Showing results by narrator "Jo Raylan" in All Categories

She’s made it to Oak Creek, Wyoming, with two traumatized dogs, $20, and a fear of damned near everything. Things that didn’t make it with her? Her self-esteem, confidence, or any way of supporting herself.

I never wanted to be a cowboy - living in a small town was suffocating. The military was my out. I saw every place I ever wanted and everything that nightmares are made of...until I almost lost my life and ended up back home.

The first time I met my fiancé, I put him in a chokehold. I wanted nothing to do with the man whose family tore my life to pieces. Matteo De Luca was vicious claws sheathed in refinement and class. He saw my untamed independence as a challenge. I saw his alluring authority as a threat. The worst part? I wanted to experience whatever it was Matteo had to offer, and I hated myself for it. I wanted to launch myself at him. To kiss him. To kill him. To end the debilitating torture of the unknown. The moment our paths collided, our lives were altered irrevocably.

Summer Bright is just a name on a tombstone. A whispered mystery on the long-forgotten Woodbury Lane. Her ghost teases me with fear and perfection. She knows I'm not strong enough to do what I should've done years ago. The Bullets are united once more, bonded by their demand for blood. There's a vulnerability in their friendship though. Gavriel craves control. Blaise fears losing me. Ryker fights his guilt. Callum's moral compass will get us killed. Chesterbrook may be where the old me died, but it's also where I learned that hell isn't a place.

Her life is like a prison cell. A self-made, to-hell-with-the-free-world existence that locks from the inside. Stop judging. Her agoraphobia doesn’t define her. It simply keeps her safe.

Navy SEAL Camden Bains knew when he saved the little girl from a hostage situation and placed her in the arms of her beautiful mother that he’d surrendered his heart to them, too. As much as he fought his growing attraction to a woman he’d never see again after his mission, Elena’s kindness and strength, and her daughter’s sweetness, gave Camden back what a senseless tragedy robbed him of years ago. If only for a little while.

Death. It's something that Ada Palomino has always known so well, having grown up in a house of horrors, surrounded by a family plagued by ghosts and demons and things that go bump in the night. But after the sudden and tragic death of her mother two years ago, death has never felt so personal. Or so close. Now 18, Ada is trying to move on with her life, and the last month of summer holds nothing but sunshine and promises, with her first year at a Portland design school just around the bend.

Crime scene to crime scene I go, interview upon interview I question, and it all yields nothing but more questions, more media attention, and the sound of a voice on the phone. A voice that haunts me late into the night with a yearning to taste the forbidden. The man the media calls the "Vigilante" is supposed to be my prey, but instead we dance. Every possible step closer, he evades. Only his faceless taunts close the distance between us. I can barely catch my breath. Then the copycat killings begin, and I struggle to hold my grip on the truth.

Monica believes Jonathan despite her better judgment. Forgives him despite her doubts. She loves him…just because. Her heart isn't sensible or guarded enough. Not by a sight. She’s a walking raw nerve ending of emotion, as if the celibate years she'd spent before him made her more emotional, more vulnerable, more foolish. And she agreed to all of it yesterday and today.

I was four when I met Allie Dupree. Ten when I stopped thinking she had cooties. Fourteen when I realized I was in love with her. And eighteen when I finally told her. Then I never saw her again. I also never forgot her. And my heart never let her go. Sixteen years after she'd disappeared without a word, she's back and there's no way in hell I'm letting her get away again. Especially because there are still burning embers of what we had. And, at the very least, I think I deserve some answers.

Vivian's a pretty mild-mannered person. Even with a busload of hyperactive fourth graders going to a baseball signing, she's patient and kind. Even when she meets Dash Wallace…major league legend and star of her hottest daydreams…she keeps her cool. Kind of. Mostly. It was fine. Then his glove is missing and he accuses one of those fourth graders of being a thief. You do not come after one of Vivian's kids. She will defend them to the death….

I lost the one person who gave my life meaning and purpose. My love. My soul. My only reason for breathing. Unwilling to bury her memory, my heart turned reckless and my soul darkened. Then she walked into my life. It was only supposed to be a moment. Just one. A moment where I could get lost in someone else and forget my pain. In that one moment, she saved me from the memories that found me in the dark. She tore my world apart. Wrecked me. And with one kiss, she changed everything. Her love became my dark paradise.

Marina is hot, blonde, and wickedly smart, but when it comes to men? She's hopeless. Between her quirks and her lack of filter, there isn't a man in Los Angeles that will stick around after the third date. Her handsome, charming friend Lazarus has the opposite problem. Everyone wants to be the sexy Brit's girlfriend, but he gets bored and moves on quickly. There's only one way to figure out why neither of them has cracked this love thing - they'll date each other. On paper, it's the perfect experiment. But in reality, things between Marina and Laz get complicated quickly.

My name is Ada Palomino. By day, I'm studying my ass off at design school in Portland, Oregon. By night, I'm slaying demons and ghosts who have dared to slip through the Veil. Or at least, that's what I should be doing. The problem is Jay, who also happened to be my immortal guardian and now ex-boyfriend, was banished from being with me. And now my new trainer is a previously dead friend of mine that I helped bring back to life. With both of us nursing broken hearts, we embark on a road trip to New Orleans to help him win back his long-lost love.

My ex-boss stole my million-dollar concept—and then fired me. So I go back, grab what’s mine, and make an escape. With security guards on my heels, I dive headfirst into Walker Drummond’s limo. Literally. Billionaire. Single father. The kind of man whose attention feels dangerous in all the right ways. When I confess, he doesn’t throw me out. Instead he makes me an offer: be his date, and he’ll consider my pitch.

Livia Chadwick is a photographer by day and a self-proclaimed rock-n-roll junkie by night. Her dating life is a lackluster parade of evasive jerks and her boss is an unrelenting nightmare of a human being. What else can a girl do but rent a beach house with her girlfriends and blow off a little steam every weekend? But hey, she's from Jersey. Barhopping down the shore all season is sort of mandatory. All is going according to plan...until she meets Jack. She's looking for a fling. He's looking for forever. It's gonna be one helluva summer.

Elijah Banks thought he found his one true love—until she walked out their front door without even saying goodbye. For years he’s lived a hedonistic lifestyle and made sure he never got close to a woman again. Hannah Farsey wants the real deal with her new housemate and is willing to overlook the imperfect parts of his history to get it. When their pasts and presents collide in spectacular fashion, she’s not sure she can trust his declarations.

Gwendolyn Roth has always been a good girl. As the heiress to her family's billion-dollar real estate fortune, she'd never questioned the expectations she must uphold . . . until she'd found herself in bed with Declan Murphy for her one and only one night stand.

Mack: Bryce "Mack" McNamara has been caught in a pity party for one ever since his wife cheated on him, causing their nine-year marriage to end in divorce. He wants to move on but can't seem to figure out how to. That is, until Victoria Masters waltzes into Ladder 171 as the company's newest member.

She's dated her fair share of New York City firemen, but after having been burned one too many times, she swore she'd never date another one. Enter Jesse Hogan—tempting her to bend her rules for one night. He was just a volunteer fireman, that had to be a loophole, right? Wrong. He was also a lieutenant in the FDNY. A fireman twice over. So she told herself to forget about that feeling in her chest (and that mind-blowing orgasm) and move on before he bulldozed her heart. Easy, right? Wrong.