Showing results by narrator "Kelli Tager" in All Categories

In the title story, set five minutes in the future where you not only have a credit score but also a dating score, a woman who’s been banished from all dating apps attends a weekly help group with others who have been “banned for life,” and finds herself falling in love. In “Backwards,” a twist on Benjamin Button, a woman reconnects with her estranged father as he de-ages ten years each day they spend together. In “Welcome to Oxhead,” all the parents in a gated community “shut off” when the power goes out.

After a devastating loss, Malcolm Niall has spent the past 20 years hiding from the world. As manager of a Highland estate, he's built a life of purpose, caring for the land and animals. And for the past six months, his peace has been utterly destroyed by a sexy Southern whirlwind who's never met a stranger. Worse, they have to work together daily.

Ever since the dust storms arrived and turned her world upside down, ambitious Stella Fischer spends her mornings hiding moonshine in laundry stacks for delivery before returning home to help her sisters run their family home turned boarding house, hoping to make enough money to finally escape to Hollywood. She has no time for distractions, especially from Lloyd, the handsome drifter who works as a hired hand at the boarding house. When the group decides to forage for building materials at an abandoned cider mill, they discover a magical passage that sends them back to the mill in its prime.

Hannah realizes that her parents’ cabin has vacation-property gold written all over it—and could save her mama from going broke. Again. The only problem? The cabin’s décor is mildly terrifying, and it’s in desperate need of renovation. Hannah hires the hot carpenter living in the treehouse next door to fix up the place. Not only does River respect Hannah’s business acumen, he looks at her like she’s a woman, not a hot mess. And Hannah can’t deny that River awakens something new inside her.

Camp Pine Lake has always played a central role in Clara Millen's life, first as a camper and then as a counselor in her late teens. Even now that she's thirty, she returns every August with her closest friends to help close up the camp for the fall and, more importantly, relive memories and experiences that fill her with joy. But when burn-out and an awful break-up inspire Clara to quit her job (in front of the entire office!), her annual vacation turns into a much-needed escape from reality. But when she arrives, she faces yet another unwelcome change: the owners are selling Pine Lake Camp.

People don’t make decisions with their conscious mind, but on instinct. In The Power of Instinct, marketing consultant and behavioral science expert Leslie Zane shows that to grow a brand, business, or even a social movement, traditional persuasion tactics fall short. Instead, you must connect to the instinctive mind. And to do this, you need to understand the science of consumer choice and employ techniques that work with a person’s brain, not against it.

MediMiracle Corporation manufactures Sophrosyne, a miracle cure for opiate addiction. Ellison Ricard, a research analyst for the company, claims to have uncovered data that proves Black users of Sophrosyne experience fatal side effects far more often than people of other races. When Ricard confronts MediMiracle’s charismatic founder and CEO, Peyton Burke, a violent confrontation ensues. The wheelchair-bound Ricard—a Black man who had been severely injured years earlier—is fired that very day.

Stay-at-home mom Eloise Williams is PTO president and a respected local philanthropist who sits on the boards of many distinguished charities. In addition to being a doting wife and mother, she is also a serial killer.

After my wife died, I never expected to fall in love again, let alone with her much younger sister. Elle's too young for me, though. Too vibrant and cheerful to be saddled with a grumpy widower and two little kids. Besides, she's only here for a few months before she moves on to follow her dreams. And there's no way we could be together even if she were staying. It doesn't seem to matter how often I remind myself of all the reasons why we can't, or shouldn't be together, my body won't listen.

I've had my heart crushed more times than I can count. Swearing off men was the best thing I ever did. The second best—taking a job waitressing at The Firken bar off campus. My grumpy boss is nice to everyone… except me. Which shouldn't bother me, but it does. Darren is handsome, mysterious—and even more unavailable than I am. I've gotten over my ghosts, but he's still chasing his. I thought after years of working in close proximity maybe, just maybe, we would finally cross that line. But almost kisses don't count, not even off the clock.

Surviving is all they can do until the storms end their disastrous attack on the world. The fight isn't over, no matter how much Rowan wants to believe they've found safety. The future she envisioned tells a different story, and it's one she can't ignore. Sam wants Rowan and everything that comes along with her. He adopted her nephews, and they share them as sons. Their future grows in Rowan's belly, and they want nothing more than to leave the past behind for good.

Mae Barlowe’s annual beach trip is anything but a vacation. It’s the anniversary of the worst day of her life. When her husband and best friend surprise her with a last-minute itinerary change in the form of a couples’ cruise, she struggles to hide her reservations about the new plan. A week spent cruising around in a tropical paradise sounds like a dream come true to everyone else, but for Mae, it’s an eerie reminder of chilling memories from her past. Once on board the ship, a mysterious stranger causes confusion among the group, leading them to ask unsettling questions of one another.

Zayde Lowry was the boy I was never supposed to love. Our families have been rivals for generations, and I knew that if anyone discovered our secret, there would be hell to pay. But I fell for him anyway. He called me his angel, and he bared the darkest corners of his soul to me. In return, I gave him my whole heart. Then tragedy struck. I lost the two most important people in my life, and the man who was supposed to care for me, my own father, crossed an unforgivable line.

I've had a crush on my best friend for as long as I can remember. He's a hockey winger who has quite a reputation with the puck bunnies, and I'm a nerdy girl trying to survive my biochemistry degree as a single mom. If science has taught me anything, it's that facts don't lie. The truth is that Ryse and I are from two completely different worlds. He's headed for the pros, and I hypothesize I'll be left behind…again.

Ever since my accident, I've felt like damaged goods. I do my best to hide in plain sight until the one guy I want to notice me… doesn't. Westfall U hockey star Evan Hayworth is way out of my league. If I want him to see me as more than just his tutor, I'll need help igniting the spark. Lucky for me, his hockey teammate comes to my rescue and makes me an offer I can't refuse—I help him with science, and he will educate me in the bedroom. A fake relationship with the most unavailable guy on campus seems like the perfect solution. Noah is caring, loyal, and very good at pretending.

Gaby Fineberg just wants to get through Passover Seder without her "well meaning" family playing matchmaker. She needs a date, just for one simple meal - that includes singing, the history of her forefathers, and not one bit of yeast. The hot guy at her gym would be perfect. He probably hates bread, anyway, with a body like that. But when she finally works up the nerve to ask him...he doesn't hear a word she said.

Being a divorced career woman in the late 80s isn't easy. Cragan Collins finds the friendship of other working singles invaluable, especially as she learns the ropes of selling. When Cragan finds a saleswoman unconscious in the mall parking lot, she runs for help. But being a good samaritan means taking the blame when the other woman dies. Later Cragan learns the woman lied to her . . . repeatedly. Cragan is left wondering if she really knew her friend at all!

Wedding planner Cassandra Benedict sells happily-ever-afters for a living. But when Cassie gets stood up at her own wedding, the whole humiliating experience is witnessed by the crème-de-la crème of New York's elite. Cassie comes from a wealthy family, but she built her business through hard work, and now she feels like a fool. She's walking down the road in her ruined dress, carrying her beagle decked out in his bridesman tutu, when who should offer her a ride but her ex-college boyfriend, Andrew Steele. Just great.

I’ve experienced the pain love can cause, and I have no interest in it. Easy relationships and easier women are all I need. Until a shy brunette stops me in my tracks and makes me feel everything I told myself I never would. But will old habits ruin my chances from the very beginning, or can I convince her I’m worthy of her? I’m falling for an innocent virgin, and I’m powerless to stop.

They called me a freak. They called me a loser. They tormented me and made my life a living nightmare when all I had ever wanted was to be left alone. And five years ago, after a lifetime of being bullied and harassed, of enduring more pain and trauma than any man could handle, that's exactly what I set out to do. I left the only home I'd ever known to lock myself behind the cemetery gates and care for the only people who have ever given me the peace I craved—the dead.