Showing results by narrator "Kate Rudd" in All Categories

In the midst of a sudden spring snowstorm, an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom. Outside the school, the town of Broken Branch watches and waits. Officer Meg Barrett holds the responsibility for the town’s children in her hands. As tension mounts with each passing minute, the hidden fears and grudges of the small town are revealed as the people of Broken Branch race to uncover the identity of the stranger who holds their children hostage.

Newlywed Jade Westmore has finally found her forever in husband Wells, a charming, successful, and recently divorced architect—only there’s one caveat: behind the gates of their elysian estate, hidden from street view in the caretaker’s cottage … lives Wells’s first wife, Sylvie. Three years ago, the original Mrs. Westmore suffered a nervous breakdown—and hasn’t uttered a sound since. Not a physician, psychologist, or world-renown specialist has been able to elicit so much as a word from the silent woman … until now.

The planet LV-363 teems with exotic life, including a plant growing in the shadows of its deep rifts. The plant’s flower yields a valuable narcotic, and people are forced by the cartels to harvest it. When a Yautja (Predator) ship arrives for a hunting ritual, the Predators seed the rifts with Xenomorph eggs. The aliens emerge and the result is bizarre and deadly hybrids, with humans trapped between the Predators and their prey. These deadly Xenomorph hybrids—some of which possess the ability to fly—swarm out of control and may prove more than the Yautja or the humans can defeat.

Even though Meg Anderson's hell-raising days are over, coming home to Anderson Butte isn't easy, especially when her impossible-to-please dad is the mayor and her do-gooder siblings run the place. But with another job lost and the gorgeous father of her daughter trying to make contact after disappearing three years ago, a break is definitely in order. Hopefully the little town filled with big, juicy secrets can help.

The moment her eyes locked on Colt Nightshade, she knew he was trouble. But Lieutenant Althea Grayson prided herself on being in control, and she wouldn't let her new partner ruin that. The man was a renegade, no respect for rules - and the worst part was he got to her. The way he challenged Althea's thinking, stared right into her eyes...and held her in his arms. What defense could her heart have when Nightshade didn't play fair?

They call him the Lovebird Killer, a merciless fiend unleashing a flood of unspeakable cruelty upon Sacramento’s most loving couples, young and old. This real-life monster’s reign of terror has left the city’s residents paralyzed with fear. All but Lizzy Gardner. Because hiding from monsters isn’t Lizzy’s style, not since she faced the madman who kidnapped and terrorized her as a teenager. So when a routine workers’ compensation case suddenly leads her and her two young assistants onto the killer’s trail, Lizzy revels in the chase.

After her own wedding, Shelly sends her best friend, Jill Morrison, the dress - which is delivered to Jill's hotel in Hawaii. But at least the man she sat beside on the plane - gorgeous grouch Jordan Wilcox - can't be the man in question, can he? She met him before she got the dress!

As a blacksmith’s apprentice, Eva keeps her hands busy and her head out of the clouds. When she stumbles upon a stolen gryphon egg, she must leave the safety of her quiet life behind and join the Windsworn - an elite band of warriors who ride fierce gryphons into battle. As Eva struggles to earn her place among the warriors, she discovers a sinister plot that could draw on the secrets from her past to bring about the Windsworn’s downfall. To save her new friends, Eva must summon her courage and uncover the truth of her mysterious origins before the kingdom plunges into all-out war.

With Beach Girls, Luanne Rice returns to the place that she was born to write about—the Connecticut shore—to tell a story about a family of women whose lives encompass three generations, their histories intertwined with that of the mystic coastal town that has forever bound them to one another.

When Ruth Ann (Roo) McCabe responds to a text message while she's driving, her life as she knows it ends. The car flips, and Roo winds up in a hospital bed, paralyzed. Silent. Everyone thinks she's in a coma, but Roo has locked-in syndrome - she can see and hear and understand everything around her, but no one knows it. She's trapped inside her own body, screaming to be heard.

Lawyer Keane Prescott goes from courtroom to center ring when he inherits his late father’s family business—a circus. Working with acrobats and clowns hold no appeal for him, but his curiosity about animal acts is piqued after meeting lion tamer Jovilette Wilder. As bold and unpredictable a force of nature as the big cats she trains, Jo is wary her new boss intends to cage her passion. But to her surprise, Keane is more than willing to join Jo for a walk on the wild side.

As children, Sam and Elli were two halves of a perfect whole: gorgeous identical twins whose parents sometimes couldn’t even tell them apart. They fell asleep to the sound of each other’s breath at night, holding hands in the dark. And once Hollywood discovered them, they became B-list child TV stars, often inhabiting the same role. But as adults, their lives have splintered. After leaving acting, Elli reinvented herself as the perfect homemaker: married to a real estate lawyer, living in a house just blocks from the beach.

When Penny moves to Hog's Hollow from New York City, her life changes drastically. Penny's mom now runs a cupcake bakery, and Penny is stuck helping out. But that isn't the worst of it. Not only did she leave her friends back home, but her dad stayed behind too. And then there's Charity, resident mean girl who's out to get Penny. With all this, Penny still finds some things to like: Tally and Blake...and Marcus—the cute, quiet boy who runs on the beach every night. But just when Penny begins to accept her new life, she's forced to make a choice that will change everything.

Thirteen imaginative tales filled with revenge, battles, hope, and gut-punching endings set in Kingfountain, Muirwood, and exciting new settings, from best-selling author Jeff Wheeler. Immerse yourself in worlds with tragic kingdoms and mad kings, magic communication with bees in haunted ruins, a boy who serves the mystical Ravenmaster of Pent Tower, and the secrets of Metamorphistry.

Recovering from a past shaped by violence, Matt Holloway has sworn to live a different life than his parents did. Matt has found a purpose that keeps his lingering pain and fear at bay: helping others to heal. Yet the nightmares continue to haunt him. Grace has lived a life of luxury, sheltered by her family’s money and connections. When a betrayal forces her to question everything, she leaves her family and accepts an ambitious position in a career for which she may not be ready.

When Crystal Donavan gets a message on a mysterious app with a picture of her little sister gagged and bound, she agrees to play the kidnapper’s game. At first, they make her complete bizarre tasks: Steal a test and stuff it in a locker, bake brownies, make a prank call. But then Crystal realizes that each task is meant to hurt—and kill—her friends, one by one. But if she refuses to play, the kidnapper will kill her sister.

Terry Henry Walton envisioned the Force de Guerre as a unit to keep evil away from those who wanted to live in peace. Akio is of the same mind, but he sees the whole world as a place that needs the protection that Terry and his people can provide. On behalf of The Queen Bitch, Akio recruits the FDG to take the fight overseas to stop an army.

Thirteen-year-old Aluna has lived her entire life under the ocean, just like all of the Coral Kampii in the City of Shifting Tides. But after remaining hidden from the Above World for centuries, her colony is in trouble, its survival in doubt :  the tech that allows the Kampii to breathe underwater is beginning to fail, and many Kampii have already died. Yet the colony’s elders, including Aluna’s father, are unwilling to venture to the dry and dangerous Above World to search for answers. So it’s up to Aluna and her friend Hoku to face the terrors of land to find a solution.

Eighteen-year-old Kricket Hollowell was looking for her place in the world when she discovered that the universe was bigger - and more dangerous - than she had ever dreamed. Now, whisked across space to the planet Ethar, Kricket learns that her genetic ability to see the future makes her a sought-after commodity...and the catalyst for war between her star-crossed parents' clans.

It's been three months since the Winterians were freed and Spring's king, Angra, disappeared - thanks largely to the help of Cordell. Meira just wants her people to be safe. When Cordellan debt forces the Winterians to dig their mines for payment, they unearth something powerful and possibly dangerous: Primoria's lost chasm of magic. Theron sees this find as an opportunity - with this much magic, the world can finally stand against threats like Angra.