Showing results by narrator "Amy McFadden" in All Categories

Marooned in an alien body on an alien world. It is the 25th century. The planet's most ambitious project is Starmind, an Islamic research institute that transfers the minds of volunteers, called Ansibles, across gulfs of space and time to make first contact with other sentient beings in the universe. Each of the Ansible stories follows one team of brave minds across the void. These are their reports, their transcripts, the only accounts of what they have found.

When biologist Gillian Campbell makes an offhand comment about a family curse during a TV interview, she has no idea what her words will set in motion. Within days, Gillian finds herself at the mercy of a member of the C7, a secretive international group of power brokers with a dangerous game: competing to find the world’s most elusive treasures, no matter the cost, in money or in lives.

Her second day doing doctoral research in the basement archives of Siddley Hall, England’s grandest Tudor home, American Antonia Townley finds the hall’s curator - with a knife plunged into his chest. Police suspect Antonia of being the killer because of two insignificant - to her - reasons, the first being the pesky matter of her fingerprints on the murder weapon. Then there is the unfortunate e-mail she had sent to her sister, saying she would kill for the curator’s job.

Amy Gallup is an aging novelist and writing instructor living in Escondido, California, with her dog, Alphonse. Since recent unsettling events, she has made some progress. While she still has writer's block, she doesn't suffer from it. She's still a hermit, but she has allowed some of her class members into her life. She is no longer numb, angry, and sardonic: she is merely numb and bemused, which is as close to happy as she plans to get. Amy is calm. So, when on New Year's morning she shuffles out to her backyard garden to plant a Norfolk pine, she is wholly unprepared for what happens next. Amy falls down.

Five years ago, Tia fell into obsessive love with a man she could never have. Married, and the father of two boys, Nathan was unavailable in every way. When she became pregnant, he disappeared, and she gave up her baby for adoption. Five years ago, Caroline, a dedicated pathologist, reluctantly adopted a baby to please her husband. She prayed her misgivings would disappear; instead, she’s questioning whether she’s cut out for the role of wife and mother.

It's been nine years since Cuban singer Alejandro Diaz's limousine collided with a young Amish woman named Amanda Beiler as she was crossing a New York City street - an accident that ignited the couple's cross-cultural romance. Amanda loves her husband and their three children, but their fast-paced, lavish Miami lifestyle troubles her. Will her kids grow up never knowing what it's like to simply be, without chauffeurs, social media, and paparazzi complicating their lives?

USA Today bestselling author of Nine Jan Burke delivers chills, suspense, shockers, and sharp wit in eighteen works of short fiction sure to satisfy longtime fans and newcomers alike. This positively addictive anthology is full of surprises—a patchwork of settings and characters not soon forgotten, and mysterious twists and revelations not quickly shaken!

Live and work together, or lose everything that matters…The ultimatum tilts Dru Hampton’s contented life in Chandlerville, Georgia, on its ear. The man that Vivian, her cantankerous boss and benefactor, wants Dru to partner with -live- with - is Brad Douglas, who’s let Dru down every way a man can. Sheriff’s deputy Brad has come a long way since his rebellious youth. He’s back home to care for Vivian, his ill grandmother. He’s stayed out of her way all these years to make up for the hurt he once caused.

It begins with the name JONAS W. on the side of a cardboard coffin - right before the funeral procession blows up. Then it’s the whisper in the back of Micah’s head: Your father betrayed his country. You can’t always trust your own brain. Not when you have one of the mayor’s mandatory chips in your skull. Micah knows that the chip developed by TFC (the corporation that runs the Therapeutic Forgetting Clinics) does more than just erase unpleasant memories - it implants new ones. The MemeCast warns citizens to "fight the hack."

Rasha is a Syrian refugee fleeing war with her infant son. Sahira is a time-traveling, shapeshifting hijabi defender of humanity. In a distant future when all humanity flees a predatory and unexpected horror, Rasha's choices at a critical moment could make the difference between extinction and refuge - if Sahira can get her safely to that day. This riveting addition to the Ansible saga takes you from the dust and despair of bombed-out cities and poisoned land to the weird apparitions that can transform a planet's future.

Living the food allergy life and having a kid who can't have dairy, tree nuts, peanuts, or soy is not easy. And neither is worrying about accommodating all the food requirements at a play date. From avoiding major food allergens and respecting food preferences like vegetarian or vegan to being aware of religious practices like keeping kosher, making a simple snack resembles navigating a minefield. Thankfully, Bake Sales Are My B*tch is here to help.

Daphne White is staring down the barrel of forty - and is distraught at what she sees. Her ex-husband is getting remarried, her teenage daughter hardly needs her anymore, and the career she once dreamed about has somehow slipped from her grasp. She's almost lost sight of the spirited and optimistic young woman she used to be.

Can the misfortunes of one woman's ancestors give her the strength to fight for her freedom? When Alice inherits a wooden chest from her deceased mother, she suddenly finds herself swept away by the devastating stories contained within.

Lucy never confessed her love to her best friend Harlan before he passed away. Two months after his funeral, she is haunted by the power of things left unsaid. But then she receives the first of his e-mails arranged to be sent after his death. So begins the year that everything changes - Lucy's watershed year. In an e-mail, Harlan says something that consumes her: He's certain Lucy is destined for motherhood. In her grief, she suddenly rediscovers hope, journeying to Russia to adopt a four-year-old boy.

Duncan Flynn long ago said goodbye to his hometown of Bayberry Island, Massachusetts, where a mermaid statue allegedly grants true love to the pure at heart. So when the injured Navy SEAL gets sent home - just in time to help his family prepare for the annual Mermaid Festival - he's not in the mood to celebrate. Nor fall in love. But during a night run on the beach, a magnificently naked woman emerges from the surf who bears an uncanny resemblance to the mermaid in Fountain Square.

After a year of hardships, including a messy breakup with her longtime boyfriend, Phil, the prospect of her mother’s remarriage, and heartbreaking patient losses at the hospital, Olive is ready to start fresh. But when she wakes up in her ex-boyfriend’s bed on New Year’s Day 2011 - a day she has already lived - Olive’s world is turned upside down. Shouldering a year of memories that no one else can recall, even Olive begins to question herself - until she discovers that she is not alone.

Amaryllis "Ami" Bloom's cheerful smile greets everyone in Good Hope, Wisconsin. But her merry façade hides a dark secret she won't ever forget. Still, she throws herself into celebrating Christmas - and convinces her handsome, and stubborn, new neighbor to join her.

Selena Rosenthal left behind her high school sweetheart, who was the love of her life, seven years ago. Now, she and the once-rebellious Oliver Bowman are back in Chandlerville - after his foster father's heart attack and Selena's contentious divorce - to deal with her secrets, the recklessness that caused their breakup, and the almost-strangers they've become to each other and their families.

New York City self-help editor Olivia Marks faces her toughest assignment yet: parenthood. When her sister dies in a car accident, the career-oriented Olivia suddenly becomes the guardian to her four-week-old niece, Annabelle. She also becomes a challenge for Annabelle's uncle, Brad Rushford, an old flame whose gorgeous green eyes bring Olivia's fevered memories rushing back.

Mirren Kincaid remembers the vampire he used to be - and he’s not going back. As the Slayer, Mirren served the Vampire Tribunal as its most creative and ruthless executioner. Then he refused a kill order and eventually found himself the protector and second-in-command of the peaceful enclave of Penton, Alabama. As civil war threatens to break out in the vampire world over the scarcity of untainted human blood, the Tribunal wants its slayer back - and has sent a beautiful witch to retrieve him.