Showing results by narrator "Gabra Zackman" in All Categories

When it comes to dating, Marion Matched has seen it all. She’s the witch people call when they’re fed up with unsolicited dick pics on their dating apps, being ghosted, or asked to do questionable things with their date’s feet. She has the unique ability to just know when two people are perfect for each other. There’s only ever been one person she hasn’t been able to match—herself.

Lily Easton is a witch who makes a living writing satire for an advice column in Befana Bay’s weekly newspaper. Although she pretends to be jaded in love, it turns out, she’s a romantic at heart. It’s just too bad that she’s fallen for Braxton Kirkwood, a man who’s sworn off love. Frustrated by her lack of love prospects, Lily throws herself into work. But when half-a-dozen witches in Befana Bay start taking Lily’s obviously bad advice, it soon becomes clear her pen is poisoned and is compelling the witches to stalk her favorite eligible bachelor, Braxton Kirkwood.

When their coup of Metzger's Menagerie is discovered, Delilah and her fellow cryptids find their newly won freedom brutally stripped away as they are sold into The Savage Spectacle, a private collection of "exotic wildlife". Specializing in ruthless cryptid cage matches, safari-style creature hunts, and living party favors, the Spectacle's owner, Willem Vandekamp, caters to the forbidden fetishes of the wealthy and powerful. At the Spectacle any wish can be granted - for the right price. But Vandekamp's closely guarded client list isn't the only secret being kept at the Spectacle.

Just as Marion Matched’s relationship is heating up and her business is exploding with clients, her estranged sister, Charlotte, shows up after accidentally unleashing an unlawful curse on all the men down at the local bar. With treatment resistant acne and erectile dysfunction the new norm for most of the men in town, matchmaking in Premonition Pointe has more challenges than ever

This masterwork of American immigrant literature is set in the 1920s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and tells the story of Sara Smolinsky, the youngest daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, who rebels against her father's rigid conception of Jewish womanhood. Sarah's struggle toward independence and self-fulfillment resonates with a passion all can share. Compelling and beautifully written, Bread Givers is an essential historical work with enduring relevance.

Pyper and Julius are getting married. There's a wedding to plan, dresses to order, and daiquiris to consume. But when an old curse rears its ugly head and ends in a murder, Pyper's younger brother Bo is suddenly in danger of being charged with a crime he didn't commit. Now Pyper and her friends are racing against time to clear Bo's name and neutralize the curse before it claims another life. With a little help from the ghosts of New Orleans, Pyper's determined to save the day and still find her perfect wedding dress.

This is a multigenerational saga of immigrant dreams and sweatshop realities, labor strikes and women's rights. It is the story of Lena Rothman, a shirtwaist maker and active suffragette whose plans get derailed when she falls in love with her best friend's boyfriend - Jake Brenner, a passionate labor organizer determined to lead the shirtwaist makers on a high-stakes strike - and Daniel Cowan, a brilliant and ambitious night-school student hobbled by a shameful past. Fate draws them together. Emotions bind them to each other. But secrets will tear them apart.

Medium Harlow Thane has given up her life as a celebrity paranormal investigator. After her life was turned upside down by a devious and illusive ghost, all she wants is to settle down in Keating Hollow, running the new pub in town. Unfortunately for her, no matter how much she wants to give up ghost hunting, the ghosts won’t quit her. Neither will her ex Cash Moses. With a ghost she just can’t seem to banish and her ex hell-bent on righting the past, it looks like Harlow’s plan for a quiet life isn’t in the cards.

Eloise hasn't quite figured out how to move on after the death of her son, Eddie. She makes good money, buys a new apartment, learns the piano, engages in an office flirtation, but nothing seems to brighten her days quite like the occasional letter from one of her accounting clients, Ed B. When, after months of correspondence, Ed invites Eloise to his country home for a visit, she finds herself overwhelmed by the "Eddies" of her life - the one she lost, the one she writes to, and the one she's eternally searching for.

Georgia Exler has always been the odd witch out. In a family of accomplished witches, she’s the only one who never uncovered her magical abilities.... Until she moved to Keating Hollow. Heartbroken after her husband of two years is killed, the writer moves to the enchanted town to start over. All she wants to do is write her next book. But when the events in her life start to mimic the newest paranormal romance she’s writing, she starts to wonder if she’s found her magic after all. Only how is she going to give her characters their endings? Everything she writes comes true.

One day in 1986, Laura Schroff, a busy ad sales executive, passed a small boy panhandling on the street. She stopped and offered to take him to McDonald's for lunch. Twenty years later, at Laura's 50th birthday party, Maurice Mayzik gave a toast, thanking Laura for that small act of kindness, which ended up changing the course of his life. In that toast Maurice said that when Laura stopped on that busy street corner all those years ago, God had sent him an angel.

Many people–maybe even most people—know someone who has what they call Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s seems to be everywhere. That people are living longer today—long enough for it to manifest itself—is often given as the reason for its prevalence. But some of those people who have puzzling brain changes are surprisingly young; in their fifties—the middle of their lives. And what they have is not the “traditional” Alzheimer’s disease.

When her earliest childhood friend is diagnosed with a terminal illness, Becker sets off on a quest to immerse herself in what it means to be mortal. Can we live our lives more fully knowing some day we will die? With a keen eye toward that which makes life worth living, interfaith minister, mom, and perpetual seeker Barbara Becker recounts stories where life and death intersect in unexpected ways.

As the only female vampire ever born, and the heir to two powerful immortal families, Hope Kayrs-Kyllwood has always felt the weight of fate and destiny. Now her heart is torn between two men and two different futures. It’s a choice between duty and love, peace and war, with the fate of everyone she loves hanging in the balance. As the leader of the Kurjan nation, Drake has always known that mating Hope is the best path to avoiding war. He’s counting on her to know the same...Paxton has been Hope’s best friend and protector since they were children.

The stories in this collection reflect a fundamental truth about Santa Fe: history depends on who's telling it. Too often the story of this city has been told only by the conquerors and the tourism PR firms. Hear the stories that never make the glossy tour brochures: the working class and the underground, the decolonized and the ever-haunted; the Santa Fe only we know.... Conquered and reconquered, colonized and commodified, Santa Fe understands - from historical genocide to the murders of family members - the intimacy of violence.

A striking and nuanced collection, bringing to life awkward college students, disgraced public figures, raunchy grandparents, and mystical godmothers. To listen to these stories is to experience the transporting joys of discovery and affirmation, and to realize that story writing in America continues to flourish.

Gemma Ranford wants the job cataloging the documents of the Frazier family so much that she is ready to do battle to get it. Fascinated with history, and desperately trying to finish her dissertation, she's hoping against all hope that the papers will yield new information to invigorate her research. What she didn't expect to find is references to the Heartwishes Stone - believed by most to be pure legend - and said to grant wishes to anyone named Frazier. As Gemma learns more about the family - and even begins falling in love with the eldest son, Colin - it becomes clear that their wishes are actually granted.

The Fragile Earth tells the story of climate change - its past, present and future - taking listeners from Greenland to the Great Plains and into both laboratories and rain forests. It features some of the best writing on global warming from the last three decades, including Bill McKibben’s seminal essay ‘The End of Nature’, the first piece to popularise both the science and politics of climate change for a general audience.

Ruthanna Emrys’ Innsmouth Legacy, which began with Winter Tide and continues with Deep Roots, confronts H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos head-on, boldly upturning his fear of the unknown with a heart-warming story of found family, acceptance, and perseverance in the face of human cruelty and the cosmic apathy of the universe. Emrys brings together a family of outsiders, bridging the gaps between the many people marginalized by the homogenizing pressure of 1940s America.

Cassie Carl believes she has it all. On the cusp of achieving her professional goals and soon to marry the man of her dreams - the handsome, kind, and loving Stefan Van Allen - it seems she's found the life every woman dreams of. When Cassie's wealthy fiancé brings Peyton in to do a renovation on their home before the big engagement party, sparks fly, leaving both Cassie and Peyton to question everything they thought they already had. What happens when the thin veil of perfection becomes riddled with holes?