Showing results by narrator "Tara Sands" in All Categories

When Green Crayon claims that green is the only color for Christmas, other crayons let him know that there would be no Christmas without them either. No candy canes or Santa without Red, no snow without White, no bells or stars without Silver, and no cookies or reindeer without Tan! The crayons agree that they all need to come together to make Christmas special.

As an assistant publicist in Hollywood, Nicola spends her days (and nights) sweeping up the scandals of singers, movie stars, and TV actors. Fresh from Ohio, she's rapidly discovering the real Hollywood is rotten under its glittering skin. Everyone is a hustler with a hard bottom line and a soap opera sob story. When she breaks her own rules and starts dating a movie star, the Los Angeles scene starts to spill into her own life.

Rory McGovern is entering the prime of her life when her husband loses his dream job and announces he feels like "taking a break". Rory was already spread thin and now, without warning, she is single-parenting two kids, juggling their science projects, flu season, and pajama days, while coming to terms with her disintegrating marriage. Without Blake, her only hope is to accept a full-time position working for two full-time 20-somethings.

Ring in Valentine's Day - and love - with the New York Times best-selling Crayons! This charming title featuring everyone's favorite coloring crew is the perfect gift for that special someone on Valentine's Day - or any day of the year.

Bailey and Vanessa shared everything: laughter, secrets, and packets of Pop Rocks to ward off bad days. But that all changed the night Vanessa left Bailey’s, headed for home, and ended up swerving off a cliff nowhere near her house. Now Bailey, who thought she knew Vanessa better than anyone in the world, is left with a million unanswered questions, and the only person with answers is gone.

Orphaned in Iowa, Annie Kennedy has moved to Boston and is embracing the city life, with a new name and a wide-open future. When she gets involved with a fast crowd at Ocean Pier - one that includes the handsome Steven O’Connor - she is pulled deeper and deeper into a world of rule breakers and mischief makers. She finds herself drawn to Steven and the whole O’Connor family. But a secret Annie is keeping has the power to destroy her best-laid plans.

Lifelong rivals Natalie and Reid have never been on the same team. So when their school’s art budget faces cutbacks, of course Natalie finds herself up against her nemesis once more. She’s fighting to direct the school’s first ever student-written play, but for her small production to get funding, the school’s award-winning band will have to lose it. Reid’s band. And he’s got no intention of letting the show go on.

If happily ever after were a place, 20-year-old Bryn Dawson would be on the farthest planet from it. Reduced to stolen glances and secret meetings as they await a betrothal the Council is bent on stalling, William and Bryn have to settle for happily right now, but with a man like William Hayward at her side, Bryn's hardly settling. The day John Townsend sends an army of immortal mercenaries intent on destroying everyone Bryn loves, she must make the decision generations of star-crossed lovers before her have - live alone or die together. William has made his decision; Bryn is the one fate's waiting on.

Regan, Sofia, Bennett, and Darius know better by now than to think the witch's curse is done with them. A mysterious family checks into Regan's family Boo and Breakfast...and they seem to take a particular interest in Regan! They're never seen during the day, they're allergic to garlic, and they speak like they're from another time. They couldn't be...could they? But why would a family of vampires want to recruit Regan?

When it comes to family, Annie is in the losers bracket. While her foster parents are great (mostly), her birth family would not have been her first pick. And no matter how many times Annie tries to write them out of her life, she always gets sucked back into their drama. Love is like that. But when a family argument breaks out at Annie’s swim meet and her nephew goes missing, Annie might be the only one who can get him back. With help from her friends, her foster brother, and her social service worker, Annie puts the pieces of the puzzle together, determined to find her nephew.

A job in a manor-house library gives Robin more than she bargained for. All Robin wants is a part-time job. A friend has invited her on a Florida vacation that promises to be the trip of a lifetime, and Robin needs money for airfare. The ad on the school bulletin board is irresistible: “Get Rich Quick,” it promises, and Robin can’t say no.

Thirteen-year-old Jamie Bunn made a mistake at the end of the school year. A big one. Every kid in her middle school knows all about it. Now, she has to spend her summer vacation volunteering at the local library - as punishment. What a waste of a summer! Or so she thinks.

There’s no such thing as an uneventful summer at Camp Sweetwater. Now that the Vampire Devils beneath the lake have been awakened, the camp is in big trouble. The first victims? Tez and Corryn’s counselors, Gavin and Scary Mary. The camp director insists that the missing counselors are just quitting and going home, but Tez and Corryn don’t believe it. They know something much more evil is afoot. With the help of their cabinmates, Tez and Corryn set out to investigate the disappearances. But what they find is a horror closer than the bottom of the lake....

Sixth grade is coming to an end, and so is life as Macy McMillan knows it. Soon, her mother will upend their perfect little family, adding a stepfather and six-year-old twin stepsisters. She sends Macy next door to help 86-year-old Iris Gillan, who is getting ready to move into an assisted-living facility. Iris can't pack a single box on her own, and, worse, she doesn't know sign language. Soon, through notes and books and cookies, a bond grows between them, and this friendship, odd and unexpected, may be just what Macy needs to face the changes in her life.

Life's been many things for 20-year-old Bryn Dawson, but one thing it's never been is easy. As the gossip of Bryn being betrothed to her true love's little brother, Patrick, becomes more reality than rumor, Bryn does her best to think positive thoughts. The night an army of Inheritors set out to deliver vengeance, the betrothal ball becomes the least of her worries. Instead of worrying about who she'll be marching down the aisle toward, she might not be making the journey down the aisle ever.

Inspired in seminary by American Muslimahs who wear the hijab for feminist reasons, Lauren Shields took off what she calls the Beauty Suit - the "done" hair, the tasteful and carefully applied makeup, the tight clothes and foot-binding shoes - for nine months. She'd really only wanted to do an experiment. Instead, her life - especially her views on what constitutes "liberation" - changed forever. Rooted in feminist theory and religious history, and guided by a snappy personal narrative, The Beauty Suit unpacks modern American womanhood: a landscape where the female body is still so often the battleground for male ideals and where we struggle with our rights as human beings to define and exercise our freedom.

It's 1883 - only a few months after Molly Pepper; her mother, Cassandra; and her friend, Emmett, saved New York from an attack by the megalomaniacal Ambrose Rector while managing to preserve the reputations of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, whose technology was manipulated in Rector’s scheme. Their selfless heroism will finally earn them a place in the Inventors’ Guild, alongside the greatest minds of their generation. Unless, of course, no one knows that they did any of that.

As the excitement from the last mystery the One and Onlys solved is starting to dwindle, Shanks, Peephole, and Paul worry that their town is back to being boring old Bellwood. But as plans for a shiny town makeover get underway, they realize that the "old Bellwood" is anything but. The glee over "New Bellwood" is palpable, and it's hard not to get swept away by the flashy new milkshake joint and other developments that are quickly making their small town unrecognizable. But the One and Onlys can't deny that something nefarious seems to be afoot.

Olivia Kidney's new apartment building is crazy! Talking lizards crawling everywhere. An exiled princess haunting the hallways. A tropical rainforest growing in 7B. Even an apartment made entirely of glass!

Summer has begun, the beach beckons - and Francesca Schnell is going nowhere. Four years ago, Francesca's little brother, Simon, drowned, and Francesca's the one who should have been watching. Now Francesca is about to turn 16, but guilt keeps her stuck in the past. Meanwhile, her best friend, Lisette, is moving on, most recently with the boy Francesca wants but can't have. At loose ends, Francesca trails her father, who may be having an affair, to the local country club. There she meets four-year-old Frankie Sky, a little boy who bears an almost eerie resemblance to Simon.