Showing results by narrator "Natalie Naudus" in All Categories

Before the massacre at Nariin, Enebish was one of the greatest warriors in the Sky King’s Imperial Army: a rare and dangerous Night Spinner, blessed with the ability to control the threads of darkness. Now, she is known as Enebish the Destroyer - a monster and murderer, banished to a monastery for losing control of her power and annihilating a merchant caravan. Guilt stricken and scarred, Enebish tries to be grateful for her sanctuary, until her adoptive sister, Imperial Army commander Ghoa, returns from the war front with a tantalizing offer.

From the vulnerable and disenfranchised to the educated and privileged, the characters in this extraordinary collection embody the diversity of the Chinese diaspora past and present. In these deeply affecting stories, Jack Wang subverts expectations as he captures the hope, pain, and sacrifices of the millions who journey into the unknown to create better lives, and he explores the shifting boundaries of morality, the intimacies and failings of love, and the choices circumstances force us to make.

Join mother and daughter as they wade through the trenches of flowers and favors, grueling gown decisions…and the cold, cruel realities of a budget. With luck, love and loads of patience, they come out on the other side, bloodied but unbowed, replete with life lessons - and closer than ever before.

“Wholly transportive and spellbinding. I was beguiled.” —Ling Ma, bestselling author of Severance and Bliss Montage “A fascinating account of a remarkable woman dangerously ahead of her time.” —Kevin Kwan, bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians “Exquisitely researched, deeply felt...

Nancy Luo is shocked when her former best friend, Jamie Ruan, top-ranked junior at Sinclair Prep, goes missing and then is found dead. Nancy is even more shocked when word starts to spread that she and her friends - Krystal, Akil and Alexander - are the prime suspects, thanks to 'the Proctor', someone anonymously incriminating them via the school’s social media app. They all used to be Jamie’s closest friends and she knew each of their deepest, darkest secrets. Now, somehow the Proctor knows them, too.

When two strangers are linked by a mail-in DNA test, it’s an answered prayer- that is, for one half sister. For the other, it will dismantle everything she knows to be true. But as they step into the unfamiliar realm of sisterhood, the roles will reverse in ways no one could have foreseen. Caroline lives a full, happy life - thriving career, three feisty children, enviable marriage, and a close-knit extended family. She couldn’t have scripted it better. Except for one thing: She’s about to discover her fundamental beliefs about them all are wrong.

Lexa Thomas has never quite fit in. Having grown up in a family of blondes while more closely resembling Constance Wu, she's neither White enough nor Asian enough. Visiting her father in Taiwan as a child, Lexa thought she'd finally found a place where she belonged. But that was years ago, and even there, some never truly considered her to be a part of the family. When her estranged father dies unexpectedly, leaving the fate of his Taiwanese family in Lexa's hands, she is faced with the choice to return to Taiwan and claim her place in her heritage.

Even after defeating her murderer, Prince Ren, Mingshin has no time to rest. The youngest prince's shocking death leaves the royal family shaken, and Mingshin is determined to get answers. She soon discovers that Wen was killed by a magical olfactory-delivered poison that drove him to suicide. But which dark sorcerer is responsible? The Night Dragon, Ren's shadowy master, has yet to show his face. Mingshin knows it is only a matter of time before he discovers that she carries the immensely powerful Divine Stone.

On the run from an abusive man, Megan Liu and her mom find work cleaning an ancient Beijing opera house in exchange for room and board. Meeting Kristy, the lead performer of the theater’s current show, ignites Megan’s long-buried singing ambition. But Kristy’s hiding something; and digging into her secrets, Megan uncovers more mysteries—including her mom’s childhood connection to the theater and a decades-old murder. The more Megan learns, the more her dreams and reality begin to blur. Something’s calling her from deep within the opera house, and it’s ravenous…

On the night of the Hungry Ghost Moon, when spirits can briefly return to the living world, Jodi Wu and her best friend sneak into Portland’s Chinese Garden and Ghost Museum. Kneeling before the pond where Jodi’s toddler drowned one year before, they leave food offerings and burn joss paper—and Jodi prays that Ella’s ghost will return for the night. To distract Jodi from her grief, the two friends tell each other ghost stories as they explore the museum.

On a university campus in rural Qixian, Lin and Liz make an improbable pair: Lin, a Chinese student closer to her menagerie of pets than to her peers, and Liz, a Chinese American teacher grieving her mother’s sudden death. They’re each met with hostility—Lin by her classmates, who mock her for dating a white foreigner; Liz by her fellow English teachers, who exploit their privilege—and forge an unlikely friendship. After a startling betrayal that results in Lin’s expulsion, they swap places. Lin becomes convinced to pursue her degree at a community college near Liz’s Ohio hometown.

Hoping to revive her dishonored clan’s forbidden magic, sorceress Brehane just wants to find a lost teacher and bring him home. Instead, she finds herself trapped in a foreign port, where warring crime factions vie for control of the city’s pyramid. Local Diviner, Cassius Larusso, knows why: atop the pyramid sparkles a Dragonstone, preventing the Orc Gods from returning to the world.

When the immortal Runemaster Imperator unleashed the Hellstorm on a rival empire three centuries ago, the cataclysm sundered his own realm. In the aftermath, new kingdoms and city-states emerged, all vying for dominance. Now, half-elf Jie, on her mission to track down a clan traitor, finds herself embroiled in the latest conflict. She's joined by Paladin Sameer, who hopes to turn his beloved from the path of darkness; Mystic Brehane, looking to rescue her rival from kidnappers; and Diviner Cassius, who must decide whether or not to betray Brehane.

The Plan was simple: find a cure for the cancer that nearly took her sister’s life. But for Zoey Fong, something about The Plan isn’t working anymore. Maybe it’s her unsuccessful research, maybe it’s burnout. But when a crucial tissue sample accidentally winds up in the hands of a very distracting—and disarmingly handsome—visitor, Zoey jumps at the chance to follow him home to retrieve it.

Holly-Mei Jones has finally settled into her new friend group in Hong Kong—that is until suddenly everyone starts talking about dating. Which Holly-Mei is not ready for. At least she has her school’s Experience Week to look forward to. Holly-Mei can’t wait to show off Taiwan, where her beloved Ah-Ma is from, to her friends. The trip is going to be perfect…right? Maybe not. On top of the pressure to date, Holly-Mei starts to wonder if maybe being half-Taiwanese isn’t enough. In the face of these big questions, will Holly-Mei be able to finally feel like she belongs?

The stories in this anthology range from quietly strange to ambitiously speculative. Humans transform into cosmic energy or sentient algae. A man wakes up in a new body in a world with continents cut out, months absent from the calendar year, and souls misplaced. Students at a high school regularly vanish without a trace. A woman descends into the depths of the ocean and encounters all-knowing creatures who may have the answers to her deepest questions.

The third collection in the Music and Murder Mystery Series, Back in Black features one story for each song from the seminal hard rock album of the same name. This book showcases ten brilliant mystery writers at the top of their game, including Reed Farrel Coleman, Heather Graham, Tori Eldridge, Ward Larsen, and Andrew Child, among others.

In Shadow Lab, a brilliant roster of speculative fiction writers pulls listeners into a diverse and genre-bending collection of stories, each as irresistible as the last.

In this hard-hitting and deeply personal book, a combination of manifesto and memoir, scholar, sociologist, and activist Bianca Mabute-Louie transforms the ways we understand race, class, citizenship, and the concept of assimilation and its impact on Asian American communities from the nineteenth century to present day.

For some, the only way to possess magic is to steal it from others. Born without magic, Davis is an outcast in his own shapeshifter family. Yearning for his father’s approval, he sets down a path that intertwines with Iris, a girl whose own ambitions are hindered by a mysterious illness. Their quest leads to Yuras, one of California’s smallest towns, unremarkable until they discover a cave of magic-transferring stones. Now they have a chance to change their fates. But they’re not alone.