Showing results by narrator "Vanessa Johansson" in All Categories

Christmas, a kidnapping, Jake Porter, and a stray reindeer - oh my! Sofie’s mother tells her it is the season for miracles, but Sofie’s convinced it’s more of a season for whackos and flashing Santas. After nearly losing a battle with the local strange vampire a month ago, she regrets ever having bitched about boring cheating spouse cases and process serving. She’s ready for a quiet spell doing nothing but finding people’s lost pets. But Sofie’s life will probably never be boring again. After all, kidnapping is never boring. Especially when it’s Sophie who’s being kidnapped.

Noel Blake is not in a great place. After several years of marriage, she and her husband Jonah are quietly drifting apart. The only time they really talk at all anymore is when they walk their dog, Elliott. And even then it usually ends in bickering. When, one snowy day, Elliott manages to slip his leash, they find him blocks away in the care of a mysterious old man who asks them to make a wish on an old snow globe. Eager to get their dog safely home, they agree to his strange request. Neither one realizes that the wish they’re about to make will change the course of their lives.

When Captain Kellen Adams receives a job offer that sounds too good to be true, she finds herself balanced between fascination and fear. All she has to do is break a code and find a long-lost fortune...or die trying. New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd kicks off her Cape Charade suspense series with Hard to Kill, a short story of treasure, treachery...and murder.

Living on an obscure, technology-free island off California means safety from the murderer who hunts Kellen Adams and her new family...or does it? Family time becomes terror-time, and at last, alone, Kellen faces a killer playing a cruel game. Only one can survive, and Kellen knows who must win...and who must die.

Kellen Adams suffers from a yearlong gap in her memory. A bullet to the brain will cause that. But she’s discovering the truth, and what she learns changes her life, her confidence, her very self. She finds herself in the wilderness, on the run, unprepared, her enemies unknown - and she is carrying a priceless burden she must protect at all costs. The consequences of failure would break her. And Kellen Adams does not break.

Julia Blair is hoping for a fresh start. So when she sees an apartment-for-rent sign on Brambleberry House, she can’t help but feel that it’s a good omen. Having spent summers as a teen in a cottage near the rambling Victorian home, Julia easily pictures herself and her two children starting over in the one place that’s always felt welcoming to her. When Julia walks up to inquire about the apartment, she finds her old friend Will Garrett repairing the house.

Between her kitty quilt-making business and her three beloved cats, Jill has her hands full. That doesn't stop her from wanting to solve the mystery of the milk cow that's gone missing from her friend's farm. But imagine her surprise when a stolen cow leads to the discovery of 50 stray cats and one dead body - a victim of cold-blooded murder....

When quilter Jillian Hart returns to her lake house in Mercy, South Carolina, she discovers her friend, Tom, is missing-and his estranged half-brother has moved into Tom's house. Jillian doesn't trust the guy, especially since he allowed Tom's diabetic cat to escape. When police officers find Tom's wrecked car with a dead stranger inside, Jillian is determined to find out what happened to Tom-before someone else turns up dead.

Cat quilter Jillian Hart finds a gorgeous stray cat belonging to the fabulously wealthy Ritaestelle Longworth, who believes she's being drugged. Before Jillian can get to those charges, a body turns up in the lake - and her cat Chablis finds Ritaestelle nearby. Can Jillian's cats aid her in solving a mystery with decades old roots?

When cat lover and quilter Jillian Hart volunteers to help a local animal shelter relocate a colony of feral cats living in an abandoned textile mill, she never expects to find a woman living there too. Jeannie went missing from Mercy, South Carolina, a decade ago, after her own daughter’s disappearance. Jeannie refuses to leave the mill or abandon Boots, her cat who died years ago. After all, she and Boots feel the need to protect the premises from “creepers” who come in the night.

Jillian Hart and police chief Tom Stewart are enjoying peaceful, newly wedded bliss in Mercy, South Carolina, until a woman is found wandering the streets one night. She's in her nightclothes, disoriented, and carrying a kitten in a tote bag. A search of the woman's house reveals many more cats, a maze of cardboard boxes - and a dead man.

When Clyde the cat travels 200 miles back home only to find his former owner dead, the story makes national news. While everyone seems eager to tell Clyde's incredible tale, someone needs to step up to care for him. Because the media attention is creating chaos at the local shelter, cat quilter Jillian Hart agrees to foster the loyal orange tabby, hoping his location is kept secret. But while the media circus around Clyde continues, Jillian learns the real story behind his owner's death - he was murdered.

I've spent a long time peering into the faces of girls on missing posters, wondering which one replaced me in that basement. But they were never quite the right age, the right look, the right circumstances. Until Olivia Shaw, missing for one week tomorrow. Whoever stole me was never found. But since I was taken, there hasn't been another girl. And now there is.

Meet Ottie Lee Henshaw, a startling, challenging beauty in small-town Indiana. Quick of mind, she navigates a stifling marriage, a lecherous boss, and, on one day in the summer of 1930, an odyssey across the countryside to witness a dark and fearful celebration.

After a night of champagne-fueled recklessness, Katie Crosby is secretly pregnant with the child of big-time businessman Peter Logan. And when their covert hookup becomes major tabloid fodder, Katie escapes to her family's remote Wyoming ranch, hoping the whole ordeal will blow over and Peter will never find her. Unfortunately, Peter shows up at the ranch anyway, not accepting Katie's silence…and a blizzard snows them both in, forcing Peter to stay.

The December Market has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

Cari Porter’s made it to Italy. But she hasn’t escaped. Dark Sky is still coming for her. Hidden in a safe house, Porter continues her search for answers about her past. Unfortunately for her, her past catches up with her. Just like everywhere else she’s been, people connected to her are killed, and she goes on the run again. This time, though, she’ll come face to face with someone who seemingly knows who she is. Will he give Porter the answers that she’s seeking, or will he be the one to finally bring her in…dead or alive?

Growing up, Gwen and Iris were the best of friends, even if they couldn’t have been more different. Now, Gwen is living her hometown dream, or so she reminds herself while juggling endless parenting drama, an unemployed husband, and a neighborhood pyramid scheme. Never mind that at age 39, her social circle still resembles middle school. Her life is everything she ever wanted it to be, but nothing like she had planned.

Anna Wilks went straight from her parents' house to her husband's. After 13 years of trying to give him a son, she's told she's sterile. Her marriage crumbles and her husband leaves her for a younger woman who's pregnant with his child. Then, Anna finds her deceased aunt Annabeth's journal and discovers her secret. Having no idea who she is now that she can't be a wife and mother, Anna shocks her family by setting out on a desperate search to find herself. She follows her aunt's journal to Mystic Valley, Vermont.

Lieutenant Magdalena Cruz is home, but her return hasn’t turned out the way she envisioned. And though all she wants is to be alone, infuriatingly handsome Dr. Jake Dalton—of the enemy Daltons—won’t cooperate. And she needs him to, because the walls around her heart are dangerously close to crumbling every time he comes near.