Showing results by narrator "Abby Craden" in All Categories

Brady Marshall has made a career of playing it safe. When he decides to do something rash and becomes a Navy SEAL, he thinks he's finally escaped the rigid structure of the high society life his parents forced down his throat. All he does is trade in one set of rules for another. He follows military protocol to a T, but it still results in the death of an entire team of Navy SEALS and puts his best friends directly in harm's way.

Adults have forgotten the feel of a teenager's love. For you a teenager will walk through glass doors, stay awake three days in a row, be an angel standing under your window in the rain. So what that we don't know how to order from the butcher or apply foundation or insert a diaphragm? Show us. So advises Paige Bergman, a high school student who falls in love with housewife Fiona Gallagher in Jane Summer's lyrical debut novel, The Silk Road.

Acclaimed author Lauren Slater ruminates on what it means to be family. Lauren Slater's rocky childhood left her cold to the idea of ever creating a family of her own, but a husband, two dogs, two children, and three houses later, she came around to the challenges, trials, and unexpected rewards of playing house. In these autobiographical pieces, Slater presents snapshots of domestic life, populating them with the gritty details and jarring realities of sharing home, life, and body in the curious institution called "family."

Nineteen-year-old Whit Conrad leaves her conservative Pennsylvania home for sunny California, looking for independence, a fresh start, and a place to stash her grief. She promptly finds a job at a tattoo parlor, a craptastic first apartment, and one friend - Ryan - who is a little less friend, a little more benefits. Deo Beckett is a soulful surfer with a passion for tattoos and beautiful women. On the eve of his twenty-second birthday, he finds himself living with his grandfather, recently unemployed, and seriously adrift.

Dylan Carroll, an ambitious college student filmmaker still reeling from the death of her brother, may have just stumbled upon the opportunity of a lifetime. Musician Kai White is in the middle of a public relations nightmare, and he may be keeping a secret that could turn things around. His manager/publicist wants to create a Web series aimed at cleaning up his image. There's also a promising offer at stake if Dylan can abide by the rule of staying strictly professional, and if she can figure out what Kai is hiding. But Kai and Dylan already have an undeniable connection, and when they are together, they discover that rules are pretty easy to break.

One day a young girl, Trot, encounters a strange young boy with a big umbrella. She learns his name is Button Bright and he uses this umbrella to go on long journeys. Trot's friend, Cap'n Bill, joins the two children and they venture to a fantastical island, which they call Sky Island, as it is halfway in the sky.

Cohen Rodriguez, Deo's hilarious, über responsible best friend in Lengths, got dumped by his longtime girl because he's "not impulsive enough," and he's burned up. But maybe, just maybe, she's more right than he wants to admit. So he starts to date. A lot. But no one really feels like the one. And the more girls he dates, the more Cohen's convinced she isn't really out there. Luckily he has Maren - the girl with the sexy voice who always cracks the best jokes. They've been talking daily for a year…on the phone. What started as all work soon blooms into friendship.

There's no place like home, they say."Hello, I'm Nina Parker…and I'm an alcoholic." For Nina, it's not the weighty admission but the first steps toward recovery that prove most difficult. She must face her ex-husband, Hunt, with little hope of making amends, and try to rebuild a relationship with her angry teenage daughter, Meagan.

In Every Little Thing in the World, Nina de Gramont turns a familiar predicament teen pregnancy into an unforgettable journey.

Max Dutton, a starting NFL linebacker for the Los Angeles Condors, is certain he's going to die young, since his father and grandfather both passed away at an early age. Believing his life will be cut short, Max lives every moment to its fullest. For this reason, Max also shies away from forming close relationships. What would be the point of falling in love and starting a family, only to leave them as his father left him and his sisters? Nutrition expert Kari Murphy used to think Max Dutton was to die for. She's older and wiser now.

Melanie Hoffert longs for her rural North Dakota home with its grain trucks and empty main streets. But like many, she followed the out-migration pattern to a more urban life. When she returns home during harvest to confront the silences that have kept her at arm’s length from her childhood community, she finds it’s not easy. When asked if she's found a “fella,” rather than explain that she dates women, she stops breathing and changes the subject.

With Come to Win, Venus Williams, the multiple Grand Slam tennis champion and entrepreneur, along with an esteemed group of business leaders, politicians, and acclaimed artists, serves up a book of wisdom that shows how to turn a competitive spirit and athletic background into success off the playing field.

Today's teenagers spend about nine hours per day online. Parents of this ultra-connected generation struggle with decisions completely new to parenting: Should an 8-year-old be allowed to go on social media? How can parents help their children gain the most from the best aspects of the digital age? How can we keep kids safe from digital harm?

For cowboy and firefighter Jake Ramsay, Christmas at Thunder Mountain Ranch is all about family, food, and celebration. Okay, and maybe a chance to run into his high-school sweetheart, singer Amethyst Ferguson. Six months ago, they had a scorching-hot, wild reunion - and this cowboy can't wait for another chance to play with fire.

In Real Women, Real Leadership, 24 women leaders describe their personal journeys to the top, providing deep insight and a fascinating perspective on "making it" as a woman in the male-dominated business environment. They discuss their experiences and offer guidance on topics such as balancing family and career, building alliances, mentoring and being mentored, and overcoming obstacles in the business world, which is still dominated by men in the senior levels of management.

As the tulips bloom and the Nazis tighten their grip across the city, the last signs of Dutch resistance are being swept away. Marijke de Graaf and her husband are arrested and deported to different concentration camps in Germany. Marijke is given a terrible choice: to suffer a slow death in the labor camp or join the camp brothel. On the other side of the barbed wire, SS officer Karl Müller arrives at the camp hoping to live up to his father’s expectations of wartime glory. When he encounters the newly arrived Marijke, this meeting changes their lives forever.

The cooking lessons that stick with us are rarely the ones we read in books or learn through blog posts or YouTube videos (depending on your generation); they're the ones we pick up as we spend time with good cooks in the kitchen. Dorothy Kalins, founding editor of Saveur magazine, calls the people who pass on their cooking wisdom her Kitchen Whisperers. Consciously or not, they help make us the cooks we are—and help show the way to the kind of cooks we have the potential to become.

Nothing surprises SWAT alpha Hale Delaney—he's seen almost everything since he became a werewolf. But when he goes head-to-head with Dallas's newest supernatural villain and is saved by the woman he loved and lost a decade ago, his world is turned upside down. Karissa Bonifay has always been fierce and capable, but now she's a sword-wielding warrior in her own right.

The problem with Jenna Malone is that she's werewolf Trevor McCall's best SWAT buddy's sister. Trevor suspects she's The One, but how the heck can he make a move? When Jenna invites Trevor to visit her in Los Angeles, he has his chance. But what's hiding in LA is much more dangerous and complicated than any of the SWAT team could have guessed, and Jenna's right in the middle of it . . .

After K-9 handler Kara Wolfe witnesses her childhood friend Beau O’Connor survive a targeted hit-and-run, she’s shocked to learn his mother’s missing. And Beau, who can no longer recognize familiar faces after an earlier attack, can’t shake the feeling these terrifying incidents are somehow connected. With the tracking skills of her blind bloodhound, Kara will help Beau locate his mother—but someone will do anything to sabotage their search. With the culprit on their trail, can they uncover a sinister plot…before their rescue mission turns into a fight for survival?