Showing results by narrator "Elisabeth Rodgers" in All Categories

The young peasant woman Kamala has proven strong and determined enough to claim the most powerful Magister sorcery for herself-but now the Magisters hunt her for killing one of their own. Her only hope of survival lies in the northern Protectorates, where spells are warped by a curse called the Wrath that even the Magisters fear. Originally intended to protect the lands of men from creatures known only as souleaters, the Wrath appears to be weakening-and the threat of this ancient enemy is once more falling across the land.

Great teams are built and maintained with great intention, though they can make it look deceptively easy. Too many teams engage in dysfunctional behaviors or fall into territorialism, apathy, and unproductive relationships. The result? An overwhelmed, unengaged, and stressed-out workforce that settles for average or poor performance.

When it comes to Eve Duncan, never say never....Is she dead or alive? That is the question on everybody’s lips. Eve appears to have been the victim of James Doane, the psychopath who kidnapped her and forced her to use her skills as a forensic sculptor to reconstruct the skull of his depraved son. That’s what everyone attending her funeral thinks, at least.

When ex-CIA agent Vera Kelly loses her job and her girlfriend in a single day, she reluctantly goes into business as a private detective. Heartbroken and cash-strapped, she takes a case that dredges up dark memories and attracts dangerous characters from across the Cold War landscape. Before it's over, she'll chase a lost child through foster care and follow a trail of Dominican exiles to the Caribbean. Forever looking over her shoulder, she nearly misses what's right in front of her: her own desire for home, connection and a new romance at the local bar.

Welcome to Archers Beach in the Changing Land, the last and least of the Six Worlds, where magic works, sometimes, and the Guardian husbands the vitality of the land and everyone on it - earth spirit and plain human alike. Kate Archer, Guardian and carousel-keeper, has been busy making some changes of her own, notably beginning a romantic relationship with Borgan, the Guardian of the Gulf of Maine, Kate's opposite number, and, some would say, her natural mate.

When magic meets mundane, sparks fly: These are exciting times in Archers Beach, Maine! An unprecedented Early Season has united townies and carnies in an effort expand into a 12-month resort, recapturing the town's former glory. Kate Archer, owner-operator of the vintage wooden carousel, is caught up in the excitement - and is quite possibly the cause of it. Because Kate leads a double life, as carny, and as Guardian of the land.

She’s broken free. But danger is in hot pursuit. And rescue is nowhere in sight.... Eve Duncan is on the run. Kidnapped by Jim Doane, a mysterious man who wants her to complete a sinister forensic sculpture, she now has no time to savor the victory of escaping from him. He’s back on her trail and closing in fast. At the mercy of the Colorado wilderness, she struggles to outwit and outrun him, but the odds are stacked high in his favor.

With their deadly plants, razor-sharp shears, shady corners, and ready-made burial sites, gardens make an ideal scene for the perfect murder. But the outsize influence that gardens and gardening have had on the mystery genre has been underappreciated. Now, Marta McDowell, a writer and gardener with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the genre, illuminates the many ways in which our greatest mystery writers, from Edgar Allen Poe to authors on today’s bestseller lists, have found inspiration in the sinister side of gardens.

Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan lies in a hospital room in Carmel, California—but she has sworn to protect an innocent young girl, Cara Delaney, whose enemies are getting closer by the hour. Eve decides they must 'disappear' and so, after years of resistance, succumbs to John MacDuff's insistent plea to track down a treasure presumed buried in Scotland. The remote mountains should be a perfect hiding place, but they soon realize there is nowhere distant enough from those who are on their trail.

Self-taught artist Rose O'Neill leaves the Midwest for New York in 1893, determined to become an illustrator in a field dominated by males. Mindful of her duty to the impoverished family she left behind, Rose’s obligations require her to yield to the men who hold the reins of her career, as well as the men she grows to love.

Grace Smith has never been one to conform to society’s expectations. She flees small-town Indiana to seek adventure—and finds more than she bargained for when she’s hired by an eccentric millionaire to learn codebreaking. Soon she’s using those skills to help head the government’s fledgling cryptanalysis unit.

It is New York, 1904, and Dulcy Remfrey, despite an idiosyncratic, traveling childhood, faces the predictable life of a woman of the time. But all that changes when her eccentric father returns from his expedition to Africa without any of the proceeds from the sale of a gold mine. It seems he's lost his mind along with the money, and Dulcy's obsessive ex-fiancé (and her father's business partner) insists she come to Seattle to decipher her father's cryptic notebooks, which may hold clues to the missing funds.

Catherine Ling is one of the CIA's most prized operatives. Raised on the streets of Hong Kong, she was pulled into the agency at the age of fourteen. If life has taught her anything, it is not to get attached, but there are two exceptions to that rule: her son Luke and her mentor Hu Chang. Luke was kidnapped at age two, and now, nine years later, he has astonishingly been returned to her. Catherine vows never to fail him again.

Stone Arabia tells the story of a brother and sister, Nik and Denise, now in their 40s. Denise is the reluctant caregiver in the family, dealing with an ailing mother and single-parenting her 20-something daughter. Nik is a failed rock musician. Rather than confront his lack of success head-on, Nik creates a fictional world where his imaginary band releases records; they're reviewed; there's correspondence with "fans"; fawning press coverage; and more. It's all very ornate, and somewhat charming; if also deranged.

Four years ago, after Cory Brandel’s passionate affair with Sheikh Damon El Karim ended, she gave birth to his son - and kept it secret from him. When Damon finds out the truth, he kidnaps the boy and takes him across the world to his desert kingdom, knowing that Cory will follow. Damon vows to punish Cory for depriving him of his son and heir, but does he really mean to imprison her in his palace until she surrenders to him? It is savage, unthinkable - but because she is fighting for her son, Cory has no choice.

It was a fairy tale come true when Mark Dorn - handsome pilot, widower, tragic father of three - chose Jiselle to be his wife. The other flight attendants were jealous: She could quit now, leaving behind the million daily irritations of the job. (Since the outbreak of the Phoenix flu, passengers had become even more difficult and nervous, and a life of constant travel had grown harder.) She could move into Mark Dorn's precious log cabin and help him raise his three beautiful children. But fairy tales aren't like marriage.

Elizabeth Phoenix is one of a select few with the power to battle those who have escaped from the darkest level of hell - demons bent on destroying humanity and reclaiming earth once and for all. Liz is determined to stop yet another Doomsday. But this time, it’s going to be more difficult than ever because someone she thought was dead isn’t dead anymore...and is bound and determined to destroy Liz and everyone she loves in the upcoming Apocalypse.

It took the near annihilation of humanity for Liz Phoenix to understand the true meaning of her premonitions. Liz is one of the sacred few on earth who has the psychic powers to fight the malevolent forces that have tried to wipe out the human race since the beginning of time. She battled these beings once, thwarting Doomsday but losing most of her soldiers in the massacre. Now she must replenish her troops quickly - because the supernatural war isn’t over yet.

The intersection of motherhood and creative life is explored in these writings on mothering that turn the spotlight from the child to the mother herself. Here, in memoirs, testimonials, diaries, essays, and fiction, mothers describe firsthand the changes brought to their lives by pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering.

Kate Archer returns home in search of her missing grandmother Bonny, and to serve as guardian of the town's amusement park until her return… only the carousel animals are really exiles from the faerie world. And not the nice kind of exiles either - no, these are hardened criminals.