Showing results by narrator "Natasha Soudek" in All Categories

The plague is spreading. The hundred year war is beginning. Katharina Kepler is believed to be a witch. Known for her herbal remedies and successful children–among them Johannes, Imperial Mathematician and author of the laws of planetary motion–Katharina’s life is changed by an accusation of witchcraft. Facing financial ruin, torture and even execution, she tells her side of the story.

Assemble Artifacts: A short story magazine that assembles a thrilling new mix of stories from genres including horror, science-fiction, comedy, and suspense. Buried at the heart of every story in the magazine is a unique artifact, an object that has inspired our storytellers to create a big idea, an irresistible question, a new immersive world, or a sense of wonder. Unearth your next great listen with Assemble Artifacts.

In the great city-state of Meviel, manners, status, and the family luck can steer your fate - or change it utterly. In these three stories luck and love play a part - as do pirates, swordplay, and midnight assignations. Step into the courts and drawing rooms of Meviel, where an edged sword and a ready wit are your best weapons in life and in love.

Adya Parish has drifted through life for too long and vows to take back control, not relying on any man to take care of her. Her pledge to become more self-reliant requires time spent alone - not with the sweet man, his adorable daughter, and crazy dog that careen into her life. But with one chance meeting in the park, Adya begins to find the family she has always longed for. It will take real strength of will to refuse to fall for them and continue to stand on her own two feet for the first time in her life.

Adventurous Amanda McCormick travels west to marry a man she's met through correspondence and create a home of her own at last. Gambler Spencer Teague intercepts the bride-to-be waiting for her fiancé at the Kansas City train station. On a whim, he pretends to be the man, seduces her, and they spend a torrid night together. Travis Baxter arrives to claim his bride, welcoming her into his home and heart. Though racked by guilt, Amanda hides the misguided affair and focuses on forging a relationship with her new husband.

Twelve years ago, Jillian Henriksen cut off all her hair and placed it in her young husband's hands as he was buried. After his tragic accident, she clung to the only remaining stability she had - her young son Clint, her family of women, and her job at their lakeside diner, the Shore Leave Café. Now it is summer again, and change is in the hot and humid air. Jillian's sister, Joelle, and her teenaged nieces, Camille, Tish, and Ruthann, have come home to Landon, bringing a welcome distraction.

Bree's wedding to Tony, the man she truly loves, has almost arrived. But first it's time for a bachelorette weekend with the best friends from her youth, Graci, Tara, Corinne, and Adya. Considered the wild one of the group back in the day, Bree hardly seems a candidate to be first down the aisle. As the weekend progresses, she begins to panic about making her wedding vows. It takes the support of her friends to set Bree back on the course to love.

Corinne Cartright has an agenda: to snap up the office hottie before someone else does. She and her buddy Seth make a pact to each try to land their current crushes and failing that, to set each other up with the perfect match. But learning more about her friends' romantic choices causes Corinne to rethink what she wants from a relationship. Is it possible that the man of her dreams has been right in front of her all this time? Can she find love where she least expected it?

A gorgeous stranger in an old photograph. A desperate search from another century. And a mystery Camille Gordon cannot resist. It has been two years since Camille discovered that she was going to be a teenage mother. Abandoned by her child's father, Camille is determined that she and her daughter will make it on their own. When she discovers an old picture hidden in a trunk in her grandmother's attic, Camille is at once drawn to the man in the image.

Three years have passed since Joelle Gordon came home to Landon, Minnesota, following her heart back to her family of women and their little café on Flickertail Lake. Joelle, her sister Jillian, and her daughter Camille have grown closer through the shared heartaches and passionate loves they experienced since that first summer. Now the Shore Leave Café is again basking under the brilliant June sunshine, and this summer promises to be hotter than ever.

Waitress and struggling actress Tara Rambeaugh has grown used to the idea that her career might not progress beyond an occasional commercial or role in local theater - until her best friend's brother, Luis, lights a fire under her by encouraging her to make a big move. Soon Tara is taking more than career risks as she plunges headlong into a steamy relationship with the guy she crushed on as a teenager. But war veteran Luis has issues of his own, and Tara doesn't know if either of them is ready to handle anything serious - even as her heart is falling deeper in love.

After an abruptly ended engagement, Graciela Ramirez is dying of a broken heart and has to attend her friend's wedding as the only member of her old group who's still a virgin. On a quest to reinvent herself as bolder, braver, and sexier, she tries crazy new things and intends to have a one night stand. Catapulted into the dating game once more, Graci never expects that Neal, the hot musician she literally runs into at a bar, might be her second chance at love. He's supposed to be her transition guy, but love doesn't arrive on a schedule.

Salma Lowe understands better than anyone how Hollywood chews up and spits out starlets. She is the offspring of Hollywood royalty, a former child-star turned guide on a true crime bus tour and sister to Tawney, dubbed the ‘Hurricane Blonde’, who was murdered in the mid-’90s. The case remains unsolved. Then she discovers another dead woman with an uncanny resemblance to Tawney on the very property where her sister was killed.

It is 2085 and Laisve is learning to use the ancient waterways to travel through water and time. Sifting through the detritus of a fallen city known as The Brook, she discovers a talisman that will connect her with people from the past two centuries, including a squad of laborers at work on a huge national monument to liberty. As waters rise and a police state encroaches, Laisve must find her way back to the early days of her imperfect country, to forge a bond that might save all their lives—and their shared dream of freedom.

Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981) was a German film director and animator best known for The Adventures of Prince Achmed, which was released in 1926 and is the oldest surviving animated movie. (It came out a full 11 years before Disney’s Snow White!) As a little kid, Reiniger loved reading fairy tales and fell in love with puppetry. At school, she learned about paperschnitte, or papercuts, which helped her create her signature style of silhouettes. She grew up to make more than 40 films throughout her long career.

The Regional Office and its band of superpowered female assassins protect the world from annihilation. But a prophecy suggests that someone from inside might bring about its downfall. And now the Regional Office is under attack.... Rose is a young assassin leading the assault, eager to stretch into her powers and prove herself on her first mission. Defending the Regional Office is Sarah - who may or may not have a mechanical arm - fiercely devoted to the organisation that took her in as a troubled young woman.

Tish Gordon has worked tirelessly to earn a law degree from her father's alma mater in Chicago. Although the Shore Leave Café will always be in her heart, Tish wants nothing short of a high-profile law career in the glamorous city. There is just one minor roadblock - a summer internship in Jalesville, Montana, where a fast-talking company is snapping up acreage and threatening local business. Tish heads west, determined to accomplish the internship and return to Chicago, but Montana has distractions of its own, like a sexy musician/cowboy.

When the Russian Revolution came to Saint Petersburg, Princess Irina went into hiding. A stunningly beautiful ballerina, she knew she had to escape the Bolsheviks - or else die. With her jewels sewn into her cloak, Irina made a mad dash for the border. But the Cheka caught up with her, stole her jewelry, and left her naked, bloody, and dead along the riverbank. Her murder was never avenged. Such is Tatiana "Tatty" Chase's heritage.

In 1921, after six years of unrelenting war and revolution, Russia was in ruins. The economy had collapsed, the country was ravaged by disease and starvation claimed the lives of millions. People were so desperate for food that there were reports of cannibalism, reports that were revealed to be horribly accurate. Remarkably, it was a young American aid worker who uncovered the truth, and, even more remarkably, it was the US-backed charity that had sent him to Russia that would save Lenin’s fledgling government by feeding his people.