Showing results by narrator "Jennifer Jill Araya" in All Categories

Mira James has had it up to here with Battle Lake, Minnesota. After her latest romantic prospects go bust, she’s ready to move back to the Twin Cities and get a lapful of cats. Funny how murder can stall the best-laid plans. Days before the August Moon Festival, high school cheerleader Lucy Lebowski, Mira’s library assistant and an all-around sweetheart, is murdered.

The Minnesota State Fair wows again with 4-H exhibits, rides, a Neil Diamond concert, and deep-fried everything on a stick. Covering it is a breezy assignment as fluffy as cotton candy for reporter Mira James, until the main attraction becomes murder.

Summer in Battle Lake kicks off with fireworks and festivities, but it’s a local treasure hunt that’s amping up the tourist trade. It certainly piques the interest of part-time reporter Mira James—both as fodder for a column and because she could use the five grand in prize money. The treasure? A faux diamond hidden at the bottom of Whiskey Lake.

As a foster kid in the system, Emerson Duplessis never had two nickels to rub together. He worked harder than anyone else he knew and graduated with a degree in accounting—the safest career he could imagine. But when a round of unexpected layoffs leaves him unable to pay his rent, he resorts to taking temp jobs found for him by friends.

Julie Jones has left her suffocating marriage. With her teenage daughter, Jess, she’s starting over. Their new house in Oceanside is the first step toward a new life. Even if it does come with the unexpected. The previous owners, a pastor and his wife, have left something - or rather someone - behind. Tom Dean has a bitter hatred for the father who considers him a lost cause, and for the woman who’s moved into their family’s house. The only home he’s ever known. He’s never going to leave. She thinks he’ll be gone in three days, but Tom has the perfect plan.

Six-year-old Gracie Lynn is perpetually curious and big-hearted. Convinced she knows how to save her beloved grandfather John from the “worm” that is eating his brain—a metaphor her mother once used to explain John’s dementia and sundown syndrome—she helps him break out of his nursing home, and the two disappear together on a quest to chase the sun. But what’s an adventure for Gracie is a nightmare scenario for her estranged parents, LeeAnn and Dan.

A Christmas Anthology of several of the best Christmas Novellas you have never heard from authors who were prolific in their time. Including the author of the Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms series, the Little Bear children's series, Charles Dickens & Howard Hughes' award winning novelist/playwright brother.

Hadley James is finally in the kind of relationship she’s always wanted, and with the guy who has always been there for her. So she couldn’t care less when her ex-husband, Tyler, comes to town, flaunting his swimsuit-model girlfriend around Stoneybrook. When that same girlfriend is found in a dumpster, dead, behind Tyler’s family’s grocery store, Hadley wishes she’d paid a little more attention to the woman.

Holly Foster knows that nothing lasts—not hometowns or schools, or even family. It’s just safer to keep herself uninvolved. So when she’s sent to spend part of the summer with her uncle, she knows better than to get attached to him…or any part of his small Vermont town of Arden.

The summer of 1988 is possibly one of love, and that’s the problem. Aspiring journalist Bobbi Sue Baxter has feelings for a man who’s engaged. But then again, he seems to return the vibe. Adding more mud to the already unclear waters, his fiancée might be involved in a murder that happened in the building where Bobbi Sue was taking an aerobics class. So should Bobbi Sue get involved? That’s a definite yes.

Kass Baptiste is newly engaged to her fiancé Murray Sedgemont after a whirlwind romance. Before they even get to share the news, an invitation arrives via messenger—to an engagement party hosted by Murray’s parents. When Kass and Murray arrive at the Sedgemont Estate, she is astonished to learn that Murray’s family is one of the most powerful families in North Carolina. As Kass’s future mother-in-law, Beatrice, whips herself into a frenzy over the perfect party for the state’s elite, Kass begins to receive anonymous threatening social media messages.

Traces of Kara is an action-packed, pulse-pounding psychological thriller/suspense novel that features a determined killer who slowly loses his grip on reality as his carefully detailed plan starts to fall apart and a heroine determined to move forward with her life who now must reconcile everything she believed to be true about her family with the reality of their tragic past.

One day, Lou notices someone sneaking around the mysterious house. When she hears a crash inside, she runs to help. The body of a man lies inside, unconscious. As Lou arrives on the scene, someone else is leaving in a hurry. Lou stays with the man only to find he’s already dead, and realizes she might’ve just let his murderer run free.

Katy is consumed with anger and regret. Livid after giving up a successful graphic arts career for a good-for-nothing cheater, the usually amiable new divorcée is driving her best friend, Samantha, nuts. She suggests Katy try airing her grievances in an online diary. But the 30-something soon finds a better target when she learns the deadbeat who murdered her high-school friend is about to be released from prison. Shouldering a battle she's the only one willing to fight, Katy does everything in her power to keep the dangerous predator behind bars.

Two women wash up on the beach in front of Rosemary’s tea shop. One is dead. The other is wounded and can’t even remember her name. Is she also a victim or the killer? When it becomes clear that the only souls who can help solve this mystery are those of the ghostly persuasion, Rosemary has to get involved. She must identify the killer before they strike again.

The pink-and-white awning of Stoneybrook’s newest shop, Patchwork Quilts, has locals seeing red. Regardless of the warm welcome the town gave her, Mabel Bailey seems bent on sewing the seeds of competition with Frannie’s Quilt Stop. Slashing prices is one thing, but stealing quilt designs is a crafting faux pas. When Hadley finds Mabel dead in her quilt shop, the townspeople have to face the terrible truth that one of their own might have taken her out. 

Pebble Cove will never be the same. The Rickster is notorious for telling tall tales around Pebble Cove. When he’s found on the dock holding a bloody knife, a crumpled body at his feet, of course he has a story to explain it away. But is his plea of innocence just another yarn?

Bobbi Sue Baxter longs for the summer of 1988 to be over so she can leave her boring hometown of Wildcat Springs behind. On her way home from a movie, Bobbi Sue stops to help an injured dog and spots what looks like an alien. A blinding light flashes, and when Bobbi Sue can see again, the creature is gone. Did she really see...? Impossible. But when Bobbi Sue slips and tells her friend, Hemingway “Hemi” Miller, he shows her a story nearly identical to hers. When townsman Ross Garland is found shot dead close to where she saw the “alien”, Bobbi Sue knows she can’t stay quiet.

Kennedy has worked her entire life to prepare for the Culling—to follow in her parents' footsteps and win the presidency. But when she discovers her first love was just using her last name, Kennedy is now more determined to win than ever. The obstacles just keep piling up, though. Kennedy's ex is surviving the Culling's cuts too, and he is making finding a new partner awkward. Not to mention, half of Denver believes she and her brothers don't stand a chance—thanks to the Heir's Curse. Worst of all, a Rebel traitor is hiding within the Culling, seeking to take power.

Heart Happy: Staying Centered in God’s Love Through Chaotic Circumstances takes listeners on a journey to discover where their true strength, peace, and joy come from—the Lord—no matter what life offers up. Tricia Goyer understands what it's like to be pulled in different directions with the longing and intention to do all things well. In the midst of chaotic circumstances (which all of us face), she’s found uncomplicated but effective practices for nourishing the soul—because everything stems from the heart.