Showing results by narrator "Nicol Zanzarella" in All Categories

Twenty-five years ago, Monica Stanton gave up a baby girl for adoption. Now, the thing Monica didn't dare hope for has happened: Jessica has reentered her life...and brought a little drama and competition with her. Jessica is willing to meet her birth mother, but she wants the reunion to air on a reality TV show. Monica would rather chew glass than appear on TV. But she'll swallow her pride - and a few other unsavory items - if that's what it takes to reconnect.

When it comes to negotiation, there is an ugly double standard. As women, if we make concessions to further a deal, we're viewed as weak. But if we play hardball, we can be seen as overly aggressive - and the strategy backfires. No wonder most women hate negotiating.

Human trafficking is not just something that happens in other countries. Nor is it something that just happens to "other people," such as runaways or the disenfranchised. Even kids in your own neighborhood can fall victim. But they don't have to.

Michael Chabon once said, "I scan the tables of contents of magazines, looking for Antonya Nelson's name, hoping that she has decided to bless us again." And now she has blessed us again, with a bounty of the stories for which she is so beloved. Her stories are clear-eyed, hard-edged, beautifully formed. In the title story, "Funny Once", a couple held together by bad behavior fall into a lie with their more responsible friends.

After decades apart, the five siblings find themselves together again at their ailing mother’s bedside, caught in a deadlocked feud over her hospice care. Into the morass steps Murron Teinetoa, one of their bastard children, who carries an idealistic hope of finally fitting in among her estranged relatives.In an interweaving narrative, Malae portrays the Felices in their formative years of the fifties; he excavates the personal lives of the siblings in the eighties and nineties; and he follows Murron in the present as she raises her son as a single mother.

How do you fight a supernatural battle without the most secret and ancient of powers? This is precisely the question that Frost must answer when she is given the awesome task of delivering the Book of the Last Battle to those who have work in good magic. Frost must rely solely on the physical strength of her sword and the magic contained within her beauty to succeed in her quest and regain her powers.

The fierce swordfighter Frost has lost her supernatural powers and must travel to the pit of hell and back in order to save herself and the kingdom. Doing battle with all the forces of Hades: demons, sorcerers, vicious spiders, and the most vile of all beasts, Frost must quest to save the princess and the world to which both are accustomed before evil is left to dominate for all eternity. Even without her amazing powers, Frost and her trusty sword are always ready to raze Hell.

After all the testing and touring and applying, your child has been accepted to college. Congratulations! Now what? Every new student grapples with making a successful transition to college—with remaining healthy, happy, grounded, and in school. Indeed, the national statistics are sobering...

For centuries, women who emerge as mystic leaders have played vital roles in American culture. For just as long, they've been subjugated and ridiculed. Today, women and others across the nation are once again turning to their mystic powers to #HexThePatriarchy and help fight the forces that seem bent on relegating them to second-class citizenry.

Two grisly murders are committed at a meatpacking plant by a person wearing a cow mask. Not long after, the CEO of a water park is brutally killed by someone wearing an orca mask. Interpol Agent An Chang believes these are the latest acts of a ruthless serial killer he has been chasing for more than 20 years...a killer who targets those who harm innocent animals.

It’s 1965, and thirteen-year-old Gia, along with her older brother and cousins, are desperate to escape their sleepy, tree-lined neighborhood where nothing ever happens. The only thing Gia would miss is the surrounding marsh, where she feels at home among sea birds and salt water. But when one of Gia’s cousins brings drugs into their neighborhood, it sets off a chain of events that quickly turn dangerous. Everyone will be caught in the ripples, and some may be swept away entirely. Gia is determined to keep herself and her family afloat while the world is turned upside down.

Equal parts information and inspiration, After You Vote: A Woman's Guide to Making an Impact, from Town Hall to Capitol Hill is both a primer and call-to-action for women of all ages who want to exercise their voices and engage more fully in civic life. It's the ultimate guide to political engagement, filled with practical (and proven) tactics to make your voice heard and have an influence on the issues you care about most - whatever those may be.

On the run from the brutal Sage and his army of Legions and Cormorants, 17-year-old Cera Marlowe knows the only place strong enough to protect her is the Alliance Council Estate. Cera’s introduction to the Estate is far from welcoming. As a Blight, her dueling powers of light and darkness make her a half-breed threat to the Alliance’s sacred powers. Cera’s ability to decipher hidden messages in classical artwork buys her shelter temporarily, but the clock is ticking as she’s faced with a daunting choice that could cost her everything.

When Araceli Flores Harper is sent to stay with her great-aunt Ottilie in her ramshackle Victorian home, the plan is simple. She’ll buckle down and get ready for college. Life won’t be exciting, but she’ll cope, right? Wrong. From the start, things are very, very wrong. Her great-aunt still leaves food for the husband who went missing 20 years ago, and local businesses are plastered with MISSING posters. There are unexplained lights in the woods and a mysterious lab just beyond the city limits that the locals don’t talk about. Ever.

“Now, more than ever, Americans are realizing that their votes count. Kim Wehle’s excellent guide tells you everything you need to know about the laws governing our greatest right and privilege. A must-read, especially in an election year.” —Norah O'Donnell, Anchor and Managing Editor...

In the backcountry of Yellowstone, evil moves below the surface . . . Following Nine of Stars comes the next chapter in Laura Bickle's critically acclaimed Wildlands series. As the daughter of an alchemist, Petra Dee has battled supernatural horrors and experienced astonishing wonders. But...

Laura Bickle, the critically acclaimed author of Nine of Stars and Witch Creek, returns with a fiery new chapter in her celebrated Wildlands series. In the Yellowstone backcountry, a merciless source of evil carries a torch for the past… Petra Dee and her immortal husband, Gabe, have been...

Conservationist and marine biologist Maddalena Bearzi made her career studying the wild creatures of the deep, but when COVID-19 made landfall on the California coast this seafaring scientist found herself shuttered up ashore, her wide blue world constricted by pandemic lockdown. Never good at sitting idle, she despaired at the confines of her Los Angeles flat—until she began to find wonder in the wilderness of her own backyard. Stranded charts Bearzi's discovery of both rapture and resilience in the unsung wildlife of urban LA.

Where the food is delicious, the people are nosy, and murder is always on the menu. Delaney Dodge has it all. Her bakery is thriving. She teaches baking lessons at night. She's landed a big deal with a New York publisher for a cookbook. And the most eligible bachelor in town can't stop flirting with her. But all of this is threatened when Delaney finds a dead body early one cold January morning. The most respected businessman in town has been murdered, and the evidence points to one of Delaney's oldest and dearest friends.

Back from leave after her first closed case, Cassidy Clarke returns to the LAPD, ready to dig in. This time, homeless teens are disappearing. And it’s not because of social reform—they’re being targeted. Cassidy follows a lead to a charismatic grad student who leans on his charm and vast resources to lure vulnerable kids under his wing. But when the people who could expose him start turning up dead, she abruptly switches focus, racing to protect his potential victims instead.