Showing results by narrator "Hollis McCarthy" in All Categories

Rory Hawthorn is in a bind - and not the sort that involves book pages. Her best friend has fallen into a coma, courtesy of rare poison without any known cure. The only source of information lies with the Founders, the knowledge-hunting vampires who want revenge on Rory for thwarting their plans - and to infiltrate the library and steal its secrets. A potential lifeline appears when a strange Reaper shows up in town with her ghostly brother, claiming to want to help a group of lost spirits that have appeared at the Founders’ old house.

Hi! I’m Dove Agnew, former successful dress designer who was living the high life in New York, until my sleazy business partner used my business to move his drugs, leaving me to pack my ruined reputation and move back home to the tiny town of Harland Creek. Despite the setback, all was going relatively well, until I found Gertrude Brown’s body on the floor of my mom’s quilt shop. Now, rumors are flying and all eyes are on me. I’m a murder suspect! Even my ex-boyfriend, the current chief of police, is suspicious of me.

Glory is fleeting, fate sometimes cruel. For more than sixty years, the Florios have reigned supreme, establishing the city of Palermo as a European beacon of commerce, and making Sicily one of Italy’s most powerful regions. But now fate has taken a turn. As social and economic pressures erode the stability of a young Italy, the Florios—despite their wealth and power—must watch as their iron grip over the South begins to weaken.

It's Valentine's Day in Ivory Beach, and Rory's family's magical library is ready for the occasion. Rory is hoping for a visit from a certain Reaper. Instead, he finds herself drawn into another mystery. The student hired to deliver Valentine's cards dressed as Cupid is found shot by one of his own arrows. On top of that, a blind dating craze goes sour, with tempers rising and curses flying left and right.

Jules Whittier is starting to regret the promise she made to her grandmother on her deathbed. The motel is even more dilapidated than it looked like in the pictures, and it turns out that renovating it includes working with her estranged cousins Maddie and Gina - the same cousins who caused her to fail at running the last motel. But there’s no getting around the stipulations in Gram’s will, and Jules needs to make a success of the Beachcomber, not only because of the promise she made, but also to prove to herself that she’s not a failure.

When the patriarch of Moorecliff Manor drops dead at dinner, it’s up to Aunt Araminta and her Siamese cats Arun and Sasha to uncover the identity of the killer. It will be no easy task, as there is no shortage of suspects...including the butler.

This book contains Medusa’s baby shower, a dragon out of uniform, exploding showers, oracles gone wild, romance, adventure, and a well-deserved happy ending — in a MASH camp where everybody knows your business.

Life for Pepper Dunn is just beginning to slow down in the magical town of Magnolia Cove, Alabama, when her Uncle Donovan, who is supposed to be deceased, appears on her doorstep very much alive. Turns out Uncle Donovan faked his death to avoid the werewolf mafia, a dangerous group who will stop at nothing to get their hands on him.

A gripping and empathetic work of reportage, Free reveals what awaits them and the hundreds of thousands of others who are released from prison every year: the first rush of freedom followed quickly by institutionalized obstacles and logistical roadblocks, grinding bureaucracies, lack of resources, societal stigmas and damning self-perceptions, and the sometimes overwhelming psychological challenges. Veteran reporter Lauren Kessler, both clear-eyed and compassionate, follows six people whose diverse stories paint an intimate portrait of struggle, persistence, and resilience.

Pepper Dunn can’t catch a break. As soon as life settles down in the magical town of Magnolia Cove, Alabama, the sorcerer Rufus Mayes appears, hell-bent on stealing Pepper’s powers for himself. When Rufus casts a spell that links his magic to hers, Pepper is determined to break the connection at all costs. Luckily, she doesn’t have to look too far for help. When an aging wizard agrees to assist her, victory is at hand.

There's a serial killer on the loose, and Lexy Baker’s grandmother, Nans, could be the next victim. The bodies are piling up at the Brook Ridge Falls Retirement Center. Healthy people are dropping like flies. And yet no one believes a murderer is on the loose... except for Lexy Baker and the troupe of iPad-toting grandmothers who live at the center. When Lexy's detective boyfriend, Jack, refuses to believe that foul play is involved, Lexy has no choice but to find the killer on her own.

Summers in the seaside town of Noquit Maine are quiet and relaxing...unless you find a mysterious dead body, a hunky ex-boyfriend shows up, and you start getting instructions from ghostly relatives. That's exactly what happens to Morgan Blackmoore. Suddenly, she finds herself in a race against time as she's launched into a dangerous treasure hunt that pits her against modern-day pirates who think she has the key to a 300-year-old secret.

Lady Imogen Stockwell is convinced that her handsome new neighbor Draco Waring, Earl of Woodley is a pirate. How could he not be with a name like Draco and a dog by the name of Parrot? Then there are the pirate caves on his property and a murder that took place at the foot of those caves during a masquerade ball he hosted to introduce himself to the residents of Moonstone Landing. Imogen does not suspect him of committing the crime since he happened to be with her at the time it occurred.

Miss Lily Strathmore has made a desperate bargain. One last adventure abroad with her botanist uncle and his family, and then she will do as her parents bid and wed the proper (and boring) viscount her mother has selected as Lily's ideal husband. James Huntington is on a mission: retrieve his grandfather's lost journals from the wilds of Tunisia and win the estate and fortune he so desperately needs. This quest will be the making of him - or his ruin. Thrown together on a botanical expedition, James and Lily's attraction is immediate - and impossible.

Welcome to Northern California, where the redwoods meet the sea, surfers catch the waves, and...people grow cannabis? In their quest to prove Dora’s innocence in a murder back in Pensacola, Dora and Evie find themselves at a remote cannabis farm, where they are sucked into another murder mystery to solve.

American doctor Tara Moore wants to disappear. On the run from an abusive husband, she seeks shelter on a windswept Irish island and dismisses the villagers' speculation that she is descended from a selkie - a magical creature who is bewitching the island. But when a ghostly woman appears to her with a warning, Tara realizes it was more than chance that brought her to this island.

When a retired mobster ends up murdered and one of her grandmother’s best friends is the last one to see him alive, Lexy Baker can kiss her plans to spend an uneventful summer dreaming about her upcoming wedding to detective Jack Perillo good-bye. Lexy agrees to help her grandmother's octogenarian Ladies' Detective Club solve the murder. But while Lexy is busy juggling her bakery, her grandmother, and the hunky FBI agent sent to investigate the murder, Jack seems to be spending a lot of time with his shapely, blonde ex-girlfriend who suddenly arrives in town.

After Windsor Ebonwood’s love life and successful career as a book conservator vanish in one fell swoop, she’s determined to begin anew. Win moves to Darkly Island off the coast of Louisiana, where she’s been bequeathed an unusual bookshop and a charming home on the edge of a dark swamp. Win gets to work settling into her new life in the sleepy Southern town but discovering Darkly’s heartless town alderman impaled on a gravestone wasn’t on the books. Nor was finding out about her family’s legacy as powerful witches responsible for protecting the bookshop at all costs.

Murder hits a little too close to home for bakery owner Lexy Baker when a grim discovery is made in Jack's - her homicide detective husband - basement. With Jack as the main suspect, Lexy has to turn up the heat and find the real killer while still trying to whip up the perfect meringue cookie recipe for the Brook Ridge Falls Desserts contest.

The summer carnival has arrived at Ivory Beach, and Rory and her magical family are ready to enjoy the festivities. At least until a vampire shows up dead, a stake in his back, and a furious Evangeline sweeps in to take over the murder investigation. Edwin, head of the police, pleads with Rory to make her see reason, but the fearsome head of the local vampires refuses to be taken for a fool. Regardless, the murder brings to mind Rory's terrifying induction to the magical world, and the group of deadly vampires set on getting their hands on the library's deepest secrets.