Showing results by narrator "Matt Hicks" in All Categories

Surly, rude, selfish, and inconveniently attractive. Meet Milo Papatonis, the king of all jerks. I’m not normally one to judge, but I’ve been down this particular road before and I can unequivocally say he’s earned his title. It’s not enough that Milo crushed my dreams when we were kids, but now I’m somehow being forced to dwell under the same roof with his ill-mannered ass. If he thinks his sexy shower noises and ovary-imploding smile can tempt me into forgetting, he’s nuts.

There’s no denying that being a teacher is also becoming an increasingly tougher and stressful job. Not because of the kids, but because of the system and the other adults. You have to deal with never-ending new standards and admin expectations. You have to spend hours explaining to parents, who can’t accept their children being not academically perfect, why you can’t just pass their kid.

Do you feel you’re not living the life you want? You have big goals and ambitions but you’re unable to achieve them? Are you trapped in an endless cycle of motivation and resignation that exhausts and drains you? You know that deep inside you have huge potential and that you can give a lot to this world, but you just don’t seem to express it in a consistent way. You might think that intense self-discipline and cutting out all bad habits is an overwhelming task. But real success often lies in the day-to-day ability to overcome the smallest of tasks, the most regular of setbacks.

Across the fence an entire garden waits, but her brusque and unfriendly neighbor Marshall Frye doesn’t want to trade for the needed vegetable. Annoyed, Eily crawls through the fence to borrow the onion anyway, risking the wrath of the contrary man at the property line. If she’s caught. Marshall would only be too happy to gift the widow with an onion, if it weren’t for her choice of friends. But when he finds Eily on her knees in his garden, the ensuing adventure is more trouble than either are prepared to handle.

Drawing upon the three faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, The Eighth Scroll creates a spell-bindingly dynamic and powerful story, packed with intrigue and adventure: When a Roman Catholic scholar involved in the Dead Sea Scrolls Project hides one of the scriptures, because of the heretical message it contains, no one is the wiser until decades later, when a prominent archeologist discovers reference to the scroll in an archeological dig.

Adeelah El-Sayed meets Martin Webster, a Christian - a dangerous liaison for a Muslim woman that leads to a private war.The first battle comes from within. Adeelah knows this attraction to a non-Muslim man is unacceptable in her Islamic world. But she loses this battle. She cannot overcome the forbidden love that invades her soul, and she hopelessly surrenders. Together Martin and Adeelah face more attacks from mosque, church, and their two families, all because they dare to love each other.

When everything suddenly changes into a centuries-old battle for the soul of mankind, is the end near? Now that the threat from Abdul Ba’ith has been eliminated, Lazarus and his team at SOAR hope to help Ricki discover the secret in his journal. That hope is dashed when he discovers that the UDs have even bigger plans in the works - plans that threaten the stability of the entire world.

Joseph Levy leads a quiet life in rural Wheaton, Arizona. Retired from a long career in psychiatric research and practice, he reads, writes, and wanders through the mountains and hills near the Native reservation. His quiet life ends, however, when a dental crown replacement goes poorly just before meeting an internet date in California. Thus begins a year of back-to-back nightmare infections, a drug overdose, and two failed relationships.

Successful businessman Casey Talbert reveals how he unwittingly stumbled into a twisted version of a Christmas miracle.

In the small California town of Santa Marta, oil and water become an explosive mixture when the human elements of lust and greed are thrown into the crucible. When news of a major oil-well discovery in its channel leaks out, the quiet town is rocked by murder and terrorism...and naked desires are unleashed on every level.

I’ve always said boyfriends are like martinis. They’re lots of fun at first, but the longer you indulge, the bigger headache they’ll give you. With career goals to crush and more than a few balls in the air, there’s no place in my life for the messy complications of love. Jax Crosby thinks he can tempt me to lose control, and he’s using his daughter to reel me in. He’d be dangerously easy to fall for, but there are more important things in life than love, aren’t there?

Sometimes, the greatest revelation comes from realizing that which is most obvious - not the encrypted, not the hidden, not the mysterious. Militant Thankfulness presents a powerful but obvious reality that has become lost in plain sight. In his book, Dustin Dahlin illustrates one of the most important but neglected practices in the Christian life: the spiritual discipline of gratitude.

When 13-year-old Gary Crockett hypnotizes Earl Lancaster, and Earl stands from his wheelchair, everything changes for both of them. Gary suspects Earl of lying about his paralysis, and Gary’s mom thinks Earl is sexy and a business genius. Before long, all three need to leave the town in a hurry. This coming of age tale is full of surprises and quirky characters, twisted circumstances, and weird resolutions.

In life there are choices. In times of clarity we may go right, but in our darkest hour we make a left. In our choices, our soul is judged - a devil in your right ear, an angel in your left, whispering sweet promises of blissful torment or anguished relief. Damned in life or damned in death, which will you choose? Welcome...to The Crossroads, an anthology series of 13 dark short stories that will make you ponder the question: Will you lead your fate or will fate lead you?

Alone on a primitive planet light-years from Earth, bio-scientist Aric Lindquist believes she has been abandoned by SARC, the sponsor of her research assignment. In the five months since her assistant disappeared, she has struggled to survive Empusa III’s beautiful but hostile environment. Is SARC punishing her because she accused them of breaking protocol in not safeguarding the indigenous humanoids? After a new assistant finally arrives, Aric’s suspicions escalate.

Three prominent world leaders disappear following the World Summit in Kuala Lumpur. The following day, US President John Remy is found dead in his hotel room. Meanwhile, two friends on a road trip across North America come to the aid of a mysterious woman, washed up on the banks of the Colorado River. Somehow, all these events are linked. Choosing to help her plunges them into a nightmarish race across the globe, for she holds a secret that defies all we know about human evolution. Pursued by a deadly force, they must recover a relic so ancient it's fallen into legend.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus resurrected his friend Lazarus, who founded a secret organization: SOAR. Since then, Jesus has added to the resurrected - The Awakened - to aid Lazarus in SOAR's battle against Satan's slaves, the UnVeilers. The threat is escalating. The UnVeilers have stepped up their attacks on mankind through a charming leader and a devastating series of bombings in Dubai and Tel Aviv.

"A mesmerizingly fascinating and addictive story” of alternative energy, demonic possession, and the second American Civil War, Windfall follows Seth Tatton, a corporate attorney with a side job as a bespoke hit man for a cabal of politicians, magnates, and military leaders. Even under Seth's secret life, things aren’t what they seem, because of something inside him - with big plans. And when Seth is assigned to watch a troubled young woman, all of those plans start to fall apart....

Time and the Gloaming introduces the world to Michael Bunker's unique and fascinating world of time travel. Finally gathered into this exciting anthology, Bunker's time travel stories are the freshest take on the genre since Jack Finney mastered it, decades ago, in Time and Again.

McKenna Nichols, a young wife abandoned by her husband in favor of his work, is left alone to raise their autistic child. Rudy Taylor, who senses McKenna's loneliness and understands the difficulty of raising her daughter, struggles to keep his concern for the young woman biblical. Will McKenna’s faith in God and Rudy’s commitment to his Lord be enough to keep their relationship simple until McKenna's husband one day returns?