Showing results by narrator "Jennifer O' Donnell" in All Categories

It was supposed to be a fun weekend at our family cabin. I was going to surprise my husband, Mike, with a small get-together for his 40th birthday. Something is wrong, though. Mike isn’t himself lately. He goes out often and by himself, leaving me and our young son. Our happy marriage is fading away, and I don’t know why. This weekend is just what's needed to cheer him up. It’s what we need for us. When I get to the cabin and set up, I hear sounds coming from the basement. That’s when I see her. A young woman tied up and scared.

Mara Winkel is America's tech darling, CEO of the fastest-growing startup in the world. Her company, Mozaik, fights financial fraud with its revolutionary software and is hurtling towards a record-breaking IPO. But just as Mara and her team prepare for the ultimate success, the dark forces that have haunted them since the beginning move in for the kill. Will they free themselves and achieve their dream or be forever consigned to the shackles of criminal conspiracy on a global scale?

I was just your average 17-year-old girl, until I was Marked. Some may sell their souls; mine was taken. Not only are angelic hunters out to kill me, but Hell's deadliest Mage—the devilishly charming Crown Prince of Lust—is just as desperate to get his hands on me...again. No, he doesn't want me dead. This seductive trickster only has one thing on his mind: making me his new blushing bride. He can call me his "mate" all he wants. I'm not about ready to sign my soul away into eternal damnation, no matter how gorgeous he may be.

After failing to save the enslaved magical creatures, Lesti and Astria redouble their training efforts. Now, joined by Aurelia and Fang, they continue to unlock new ways of using magic. However, a critical challenge lies just around the corner: the spring tournament. Lesti will have to win if she is to have any chance of taking the lordship of her homeland. At the same time, Astria spots a girl with unique powers at the academy. But she runs away screaming before she can even learn her name.

It's finally time for the Alandrian Central Magic Academy's famous Spring Tournament. For Lesti, it's her best opportunity to prove her strength before turning fifteen and becoming an adult. She'll have to do it alone, though. The academy has forbidden Astria from participating. Still, the tournament isn't all about fighting. People from across the alliance gather to watch the spectacle. Amongst the masses and gathered lords, threats new and old plot their moves. As Astria works to neutralize these threats, she finds herself with a choice that could change the course of her new world.

Living with his stern grandfather taught Trevor Callahan one important lesson: Caring makes a man weak. Now the old man is dead, and Trev returns to Stone Creek for one reason and one reason only--to sell the Rocking C Ranch. Maybe then he can put his past behind him and move on.

They did their best to destroy everything I hold dear, but heaven made one fatal flaw - they didn’t kill me when they had the chance. You don’t attack the ones I love and get away with it. I never asked for this. I never wanted to become what I am. But the path to hell isn’t paved with good intentions. It’s paved by the retribution of the worst kind of monsters. The ones we create. And heaven is about to face the deadliest of their makings.

Destruction is in Jame Knorth’s nature. Literally. She is the avatar of a god known as That-Which-Destroys, the god of chaos and ruin. Yet Jame is also a noblewoman within an ancient race, and the designated heir of her twin brother Torisen Knorth, High Lord of the Kencyrath. Jame’s people are fleeing, world by world, from a terrible enemy that has pursued them through a multitude of universes. Its name is Perimal Darkling.

Kothifir the Great, ruled by an obscenely obese god-king, peopled with colorful, dueling guilds, guarded by the Southern Host of the Kencyrath. Here Jame arrives, only to find that the turbulent city claims more of her attention as the Talisman than the Hosts training fields do as a second year randon cadet. Mysteries abound: Caravans plunge deep into the hostile Southern Wastes and return laden with fabulous riches from what source, and why do they crumble to dust if not claimed by the god-kings touch?

Obedience. Self-restraint. Endurance. Silence. These are the duties of a Highborn lady, and like the veils, masks, and tight-fitting underskirts female Kencyr students are obliged to wear, Jame finds them damnably constricting. Sent here by her brother Torisen, Highlord of the Kencyrath, she has tried valiantly to fit in, but throws the quiet Women's Halls into an uproar. It's not entirely Jame's fault, though. While Tori's vain and vicious consort treats her like an underling, the Kencyr Matriarchs, determined to winnow out her secrets, scheme to use her to their own advantage.

Nothing ever goes easily for Jame, least of all this journey. As hints of the past she has forgotten - of dark and horrid years in the house of Gerridon, betrayer of her people, the Kencyrath, and her god-come to the surface, she encounters changers from the house of Gerridon, wanting to bring her back into that dark place. Arrin-ken, catlike creatures who are nevertheless a part of her own people, find and judge her.

When Mari accidentally overhears that Trystan is in love, she can't believe it. He's pining over some girl that doesn't know he's alive. The confident swagger and endless stream of girls is a facade. It conceals his loneliness and hides how messed up he's really become trying to flee from a life that's battered him to his core. Trystan tries to figure out how to make it clear how much he loves her. But every insincere kiss, every broken promise haunts him because she knows them all.

In just a few short weeks, a group of young orphans have come together to form a family. They have united in the most unlikely of alliances, finding strength in the tight bonds of friendship. In their individual cultures, these orphans were seen as children. At best, they were ignored by their elders. At worst, they are treated as nuisances, told what they could and could not do. But no one ever told them they couldn't save the universe. Nobody knew they would ever get the chance....

It's been ten years since Molly last set foot on her birth planet, and this isn't how she'd imagined her homecoming. The sky is full of an invading fleet, one powerful enough to threaten the entire galaxy. The new family she has come to rely on - her crew of alien misfits and runaways - are scattered in three directions. As they struggle to reunite, events beyond their control seem to be driving more than just them apart: the universe itself may be torn asunder if the bond between these unlikely heroes is broken.

The Broker is dead. The secret network he controlled has lost its restraints. From the darkest deep-state enclave to the farthest reaches of the planet, the world's deadliest assassins are now free to pursue their own agendas. The United States government, unwilling to risk upheaval and global chaos, has preemptively mobilized killers of its own to hunt down and terminate each threat. Among the most dangerous agents on this list are Jack and Jill.

My name is Scarlett Mason, and on the surface, I’m just your average college student. What you don’t know: demons, Fae, Hellhounds, vampiric sorcerers, and a whole slew of creatures from the Underworld are very much real, and they walk among us. How do I know this? I’ve been training since I was ten years old to become a hunter in the hopes I’ll be able to find the monster responsible for killing my parents. But you know what they say about even the best-laid plan…

When her mother dies in a heat wave that kills 20 million, Zia León abandons a promising diplomatic career to lead humanitarian aid missions to regions ravaged by drought, wildfires, and sea level rise. What Zia doesn't know is that clandestine forces are gathering around her in pursuit of a colossal secret: someone has hijacked the climate, and the future of human civilization is at stake. To avoid a world war that appears more inevitable every day, Zia must build a coalition of the powerless and attempt the impossible.

Kate Sheridan thought she had a handle on life. She had a good job as a legal assistant, great friends, and a life in New Orleans she enjoyed. Until that life came apart at the seams. Now her boss is dead, murdered along with one of his clients, and Kate is on the run from the police who think she's a prime suspect. And things are going to get worse before they get better because what her boss stumbled upon involves far more than just some personal injury case in the Big Easy.

>Live bait makes all the difference. Sent on a mission to lure Budapest's vampire Overlord into a trap, Connie Bence is instead caught red-handed by the dark Casanova. Her employer has concrete proof of the dubious leader's misdeeds but she is surprised when this ruthless killer, Rurik, offers her protection and rescues her from his own kind. It plants seeds of doubt in her mind and she begins to question his guilt. Now she is thrown into his world where blackmail determines her every move....

I fell in love with a devil, and now, it will take everything I have to save him. The gates to the Realm of the Damned have been cracked open, and the only thing preventing them from being flung wide apart is my mate. Killing him will unleash Hell itself. Revelations will bring about unlikely allies, but will it be enough?