Showing results by narrator "Rudy" in All Categories

Jake McGraw is a man on the run from half the universe. After stumbling upon what seems to be the fabled roadmap to the stars, Jake must outrun the most detestable vermin and roadbugs in the galaxy and the only thing separating him from them is his tattered starrig. In the lawless region of space Jake must keep his rig running if he knows what's good for him. He has something that everyone wants and they will stop at nothing to get it. But how long can he keep going on the road where there is no relief for light years?

Will Finch, a San Francisco crime reporter, is drawn to a small Oregon town where a murder exposes dangerous secrets. The local sheriff controls the town with an iron grip, determined to block Finch's investigation at every turn. At the center of the case is the victim's fiancée, a senator's daughter, whose silence only deepens the mystery. As Finch follows the trail, he uncovers a web of corruption and betrayal stretching far beyond the wilderness. The truth could cost him everything.

With a nation seemingly more divided than ever, many worry that Americans risk losing ground on solving the complex, interrelated problems the country faces - including rising inequality, the specter of climate change, astronomical health care costs, and economic stagnation. The renowned economist Jeffrey D. Sachs offers a practical approach to move America toward a new consensus: sustainable development.

When a professional skateboarder disappears under mysterious circumstances, a podcaster seems to be the only person interested in finding him. She has her own motivations, of course, and so begins an exploration into the little-known and unpredictable world of international skateboarding. Walker Ryan’s second novel is a tale of complicated friendships, hesitant romance and unexpected adventure.

Told from the fresh and personal perspective of twenty-six-year-old Crimson Education CEO and Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford graduate Jamie Beaton, Accepted! is an honest and practical guide on beating the odds and getting into Ivy League and other elite schools-the smart way. Beaton takes you behind the doors of the world's top college admissions offices, revealing the highly strategic selection processes applied by institutions whose reputations depend on the number of students they admit, or more pointedly, the tens of thousands that they don't.

Archer, the AI at the dating service Q*pid, realizes humans don't always make the best choices, so it begins making some unconventional choices for them. Fox Kincade is the last of his group of friends to be single, so he's delighted when he discovers a new match in his Q*pid app. Instead of the woman he's expecting, he's paired with Drew Larsen. Drew and Fox have little in common - aside from the fact that they're both straight. Or so they thought. But as the guys get to know each other, they realize Archer might have the right idea.

I hope that by now you've lost any illusions you had about the Selected being some kind of elite force of intelligent civilization, chosen to fight against Universal Evil. So far, the only evil I've seen is the buggy System and the lack of basic sanitary facilities while we're adventuring. Also, it would be a real stretch to describe my companions as "elite". As for all the problems that come with being Selected—well, we can handle them!

Sheppard's devotion to his club was unquestionable. He would do anything for them, including giving his own life to protect his brothers. He proved that the day he took a bullet for Bishop, the president of the Devil Chaser's MC. He thought his life was over when he fell into the lake and got dragged under by the fast-paced current. Ana's world was crashing down around her. Her lifelong dream of becoming a doctor was being threatened. She felt lost, and she was quickly losing hope. The day she stumbled across a body by the lake, her instinct to save his life overwhelmed her.

When the Blackout arrives, Dax Harper finds himself alone and fighting for survival on the chaotic streets of New Orleans. He is on the run, desperately searching for his estranged sister as the riots intensify. An unexpected encounter with his ex-girlfriend thrusts Dax into a leadership position—one he's not sure he can accept. As the hours pass, the city floods, pitting Dax in an epic battle against time and a mysterious new enemy threatening the future of humankind.

Thea Glenheim's new next-door neighbor turns her small town upside down. Trace Della's handsome, successful, and committed to helping high-risk boys. And he's changing things in ways a lot of people don't like. One in particular. Bad things begin happening on Trace's property, and troublemakers compete with each other to stop him in his mission to provide a place for kids who need help. All the while Thea is caught in the middle, between the people she's known all her life and this new man in town. He's a mover and shaker. She's a quiet piano teacher. Yet opposites attract, don't they?

The Los Angeles Firestorm killed over a hundred thousand people, set in revenge against necromancer Eric Carter for defying the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. Carter feels every drop of that blood on his hands. But now there's a new problem. Too many ghosts in one spot and the barrier separating them from the living cracks. And when they cross it, they feed off all the life they can get hold of. People die. LA suddenly has a lot more ghosts.

Eighteen-year-old Aribelle Weever has been on the run for the past two years. She and her cousin are being hunted by a group of crazed panther shifters. Ari is a Potential. It is said that Potentials unlock a great power from within their fated mates. The panthers don't care about fate, though, only power. She will not give up her freedom without a fight, but she can't shake her fear. Everything changes when she moves to the little town of Winago Heights....

When Eric Carter helps a friend with a deadly ritual that could determine the fate of the most powerful mage family in Los Angeles he steps into the middle of centuries-long feuds with people who make the Borgias look like the Brady Bunch. Eric's just fine with the murder, soul eaters, and death magic. He's just having trouble adjusting to being brought back from the grave. If he's not careful, somebody's going to put him right back.

Gnat is on his voyage with the Shiamiru, all the while trying to find backup for humanity among the great spacefaring races. After all, based on what he's already seen, he knows not to count on the good sense of his own kind. Even facing an external threat, the people of our Earth cannot see past their internal squabbles and come together to fight as one. Gnat does not expect gratitude from his leaders for taking such matters into his own hands, but when have laws and rules ever stopped our intrepid hero before?

Thalia Lyndhoven was born a Pack Princess, but that doesn't mean she has to act like one. Good thing; peeing on her fathers' front lawn is way too much fun, as is making nasty Betas shiver and shake when she approaches. Trouble is, for nearly a decade, Thalia has been alone. Exiled to her wing in the palace because her parents don't know what's wrong with her. Well, she's tried telling them but they don't listen - when do parents ever listen? Still, what's a girl to do? Is it any wonder she has anger issues when she has visions of her three mates with other women? 

Once upon a time, a beautiful queen was cursed by a dark faery. That curse, inherited by twin princesses, Aura and Luna, binds their lives in the strangest of ways. At an early age, the girls were more than sisters. They were the strongest of allies until a combination of jealousy, anger, and dark magic tore their relationship to shreds. Aura took everything from Luna: her home, her family, and her love by murdering the prince who'd chosen her instead of Aura. Luna wants revenge, but she's running out of time. 

In his stunningly intimate, highly anticipated follow up to Helium, Rudy Francisco has created a collection of poems that savor the day-to-day, treating it as worship, turning it into an opportunity to plant new seeds of growth.

Courtney is a curvy, feisty bombshell who has watched her friends be swept off their feet by the alpha men of the Devil Chaser's Motorcycle Club. She thinks she has met her match when she falls for one of the MC bad boys, but a vindictive act against the Devil Chasers will change her forever. After surviving a horrific accident, Courtney is badly shaken by the uncertainty of her life. Her doubts and fears rise to the surface as she reevaluates everything she holds dear.

Anyone who has ever crammed for a test, capitulated to a grade-grubbing student, or fretted over a child's report card knows that the way we assess student learning in American schools is freighted with unintended consequences. As experts agree, our primary assessment technologies—grading, rating, and ranking—don't actually provide an accurate picture of how students are doing in school. In Off the Mark, Jack Schneider and Ethan Hutt explain how we got into this predicament, why we remain beholden to outmoded forms of assessment, and what we can do to change course.

Return to the world of Wicked Lovely! Listen to an all-new Dark Court short story. "Love Hurts" catches up with Irial, Niall, and Leslie - and offers clues about the Wicked Lovely prequel novel, Cold Iron Heart. Tales of Folk & Fey also includes "Old Habits" and "Stopping Time" (previously published Wicked Lovely Dark Court stories) and two previously published selchie short stories ("Awakened" and "Love Struck"). As a bonus, the collection also includes "Carnival of Lies", a prequel story to the 2012 novel, Carnival of Secrets.