Showing results by narrator "Ann Shanks Etter" in Literature & Fiction

Mira Collins has her life together. She’s built a solid career as a financial planner, a comfortable home, and an uncomplicated and regimented routine…until her wayward sister, Vannah, shows up unexpectedly and drops a bomb on her orderly world. Ever dependable Mira reluctantly accepts temporary custody of her 10-year-old nephew, Ben, then quickly learns that not all responsibilities can be handled with a color-coded calendar system, and that being a substitute parent is terrifying.

Kathleen Halloran has never been happier. She and Molly Cooper have built a life together, living in her grandmother’s cottage. The family drama of the past has calmed down. She and Molly will soon be aunts. Life on Little Sister Island is everything Kathleen could wish for...until the island begins to send ominous signals that change is in the wind.

Small-town woodworker Ava Collins and big city doctor Bex Leone both love Christmas. Some might go so far as to call them obsessed. They love Christmas music, Christmas food, Christmas carols, and Christmas movies. When the two women meet over a Thanksgiving dinner, it seems for a second they might have finally found their mistletoe match, but their initial connection goes wildly awry when they realize their versions of what constitutes an ideal Christmas differ as drastically as the places they choose to spend their holidays.

Fire investigator Emery Pearson doesn’t have time for a relationship. Her career is everything, so the rest of her life is put on hold until she reaches her professional goals. Sex is always on the table, though. Finding the perfect woman who only wants a quick hookup seems like a fantasy, but when she meets Lily online, the fantasy turns to reality when they agree to meet. Their tête-à-tête at the museum is more than Emery could imagine—satisfying, exciting, and passionate.

Hal Orion is an accomplished chef and food truck owner. Quinn Banning is an investment banker. Putting together her next business venture, Quinn recognizes Hal's talent and charm as necessary assets for success - her good looks don't hurt, either. But Hal's transient ways are in opposition to the stability Quinn craves. Relying on their shared love of Buffalo, Quinn makes Hal an offer she can't refuse - a restaurant under her own name, complete creative control, and secure financial backing. It's every chef's dream. But Hal utters the one word Quinn can't stand to hear: no.

Claire Weaver’s only goal is to climb the ladder of success. After winning an unwinnable toxic tort case and securing a 90-million-dollar verdict, she’s a shoo-in for a judgeship at Kansas City’s circuit court. The last person fire investigator Emery Pearson expects to see in court is the stranger she had the pleasure of dominating last night—only this time, Judge Claire Weaver is definitely in charge.

New York, 1883: Gamblers and thieves, immigrants and street urchins, Do-Gooders and charity houses, impossible goals and impossible odds. The Bowery is a place where you own nothing but your dreams. And dreams are the only things that come cheap for pickpocket Mollie Flynn and prostitute Annabelle Lee. Pleasure is fleeting—and often stolen. Nights at Lefty Malone's saloon, sneaking into the Thalia Theatre. Then it's back to their airless, windowless tenement room and the ongoing struggle to keep a roof over their heads and bread in their stomachs.