Showing results by narrator "Chelsea Stephens" in All Categories

The fantastic has always been at the edges of Heather O’Neill’s work.In Daydreams of Angels, O’Neill’s first collection of short stories, she gives free rein to her imaginative gifts. In “Swan Lake for Beginners”, generations of Nureyev clones live out their lives in a grand Soviet experiment. In “The Holy Dove Parade”, a teenage cult follower writes a letter to explain the motivation behind her crime. And in another tale, a grandmother reveals where babies come from: the beach, where young mothers-to-be hunt for infants in the surf.

As a child, Angela Mathers was the victim of a top-secret experimental program that implanted neural chips in children to correct disorders and enhance intelligence. Shunned by society, she, and others like her were locked away in camps. Now an adult Luman, she is both brilliant and calculating. Her quest for redemption brings her to DC, where she works to get a government bill that would free the Lumans passed into law.

Detective Abish “Abbie” Taylor returned to the mountain town of Pleasant View, Utah, hoping for a quiet life. But that hope dissipates like a dream when she wakes up to an unsettling phone call. Arriving at the scene of a fatal car accident, she discovers that the victim was one of the most beloved leaders of the Church - and an old family friend.

Widow Kelly Carlsen has been through a lot since the death of her husband three years ago. Reported to the police for murder by her vindictive mother-in-law, she was suspected of poisoning her husband, jailed away from her son, and nearly went to prison before an autopsy proved her husband died of an undiagnosed nut allergy.

Birth control offers women the opportunity to prevent pregnancy, plan and space their births, or have no births at all. And yet, in the United States, half of all pregnancies remain unintended, and access to birth control is beset by inequities in education, access, and coverage. Birth Control: What Everyone Needs to Know will offer more than a user's guide to available means of contraception: it will examine how supported family-planning infrastructure impacts society as a whole.

Vampire Alexis Black just wanted to be human again. Now she just wants to stay alive...and undead. After Alexis tried and failed to kill Delano Melazi, an ancient bloodsucker hell-bent on revenge, he’s been trying to repay the favor one pointy-toothed minion at a time. An army of undead intent on stalking and staking her.

Cupid's aim sucks worse than his curse. Noel was one craptacular boyfriend away from taking a vow of celibacy when she found her dull-but-reliable fiancé. Maybe he didn't get her, ahem, juices flowing, but so what? At least he wouldn't break her heart. But then Cupid had to go and shoot her in the ass with his ill-timed arrow and ruin everything by saddling her with the worst soulmate ever. Grayson Adler. He was everything she swore she'd never fall for again - arrogant and sexy in an obvious, Greek god kind of way.

Mason Loss was a single father separated from his seven-year-old daughter, Lydia Nicole, when the United States was suddenly devastated by several massive coordinated EMP attacks. Having sustained life-threatening injuries in his search for her, he awakens from a two-year coma to find that the world is not the way he left it. To make the situation worse, Yellowstone has erupted and expelled an ancient microscopic organism that threatens the course of human survival. Now, Mason must traverse the ashy suburban landscape in search of his now nine-year-old daughter.

At a barren survivalist bunker in the middle of frozen nowhere, a team of eight rebels are all that stand between the world and a nightmare apocalypse.

Time has run out for Maya and her children. The alien invasion has created hell on earth, and the creatures are determined to destroy humankind. But a chance discovery leads to a glimmer of hope. Maya must mobilize before it’s too late, risking a daring move that could end her life and life on the planet as we know it. Encounter is the new post-apocalyptic thriller from best-selling authors, J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon, the third book in the War for Earth trilogy.

After killing the first of five on his list, Finn Miles is on the trail of his next victim. After changing his name, identity, and appearance, he arrives in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, where his second victim resides. Indiana Thomas was one of the members of the Fab 5, a group that tortured Finn in high school and led to some horrific, life-changing events. Now, though, he's determined to make all five pay—and it's Indiana's turn. As he works to blend in and carry out his sinister plan, however, it becomes apparent that someone else is lurking nearby with dark intentions.

For Hanna Moss, love has always come with danger. From the incessant stalking by an ex to nearly losing her life in a hit-and-run accident, she vows to remain alone—and safe. So when her golden retriever, Bella, welcomes a handsome private investigator into their lives, Hanna is reluctant to confide in him.

Beautiful and independent, Shelly Scott is always looking over her shoulder, wondering if she'll have to run again. Her new position as manager at Dessert First Bakery shines more light on her than she likes, but Jake, her golden retriever, the handsome male in her life—loyal and attentive—is always there when anxiety immobilizes her. Max Bailey, bestselling author, thinks he has everything. Until he realizes the one thing that's lacking is someone to share his life with.

Elisabeth R. Anker reckons with the complex legacy of freedom offered by liberal American democracy, outlining how the emphasis of individual liberty has always been entangled with white supremacy, settler colonialism, climate destruction, economic exploitation, and patriarchy. These "ugly freedoms" legitimate the right to exploit and subjugate others. At the same time, Anker locates an unexpected second type of ugly freedom in practices and situations, often dismissed as demeaning, offensive, gross, and ineffectual, but that provide sources of emancipatory potential.

As a former cop turned private investigator, Annie Fitch hopes to never be in the line of fire again, so she’s expanded her business to include installing security systems. She’s thrilled to be hired by Preston Farr, a farmer with a vandalism problem on his family’s historic apple orchard and farm. Preston’s roots in the community run deep. His family has held the same property in Leesburg, Virginia, since the 1700s. The two get to know each other over the course of the job. When Preston asks her out after the work is done, she accepts.

The last time Margot Callaway saw her sister, Lottie, the girl was 12 and clinging to their blood-covered mother over the asphalt in a gas station parking lot. Reeling and in shock, Margot fled her home state of Florida, choosing a path that would take her far away from the pain. She left everything behind, including Lottie. Now, seven years later, mysterious happenings on the island lead Margot to the realization that she must return home and face the ghosts of their shared past. Will Margot and Lottie have what it takes to protect each other?

In 1927, 17-year-old Elsie is dropped off in a new city with three other teenage girls, who have each trained since childhood to become the wife of a powerful man. And when they learn that their next target is earmarked to become president, their mission becomes more than just an assignment; this is a chance at the most powerful position in the society. But as these ambitious girls compete for the heart of a boy who has been given everything, Elsie starts to wonder what would happen if the name on that future ballot was hers.

As a watcher, Sawyer Russo has sworn to protect her fellow humans. But the bots and carbons that overran her city are evolving, and are picking off her comrades one by one. Embarking on a desperate mission to save humanity from extinction, Sawyer discovers that the line between friend and foe is no longer easily drawn when one of her own betrays them. Faced with a choice between fulfilling her vow and avenging those who have fallen, she must ultimately decide who can be saved...and who can’t.

At the age of six, surfer/model Alicia Garis was cursed by Cupid. The rules? Before her 25th birthday, she must find her soulmate. Feed him poisonous berries. Hope to Hades he doesn’t die. Except, she tried that once, and it ended in the death of a man she loved. Ravaged by guilt, she told the winged freak where to shove his heart-tipped arrows and promised herself she would never offer the berries to anyone ever again.

Kiki MacInnes has burned more than a few bridges in her time. Now, as a recovering alcoholic, she’s dedicated to helping others avoid addiction. She can only hope her temporary role as the new châtelaine for Castle MacInnes will help her stay on the straight and narrow, too. But even if she’s somehow able to redeem herself for the mistakes of the past, could all the people she’s hurt ever forgive her? Could the handsome small-town pastor, who has her longing for a Christmas miracle?