Showing results by narrator "Kate Rudd" in All Categories

Thirteen years ago, Vivi LeBrun was sketching a rooster and eating Oreos when she first met - and fell for - her friend's brother, David St. James. Since then, her love for David has only intensified thanks to years of friendship with his family, who rescued her from a lonely, tumultuous childhood. As she travels to Block Island to vacation with the St. James siblings, Vivi daydreams about reuniting with David, hoping he'll finally see her as his soul mate.

Even though Meg Anderson's hell-raising days are over, coming home to Anderson Butte isn't easy, especially when her impossible-to-please dad is the mayor and her do-gooder siblings run the place. But with another job lost and the gorgeous father of her daughter trying to make contact after disappearing three years ago, a break is definitely in order. Hopefully the little town filled with big, juicy secrets can help.

Sabrina Chandler has been unlucky in love: 10 years ago, just before her high school graduation, she was shockingly betrayed by her boyfriend and her so-called best friend. That dark day, a mysterious bad boy, Tyler Anderson, came to her defense. He made her promise to leave their hometown, told her she deserved so much more — things that he could not give her. Now, Sabrina reluctantly heads to her high school reunion, hoping to confront her betrayers — and, just maybe, to meet Tyler again.

For two years, Megan, Peter, and their two older daughters, Alexis and Hannah, dream of nothing but being reunited with the family’s youngest child, Emma, who was kidnapped just before her third birthday. When Emma is miraculously found living with an elderly couple just miles from the family’s home, they are hopeful that her return will heal the wounds her disappearance created. But Emma is vastly different from the sunny toddler they remember. She barely remembers her parents or her older sisters. She is quiet and withdrawn, and, worst of all, longs for the very people who kidnapped her.

It's a dream come true for Megan, who's jet-setting to Paris for Fashion Week with Gigi. Meanwhile, back in Concord, Mrs. Wong decides to run for mayor, so Emma and Stewart team up to make her campaign a success. Jess and Cassidy are also hoping for victories - Jess in the a cappella finals with the MadriGals, and Cassidy in the national hockey championships with her teammates. In the midst of it all, the girls - along with their Wyoming pen pals, who drop in for a visit over spring break - dive into Charlotte Brontë's classic Jane Eyre.

A time of reckoning has come for the council of Toro, a bandit city about to burst with corruption and injustice. Valerie refuses to allow her world to rot, and she's brought friends to help her teach the council a lesson. As if that weren't enough, Cammie and Royland have begun to rule the former pirate island. This involves ensuring there are no nearby threats, so while these two might be perfect for each other, they have business to attend to before they can sit back and bask in their newfound positions of power. And down south, New York has risen up out of the sewers it once occupied. It's a new world, one Sandra and the others might just one day soon be able to enjoy without bloodshed.

When we talk about pregnancy, we too often end up talking clinically and sentimentally. Pregnancy is medical details and a whirl of emotions. It is vitamins and baby showers and feelings. But it is so much more. In Showing, Agnes Howard takes us beyond clinical reductionism and fluffy sentimentality to show us how to take pregnancy seriously as hard but important work. It is not just a bodily process, she argues, but an active work of care - one that underscores the generosity and mutual dependence we all require in order to live.

Dark Wizards gather in Seattle for a meeting. Alison isn't about to let them set up business in her town. Her friends have her back, even if one of them may be a traitor. A dark wizard escapes the raid. Doesn’t he realize a Brownstone won't give up? After he frees the Fremont troll, Alison has to think fast to protect innocents. But wrangling a stone giant wasn’t on her agenda.

What’s stronger than magic itself? A Brownstone with a mission. Brownstone security continues cleansing Seattle’s magical mobster underbelly while Alison draws strength from her trusted circle as she fights off the virus draining her powers. She uncovers the smuggling of magical pets and the harmful side effects of testing savage spells on humans and still has time to chase down her enemies. It’s dirty, dangerous work and leaves her friends the targets of vicious attacks. Not smart, bad guys. Do you even know who you are messing with?

Drow Princess Alison Brownstone begins her senior year ready to finally graduate and start her new life, fully trained and ready to kick ass. But still reeling from the attack last semester and the absence of her best friend, Alison is desperate for some kind of distraction to make the days pass quicker. And trouble in paradise with boyfriend Tanner makes it even more vital. When books start disappearing, she can’t resist digging deeper. But going down the rabbit hole leads to truths far more dangerous than petty theft.

Dark magic has infiltrated the school of necessary magic. Spies stalk the halls. Traitors whisper lies to impressionable freshmen and devious wizards distract with charming smiles. If Alison and her friends can’t see past the friendly masks of their fellow students to the dark purpose they hide, it’s not just the school that will be destroyed. But the forces of evil should have kept one thing in mind before targeting Alison Brownstone.

Alison, the Drow princess, can’t even make it back to the School of Necessary Magic for her junior year without tripping across trouble hunting for her. Underground bullet trains, battles with dark magic, growing dragons, Louper tournaments, school dances, and job fairs. Growing up magical can be tough on a social life. Thank goodness she’s got her friends beside her.

By day, bashful wallflower Emma Duffy works at her family's bed-and-breakfast. By night, she secretly pens erotic romance hot enough to melt the snow in their cozy Rockies town. But Emma's real life is about to heat up when her mother books the entire inn to a professional snowboarder, hoping the publicity will put them on the map. In a karmic twist of fate, that guest is Wyatt Lawson, the man with whom Emma had shared the secret one-night stand that became the inspiration for her novel and its dreamy hero.

Kline Grant has traveled the world for more than a decade to avoid going back home - and to make sure she doesn't see Ben, her former fiancé. But her mother's recent health troubles make it impossible for Kline to stay away. She plans to check on her mom, avoid Ben, and then get back on the road again. But the quirky town locals of Anderson Butte, a private little celebrity hideaway in the picturesque mountains of Colorado, have a very different plan.

On her thirty-first birthday, hopeless romantic Kelsey Callihan has all but given up on happily ever afters, which is why she agrees to a risqué proposition from Sterling Canyon's notorious playboy, backcountry skier Trip Lexington. After all, every girl needs a little fun, and with Trip, there are no mixed signals or risks of a broken heart. And if his tips can help her land a husband in the process, all the better.

Falling for a bad-boy rock star is the last thing single mother Casey Anderson-Bovier should do. Embroiled in a custody battle with her ex, Casey is fighting to raise her boys in their quaint Colorado hometown - a secret haven for celebrities. But when it comes to her hotel's newest guest, Casey can't connect the dots. Is Zane Steele the out-of-control rocker plastered all over the media, or the captivating man with a killer smile who's charming her and her two boys?

The Cyrists are swiftly moving into position to begin the Culling, and Kate's options are dwindling. With each jump to the past or the future, Kate may trigger a new timeline shift. Worse, the loyalties of those around her - including the allegiances of Kiernan and the Fifth Column, the shadowy group working with Kate - are increasingly unclear.

Tara Carter isn't looking for romance. She's content seeing patients at her new dental practice by day, then going home and cuddling with her puppy at night. Her new life in the tiny town of Anderson Butte, Colorado - known by celebrities as the place to lie low - is the perfect respite for a woman with a whopper of a secret. There's just one problem: the town's sexy sheriff knows she's hiding something.

New to a small town, Jackie and Paula envision a quiet life for their kids: a young adopted son and two teenage foster children, including the troubled Star. However, they quickly butt heads with their neighbor, Clementine, who disapproves of their lifestyle and is incensed when Star befriends her spirited horse, Comet. Haunted by past tragedy and unable to properly care for Comet, Clem nevertheless resents the bond Star soon shares with the horse.

Archaeologist Zoe Miller has only recently learned she is Fangborn, a secretive race of werewolves, vampires, and oracles dedicated to protecting humanity. But after she discovered and opened Pandora’s Box, the fabled item has lived up to its myth, and for Zoe and her friends, all hell has broken loose. Now she’s on a double mission: to prevent a politician from revealing the existence of the Fangborn and to foil the diabolical plans of the powerful Order of Nicomedia, a group dedicated to eradicating her kind.