Showing results by narrator "Melissa" in All Categories

Craft your own world. Trade with neighboring empires. Become a god. Garrett thought Terra Forma was just a game, but in reality, it was a test created by a devastatingly beautiful ancient goddess to find the most creative man in the universe. Now, in order to help her defeat an ancient primordial deity, Garrett will have to take a dirt rock and transform it into the heart of the most powerful empire the universe has ever seen. And to do that, he'll have to unlock portals to other worlds, harvest their resources, and bring back settlers to his world.

From Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author Lauren Landish comes The Virgin Diaries, a collection of take-charge alpha heroes and the sassy, innocent women who bring them to their knees.

Though she has blossomed into a beauty, Lily Christner doesn't really believe it. Deep down she still feels like a lonely, gawky teenager. Maybe that's why she's all but promised herself to Paul Glick, the one boy who never teased her in her awkward girlhood, unlike Dan Kanagy, whose creative name-calling left her in tears many a time.

Simple. Neat. Orderly. A place for everything, and everything in its place. Karmen Handel's life growing up had been anything but quiet and simple. A deadbeat father, a mother who never wanted her, and a grandmother who could care less created the perfect recipe to ensure Karmen built a wall around herself and never let anyone in. When her past comes back to haunt her, Karmen has no one to help her. Until Nickel.

A self-defined misfit makes a powerful case for not fitting in—for recognizing the beauty, and difficulty, in forging an original path. A misfit is a person who missed fitting in, a person who fits in badly, or this: a person who is poorly adapted to new situations and environments. It’s a...

After a long, snowy winter on Daybreak Island, Maddie and her cat cafe crew are finally ready to embrace the spring, though life is anything but calm. With Val and Ethan's wedding taking center stage, Maddie finds herself juggling wedding plans alongside a new and unexpected venture—a generous donation has made her the co-owner of a traveling cat cafe truck. To kick off the new chapter, she seizes the chance to take the truck on its inaugural trip to a cat literary festival in Provincetown, accompanied by her family and some of the shelter crew.

Bethany Parker is falling apart. Stunned on her fiftieth birthday to discover her stepchildren hate her and her husband wants a divorce, the devastated homemaker is suddenly and unexpectedly on her own. Taking a job as caretaker for a mysterious estate, Bethany fears she's lost her mind when she learns the house is cursed . . . and she holds the power to break it. Teaming with a pushy medium, a hard-drinking housekeeper, and a sarcastic talking cat, the discombobulated divorcée struggles to master the magic she never knew she had.

Christmas has come to Pine Hills, and Krissy's blooming relationship with Officer Paul Dalton has her in an especially festive mood. The cafe's new seasonal signature drink is a hit too. But not everyone shares the same holiday spirit. There are some loud complaints about businesses profiting off the season and losing focus on what Christmas is really about. And as if on cue, a shop owner who'd been price-gouging his customers is found dead after receiving a mysterious gift.

As Jo Fussner keeps the Marketplace humming, her heart dances with a joyous secret. Jo and Michael Wengerd, a shy nursery owner from a nearby town, have fallen hopelessly in love. When Michael buys a courting buggy, Jo is sure a proposal will follow. But she'll have to work hard to gain her mother's approval—because the widowed Drusilla Fussner is convinced that marriage will bring her daughter nothing but heartache. To win Jo's hand, Michael enlists his father's help in convincing Drusilla to give the marriage her blessing—and perhaps even open her heart to happiness of her own.

When Lindsey Bakewell leaves behind her lighthouse bakeshop, her boyfriend, Rory, and her Newfoundland dog, Wellington, for a glamping trip with her mother in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the bears leave them alone—but a killer doesn't. Converting the old Beacon Point lighthouse into a bakery...

Ten years ago as an undergrad, Joan Mason escaped an arsonist’s fire. Shaken, she fled the small collegiate Montana town, leaving behind friends and not looking back. Now a Philadelphia homicide detective, Joan’s trying to put her traumas to rest. It’s not easy. Elijah Weston, the classmate who torched her house, is out of prison and returning to Missoula. Gut instinct tells Joan he’ll strike again. To stop him, she must return to the past as well. To face not only the man she fears but Detective Gideon Bailey, too. The man she loved and left behind.

We may not realize it consciously, but negative feelings can be as toxic as physical poisons, wearing on us and causing depression, illness, and burnout. But how can we keep ourselves safe in a world too often ruled by resentment, jealousy, rage, and stress?

All work and no play has Autumn Primm in the market for a little excitement. Her Venice Beach coffee shop, The Cat's Pajamas, is her pride and joy, but the time has come to take off the apron and see what the world has in store. Kate Carpenter needs to get away. And quick. A former firefighter, Kate's been crowned her town's new hero for reasons she can't quite get behind. A free flight and some time off have her fleeing the scene to sunny California. Dreamy Autumn Primm was never supposed to be part of that bargain.

We seem like perfect families. But our secrets must never come out... I trust my best friend Lydia with my life. We share everything, even the things we can't tell our husbands. So when we go on a beach holiday together, it's a dream come true. One night, we treat ourselves to dinner on the beach with our husbands while our children sleep soundly in the cottage behind us. But when I go to check on them, my entire world shatters. My son's bed is empty, the window wide open, his favourite teddy left between the crumpled sheets. I stifle a scream as my worst nightmare comes true.

Mika Marshall is back at the University of Morgana. It is her first fall semester, her first homecoming and Samhain on Morgana’s Island. So much is the same her first day and yet...so much is different. She is no longer the girl who couldn’t do basic magic, but she’s losing control - she’s finding it difficult to rejoin the living after what she had to do to win the challenge. Claire refused to yield, and Mika had to take her life to stay alive.

Their second chance at love turns lethal when a man from her past is determined to see her dead. Navy Chief Cooper Talon is on leave to clean out his dad's house and shut the door on the abuse he suffered there. He takes a break to go camping with a buddy, never expecting to run into his friend's younger sister, Ginny - the girl he secretly adored 12 years ago. With an upcoming deployment, he can't make a play for her heart. But when someone stalks her, his protective instincts kick in.

Lies filled with half-truths—especially when you want to believe them—are the easiest to believe. After her husband's murder, Riley Bishop is working to put the pieces of her life back together, but there is one lie she never imagined being true. It's going to take everything in her to survive what happens next.

As the eldest brother, the responsibility for the family ranch now rests on Mark Bennett’s broad shoulders. He wouldn’t have it any other way - he loves being in charge. Working hard on the land helps him stay focused and keeps him from noticing what’s missing in his life - what he’ll never allow himself to have for fear that one small taste will break his careful control. But a sweet blue-eyed blonde has just arrived in town, and the attraction between them is undeniably hot.

The unique ability of women to be mothers is a most precious gift. Whether a woman’s vocation is to be a mother in the context of married life or the spiritual motherhood of religious life, both vocations have Our Lady as their source and inspiration. This similar calling to model the motherhood of the Blessed Mother suggests that lay mothers and religious nuns can benefit from each other’s wisdom and experiences. Mother to Mother introduces moms to contemplative nuns who have offered their insight on the common struggles of motherhood.

The long-simmering crisis that grips our culture has exploded in recent years, leaving us divided and intransigent. Discourse seems futile when we are no longer a people with shared principles or even a shared understanding of reality. What seems obvious to one person is patently absurd to the next. This collapse of meaning is not accidental. It has been plotted and documented for decades, and now presents in its current form as Woke ideology. Awake, Not Woke unmasks this ideology by examining its history, major players, premises, and tactics.