Showing results by narrator "Tamika Katon-Donegal" in All Categories

Baker extraordinaire Rylee Harris has a recipe for everything—except love. It’s been five years since she lost her husband, but romance is still a struggle for Rylee. In her small hamlet of Honey Hill, North Carolina, Rylee knows she’ll be the talk of the town when she finds someone new. To ease her mother’s worries about her love life, Rylee impulsively invents a fake relationship with the only man who’s caught her eye: the town sheriff, Canten Barnes. It’s supposed to be a secret, but secrets don’t last long in Honey Hill.

Eva, Celeste, Gina, and Steph used to think their friendship was unbreakable. After all, they’ve been through a lot together, including the astronomical rise of Moonlight Overthrow, the world-famous queer pop band they formed in middle school, never expecting to headline anything bigger than the county fair. But after a sudden falling-out leads to the dissolution of the teens’ band, their friendship, and Eva and Celeste’s starry-eyed romance, nothing is the same.

After Charlotte Bowman hooks up with hot Irish footballer Eoghan O’Farrell, she doesn’t expect to see him again. For one thing, she’s too busy for romance. She’s got her designer shoe company, a globe-trotting best friend to keep up with, and a frenetic lifestyle in New York City. But when an elite Irish soccer team reaches out to Charlotte about designing a shoe for its star player, she can’t believe it. Could her random hookup be the celebrity footballer with a penchant for new cleats?

In this heart-wrenching coming-of-age story about family, grief, and second chances, seventeen-year-old Emmy returns home for the summer to uncover the truth behind her sister Rose’s disappearance—only to learn that Rose had many secrets, ones that have Emmy questioning herself and the sister Emmy thought she knew.

Beautiful and brilliantly talented Celia DeMille is a 19th-century concert artist who has garnered fame, sung all over the world, and amassed a fortune. But prejudice bars her from achieving her place in history as one of the world’s greatest singers, and she dies in poverty and obscurity.

Jean Travis has the job of announcing the latest lottery winner on TV and is stunned to find that Patrick Bennett, her teenage crush, is the top mega winner. They haven't seen each other in years, and Patrick is thrilled to renew their acquaintance. Jean, not so much. After all, a lot has changed since they used to study together, and Jean worked so hard to hide her feelings.

After a chaotic semester of Elementary Magic, Rose, Amethyst, and Lav have found themselves with new magical skills up their sleeves which will come in handy when they begin Middle Magic next year. But school is the last thing on their minds over winter break. Tensions are high between the Land Walkers and the Merfolk's mysterious leader Frost. Worse, Amethyst's mom has gone missing with an extremely illegal wand, and everyone—their classmates, Principal Ivy, the Committee—thinks she's somehow involved in the disappearance of Rose's cousin Heather.

Sixteen-year-old Nostalgia Richardson has lived all her life in the rural township of Spivey’s Grove, South Carolina, but that has not stopped her from dreaming of running away to Harlem to become a showgirl at the world famous Cotton Club. One night, when she comes home from work, she finds her father in the company of Noah Holdtstaff, the most notorious bootlegger in town. Later, Nostalgia’s 14-year-old sister, Lily, divulges their father’s plans to marry her off to the 49-year-old Noah.

Tessa is a staunch vegan since visiting the zoo at the age of ten, where she witnessed the senseless treatment of caged animals. Twenty years later, her beliefs have presented a problem in her dating plans. Wes, a sexy, handsome, meat-loving butcher, works at the local Gourmet Foods. If she can get him to cook for her, all her problems will be solved. But instead of simply cooking and going away, Wes thinks Tessa needs to learn a thing or two. Tessa turns the tables, knives, and forks on Wes, and before he knows it, he develops feelings deeper than a beefy pot of stew.

Theo is better now. She’s eating again, dating guys who are almost appropriate, and well on her way to becoming an elite ballet dancer. But when her oldest friend, Donovan, returns home after spending four long years with his kidnapper, Theo starts reliving memories about his abduction - and his abductor. Donovan isn’t talking about what happened, and even though Theo knows she didn’t do anything wrong, telling the truth would put everything she’s been living for at risk. But keeping quiet might be worse.

Food insecurity affects millions of people worldwide. Without access to well-stocked stores or nutritious, fresh foods, those living in “food deserts” face more hunger and health issues than communities where a diversity of food is plentiful. With the inspiration and knowledge found in How to Become a Gardener, self-reliance and food autonomy are within reach for anyone willing to get a little dirt under their nails and dig in.

They’re coworkers, friends, and confidants, but Peter Marshal has always pined for a little something more with Noelle Walters. As a widow and a single mom, Noelle prefers to play it safe, and falling for Peter was never part of the plan. Then again, neither of their plans accounted for the well-meaning but meddling actions of Peter’s sister, who offers him up as their town’s most eligible bachelor in the local moms’ Facebook group. He’s none the wiser about the source of this sudden surge in attention, but he only has eyes for Noelle.

How does witnessing a crime change a person? This powerful collection of stories by a star-studded roster of contributors examines this very question.

Sutton going missing is the worst thing to happen to Casey, to their family. She's trying to help find her sister, but Casey is furious. And she can't tell anyone about their argument before Sutton disappeared. Everyone paints a picture of Sutton's perfection: the popular cheerleader with an entourage of friends, a doting boyfriend, and a limitless future. But Sutton manipulated everyone around her, even stole an heirloom bracelet from Casey. People don't look for missing Black girls—or half-Black girls—without believing there is an angel to be saved.

Andrea Williams has got this. The Best Summer Ever. Last summer, she spent all her time in bed, recovering from the latest surgery for her cerebral palsy. She’s waited too long for adventure and thrills to enter her life. Together with her crew of ride-or-die friends, and the best parents anyone could ask for (just don’t tell them that), she’s going to live it up. There’s just one thing that could ruin it: Her best friend, Hailee, finding out Andrea’s true feelings.

Dr. Julian Brandon is too charming, too sexy and too young for Chandra Valentine. But after the successful bachelor rescues her—twice—she owes him. Still reeling from life-changing family revelations, Chandra somehow agrees to pose as Julian’s girlfriend. And now the irresistible Julian has plans that start with seduction under the mistletoe and end with their fake relationship erupting into a scorching affair.

When Everett Nicholls died, he left his millions to the two people he cared about most: the young law student he was mentoring and his beloved stepson. Eden Marsh and Beck Dennison are instantly suspicious of each other. Suddenly, with all this money at their fingertips, family problems they've each been ignoring can no longer be swept under the rug. Beck and his mother have had a strained relationship since tragedy befell the family when he was a young teen, and Eden knows it's long past time to forge a new relationship with her demanding younger sister.

Maya Davis is living in paradise until her apartment, her career, and her dreams fall away in a horrible and dramatic fashion. Suddenly she’s packing her life into two suitcases and heading back to her parents’ home in Maryland, scrambling for a plan B. Happy thirty-first birthday, Maya. Right beside her is Ant, Maya’s best friend. While she’s returning home, Ant’s leaving his for the first time. Even though he moved away to start his own adventure, Ant can’t seem to separate himself from Maya—and he’s not sure he wants to.

It's college acceptance season at Alsbury High School. For aspiring filmmaker Dawn Salcedo, spring brings more than the usual obstacles—she’s her ill father's only caregiver, the final deadline for the Austin Film Festival is looming (with a full ride to college on the line), and her documentary about queer love, a subject she’s desperate to get a firmer grasp on, is still missing its finishing pieces.

Black maternal mortality statistics have not shifted in the past thirty years. The maternal mortality rate for Black patients is four to five times higher than it is for White patients. This is just one example of racism as a health and national crisis, but it is a particularly tragic one. Sabia C. Wade is a renowned radical doula and educator inspired to create a guide for how we can all achieve liberation through trauma healing and reproductive justice. Birthing Liberation creates a path to social and systemic change, starting within the birthing world and expanding far beyond.