Showing results by narrator "Olivia Kustermans" in All Categories

Growing up is hard to do, but the kids on Gossip Girl sure made it look easy—and sexy, to boot. Set in the always-alluring penthouses and exclusive clubs of New York City, Gossip Girl followed, as its intro said, the “scandalous lives of Manhattan’s elite,” through the eyes of an omniscient narrator that had her eyes, ears, and hands in everything. Gossip Girl was enticing in a “lifestyles of the rich and famous” sort of way, but when you added on the fact that these pretty people had pretty problems and someone watching their every move, it was almost too good to resist.

Tuscany, 1944. As Cara runs into the grand entrance hall of the Villa Rosa, she flies to a stop. There is a gun pointing straight at her head, a Nazi staring down at her from the steps above. But even as her heart thumps so loudly she is sure it will jump out of her chest, she keeps smiling, desperately hoping that he won’t spot the precious diary she has hidden under her shirt. Because if he does, it’s not just her life at stake....

"Life of Ma Parker" is a 1921 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in The Nation and Atheneum on 26 February 1921: The gentleman opens his door to his charwoman, who tells him that her grandson has died. Through an analepsis, the grandson asks his grandmother for money, which she says she does not have.

Stepping off the Greyhound bus, I look at the town glinting in the distance beyond a crystal-clear mountain lake. The lines I’ve memorized from the ad are on repeat in my mind: accommodation and employment provided to women willing to relocate to a historic town with a shortage of women. When Virginia first sees the ad, her breath catches. Female? Check. Small-town seclusion needed? Check. Currently without a home or a job? Check and check. She dabs an extra layer of concealer over the bruise on her cheek, bundles up her belongings, and her secrets, and escapes her life in Savannah.

Asher Wright has spent his career creating and concocting the perfect dishes and is about to open his very own restaurant. Life is good. His love life, however, is far from cooking! He hasn’t thought about Lucy Gray in years—not since they both graduated, reeling from the shocking loss of her then boyfriend and his best friend Kris, who tragically died at 18. So when he witnesses the breakdown of her wedding in all its humiliating glory—old wounds and long-buried emotions resurface.

Portia Willows was a senior in high school in Los Angeles when her world fell apart. While dealing with the aftermath of the accident that took the lives of her mother and sister, she finds herself forced to face her own memory – which may not be quite what it seems. But Portia suffers from severe social anxiety disorder that prevented her from having any sort of life, while her little sister, Piper, was her best, and only, friend. Now, five years later, Portia is forced to recall the events of the past while being questioned about a horrific crime she doesn’t remember.