Showing results by narrator "Petrea Burchard" in All Categories

What does infinity hold? Does anything or anyone get buried and remain quiet for all time, or is death just a second life that lasts forever? From traversing the gnarled roots of trees reaching from the sand like claws, to the moment where one finds out the price of justice and who serves it, to a masquerade that can be murder—this collection was created to frighten, engage, entice and, worse yet, make you wonder what awaits you in eternity when your number is up.

Once Rachel arrives at the lake house, she struggles to keep up with work and balance the demands of family, all the while fending off pesky new feelings for her ex-brother-in-law. Which makes her wonder...is falling for her ex-husband's brother just one more messy complication added to the dumpster fire of her life? Or is anything possible when she's out of office?

Most people are keenly aware that every student is different and that today's classrooms challenge educators to build safe and successful learning communities comprising students whose races, languages, cultures, experiences, assets, and dreams vary greatly. This book offers teachers both the foundations for differentiating their instruction and the means to maximize learning opportunities. Everybody's Classroom extends Tomlinson's previous work by looking more deeply at specific student populations to help educators create classrooms that are more inclusive than ever before.

Molly Princeton hasn't met the right guy. Yes, she's a dating coach, but she's also a single mom with a rocky relationship history. She may be able to help others find love, but she doesn't really need it in her life. Happiness doesn't require falling in love. Winning a matchmaker competition, however, requires being part of a couple. And darn it, she needs to win this one. That's when she sets her sights on Gavin Frank - the one man she would absolutely never fall in love with.

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." With these words, Elizabeth Barrett Browning has come down to us as a romantic heroine, a recluse controlled by a domineering father and often overshadowed by her husband, Robert Browning. But behind the melodrama lies a thoroughly modern figure whose extraordinary life is an electrifying study in self-invention.

Casey Clemens is having a bad day. And it’s going to get worse. It’s the day before Casey’s fortieth birthday and Hollywood doesn’t want her anymore (not that it ever did). Her career and personal life are a disaster. Frantic to escape her own emptiness, she hops on a plane to England and heads to the countryside to hide. But she can’t hide from herself. A lightning strike, a skidding car, and a horse that might be magical send her through a gap in time to the Dark Ages, where she inadvertently saves King Arthur from Saxon warriors.

A shocking revelation. A long-buried secret. An old mystery reappears.... Verity Hawkes' new life as Leafy Hollow's resident landscaper and part-time sleuth is just about perfect. She has a new love interest, a new home - even a new pet. The last thing she needs is a reminder of her troubled past. So, when her estranged father shows up with a plea for help, her first instinct is to throw the cad out. Until he reveals scandalous new details that threaten to tarnish the memory of her deceased, and beloved, mother.

With Leafy Hollow in a deep winter freeze, landscaper Verity Hawkes is all out of funds. Setting up a private investigator business seems like the best way to indulge her fantasy and make a few bucks. But she never expected her first case would turn the whole town against her. As she investigates a shady, million-dollar crossword competition, even her detective boyfriend sides with her neighbors in thinking it’s legit. But when the contest seems to connect with scruffy dog walkers and a missing investment advisor, Verity hopes she can solve the clues....

Desperate to stop her PI business from going belly-up, Verity Hawkes doesn’t hesitate to dive into the next case she finds: a body in a septic tank. But just when she thinks her investigation couldn’t get any more peculiar, she’s shocked to learn the accused perp is the town’s beloved billy goat. Verity must juggle her meddling aunt, a surly former soldier, and a tuxedo-wearing cat to sanitize this baffling homicide.

Widow Wallis Danforth is looking for a little companionship now that her special needs daughter is becoming more independent. That’s all. Nothing complicated. Unfortunately, dating apps have yielded nothing but jerks and perverts - so many that she’s written a one-act play about her misadventures.

The women of The Homegrown Café Book Club are over 40, single, and loving it. Fate, however, has a different plan with a younger man for every last one of them.

When the local ladies' man is accused of a double murder, amateur sleuth Verity Hawkes immediately starts digging for answers. After finding the suspect recently inherited a priceless masterpiece, she's convinced the Casanova is innocent. Following a trail of clues into the world of rare art, Verity uncovers dodgy dealers, surprising DNA results, and an alarming number of ingenious booby traps. If she doesn't connect the dots soon, she may run out of time to paint the real killer into a corner...

Verity Hawkes can hardly remember her reclusive past. She's actually starting to enjoy her role as the small town's resident gardener and unofficial super sleuth. Her blossoming relationship with a dreamy local detective certainly doesn't hurt matters. But Verity can't help but question her place in town when a group of kidnappers steal away a beloved citizen and single her out to handle the ransom...

Previously published as ShadowMan. There is something terribly wrong in Sanctuary City. When Maggie Bychowski starts her new job as a police officer in Sanctuary City, the small northern California town appears as bucolic as its name. But three young girls are beginning to find out that their beloved home town has a dark, writhing underbelly. When Shadowman, an online fantasy character, starts luring local girls into doing his deadly bidding, Maggie is the only one who can save the town from a powerful evil that threatens to destroy everyone and everything in its path.

After her husband's death, Lexi has refused to return to the Pinecrest Estate on the Florida Keys because there are too many hard memories on that strip of land, including the memories of meeting her husband on the set of an iconic horror movie, being cast as an extra, watching herself get killed on screen, and scoffing at the rumors of the Pinecrest Estate curse...until she witnessed a cast member die that very summer. But when her daughter sneaks away to visit her grandfather, legendary horror-movie director Rick Plummer, Lexi is forced to face her past.

In the fourth century, a young man named Augustine turned his back on the church, plunging into a frenzied life of lust and dissipation. His renunciation left Monica, his pious Catholic mother, weeping and praying for his salvation...for more than a decade! Like so many Catholics today - even, perhaps, like you - Monica wrestled daily with the pain of having a loved one fall away from the faith. Like us, she often feared that her prayers and tears were of little worth, empty, futile.

Five authors, each with their own secrets, are chosen to complete a deceased novelist's unfinished manuscript. For single mom Risa Marr, the competition is the opportunity of a lifetime. At stake is a million dollars and a contract to continue the famous novelist's bestselling thriller series. Transported to the tropical paradise of Key Island, the finalists are cut off from the world and given seven days to draft their best ending for the book. But when one of them turns up dead, theories and accusations abound. Accident? Suicide? Or Murder?

April Davis totally has her life in order. Ha! Not really. Yes, she's the Calm Mom - a social influencer with a reputation for showing moms how to stay calm and collected through yoga - but behind the scenes, she's barely holding it all together. Raising tiny humans alone is exhausting, but that's just the chewed-up cherry on the melted sundae of her life. Her kids aren't behaving, her husband left her for his skydiving instructor, and her top knot proves she hasn't showered in days.

In the fall of 2009, Catherine Gourdier and the other members of her family were happily gathering for a surprise horror-themed birthday party for their youngest member, Julie, when the unthinkable happened. As Julie and her parents were walking home from church, they were hit by a car driven by an 84-year-old woman. While Catherine’s father somehow escaped without harm, Julie and her mother were rushed to hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries. Breathe Cry Breathe is the story of Catherine’s journey through grief.

Imagine what life would be like to be loved by a not-so-typical wild deer. Think of the discoveries - full of fun, and at times, terrifying - as awareness blurs nature's wildlife boundaries and friendship grows. This is the true tale of a deer rescue and a human. It was the spring of 1999 when Anna found the fawn, alone and dying in the grassy paddock of Unicorn Hollow, her farm in bucolic Tewksbury, New Jersey. The sick baby triggered vivid memories of her own catastrophic injuries as a small child, and their bond grew strong.