Showing results by narrator "Jesse Vilinsky" in All Categories

Sisters April and Jenn haven't been close in years. Jenn's too busy with school, the family antique shop, and her boyfriend, and April would rather play soccer and hang out with the boy next door. But when April notices her older sister is sad about staying home for college, she decides to do something about it. The girls set off to revive a pact they made as kids: spend an epic day exploring the greatest hits of their childhood and all that Los Angeles has to offer.

Rhett and his brother, Nash, have never been allowed to play board games. It's their mom's most important rule; the twins don't know why, but they know not to push her on it. When their mom suddenly disappears, they're reunited with Ace, their long-lost grandfather, who reveals that their family is descended from a board game character who escaped his game and lived in the real world. Their family now has the ability to enter the world of any game they want—but this gift also comes with a price.

Lizzie has a lot to worry about. Ever since her sister left for boarding school, Lizzie has felt overwhelmed by worries. Will she flunk out of 7th grade? Will she say something humiliating in front of her crush? Will her campaign for class secretary set a record for the lowest number of votes ever? Her friends say her fears are far-fetched, but they still make Lizzie's stomach hurt.

When fourteen-year-old Dorea endured the trial of Mother's Wrath, she hoped to be the recipient of one of its three elemental powers: water, lightning, or wind. To her surprise, she was the first in her village to be gifted all three, making her the most powerful mage of her generation. But outside peaceful Whitecliff, the winds of war are blowing once again.

Eighteen-year-old Henrietta arrives in Los Angeles in 1934 with dreams of trading her boring life for stardom. She’s determined to make it as an actress, despite her family’s doubts and rumors of would-be starlets gone missing. And by the skin of her teeth, she pulls it off! A serendipitous job offer arrives and Henrietta finds herself on a whirlwind publicity tour for a major film role—with a vexingly unpleasant actor tapped by the studio to be her fake boyfriend.

From severe flooding in Louisiana to wildfires in the Pacific Northwest to melting permafrost in Alaska, catastrophic climate events are occurring more frequently—and severely—than ever. And these events are having a direct impact on the lives (and futures) of young people and their families.

Jessica Hagedorn's edgy and entertaining new novel centers on the lives of two women who are neighbors in Manhattan's West Village. Mimi Smith is a filmmaker of low-budget slasher movies in search of new material. Her neighbor Eleanor Delacroix is a legendary writer of erotic fiction, now nearing eighty and addicted to cocaine and gin. Their personal and artistic lives begin to collide in unexpected ways.

Firmly rooted in the modern American West, this story collection follows women and families who feel the instinctual, inexplicable pull of a home they must work to protect from the effects of economic inequity and climate catastrophe. A 74-year-old nun turns to eco-sabotage to stop a fracking project. A woman delivers her own baby in a Nevada ghost town. A young farmer hides her chicken flock from the government during a bird-flu epidemic. An ornithologist returns home to care for her rancher father and gets caught up trying to protect a breeding group of endangered sage grouse.

A necklace. A bugle. A lion statue. What do they have to do with each other? Absolutely nothing unless you’re Tildy, Leon, or Nell. These items matter an awful lot to them. Not because of what they are, but what—and who—they represent. Anatomy of Lost Things shares the crisscrossing stories of Tildy, Leon, and Nell, of the impossible losses they’ve each recently faced, and the unexpected histories of their prized objects.

Ella knew transferring to a new school wouldn’t be easy. The first day, while defending her sister, Ella makes an enemy out of the student council president and lands in detention. Swearing revenge on him, Ella will stop at nothing to unseat him—even calling for a redo election in which she’s the only one brave enough to run against him. As a new student, Ella isn’t sure she can secure the votes until she meets unfailingly flirtatious Patrick and hears his wild idea to help her.

It’s a man’s world, and Indiana Ana Aaron, a talented coder and IT specialist, doesn’t fit in. She says what she thinks, which frequently gets her in trouble and most recently has resulted in her transfer to a remote work team. She sees working from home as a chance at redemption (by keeping her head down and her camera off). But, almost immediately, her new boss makes a huge mistake in a report, and Ana feels compelled to point it out. She expects extreme repercussions, like before, but instead, the boss praises Mr. Aaron for his assertiveness and gives the team the afternoon off.

The Argyros family has been torn asunder, their nation betrayed and taken over by former allies, all four siblings scattered across the world. Now head of the rebellious Sxoriza, Rhea grapples with her newfound abilities and an uneasy relationship with Michali, her resurrected beloved. But forces are rising against her, hungry for the powers she now wields. Defiant even in the face of defeat, Lexos finds himself imprisoned in the most unlikely of places. With a new ally by his side he plots his escape and revenge against those responsible.

Are you bursting with great ideas for a new business but aren't quite sure where to start? Do you know that you'd be great at selling something but first need to figure out what that "something" actually is? Are you gearing up to be an entrepreneur but think that kids can't really build anything big? If any of these sound like you—you've come to the right book! You’re never too young to start a business. Whether you want to launch a babysitting service, run a lemonade stand, sell crafts online—or don’t even know what business to start—You're the Boss is here to help.

Ten social media stars think they're about to join the cast of a hot new reality show. But the production crew never shows up, and the influencers find themselves stranded on a deserted Caribbean island with no contact with the outside world - except for messages from the mysterious 'Sponsor', who is threatening to expose their darkest secrets. When one of them winds up dead, things start to get more real than they bargained for.

Princess Cinna has grown up longing for her older sister, Rapunzel, who was kidnapped before Cinna was born. Now that Rapunzel has returned home, Cinna couldn’t be happier. She can’t wait to help Rapunzel take her rightful place as heir to the throne.

What Elisa, Lucia, and Alice see–and judge–of each other from the outside is drastically different from how each girl feels inside. They attend the same classes in the same New York City middle school, but no one knows that Elisa is trying to navigate the bewildering asylum process having just arrived from El Salvador; or that Lucia, who also speaks Spanish and brims with self-confidence, is caught in the middle of her parents’ heartbreaking divorce; or that Alice, who appears to be a rebel in combat boots, carries the burden of her mother’s progressing cancer.

Coa, who was born feral in the North Transatlantic wilds, has just been captured. Now, Coa is subject to public humiliation and execution in a gruesome spectacle known as The Great Hunt. If participants die in the Great Hunt, their entire family will be executed—in front of everyone. The nationalist regime, known as the Allied Force, will not rest until all foreigners are exterminated. Coa’s best hope of survival might be Princess Ife—born of privilege, but newly married into the authoritarian lineage.

Riley Thomas is feeling stuck—she’s moved from California to Nebraska, she’s on a weeklong Oregon Trail family bonding excursion, and her luggage is lost. There’s no one her age on the trip except a tall, dark and irksome cowboy who wrongly assumes she has zero ability to handle the great outdoors. She can’t wait for this misery to end—even though going “home” isn’t even possible anymore.