Showing results by narrator "Allyson Ryan" in All Categories

Ranch owner Mike Drake is a fixture in Grant County, beloved and respected by friends and neighbors alike. So everyone is shocked when his prize bull is found mutilated on his property near Poison Spring, just outside the village of Kimberly. Police Sergeant Maggie Blackthorne and her partner Hollis Jones are called out to Poison Spring Ranch to investigate the slaughter—but they discover an even greater crime when they find Mike Drake himself shot to death not far from his bull’s carcass.

My life isn't so bad. True, I don't have a love life to speak of, but I do have a cute house in the suburbs of Los Angeles, a cat, and a quirky best friend. Enter Rand Balfour, a sinfully attractive warlock who insists I'm a witch and who just might turn my life upside down. Rand hires me to help him solve a mystery regarding the death of his client, who also happens to be a ghost. Along the way, I not only uncover the cause of the ghost’s demise, but in the process, I actually bring the ghost back to life....

After defending myself against fairy magic, I wake to find my whole world turned upside down—the Underworld creatures are on the precipice of war. Yep, the Underworld is polarized in a battle of witch against witch, creature against creature. And the battle is led by the villainous Bella, who would be queen. While I have one goal in mind, to stake the vampire, Ryder, who nearly killed me, I also must choose between the affections of my warlock employer, Rand, and the mysteriously sexy vampire Sinjin Sinclair. Easier said than done.

Trying to choose between two incredible men is in a word: tough. Throw in the fact that the Underworld is in a state of uproar and I don’t have the time to pay attention to my personal life. And as if that weren’t enough to ruin a girl’s day, everything I know will be turned inside out when I'm thrust into the shock of a lifetime.

Word of my ability to bring back the dead spreads like wildfire, putting me at the top of the Underworld’s most wanted list. Consequently, I find myself at the center of a custody battle between a villainous witch, a dangerous but oh-so-sexy vampire named Sinjin, and my warlock boss, Rand.

Pregnancy is a profound journey. Navigating it while working—from figuring out how to tell your boss you’re pregnant to squeezing in doctors’ appointments between meetings, all while working even harder to prove yourself—can be a push and pull between a desire for privacy and the need for support. The good news is, it’s possible to thrive in both spaces. Carry Strong offers a new approach that will transform your pregnancy years at work from something to “get through” into a career opportunity to embrace with confidence.

Lauren, mother of twins, wakes up one morning to her Wife Alarm Bells sounding. She sleuths on her husband’s phone and stumbles on a dirty secret that explodes her marriage. Madeline has it all—a penthouse apartment, a perfect daughter, and no-strings-attached romps with handsome men. But when she learns she might lose her child to her ex in England, it stirs up a decades-old personal tragedy. Sophie, with too much FOMO and never enough money, obsesses over her ex-husband’s Family 2.0—all while keeping her true desires hidden, even from herself.

Katz Almira's mission is clear—travel to the past, steal the note that ruins the world, travel back to the present. Easy. She's the best pickpocket Time Weavers, Inc. has ever had. Posing as a poor widow in Regency London, she convinces her target, Lord John Byron, a man as sexy as he is wealthy, to take her in off the streets. But at her request to keep her hidden, instead of his cushy manor, he allows her to stay in a warehouse full of orphan boys he cares for there.

After a state trooper is killed under mysterious circumstances, Oregon State Police sergeant Maggie Blackthorne is assigned to the case. The investigation takes her to Desolation Ridge in the Umatilla National Forest, where the suspect is reported to be hiding out with a possible hostage. It’s late fall. Daylight is scarce, and there is a fierce chill in the air. To make matters worse, a deadly cougar has been spotted nearby.

Bainbridge Island, Washington State. On a sleepy summer vacation, three dads with bored kids started a game with handmade equipment and rules that were even more hastily constructed. Pickleball—an accessible and engaging combination of sports like ping-pong and tennis—was born, and a rich history began to take shape. Fifty years later, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world to quarantine and hunt for new activities, Americans of all ages and athletic ability discovered pickleball, turning to the rapidly growing phenomenon as a way to stay active, safe, and entertained.

A glowing wood stove, a cozy log cabin, and shelves full of books are all Rain Wilmot needs to ride out the Wisconsin winter, now that she’s made her family’s Lofty Pines library her year-round home. But the warm-hearted librarian’s blood runs cold when local man Wallace Benson is found dead during the annual Ice Fishing Jamboree.

After the untimely death of her husband, Rain Wilmot has returned to her family's waterfront log cabin in Lofty Pines, Wisconsin. The cabin is peaceful compared to Rain's corporate job and comes with an informal library that Rain's mother, Willow, used to run. But as Rain prepares for the reopening of the library, all hopes for a peaceful life are shattered: she discovers the body of Thornton Hughes, a real-estate buyer, on the premises.

Activists from Henry David Thoreau and Mohandas Gandhi to the Movement for Black Lives have long recognized that there are times when, rather than having a duty to obey the law, we have a duty to disobey it. Taking seriously the history of this activism, A Duty to Resist wrestles with the problem of political obligation in real world societies that harbor injustice. Candice Delmas argues that the duty of justice, the principle of fairness, the Samaritan duty, and political association impose responsibility to resist under conditions of injustice.

Back at dinner, somebody said that the goose thinks it’s a dog. No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t think it’s a dog. The goose doesn’t think. The goose just is. And what the goose is is goose. But goose is not goose, Robert thinks. Even the goose isn’t goose. In Good Trouble, the first story collection from Joseph O’Neil, author of Netherland, characters are forced to discover exactly who they are - and who they can never quite be.

At the beginning of her career, Sarah "Salt" Alt was a beat cop in Atlanta's poorest, most violent housing project, The Homes. It is here that she meets the cast of misfits and criminals that will have a profound impact on her later cases: Man Man, the leader of the local gang on his way to better places; street dealer Lil D and his family; and Sister Connelly, old and observant, the matriarch of the neighborhood. A lone patrolwoman, Salt's closest lifeline is her friend and colleague Pepper, on his own beat nearby.

Isabel, Anna, Beth, and Maggie are women who aren't afraid to take it all. Whether spearheading a pregnancy lingerie company, conspiring to return a husband to his ex-wife, lusting after an old lover while in a satisfying marriage, or trying to balance motherhood and work - they are sexy, determined, and not looking for a simple happily ever after. Through punchy, hilarious, and insightful storytelling, The End of Men shatters the confines of society and, more importantly, those we impose upon ourselves.

Abby Wambach has always pushed the limits of what is possible. Named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of 2015, the iconic soccer player captured the nation's heart when she led her team to its recent World Cup championship. Admired for her fearlessness and passion, Abby is a vocal advocate for women's rights and equal opportunity, pushing to translate the success of her team to the real world.

Forty years ago, Bakerton coal fueled the country. Then the mines closed, and the town wore away like a bar of soap. Now Bakerton has been granted a surprise third act: It sits squarely atop the Marcellus Shale, a massive deposit of natural gas. To drill or not to drill? Prison guard Rich Devlin leases his mineral rights to finance his dream of farming. He doesn't count on the truck traffic and nonstop noise, his brother's skepticism or the paranoia of his wife, Shelby, who insists the water smells strange and is poisoning their frail daughter.

Mean Girls meets Life of Pi in this darkly humorous, compulsively listenable teen novel that's perfect for fans of Libba Bray and Andrew Smith. A hilariously dark and twisted story that sparkles with a remarkably fresh voice, The Lifeboat Clique is Kathy Parks' irreverent yet insightful novel about how to survive in the most unthinkable circumstances.

Leilani and her family on the Big Island of Hawai'i face the challenge of survival in the world of the Emerald Orchid: a green presence that appeared in the sky after a global blackout. As the Hawaiian Islands go back to traditional ways of living, people must grow their own food and ration everything from gas to bullets.