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

Ricki James-Diaz gets the best present ever when her parents arrive in New Orleans for the holidays. Not only is it a chance to catch up, it's also an opportunity to jog her mom Josepha's memory about Ricki's adoption. The details have always been shrouded in mystery. And Ricki understands why when she learns her mother was blackmailed for years, simply for not wanting to lose her precious daughter. But digging into the past soon lands the James-Diaz clan in water hotter than a big pot of gumbo!

Shy, skittish Rose Christner is more comfortable tending to the beehives on the family farm and keeping her aunt's unruly cats in line than attending social gatherings with the rest of the die youngie. A childhood trauma and secret shame keep her heart under lock and key, and Rose just cannot accept the sweet attention she's receiving from a handsome neighbor. But the more she shies away from Josiah Yoder, the more their families sneakily plot to bring them together.

It starts out as a bet....A way to forget about my latest in a string of bad relationships and move on. I know it's a mistake. Especially when I have a terrible knack for picking the wrong men. Then I see him. The gorgeous man in the dark suit, drowning his sorrows in a glass of scotch is only supposed to be one night of fun. No strings. Zero expectations. No one gets hurt. And when I wake up alone the next morning, it appears I've gotten everything I was after. That is until I find the shiny gold cuff links he left behind. Oh, and discover that he's my new boss.

It's 16-year-old Edie who finds their mother, Marianne, dangling in the living room from an old jump rope, puddle of urine on the floor, barely alive. Upstairs, 14-year-old Mae had fallen into one of her trances, often a result of feeling too closely attuned to her mother's dark moods. After Marianne is unwillingly admitted to a mental hospital, Edie and Mae are forced to move from their childhood home in Louisiana to New York to live with their estranged father, Dennis, a former civil rights activist and literary figure on the other side of success.

Katie Stuckey and Jonas Weaver are both romantics. Seventeen-year-old Katie is starry-eyed, in love with the idea of being in love, and does not want to wait to marry Jonas until she is 18, despite her parents' insistence. So much can happen in a year. Twenty-year-old Jonas is taken in by the romance of soldiering, especially in defense of anti-slavery, even though he knows war is at odds with the teachings of the church. When his married brother's name comes up in the draft list, he volunteers to take his brother's place.

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.

Monsters Unleashed - where you catch virtual-reality monsters on your cellphone - is one of the hottest mobile games around, and Bex and Charlie just can't stop playing. They even check out an old map in Charlie's grandfather's attic in hopes of discovering some forgotten places in town where the rarest monsters might hide. But they find a strange machine up there, too, and after Charlie switches it on, the wifi goes down...and Bex's entire catalog of monsters vanishes!

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.

Sixteen-year-old Lexi Stevens has never been kissed - never even been asked on a date. So when she humiliates herself in front of her crush and her brother's best friend offers to be her fake boyfriend for the week to make him jealous, she doesn't know if it's the stupidest idea ever or a dream come true. Noah Taylor gets kicked out of his house by his abusive stepdad. When his new "girlfriend" discovers him sleeping in his car and offers to let him sleep in her closet, he starts to wonder if he's found someone he can confide in after all.

I was reunited with Livingston Montgomery in the broad sunshine of a Carolina morning, right where she belonged; in the light. It'd been too long since I'd seen her face. She had changed, but so had I. I was Adam Nova, reformed bad boy. Now, successful business man. I had it all, except for the one person I'd always wanted, and now I was back to claim her.

I ate six seeds. Now I owe six months of debt to a dangerously sexy Fae hitman. I'd had everything a dryad could want - a job, an apartment, and a scandalous human boyfriend - until I stole the wrong fruit from the wrong Fae. Dragged into the Seelie underworld of deception and lies, I do anything he commands: steal, spy, even fight as we hunt down a notorious Fae fugitive. Not exactly the fun I was looking for, despite the intense attraction between us.

Kendra Archer has big dreams in life. Ever since she spent her summers volunteering with neglected animals as a teenager, she's wanted to run her own horse rescue center. And with her new job in the Alaskan mountains, she'll be one step closer to making her dream a reality. Jesse Barnes was born a cowboy and will end his days as one. Passions collide when Jesse rescues a mistreated horse who needs specialty care. Knowing he can't do it alone, he calls in the only person who may be able to save the animal—the town's new horse-whispering vet.

The bank robbery changed everything. Alex Gardener, a successful attorney, and Cory Bishop, a struggling working man, spend three harrowing days as hostages locked in a bank with 50 frightened people and six criminals who grow more desperate - and dangerous - by the minute. Alex and Cory take comfort in one another, reveal their deepest hopes and dreams, and forge a bond out of necessity, for survival, but one that unknowingly alters the course of their lives forever.

Sidney arrived at Ash and Abigail's wedding with the simple expectation she'd see her friends get married and wish them all the best. Getting caught serenading the fish in the aquarium was one thing she did not expect to happen. She certainly didn't expect the person who caught her to be a handsome businessman who instantly wanted to hire her for her vocal talent. Truth be told, she didn't even think she had any vocal talent. Most of all, she by no means expected to fall in love with the aforementioned businessman.

Born in the slums of Five Points, Emmett Cavanaugh climbed his way to the top of a booming steel empire and now holds court in an opulent Fifth Avenue mansion. His rise in stations, however, has done little to elevate his taste in women. He loathes the city's "high society" types, but a rebellious and beautiful blue-blood just might change all that.

For Lucy, the Jersey Shore isn't just the perfect summer escape, it's home. As a local girl, she knows not to get attached to the tourists. They breeze in during Memorial Day weekend, crowding her costal town and stealing moonlit kisses, only to pack up their beach umbrellas and empty promises on Labor Day. Still, she can't help but crush on charming Connor Malloy. His family spends every summer next door, and she longs for their friendship to turn into something deeper. Then Superstorm Sandy sweeps up the coast, bringing Lucy and Connor together for a few intense hours.

When Lucy Hawkins receives a job offer in San Francisco, she can't wait to spread her wings and leave her small Virginia hometown behind. The cross-country trip comes with a traveling companion: her older brother's best friend, a.k.a. the guy who took Lucy's virginity hours before breaking her heart. After spending the past four years and every last dime caring for his sick father, Reece Sullivan will do just about anything to break free of the painful memories - even if it means a two-week road trip with the one girl who ever made it past his carefully guarded exterior.

Enslaved for years by a powerful crime lord, Bryn has been forced to harness her elemental magic to create vile potions that have harmed countless supernaturals. When the compound she's called home is attacked, Bryn escapes and tastes freedom for the first time in more than a decade. But when the sins of her past race to catch up with her, she realizes a taste might be all the freedom she's destined for. Bryn's unusually strong earth magic puts a target on her back, and when she's hit with a deadly curse, her only hope comes in the form of four dangerously sexy supernaturals.

Look up the word "nerd" and you'll find Lily Bailey's picture. She's got one goal: first stop valedictorian, next stop Harvard. Until a stint in the hospital from too much stress lands her in the last place a klutz like her ever expected to be: salsa dance lessons. Look up the word "popular" and you'll find Stone Torres's picture. His life seems perfect - star of the football team, small-town hero, lots of friends. But his family is struggling to make ends meet, so if pitching in at his mom's dance studio helps, he'll do it.

When his wife suddenly drops dead during a family picnic, Adam Collins doesn't think things could possibly get any worse. That is until they do. Family pressure begins to mount for Adam to find a new wife, far sooner than he would like, but he does need help with his young children. Alice Wesley just lost her sister. Her brother Nathan has lost his mind with grief. She will stop at nothing to protect her sister's children, even from her own brother. Now the unthinkable has happened, and it's up to Alice to find a way of escape, both for herself and the innocent children in her care.