Showing results by narrator "Melissa" in All Categories

Want to know how to ruin a holiday? Have the guy you gave your virginity to and then dumped you to move to another country show up. Not kidding. It definitely puts a damper on the holiday festivities. Especially when your current boyfriends take an instant seething dislike to him. What's a girl to do? Get falling-down drunk, that's what. At least, there was plenty of pie. On a good note, ex-boyfriends are a much smaller problem to deal with than angry, hungry demons.

Peyton is determined to capture the guy who killed 11 people, but for Tory, the tragedy is a wake-up call to open herself up to more than professional success. She and Peyton learn that love can be found in the most hopeless of places. They escaped death once, but will they survive when Bradley's determined to make his kill rate 100 percent?

Who says you can’t go home again? Philadelphia real estate broker Devyn Winters is at the peak of her career, closing multi-million dollar deals and relishing it. She’s pretty much blocked out her formative years in Dreamer’s Bay, where the most exciting thing to happen was the twice a year bake sale. Unfortunately, a distress call hauls her back home and away from the life she’s constructed. Now the question is just how long until she can leave again? And when did boring Elizabeth Draper get so beautiful?

After watching her best friend Karmen fall in love, Nikki starts to soften to the idea of a happily ever after with Fallen Lords VP Pipe. He's ruggedly handsome with a careless attitude, and it's the exact lethal and sexy combination that breaks Nikki's heart. Pipe Mark cares about one person. A revolving door of women might spend the night in his bed, but they all know the score before they step foot through the door: 1. No promises. 2. One night. They all respect the rules and go on their merry way more than satisfied in the morning. All except Nikki. Nikki makes Pipe want more.

As a renowned chef, Gabriella Russo knows how to season a good dish. It’s her personal life that’s been too spicy for her liking. Ready to take a break from the rollercoaster of romance, Gabriella’s moved to Oregon to open Tangled, a restaurant on the grounds of Tangle Valley Vineyard. A good glass of wine and space to create is all she requires.

As the daughter of an Inari Fox, celestial messenger to the gods, I should have been reverent, wise, and collected like my father. As the daughter of a kitsune queen, I should have been poised and delicate, with just a hint of playfulness to pay homage to the fox spirit within, just like my mother. Unfortunately, genetics can be unpredictable, and they ended up with a hot mess dipped in sarcasm, rolled in spunk, drizzled with sass, and sprinkled with pop-rocks.

A fantastic new cozy mystery series with a vintage flair from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award–winning author Ellen Byron. Twenty-eight-year-old widow Ricki James leaves Los Angeles to start a new life in New Orleans after her showboating actor husband perishes doing a stupid internet...

Can the laws of physics be broken? Are there angels and guides watching over you? Does this supposedly rational universe have room for magic? “Absolutely,” teaches Richard Bartlett, “And that only scratches the surface of what's possible.” Over the years of teaching the technology of consciousness he calls Matrix Energetics, Bartlett and his partner Melissa Joy have seen inexplicable healings, radical transformation, and phenomena so absurd that they can only be called miraculous.

Maddox Delaney wasn’t all that famous; she was well-known by association. Surrounded by her famous, coupled-off friends, Maddox had thought she had her chance at love. So, while a New Year’s Eve Party hosted by some of her closest friends isn’t really her idea of fun, it might just be what she needs. She’s definitely not planning on kissing anyone at midnight. That is, until she meets Avery. As the party unfolds, Maddox and Avery not only keep running into each other; they are finding excuses to. What happens when the clock strikes midnight? One party. One chance.

A rude tourist dies after eating his way up and down the boardwalk, and all eyes fall on Allison, as the police blame her new macarons. The macarons have a secret ingredient that is so delicious it has customers lining up and down the boardwalk - but they are not, she knows, the cause of death. Allison, forced to clear her name and salvage her customers, has no choice but to retrace the victim’s foodie trek up and down the boardwalk, and to figure out what he ate - or who he insulted - that could have gotten him killed.

Going from a professional baseball player to a SWAT officer should’ve been seamless. Should have been. But it wasn’t. All it took was one single calendar shoot for word to spread that Nathan Cox was not only no longer playing professional baseball, but he was also the man behind saving the life of Reggie Morton, the city of Kilgore’s princess. Reggie didn’t know that by agreeing to provide the expertise and the know-how for the Police Officer’s Ball that she would be required to actually attend the function.

Ellison Gamble owns the most successful luxury real estate firm in Boston, but the accomplishment feels hollow when she comes home to an empty house. Institutionalizing her mother for her own safety was the hardest thing Katie Crawford has ever done. The costs are becoming more than she can manage, and her only solution is to sell her childhood home that has fallen into disrepair.

Mary Roberts is an impoverished child living in a council flat in 1950s London. When she and her sister are left at an orphanage by their mother, they don't think their lives can get any worse. Harry Evans is an orphan who finds himself, with Mary and her sister, on board a ship bound for Australia. They're sent to a farm school for children, where abuse and neglect are rife. A journey that will change their lives forever and from which they’ll never return.

In the summer of 1951, 18-year-old Maggie Esh is in need of some hope. Sweet-spirited and uncommonly pretty despite struggling with a debilitating illness, she is accustomed to being treated kindly by the young men of her Old Order Amish church district. Yet no one but Jimmy Beiler ever asks her out, and she always declines, certain he only pities her. To make matters worse, Dat has recently remarried, less than a year after Maggie's mother died. And while her stepmother is kind, she's much younger than Mamm, and she simply doesn't understand Maggie or her illness the way Mamm did.

Blossom Valley, West Virginia, is home to Smythe Orchards, Winnie and her Granny's beloved 25-acre farm and family business. But any way you slice it, it's struggling. That's why they're trying to drum up business with the "First Annual Christmas at the Orchard", a good old-fashioned holiday festival with enough delicious draw to satisfy apple-picking locals and cider-loving tourists alike - until the whole endeavor takes a sour turn when the body of Nadine Cooper, Granny's long-time, grudge-holding nemesis, is found lodged in the apple press.

Jenna Ward is vivacious, spontaneous, and confident - except when she's around the man who stole her heart years earlier, Pete Lacroux. After years of trying to get his attention and overwhelmed from dealing with her mother's new cougar lifestyle, Jenna's giving up on Peter - and is ready to explore other men. When Jenna picks up a hard-bodied construction worker, jealousy ignites Pete's true feelings, and he's unable to ignore the desires for Jenna he never realized he had.

After being raised by my asshole police officer father and my subservient mother, I went off to college with a penchant for outlaw alpha males. I knew Dalton Biskette was in the Selected Sinners MC, and a bad boy; but the night he walked into my bar I had no idea just how bad he really was. Covered in tattoos, muscles, and wearing his cut, he exuded masculinity and sex from his every pore. On the first night he made me laugh, he made me uncomfortable, and he made me have sex with him. Well, the last part’s a lie, I wanted it more than he did.

We're all that stands between Avilion and ruin. The Seelie Palace was destroyed, and the royal family is in danger. But the Unstained Souls aren't done with us. Fortunately, the guys are willing to put their differences aside to search for the princess—and the Queen herself is ready to go on the warpath and destroy all mortals living in the Fae lands. But if we don't find her in time...this might be the end of everything we know.

The Fall Festival is in full swing. Civil War reenactors from three counties are partaking in Blossom Valley's tribute to John Brown. Blue Ridge Mountain foliage is in full bloom. And best of all is Jacob Potter's pumpkin farm where his hay rides, piglet races, pumpkin picking, and corn maze are time-honored draws for locals and tourists alike. That's why it's such a shock when Mr. Potter is found dead, hidden under a tarp in the back of Winnie's pickup truck.

Jack Frost stole me away from Avilion for more than kicks and giggles: Someone is plotting an attempt on Queen Nicnevin's life, and I'm just the dryad to help hunt down the assassin. But the underworld of Annwyn holds more than just knives in the shadows - it holds the secrets of my past and future.