Showing results by narrator "Kelli Tager" in All Categories

I've had my heart crushed more times than I can count. Swearing off men was the best thing I ever did. The second best—taking a job waitressing at The Firken bar off campus. My grumpy boss is nice to everyone… except me. Which shouldn't bother me, but it does. Darren is handsome, mysterious—and even more unavailable than I am. I've gotten over my ghosts, but he's still chasing his. I thought after years of working in close proximity maybe, just maybe, we would finally cross that line. But almost kisses don't count, not even off the clock.

Years ago, a fight for supremacy took place between the two most powerful families in New Orleans. The battle was set in the metaphoric octagon, with the spotlight blazing. The city sat in paralyzed fear, awaiting word of a victor. Abraham Rames versus Isaiah Boudreau. One man would emerge victorious and rule the city of sin. Neither understood that the devil was in the details. Neither lived to see the rising sun. I’m Everett Rames, son of Abraham, and I am the devil. I took my rightful place as king of New Orleans.

As I drive into the picturesque small town of Landmark Mountain after the whirlwind of college, I could never have expected a simple job opportunity would lead me to the deliciously sexy Sutton Landmark. But fate, it seems, wants to send my plans sideways. Judge Sutton Landmark is a man whose gorgeous face, charisma, and chocolate-brown eyes could charm the pants off of anyone. He needs a nanny for his son, Owen, and I need a break from textbooks and exams…and some time to figure out what I really want to do with my life. However, one heated look from Sutton and everything inside me ignites.

Surviving is all they can do until the storms end their disastrous attack on the world. The fight isn't over, no matter how much Rowan wants to believe they've found safety. The future she envisioned tells a different story, and it's one she can't ignore. Sam wants Rowan and everything that comes along with her. He adopted her nephews, and they share them as sons. Their future grows in Rowan's belly, and they want nothing more than to leave the past behind for good.

I've had a crush on my best friend for as long as I can remember. He's a hockey winger who has quite a reputation with the puck bunnies, and I'm a nerdy girl trying to survive my biochemistry degree as a single mom. If science has taught me anything, it's that facts don't lie. The truth is that Ryse and I are from two completely different worlds. He's headed for the pros, and I hypothesize I'll be left behind…again.

After fleeing for their lives, Rowan's band of survivors makes it to the Underground. The last to find her way, the welcome that greets her is not a warm one. She's about to find out just how far the web of betrayal spreads, touching everything she holds dear. All the while, her family is kept from her, too far away to reach. Longing for Sam and desperate to escape, her powers grow stronger, but will it be enough?

When librarian Cecily Jane Allerton and hotshot struggling author Nate Ellis are caught in a compromising position during their MFA program, they decide to get married to keep the haters from destroying their chances for professional success. To the horror of Cecily’s family, which is a big fan of big white weddings, they elope to City Hall. Now they’re back on Block Island, pretending to be a real married couple, and finding that however fake the relationship may be, the mutual attraction is all too real.

Ever since the dust storms arrived and turned her world upside down, ambitious Stella Fischer spends her mornings hiding moonshine in laundry stacks for delivery before returning home to help her sisters run their family home turned boarding house, hoping to make enough money to finally escape to Hollywood. She has no time for distractions, especially from Lloyd, the handsome drifter who works as a hired hand at the boarding house. When the group decides to forage for building materials at an abandoned cider mill, they discover a magical passage that sends them back to the mill in its prime.

In the wake of her divorce, Jameson O'Halloran has gone man-vegan. And this is one diet she's determined to stick with. Even when her long-lost ex-brother-in-law shows up looking like two scoops of double dutch dipped in chocolate... She's not giving in. Been there and still wearing the messy T-shirt. It's been a decade since Scott Clarke left his family and his hometown, never to return. But when tragedy strikes, he finds himself dragged back to the land of gossip, judgment, and the one woman he absolutely, positively, without a doubt can never have. His brother's ex is off-limits.

In Berlin, Esther and Ted Birnbaum are faced with leaving everything and everyone they love behind in an effort to survive Hitler's vicious attack on the Jews of Germany. They have no one to turn to for help except their oldest employee, Hans Hubermann. But Hans's son, Erwin, is showing great promise in the Hitler Youth, and Luisa, a longtime enemy of the Birnbaums', has taken notice of Erwin's advancements in the organization. Does she realize Erwin is Hans's son, and that Hans is connected to the Birnbaums? And if she does, what will the ramifications of this be?

In New York, prohibition has ended, and Sam's world is turned upside down. The mob boss realizes he must expand his illegal interests if he is going to continue to live his lavish lifestyle. Some of the jobs Sam is offered go against his moral character. Transporting alcohol was one thing, but threatening lives is another.

Since her return home to Berlin, Goldie Schatzman has reconnected with her childhood friend, Leni, a free spirit who has swept Goldie into the Weimar lifestyle that is overflowing with artists and writers, but also with debauchery. Goldie had spent the last nineteen years living a dull life with a spiritless husband. And now she has been set free. As Goldie's daughter, Alma, is coming of marriageable age, her grandparents are determined to find her a suitable match. Will Goldie's life of depravity hurt Alma's chances to find a Jewish husband?

Already suffering the privations of the 1930s Dust Bowl, an Oklahoma town is further devastated when a passenger train derails—flooding its hospital with the dead and maimed. Among the seriously wounded is Etha, wife of Sheriff Temple Jennings. Overwhelmed by worry for her, the sheriff must regain his footing to investigate the derailment, which rapidly develops into a case of sabotage.

In the title story, set five minutes in the future where you not only have a credit score but also a dating score, a woman who’s been banished from all dating apps attends a weekly help group with others who have been “banned for life,” and finds herself falling in love. In “Backwards,” a twist on Benjamin Button, a woman reconnects with her estranged father as he de-ages ten years each day they spend together. In “Welcome to Oxhead,” all the parents in a gated community “shut off” when the power goes out.

Luckily for humanity, scientist Marie Curie applied her brilliant mind and indomitable spirit to expanding the frontiers of science, but what if she had instead drifted toward the darkness? At the cusp of between child- and adulthood, at the crossroads between science and superstition, a teen Marie Curie faces the factual and the fantastic in this fabulous collection of stories that inspire, delight, and ask the question: What if she had used her talents for diabolical purposes?

Liz Bennett knows that she is one of the lucky ones. Wealthy and charming, Arno is a supportive husband to Liz and a doting father to their daughter, Emma. A rising banker at a top firm in the Boston area, he is the picture of perfection, rounding off their idyllic New England life. But when Liz sees a text on Arno's phone with a kissy-face emoji, her anxiety kicks into overdrive and she begins to worry that her luck has run out.

In a small town in upstate New York in 1928, four-year-old Evelyn Wilson goes missing. Instantly, old prejudices claw to the surface. As a frenzy of panic and bloodlust overwhelms all reason, the community turns on the Schatzman family. A terrible witch hunt follows. The Schatzmans' young son is accused of horrifying crimes. As their life in America falls apart, leaving nothing but anguish and devastation, some of the Schatzmans decide to return home to Berlin. But Germany in the 1930s is no safe harbor.

Hannah realizes that her parents’ cabin has vacation-property gold written all over it—and could save her mama from going broke. Again. The only problem? The cabin’s décor is mildly terrifying, and it’s in desperate need of renovation. Hannah hires the hot carpenter living in the treehouse next door to fix up the place. Not only does River respect Hannah’s business acumen, he looks at her like she’s a woman, not a hot mess. And Hannah can’t deny that River awakens something new inside her.

I don’t want to be someone’s dirty little secret. I know all too well what that feels like. Guarding my heart means staying out of pro football player Brock Williams’s bed and out of the spotlight. After all these years, he’s exactly like I remember: charming, determined, and used to getting what he wants. And what he wants now is me. The chemistry between us is undeniable. The guy I always saw as a player is now the one who makes my heart beat fast—the one who leaves dirty love notes on my pillow. Oh, yeah…he also happens to be my brother’s best friend.

After my wife died, I never expected to fall in love again, let alone with her much younger sister. Elle's too young for me, though. Too vibrant and cheerful to be saddled with a grumpy widower and two little kids. Besides, she's only here for a few months before she moves on to follow her dreams. And there's no way we could be together even if she were staying. It doesn't seem to matter how often I remind myself of all the reasons why we can't, or shouldn't be together, my body won't listen.