Showing results by narrator "Natalie Naudus" in All Categories

From the vulnerable and disenfranchised to the educated and privileged, the characters in this extraordinary collection embody the diversity of the Chinese diaspora past and present. In these deeply affecting stories, Jack Wang subverts expectations as he captures the hope, pain, and sacrifices of the millions who journey into the unknown to create better lives, and he explores the shifting boundaries of morality, the intimacies and failings of love, and the choices circumstances force us to make.

Jasmine Tran has landed herself behind bars - maple bars that is. With no boyfriend or job prospects, Jasmine returns home to work at her parents’ donut shop. Jasmine quickly loses herself in a cyclical routine of donuts, Netflix, and sleep. She wants to break free from her daily grind, but when a hike in rent threatens the survival of their shop, her parents rely on her more than ever. Help comes in the form of an old college crush, Alex Lai.

Liam Reilly is an unattached, occasionally delinquent, teenage ward of the state. He lives in a university workshop. He rides a bike made of bamboo. His best friend is an AI named Eiann. Oh, he’s a genius, too. Liam is content with his life, until a demon named Narvicous Scalegrim Gorgonzola Grimmold Maximus the Terrible (Gerald for short) appears in his workshop eating Cheez-Its and twerking to Cardi B.

Thirty-six year-old Olivia is an artist who’s just been let go from her day job. Also, the presumed love of her life has suddenly decamped to another continent to avoid a lawsuit - but all of this pales when Olivia finds out that her beloved grandmother, the woman who raised her, has had a stroke. Olivia rushes back to her hometown of Stafford Falls to care for her Nana only to find that the odd little place where she grew up has changed.

Two years and 6,000 miles away from the explosion that took his leg, Josh Carpenter struggles to reclaim his former life as a college student. Mary Fischer, a civilian for the first time in years, strikes out on her own to create a new, independent life away from the army and her controlling mother. The last time Josh saw Mary, his National Guard unit was leaving Kuwait, headed north to the war. The last time Mary saw Josh, she watched as his unconscious body was rolled onto a plane bound for a hospital in Germany.

FBI special agent Jack Matthews finds himself on yet another serial killer case, having barely recovered from the last disastrous hunt. Marketing specialist Kathy Gilliam leads a fairly boring life. If she's not working or caring for her ailing father, then she is doing whatever it takes to avoid going anywhere near crowds of people. In a moment of panic, Kathy does something that places her on FBI's "persons of interest" list. Suddenly, her life is set on a collision course with Jack Matthews, a FBI special agent, who must decide if Kathy is the killer or destined to become a victim.

Every day on her way home from work, Dove Damiani drives past her ex-house, where her ex-husband lives with her ex-dog and her ex-yoga instructor, next to her ex-neighbors and the ex-life she once affectionately described as “frighteningly perfect.” To outsiders, Dove is bitter and resentful. So when the lifeless body of her former husband is discovered in the birch grove outside Dove’s apartment on what would have been their fifth wedding anniversary, investigators waste no time making Dove a person of interest.

Prince Haille’s world is shattered by loss while the realm of Anthor descends into chaos, a single enigmatic mastermind - the Magus - behind it all. Haille’s friends rally to help him put together the pieces of the mystery, the fragmented realm, and his own fractured life, before it is too late.

The war in Anthor continues. As King Talamar goes south to aid the embattled Karrithians, his son, Prince Haille, and his unlikely band of friends brave haunted forests and high seas to try to reach his father before an unknown threat closes in on him. Time is the enemy as much as the past as old grievances come to bear and creatures from darker ages begin to stir.

I'm an Eagle, Not a Field Chick features a "family" of farm characters. Nissi, The Dove (represents G-d). Raised by a hen and rooster (denoting parents). The snake symbolizes Satan, the accuser and ridiculer. The characters symbolize "people" we all encounter in life. You know, those ol' turkeys, jackasses, or wolves in sheep clothing. The barnyard signifies a "cosmopolitan and diverse" suburb. Goldie heads up the mountain on foot, demonstrating how we often take the long, hard way to get to where we need to go. Her "baggage" denotes just that - baggage we all carry around.

Lacy Purdy loves her new town, her new job, and her old cat, Meatball. And she loves to run. This summer, she'll be running for her life. A phantom lurks in the shadows of Run For It, the local running store, terrorizing an unpopular run group leader with an arsenal of sharp, shiny scissors. Lacy can't stand mean-girl Marlene and everybody knows it, so when she mysteriously disappears in the middle of a run, Lacy suspects foul play. Everyone else suspects Lacy.

A princess trapped in a high tree and a brash young man determined to “rescue” her; a devoted daughter searching for a magical spring to save her ailing father; a teenage girl who is forced to replace her mobile phone with a machete to protect her family from zombies - all their stories interweave in a stirring alchemy set in a rich African backdrop.

In The Healing Journey, Sue Maisano tells her heartfelt story of her rise from poverty and obscurity in a Chinese village to fulfillment and success in America, reaching all her goals of education, marriage, family, and a thriving healing practice. Now she shares her secrets of how she realized her dreams by following her intuition and spiritual guidance, as well as spiritual laws that work for everyone.

Will super-soldier Jocelyn Martinez live long enough to save her sisters-in-arms before everything crashes in on them? You think being a genetically enhanced super-soldier is hard? Trying being a 1st grade teacher. That was a joke Jocelyn use to say to her teammate in training camp. Today, many of those she befriended in camp are dead, and now she's desperate to keep her two sisters-in-arms alive. That's going to be harder than she thought because Ophelia is slowing going mad and Patricia is just a normal human who just happens to be an incredible sniper.

A dagger that burns instead of drawing blood. A family secret too dangerous to repeat. A promise to save someone she loves. Nova is flung into a world of magic, secrets, and sky pirates. Now, she must depend on two men to help her find the way out. One wants her dead, the other would follow her anywhere. But there's legendary magic in the mix, and it's dangerous. They must work together in order to survive, but which one is planning to betray them all?

In this award-winning Christian devotional, author J. C. Beichner shares her own coming-of-age story of overwhelming childhood loss and her search for forgiveness. Combined with a beautiful collection of prayers and the author's pro-every-life testimony as a reflection, each of us can discover the infinite depth of God's mercy. Grace in Progress: Prayers for the Beautifully Broken is an honest and timely reminder of the ever-present availability and abundance of Jesus's love.

Akira Hamada is driven by past failure. Two years earlier, she had a chance to kill her greatest enemy - Kaito Mitsui. Instead, the Yakuza boss forced her to become an assassin in his employ. Now, Akira carries out the bloody business of the notorious crime syndicate and hates herself more each day. When Mitsui hears that his sister’s murderer will be on the cruise ship Starfish, he immediately tasks Akira with eliminating the man once and for all. This is what Akira has trained for, but a series of strange events on the ship tests her resolve and shows her a way to redemption.

Akiko "Jane" Thompson, a half-Japanese, half-Caucasian woman in her mid-30s, is attempting to forge a quietly happy life in the Bay Area with her fiance, Shiro. But after a bizarre car accident, things begin to unravel. An intruder ransacks their apartment but takes nothing, leaving behind only cryptic traces of his or her presence. Shiro, obsessed with government surveillance, risks their security in a plot to expose the misdeeds of his employer, the TSA. Jane's mother has seemingly disappeared, her existence only apparent online.

As a mother and a famous author, Ward DeFleur has it all. She lives in a beautiful estate in picture-perfect Connecticut, along with her teenage daughter, Stevie, where nothing can go wrong. Until, one night, when Stevie is brutally murdered and Ward’s entire world is shattered. Consumed by panic and grief, Ward vows never to put pen to paper again. Enter Bree Bennett. Bree is a recently divorced, former-journalist-cum-housewife, desperate to fill her days with something other than Pilates classes and grocery shopping.

Raised in a privileged community of wealthy survivalists on an idyllic, self-sustaining Oregon ranch, Marlo has always been insulated. The outside world, which the ranchers call “the Disaster”, is a casualty of ravaging climate change, a troubled landscape on the brink of catastrophe. For as long as Marlo can remember, the unknown that lies beyond the borders of her utopia has been a curious obsession. But just as she plans her escape into the chaos of the real world, a charismatic new resident gives her a compelling reason to stay.