Showing results by narrator "Zura Johnson" in All Categories

Genevieve Charbonneau talks to ghosts and has a special relationship with rattlesnakes. In her travels, she’s wandered throughout the South, working in a Louisiana circus and as a hootchy kootch dancer in Texas. Now for the first time in a decade, she’s allowed her winding path to bring her to the site of her grandmother’s Arkansas farmhouse, a place hallowed in her memory. Disguised by years in exile and a name she found on a gravestone, Genevieve intends only to visit briefly and leave.

We're at an inflection point in data, where our data management solutions no longer match the complexity of organizations, the proliferation of data sources, and the scope of our aspirations to get value from data with AI and analytics. In this practical book, Zhamak Dehghani introduces data mesh, a decentralized sociotechnical paradigm drawn from modern distributed architecture that provides a new approach to sourcing, sharing, accessing, and managing analytical data at scale.

Loren Calla has only ever been ordinary. As a human struggling to survive in a city that caters to the needs of vampires, werewolves, witches, and other supernatural creatures, she always assumed her life would remain simple, predictable, and as safe as her world would allow. Until she barely escapes abduction at the hands of Darkslayers—supernatural bounty hunters that possess the Sight, a magical tracking ability that allows them to see a person's aura—and one of her friends is taken in her place. The abductors are demanding a ransom: Loren's life in exchange for her friend's safe return.

Novalise has until the end of Midsummer to marry, but when fate binds her to a male who wants nothing to do with her, she finds herself uncertain of what to do—choose a husband on her own or let her brother decide for her. When a notorious assassin arrives with a tempting solution to her problem, Novalise strikes a bargain in hopes of winning her mate's heart.

When they wander into a war-torn prairie, Ryan and his Companions are rapidly forced to pick a side. Aiding a Baron more mystic than man, they face off against a ravenous army. Battle rages, ancient mysticism takes hold, but the feud becomes personal when a tyrant sets his sights on Ryan's lover, Krysty. Each dawn brings bloodshed, each night - terror. As mythology mixes with warfare, no one can guess what will emerge from the smoke.

All that stands between rowdy long-haul trucker Jill MacLeod (aka Junkmouth) and her family back in Boston is two thousand miles of asphalt. Well, that and the monstrous game the System has had her playing ever since it descended on Earth. The reward: mana. Jill's goal: kill, score, drive—and stay alive. Behind the wheel of a turreted forty-ton semi named Bertha, Jill hammers east from Montana through a gauntlet of every kind of chomping, hissing, rabid creature imaginable. Barreling forward in her magical soulbound big rig and chalking up a bumper crop of roadkill, Jill isn't alone for long.

Stay-at-home mom Eloise Williams is PTO president and a respected local philanthropist who sits on the boards of many distinguished charities. In addition to being a doting wife and mother, she is also a serial killer.

In this book, technical strategist Sarah Wells provides practical, in-depth advice for moving to microservices. Having built her first microservices architecture in 2013 for the Financial Times, Sarah discusses the approaches you need to take from the start, and explains the potential traps most likely to trip you up. You'll also learn how to maintain the architecture as your systems mature while minimizing the time you spend on support and maintenance.

Sarah Kurchak is autistic. She hasn’t let that get in the way of pursuing her dream to become a writer, or to find love, but she has let it get in the way of being in the same room with someone chewing food loudly and of cleaning her bathroom sink. In I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, Kurchak examines the Byzantine steps she took to become “an autistic success story”, how the process almost ruined her life, and how she is now trying to recover.

Loren soon finds herself caught in a new storm of trouble when the Terran Imperator blackmails her into working for him. There's only one problem: he expects her to use her magic, and she doesn't seem to have any of it left. To keep Darien and the other Devils safe, she agrees to everything the imperator asks of her. But the secrets she is forced to keep from Darien and her involvement with the imperator's son threaten to drive her away from Darien in ways she might never recover from…

Humor and heart collide when two fake dates accidentally ruin a wedding and must play matchmaker to fix it, perfect for fans of Christina Lauren and Tessa Bailey.

When I applied for a job as a personal assistant, I had no idea I'd be working for THE Eloise Roth. One of the queens of romance novels, who has dozens of bestsellers under her belt. I also had no idea that she would be strict, demanding, and difficult. Every single day I think about quitting, but for some reason I keep coming back for more. I have no idea when the hell Eloise went from my intimidating boss to the woman who stars in all of my dirtiest fantasies, but it's becoming a real problem, and my already scattered brain is having even more trouble functioning. I'm so getting fired.

Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her life to the study and prevention of ERS—a space-based condition most famous for a case that resulted in the brutal murders of twenty-nine people. When she's assigned to a small exploration crew, she's eager to make a difference. But as they begin to establish residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that crew is hiding something. While Ophelia focuses on her new role, her crewmates are far more interested in investigating the eerie, ancient planet and unraveling the mystery behind the previous colonizer's hasty departure.

When Lykke finds herself sentenced to death for murdering a fae noble, she’s shocked to see it’s the older brother—Connor—who steps in to save her...and not in the way she expected. In a world jaded by war, where love is weakness, a fae prince finds himself torn between his desire to save his country and his growing love for a human. He can’t save both, but how can he choose between his duty and his heart?

Becoming a parent, once the expected outcome of adulthood, is increasingly viewed as a potential threat to the most basic goals and aspirations of modern life. We seek self-fulfillment; we want to liberate women to find meaning and self-worth outside the home; and we wish to protect the planet from the ravages of climate change. Weighing the pros and cons of having children, millennials and zoomers are finding it increasingly difficult to judge in its favor. With lucid argument and passionate prose, Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman offer the guidance necessary to move beyond uncertainty.

New research has uncovered deeply buried military secrets—both the Allied and Axis special operations during WWII included monsters. Did the Soviets use a dragon to win the Battle of Kursk? Did a vampire fight for the Canadians in Holland? Did the US drop the second atomic bomb on a kaiju? This collection takes real events from World War II and injects them with fantastical creatures that mirror the “unreality” of war itself. Each story—and two poems—feature mythical, mystical, and otherwise unexplainable beings that change the course of history.

My transformation from a poor, orphaned scullery maid into the enchantingly mysterious lady who snagged the heart of the prince did not happen - as the rumours insist - in a magical metamorphosis of pumpkins and glass slippers. Instead, with the help of a touchingly tragic past and the some highly illegal spells, my stepsisters and I infiltrated the ball and captured the attention of the prince. I became a princess, secured our fortunes, and ensured we'd all live happily ever after. But of course, there's always more to the story.

My husband is dead, and I’m the prime suspect. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the law requires I marry by the end of the season, or I lose my kingdom. I followed my heart the first time; I won’t do it again. The old tournament tradition could help me select our next king while protecting my broken heart, but I never expected a close friend of my husband’s family to show up to compete. I don’t know if he believes the rumors and suspects me of murder, but it’s clear someone wants him out of the competition and me off the throne.

Deep in the dark forest, in a cottage that spins on birds’ legs behind a fence topped with human skulls, lives the baba yaga. A guardian of the water of life, she lives with her sisters and takes to the skies in a giant mortar and pestle, creating tempests as she goes. Those who come across the baba yaga may find help, or hinderance, or horror. She is wild, she is woman, she is witch—and these are her tales.

Five months ago, an accident left Diana Sparrow badly injured and missing a few months of her memory. As if that's not enough, she's started having recurring nightmares about the night of the accident. Dreams that feel so real, she's left questioning: maybe she didn't just slide off the road into a ditch. Maybe, just maybe, she hit something. Or someone. She can't turn to her former best friend Val, who's been sleeping with Diana's husband Jonathan for months, but she might find some comfort in newcomer Cole Pelham. But is Cole connected to what happened that night?