Showing results by narrator "Ilyana Kadushin" in All Categories

Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

When the Empire threatens the galaxy’s new hope, will Han, Luke, and Leia become its last chance? When the mission is to extract a high-level rebel spy from the very heart of the Empire, Leia Organa knows the best man for the job is Han Solo - something the princess and the smuggler can finally agree on. After all, for a guy who broke into an Imperial cell block and helped destroy the Death Star, the assignment sounds simple enough.

But when Han locates the brash rebel agent, Scarlet Hark, she’s determined to stay behind enemy lines.

A duty-bound knight has taken on the task of rebuilding the most dilapidated castle in all of England. A costume designer gets her chance to shine by showcasing her fairy tale designs at an upscale party in an authentic medieval castle. And the magic that whispers along the castle's hallways is about to orchestrate an improbable happily-ever-after.

Ryden Malby had a plan. Step One: do well in high school, thereby achieving Step Two: get a kick-butt college scholarship. Step Three—limit her beer pong in order to keep said scholarship—wasn't always easy. Now that she's finally graduated, it's time for Step Four: moving to LA to land her dream job at the city's best publishing house. So far, Ryden's three-for-three, but she's about to stumble on Step Four When Jessica Bard, Ryden's college nemesis—the prettiest, smartest, most ambitious girl at school—steals her perfect job, Ryden's forced to move back to her childhood home in the Valley.

Meet Barbara Reichmann, once known as Gucia Gomolinska: smart, determined, independent, and steadfast in the face of injustice. A Jew growing up in predominantly Catholic Poland during the 1920s and ’30s, Gucia studies hard, makes friends, falls in love, and dreams of a bright future. Her world is turned upside down when Nazis invade Poland and establish the first Jewish ghetto of World War II in her town of Piotrko´w Trybunalski.

In 1950, a young, beautiful Polish refugee arrives in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, to work as a maid for one of the wealthiest families in America. Alicia is at once dazzled by the large and charismatic family, in particular the oldest son, a rising politician named Jack. Alicia and Jack are soon engaged, but his domineering father forbids the marriage.

Three years after the events of Sweet Valley Confidential, Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield are back in Sweet Valley and inseparable once more. But Jessica, now a mother, finds her marriage to Todd in jeopardy after she makes a terrible mistake. Meanwhile, reality TV star extraordinaire Lila Fowler’s fame-seeking scheme backfires in the worst way. And the scandal threatening to tear Elizabeth and Bruce apart only gets worse when the District Attorney gets involved.

Larsa is a dhampir - half vampire, half human. In the gritty streets and haunted moors of gothic Ustalav, she's an agent for the royal spymaster, keeping peace between the capital's secret vampire population and its huddled human masses. Yet when a noblewoman's entire house is massacred by vampiric invaders, Larsa is drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse that will reveal far more about her own heritage than she ever wanted to know.

The Hellknights are a brutal organization of warriors dedicated to maintaining law and order at any cost. For devil-blooded Jheraal, even the harshest methods are justified if it means building a better world for her daughter. Yet when a serial killer starts targeting hellspawn like Jheraal and her child, Jheraal has no choice but to use all her cunning and ruthlessness in order to defeat an ancient enemy to whom even death is no deterrent.

Once a notorious Viking and pirate, Jendara has at last returned to the cold northern isles of her home, ready to settle down and raise her young son. Yet when a mysterious tsunami wracks her island's shore, she and her fearless crew must sail out to explore the strange island that's risen from the sea floor. No sooner have they arrived in the lost island's alien structures, however, than they find themselves competing with a monstrous cult eager to complete a dark ritual in those dripping halls.

Olivia Morten is perfect. Maybe she's constantly hungry, but her body is to die for. Maybe her high-flying publicist job has taken over her life, but her clients are LA's hottest celebrities. Maybe her husband is never around, but he is a drop-dead-gorgeous doctor. And maybe her past harbors an incredibly embarrassing secret, but no one remembers high school...right? When Ben Dunn, Olivia's high school archnemesis - and onetime crush - suddenly resurfaces, all of her hard-won perfection begins to unravel.

Amid the glitz and glamour of 1950s New York, Phoebe Adler pursues her dream of screenwriting. A dream that turns into a living nightmare when she is blacklisted - caught in the Red Menace that is shattering the lives of suspected Communists. Desperate to work, she escapes to London, determined to keep her dream alive and clear her good name. There, Phoebe befriends fellow American exile Hannah Wolfson, who has defied the odds to build a career as a successful television producer in England.

An eight-year-old trauma victim is enlisted as an underground courier, rushing frozen organs through the alleys of Eastern Europe. A young janitor transforms discarded objects into a fantastical, sprawling miniature city until a shocking discovery forces him to rethink his creation. A brazen child tells off a pack of schoolyard tormentors with the spirited invention of an 11th commandment. A wounded man drives eastward, through tears and grief, toward an unexpected transcendence.

Hard-boiled police detective Richelle Dadd is back. And in a whole world of fresh trouble. Still...well, dead as the result of a Gypsy curse, she must now face life as a single mom. Not only does Richelle have to worry about all the usual stuff - her baby's health and well-being and keeping a roof over their heads by working a precarious dead-end job - there's also her homicidal ex-boyfriend to fear, the father of her child, stalking them both day and night with the avowed intent of kidnapping baby Tamara.

To impress her boss, Linda Rogers eagerly volunteers to take in a foster child for the holiday season. She's well-organized in and outside the office; the addition of a child? A simple matter of blocking out the hours in her day planner and laying in a few supplies. Never mind that she's single. Never mind that she's never cared to have a lasting relationship or build a family. Housing seven-year-old Lucy Green for Christmas is simply to boost Linda up the next career step, nothing more.

What if you're a suburban mom with a snarky sense of humor and a wild imagination prone to dreaming up disasters? What if you and your friends take your daughters for a camping trip, and while on a quick trip to the nearest country market you see a man being bullied and then beaten? What do you do? Back away quietly? Not if you're Molly Deacon, who, along with her Mittyesque imagination, has a temper not to be trifled with.

Medical-school-dropout police detective Richelle Dadd is...well, dead. But that won't stop her from trying to hold on to her house in a divorce battle with a bitter husband. Or keep her from digging into her own murder, to discover who put the bullet into her heart. Or from coming to terms with her Gypsy heritage. And it certainly won't stand in the way of finding out the reason she's been reanimated as a zombie assassin, no longer in control of her life.

On her way to work, for one terrifying instant Jennifer Canfield sees a tiny hand in the trunk of a car that barely misses slamming into her van. A doll? A child? With no time to think she must act and so begins a non-stop, breathlessly suspenseful journey to find the truth and possibly save a life. Stephen Baron, a road construction worker, joins her in her pursuit of a possible kidnapper through the hills of California. And where the chase ends reveals exactly how courage and love can show up when we least expect them and change everything.

We join Abigail Stewart half a year after The Winter of Red Snow ended, in January of 1779. Her father has enlisted in the Continental Army, and when a devastating fire destroys Abby’s home, she, her mother, and siblings must make their way to Philadelphia, then on to the Continental Army camp to be near Abby’s father. The winters are brutally cold, food is scarce, and the anguish of war is ever present. But not all is desperate. Abby meets many new friends, including a young soldier named Willie Campbell. As romance blooms, Abby wonders if the war will ever end.

Genevieve Buchanan inherited a castle—and a ghost to go along with it. But Kendrick de Piaget was no typical ghost. He was a handsome and infuriatingly arrogant 13th-century knight. At first, he wanted to frighten Genevieve, though she was more charmed than scared by his ghostly tricks. But when his thoughts turned to wooing her instead, Genevieve had to face her greatest fear: falling in love.