Showing results by narrator "Matt Hicks" in All Categories

All Pineda Matlage wants is to get through the school year and maybe pull an epic prank or two with his friends Junior, Ernesto, and Patsy. But class is disrupted when a slew of American soldiers descends upon their rural Texan town of Soledad. They’ll be carrying out a training exercise and taking over everything, from Pineda’s school to the local government. But Pineda knows why they’re really here. For days, he’s hidden the strange creature who fell from the sky in his parents’ barn. He promised her he’d find her family and help them return home.

After twenty years as an Army Ranger and sniper instructor, Tyler Marconi arrives in Montana, his ghosts in tow, to say goodbye to his grandfather. A quiet, grief-filled moment in a hospital hallway unexpectedly introduces him to Justice McClay—her simple touch sparking something inside him he thought he'd lost forever.

Karzon and his friends are on the last leg of their journey. Two more artifacts to secure, after which they have to face the one who started it all. Will Karzon succeed in overcoming the darkness, or will be succumb to it for good?

Chris Andrews needs to go home. A new job awaits. A new opportunity. A new chance to build better memories. The last time he was there, he buried his father. The time before that, they had argued over his joining the Navy. Now, he needs to go home to start anew. But getting there turns out to be an adventure once the stoic Chris meets free-spirit Stella for a cross-country adventure. She opens his eyes to the beauty she sees in the world around her.

Confronted with uncertainty in the aftermath of war, a legendary master restarts a whole new system. General Glenaron gave up everything to stop the Beetle Queen’s invasion. He lost his wife, his youth, and his attachment to this world in a constant war that suddenly ends. His next cause is clear: Venture to the Cursed Valley and retire as a Warden Mage. Unfortunately, the Cursed Valley is actually cursed, he has no gold, and politics plague him.

My proper Southern belle mama might disagree, but I say I was born to be a rebel. From the second I got my hands on a pair of drumsticks, my future was sealed. I never fit in anyway, not with my rocker soul and curves that never take a day off. But what’s a drummer without a band? Oh, that’s right. A cocktail waitress. That is, until the chance of a lifetime falls into my lap - Unrequited needs a drummer, and I happen to have an "in" with the band.

Single dad of Seattle Mitch Benson can't move, can't blink, can't think, let alone do his job and photograph the woman on stage. Every fiber of his body wakes up when Paige McPherson starts to dance. She pours out her heart, bares her grief and pain for the world to see - the same grief and pain that has ruled his every waking moment since his wife passed and left him to raise their daughter alone. Paige is dancing his truth, and in that moment, Mitch knows his life is going to change.

Army Ranger Oliver Parker considered the world and wherever the mission sent him to be his home. Now, with an injury to his leg, he was scrambling to redefine what home was to him. The prospect of living with family felt stifling, and he yearned for a space to call his own. But a chance meeting with a kid who tried to rob him sent him crashing into a world of homeless teens and the woman who tries to give them a home.

In life there are choices. In times of clarity we may go right, but in our darkest hour we make a left. In our choices, our soul is judged - a devil in your right ear, an angel in your left, whispering sweet promises of blissful torment or anguished relief. Damned in life or damned in death, which will you choose? Welcome...to The Crossroads, an anthology series of 13 dark short stories that will make you ponder the question: Will you lead your fate or will fate lead you?

In this gripping thriller, retired DEA agent Rob Anderson is pulled back into action when his friend's granddaughter, Sarah, disappears from a spring break trip in Cancun. What begins as a rescue mission quickly unravels into something far more sinister—the exposure of an international human trafficking network run by Geraldo Gomez, a former cartel lieutenant turned sophisticated criminal mastermind.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus resurrected his friend Lazarus, who founded a secret organization: SOAR. Since then, Jesus has added to the resurrected - The Awakened - to aid Lazarus in SOAR's battle against Satan's slaves, the UnVeilers. The threat is escalating. The UnVeilers have stepped up their attacks on mankind through a charming leader and a devastating series of bombings in Dubai and Tel Aviv.

Adeelah El-Sayed meets Martin Webster, a Christian - a dangerous liaison for a Muslim woman that leads to a private war.The first battle comes from within. Adeelah knows this attraction to a non-Muslim man is unacceptable in her Islamic world. But she loses this battle. She cannot overcome the forbidden love that invades her soul, and she hopelessly surrenders. Together Martin and Adeelah face more attacks from mosque, church, and their two families, all because they dare to love each other.

There’s no denying that being a teacher is also becoming an increasingly tougher and stressful job. Not because of the kids, but because of the system and the other adults. You have to deal with never-ending new standards and admin expectations. You have to spend hours explaining to parents, who can’t accept their children being not academically perfect, why you can’t just pass their kid.

Do you feel you’re not living the life you want? You have big goals and ambitions but you’re unable to achieve them? Are you trapped in an endless cycle of motivation and resignation that exhausts and drains you? You know that deep inside you have huge potential and that you can give a lot to this world, but you just don’t seem to express it in a consistent way. You might think that intense self-discipline and cutting out all bad habits is an overwhelming task. But real success often lies in the day-to-day ability to overcome the smallest of tasks, the most regular of setbacks.

The Academy of Marked is perhaps the most dangerous place that Elian could be right now. It’s also the one place he wants to be. Elian is full-marked, and one of the marks he bears is that of a Summoner. A Summoner mark is a death sentence in the valley. But he risked his life to get back to the Valley of Auld—risked his life to make it to the Peaks, and gain entry to the Academy of Marked.

With the birth of my two baby boys, it’s clear the curse that destroyed the male population has faded away. But the witch Brunhilda threatens to unleash a new curse, even deadlier than the last. However, an uprising of radical witches threatens Brunhilda’s rule. Their cunning leader, Fang, has summoned dark powers that will kill Brunhilda—releasing her curse when she dies—and ignite an apocalyptic “Final Revolution”.

Clay watched his fellow Lighthouse Security Keepers fall for women while on missions. Growing up with chaos, the last thing he wanted was drama...or surprises. The beautiful concert violinist was just what he hoped for. Smart, talented, and dedicated to the orchestra. And completely separate from his mission chasing drug smugglers.

When I arrived at the village last winter, the women faced starvation and extinction. But I've put food on their tables and babies in their bellies. My power—a gift of the gods—is growing ferociously, but I must learn to wield it without destroying everything, including myself.

Lissa Frye returns home from the navy hoping to find a different future - one which includes a husband, marriage, and a family - until news from her sister impacts Lissa’s personal life and derails her plans. Kurt McKintrick, having lost his best friend to an IED in Afghanistan, has returned to help the man's mother run a horse rescue ranch. Images of war plague him, and thoughts of anyone else he might love falling victim to an untimely end, distance him from the person most likely to help.

When Grandpa Stinson dies, he expects nothing more than to keep his grandsons together, running the family's multibillion-dollar business. But he's got just one unfaltering rule: They have to get married and have a baby first. The brothers disagree...wholeheartedly. But it's set in stone. Follow the rule, or you're the one grandson out of luck.... Stubborn, rugged, but oh-so-sexy Roark Stinson, the oldest brother, refuses to give in to his grandfather's manipulations. After all, women are the root of all evil, and he's never witnessed a relationship that actually works.