Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Family & Relationships

Johanna has had more than enough trauma in her life. She lost her mom in a car accident, and her father went AWOL when Johanna was just a baby. At 16, life is steady, boring...maybe even stifling, since she's being raised by her grandparents who never talk about their daughter, her mother Mandy. Then he comes back: Robert Newsome, Johanna's father, bringing memories and pictures of Mandy. But that's not all he shares. A tragic car accident didn't kill Mandy - it was Johanna, who at two years old, accidentally shot her own mother with an unsecured gun.

At night, Las Mal Criadas own these streets. Sixteen-year-old Nalah leads the fiercest all-girl crew in Mega City. That role brings with it violent throwdowns and access to the hottest "boydega" clubs, but Nala quickly grows weary of her questionable lifestyle. Her dream is to get off the streets and make a home in the exclusive Mega Towers, in which only a chosen few get to live. To make it to the Mega Towers, Nalah must prove her loyalty to the city's benevolent founder and cross the border in a search of the mysterious gang the Ashe Riders.

Tanya has been working at her tavern, the Smiling Snake, since she was able to see above the bar. She broke up her first fight at age eight. By the time she was a teenager, she could run the place with her eyes closed. And now, at seventeen, she’s confident enough that she’d never let anyone take advantage of her—whether it be a drunkard or captain of the Queen’s guard. But when her guardian dies, she might lose it all: the bar, her home, and her purpose in life.

With a rocky start to senior year, cheerleaders and lifelong best friends Eleanor and Chanel have a lot on their minds. Eleanor is still in physical therapy months after a serious concussion from a failed cheer stunt. Chanel starts making questionable decisions to deal with the mounting pressure of college applications. But they have each other's backs - just as always, until Eleanor's new relationship with star quarterback Three starts a rift between them.

The teen reality show Miami Divas made media sensations out of Miami's richest "in" crowd - and Maya Morgan is one of them. Now, Maya's been offered her very own show, and she'll do whatever it takes to step up the fame she's worked so hard for - and that includes spilling some secrets her friends wish were left buried. But as Maya gives up the goods for the sake of ratings, someone will do anything to shut her up. Between back-stabbing lies and hard truths, this gossip girl has only one chance to make things right...before it's too late.

Seventeen-year-old Truth Bangura wants nothing more than to know a life beyond her hometown. Writing and performing is her only solace in a life overwhelmed by a drifting relationship with her best friend, an emotionally turbulent home environment, and the reality that her below-average grades make her true dream—escaping her mother's grasp after graduation—uncertain. When Truth learns she's pregnant by her ex-boyfriend, she makes one decision she's finally sure about: an abortion.

Jip has an assignment from school for spring break: draw a self-portrait. That should be easy for someone who can draw so well. Yet Jip's thoughts keep wandering. To the new boy in class, to beetles and fireflies, to twilight dreaming, to the party next Friday, and especially to the boy who changed Jip's world once and for all.

GLORY IS FAMOUS FOR TWO THINGS: businesses that front for seedier—if not illegal—enterprises, and the suicides that happen along the Indigo River. Mars is desperate to escape the “bed-and-breakfast” where her mother works as a prostitute—and where her own eventual fate has been decided—and she wants to give her little sister a better life.

Twins Bianca and Leila could not be more different from each other. Being both Argentinian and Iranian in a small town has always been hard, but with Leila shunning her heritage and Bianca embracing it, the two walk very different paths. They run in different circles of friends and barely talk anymore. Leila’s a homebody who loves to craft and plans on marrying her high school sweetheart. Bianca’s more antiestablishment and plans to get out of Dodge as soon as humanly possible. But on their eighteenth birthday, the neighbor’s barn mysteriously burns down.

Inez is missing, but missing things can always be found. Mae knows this as fact, even though the police investigation has come to a standstill, even though her parents are moving on. But when she goes to clear out her older sister’s studio, Mae finds a mess of research and an old white canvas set in an ornate gold frame. The closer Mae gets to the canvas, the more difficult it becomes to pull her eyes away from its mottled surface. Its heavy layer of white paint. The peeling top corner she’s tempted to pull to see what’s beneath. But she doesn’t. Not yet.

When Lou enlists her best friend, Molly, to shave her head, it’s partly so she doesn’t have to deal with washing her hair all the time while on tour—and partly because she’s ready to be a new person. No stranger to reinventing herself, restless Lou is a Cuban-American girl who’s never left Texas, let alone the country. But the “New Lou” has deferred her first semester at Texas State to work for a celebrity musician on tour.

There are five towns in the U.S. named “Normal” and seventeen-year-old Gemma Leonardo plans on visiting every one of them. Right after she escapes Children’s Hospital in Harrisburg, where she’s being treated for anorexia. Enter Lucas Polizzi, a high school wrestler with bulimia and, more importantly to Gemma, a getaway car. Sick of being told they’re sick, Gemma and Lucas team up for a themed road trip to “the Normals” on one condition—they can’t mention food, ever.

For a few weeks every summer, Sara was Mandy's best friend. At Highmark, the lake resort where their families vacationed, the two were in a world of their own. Or at least Mandy got to be part of Sara's world. But now Sara's dead. The police ruled her death an accident; a tragic mistake after a night of impaired judgment. For the past year, Mandy's coped by escaping: leaving home and barely keeping it together at school. The last thing she wants to do is return to Highmark this summer—even if she does need "closure."

Turtle is scavenging a drowned town when she saves a stranger’s life. There’s something special about Kai—an attraction she’s never felt before. She would do anything to see him again. But Turtle can never truly be with Kai, because Kai is Normal, and Turtle is one of the Mer, kids whose genes were illegally hacked before birth and who now have working gills as well as lungs. Turtle lives on an old cruise ship with the other Mer in order to be close to the water she needs to survive.

Senior year is going to be perfect. Meghan won't settle for anything less. She's already crushing her classes and dating the star of the basketball team. Nate's friends have been less than welcoming, but it's never easy being one of the only Black kids at a mostly white prep school. Still, Meghan did not expect the scene at pep rally. Robin and Bria dated Nate too. Correction: are dating him. He never broke up with them, and Meghan is furious.

Diego Benevides works hard. His single mother encourages him to stay focused on school, on getting into college, on getting out of their crumbling neighborhood. That’s why she gave him her car. Diego’s best friend, Lawson, needs a ride? because Lawson is dealing. As long as Diego’s not carrying, not selling, it’s cool. It’s just weed. But when Lawson starts carrying powder and pills and worse, their friendship is tested and their lives are threatened.

For over a century, the Blackwells have protected the town of Hollow Cliff from vengeful spirits. Seventeen-year-old Nev is ready to take over for her ailing grandmother as the town’s witch protector—unlike her mother, who left when Nev was a child and never looked back. When a stranger arrives at Blackwell House of Spirits to fill a tour guide opening, Nev reluctantly offers him the job. Nev doesn’t trust Cal. He knows more than he’s letting on about Blackwell House—and about Nev herself.

The ship was built for one thing: to carry the delegations of two warring nations into neutral waters, where the heads of state would sign a peace treaty and end the war that has been raging for a generation. When it goes down, a pair of survivors—Cora, daughter of a Duran newspaper reporter, and Vivienne, lady’s maid to an Ariminthian princess—wash up on a remote island. At first, it seems like they have nothing in common—not even whether or not they want to be rescued. But the arrival of a pirate ship brings them to the realization that they do have a shared purpose: peace.

Rat Evans knows that they shouldn’t have made a deal with Isola, a shadowy raven knight older than the stars and more powerful than the strongest arcanists. They know Isola can’t be trusted, know that promising to go with her once all of this is over was a mistake. But they’d needed to make sure their friends were safe—that Harker was safe, even though they’re still not sure if he’s a friend or a rival or something more complicated. And even if Isola’s been keeping him locked away at the tower for almost two months.

Chronically ill seventeen-year-old Ivy has stayed inside baking all summer—pies are better than people, and they don’t trigger her social anxiety. So when her (also) chronically ill mom and sister cook up a plan to get Ivy out of the house and into a support group, Ivy doesn’t expect to say more than a few words. And she certainly doesn’t expect Grant. Grant is CUTE: class-clown cute, perfectly-messy-hair cute, will-always-text-you-back cute. There’s an instant connection between them. He has the same illness as her—juvenile rheumatoid arthritis—and he actually understands Ivy’s world.