Showing results by narrator "Maria McCann" in All Categories

What happens when a Synth learns to love? LOVE thrusts Xane into the most powerful emotion yet: love. As she continues to understand human emotions, love proves to be a complex and intense challenge. Guided by River, Xane explores relationships, desire, and self-discovery, all while learning that love isn’t as straightforward as she thought. With multiple love interests, including the mysterious Levi and fellow musician Adrian, Xane is pulled in many directions, forcing her to question her identity and emotions.

Barry and Beth, high school sweethearts separated by time and circumstance, find themselves reunited at the Blue Loon Village senior living center in Minneapolis. Now both seventy, they rekindle their relationship only to discover how differently time has shaped them. Beth has blossomed into a free spirit with a goth flair, while Barry has transformed into the curmudgeon he swore in his youth he’d never become.

While her dad struggles with mesothelioma, Kayla Luna balances responsibilities at the Mystical Music store with her best friend. Desperate to find a cure for her dad, she’ll use any alternative medicine like crystals, but a merman’s gem?

In SADNESS, Xane faces the raw emotion of sadness, following her experiences with fear and shame. A tragic accident and unrequited love push Xane to her limits as she learns how sadness can be both devastating and transformative. Set during her junior year of high school, Xane’s journey reveals the importance of resilience and emotional healing, bringing her closer to understanding the full spectrum of human emotion.

In 1944, Petra Reynolds, a tender 12-year-old farm girl, resided in a tranquil Midwest town. Removed from the atrocities of World War II, Petra’s innocence is kept intact. However, she knows polio has already killed or maimed thousands of Americans. Petra’s friend, Benjy, a polio survivor, uses a wheelchair. Quarantine signs posted throughout town fill her with dread. There’s nowhere to hide. Petra’s life took an unexpected twist when, due to a playground incident, she found herself in the school‘s infirmary alongside the notorious eighth-grade rebel, Chester Harrison.

In SHAME, Xane's exploration of human emotions intensifies. Following her lessons on fear, Xane now faces the complexities of shame. Supporting Tara, a driven high school golfer aiming for the PGA High School National Invitational, Xane discovers how shame can impact self-esteem, relationships, and personal success. As Xane learns to manage shame, she must also build on what she learned in FEAR, realizing how interconnected emotions truly are.

Welcome to Grapevine High, where fear, love, and self-discovery collide. FEAR introduces River, a curious freshman, and Xane, a charismatic girl with a secret—she’s a Synth, a synthetic human learning to understand emotions. As Xane grapples with the concept of fear, they both face bullying, high school drama, and the courage to step out of their comfort zones. This novella sets the stage for Xane's ongoing emotional journey, where each book delves deeper into her quest to master human emotions.

Step into a world of ambition, folly, and unexpected twists in Pride, Power, and Peculiar Predicaments, a carefully curated anthology of classic American short stories. This collection brings together tales of overconfidence and consequence, where pride clashes with fate, power shifts in unforeseen ways, and characters find themselves in the grip of the strange and the ironic.

Why did they come? When they appeared across the sky, speculation wheeled around the world—the aliens were from heaven, the invaders were from hell… or they were proof that neither existed. But when they landed, curiosity gave way to suspicion and the nations reacted with nuclear force, setting off a chain reaction that left the world in ruins. Twenty years later, instead of nearing her retirement, Dr. Elspeth Darrow struggles to forget the loss of her child and husband by plunging herself into the work of operating the last remaining hospital in San Francisco.

Follow an adorable facility dog as she helps a child through a diagnosis of epilepsy. Facility dogs are specially trained to help kids through medical experiences—from lifting spirits, motivating movement, modeling the power of play, and more.

Recovering from a personal tragedy, the awkward, life-loving, and humorous Vanessa “Calamity Vanity” Jane VanBuren reluctantly agrees to go on a rafting trip with a close friend. All heads turn when Craig Bjorn Eriksen, a young Norwegian man, who could be mistaken for an A-list actor, walks in, closely followed by a trail of beautiful women. Self-conscious, Vanity is instantly smitten with him, but doubts he will notice her.

After absorbing the wisdom within this audiobook, bid farewell to your fears and anxiety. These simple, compelling techniques are going to transform your mindset and make you realize that the best chapters of your life are ahead of you!

“[A] rich and lyrical tale of desperation and redemption . . . Throughout, Sainz Borgo applies stark poetry to the terrifying setting, where 'moans and cries attributed to ghosts sometimes masked executions and beatings.' It’s a stunner.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “[A] deeply...

Responding to distressing, uncontrollable events without blaming ourselves or others can be difficult, yet it is necessary if we are to find interpersonal harmony and, ultimately, global peace. To master this challenge, we must cope with adversity by understanding the psychological and social reasons why we blame, practicing forgiveness, responding stoically, nurturing a gentle spirituality, and perceiving ourselves and others with empathy.

Well, Evie doesn't want to find out! Evie Jones is a widow of three years, with an eighteen-year-old daughter. Struggling to simplify her life and trying desperately to convince her daughter not to leave the nest. And her 'No Dating' rule is part of that struggle. So is selling her big house and moving into something smaller. To help with that plan, she hires a handsome contractor to complete her partially finished basement.

Claire Leccese is a romance novelist who writes happy endings for a living. Quite ironic, since she’s spent a lifetime battling demons from childhood trauma and has been anything but happy. She is plagued by self-doubt and an inability to trust people who claim to love her. Along comes Sydney Howard, a younger successful artist who rocks Claire’s world and “lit an agreeable blaze inside my belly…” However, as Sydney falls in love with the older woman, Claire’s fears overtake her and she runs away, vowing never to see Sydney again.

1955. In the sleepy seaside town of La Jolla, CA, rookie cop Jake Stirling saves the life of infamous crime writer Raymond Chandler, earning the respect of his hard-nosed captain, Wade Lennox, who served with Jake’s father, a police detective whose suicide two years earlier shocked the town and shattered Jake's family.

Explore the untold stories of the American Revolution's unsung heroes in "Forgotten Legends: Remarkable Figures and Their Impact on Early America." This compelling audiobook brings to life the incredible journeys of diverse and inspirational figures, such as Sybil Ludington, the female Paul Revere; Benjamin Banneker, the self-taught scientist; and Phillis Wheatley, the pioneering poet.

Avery Stone will do anything to have the family she didn't have growing up—even marry a man she doesn't love. Or at least that was the plan until she woke up on her wedding day with feet so cold she might as well name them Elsa…from Frozen, get it? After asking her deceased Grammy for a sign that she is doing the right thing, she receives a news alert on her phone announcing the newest cast member of Fairytale Love, who just happens to be the man she shared the best two weeks of her life with five years earlier and who she's loved and pined after ever since.

If your heart sinks every time you look in the mirror or you realize you don't have the energy you used to have, your body is telling you it's time to do something about it. The solution is here! Intermittent fasting is exactly the change you're looking for.