Showing results by narrator "Joan Dukore" in All Categories

Emma Harvey is a brilliant and gifted young pianist, accepted into one of the most prestigious music conservatories in the country and prepared to do whatever it takes to accomplish her dreams of playing professionally. With a renowned jazz musician for a father and a world-famous mentor growing up, she is convinced her path is easy. Until her world is suddenly silenced when she loses her hearing.

First published in 1881, the subtitle of this book tells us that it was written “for children and those who love children”. Heidi, a 5-year-old orphan, is handed off by her young Aunt Dete to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. Though her new life is foreign, Heidi soon falls in love with her grandfather, and he with her. They share a contented life of goat-herding. But when Grandfather refuses to allow Heidi to attend school in the small village below, quarrels ensue.

Three Teen Choice Awards, one Emmy nomination, and several Maxim covers later, Maizie Albright was an ex-teen star, stuck in reality show hell, and standing before a California judge. She has one chance for a new life: return home to Black Pine, Georgia, and get a job that has nothing to do with show business. So why not become a private detective - the person she played during the happiest days of her life?

What If the Very Fabric of Reality Could Be Broken? One moment, Sylvia Huntershaw is toasting her future in one of San Francisco’s most exclusive restaurants. The next, she vanishes—leaving behind only her clothes, her jewelry, and a husband staring into the impossible. Hours later, a tech executive is found dead on the Golden Gate Bridge, his body shattered, his car simply… gone. These aren’t random events. Each is tied to cryptic messages, precision-timed and chilling in their intent. A pattern begins to emerge—one that sends ripples through the powerful elite of Silicon Valley.

A sadistic vamp lord. A rebellious fae. A vicious hunt. The first term of Nocturnal Academy is over. Majors have been assigned. I’ve made choices that brought me closer to the guillotine. But the fight isn’t over, not yet. I must get through the spring term. Not an easy feat when the vamp students are planning a sacrifice and have a bone to pick with me. But even if I survive the prison academy, someone will be buying my contract after school is out, and rumor has it that the king of sadists is interested in me. Whatever he wants, he gets.

I’ve made it out of Nocturnal Academy. No longer do I exist to please the vamps. Now, as a member of the Winter Court, my job is to execute them. Yet my new standing as an assassin is not much better than being a courtesan. The rules of the game have changed, but I’m still a pawn. Worse, Thorsten, a handsome jerk of a vampire who has messed with my mind and feelings one too many times, is back.

In a world ruled by vamps, being half fae and magicless sucks. You know what’s even worse? Being sold into slavery by your own mother. I am Onyx Logan, and my mother condemned me when she sent me to Nocturnal Academy. If I get lucky, the academy will mold me into a servant for rich vampires. If I’m not, I’ll become a courtesan.

So far I have two possible fates: Die in my dorm or end up as a vampire’s slave. There is no escape out of Nocturnal Academy's prison school. Being here means I’ve lost my mother, my best friend, and my freedom - and it gets worse...Now Nocturnal Academy plans to make me into a courtesan for the vampires. Unless I get a win the chance to become the one out of 100 fae who gets to shape her own fate. Topping the Placement Tests are my only hope.

Murder doesn’t set much colder than on the icy shores of Lake Ontario, where Jesse James is hot on the trail of a real estate scam that really has the feisty reporter steamed. This sleazy operation is behind a string of costly accidents - but it's no accident when Jesse wakes up, bandaged head to toe, in a hospital where everyone insists she’s Daphne Malcross, a young socialite with more connections and cash than common sense.

With a classical series sold and a portrait commissioned, Cherry Tucker's art career is in Georgia overdrive. But when the sheriff asks Cherry to draw a composite sketch of a hijacker, her life takes a hairpin as the composite leads to a related murder, her local card-sharking buddy Max Avtaikin becomes bear bait and her nemesis labels the classical series "pervert art". While she seeks to help the misfortunate and save her local reputation, Cherry's hammer-down attitude has her facing the headlights of an oncoming killer.

Elsabet or Elizabeth Bathory's life is notorious and, for the most part, known to history. What she's done since is another story altogether. Haunted by the crimes of her life and by her bloodfather, Vlad Dracula, Elsa seeks a life of her own in the New World. But her past will always catch up to her and she must face her demon.

On a hot, muggy afternoon in Eden, a tiny, rural town deep in southeast Louisiana, two boys make a grim discovery: They unearth the decades-old remains of a child, strands of hair and clothing still attached to the bones. Meanwhile on the other side of the country, in California, forty-one-year-old Evelyn Yates, a single mother is struggling to maintain psychological equilibrium despite problems with alcohol, a difficult teenage daughter, and her own traumatic past.

In the eyes of Nadine, a polygamist and serial bride, nudging her husbands into heaven is a testament to love. Even Nancy Neptune, a notorious shock jock, is gobsmacked by Nadine's so-called “Celestial Send-Offs.” Things go to hell in a hurry when Nadine offs the wrong guy and is charged with assisted suicide. Meanwhile, Blue McKenna has problems of her own. A power outage has leveled Blue's medical marijuana dispensary. Scottie Sphincter, lead singer of a band called The Rectal Surgeons, is fingered as a suspect.

When Maizie finds her costume designer friend killed during a masquerade gala, it’s the opportunity Maizie hoped she’d never get. An investigation into an old friend’s murder. But one that’s also put her new friend in jeopardy. While the police begin their inquiries, Maizie starts her own case. Her investigation may cost Maizie her job, her relationships, and her life.

In continuing her career-makeover quest as a for-real detective, ex-teen and reality star Maizie Albright has a big learning curve to overcome. A sleuthing background starring in a TV show - Julia Pinkerton, Teen Detective - does not cut the real-life mustard. It doesn't even buy her lunch, let alone extra condiments. Her chosen mentor, Wyatt Nash of Nash Security Solutions, is not a willing teacher.

Alice is alone and desperate to fit in at her aunt's coven when she embarks on a dubious quest for cave nettle. Decker is a leader running out of time. Isolated from the main cave system due to a hex making the water in his cave toxic, even the war his clan demands won't save them. The two must put aside centuries-old survival instincts and work together to save lives and preserve the fragile treaty between the coven and clan.

When Cherry Tucker's invited to paint the "kill portrait" for the winner of Big Rack Lodge's Hogzilla hunt, it seems like a paid vacation. Back home in Halo, a Hatfield-McCoy-style standoff builds between Luke and Cherry's families. She's ready for a weekend away, hobnobbing with rich and famous hunters, where she can forget her troubles and nobody knows her name.

As an ex-star of a hit teen detective show, Maizie Albright gets the youth demographic, or so she thought. Now that she’s adulting, today’s kids make Maizie feel out of date. But at least the teen YouTube stars of Bigfoot Trackers want to hire her to look into the disappearance and possible murder of their producer, a murder the police find as likely as Bigfoot.

For those who love country-fried cozy mysteries filled with action, quirky characters, and a side of romance, you're going to love the trouble-magnet portrait artist and amateur-sleuth Cherry Tucker. From The Wall Street Journal bestselling and international award-winning author Larissa Reinhart and read by the fabulously funny Joan Dukore.

Nora and Travis' honeymoon does not go as planned. Don't miss the exciting second book in the Agent Nora Wexler Mysteries Wedding Trilogy and the fifth book overall in the series.