Showing results by publisher "Tantor Audio" in Family Life

The Blue Valley series is not your typical love story. It is a journey through one's past...maybe even a story resembling someone close to you. It's our story. Tessa Ross has finally decided to give herself a break. A break from her forced smiles. A break from the people she loves. A break to help her heart heal. A break to mend and regain the strength that she once had. A break to find herself again. A break to focus on the next step in her life journey.

Karen Daily, recently divorced, lives with her two kids in a quaint suburb of New York City. She's teaching at a nearby elementary school, starting to date again, and for the first time in years has found joy in her life. Mark Berman, Karen's friend and neighbor, wants out of his unhappy marriage, and so does his wife, Deb, but they have been staying together for their kids. Unbeknownst to Karen, Mark has a rich fantasy life about her, which has grown into a full-blown obsession.

Siri Brodal, a chef and restaurant owner, is married to Jon Dreyer, a famous novelist plagued by writer's block. Siri and Jon have two daughters, and together they spend their summers on the coast of Norway, in a mansion belonging to Jenny Brodal, Siri's stylish and unforgiving mother. Siri and Jon's marriage is loving but difficult and troubled by painful secrets.

Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina, though Joetta McBride pays it little heed. She and her husband, Ennis, have built a modest but happy life for themselves, raising two sons, fifteen-year-old Henry, and eleven-year-old Robert, on their small subsistence farm. They do not support the Confederacy's position on slavery, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral, believing this is simply not their fight. Her opinion is not favored by many in their community, including Joetta's own father-in-law, Rudean.

The Turners know in their hearts that they're anything but normal. Jenna is a high schooler dressed in black who is fascinated with breaking into her neighbors' homes, security systems be damned. Everett genuinely believes he loves his wife...he just loves having a continuing stream of mistresses more. JT is a genius kid with Asperger's who moves from one obsession to the next.

Vacationing on beautiful Sanibel Island off Florida's Gulf Coast, Ellen Bennett has never felt so guilty - or more alive. This wasn't the way things were supposed to turn out. The 45-year-old successful career woman, wife, and mother traveled to the island paradise for solitude and a much-needed break from her family. But a chance encounter with a fellow traveler sparks a powerful attraction, forcing Ellen to make a decision that could change her life forever. Against an idyllic backdrop of white sand beaches and lush palms, Ellen struggles to subdue a firestorm of emotions.

Twenty-one-year-old Skye Willis lives in Eufaula, Alabama, a tourist mecca of stately homes and world-class bass fishing. Skye's grandmother, Verna, insists on being called "Sparrow" because she suspects her ancestors were Muscogee Creek. Skye has no idea what to do with her life. Nor does she know much of anything about her father, who died in Afghanistan when she was a toddler. But when Sparrow sets out to confirm her Creek ancestry through genetic testing, Skye joins in. The results hit like a DNA bomb, launching them both on a path filled with surprises and life-changing events.

Mona is married to Jack, younger brother to Denny Springer, lead singer for the greatest rock-and-roll band in the world. Jack happens to sing, too, of course, not that anyone in the world notices very much. After Denny attends the family Easter dinner in London for the first time in decades, Mona invites Denny to join her and her family for the summer at a rental house in coastal Connecticut. She tells Denny it'll be a chance for him to finally bond with Jack, from whom Denny has been estranged for 20 years. Denny initially laughs at the idea...but then shows up on their doorstep.

Sarah has given up her career to raise her children in the countryside, while her husband works long hours in London. Alone, she explores the fields and the woods near her home and discovers an enchanting lake, a memorial bench for a boy who drowned in mysterious circumstances, and Finn, a beautiful troubled teenager who plays truant from school.

Since losing her husband, Tobias, in a tragic accident, Carol Denman has been on a journey of self-growth. She's taken steps to finally grieve her daughter's death, forgive her first husband, and mend her broken relationship with her mother. The one heartbreak she can't seem to come to terms with is losing her husband. As Carol continues her travels, family, old friends, and new confidants want to help her heal. However, this is a path Carol must travel alone. She knows her husband would want her to be happy again. She just has to figure out how to move forward.

On a solo ski vacation in Canyon Mines, Colorado, Tucker has a love-hate relationship with his wealth, spending indiscriminately while skiing fearlessly and preparing to conquer the overgrown slope of Hidden Run, a dangerous run not attempted in decades. As genealogist Jillian tries to uncover enough of Tucker's family tree to understand his charming nature but reckless resolve, Jillian's equally charming father, Nolan, cajoles Tucker into giving him ski lessons to get him talking about the suspicious circumstances surrounding his grandfather's life in St. Louis in the 1930s.

Grenadine Scotch Wild has only vague memories of the parents she last saw when she was six years old. But she's never forgotten their final, panicked words to her, urging Grenadine to run. The mystery of their disappearance is just one more frayed strand in a life that has lately begun to unravel completely. One year into her rocky marriage to Covey, a well-known investor, he is arrested for fraud and embezzlement. And Grenadine, now a successful collage artist and painter, is facing jail time despite her innocence.

As the Civil War cracks the country in two, Mary Lincoln stands beside her husband praying for a swift Northern victory. But as the body count rises, Mary can't help but fear each bloody gain. Because her beloved sister Emily is across party lines, fighting for the South, and Mary is at risk of losing both her country and her family. Emily Todd Helm has married the love of her life. But when her husband's Southern ties pull them into a war neither want to join, she must make a choice. Abandon the family she has built in the South or become a true rebel fighting against her sister.

Loretta and Frank Haynes have newborn twins. They're beautiful and healthy. Frank has everything he wants: a growing family and a thriving business. He should be on cloud nine, not down in the dumps. What's got him tied up in knots? On a happier note, David Wheeler continues his journey to become a seeing eye dog trainer. His plans to bring a guide dog training school to Westbury are bolstered by the donation of a rare piece of jewelry. The auction of the brooch leads to a staggering twist. Meanwhile, Maggie Martin is sailing along in her new position as president of Highpointe College.

When her Great-Aunt Jessabelle passes away and leaves her home to Samantha, Sam and her daughters, Darcy and Rachelle, begin refurbishment on The Jessabelle House, a glorious house not far from the town of Siasconset on Nantucket. Once there, Samantha discovers her aunt's diaries, which reveal dramatic secrets from the past—and still more reasons not to trust the Colemans.

Nothing interests Sarah Purcell more than the volcanoes she studies until she meets Dr. Cullen Gray. Maybe that's why she marries him two days later. Illogical, yes, but nothing has ever felt so right. As the honeymoon period ends and real life sets in, everything falls apart. A year after their separation, when Sarah is injured, she's shocked when Cullen shows up to help.

One summer evening, Lib Hanson is confronted by her painful past when Matt Marlow, the forty-year-old son she abandoned as an infant, shows up on her porch. Fiercely independent, Lib has never revealed her son's existence—or her previous marriage—to her husband, Jack. Married nearly three decades but living in separate houses (to the confusion but acceptance of their neighbors), they enjoy an ease and comfort together in small-town Anthem, Wisconsin. But Jack is a stickler for honesty, and Lib's long-dormant secret threatens to unravel their lives.

After the death of their abusive patriarch, sixteen-year-old Desiree "Dez" Sarpe and her family moved to the high plains of Wyoming for a fresh start. Life is quieter now, but peace doesn't put food on the table. Unable to get a job, Dez reluctantly stays home—before following a track in the long grass and finding Granny Iyaga. Granny hires Dez for housecleaning, and also begins teaching her peculiar things. School starts, winter approaches, and for the first time, Dez begins to relax.

The linked stories in Mama Said are set in Louisville, Kentucky, a city with a rich history steeped in tobacco, bourbon, and gambling, indulgences that can quickly become gripping and destructive vices. Set amid the tail end of the crack epidemic and the rise of the opioid crisis, Mama Said evokes Black family life in all its complexity, following JayLynn, along with her cousins Zaria and Angel, as they come of age struggling against their mothers' drug addictions.

South Korea. 2013. Navy Captain Kate Mahoney is fighting battles on all fronts. When a Navy doctor reports suspicions of a botulism strike at an American facility, the rising Seventh Fleet star orders an immediate investigation. And her challenges multiply when she learns a fellow female pilot is missing in North Korea . . .