Showing results by author "ETTA BLANN" in All Categories

Eleonora "Nora" Vance is thirty eight years old and has seen it all. After twelve years as a corrections officer at Riverbend Correctional Facility, she's learned to navigate the brutal realities of prison life with a careful balance of compassion and cynicism. She's witnessed the system's failures, watched good officers compromise their principles, and built an emotional fortress to protect herself from the darkness that surrounds her. Her life outside the prison walls is quiet, solitary, filled with books and routine safe, if lonely.

In the small, picturesque town of Oxford, Maryland, nine-year-old Anna Baker's life looks perfect from the outside. But behind closed doors, her world is crumbling. When her mother abandons her to a life of abuse, neglect, and homelessness, Anna learns early that survival means adapting to the unthinkable. From the streets of Cambridge to the psychiatric wards that tried to silence her, from teenage motherhood to medical neglect that left her broken, Anna's life becomes a relentless series of traumas that would destroy most people.

Jordan, a bookstore owner in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, receives an unsettling message from Alex Chen, a college friend they haven't heard from in years. The message contains only GPS coordinates pointing to an abandoned mine in West Virginia and a photo of a 1998 newspaper article about Rebecca Hartley, a 19-year-old who supposedly died of exposure in the mountains. When Alex stops responding, Jordan is forced to investigate.

Raydin is the strategist—the kid who sees patterns, solves puzzles, and thinks three moves ahead. Brayden is the athlete—quick reflexes, fierce loyalty, and a protective instinct a mile wide. Together, they make the perfect gaming team. But when a strange symbol appears in *Realm of Legends* and golden light explodes from their TV screen, the brothers find themselves pulled into the game itself. Raydin has become Cipher, the analytical mage. Brayden is now Blade, the warrior with a mysterious connection to music and magic.

Fourteen months after exposing a murder conspiracy, Jordan Blake wants nothing more than to return to their quiet life. But when a package arrives containing audio recordings from a dead woman, they're pulled back into the darkness. Natalie Volkov tried to expose a pharmaceutical theft ring operating through a rural Maryland pharmacy. She told the police. She had proof. Three weeks later, she was dead—ruled an accidental overdose.

The Girl Who Knew Too Much tells the powerful story of Lilly Jackson, a twelve-year-old prodigy who has always been two grades ahead of her peers—and two steps removed from fitting in. Brilliant, driven, and dreaming of becoming a lawyer, Lilly has spent most of her life isolated by her intelligence. When she finally finds friendship with Debra, another honor student who understands what it's like to be an outsider, and later with Sarah, a kind-hearted girl who sees beyond academic achievement, Lilly discovers what it means to truly belong.

Sarah Mitchell's life looks ordinary from the outside. She's a graphic designer and social media manager navigating the monotony of work deadlines and the chaos of nights out with friends. But something isn't quite right.

When Seraphina Jones's car breaks down in a Montana snowstorm, she finds herself stranded in the last place she ever expected to be: a remote country town with no cell service, no Wi-Fi, and no escape route. A high-powered marketing executive from Chicago, Sera has built her entire identity around climbing the corporate ladder, convinced that success is the only thing that matters. But a broken-down car and a delayed repair have other plans, forcing her to spend the Christmas season in a place that couldn't be more different from the fast-paced city life she knows.

IN TOO DEEP: A Newport News Story is a gripping true-crime inspired novel about survival, sisterhood, and the impossible choices we make when desperation meets opportunity. Set in the sweltering summer of 1994 in Newport News, Virginia, the novel follows Emily "Juicy" Cotton and her younger sister Rhonda "Butter" Cotton as they navigate the treacherous intersection of college dreams and street survival.

Marcus Chen is thirty-five, unemployed, and drowning in jealousy. While he struggles to finish his novel and make rent on his studio apartment, his younger brother Ethan is building a tech empire, living in a penthouse, and planning a picture-perfect wedding. Every family dinner is a reminder of Marcus's failures. Every success Ethan achieves feels like a personal attack. The resentment that started in childhood has grown into something toxic something that's destroying their relationship and Marcus's sense of self-worth.

Born in 1954 in Easton, Maryland, Ruby Mae came of age in a world that had already decided what a Black girl's life was worth. What followed was a half-century journey through the darkest corridors of American life: the segregated back roads of the Eastern Shore, the locked wards of a state hospital, the sterile violence of forced sterilization. She loved men who couldn't stay. She left a daughter behind, repeating the only pattern she knew.

Emily Cotton, a CDC epidemiologist, and Charles Montgomery, a Naval Intelligence general, meet by chance in the thin mountain air of Aspen Creek, Colorado. Both are workaholics on forced vacation. Both are running from loneliness. Neither expects to fall in love. Five days later, they return to their separate lives—and the world changes forever.

4J is a raw, unflinching novel about seven strangers who meet in the psychiatric ward of Sovah Health Hospital in Danville, Virginia, and form an unlikely family. Maya, Vanessa, Marcus, Cody, Tiffany, James, and Dr. Patricia Okonkwo each arrive at 4J carrying the weight of their own mental health struggles bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD, borderline personality disorder, addiction, and depression.

What would you sacrifice for your best friend? And when does loyalty become enabling? Jake has it all—a six-figure job, a beautiful girlfriend, and a carefully planned future. His best friend Marcus has... well, Marcus has Jake. And another Venmo request. For twelve years, Jake has been Marcus's safety net. Late rent, car repairs, "emergency pizza situations"—Jake's always been there with his wallet open and no questions asked. That's what best friends do, right?

They share the same face, but their lives couldn't be more different and for Elena Castellano, that difference is destroying her from the inside out. Elena and Sophia are identical twins, mirror images in every physical way. But while Sophia glides through life collecting achievements, admirers, and opportunities with seemingly effortless grace, Elena struggles in her shadow overlooked, underestimated, and consumed by a jealousy so intense it threatens to poison everything she touches.