Showing results by narrator "Lauren Fortgang" in All Categories

Born and raised in the Midwest, Jersey Cameron knows all about tornadoes. Or so she thinks. When her town is devastated by a twister, Jersey survives - but loses her mother, her young sister, and her home. As she struggles to overcome her grief, she's sent to live with her only surviving relatives: First her biological father, then her estranged grandparents. In an unfamiliar place, Jersey faces a reality she's never considered before - one in which her mother wasn't perfect, and neither were her grandparents, but they all loved her just the same.

 What's worse than butt dialing the man who could make or break your career? Accidentally sleeping with him. Public speaking coach Lacey Ames has landed the client of a lifetime with Lawrence Newsom III, heir apparent to his family's private jet empire. If she can help him land the role as the company's president, she'll never need to wait another table again. The job, however, proves more challenging than Lacey ever dreamed when Lawrence turns out to be Alex, the sexy pilot she spent one steamy night with while stranded in Chicago.  

In a world where magic is illegal, eight criminals led by rebellious Larkin are sent on a mission to rid their realm of an ancient evil lurking beneath the surface. Descending into a world full of unspeakable horrors, Larkin and her crew must use their forbidden magic to survive. As they fight in the shadows, Larkin finds a light in Amias, a fellow outlaw with a notorious past. Soon, Larkin and Amias realize that their destinies are intertwined. The eight of them were chosen for a reason.

Both Cassie Hugo and Margaret Brickshaw dutifully followed their soldier husbands to the US embassy in Jordan, but that's about all the women have in common. After two years Cassie's become an expert on the rules, but newly arrived Margaret sees only her chance to explore. So when a fender bender sends Margaret to the local police station, Cassie reluctantly agrees to watch Margaret's toddler son. But as the hours pass, Cassie's boredom and frustration turn to fear.

It's 1965 in a tight-knit working-class neighborhood in Queens, New York, and Ruth Malone - a single mother who works long hours as a cocktail waitress - wakes to discover her two small children, Frankie Jr. and Cindy, have gone missing. Later that day, Cindy's body is found in a derelict lot a half mile from her home, strangled. Ten days later, Frankie Jr.'s decomposing body is found. Immediately, all fingers point to Ruth. Pete Wonicke is a rookie tabloid reporter who finagles an assignment to cover the murders. He begins digging into the case.

An accomplished photographer and the devoted mom of an adorable little boy, Allie Ross has just moved to an upscale DC suburb, the kind of place where parenting feels like a competitive sport. Allie’s desperate to make a good first impression. Then she’s framed for murder. It all starts at a neighborhood party when a local dad corners Allie and calls her by an old, forgotten nickname from her dark past. The next day, he is found dead.

War has been simmering for generations, but the Legend is about to make the violence boil over. Forces gather from across the continent and even across the world as complex conflicts are forced into narrow categories. For the first time, Tani and her allies have a chance to make a difference, but that will pit them against one of the most dangerous warriors in the world. The Zeitai wants war as much as the Hero, and the result may really be the end of everything. Time is running out, sending everyone scattering in different directions before the final battle.

Felicity loves riding horses far more than stitchery or serving tea. When she falls in love with a beautiful chestnut mare, she schemes to save the mare from its cruel owner with the help of Ben, her father's young apprentice. Yet as talk of revolution rumbles around her, finds it harder to tell right from wrong. Ben wants war, while her best friend's family remains loyal to the king. Then receives an invitation to the Governor's Palace, and she must decide where her own loyalties lie.

Four hundred years in the future, the Earth has turned primitive following a nuclear fire that has laid waste to civilization and nature. Though the radiation fallout has ended, for some unknowable reason every person is born with a twin. Of each pair, one is an Alpha, physically perfect in every way, and the other an Omega, burdened with deformity, small or large. With the Council ruling an apartheid-like society, Omegas are branded and ostracized while the Alphas have gathered the world's sparse resources for themselves.

Opposites attract when billionaire Bryce Dalton meets his lodge guest, Kat Jones, while she's on a corporate retreat. It's love at first sight for Bryce. For Kat? Not so much. 

A certain pen, a certain book, and a certain person can craft entirely new worlds through a branch of science called scriptology. Elsa comes from one such world that was written into creation, where her mother—a noted scriptologist—constantly alters and expands their reality. But when her home is attacked and her mother kidnapped, Elsa is forced to cross into the real world and use her own scriptology gifts to find her. In an alternative Victorian Italy, Elsa finds a secret society of young scientists with a gift for mechanics, alchemy, or scriptology.

A waitress at the Betsy Ross Diner, Elsie hopes her nickel-and-dime tips will add up to a new life. Then she meets Bashkim, who is at once both worldly and naïve, a married man who left Albania to chase his dreams - and wound up working as a line cook in Waterbury, Connecticut. Seventeen years later, headstrong and independent Luljeta receives a rejection letter from NYU and her first-ever suspension from school on the same day. Instead of striking out on her own in Manhattan, she's stuck in Connecticut with her mother, Elsie - a fate she refuses to accept.

Laney Brooks acts out. Married with kids, she takes the drugs she wants, sleeps with the men she wants, and disappears when she wants. Lurking beneath Laney's composed surface is the impulse to follow in the footsteps of her father, to leave and topple her family's balance in the process.

A sweeping historical romance about a witch who foresees her own murder - and the one boy who can help change her future. Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe wants only to take her rightful place as the witch of Prince Island, making the charms that keep the island's whalers safe at sea, but her mother has forced her into a magic-free world of proper manners and respectability. When Avery dreams she's to be murdered, she knows time is running out to unlock her magic and save herself.

The Devil of Williamsburg is a fast-paced true crime story about one of the most shocking and important child sex abuse cases in recent memory, which unfolded mere blocks from the hipster capital of the world, but eras away, in ultra-Orthodox Jewish Williamsburg, Brooklyn. There, an insular community of Satmar Hasidim shirk the Internet, the president and the rules of secular America, even hiding crimes within the community from police and the courts.

Josh Kowalski is tired of holding down the fort - better known as the Northern Star Lodge - while his siblings are off living their dreams. Now that his oldest brother has returned to Whitford, Maine for good, Josh is free to chase some dreams of his own. As the daughter of the lodge's longtime housekeeper, Katie Davis grew up alongside the Kowalski kids. Though she's always been "one of the guys", her feelings for Josh are anything but sisterly. And after a hot late-night encounter in the kitchen, it's clear Josh finally sees her as the woman she is.

Chance Matthews is drawn into a battle between angels and monsters because of something in her possession - a fossil of a creature that couldn't possibly have ever existed. But it did. And still does.

Liz Kowalski is heading home to Whitford, Maine - this time for good. Eager for her family, a fresh start and some fun, she doesn't count on being rescued by the chief of police her very first night back in town. Drew is everything she's not looking for...so why is she still so attracted to him? After a brief, forbidden rendezvous at her brother's wedding, Drew Miller expects Liz to return to New Mexico and stay there. He's searching for someone to settle down with, not a casual fling with his best friend's sister.

When visitors arrive, Clara Valmont must make an entirely new agreement with the vampire she is indebted to in order to stay alive. But even her brief reprieve might not be enough when something far more dangerous than a vampire comes to call. Things between Clara and Alaric are not what they appear to be, and if anyone learns the truth, then it could spell death, for both of them.

When Abby spends a week with her grandparents at their summer house, she learns wonderful things about her family for the first time, as well as one piece of unhappy news.