Showing results by narrator "Xe Sands" in All Categories

Heather B. Moore is a USA Today best-selling author who writes sweet romance. Under H.B. Moore, she writes historical fiction and thrillers. Under Jane Redd, she writes young-adult fiction.

The friendship between Lena Kaiser, a sodbuster's daughter, and Gustie Roemer, an educated Easterner, is unlikely in any other circumstance but post-frontier Charity, South Dakota. Gustie is considered an outsider, and Lena is too proud to share her problems (which include a hard-drinking husband) with anyone else.

Jules Monroe is a woman whose hard work and dedication has built a rewarding life for herself and her family. Now in her late 50s, she gives selflessly to her husband, kids, community, and their charter business. But everything comes to an abrupt halt when her body says enough, and her mind yearns for respite and a place to hide from past hurts. Oldest son, Jonah Monroe, is a veteran haunted by a childhood tragedy. His past includes things he isn't proud of and can't quite shake. When his chance to be a hero finally arrives, it comes with strings attached.

Kaylee Heart would rather run through a roaring fire than endure even a minute of public speaking. Put in an 80-hour work week? No problem. Shut down her grandfather’s gold-digging girlfriend? Easy peasy. Stand in front of an auction crowd and call for bids? Show her the exit. So she has no idea how Gerald, the golden-voiced auctioneer she’s been crushing on at the local auction house, can find the courage to stand on stage every week, with all those eyes on him. But as cruel fate would have it, she is about to find out.

If only life were as simple as breathing in and letting go. Millie Hart has made a career writing happy endings. While her real life is often less than enchanting, at least she has her stories, featuring strong, vibrant women ready for any challenge and men who stand in support of their dreams. Millie makes millions of readers swoon, but despite her agent’s deep objections, her new project is fueled by her intense drive to prove something. All she needs is four months in Bodega Bay. No meet-cutes, no kissing, just blissful silence. Drake Branch is happy to be alive.

A perfect blend of provocative beauty and fighting skills kept her safe in the most dangerous situations. But Maggie Bennett had no protection against her feelings for the handsome, mysterious Randall Carter. Torn by memories of past hurts, hopes for new love tossed her back into his arms and onto the bloody trail of a notorious terrorist. Maggie and Randall are swept on a wild roller-coaster ride of violence and betrayal…targets for an assassin's bullet and a passion that will strike without warning from the dark depths of the heart.

Being one of the guys isn't all it's cracked up to be. So when journalist Chastity O'Neill returns to her hometown, she decides it's time to start working on some of those feminine wiles. While doing a story on local heroes, she meets a hunky doctor, and things start to look up. Now there's only one problem: Trevor Meade, her first love and the one man she's never quite gotten over. Yet the more time she spends with Dr. Perfect, the better Trevor looks!

Joyce Carol Oates, a queenpin of the noir genre, has brought her keen and discerning eye to the curation of an outstanding anthology of brand-new top-shelf short stories (and poems by Margaret Atwood!). While bad men are not always the victims in these tales, they get their due often enough to satisfy listeners who are sick of the gendered status quo, or who just want to have a little bit of fun at the expense of a crumbling patriarchal society. This stylistically diverse collection will make you squirm in your seat, stay up at night, laugh out loud, and inevitably wish for more.

These seventeen tales take listeners into the uniquely twisted mind of “one of Canada’s most promising new horror writers” (Publishers Weekly). From a live necrophilia show starring reanimated corpses to a confrontation between a security guard and inhuman squatters, from who can be found at an all-night laundromat to what lies in wait at the bottom of the sea, from undead addictions to all-consuming obsessions, Kissing Carrion is “a journey through some of the most beautifully rendered visions of darkness and death to be published this past year."

When Sydney's engagement ends with Rian, his brother Jake is there to save the day...in more ways than one. Sydney has been the perfect friend, the perfect daughter, and Rian checks off on her perfect fiancé list. But when Sydney notices a strange truck parked in her fiancé’s parking spot, she’s in for the surprise of her life.

All Rose wants is peace, quiet, and some quality time with her lovable foster dog, Braveheart. Unfortunately, a devious elder fire witch has decided it’s time to begin Rose’s training in fire magic - and she won’t take no for an answer. But even fire spells are no match for family drama: Rose’s sister is in the middle of a divorce, and it’s up to Rose to stop the soon-to-be-ex-husband’s plan to keep the house for himself. With the help of the Ride-or-Die Witches, a friendly fire-setting cat, and a handsome British chauffeur, Rose must fight for her sister’s home.

In a courthouse hallway, Assistant District Attorney Jessie Black runs into an old law school friend. Jessie is excited to catch up with Kelly . . . until she realizes the lawyer is terrified. Kelly is representing grieving parents against a large corporation whose failure to meet safety standards caused a child's death. The company stands to lose a lot of money, and Kelly fears someone is following her, watching her, and preparing to harm her. But without an actual threat, the police won't help. Jessie offers to talk to her friends in the police department to try to get Kelly some protection.

Faced with legal papers for a fraud she didn't commit, Tandi suspects that her sister has done something unthinkable. With Tandi's wedding just around the corner, a trip to the North Carolina Tidewater for a reckoning with Gina was not part of the plan. But unraveling lies from truth will require confronting strained sibling bonds and uncovering a dark family secret that could free Tandi from her past or stain her future forever.

This version of the children's classic, read by Xe Sands, will delight listeners of all ages with its story of wisdom and boundless love.

Jillian Marsh is a survivor. She escaped her toxic upbringing at the hands of her religious zealot mother as a teenager, and after hitting rock bottom due to alcoholism in her 20s, she not only got sober, she built a successful marriage and medical career, even if she wasn’t able to make amends for all the mistakes she made during her drinking days. But nearly a decade later, things are once again going downhill for Jillian.

Three years after Rory Riordan foiled her own murder, she still trusts no one. Not Dr. Z, the eccentric college professor who has taken her under his wing, not Benji, the endearing, attractive classmate who insists on following her around, and certainly not Cy, the beautifully dark and mysterious boy who sits on the first row in Dr. Z’s Astrobiology class and asks far too many questions.

What exactly is the difference between a love letter and a suicide note? Is there really any difference at all? These might be the questions posed by Dear Sweet Filthy World, Caitlin R. Kiernan’s 14th collection of short fiction, comprising 28 uncollected and impossible-to-find stories. Here are 28 tales of apocalypse and rebirth, of miraculous transformation and utter annihilation. Here is the place where professing your undying devotion might be precisely the same thing as signing your own death warrant or worse.

In The Dinosaur Tourist, Caitlín R. Kiernan’s 15th collection of short fiction, 19 tales of the unexpected and the uncanny explore that treacherous gulf between what we suppose the world to be and what might actually be waiting out beyond the edges of our day-to-day experience. A mirror may be a window into another time. A cat may be our salvation. Your lover may be a fabulous being. And a hitchhiker may turn out to be anyone at all.

After experiencing a humiliating breakup, 22-year-old Cassandra Clarke is fresh out of college and living a simple, solitary life without any intention of pursuing love anytime soon. When the estate next door sells, the last thing Cassandra expects is the unnerving attraction she feels for her sinfully handsome neighbor, Logan West, the young and charming single father with a playboy reputation.

Maggie Bennett possesses stunning beauty that acts as a disguise for the lethal skills that truly come together to make her tough, icy, and cool. She thought she was ready for anything until she was assigned to protect ex-rock star Mack Pulaski. He aimed his sensual appeal with deadly accuracy - right into Maggie’s heart. Love is full of traps, but it could be a fatal distraction on the sizzling journey that sweeps them from Central America to Zurich, where multi-million-dollar drug deals provide the kind of stakes men kill for.