Showing results by narrator "Ann Marie Gideon" in All Categories

Julia Dorning is about to lose it. Between her over-the-top wedding that her sister, Anna, took upon herself to create and the understaffed popular bakery she runs, she can barely find time to breathe. All Julia ever wanted was a quaint wedding on the beach with family and friends. But now, Julia has to contend with not only her sister's plans, but those of her future mother-in-law, as well. Not wanting to step on anyone's toes, especially her mother-in-law's, Julia just goes along with it. She can only take so much, though.

As the fourth daughter of the perpetually in-mourning Queen Victoria, Princess Louise’s life is more a gilded prison than a fairy tale. Expected to sit quietly next to her mother with down-cast eyes, Louise vows to escape the stultifying royal court. Blessed with beauty, artistic talent, and a common touch, she creates a life outside the walled-in existence of the palace grounds by attending the National Art Training School—where she shockingly learns to sculpt nude models while falling passionately in love with famed sculptor Joseph Edgar Boehm.

From the time she was a young girl, Luisa Voekler has loved solving puzzles and cracking codes. Brilliant and logical, she's expected to quickly climb the career ladder at the CIA. But while her coworkers have moved on to thrilling Cold War assignments--especially in the exhilarating era of the late 1980s--Luisa's work remains stuck in the past decoding messages from World War II. When Luisa Voekler discovers a secret cache of letters written by the father she has long presumed dead, she learns the truth about her grandfather's work, her father's identity, and why she has never progressed.

A Vegas cocktail waitress. An Indian herbalist. A British chemistry professor. An Italian-American widow. Four unique women with one thing in common: Each is haunted by a tragedy from her past. Cynthia, Rohini, Jane, and Angela meet on a food blogging site and bond over recipes. On impulse, they decide to open The Secret Spice, an elegant cafe on the magnificent ocean liner, the RMS Queen Mary, currently a floating hotel in Long Beach, California. Rich in history and tales of supernatural occurrences, the ship hides her own dark secrets.

Since Bailey Rae Rigby’s adoptive aunt Winnie passed, Bent Oak, South Carolina, doesn’t have much of a hold on her anymore. So it seems. Bailey Rae aims to settle the small estate and, armed with her aunt’s inspiring personal cookbook, buy a food truck with an ocean view in Myrtle Beach. Everything goes awry when a distraught young mother arrives in town clutching a copy of that same cookbook. Embedded inside is a code that promises a safe place in Bent Oak for desperate women on the run. For Bailey Rae it opens up a world of questions.

From acclaimed authors Aimie K. Runyan, J'nell Ciesielski, and Rachel McMillan comes an evocative, three-part novel about a thread of connection during World War I--a single scarf that links three extraordinary women, each battling societal expectations, enduring the devastations of war, and striving for personal growth amidst the chaos.

Ben orders daily room service while living in a five-star hotel. Olivia collects luxury-brand sneakers worn by celebrities. Dakota jets off to Rome when she needs to avoid drama at school. Welcome to the inner circle of New York’s richest families, where academia is an obsession, wealth does nothing to soothe status anxiety and parents will try just about anything to gain a competitive edge in the college admissions rat race.

Diana, Catherine, Meghan...glamorous Princess Margaret outdid them all. Springing into post-World War II society, and quite naughty and haughty, she lived in a whirlwind of fame and notoriety. Georgie Blalock captures the fascinating, fast-living princess and her “set” as seen through the eyes of one of her ladies-in-waiting.

Five-year-old Sloane McBride couldn’t sleep that night. Her parents were arguing again, their harsh words heating the cool autumn air. Then there was that other sound - the ominous thump before all went quiet. In the morning, her mother was gone. The official story was that she left. Her loving, devoted mother! That hadn’t sat any better at the time than it did when Sloane moved out at 18, anxious to leave her Texas hometown in search of anywhere else. But not even a fresh start working as a model in New York could keep the nightmares at bay. Or her fears that her father is deadly.

American Amelia Montague defied her family five years ago to marry the man she loved, but that decision cost her everything. Disowned by her family, and left a penniless widow after her husband’s death, Amelia becomes her cousin Wallis Simpson’s private secretary in France. With no other prospects available, Amelia has no choice but to succeed, and under their Aunt Bessie’s direction, hopes to have a positive influence on Wallis and the Duke of Windsor. During the next two years, Amelia realizes that not everything with the Windsors is glittering happiness.

They say you can't have your cake and eat it too. But who would want a cake they couldn't eat? Just ask Emma Rae Travis about that. A baker of confections who is diabetic and can't enjoy them. When Emma meets Jackson Drake, the escapee from corporate America who is starting a wedding destination hotel to fulfill a dream that belonged to someone else, this twosome and their crazy family ties bring new meaning to the term "family circus". The Atlanta social scene will never be the same!

Inspired by Sarah DiGregorio’s harrowing experience giving birth to her premature daughter, Early is a compelling and empathetic blend of memoir and rigorous reporting that tells the story of neonatology - and explores the questions raised by premature birth. The heart of many hospitals is the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). It is a place where humanity, ethics, and science collide in dramatic and deeply personal ways as parents, doctors and nurses grapple with sometimes unanswerable questions: When does life begin? When and how should life end?

It's taken Audrey Regan years to establish herself as a wedding dress designer, and to date she's been roped into creating dresses for nine of her girlfriends. Request number 10 follows her vow to "just say no!" and comes from her very best friend. She can hardly turn Carly down! Audrey arrives in Atlanta early to perform all of her maid-of-honor duties along with final fittings for a one-of-a-kind dress.

Karissa Newcomb is ready for a new start in a new neighborhood, as far away as she can get from Seattle, where her husband cheated on her with the neighbor who was supposed to be her best friend. She and her nine-year-old daughter are moving on to the city of Gig Harbor on the bay in Puget Sound. She even has a new job as an assistant at a small publishing company right in Gig Harbor. Her new boss seems like a bit of a curmudgeon, but a job is a job, she loves to read, and the idea of possibly meeting writers sounds fabulous.

Tyler Rigby left his ritzy nightlife in New York City when he sold his half of the Online poker company for more than six billion dollars. When he needs a date for a high society function, he looks no further than the beach yoga instructor his dog has led him to several times. But Tawny Loveless isn't impressed with Tyler's lack of social skills - even if he did bring her favorite drink as a peace offering. When her dangerous ex-boyfriend shows up at the gala, she introduces Tyler as her fiance, much to his surprise.

As a wedding planner, Sherilyn Caine should have the perfect wedding experience.... After all, she just landed her dream job at the wedding destination hotel The Tanglewood. The rest should be a piece of cake for Sherilyn's type-A personality. But while everything else goes smoothly, her own wedding plans start to sink right before her eyes. One way or the other, Sherilyn is determined to make this wedding work - until the latest development threatens to call the whole thing off. Is it possible that Sherilyn is allergic to her fiancé?

Sebastian Whitcombe, Viscount Willowthorpe, comes to America to experience the great Wild West for himself before it disappears for good. The adventure comes with a convenient bonus—it postpones his father’s edict that he take a wife from the British aristocracy. Sebastian isn’t so much against marriage as he is an arranged marriage to the wrong woman.

Esther Pinnett has a two-year-long crush on the billionaire pineapple plantation owner she drives to and from work every day. But when she decides to give him a puzzle book for his birthday, he starts to see her as more than his chauffeur. Marshall Robison has been running the Hawaiian pineapple empire for years, and it will become his in just two more. After a marriage that ended badly eight years ago, he's closed himself off to dating or finding love...until Esther's birthday gift literally lands in his lap.

Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s 12th birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear about him again until 16 years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy, and one final scavenger hunt.

For Jackie Pierce, everything changed the summer of 1979, when she spent three months of infinite freedom at her bohemian uncle’s sprawling estate on the California coast. As musicians, artists, and free spirits gathered at The Sandcastle for the season in pursuit of inspiration and communal living, Jackie and her cousin Willa fell into a fast friendship, testing their limits along the rocky beach and in the wild woods…until the summer abruptly ended in tragedy, and Willa silently slipped away into the night.