Showing results by narrator "Rudy Sanda" in All Categories

All I ever wanted was to be a female fighter. It was in my blood to smack people around. Some girls wore pink dresses and makeup; I wore sneakers and bruises. I was a loner, stuck to myself because I was different, until Camden Steel moved next door. I punched him in the mouth, and he saw me through rose-colored glasses from that day on. I had everything I ever wanted. The boy next door, inspiring career...until I didn't.

Arc kept his end of our bargain and helped me with my family's problem. Now it was time to return the favor. He's been on the run ever since waking up next to his dead on again/off again girlfriend. He swears he didn't kill her. I believe him. He also says she wasn't in his bed when he went to sleep. That's a harder pill to swallow. Arc is a very powerful witch in his own right. And from what I've seen, when he sets a ward, it sticks. So how did the killer not only get through his wards, but plant poor Sonya's body right next to him without him knowing it?

Isla Lane is an ambitious violinist, who yearns for the career her grandmother had and had always planned for her. Though determined to make her mark on Manhattan and follow her dreams, she just can't seem to get back on course. Consumed with pain from the loss of her grandmother, Isla thinks that she has found the perfect distraction, but this perfect distraction will challenge her in ways she couldn't have imagined.

Princess Raya of Paruth lived alone on a deserted island in a towering lighthouse, forgotten by time. With only a loyal albatross as a friend, she had little hope or joy in her life until he washed up on her shore in the middle of a raging winter storm. Prince Trevor of Galder left his father and kingdom behind to travel north in search of a wife. It was time to settle down and forget Ella Carina, the woman who chose to love a peasant and follow her heart instead of choosing Trevor and fulfilling her duty to her people.

When Lucy Hawkins receives a job offer in San Francisco, she can't wait to spread her wings and leave her small Virginia hometown behind. The cross-country trip comes with a traveling companion: her older brother's best friend, a.k.a. the guy who took Lucy's virginity hours before breaking her heart. After spending the past four years and every last dime caring for his sick father, Reece Sullivan will do just about anything to break free of the painful memories - even if it means a two-week road trip with the one girl who ever made it past his carefully guarded exterior.

Falon Shaw is the go-to photographer for celebrities in New York City. She's young, beautiful, and driven. She's determined to be the best, and she's not about to let anyone get in her way. She dreams of a future filled with travel and photographs of places far away from the only world she's ever known. Music is Asher Foster's passion. After he dug himself out of the pit of his addictions, he turned his life around. He found not only solace on the stage, but fame as well. He's trying to put his demons behind him.

Necromancer Eric Carter's problems keep getting bigger. Bad enough he's the unwilling husband to the patron saint of death, Santa Muerte, but now her ex, the Aztec King of the dead, Mictlantecuhtli, has come back—and it turns out that Carter and he are swapping places. As Mictlantecuhtli breaks loose of his prison of jade, Carter is slowly turning to stone. To make matters worse, both gods are trying to get Carter to assassinate the other. But only one of them can be telling him the truth and he can't trust either one. Carter's solution? Kill them both.

With a nation seemingly more divided than ever, many worry that Americans risk losing ground on solving the complex, interrelated problems the country faces - including rising inequality, the specter of climate change, astronomical health care costs, and economic stagnation. The renowned economist Jeffrey D. Sachs offers a practical approach to move America toward a new consensus: sustainable development.

Big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara set the world record for the sport, surfing a 78-foot wave in Nazare, Portugal, in 2011, a record he smashed two years later at the same break. Propelled by the challenge and promise of bigger, more difficult waves, this adrenaline-fueled loner and polarizing figure travels the globe to ride the most dangerous swells the oceans have to offer, from calving glaciers to hurricane swells. But what motivates McNamara to go to such extremes - to risk everything for one thrilling ride?

On a warm night in September 1985, teenagers Kimberly Dowell and Ethan Dixon were brutally murdered in Westside Park in Muncie, Indiana. Their killer has never been charged. Early on, police focused on a family member of one of the teens as a primary suspect. The investigation even ruled out fantastic scenarios, including a theory that the perpetrator was a Dungeons & Dragons devotee. The case grew cold.

When Drake and I arrived at our new home, I could pretend it had been all a dream. A nightmare. Here, we are safe and happy - and together. Our safety and comfort are only temporary. Drake and I know that to reach the peace we seek, to be really free of the past, we need to return and fight back. We need to put an end to this chaos and madness. We need to face the vampires, the witches, the werewolves, and we need to win. But since fleeing the last battle, I've been sick, and it's only getting worse.

This collection of eight stories paints a vivid image of people who don't do what you might expect them to living on the fringes in America. Not stories of triumph over adversity but something completely other. Described in language that is brilliantly sardonic, Woods' characters return repeatedly to places where they don't belong - often the places where they were born. In the background are the endless American wars and occupations and too many early deaths of friends and family. This is fiction that is fresh and of the moment, even as it is timeless.

Ella Carina, crown princess of Aelawyn, knows brutality and lies - she's seen the way her father rules. Princess. Possession. To her father, the words had the same meaning. She was only as valuable as the alliance formed with her betrothal. Her freedom comes from an unlikely place: an attack on the castle. When the conquering King offers to protect her from the betrothal her father arranged for political gain, she consents. Hiding her within a peasant family is the only way to keep her and her secret safe.

Meet Lawson: Vampire by birth, fixer by trade. His mission: Preserve the secret existence of living vampires by any means necessary. There's just one problem - his oldest enemy, Cosgrove, is back, killing humans and threatening to unleash an ancient unholy evil. Can Lawson stop Cosgrove and still adhere to the very laws he has sworn to uphold by not falling in love with a beautiful human ex-KGB assassin named Talya?

When wildlife photographer Ray Ingalls is murdered in the new owl-protection zone in rural White Rock, New Hampshire, Chief Sam Mason's number-one suspect is his archenemy Lucas Thorne. .... Until a mysterious stranger reveals that the victim was up to a lot more than just taking photographs of endangered owls. Suddenly it appears that a lot more people had motive to want Ray dead. Sam, Sergeant Jody Harris, and their K-9 Lucy now have a fresh batch of suspects, all of whom have secrets they don't want exposed. But when Sam's hopes of putting Thorne away for good dwindle, help comes in the form of an unlikely ally.

Chloe Weever always dreamed of finding her fairytale ending. Being a Potential and finding her soulmate should guarantee true happiness. But with Cyrus still stalking her with motives yet to be determined, she will do anything to protect the ones she loves-even if it means sacrificing her happily ever after. Falcon Tonalee made a promise long ago. A promise to always protect the one that fate chooses for him. But his vow is tested when his mate-consumed by fear-closes herself off and pushes him away.

Why do political leaders become entangled in so many sex scandals? How did the US military inadvertently help make San Francisco a mecca of gay culture? And what was the original purpose of vibrators? Find out the answers to all these questions and more as journalist Ross Benes delves into the complicated relationship between everyday human life - including religion, politics, and technology - and our sexuality.

Jake McGraw, independent space trucker, has been shanghaied. He and his crew, fresh off their adventures in Starrigger and Red Limit Freeway, are plucked off the Skyway by a creature of unknown power. Now on an alien planet where most of the rules of the regular universe do not seem to apply, Jake confronts the builders of the Skyway once and for all. Will he and his crew make it out alive?

Jake McGraw is a man on the run from half the universe. After stumbling upon what seems to be the fabled roadmap to the stars, Jake must outrun the most detestable vermin and roadbugs in the galaxy and the only thing separating him from them is his tattered starrig. In the lawless region of space Jake must keep his rig running if he knows what's good for him. He has something that everyone wants and they will stop at nothing to get it. But how long can he keep going on the road where there is no relief for light years?

Breakups can be messy. After his ex-girlfriend Hope embarrasses him in front of the entire school, Tony wants revenge. So he signs her up for online dating sites and subscriptions and even makes the location of her phone public. And it works. A few days later, Hope calls begging Tony to stop the prank. Then Hope screams, and a car door slams. The call drops. Tony tries to keep cool. It's just like Hope to get back at him with more drama.