Showing results by narrator "Jennifer Jill Araya" in All Categories

Revised edition: This edition of January Thaw includes editorial revisions.

Revised edition: This edition of December Dread includes editorial revisions.

Summer in Battle Lake kicks off with fireworks and festivities, but it’s a local treasure hunt that’s amping up the tourist trade. It certainly piques the interest of part-time reporter Mira James—both as fodder for a column and because she could use the five grand in prize money. The treasure? A faux diamond hidden at the bottom of Whiskey Lake.

Cue the accordions: Battle Lake, Minnesota, is kicking off October Fest with polka, sausage, and cold suds. The big inaugural event? A debate between two congressional hopefuls. One, stultifyingly sincere. The other, a foot-in-mouth tippler. Reporter Mira James is roped into covering their fighting words…and then a murder, when a relentless pit bull of a blogger is found dead at a motor lodge filled to capacity with fellow pundits, campaign entourages, and tourists—all of whom have just become suspects.

The Minnesota State Fair wows again with 4-H exhibits, rides, a Neil Diamond concert, and deep-fried everything on a stick. Covering it is a breezy assignment as fluffy as cotton candy for reporter Mira James, until the main attraction becomes murder.

It’s cold enough to freeze a shadow when Battle Lake local Tom Kicker braves the killer temps to bag a deer—only to get shot to death by his best buddy, Clive, in a hunting accident. Tragic, yes. Accident? Mira James, just a few weeks into working toward her PI license, isn’t so convinced.

Mira James has had it up to here with Battle Lake, Minnesota. After her latest romantic prospects go bust, she’s ready to move back to the Twin Cities and get a lapful of cats. Funny how murder can stall the best-laid plans. Days before the August Moon Festival, high school cheerleader Lucy Lebowski, Mira’s library assistant and an all-around sweetheart, is murdered.

A Christmas Anthology of several of the best Christmas Novellas you have never heard from authors who were prolific in their time. Including the author of the Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms series, the Little Bear children's series, Charles Dickens & Howard Hughes' award winning novelist/playwright brother.

Hadley James is finally in the kind of relationship she’s always wanted, and with the guy who has always been there for her. So she couldn’t care less when her ex-husband, Tyler, comes to town, flaunting his swimsuit-model girlfriend around Stoneybrook. When that same girlfriend is found in a dumpster, dead, behind Tyler’s family’s grocery store, Hadley wishes she’d paid a little more attention to the woman.

Holly Foster knows that nothing lasts—not hometowns or schools, or even family. It’s just safer to keep herself uninvolved. So when she’s sent to spend part of the summer with her uncle, she knows better than to get attached to him…or any part of his small Vermont town of Arden.

The summer of 1988 is possibly one of love, and that’s the problem. Aspiring journalist Bobbi Sue Baxter has feelings for a man who’s engaged. But then again, he seems to return the vibe. Adding more mud to the already unclear waters, his fiancée might be involved in a murder that happened in the building where Bobbi Sue was taking an aerobics class. So should Bobbi Sue get involved? That’s a definite yes.

The year is 1930, and Cora McCavanagh is posing as a maid at Hollywood magnate Truman Byrd’s legendary estate. She’s closing in on the damning evidence she needs for a high-profile client. An aspiring PI, Cora was trained by her father, a former prison guard at the notorious Pelican Island, where she grew up surrounded by hardened criminals. And that's why she recognizes Jack Yates as soon as he walks through the door. The last time she saw him was on an ill-fated night that changed the course of her life and still haunts her more than a decade later.

Traces of Kara is an action-packed, pulse-pounding psychological thriller/suspense novel that features a determined killer who slowly loses his grip on reality as his carefully detailed plan starts to fall apart and a heroine determined to move forward with her life who now must reconcile everything she believed to be true about her family with the reality of their tragic past.

God has given parents the privilege of shaping not just a human being but an eternal soul. Sometimes that responsibility can feel overwhelming, especially when it comes to prayer. In Praying for Your Child from Head to Toe, bestselling author Sharon Jaynes helps us use the words of Scripture to pray over our children with intention.

Dive into three more compelling stories of loss, love, and living well. The heroes and heroines of the Finding Home series know that not all that is gone is lost, and not all that is broken is beyond repair. Find some inspiration amid despair and some hope among the rubble.

Cole's mother married the Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein when he was only three years old. When his stepfather’s failing health requires Cole to step in and help out, he does it without complaint, knowing he can never ascend the throne. When his stepfather offers to adopt him, Cole knows it's unlikely the other members of the Princely Family will ever accept an adopted heir. Even so, part of him wants to try.

Ruby Malone Gutierrez is running away, although she won't admit that to herself. Suffering from hearing loss after an illness, the former music teacher wants to find a way to retain her independence, but only a wealthy relative offers any hope of that. Put to work in her aunt Nova's Kingsport dance hall, Ruby stumbles upon a mystery when her new hearing aids begin picking up conversations that no one else can hear. As Christmas draws closer, Ruby realizes the voice comes from a hunted man lost in time.

Every day in Clara's world, a dark cloud descends upon her town. The storm comes like clockwork, erasing everyone’s memories. Everyone except Clara. But after Clara’s father mysteriously disappears, things change. The Diviners, captive souls who feed off memories, come for her. With the help of a mysterious figure, Clara escapes the Diviners and flees to Khalom, a city in a parallel world, where she hopes to find refuge. There, Clara discovers that she is a Noble—one of the few people to have knowledge of both worlds, along with the ability to venture between the two.

Abby Miller is determined to find her missing FBI informant father before the mafia does, but time is ticking away. Someone tried to kill her father before he disappeared—and now gunmen are on her trail. Teaming with Agent Wyatt Kane is her only chance to uncover an FBI mole—and survive the mob. But finding the truth could uncover deadly secrets...and lead them into a dangerous trap.

Katy is consumed with anger and regret. Livid after giving up a successful graphic arts career for a good-for-nothing cheater, the usually amiable new divorcée is driving her best friend, Samantha, nuts. She suggests Katy try airing her grievances in an online diary. But the 30-something soon finds a better target when she learns the deadbeat who murdered her high-school friend is about to be released from prison. Shouldering a battle she's the only one willing to fight, Katy does everything in her power to keep the dangerous predator behind bars.