Showing results by narrator "Shannon McManus" in All Categories

Megan Vandemeer meant to tell her parents about her broken engagement, but a month and a half later she finds herself boarding a plane home to her wedding. Having stretched avoidance to its limits, it's time to come clean - a terrifying prospect since her mother is sure to blame her rather than her cheating, emotionally frigid ex. A couple of drinks and two Dramamine later, Megan finds herself spilling her sob story to the tall, dark, and handsome stranger in the seat next to her.

It's been a month since 12-year-old Lily McKinley was whisked away to the Somnium Realm to rescue her father, and although she's overjoyed to have him home, she can't leave the magical world behind. The glowing stone pendant that transported her is now bringing strange creatures to life against her will, with her paper mâché pterodactyl and even scrambled eggs suddenly moving about on their own. Lily tries to pretend that everything is normal, but when her friend Cedric the dragon appears to tell her that an illness has taken over the kingdom, troubling questions haunt her.

Carly Moore is finally feeling settled in Drum, Tennessee. She likes her job waitressing at Max’s Tavern and her boyfriend...she should have known both were too good to be true. The previous waitress Lula unexpectedly returns, threatening Carly’s job and stability in Drum. But when Lula disappears, Carly is the only one who believes she didn’t leave of her own violation. Lula has a few secrets of her own, and one person is front and center on Carly’s suspect list—the town’s drug lord.

Twelve-year-old dream keeper Lily McKinley is grieving the death of Prince Pax when, in an instant, he appears by his tomb with a message for her: "Whomever you meet, tell them about what you have seen and heard in this valley. Tell them about what I gave for them, and won for them." Though she feels her powers weakening, she must embark on a dangerous journey through the Desert of the Forgotten to regain her ability to dream and spread Pax's message.

Lily is excited to reunite with her family after her latest quest in the Somnium Realm, but when she reaches home, she discovers that evil nightmares have invaded the waking world. With the help of her parents, magical friends, and a team of displaced guardians of the Realm, she races to rescue the earth from destruction. Traveling by time machine to the Great Wall of China, Tanzania, and the mountains of Peru, they work together to save the world from its own fears.

After a worldwide quest to save the planet from Eymah and his nightmares, Lily is now racing to escape the dark caverns of the Realm. Joined by Keisha, Adam, and their magical friends, she fights Eymah's monsters in an unrelenting battle of ice and fire. When she meets an elder centaur along the way, Lily learns about an ancient scroll that foretells the last keeper—one who prepares the way for the arrival of the prince. Could it really be her? In her final fight to defend the earth and the Realm, Lily relies on her faith in Pax's promise: that he will return and make all things new.

Seven years after making her escape from an abusive marriage, Dr. Annabelle Schwartzman is settling into her position as medical examiner in the city of San Francisco. Doing what she loves, she can almost put the trauma of her past behind her—until she confronts the case of a young woman, 16 weeks pregnant. Everything about the case says the woman took her own life. As hard as Schwartzman tries to make peace with the evidence in her head, something about the case won’t leave her alone. She’s all too aware of how similar the circumstances are to her own past.

The folks in the Kentucky Appalachians are scraping by. Coal mining and hardscrabble know-how are a way of life for these isolated people. But when Amanda Rye, a young widowed mother and traveling packhorse librarian, comes through a mountain community hit hard by the nation’s economic collapse, she brings with her hope, courage, and apple pie.

Not much happens in Adams Grove, Virginia, where the worst crime to hit the small town in a decade was hunters bagging too many deer. So when word gets out about a break-in over at Pearl Clemmons’s place, the townsfolk go on high alert, locking their doors and firing up the rumor mill. Pearl’s granddaughter Jill certainly has enough on her plate, what with tending to Pearl’s estate and coming face-to-face with sexier-than-sin Garrett Malloy. Also known as: The Man Who Broke Her Heart.

Everyone thinks fourteen-year-old Violet is a murderer. After a summer-night swim with her best friend, Ainsley, Violet is found confused, wandering in the forest - and Ainsley’s never seen again. But without a body, murder charges won’t stick, so Violet is sent away. After more than a decade in a psychiatric ward, Violet returns to her broken-down hometown of Normal, Alabama, to claim her dead mother’s inheritance and help her overworked sister care for their unstable, alcoholic father.

With a friend’s child missing, and the police failing, disgraced ex-detective Harper enlists the aid of a former crime boss to untangle a mystery that strikes too close to home. Disgraced, ex-detective Harper Adams is perfectly content wallowing at rock bottom. She’s lost her job, house, and reputation, and it only gets worse when she’s forced to move back home to Jackson Creek, Arkansas, the one place she swore she’d never return.

The women who spent their childhood summers in a small southern town discover it harbors secrets as lush as the marshes that surround it... Bonny Blankenship’s most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Watersend, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. Amid the...

Teen rebellion is seen as a cultural norm, but Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach begs to differ. In Why I Didn't Rebel - based on a viral blog post that has been read by more than 750,000 people - Lindenbach shows how rebellion is neither unavoidable nor completely understood. Based on interviews with her peers and combining the latest research in psychology and social science with stories from her own life, she gives parents a new paradigm for raising kids who don't go off the rails.

Thirteen years ago, Jori Trahan’s boyfriend vanished without a trace. Now, after moving back home to Alabama to care for her ailing grandmother and autistic brother, she comes face-to-face with the deadly mystery behind his disappearance. Jori has a rare form of synesthesia, meaning she can “hear” colors; to her, tones of voice are as unique as fingerprints. With the help of this ability and a sympathetic cop, Jori comes dangerously close to uncovering the truth. But those responsible will go to any length - including murder - to keep their dark secrets buried.

Twins Ava and Mira Goodwin defy the Rule of One simply by existing. The single-child law, ruthlessly enforced by Texas’s Governor Roth, has made the sisters famous fugitives and inspirations for the resurgent rebellion known as the Common. But the relentless governor and his implacable Texas State Guard threaten that fragile hope, as Roth consolidates his power in a bid for ultimate authority.

Grace Ward's sterile existence is thrown into chaos when a baby is abandoned in her ER. From the instant a strange woman thrusts the infant into her arms and disappears, Grace's life is transformed. She names the baby Johnny. His identity is shrouded in secrecy, and even with a trained staff treating him, his life hangs in the balance. As Grace grows more devoted to him, major events threaten their bond and his life.

Maddie Baker hasn’t seen Detective Noah Langley since he ghosted her a month ago, but now she needs his help to find a missing woman. When Maddie Baker offers a self-defense course, a terrified young woman asks her for private lessons to escape a chokehold. Maddie readily agrees to meet Amy the next morning, but when she doesn’t show up, Maddie becomes concerned.

Libby St. Clair believes in fate - so much so, she's willing to pin everything on a curse a fortune-teller placed on her and her two best friends when they were kids. The curse, that each of them will marry before 30, have a disaster of a wedding, and end up with a man other than her original fiancé, has come to fruition for both of her friends, who are now deliriously happy. But Libby's attempt to quick-start the curse by proposing to her wrong-for-her boyfriend ends in a wild dash from the altar.

If driving a piece-of-crap tow truck through the seediest part of town with a Smith & Wesson beside her means putting a roof over her son’s head, then Samantha Jones is going to be the best damn repo woman on the books. The streetwalkers, the drug pushers, the bands of looking-for-trouble punks haunting the mean streets at midnight don’t intimidate her. These are her people. The guy she finds bound and bloodied in the trunk of her latest conquest, a flashy new BMW, is a different breed entirely.

Since a solo plane crash killed her husband two years ago, Annabelle Murphy has found solace in raising her two children. Just when she thinks the grief is behind her, she receives news that the wreckage of the plane has been discovered - and that her husband did not die alone. He was with another woman. Suddenly Annabelle is forced to question everything she once held true.