Showing results by narrator "Madeleine Dauer" in All Categories

At a meatpacking facility in the Missouri Ozarks, Dee-Dee and her coworkers kill and butcher 40,000 chickens in a single shift. The work is repetitive and brutal, with each stab and cut a punishment to her hands and joints, but Dee-Dee's more concerned with what is happening inside her body. After a series of devastating miscarriages, Dee-Dee has found herself pregnant, and she is determined to carry this child to term. Dee-Dee fled the Pentecostal church years ago, but judgment follows her in the form of regular calls from her mother.

From the start, it's been ingrained in Solomon Sanders's DNA to fight. Fight for what he believes is right. Fight for the people he loves. Fight for survival, so at some point his life will quiet down and find a normal pace. He wasn't ready for the impact his secretive, shy, obviously out-of-place new neighbor was going to have on him. And never in a million years was he prepared to fall head over heels for her and her young daughter.

When your bestie thinks her new boyfriend might be a bookie, you do a little digging. Which is precisely how I ended up in the Falcons' locker room. I didn't expect to find Colter Bayliss naked. Nor did I expect the crazy hockey player to be so bossy. Now, I can't seem to get him out of my hair. He's determined to solve this mystery with me. And the more time I spend with him, the less I want to solve it alone.

17-year-old Sadie is tired of being a good girl. Her Career Aptitude Test results say she's ideally suited for a career in the clergy (a.k.a. a nun), and on top of that, she receives yet another rejection. An aspiring dancer/choreographer, Sadie dreams of being featured on Dancer's Edge - but they say she's too sweet, needs more life experience. Her BFF, Kyle, and her oldest friend, 79-year-old Betty, agree: Sadie is in desperate need of a life makeover.

Who needs a man? They're nothing but a distraction. A disappointment. They sweep you off your feet, promise you forever. Then, as soon as another beautiful woman shows them interest, they leave you crying alone on the sidewalk with your dreams of a life together crushed. And the sexy playboy who keeps showing up everywhere I go is the definition of distraction and inevitable disappointment. I can live without that heartbreak. I have everything I need to make me happy - a job, school, friends, and family that I love. Yep. Mind made up. It's just a shame my heart didn't get the memo.

Wasted, covered in glitter, and wearing the ugliest dress in existence. Also known as: me, the night I stumble into bed with a Fairfield. Cohen isn't my type. I mean, other than his legendary family genes, and a smirk that leaves me as breathless as it does enraged. One night. That's all I want. Then daylight comes, and all I want is to forget him. There's just one problem: that night was too incredible to black out. Actually, there are two problems. Now my sister wants me to be her surrogate. To carry her child. To be pregnant. But, as luck would have it . . . I already am.

He shattered my heart. Rejected me. Rejected my love. He walked away so easily, tossing the three words I told him aside as if they meant nothing. But they meant everything. At least to me. Fine. I'm done. He's pushed me away and turned his back on me one too many times. I've accepted it. Accepted that it's over, despite how I feel. But then why is he acting like it's anything but over?

Charly Johnson created a bucket list when cancer left her mother with less than a year to live. They didn't make it all the way through the list before she died, but she made Charly promise to finish it and live her life to the fullest. Spending the summer in a coastal mountain city in Maine is next on her list. The scenic town is perfect for finding adventure, and the quirky inn owner makes her feel right at home in the guest house. Except for the fact that her new living quarters belong to the owner's grump of a nephew.

After a devastating accident crushed my dreams, I ended up back in my hometown teaching kindergarten. I was trying to make the best of it. That is, until the world I had to leave behind, showed up in my classroom in the form of a five-year-old little girl. Her father living the exact life I almost had. Adam Jacobson is known as the bad boy of rock. While he and his band tour the world, they leave a trail of mayhem. What no one knows is behind the music is a caring, straightedge man with a secret-a daughter who the world is about to discover.

As a small-town librarian, Sarah has her hands full with projects that range from running an in-library day care to planning her best friend's wedding. Romance is a complication she doesn't need...until he walks in.

I only have one love now - the home furnishings business I'm building into an empire. Maybe money and success can't love me back, but they keep what's left of my heart safe. One-night stands are my way of scratching the occasional itch I get for something more. And no one's better for that than a sexy as sin hockey player I'll never see again after one very hot night together.

What should I do with my life? Whether you're just starting out on your journey or you've found yourself at a crossroads and feel the need to change direction, each of us wants to know what our purpose is on this Earth. We want our work and our lives to have meaning and impact far beyond our immediate context. But how do you know what you were meant to do? And once you know...then what?

Wolf shifter and fashion designer Zane Bellamy has a secret: he's "face-blind," unable to recognize people easily no matter how often he's seen them. Victoria Hawthorne has a secret, too, but if she's learned anything from teaching first graders, it's that the best way to keep a secret is to not tell anybody. She and Zane have that in common . . . but absolutely nothing else. Haute couture collides with ordinary life when Vicki wins a dress design by Zane himself.

Wolf shifter and carpenter Jake Rowly left his home town of Virtue straight out of high school and never planned to return. But a broken heart sends him back into the fold, because if there's one thing Virtue doesn't have, it's any chance of romantic complications. Then he meets newcomer Mabs Brannigan, and realizes fate has brought him home again.

I've always hated Cal. We fight constantly. Just the sight of him gets my blood boiling. Problem is, I'm best friends with his sister so it's hard to avoid him. And now we're going to the same college. He's also giving me swimming lessons, but I have no idea why. I swear he's only doing it so he can drown me.

Gaslighting is a targeted form of manipulation, deception, and control that makes you doubt your own perceptions and memories. Whether you've experienced gaslighting or emotional abuse from someone in your life—or you think you might have—Gaslighting gives you the tools to recognize it and the steps to begin healing. Reclaim your independence after gaslighting with this guide to understanding how it works and taking steps toward breaking free.

I'm done. Getting ditched at the altar is nothing compared to being humiliated there in front of three hundred shocked guests. Apparently I'm no good at spotting the signs your man's a cheating liar. So I set off solo on my honeymoon to Hawaii, where I realize I've got this life thing down just fine on my own. Friendships and laughter? Yes. Adventures? Absolutely. But relationships? Hell no. Never again.

I've moved on with my life. I've started over in a new city, with a promising career ahead of me. I have the independence I've always wanted. Needed. I've even started dating again. Kind of. Sort of. The point is, I'm happy. Then why is it that when Rhett unexpectedly shows back up in my life, years later, does just the sight of him leave me breathless? I have no idea why he's here, especially now. But I'll be damned if I let him back into my heart.

When my best friend, who's away on a mission, asks me to find out why his sister isn't answering her phone, there's no way I can say no. He once saved my life from an attempted suicide. Turns out, Nicole had been too busy with work to replace her phone after it broke. With my band, Pushing Limits, taking a few days off from their biggest tour yet, my helping Nicole around the house seems like the perfect way to spend the break. What I didn't expect was for the chemistry between us to be explosive.

A trunk abandoned at Denver's Union Station more than a century ago leads Jillian and Nolan to untangle the mystery of its contents - including correspondence with the head of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency Denver office. While Nolan digs into the legalities of the findings, Jillian searches for the descendants of a stolen identity who might not be who they think they are on Colorado ranch land.