Showing results by narrator "Kate Rudd" in All Categories

It's 1941, and tensions are rising in the United States as the Second World War rages in Europe. Eleven-year-old Gusta's life, like the world around her, is about to change. Her father, a foreign-born labor organizer, has had to flee the country, and Gusta has been sent to live in an orphanage run by her grandmother. Nearsighted, snaggletoothed Gusta arrives in Springdale, Maine, lugging her one precious possession: a beloved old French horn, her sole memento of her father. But in a family that's long on troubles and short on money, how can a girl hang on to something so valuable and yet so useless?

When Alice learns that her father is being deployed to Iraq, she’s heartbroken. Matt Bliss is leaving just as his daughter blossoms into a full-blown teenager. She will learn to drive, shop for a dress for her first dance, and fall in love, all while trying to be strong for her mother and take care of her younger sister. Alice wears her dad’s shirt every day, even though the scent of him is fading, and his phone calls are never long enough. Life continues without him, but nothing can prepare Alice for the day two uniformed officers arrive at their door....

Patty Murphy is facing that pivotal point in a woman's life when her biological clock ticks as insistently as a beating heart. Will she find Mr. Right and start a family? But Patty is in love - with a man who is not only attractive and financially sound, but sensitive and warmhearted. There's just one small problem: He is also gay.

When Nickie accidentally activates her special functions and finds herself with a stolen ship full of hostile Skaine, she has no choice but to figure out what to do with the cards she has been dealt. A by-product of her activation, her internal computer system also finds her Aunt Tabitha’s diary in her memory banks. In these accounts, Nickie finds a long-desired link back to her favorite aunt, whose recounted stories help them both to accept the trauma they’ve survived.

What do you do when your best friend calls and says she's getting married in a matter of days on a different continent? You hop on a plane and go to be with her, of course. Lu Osborne was doing precisely that. She boarded a flight that was headed for Ireland on only a few days' notice despite the fact that she had a lot of irons in the fire. Other than witnessing a fairytale wedding and maybe doing a little sightseeing, Lu didn't expect anything to come from the trip. She certainly didn't expect to fall in love with her best friend's brother, Joe.

Open secrets are the heart of gossip - the obvious things that no one is brave or tactless enough to ask. Except for Normandy Pale and her friends. They are juniors at a high school for artists, and have no fear. They are the Truth Commission. Then, one of their truth targets says to Normandy: "If you want to know about the truth, you might want to look a little closer to home."

When Penny moves to Hog's Hollow from New York City, her life changes drastically. Penny's mom now runs a cupcake bakery, and Penny is stuck helping out. But that isn't the worst of it. Not only did she leave her friends back home, but her dad stayed behind too. And then there's Charity, resident mean girl who's out to get Penny. With all this, Penny still finds some things to like: Tally and Blake...and Marcus—the cute, quiet boy who runs on the beach every night. But just when Penny begins to accept her new life, she's forced to make a choice that will change everything.

Adam Drake was determined to clear his name of the false charges that ruined his career at Montgomery Inns – and if that meant deceiving the hotelier’s beloved daughter, Marnie Montgomery, and even stowing away on her boat, so be it. If she had secrets, he would discover every single one….

High school senior Alexa Brooks had it all figured out. Study hard, nail the extracurriculars, stay focused, and life would follow the carefully crafted plan. The problem is this plan was designed for one thing: making her forget all about her once-best-friend, former-potential-boyfriend, Carson Knight. Four years ago, he was the boy who always made her laugh, the boy she loved, and the boy she mistakenly and very publicly betrayed. Oh, and he was also the boy who grew up to become a heartthrob A-list actor, named Cayden McKnight.

Mac Klein had made a series of disciplined life choices. He was now thirty years old and a successful professional athlete. He certainly would never think of looking up his childhood crush on social media so he could contact her in an effort to reconnect.

When Roger and Virginia Lindhal enroll their son Gregg in Mrs. Alt's Los Padres Valley School in the mountains of Southern California, their marriage is already in deep trouble. Then the Lindhals meet Chic and Liz Bonner, whose two sons also board at Mrs. Alt's school. The meeting is a catalyst for a complicated series of emotions and traumas, set against the backdrop of suburban Los Angeles in the early fifties.

The CliffsNotes study guide on Charles Dickens' Great Expectations supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work, and critical commentaries, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand the work.

When the security director of the powerful corporation Nebulaco dies under mysterious circumstances, courier Sai Collins has one last top-secret delivery to make on his behalf. Sai has come a long way from her street-kid childhood, but she has her secrets - namely that she’s a cyber-psi, a computer telepath who can connect to the grid without hardware. A talent she’s going to desperately need.

They are four different people with four separate lives: Sue, a young woman distanced from her native roots; David, a traveler in search of a dream; Laura, a student seeking her parents’ understanding; and Peter, a rock star struggling to create a perfect sound.One looming fate threatens them all. And everything they love may be taken away in one fleeting second…

Nestled in the Pennsylvania countryside, Florence University frames an idyllic college world, complete with cute coeds and handsome jocks - not to mention plenty of booze and sex with virtually no responsibility. For three seniors, the vagaries of life have rarely been so terrifying. Drawn together by their struggles for identity, the three students form a fateful friendship that will change the courses of their lives forever. Sexy, fast paced, and layered with intimate insight about life’s most formative years, The Fall is a compelling coming-of-age story.

This CliffsNotes study guide on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work, and critical commentaries, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand the work.

Against the backdrop of an ancient battle between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness, Aidan struggles to control the newly awakened and enigmatic powers that seem to be his only hope for rescuing Ava, his little sister, trapped somewhere beyond the Veil. As he gravitates to Kara, the beguiling and dangerously unstable girl who helped him realize his abilities, a terrible mistake of fate is revealed that points him back toward Rebecca, whose role is becoming more critical to the battle.

Alison, the Drow princess, can’t even make it back to the School of Necessary Magic for her junior year without tripping across trouble hunting for her. Underground bullet trains, battles with dark magic, growing dragons, Louper tournaments, school dances, and job fairs. Growing up magical can be tough on a social life. Thank goodness she’s got her friends beside her.

The CliffsNotes study guide on Zusak's The Book Thief supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work, critical commentaries, expanded glossaries, and a comprehensive index, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand the work. This study guide was written with the assumption that you have read The Book Thief. But reading a literary work doesn’t mean that you immediately grasp the major themes and devices used by the author.

She’s a rookie cop. He’s a professional crook. She catches him in the act of stealing big bucks from a mob boss’s safe. He manages to embroil her in a crime so explosive it could cost both of them their lives. Natural adversaries, their only common ground is mutual dislike and distrust—and the fact that the same killers are now hunting them both. Sparks fly and passion flares as they run for their lives, knowing that teaming up is the only chance they have to survive.