Showing results by narrator "Christa Lewis" in Literature & Fiction

In the summer of 1865, Emmaline Gulledge is 11 years old and stubborn as a mule. Determined to do exactly what she sets her mind to, she explores the mountains and valleys around her home with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a keen eye that misses nothing. When her mother dies, Emmaline, Emmy for short, is thrust into the mystical, spiritual world of her mother's native peoples, the Tsalagi, better known as the Cherokee.

Is a little white lie a problem if it empowers your dream? Meet Idealist artist Lidia Lundon who lies to her wife to get her own NYC gallery and conspires with Dennis Gavin, accountant, internationally recognized ceramicist, and serial killer? Plagued with writer’s block and PTSD, Rachel Allen is distracted by discovering the owner of a 1937 teenager’s diary and unraveling a wealthy family’s murderous secrets still in play.

Named sole heir to her aunt's estate, Charity Gannon arrives in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, hoping to find a link to her past. She's not looking for lost treasures; she is searching for a connection to the aunt she barely knew. What she finds is a 30-something-year-old mystery and questions with no answers. A sad, secluded cottage, all but hidden amid the vines. A man's suit of clothes, tainted with dried blood and a bullet hole. Four forgotten boxes, stuffed into a large bag and buried in the far corners of the shed.

It is Chicago. 1910. 11-year-old Lillian March looks over her mother's dead body with a sense of relief. As a poor woman, her mother, Cora, never had any real choices or happiness in her life. Cora and Lillian flee to the bustling city of Chicago, where she is certain she will have the life of opulence she deserves. Cora and Lillian face deep hardships in turn-of-the-century Chicago as Cora's mind continues its downward spiral.

Winna returns to her Colorado hometown and her father's last residence, an 87-year-old mansion built by his father, to settle his estate. As Winna shares memories with her married daughter; reconciles with her disinherited sister, Chloe; and becomes reacquainted with old classmates, the old house gives up its secrets. A handwritten will, old love letters, an unfinished story in a notebook, and a diamond ring hidden among her childhood marbles call into question everything Winna knows about her beloved grandmother.

Velveteen Vargas is an 11-year-old from Brooklyn who is granted a summer vacation in the country, courtesy of the nonprofit Fresh Air Fund. Her host family is a couple in upstate New York: Ginger, a failed artist on the fringe of Alcoholics Anonymous; and Paul, an academic who wonders what it will mean to "make a difference" in such a contrived situation.

Sofia is in a rut. Her dissertation work is stalled, and her life seems to be one gray day after another. When an elderly scholar, Monsieur Charles Vinson, invites her to his house in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon to spend the summer writing and cataloging his dead father's papers, she jumps at the offer. There, in the south of France, Sofia spends her days flipping through an archive of anti-Semitic papers and relics from the past century, burrowing deeper into the troubled history of the Vinson family.

If you or anyone you've known has ever enjoyed a Harlequin romance novel or a Hallmark card, you will fall in love with this collection of tales. Fall into "The Bag's...a Lady" and watch a sweet but persistent bag lady find a young New Yorker the perfect mate, whether she likes it or not. Sample "No Greater Love" and laugh over the exploding turkey as Silicy Tucker finds herself caring for her ex-husband with cancer and serving as guardian of his new wife.

Claire has finally found her forever home, and she and Chris soon find themselves falling in love. Then Chris' dreams of musical stardom and Claire's need for a stable home soon put their love in jeopardy. Chris struggles deeply with his plans for the future, entirely reluctant to leave Claire behind; until Claire does something that may break their love - and the only home she's comes to know - forever.

Single mother Samantha Dean doesn't have time for Christmas. Or romance, for that matter. She is weeks away from opening her own catering business, the most important part of her plan to provide her certified genius daughter Patty with all the wonderful things she deserves. Except Patty doesn't want to go to a fancy boarding school. She wants a father and when she meets bartender Murphy O'Rourke at her fourth grade Career Day presentation, she knows she's met the man of her mother's dreams!

Kellian York has big plans for the brothel he's inherited in Loving, Texas. Too bad that just days after his arrival the Legion for Decency has burned it to the ground, citing their mission to rid the town of drinking, gambling, and "loose women." Set on vengeance, Kellian targets the spinster leader, Annie Muldoon, never expecting that the beautiful young woman would let Kellian and his girls move into her boarding house.

Arriving at the port of New York in 1882, a 27-year-old Oscar Wilde quipped he had "nothing to declare but my genius." But as this sparkling narrative reveals, Wilde was, rarely for him, underselling himself. A chronicle of his sensational eleven-month speaking tour of America, Declaring His Genius offers an indelible portrait of both Oscar Wilde and the Gilded Age. Neither Wilde nor America would ever be the same.

Marta Hendriks is onstage at the Metropolitan Opera in New York when she learns of her beloved husband's death in a house fire. Fast-forward two years and countless therapy sessions, and Marta is ready to resume her career. In a stroke of luck, she's hired at the last moment to sing Violetta for the Paris Opera. She manages to keep her emotions under tight control and triumphs in the opening-night performance.When Marta is caught in a sudden downpour, she dashes for the shelter of a subway station and spots someone doing the same. It is her husband.

No one said stalking was easy, but if romance was left to the boys, the human race would die out while they logged fantasy football points and punched each other in the balls. Everyone knows that. Emily's not stalking Sebastian...she's saving the world.

The Orca Job was supposed to set them all up for life, but it did not go according to plan. They lost their money, they lost their ship, and some of them lost their lives—the survivors scattering in a storm of recriminations. Ten years later, no one is who they were...and some are not what they seem. But Strange's son, Cayce, wants to put the gang back together to rescue his father, currently held captive. As if uniting the club isn't enough of a challenge, they also need major resources, and the only way they know how to acquire them is by falling into old habits.

American Alana Eastwood's grandfather, and her only living relative, has taken ill at his home in Germany. Alana travels to be by his side, and while staying at his country cottage, she finds an unopened letter, postmarked 1945, that thrusts her into one of the most notable unsolved mysteries from postwar Germany. When people turn up dead, the local police are ill equipped to grasp the entire chain of events that the mysterious letter has put into play.

In 1735, Richard Derby, a ship’s master in colonial Salem, Massachusetts, married Mary Hodges, a merchant’s daughter. The alliance was good business, and Mary Hodges was a willing bride. Richard prospered, retired from the sea, and founded his own merchant house. With one exception, Richard’s sons went to sea. Hasket Derby stayed ashore, learning to manage the trading network his father built.

The Daughters of Marburg follows the story of two young women and their father who, shortly after the tyrannical November Pogroms, inhabit a home once owned by a Jewish family. While investigating their surroundings, Lilly, the main character, discovers a journal left by the Jewish girl who had fled the house with nothing but the clothes on her back. Through reading her entries, Lilly's eyes are opened to the brutality of the Nazi ideology.