Showing results by narrator "Heather Masters" in All Categories

An urgent and fractious national debate over public monuments has erupted in America. Some people risk imprisonment to tear down long-ignored hunks of marble; others form armed patrols to defend them. Why do we care so much about statues? And who gets to decide which ones should stay up and which should come down? Erin L. Thompson, the country’s leading expert in the tangled aesthetic, legal, political, and social issues involved in such battles, brings much-needed clarity in Smashing Statues.

He’s perfect, except for his girlfriend. Becky finally landed her dream job as a chef. She wasn’t even looking for a relationship until he grabbed her arm. Sparks flew, but they were the angry kind. Randy’s bringing his girlfriend home to the family’s Texas ranch. If all goes well, he will propose to Katy. City life was not part of his future. His life could not be any more perfect. That is, until he discovers Katy’s hatred of the ranch. The sweet sound of Becky’s music, combined with the melodious sounds of the ranch, pull at Randy’s soul.

Suspenseful and riveting, Skirts, Ties and Taboos (previously published as Nfudu) is a gripping tale of passion, ambition, and glamour. Set in the vibrant 1960s Paris, London, and Lagos, it follows Nfudu, a young woman who leaves her affluent but chaotic Nigerian family behind to pursue her dream of becoming a renowned fashion designer.

Holly’s quiet evening at the investigative agency takes a curious turn when a frantic woman shows up on the doorstep after closing with a tale about a missing prostitute.

Holly Cross is counting down the hours to the moment her foster brother’s trial begins. Collin has haunted her footsteps - and her dreams - for 15 years, and she wants nothing more than to put that pain and fear behind her and build a new life. But before that can happen, she has to confront the man who tried to destroy her. DA Shannon Marx is known for her skill and force of personality in a courtroom, and she's determined to put Collin Wells where he belongs: behind bars and away from everyone she loves. But Collin Wells is unlike any defendant she's ever come up against in court.

I never was a badass. Or a slut, a junkie, or a stoner, like they told me I was. I was just a kid looking for something good, something that felt like love. I was a wannabe in a Levi's jean jacket. Anybody could see that. Except my mother. And the staff at Straight. I was 13 when I ran away from my abusive home. After a month in a shelter for kids - the best month of my childhood - my mother heard about Princess Di and First Lady Nancy Reagan's visit to this place that was working miracles with troubled teens. Straight Inc., it was called.

High school sucks for a lot of people. High school extra sucks when you believe, deep in your soul, that every kid in the school is out to get you. I wasn't popular before I got locked up in Straight Inc., the notorious "tough love" program for troubled teens. So it's not like I was walking around thinking everyone liked me. But when you're psychologically beaten for 16 months, you start to absorb the lessons. The lessons in Straight were: You are evil. Your peers are evil. Everything is evil except Straight, Inc. Before long, you're a true believer.

"I should have tried harder." Those final words are scrawled across a note that’s been pinned to a man's remains. Pulled to a crime scene in the middle of the night, Detective Marx struggles to unravel the mystery behind a message written by the victim. A suicide note...or an admission of guilt? Before he can discover the truth, what seems to be a random act of violence becomes something far more dangerous. With very little evidence and even less time, Detective Marx searches for the common thread between the victims, but his efforts might put him directly in the killer’s path.

He’ll get what he came for, no matter how many bodies he has to step over. Collin Wells is relentless and ruthless, and he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants: his foster sister, the girl who always manages to slip through his fingers. Holly’s foster brother has haunted her footsteps for years - taunting her, toying with her - and until recently, she never dared to stop running and build a life for herself. Now, everyone she loves is in danger. How can she protect the people she loves when her foster brother comes to collect?

Written in 1892 but not published until 1916, this beautifully crafted story features two sisters who keep a shop in a shabby part of New York City. When Ann Eliza, the eldest sister, gifts Evelina with a clock on her birthday, events are set in motion which will forever change not only their relationship but the very fabric of their world.

Amarrah came from nothing, had nothing...was nothing. The discovery of her secret talent changed that in an instant. But rather than a gift, what Mara uncovered was a curse - a deadly one. Searching for a way out leads Mara to even more hidden truths; legacies beyond her wildest dreams. The real nature of her birthright is finally revealed, only to be cruelly snatched away in the rising tide of war. Cast adrift and deprived of everything she’d earned, Mara is once again left with nothing.

Some pasts are doomed to be repeated. Seventeen-year-old Dominique thinks her life is over when she’s forced to move across the country during her senior year. All she wants to do is make it to graduation, and then she can move back to Michigan for college. That's the plan. That is, until her new neighbor pressures her into playing a mystical card game. And this deck is like no other.

The "Big Flash" granted every person on the planet their innermost wish. On that day, some people learned to fly, others became young again, beautiful, rich, or brilliant. But not all wishes were good. A super-hacker collapsed the world economy as other evil men and women were given the capacity to fulfill their darkest desires. As for Cindy Knight, her wish was simple. All she wanted was to be able to walk again, and to take revenge on the man who had put her in a wheelchair during a cowardly attack that killed her father.

Just as their life is seemingly back on track, Finn McDaniel gets news that sends him into a tailspin. He is faced with the prospect of losing Olivia Henry forever. He immediately turns to Dan, Olivia’s deceased best friend, who is her loyal and constant guardian angel from the beyond, imploring him for his help. In the midst of all of the chaos, a special package is delivered that changes their lives forever.

After trusting in her beloved friend Dan’s guidance from above, Olivia is finally on the path to realizing her destiny. Staring at a blank canvas after ditching her raucous corporate life and meeting the love of her life, Finn McDaniels, a hot, widowed, celebrity chef, she is ready to begin anew. When she arrives back home to tie up the loose ends in Chicago, she receives more frightening news further delaying her journey with Finn. Unable to control the outcome, she begins questioning her trust and faith in Dan once again.

Seventeen-year-old Kaitlyn wants to escape her drunk mama and her trailer park-home life to enjoy a Saturday night off work. Instead, her boyfriend Hunter convinces her to go with him and their best friends, Dylan and Keisha, to photograph a desolate tree with an evil past. A terrifying presence chases them from the tree, killing Hunter and Keisha. Left alive with Dylan, Kaitlyn must struggle with her unexpected romantic feelings for him, come to terms with her loss, and face being trapped in a dead-end town.

When Olivia gets news of her best friend Dan’s fatal car accident, her life is shattered. Consumed with grief and struggling to find any meaning or purpose to life, she trudges along with a gaping void in her heart. Finally, when her frustration reaches its peak, Olivia decides to put her trust in the depth of friendship the two of them shared. That trust finally allows him to breakthrough to her, and Dan begins to guide Olivia through the twists and turns of her life, leading to something new and entirely unexpected.

Winning means staying alive. Losing means giving up. I’m not a quitter. That’s why I’m still alive when every doctor agrees I shouldn’t be. Dealt a horrid genetic deck of cards, I live with Batten disease. It’s rare, incurable, and always fatal. Since my diagnosis, my parents, family, and doctors have worked tirelessly to find a cure. Yet the disease still took things from me...mostly my eyesight and my energy.

Since she was 12 years old, Kacela Deluca has suffered debilitating migraines. On the eve of her 16th birthday, she learns her headaches are the result of untapped psychic abilities. She's given a choice: continue to suffer or leave behind everything she knows and join the Hunters’ Academy. The only catch? If she doesn’t pass the entrance exam, she’ll die.

Swans Nest Inn is about to open, and Kathy Grant solicits her BFF, Tori Cannon, to help spruce up her property at the marshy end of Lotus Bay, only they didn’t count on finding a body. Who was he? What’s his connection to their friend Paul Darcy? Meanwhile, two entrepreneurs with vast business ties are interested in helping Tori reopen the Lotus Lodge, and their real motives are as murky as the bay after a storm. Will Swans Nest open on time? Will the Lotus Lodge reopen at all?