Showing results by narrator "Vanessa Johansson" in All Categories

On the eve of her thirtieth birthday, Meara O'Rourke can't help but feel alone. With her last remaining relative newly buried and her potentially disastrous engagement freshly broken, she makes a resolution to begin her life anew - only to have an unexpected phone call turn her whole world upside down. Her biological mother, Sheila, whom she met only once six years before, lies in critical condition in a nearby hospital. And though the woman once refused to see her daughter ever again - her last wish is just the opposite.

Abby Powell needs a fresh start for herself and her son. Agreeing to nurse her best friend’s grandmother is the perfect escape. Abby knows her friend’s grandmother, Winnie, lives in a gorgeous sprawling Victorian mansion, Holiday House, in an historic Colorado ski town. What better place to create the perfect Christmas for her son? As soon as she arrives in the charming town, Silver Bells, Abby falls in love with Winnie. She is less enamoured with Winnie’s grandson, Ethan Lancaster, as it becomes immediately clear that he doesn’t want her there.

It starts innocently enough. Julie Hayes and her husband have just returned to Manhattan from a month in Paris. Julie looks forward to spending quality time with Jeff, whose career as a journalist takes him away from home for months on end. Now if they could just find the perfect work of art to hang over their mantel. Julie's quest takes her to a trendy SoHo gallery where she meets an itinerant artist named Ralph Abel.

Noel Blake is not in a great place. After several years of marriage, she and her husband Jonah are quietly drifting apart. The only time they really talk at all anymore is when they walk their dog, Elliott. And even then it usually ends in bickering. When, one snowy day, Elliott manages to slip his leash, they find him blocks away in the care of a mysterious old man who asks them to make a wish on an old snow globe. Eager to get their dog safely home, they agree to his strange request. Neither one realizes that the wish they’re about to make will change the course of their lives.

After the death of their beloved aunt, the estranged Burke sisters reunite at their childhood home for an unforgettable summer, each harboring a secret. With their family once again at a turning point, they must overcome their differences to discover what the future holds for the lakefront house and each other.

In 1908, 16-year-old Bridey runs away from her small town in Ireland with her same-age sweetheart, Thom. But when Thom dies suddenly of ship fever on their ocean crossing, Bridey finds herself alone and pregnant in a strange new world. Forced by circumstance to give up the baby for adoption, Bridey finds work as a maid for the Hollingworth family at a lavish, sprawling estate. She cares for the Hollingworth children as if they were her own, until a mysterious death changes Bridey and the household forever.

During the Midsummer Night's Festival, Allie decides to take her bichonpoo, Mal, home to spare her furry little ears from the sounds of fireworks. But on her way back, Allie spots a body in the lake. Just minutes ago, Winona Higer was crowning the event's Queen—could the competition have really been that deadly? While she ponders the mystery the next morning, Allie prepares her favorite dark chocolate cherry fudge recipe. But she's soon recruited to sub for the late Winona and serve as parade float judge, among other duties.

Lee Grafton is a divorced cop and the father of a teenage girl. Carol Taggart is a newly single professor. Their lives collide one night when Carol is caught in the crossfire of an undercover drug sting gone south. Shot and seriously wounded, she finds an unexpected friend in Lee... unaware that the man she's falling for could be the shooter. Twenty years on the street do nothing to prepare Lee for the night that changes his life.

Samantha Goldstein and David Fisher have been friends ever since they met on their town’s Little League baseball team. But when a new kid named Luke starts hanging out with them, what was a comfortable pair becomes an awkward trio. Luke’s comments make Sammie feel uncomfortable - but all David sees is how easily Luke flirts with Sammie, and so David decides to finally make a move on the friend he’s always had a crush on.

Julia Blair is hoping for a fresh start. So when she sees an apartment-for-rent sign on Brambleberry House, she can’t help but feel that it’s a good omen. Having spent summers as a teen in a cottage near the rambling Victorian home, Julia easily pictures herself and her two children starting over in the one place that’s always felt welcoming to her. When Julia walks up to inquire about the apartment, she finds her old friend Will Garrett repairing the house.

Elizabeth Hamilton has been lost. Trapped in a tangle of postpartum depression and grief after the death of her beloved parents, she couldn’t quite see the way back to her husband and their two beautiful kids...until a car accident stole away her memories and changed her life. And when she finally remembered the sound of little Cassie’s laugh, the baby powder smell of Bridger, and the feel of her husband’s hand in hers, Elizabeth worried that they’d moved on without her. That she’d missed too much.

When you’ve already died, there should be nothing left to fear… When Adam Ramsdell pulls Elle’s half-frozen body from the surf on a lonely California beach, she has no memory of what her full name is and how she got those bruises ringing her throat.

Aspiring fashion designer Samantha Fremont has put her love life on hold to focus on herself. She certainly doesn’t need a complication, like her new neighbour, turning out to be a sexy, brooding English professor. He might be dreamy, but he’s also rude. But keeping her distance proves difficult when his two children wind themselves into Sam’s heart. Combined with a litter of cute puppies, Sam might just have found what she was looking for.

Being a "total spaz" in gym is bad enough, but now Mallory's worst nightmare has come true. Gym class has gone co-ed! Pre-teen girls are sure to relate to this latest book in the phenomenally popular Baby-Sitters Club series.

Alma Harper and her friends are lost in Widowsfield. They're trapped in a lie created by The Skeleton Man, and even death provides no escape. As they struggle to discover the truth about the once-sleepy town, a new evil emerges: The Watcher in the Walls. As the lies are exposed, the liars are revealed, and the only way out of the maze is to fall into the lies and disappear. As Alma struggles to find a way out of Widowsfield, a new character comes to town. Her name is Nia, and she is a gifted young woman that can pull memories out of the world around her.

Mallory lands a job as part-time assistant to her favorite children's author and discovers some troubling things about the author's past.

Growing up, Gwen and Iris were the best of friends, even if they couldn’t have been more different. Now, Gwen is living her hometown dream, or so she reminds herself while juggling endless parenting drama, an unemployed husband, and a neighborhood pyramid scheme. Never mind that at age 39, her social circle still resembles middle school. Her life is everything she ever wanted it to be, but nothing like she had planned.

In the well-heeled milieu of New York's Upper East Side, coolly elegant Philippa Lye is the woman no one can stop talking about. Despite a shadowy past, Philippa has somehow married the scion of the last family-held investment bank in the city. And although her wealth and connections put her in the center of this world, she refuses to conform to its gossip-fueled culture. Then, into her precariously balanced life, come two women.

Alma Harper and her friends have been struggling to figure out the puzzle of lies that have been weaved in the town of Widowsfield. They've escaped the grasp of The Watcher, but now The Skeleton Man is free as well, and no one is certain what he's capable of. The Watcher in the Walls is forced to craft new lies, and weave a new nightmare in Widowsfield, but he longs for the return of the Harpers. As his world crumbles, he knows that the ones he's influenced will return, and that everything can begin again. As the clock ticks down, and March 14th approaches, all will be revealed.

Librarian Julia Winston is ready to ditch the quiet existence she's been living. She's made a list of new things to experience, but falling for Jamie Caine, her sexy military pilot neighbor, isn't one of them. Julia's looking to conquer life, not become the heartbreaker's latest conquest. But when two young brothers wind up in Julia's care for the holidays, she'll take any help she can get. Happy to step in, Jamie reveals a side of himself that's much harder to resist. Not only is he fantastic with kids, he provides the strength Julia needs to tackle her list.