Showing results by narrator "Cris Dukehart" in All Categories

Margaritas, spicy guacamole—and murder—are among this year’s preparations for Cinco de Mayo in the second Santa Fe Café mystery novel Tres Amigas Café chef Rita Lafitte is busy baking her green chile soufflés and chocolate flans for Cinco de Mayo. If only her friend Linda, the daughter...

Private investigator/single mom Margie Peterson barely has time for breakfast, let alone to hit the gym. But when Austin Heights PTA president Pansy Parker hires her to find out who's been embezzling PTA funds, that's exactly where Margie ends up...finding Pansy dangling upside down from a Nautilus machine. But the PTA president's not alone: the dead body of a personal trainer is there, too. And now she's facing murder charges.

On dragons' wings, war begins. Magic has returned to Earth. A year ago, the dark elves breached the interstellar veil between our world and theirs. They slaughtered scores of innocents in the first battle of a war between magic and technology. Then they vanished. In the year since, Elizabeth Chambers has trained alongside Cassie "Starlight" Rogan in the special forces unit known as Task Force Devil. Their mission: to monitor the interstellar portal where the dark elves forced their way into our world.

Diviners have told Audrun that the child she carries must be born in a haven of peace, far from her war-scourged homeland, but as she flees she finds only far greater danger. For her karavan is overtaken by Alisanos, the deepwood - a dangerous magical forest that harbors not only demons, gods, and other otherworldly creatures, but also its own sinister intentions - and which may have already claimed Audrun and her child for its own.

Things aren't going well for private investigator and mom Margie Peterson. Her husband, Blake, is claiming his taste for drag queens is "just a phase." Her first-grade daughter isn't fitting in at her new posh elementary school, Holy Oaks Catholic School. And her hippie mother has swept into town and replaced the family's store of processed foods with seaweed snacks. To top it all off, a late-night phone call from her boss, Peaches Barlowe, has pulled Margie into a very strange murder case, one that involves the Holy Oaks headmaster, George Cavendish.

When the Chatsworth library closes indefinitely, Dodie Fairisle loses her sanctuary. How is a small-town art teacher supposed to cope without the never-ending life advice and enjoyment that books give her? Well, when she’s as resourceful and generous as Dodie, she turns her sunroom into her very own little lending library.

Alisanos, the deepwood, is more than just a forest...it is sentient, and predatory. Home to demons and worse, its mercurial boundaries can suddenly shift miles in any direction to encompass previously safe human lands - and those taken by the deepwood are forever changed. Audrun, a human woman trapped within the forest, is reunited with her four children, only to learn that each has been marked by the deepwood’s wild magic. And her newly born fifth child, captured by a winged demon, is still missing.

Rebecca, caught by the Shifter Bureau in a forbidden area, is charged to help Walker Danielson, on military attachment to the bureau, to find a woman suspected of being abducted by Shifters. Rebecca has no choice but to agree.

When Melissa Francis was eight years old, she won the role of lifetime: playing Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, the little girl who was adopted with her brother (played by young Jason Bateman) by the Ingalls family on the world’s most famous prime-time soap opera, Little House on the Prairie. But behind the scenes, her success was fueled by the pride, pressure, and sometimes grinding cruelty of her stage mother.

Becoming the depraved king's consort was never the plan - neither was being tossed in the turbulent waters of the Crown's court - but Tempest was trained to roll with the punches. Even if it means getting her hands dirty and betraying what her heart wants the most. But being the king's betrothed is no protection. One wrong move and she finds herself in more danger than she ever imagined. Surrounded by too many corrupt enemies and not sure whom to trust, Tempest turns to the only person who is more devious than Destin - the Jester.

One year after joining the Legion of Angels in New York City, Leda Pierce returns home to visit her family in Purgatory, a rough and rugged frontier town that borders the plains of monsters. Leda's family reunion is cut short, however, when her little sisters are captured by supernatural mercenaries. Together with her angel lover Nero, she sets out to save them. Besieged by monsters, assailed by powerful foes, Leda knows this rescue mission won't be easy.

Read by the author. In this grave hour, we long to experience the embrace of infinite love from our Father in heaven. The importance of this great need is owing to an avalanche of problems that are now confronting us. We are hateful, lonely, hurting, scared, and confused. The cruelty in our...

All is not right in the forest realm of Trellis. Birds have left their nests, and bears have abandoned their dens, as a mysterious magic threatens the natural order of the deep, dark woods. Together with a band of knights, Prince Lucas and Clara set out on an adventure that pits them against a dreaded sorcerer's shadow. There's only one problem: How can a shadow be defeated?

Graham McNeil knows that his pack is unruly, but he's not sure he can take the next step toward pack stability. After losing his first mate long ago, Graham has worked hard to keep his heart in check. Besides, even if he was inclined to choose a new mate, his girlfriend, Misty, is human - a fact that won't sit well with Graham's old-fashioned pack.But Misty is going through a crisis of her own, one that brings danger and death to the pack. With the wolves doubly convinced that there needs to be a shake-up, Graham must now defend his leadership.

In a city built on dreams, Trisha Holiday makes her living moving like one. But out of her dancer's costume, she's as down-to-earth as they come. That's why she ignores the admiring note - and the accompanying $1,000 bill - that arrives backstage after one of her ethereal performances. Yet the sender, a wealthy foreign prince, isn't easily dissuaded. Seven years living and studying in the United States have made Malik long for the freedom to choose his own bride - and the woman he wants is Trisha.

When wild child and free spirit Kelsie Dannon returns from her semester abroad after a whirlwind romance, she brings home more than souvenirs. Her heart is freshly broken after being ghosted by the guy she fell for in Paris. Now back at CFU, Kelsie is determined to forget all about Hayes McIntrye with copious amounts of parties and boys who won't break her heart. After a car accident that killed his friend and injured his brother, Hayes is a mess. He thought Paris would put enough distance between him and his problems, but it only created more.

No one plays like Reed Olson, whether it's hockey season or not. After back-to-back NHL championships, he's craving a little R&R. Reed leans to a specific type - blond, busty, and interested - and fortunately he has a little black book full of options. So why is it he can't stop dreaming about the new girl who just moved in next door? A certified brainiac, she seems to want nothing to do with the hard-bodied athlete. Josie Ives desperately needs something her celebrity neighbor obviously doesn't: solitude. Reed is everything she imagined - a little too good-looking.

When Diego Escobar assists in what should be a simple taskof arresting a trespasser, he comes face-to-face with his first Shifter-thebeautiful Cassidy Warden, sister of the Shiftertown leader. Assigned to watchover her, Diego learns more about the lonely, wild Cassidy than it's safe toknow.Diego might be human, but he's virile and darkly handsome, and stirs Cassidy'smating desire, which she thought dead forever. Once the fires begin, nothingand no one can put them out.

With the amulet still stuck around her neck, Addie must outwit her powerful captors who will do anything to get to the power held within the ancient artifact. If they find out she doesn't know how to use it, she's dead.

When the Faction returns to Creel Creek, Constance thinks it's to help solve the mystery surrounding her missing mother. But they have other priorities . . . like the spike in attacks coming from the shadow realm. It doesn't help that Constance has her own demons to face—the kind from hell. Can they work together to rid the world of these threats? And will Constance finally find out what happened to her mother?