Showing results by narrator "Lauren Fortgang" in All Categories

After losing her mother and sister to a tornado that took their house, a teenage girl struggles to adapt to a new reality in this moving novel of grief, healing, and resilience. Born and raised in the Midwest, Jersey Cameron knows all about tornadoes. Or so she thinks. When her town is...

In this debut novel, 33-year-old Addie Lockwood bears and surrenders for adoption a son, her only child, without telling his father, little imagining how the secret will shape their lives. Told through letters and spare, precisely observed vignettes, Byrd is an unforgettable story about making and living with the most difficult, intimate, and far-reaching of choices.

When Kate Manchester and three friends discover a homeless boy on the streets one stormy afternoon, they have no choice but to help him. Ragged, hungry and as trouble-prone as an unruly puppy, the boy turns the women's lives upside down. But maybe upside-down is exactly what the women need. Kate's husband is cheating on her. Kimbrielle fears the cancer she once beat may be returning. Susanna is coming to grips with sudden widowhood and Micki is struggling with loneliness. As his troubles threaten to overwhelm them, the friends turn to each other.

Jill McCorkle's new collection of 12 short stories is peopled with characters brilliantly like us - flawed, clueless, endearing. These stories are also "animaled" with all manner of mammal, bird, fish, reptile - also flawed and endearing. She asks, what don't humans share with the so-called lesser species? Looking for the answer, she takes us back to her fictional home town of Fulton, North Carolina, to meet a broad range of characters facing up to the double-edged sword life offers hominids.

Modern stories for modern times, Crash Diet is at once brilliant and bitter, happy and heartbreaking. In 11 stories, acclaimed novelist Jill McCorkle tells the varied tales of today's southern women, the lives they end up leading, and the loves that distract them. Sandra knows that the best revenge is her ex-husband's credit card; Ruthie is stuck owning a motel that the highway has bypassed; Anna is a widow who goes to airports and looks in on other people's lives; Bunny waits eagerly for her absent sister's postcards for advice on how to live.

Tending to Virginia is a audiobook of one family's most important stories - how they happened, how they were perceived, how they were remembered, how their truth is revealed. In the end, an eruption of family confessions becomes revelation - revelation as legacy, passed down among a family's women; revelation as a family's gift in celebration of growing up, a process Jill McCorkle knows lasts into old age.

Here, in her first collection in eight years, McCorkle collects 11 brand-new stories bristling with her characteristic combination of wit and weight. In honeymoon shoes, mud-covered hunting boots, or glass slippers, all of the women in these stories march to a place of new awareness, in one way or another, transforming their lives. They make mistakes, but they don’t waste time hiding behind them. They move on. They are strong. And they’re funny, even when they are sad.

Eighteen years ago, a group of men killed Regan Miller's boyfriend and tried to kidnap her daughter, Kelsey. Since then they have lived in hiding, always vigilant and never getting close to anyone. When Kelsey goes away to college, Regan finally begins to relax. She even starts to think she can have a real relationship, perhaps with her flirtatious neighbor, Tyler Sloane. Then Regan is attacked again.

Remy Capra lives on the outskirts of society, her gang her only family. When that family is destroyed by a cop who cares more about causing pain than justice, Remy seeks revenge by stealing a mysterious coin, the Silver Maiden, from him. Suddenly, Remy is transported into the past - and right into the path of Nathan Pierce.

Six girls are missing and cold-case detective Olivia Wright is determined to find them. A lone survivor names gang leader Gabriel de los Rios as the culprit - and points Olivia to Isaac McGuire, the force's foremost authority on Gabriel. Isaac is stubborn, domineering and believes in strange things like time travel and a mystical coin called the Silver Maiden that Gabriel wants. Yet the longer they work together, the more Olivia is drawn to him.

Captain Chae Beyon is a hustler, a mercenary pilot, a wounded woman who prefers her men to be easily thrown aside. Daned Traern is a first-caste Ladaian bound by tradition and DNA to protect his race. He's willing to align himself with the hot space captain if she'll transport him home in time to ensure the right candidate is crowned—and thus prevent a bloody war.

Joseph has succeeded in rescuing his sister, Chelo, from a pitched battle on the colony planet Fremont. Now he and Chelo and the love of his life, Alicia, and all of their extended family, are finally returning home. Halfway there, a probe intercepts them, sending them new coordinates and a message from Joseph’s enigmatic supporter and teacher, Marcus. War is brewing. And Joseph is wanted for escaping to save Chelo.

The colony planet of Fremont was supposed to be free of all genetically altered beings - a new home for a pure race. So when Chelo and her brother, Joseph, along with two other genetically altered teenagers, were abandoned on Fremont, they were not welcome. They vowed to get off the planet by any means necessary. Joseph and the others managed to escape, but Chelo was left behind with her new-found love, forced to live underground.

Isolated in the aftermath of tragedy, Erin Fullarton has felt barely alive since the loss of her young daughter, Korrie. Her estranged husband, Zac, a brilliant astrophysicist, seems to be coping better. Lost in his work, he's perfecting his model of a stunning cosmological phenomenon, one he predicts will occur today. But when Erin receives a phone call from her daughter's school, the same call she received 500 days earlier when Korrie was still alive, Erin realizes something is happening. Or happening again.

A 2021 Alex Award Winner! “A sparkling tale about fame and family… Fans of Elizabeth Berg and J. Ryan Stradal will relish the novel’s humor, spark, and verve.” —Booklist “Smart yet surprisingly sweet, this meditation on family and media is as captivating as a favorite podcast.”...

When her father descends into madness, Verity Pruitt and her little sister Lilah find themselves uprooted from New York, on an orphan train to rural Arkansas. In Wheeler, Lilah is quickly adopted by the town’s beloved schoolteacher - but Verity is not. Willing to do anything to stay close, she pawns herself off as a farmhand, but even charming farm boy Abel Atchley can’t completely distract her from the sense that something is not quite right in this little town.

Gorgeous Vivi is the star of the Aquacade synchronized swimming spectacular, and plucky Max is a journalist for the fair's daily paper. Both are striving to make their way in a world where men try to control their actions and where secrets are closely kept. But when Vivi and Max become friends and their personal and professional prospects are put in jeopardy, they team up to help each other succeed and to realize their dreams during the most meaningful summer of their lives. 

In a world where magic is illegal, eight criminals led by rebellious Larkin are sent on a mission to rid their realm of an ancient evil lurking beneath the surface. Descending into a world full of unspeakable horrors, Larkin and her crew must use their forbidden magic to survive. As they fight in the shadows, Larkin finds a light in Amias, a fellow outlaw with a notorious past. Soon, Larkin and Amias realize that their destinies are intertwined. The eight of them were chosen for a reason.  

In an alternate 19th-century Italy, Elsa has an incredible gift: She can craft new worlds with precise lines of script written in books. But political extremists have stolen the most dangerous book ever scribed - one that can rewrite the Earth itself. Now Elsa must track down the friend who betrayed her and recover the book before its destructive power is unleashed. Can she handle the secrets she’ll uncover along the way - including the ones hiding in her own heart?

S. L. Huang's Null Set is the breakout sf thriller for fans of John Scalzi and Greg Rucka. Math-genius mercenary Cas Russell has decided to Fight Crime(tm). After all, with her extraordinary mathematical ability, she can neuter bombs or out-shoot an army. And the recent outbreak of violence in...