Showing results by narrator "Johanna Parker" in All Categories

Rachel never wanted to travel into the wilderness. The westward trail has stolen everything from her. Her home. Her family. Her husband. Now a match made out of necessity has trapped her in a marriage with a man she can't stand. Owen likes Rachel about as much as his horse likes a burr under its saddle. She's bossy and stubborn with an independent streak a mile wide. And a baby on the way. He can't help feeling responsible for the prickly mother-to-be. A marriage of convenience is the right thing to do. But that doesn't mean he has to like it.

Sadie Stephens has loved her brother's best friend, Lincoln Carver, since she was a girl, but a family feud involving a runaway bride closed any options for a romance. Lincoln's only interest in her now is one of obligation and guilt. After all, he's the one responsible for the lassoing "incident" (don't ask. Lincoln's life was perfect until his matchmaking granny stuck her nose in his business. Now, he's accidentally injured his best friend's sister, the woman partly responsible for a family feud.

Women are expected to be many things. They should be creative, but not crazy; passionate, but not angry. They should be fertile, feminine and self-reliant, not barren, butch or solitary. Women, in other words, are caught between social expectations and a much more complicated reality. In The Defiant Middle, Kaya Oakes draws on the wisdom of women mystics and explores how transitional eras or living in marginalized female identities can be both spiritually challenging and wonderfully freeing, ultimately resulting in a reinvented way of seeing the world and changing it.

Clairvoyant single mom Tipsy Collins is easing into a post-divorce new normal. She has solved a century-old murder mystery and brought peace to her house. She’s rebuilding her artistic career and co-parenting with her ornery ex-husband. She’s hopeful that her boyfriend is Mr. Right. Mercurial phantom Henry Mott still haunts her house, but he’s become a dear friend. A series of sudden financial and personal setbacks leave her feeling like she’s back to square one, until a new friendship offers unexpected financial salvation.

Rita Farmer knows exactly how hard it is to break into the movie business. Acting was the big dream that brought her out to LA in the first place. And while she never made the red carpet, that big dream did turn into a modest profession that kept her and her son afloat. So from time to time she'll lend her talents as a favor.

Solving murders come easy for Mae West and the Laundry Club Ladies. Trying to solve a cold case is proving a bit challenging. Mae has been having memories about the house fire that killed her family, leaving her orphaned. As a child she couldn't do much to prove the fire wasn't an accident, but as an adult and with a group of friends to help, Mae is on the case to put the clues of the past together to bring out the truth.

Kellen Hockley usually keeps quiet about his past, but once upon a time, he loved a girl named Angela. He hasn't seen her in a decade, but now he has to break the news to her that his team of rogue treasure hunters accidentally killed her husband. He's had better days. It's not the news that's delivered to Angela Neko that breaks her apart - it's the rumbly, Texas drawl delivering it. She can't believe she's hearing Kellen's voice again. But there's no time for distractions.

Taking a Chance: Ali Montero pushed aside her pride and accepted help from Ram Torres to help rescue her younger sister, Cara, from kidnappers. Now that Cara's safely at home with her family, she wants Ram to stay close by until she fully recovers. He agrees, but the more time he spends time with Ali, Cara, and their family, the greater his desire for a loving family of his own. Ram and Ali have had a feisty connection, and both are unsure where to go from here. Will their attraction to each other overcome their differences so they can finally take a chance on love?

When Emilia discovers a human finger, sold as a relic of a famous Mexican martyr, it seems to be evidence of a gruesome kidnapping. It also triggers memories of a painful episode Emilia won't share with gringo hotel manager Kurt Rucker. Struggling with her past, Emilia is plunged into danger as she uncovers how many times the finger was bought and sold before ending up in a posh store. Meanwhile, a rare type of heroin connects to a cruise ship murder, promising more drug war violence for Acapulco's already blood-soaked streets.

Terrified by her nightmares of the restaurant fire and shaken by norteamericano hotel manager Kurt Rucker's possible move, Emilia Cruz must catch a violent firebomber and find a missing girl before the iconic beach city is destroyed. Neither investigation is easy, because the influence and impact of Mexico's drug war is everywhere, just like the salt breeze coming off the ocean. Emilia's police work is soon hijacked by savage political rivalries, a corrupt vice cop, and a woman in prison who knows more than she'll say.

Sweeping listeners from the exclusive corners of sorority life in the South to the frontlines of the drug-fueled, slacker culture in Manhattan in the '90s and early '00s, when Elizabeth is forced to acknowledge her role in the death of a friend in order to mend a broken friendship and save her own life, The Drifter is an unforgettable story about the complexities of friendships and the secrets that can ultimately destroy us.

Once a teenage runaway, Kate Jennings is finally getting her life together. She's moving to picturesque Shaw Island, Washington, to marry the man of her dreams - billionaire Chase Cole. Chase is everything she could want in a man. He's handsome, smart, and funny...so what if he's 30 years her senior? The only trouble is the media won't put to rest the disappearance of his previous wife.

Spring 1921. The Great War is over, Prohibition is in full swing, the Depression still years away, and Newport, Rhode Island's glittering summer cottages are inhabited by the gloriously rich families who built them.

In 1925 Colorado, 14-year-old Ida Bidson dreams of becoming a teacher, but she knows it won’t be easy. When the school board closes the town’s one-room school, threatening to keep Ida from finishing eighth grade and moving on to high school, it looks like her dream will never come true. Then she and her classmates come up with a plan for a secret school - with Ida as their teacher!

U.S. Army Captain Kimberly N. Hampton was living her dream: flying armed helicopters in combat and commanding D Troop, 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry, the armed reconnaissance aviation squadron of the 82nd Airborne Division. On January 2, 2004, Captain Hampton was flying an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter above Fallujah, Iraq, in support of a raid on an illicit weapons marketplace, searching for an illusive sniper on the rooftops of the city. A little past noon her helicopter was wracked by an explosion....

To claim her love, first he must reconcile his past…and catch a killer. When firefighter Reyn Erikson returns to the small Louisiana town that branded him a killer, he doesn’t want trouble. He plans to slip in, help his hospitalized grandmother, and slip out again as silent as smoke. Instead he runs into two unintended flashpoints: his grandmother’s plea to find the truth behind his mother’s death. And sexy redhead Olivia Crenshaw.

The women in When the Messenger Is Hot are fierce and kind, damaged and optimistic. They are recovering from loss or addiction or betrayal; they are on the fringes of reality or sanity or a "conventional" life. From a woman who decides to live on the patio rooftop of her friend's apartment building, to the best-selling memoir writer who finds her identity overtaken by the actress cast in the movie version, to the daughter convinced her dead mother is in fact simply stuck at a North Dakota bus depot, their experiences of loss and love are both uniquely theirs and universal.

Emma Bailey is fed up with the dating scene, and if she hears her mother nag one more time about getting married…well, she’s had it, and she wants everyone to know it. In a moment of clarity (or insanity?), she announces to the world that she will never marry. No husband and no kids; no worries about diapers, driving lessons, or divorce. Her friends are there for her, but they’re also involved in their own lives and loves, so off she goes into a world of casual dating. But what happens when the avowed spinster, the woman who has supposedly tucked her heart into a safe little space, suddenly realizes that her best friend Brian means more to her?

Three Mormon high school friends, perky Nikki, studious Alicia, and football player Sam, make a pact of the Pygmalion style—they decide to help the “untapped” students at their school. Their plan is to transform three classmates and take them to the prom. But the experiment doesn’t go exactly as planned. They slowly begin to realize that there is more to most people than meets the eye.

The author of a Book Sense 76 pick and Los Angeles Times Best Book, Nina Revoyr is a writer of rare voice and distinct talent. Wingshooters is the tale of an isolated, all-white community torn apart by prejudice after the arrival of a half-Japanese girl and a young black couple.