naval Academy, Lieutenant Carter Porter, his life and career in tatters, unwittingly joins the quest. In Scotland, Hassie Douglass, a spirited young employee of a luxury inn situated on the picturesque shores of Loch Ness, thinks her prayers have been answered when she stumbles across four old gold coins that may be part of the Jacobite treasure.

The day Andrew Levin arrives at Washington High, Harper O'Malley knows he'll make the perfect starter boyfriend. The school's newest band geek is totally in Harper's league, yet completely out of this late-bloomer's reach. Between fitting in with a new family, scoring the first chair in band, and rescuing dogs for the local animal shelter, Harper's never had the opportunity to hone her dating skills. But even though Harper's love life is far from perfect, she's got the perfect plan.

Owen Harper was trouble; his heart wild, and his past was the kind that's spoken about in whispers. And somehow, his path was always intertwined with Kensington's, every interaction crushing her, ruining her hope for any future better than her now. Sometimes, though, what everyone warns is trouble, is exactly what the heart needs.

When Benjamin Kline returns to the fold after eight years, Abigail Baughman welcomes him with an open heart. But all is not well in their Amish village. Mysterious happenings put Abby in harm’s way, forcing Ben to run to her rescue. He’s vowed never to let anyone hurt her, and suddenly everything is at risk—their community, their way of life…and their future together.