Showing results by narrator "Erin Spencer" in All Categories

Gwen Castle's Biggest Mistake Ever, Cassidy Somers, is slumming it as a yard boy on her idyllic island this summer. He's a rich kid from across the bridge in Stony Bay, and she hails from a family of local fishermen and cleaners. But then Gwen learns something new. Something unexpected. Sparks fly and secret histories unravel in a gorgeous, restless summer where suddenly the possibilities are endless.

She survived Earth's worst global pandemic. In the city she learned how to cope with the roaming dead. Tucked away in the mountains she struck down the living who tried to kill her. Now Riley fights a new battle - the one within herself. Wracked with survivor's guilt and an almost crazed sense of duty that takes her out of the solitude of the Southern California mountains and into the heart of Orange County, she makes a series of choices that can lead to the destruction of everything she's managed to save.

In 1965, 17-year-old Victoria, having just escaped an unstable home, flees to the ultimate place for dreamers and runaways - the circus. Specifically, the VanDrexel Family Circus where, among the lion tamers, roustabouts, and trapeze artists, Victoria hopes to start a better life. Fifty years later, Victoria's 16-year-old granddaughter Callie is thriving. A gifted and focused tightrope walker with dreams of being a VanDrexel high wire legend just like her grandmother. Callie can't imagine herself anywhere but the circus. But...Callie is forced to leave her lifelong home behind.

For Eve and Lemon, discovering the truth about themselves—and each other—was too much for their friendship to take. But with the country on the brink of a new world war—this time between the BioMaas swarm at CityHive and Daedalus’s army at Megopolis, loyalties will be pushed to the brink, unlikely alliances will form and with them, betrayals. But the threat doesn’t stop there, because the lifelikes are determined to access the program that will set every robot free, a task requiring both Eve and Ana, the girl she was created to replace.

When N. West Moss finds herself bleeding uncontrollably in the middle of a writing class, she manages to drive herself to the nearest hospital. Doctors are baffled, but eventually a diagnosis—uterine hemangioma—is rendered and a hysterectomy is scheduled. In prose both lyrical and unsparing, Moss takes us along through illness, relapse, and recovery. And as her thoughts turn to her previous struggles with infertility, she reflects on kin and kinship and on what it means to leave a legacy.

Shattered by the discovery that she is not at all who or what she believed, Eve joins forces with her new ‘siblings’. Meanwhile, Lemon finds a sense of belonging—perhaps even love—in an enclave of other genetic deviates. But with friends and enemies, heroes and villains, wearing interchangeable faces, nothing is as it seems. Soon, Eve and Lemon are racing against each other to find a missing girl whose DNA may hold the key to saving or destroying their broken world.

When tragedy strikes, Cassidy, a cam girl living in Southern California, must return to the small West Virginia town she left behind. Cassidy likes her job getting naked for men on camera, though she prefers sex with women. She never came out to her family or friends back in her home state - not about her sexuality and certainly not about her sex work. Now, she must figure out how to hold on to the life she’s built for herself while picking up the pieces of her fractured family.

A short-story magazine that assembles a thrilling new mix of stories from genres including horror, science fiction, comedy, and suspense. Buried at the heart of every story in the magazine is a unique artifact, an object that has inspired our storytellers to create a big idea, an irresistible question, a new immersive world, or a sense of wonder. Unearth your next great story with Assemble Artifacts.

On November 27, 2013, Kat Savage’s life forever changed. Her little sister, Angela, was brutally murdered, and Savage has been searching for the strength to write her grief down ever since. Finally, just shy of six years later, and one year after justice finally rained down upon the man to blame, Savage found the courage to try.

When Wulfric needs the season's hottest toy, he turns to the only person who can help: Tammy's new boyfriend, who might not be human. Between pizza dinners, helpful Fae, and stacks of waffles, join the crew of Halfway as they solve a Christmas mystery and find out that sometimes, what you can't see can really hurt you. This humorous paranormal short is for fans of witches, waffles, and Christmas. Listen with a cup of tea, and beware - there are spoilers ahead if you've not visited Halfway before.

"Chase your dreams and follow your heart, no matter the cost" is the call of the world today. The opposite extreme, often advised by well-meaning Christians, is to lay down all of our dreams and passions, avoiding all self-interest. One narrative says to follow a passion, and the other says to lay it down. Both claim to offer happiness and purpose on the other side. But what does the Bible say about dreams, goals, and passions?

The notion that some might have it better than others, for no good reason, offends our sensibilities. Yet, until we talk about privilege, we’ll never fully understand it or find our way forward. Amy Julia Becker welcomes us into her life, from the charm of her privileged southern childhood to her adult experience in the Northeast, and the denials she has faced as the mother of a child with special needs. She tells us how a life behind a white picket fence can restrict even as it protects and how it can prevent us from loving our neighbors well.

After her grampa dies, the last place Libby expects to see him is sitting on the edge of her bed. But that's what happens the night after the funeral. Even more surprising is that Grampa has three important things to tell her: first, that she isn't alone or forgotten - "The dead ain't never that far from the living", he says; second, that she has "the Sight" - the ability to see family members who have died; and third, that there is something special just for her in the lake. Something that could help her and her father - if she can find it.

On the day of their baby dedication, Eryn and her husband were given a jar of 936 pennies. The jar contained a penny for every week they would raise their child until graduation, and they were instructed to remove one penny each Sunday as a reminder, placing it into another jar as an investment. At some point every parent realizes time is moving swiftly, and they ask themselves, How am I investing in my child? Through personal stories and biblical examples, 936 Pennies will help you discover how to capture time and use it to its fullest potential.

The Sisters of the Crescent Empress is the second book in Leena Likitalo's Waning Moon Duology, a fabulous historical fantasy based on the lives of the Romanov sisters. We all think we know how the story ends...with the Crescent Empress dead, a civil war has torn the empire asunder. No one seems able to stop the ruthless Gagargi Prataslav. The five Daughters of the Moon are where he wants them to be, held captive in an isolated house in the far north.

It's time to stop trying to be the perfect mom. You long to be the mom your kids need, but often you're convinced you come up short. The label "not enough" seems to be stamped across everything you do - and yet parenting is the one thing you want most to get right. What if the solution is simply to embrace the truth that you are not enough - but God is?

The Crescent Empire teeters on the edge of a revolution, and the Five Daughters of the Moon are the ones to determine its future.

Kali Ling has faced down death hundreds of times for the entertainment of millions. She knows fear - and she knows what's truly terrifying.... There's a new game in town. A brutal, winner-takes-all international video game tournament showcasing the world's most elite players, promising fame, prestige, and unbelievable fortune. But there's a catch. The game uses new VR pods guaranteed to push digital warriors to their physical and psychological brink - adapting every time a gamer makes a move.

For Summer Hartwell, holding her and Graham's wedding 1,000 miles from home seemed like a good idea. Even if it is at a retirement community. How else could she avoid planning the wedding with her neurotic, anxiety-ridden mother? But with one week left to go and Summer's parents arriving on the scene, things begin to quickly unravel.

When Nico Morris' older sister mysteriously disappears, her parents, family, and friends are devastated. But Nico can never admit what she herself feels: relief at finally being free of Sarah's daily cruelties. Then the best and worst thing happens: four years later, after dozens of false leads, Sarah is found. But this girl is much changed from the one Nico knew. She's thin and drawn when Sarah had been golden and athletic; timid and unsure instead of brash and competitive; and, strangest of all, sweet and kind when she had once been mean and abusive.