Showing results by narrator "Helen Laser" in All Categories

Annae, a brilliant graduate student in psychiatric magic and survivor of academic abuse, can't stop reading people's minds. This is how she protects herself—using her abilities to know exactly how her colleagues view her—how she escapes the torturous experience of her own existence. When Annae moves to England to rebuild her life and finish her studies under the seminal magician Marec Gorski—infamous for bringing to life a homunculus made from his unwanted better self—she sees, inside his head, a man who is both a destructive force to everyone around him, and her mirror image.

In this tale inspired by Cinderella (and for fans of The Last Airbender), Ellie is a firemage in a kingdom of water and windmages. Her worried stepmother warns her against showing off her powers, but when everyone at the king’s ball is in danger from a dragon, Ellie can no longer keep them secret. She works together with another firemage to save the entire kingdom.

The dark side of the gig economy (Uber, Airbnb, etc.) and how to make it equitable for the users and workers most exploited.

The calf plopped to the ground, looking as grumpy as she felt. She had energy to spare, but nowhere to run and no one to play with. She was trapped! Her mom let out an amused snort, and then licked her little snout clean. Suddenly, there was a commotion in the barn, and a loud braying sent her scurrying under her mother, cowering and shaking.

The year is 1885, and what Clara Thomas desires most is a life beyond the ordinary. As one of Canada’s first female physicians, she yearns to start her own medical practice. Unfortunately, her parents view her goals as an idle preoccupation, encouraging her instead to settle down with a man of their choosing and give up her dreams. Fleeing this conventional life, Clara marries a handsome stranger in haste and journeys to British Columbia to start a life she wants to live. Unfortunately, she shortly discovers that her husband has a crippling addiction and a tendency towards laziness and anger.

Sixth grade is supposed to be perfect. Shannon’s got a sure spot in the in-crowd called The Group, and her best friend is their leader, Jen, the most popular girl in school. But the rules are always changing, and Shannon has to scramble to keep up. She never knows which TV shows are cool, what songs to listen to, and who she’s allowed to talk to. Who makes these rules, anyway? And does Shannon have to follow them?

Kat Wallace is on a mission. After escaping tortuous enslavement, she sets her sights on ending the human trafficking that has flourished on 24th-century Earth. Adopted by the leader of the pirate nation of Bosch, Kat Wallace is determined to prove herself as a member of the Bosch Pirate Force and use her skills to avenge her enslavement and free other thralls. But unexpected love and a test of loyalty threaten to rob her of what she wants most: a home.

England, 2014: Audrey Collins knows only two things about her beloved grandmother's past: She was born into nobility and she immigrated to America at seventeen years old. So when Audrey inherits her gran's home in North Yorkshire, she arrives expecting a sprawling country estate fit for lords and ladies. Instead, she finds an abandoned stone cottage perfectly preserved as Gran left it when she fled in 1941—ration book and all—and begins to uncover what secrets her family has been keeping.

After her recurring role in tabloid headlines, Valerie Quinn’s musical TV show is on the network chopping block. Desperate for good press, she hastily reassembles her wildly beloved pop punk band, Glitter Bats. A reunion concert could be the former lead vocalist’s ticket to a media makeover, especially if it renews public speculation around her iconic situationship with bassist Caleb Sloane. The only problem? They haven’t spoken in six years.

I wish I could say that the tragedy of little Jack disappearing brought me and Nate closer together. But my husband is more distant from me now than he’s ever been. Perhaps that’s why I don’t ask him exactly where he’s going when he sets off on another business trip. Or perhaps I was too distracted by the woman moving in across the street with bouncing blonde hair and a cherubic toddler boy. He reminds me so much of the child I lost. But his mother doesn’t seem to properly watch him. And I can’t be sure, but I think Nate and this woman share a look of recognition before he leaves.

Finley and Arthur are back at boarding school and neither quite knows where the other stands—are they a couple? Are they not a couple? What does one magical Christmas Eve kiss in Oklahoma mean for their relationship status? This confusion isn't helped by the re-entry of old enemies into their school lives, especially ones that may or may not be crushing on Arthur. Finley is at a loss when navigating the complexities of her new (maybe) relationship, which could very well turn into love. . . if she doesn't blow it.

Train-wreck antihero Charity Blake thrives at being a winged avenger, but exacting vengeance takes as much from her as it gives. To retain the humanity she’s fought tooth and claw to keep, she tries to walk away from her monstrous side for good. With no sense of purpose and a lifetime of failures haunting her, Charity struggles not to fall back into old, murderous habits. Until she meets a little girl who is more broken than herself.

A grand-scale nuclear war between the US and the United Korean Empire leads to the contamination of Earth’s atmosphere, leaving the planet uninhabitable. Piper, a microbiology intern working under the world-renowned Dr. Landry, is surprised when she is selected to join a last-ditch effort to colonize a planet within a nearby solar system in the Goldilocks Zone.

Are you ready to listen about daring deeds and world-changing events? Meet the American Trailblazers, diverse historical and modern figures who accomplished incredible things. History books for kids age 9-12 should include a range of people and stories - here you'll learn about the greats in sports, civil rights, art, science, and more.

Victor and Zoey are getting old—well, older—and it’s beginning to be a real problem. Best friends since college they have been through thick and thin, poor and poorer, drunk and drunker throughout their twenties in New York. Victor has built a successful career writing celebrity profiles for one of the last glossy magazines left standing, and Zoey is working for a fashion startup that is desperately trying to figure out how to monetize influencers, but has definitely figured out how to create a toxic work culture.

Kat Wallace has her hands full: three lively children, a floundering marriage to a diplomat who is barely ever home, a commission as an officer in the Bosch Pirate Force, and a driving desire to destroy her past enslaver. None of those things has kept her from her mission to eliminate human trafficking on New Earth.

All Kat wants to do is run her own life. But it seems as though everyone else has competing plans for her. Her commander of the Bosch Pirate Force wants her to lead. Her husband wants her to abandon her pirating ways. Her mother-in-law wouldn’t mind seeing her dead. And her past enslaver, Rob Abernathy, wants her back. As listeners of A Merry Life know, Kat is fearless, principled, and determined to settle old scores. When a face from her past spurs a dangerous mission, she jumps at the opportunity, unaware that it will have explosive results.

Penny Crenshaw’s divorce and her husband’s swift remarriage to a much younger woman have been hot topics around Atlanta’s social circles. After a year of enduring the cruel gossip, Penny leaps from the frying pan into the fire by heading back to Kentucky to settle her grandmother’s estate. Reluctantly, Penny travels to her hometown of Camden, knowing she will be stirring up all the ghosts from her turbulent childhood. But not all her problems stem from a dysfunctional family. One of Penny’s greatest sources of pain lives just down the street: Bradley Hitchens.

Charity's half-baked, though valiant, attempt to save Rose from herself failed on a colossal level. Now she's alone again, shunned by the other Harpies and determined to leave her bloody past behind. Though she aches for the safety of an ordinary life, she struggles to fit into the monotony of one. And just when her insipid routine threatens to plunge her back into bad habits—bad habits come looking for her.

This powerful story is told from the collective perspective of the children who were rescued from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II, as Hitler's campaign of hatred toward Jews and political dissidents took hold. The narrative starts in 1938 and follows the children as they journey to foster families in England for the duration of the war, return to Prague afterward in an unsuccessful search for their parents, and eventually connect with Nicholas Winton, a British former stockbroker who was instrumental in bringing them to safety.