Showing results by narrator "Leslie Howard" in All Categories

As late summer fades into fall, Melinda's efforts at her rented farmhouse are starting to bear fruit. She's learned to preserve produce, outsmart some stubborn chickens, and wrangle a flock of spoiled sheep. She revels in the peace she's found in the country, where time is marked by morning-fresh eggs and stunning sunsets. But even in the small town of Prosper, nothing stays the same. One member of the hardware store's coffee group shares a startling announcement, and a trip back to the city makes Melinda realize how deep her roots run in rural Iowa.

If you are an empath, you understand that your unique sensitivity—unusually high awareness of surrounding emotions and energies—can sometimes feel like a challenge. You may find yourself overwhelmed by large groups, worn out by other people's emotions, or inexplicably uncomfortable in certain places. Finding the time and space, and having the empath-specific tools, to rest, recharge, and reconnect with your own emotions and energy is vital for your self-care. Finally, there's a book that helps you do just that!

Shelley Keegan is an ex-Olympic figure skater whose past has haunted her ever since the entire world saw her take a bad fall during a televised skating routine. Her fall cost the USA the gold medal, and she hasn't been able to get back on the ice since then. As she struggles to find her passion again, she arrives in Snowy Pine Ridge looking for some solace and cheer during the Christmas season. Hoping to avoid awkward questions or gossip, she decides not to tell anyone in the quaint little town who she is—but her hope of remaining anonymous gets more complicated.

Melinda expects to spend January lounging by her farmhouse's fireplace, paging through the seed catalogs' promises of spring. After all, the slower pace of rural life was one of the reasons she'd left the city behind. Instead, she must face her fears when the worst of winter's threats arrive at her door. Braving blizzards to care for her animals, thawing her acreage's water lines, and anxiously watching over the pregnant sheep in her barn fill her shorter days and longer nights. She trudges on because Horace's offer stands firm: He'll sell her the farm in the spring if she still wants to stay.

All thirty-four-year-old Mae Van Dorn wants is to live alone, with little connection to the oodles of people who have always let her down. But she soon finds herself living with her estranged brother in a town she’s never been to and working for the founder of the local megachurch, though she’s as misanthropic as they come. The pastor seems to not be quite as Christian as he should be, but the people in his orbit may just teach Mae that the human race isn’t so bad after all.