Showing results by narrator "Amy Melissa Bentley" in All Categories

Seventeen-year-old Isis Blake hasn't fallen in love in three years, nine weeks, and five days, and after what happened last time, she intends to keep it that way. Since then she's lost 85 pounds, gotten four streaks of purple in her hair, and moved to Buttcrack-of-Nowhere, Ohio, to help her mom escape a bad relationship. All the girls in her new school want one thing - Jack Hunter, the Ice Prince of East Summit High. Hot as an Armani ad, smart enough to get into Yale, and colder than the Arctic, Jack has never gone out with anyone.

I met Adam Nova under the twinkling lights of a nighttime sky. He was hiding, but that gorgeous boy didn't belong in the dark. Nevertheless it was where he lived: a different world than mine. I was Livingston Montgomery, Southern debutante. With the world at my fingertips, I was well on my way to being another spoiled socialite. But I didn't want money. I didn't want social status. I wanted him: tattoos, sarcastic smirk, bad boy reputation and all. It didn't matter that he was from the wrong side of the tracks. It didn't matter that my family forbade me from seeing him.

Though she has blossomed into a beauty, Lily Christner doesn't really believe it. Deep down she still feels like a lonely, gawky teenager. Maybe that's why she's all but promised herself to Paul Glick, the one boy who never teased her in her awkward girlhood, unlike Dan Kanagy, whose creative name-calling left her in tears many a time.

In the early 70s, some of us were shot like stars from our parents' homes. This was an act of nature, bigger than ourselves. In the austere beauty and natural reality of Hell's Canyon of Eastern Oregon, 100 miles from pavement, Pam, unable to identify with her parent's world and looking for deeper pathways has a chance encounter with returning Vietnam warrior Skip Royes. Skip, looking for a bridge from survival back to connection, introduces Pam to the vanishing culture of the wandering shepherd and together they embark on a four-year sojourn into the wilderness.

Mona the mouse has finally found a place to call home, the cozy Heartwood Hotel, where she works as a maid and sleeps snuggled up in a room with her best friend. Following the festive St. Slumber celebration, most of the guests have settled in to hibernate, and the staff is looking forward to a relaxing winter. But disruptions abound, from a difficult duchess to a mysterious midnight snacker. As the snow stacks higher, Mona will have to gather friends both old and new to keep the peace, finding help in some of the most unexpected places.

When an esteemed institute in London hires Althea and her dive master buddy, Trace, to document a high-stakes treasure expedition, they are pulled into a game that neither of them had realized they were playing.

Generations of Sassers have made moonshine in the Brushy Mountains of Wilkes County, North Carolina. Their history is recorded in a leather-bound journal that belongs to Jessie Sasser's daddy, but Jessie wants no part of it. As far as she's concerned, moonshine caused her mother's death a dozen years ago. Her father refuses to speak about her mama, or about the day she died. But Jessie has a gnawing hunger for the truth - one that compels her to seek comfort in food.

Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana. When...

It's been 19 days since Isis Blake forgot about him. The boy she can't quite remember. She's stuck in the hospital with a turban-size bandage on her head, more Jell-O than a human being should ever face, and a tiny bit of localized amnesia. Her only goal? To get out of this place before she becomes a complete nut job herself. But as Isis' memories start to return, she realizes there's something important there at the edges of her mind. Something that may mean the difference between life and death.

With the spirit of the holidays wafting through the Beacon Bakeshop, Lindsey thinks she has the recipe for the sweetest Christmas ever - winning the town-wide cookie bake-off. Low on staff and bombarded by visits from family, Lindsey can barely meet demands at work, let alone summon the confidence to face fierce competition.... Self-appointed Christmas know-it-all Felicity Stewart is determined to take the top spot in the bake-off, and she's not afraid to dump a little coal in everyone's stocking to do it.

The Fall Festival is in full swing. Civil War reenactors from three counties are partaking in Blossom Valley's tribute to John Brown. Blue Ridge Mountain foliage is in full bloom. And best of all is Jacob Potter's pumpkin farm where his hay rides, piglet races, pumpkin picking, and corn maze are time-honored draws for locals and tourists alike. That's why it's such a shock when Mr. Potter is found dead, hidden under a tarp in the back of Winnie's pickup truck.

Maggie Crozat, proprietor of a historic Cajun Country B&B, prefers to let the good times roll. But hard times rock her hostelry when a new cell phone app makes it easy for locals to rent their spare rooms to tourists. With October-and Halloween-approaching, she conjures up a witch-crafty marketing scheme to draw visitors to Pelican, Louisiana.

I never paid much attention to my best friend's older brother until he refused to kiss me. After that humiliating day, I promised myself that Liam Turner would regret ever making me feel less than worthy. But then I got stuck spending the week at his house. So to make the best of the situation, I made plans to find my next summer boyfriend and flaunt it in Liam's face. Revenge was working great until Liam made a U-turn and targeted his charm and hotness on me.

Claire Hansen was a Keeper, a member of that select group that kept the universe in one piece. And now she'd been Summoned to the Elysian Fields Guesthouse, a rundown bed-and-breakfast that seemed to attract the most unusual clientele. And Claire was not happy about this latest assignment, not happy at all. Not when she'd been tricked into taking over here by a horrible little gnome of a man who'd abandoned his post before she'd even figured out who he really was. Not when room six held a resident who'd been sleeping there for so many years that she really needed a good dusting - except that it was far too dangerous for anyone to get that close to her.

Violet Mooney owns The Full Moon crystal shop in quaint North Harbor, Connecticut. Still grieving her beloved grandmother's recent unexpected death, she takes comfort in her fat orange cat, Monty, and her work. Not everyone in town is thrilled with her business, however. When disagreeable town Councilwoman Carla Fernandez picks a fight over Violet's "voodoo shop", the two have a very public confrontation. Of course, when Carla turns up dead, Violet gets little sympathy from the police as suspect number one.

Trust me—if there's one thing I'm not attracted to, it's the shrieking, overly-dramatic shrew that's taken over my sister's apartment. And what is up with her hair? I know what I want; an easy, uncomplicated lay—and Cecelia Carter sure as shit isn't one. But I never could resist a challenge, and vow to wipe that condescending grin off her pretty face. Aw, shit. Did I just call her pretty?

I don’t suck at dating. I suck at getting over the girl who friend-zoned me back in college. But I have a plan: Let her set me up. Bomb the dates. Then she can be my dating coach, and I can finally show her I’m the one for her and not that jerk boyfriend she’s always crying on my shoulder about.

Sixteen-year-old Juliette Cardini has been keeping a secret for months. Before she went to her semester abroad in Paris, she dated her best friend's older brother, Easton Stevens. What had started as a whirlwind romance filled with forbidden meetings came to a crashing halt when they crossed a line together from which neither of them could return. Now, she's back in Ridgewater and has to face everyone she left behind. But there's one more secret she is afraid for anyone to discover: She's pregnant - and Easton is the father.

Thirty-one-year-old Carolyn Lapp has never been married - but she's been a mother for 15 years. In a community with strict standards and a long memory, Carolyn knows she might never find a man who will have her and her son, Benjamin. Carolyn's family tries to marry her off to a widower with a daughter who needs a mother. A marriage of convenience doesn't sound so bad, yet despite her loneliness, Carolyn knows what she really wants: a traditional Amish family and a marriage for love.

Would a billionaire’s son ever fall for his maid? Maybe in a fairytale. But in real life? I’m not holding my breath. I’ve always been invisible to Nash Hastings—the beautiful boy I’ve been in love with since one magical night last summer. A night he doesn’t even remember until an accidental text puts it back on his radar. But I can’t tell him the girl he met at his family’s garden party is now a housekeeper in his family’s mansion. Because if he knew it was me he was texting, the fairytale would be over. I’m no princess and don’t belong in his world. If only my heart knew its place.