Showing results by narrator "Amy Rubinate" in All Categories

When Tammy Jo's misfiring magic attracts the attention of the World Association of Magic, a wand-wielding wizard and a menacing fire warlock show up to train her for a dangerous, mandatory challenge. But is there more to their arrival than they claim? The town comes unglued when a curse leads to a toxic spill of pixie dust, and the doors between the human and faerie worlds begin to open.

Light from a Distant Star is the moving and powerful story of innocence and betrayal told in the endearingly wise voice of 13-year-old Nellie Peck. It is early summer, and her beloved father’s business is failing. Her mother has to go back to work, and Nellie’s older half sister has launched a troubling search for her birth father. Forced to take care of her shy younger brother, Nellie is determined to make him—and herself—toughen up.

the seed of humanity, on an uninhabited, earthlike planet - a planet they named Home. Zoheret and her companions started settlements and had children of their own. But, as onboard Ship, there was conflict, and soon after their arrival, Zoheret’s old nemesis, Ho, left the original settlement to establish his own settlement far away. When Ho’s daughter, sixteen-year-old Nuy, spies three strangers headed toward their settlement, the hostility between the two groups of old shipmates begins anew and threatens to engulf the children of both settlements.

Two Jewish sisters leave Austria during WWII/Holocaust and find refuge in Sweden. It's the summer of 1939. Two Jewish sisters from Vienna—12-year-old Stephie Steiner and 8-year-old Nellie—are sent to Sweden to escape the Nazis. They expect to stay there six months, until their parents can...

The year is 1981, Reagan is in the White House, and the country is stalled in a recession. Cressida Hartley, a gifted PhD student in economics, moves into her parents' shabby A-frame cabin in the Sierras to write her dissertation. Cress, increasingly resistant to her topic (art in the marketplace), allows herself to be drawn into the social life of the small mountain community.

Ruth Mosby is the VP of operations at Serenity Acres, where the privileged elite go to die. For a hefty fee, wealthy retirees can live the good life in this posh Santa Barbara community - even after they outlive their money. Ruth thinks this is a fine arrangement, but the savvy new boss has a new rule: if you can’t pay, you can’t stay. Ruth is deeply disturbed when destitute residents start dying at an alarming rate, as if on cue.

Lily is the ultimate poor little rich girl, abandoned by her parents and sent to the best Swiss boarding school money could buy. Her parents have a society wedding in mind for her but then Lily meets Harry Kohle, an ambitious young writer.

A lost literary gem of Hollywood in the 1930s, I Lost My Girlish Laughter is a thinly veiled send-up of the actors, producers, writers, and directors of the Golden Age of the studio system.

As times change, so do norms of behavior in the office. 301 Smart Answers to Tough Business Etiquette Questions has the answers you need to survive daily life in the professional environment. Following the same popular Q&A format of her best-selling 301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions, Oliver will tell you how to get the job and how to keep it by navigating all the intricacies of the modern workplace. Where other etiquette guides evoke images of a stilted and stuffy Victorian tea party, Oliver's witty answers to common questions are both engaging and accessible.

The creative writing teacher, the delivery guy, the local Starbucks baristas, his best friend, her roommate, and the squirrel in the park all have one thing in common - they believe that Gabe and Lea should get together. Lea and Gabe are in the same creative writing class. They get the same pop culture references, order the same Chinese food, and hang out in the same places. Unfortunately, Lea is reserved, Gabe has issues, and despite their initial mutual crush, it looks like they are never going to work things out. 

Rich man's son Max McKee had once loved young Skye Donahue - not wisely but well. Insatiably. Endlessly. But shameful family secrets - and dark deception - had wrenched them apart, abruptly shattering their precious dream of forever. Now, across a chasm filled with seven years of bitterness and sorrow, Max once more saw his beloved Skye. Explosive desire erupted anew. But sinister rumors and ugly doubts mocked their long-ago love.

The secret of having an adventure is getting lost. Who ever visited an enchanted kingdom or fell into a fairy tale without wandering into the woods first? Well, Mary is lost. Mary is lost in the story of Little Red Riding Hood, and that is a cruel and murderous story. She's put on the red hood and met the wolf. When she gives in to her wolf's temptations, she will die.

More than anything else, this is a book about love. In this deeply moving account, you will hear about Rambo, a sheep who informs the staff when another animal is in trouble; and Paulie, a former cockfighting rooster who eats lunch with humans; Dino, an old toothless pony who survived a fire; and many more. Alongside these horses, roosters, pigs, sheep, rabbits, cows, and other animals is a staff of loving humans for whom every animal life, even that of a frog rushed to the vet for emergency surgery, has merit.

Sixteen-year-old Suzume is a shadow weaver, trained in the magical art of illusion. She can be anyone she wants to - except herself. Is she the girl of noble birth, trapped by the tyranny of her mother’s new husband, Lord Terayama? A lowly drudge scraping a living in the ashes of Terayama’s kitchens? Or Yue, the most beautiful courtesan in the Moonlit Land? Even Suzume is no longer sure of her true identity. But she is determined to steal the heart of the Moon Prince and exact revenge on her stepfather.

There's only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that's her uncle, the renowned painter, Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her once inseparable older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best...

Brighton Smith doesn't do outrageous. As an insurance actuary, it's her job to assess risk and avoid bad investments. But when her fiancé calls to confess he's married someone else on a whim ("I looked at her and I just knew!"), she snaps.... That night, at a local bar, Jake Sorenson - hot, rich, and way out of her league - buys Brighton a cocktail. At midnight, she kisses him. And by dawn, they're exchanging vows at a drive-through chapel.

Bella Chatham will lose everything - her veterinary practice, her animal shelter, and even her home - if she can't find another source of income, fast. So when her best friend signs her up for the hot new reality television show, Can You Beat a Billionaire, Bella accepts the challenge and hopes against hope she can win the $10 million prize. If she doesn't, it's bye-bye pet clinic and shelter, bye-bye Chance Creek, Montana, and hello to marriage to the billionaire for a year!

Nine-year-old Cynthia Robinson's life was perfectly normal until the day she knew, without being told, of her parents' impending divorce. From there, things got stranger, and now not only does she have premonitions, but she can also read and influence the minds of those around her.

For 14-year-old Lucy Martinez, the moment when everything changes comes one night during a long road trip with her older brother, Jamie, and his friend, Kit. They’re on their way to Phoenix to visit Lucy’s father for spring break, but never quite make it. While driving across northern New Mexico during a blinding rainstorm, their car hits something - an animal, they think. But after backtracking, they find a girl, dead, on the side of the road.

Waincroft Manor has long been tied to rumors of witchcraft and fatal curses, and to Nora Charles, that makes it the perfect place for a Halloween fundraiser. But her first trip to the deserted old mansion turns out to be truly ghoulish when she discovers a dead body. What's more, the corpse is laid out in a coffin—with two bite marks on its neck. Then the autopsy comes back showing that the body was drained of blood, and there's no stopping the local gossips from whispering the word vampire to anyone who will listen.