Showing results by narrator "Jess Nahikian" in All Categories

Working as a Wench - i.e. waitress - at a cheesy medieval-themed restaurant in the Chicago suburbs, Kit Sweetly dreams of being a Knight like her brother. She has the moves, is capable on a horse, and desperately needs the raise that comes with knighthood. Company policy allows only guys to be Knights. So when Kit takes her brother’s place, clobbers the Green Knight, and reveals her identity at the end of the show, she rockets into internet fame and a whole lot of trouble with the management. But this Girl Knight won’t go down without a fight.

On a frigid December night, Megan Floyd vanishes from the mountain town of Fraser, Colorado. The extensive search provides no answers and as attention of her disappearance fades, the case goes cold. Her father, Tom Floyd, is forced to confront his worst fear that his daughter will never be found, and soon his life and marriage begin to disintegrate around him.

When one of the people she loves most dies and begins to appear, wan and beseeching, in the household mirrors, Faith realizes she must act quickly. Accompanied by their wisest friends, she and Jack travel far abroad, seeking the stone that will help her break the 3,000-year old curse that formed Paradoxia. There is no guarantee that they can do it but, with Faith carrying a future bearer, they know they must try.

When Sloane takes a job at the infamous whitewater-rafting camp Widow Falls, she quickly learns that the camp has a reputation for more than just summer fun. People go missing at Widow Falls. The guide she’s replacing was just one of many. As Sloane settles into her new home — a one-room apartment she’ll be sharing with the five other guides — she can’t help asking questions and digging into the disappearances she’s heard about.

A missing king, rumors of war coming from the North, and a Southern prince determined to preserve the peace that has lasted a generation. An agent, known only as The Traveler, is sent across time and space to protect a prince in a medieval era while keeping her true origins a secret. The prince, along with four loyal companions, journey North to find a missing king who can provide stability to a strategic realm. The Traveler must quickly earn the trust of this small group and finds herself growing attached to the one man distrusted the most.

Psychic. Mystic. Target. Arabella, the last Oracle, knows what it's like to lose. She doesn't have friends, she doesn't have family, and now those she's aligned herself with are vanishing - even the one pledged to her for all time. Someone is hunting Arabella on the busy island on which she's taken refuge. Someone with an old soul but a new grudge. When a mysterious boy shows up to lead her into a trap, Ari lets him do it. She knows the boy is a Herald - a signal of bad tidings - but she's got bigger problems - and so does he.

The Silver Lining of Tomorrow is a collaboration of poems and tidbits for all the Daddy’s girls out there. Traci Mahrt lost her father Melvin at the early age of 24. With a collection of poems found after his passing, Traci weaves in her own poems and shares her own life experiences with love, depression, and finding God.

In a distant magical realm entangled in chaos, a young woman named Arianna prepares for her royal coming of age ceremony. When a were-dragon crashes the ceremony, she finds her life as a princess ripped away from her. After a successful escape and a chance encounter with two unlikely companions, she finds herself on a journey to find the elusive mage known only as the Architect. However, the nefarious Kem’Vaar and his legion of were-dragons hunt the young princesses every step. With a mysterious force awakening inside her, will Arianna reach the Architect?

The family saga continues at Rockglass Manor. As she recovers from that fateful evening at the now-deceased Phin Black's house in Whitechapel, Faith prepares to wed her beloved Jack, although she lacks a ring, as of yet. Her cousin Margaret likes to inquire about this as much as the elder of Faith’s two half-sisters, Enid, loves to ask when Faith will, again, become the "lady of the house". Having grown up an orphan, Faith cherishes her new family, teasing and all.

No matter how many times Amara's family moves, the monster follows. Her mother dismisses her fears as childish. Her dad seems to believe her, but doesn't do anything about it. After what happened to her friend Avery, Amara avoids getting close to anyone new. Until Lacy. Now with the bright girl from Ms. Linus's fifth-grade class at her side, Amara is terrified for her safety - but maybe with Lacy's help, she can finally get rid of the monster once and for all.

A life without feelings, a life without decisions; that’s the only life Evangeline knows. Because of the manufacturing of Remedy, her community of Impetus has discovered a way to survive and prevent the self-destructing mistakes of The Before by inhibiting feelings, creating a society that relies wholly on logic and entrusts Impetus to make all the decisions for its people. A chance encounter results in a friendship between Evangeline and a boy outside of Impetus named Gavin who challenges Evangeline to reassess her conviction in the world she has always known.

Fire and ashes! The city is burning! Young mage’s apprentice Thomena is gifted in the elements of wind and water, but she yearns to learn the secrets of fire. When she discovers another mage is the one starting fires around her city of Orlaun, her resolve is tested by tragedy and roaring infernos. She needs to win the trust of the toughest heroes around, the fire-fighting vigiles, but they are hard to impress. Can she save Orlaun before the fires consume all Thomena cares about?

When Faith is summoned from the baby farm in suburban London, where she's grown up, to serve as a companion to her cousin, Margaret is stunned. The family home Rockglass Manor is in Mayfair, an elegant part of London. Faith is sure her life will vastly improve. Yet, when she reaches Rockglass Manor, no one seems to be waiting for her, other than the cook and the housekeeper. Her cousin Margaret is trouble, and Faith finds herself rocketed into a situation that she doesn't understand, at all.

If there’s a healthy way to grieve, Erin Gaines hasn’t found it. After her husband’s sudden death, the runaway success of the tech company they built with their best friends has become overwhelming. Her nerves are frayed, she’s disengaged, and her frustrated daughter, Shorie, is pulling away from her. Maybe Erin’s friends and family are right. Maybe a few weeks at a spa resort in the Caribbean islands is just what she needs to hit the reset button…

In a series of interwoven fictionalized stories, Deborah Noyes gives voice to the marginalized women in P. T. Barnum’s family - and the talented entertainers he built his entertainment empire on. Barnum was a legendary showman, entrepreneur, marketing genius, and one of the most famous nineteenth-century personalities. For those who lived in Barnum’s shadow, however, life was complex.

In the touristy city of Hot Springs, Arkansas, a woman named Lyra lives a rather modest life with the incurable mental disorder, schizophrenia. Clever, curious, and determined, she is constantly challenged by her desire to find some semblance of “normalcy”—whatever that means—alongside her depression, anxiety, critical self-talk, and frequent auditory hallucinations. Lyra is a work of literary fiction that represents a fraction of the challenges of living in an area where mental health is downplayed or misunderstood, and mental health services are underfunded.

As a teenager, Hannah Jacobs was excited for a sleepover with her older sister Casey, but a blizzard altered their plans. Sometime that night, an unknown killer broke into Casey’s apartment in Laramie, Wyoming, and brutally stabbed her multiple times, leaving her for dead. Ten years later, Hannah is still haunted by the murder of her sister that fateful night, and with no viable suspects or evidence, the case has long turned cold, nearly forgotten by everyone except her. Determined to uncover the truth, Hannah shutters her Private Investigation firm and travels to Laramie.

Zelda is stuck in a dream, a very strange dream where people can fly, bears sneeze money, and her childhood cat, Patches, is somehow alive—despite being run over years ago. Things only get stranger when Zelda meets Langston, a sweet if overly timid guy who feels more real to her than anyone she’s ever met. As Zelda and Langston explore the far reaches of the dreamscape together, they find themselves growing closer and closer. But what they uncover along the way pushes them towards a truth neither of them wants to face.

This amazingly wise and nimble collection investigates the horrors inflicted on so-called “witches” of the past. The Witch of Eye unearths salves, potions, and spells meant to heal, yet interpreted by inquisitors as evidence of evil. The author describes torture and forced confessions alongside accounts of gentleness of legendary midwives.

Study Break, a collection of interconnected contemporary Young Adult short stories written by Gen Z authors, explores different parts of "the college experience," from questioning your major to questioning your identity.