Showing results by narrator "Julie McKay" in All Categories

Although clinical research has been conducted on narcissism as a disorder, less is known about its effects on victims who are in toxic relationships with partners with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Individuals with this disorder engage in chronic devaluation and manipulation of their partners, a psychological and emotional phenomenon known as "narcissistic abuse". Unfortunately, the full extent of what narcissistic abuse entails is not taught in any psychology class or diagnostic manual.

There was no reason to assume anything out of the ordinary was going on. Strange noises in the apartment. Impulsive behaviour. Intense dreams. It wasn't like everything went wrong all at once. Shoplifting. Fighting. Blackouts. There must be a reasonable explanation for all this.

Pathological mind games. Covert and overt put-downs. Triangulation. Gaslighting. Projection. These are the manipulative tactics survivors of malignant narcissists are unfortunately all too familiar with. As victims of silent crimes where the perpetrators are rarely held accountable, survivors of narcissistic abuse have lived in a war zone of epic proportions, enduring an abuse cycle of love-bombing and devaluation - psychological violence on steroids.

After risking everything, Grant and Leah Walton are finally reunited. But it's no happy ending. As the reality of the situation dawns on their neighbors, the Waltons find themselves the subject of more than idle curiosity. Not everyone can be trusted. People they counted as friends now look at them with suspicion and fear. Faced with neighbors determined to take all they have, Grant and Leah prepare to leave. But strangers have other plans.

Emma Frederick bolts upright in bed, pulse racing. It must be a bad dream. Except it’s not. Crrrrrreeeeeeeeaaaaaaakkkkkkk. The sound of the loose step sends her body into overdrive, and she rushes for the secret room behind the wall. The screech of old hinges echoes through the house as he enters her bedroom. He starts whistling. Three blind mice. Three blind mice. She slaps a hand over her mouth, stifling her scream. He’s coming for her, but that can’t be. She killed him last month.

What are you waiting for? NA paranormal fantasy at its best from international best seller Tara Brown. This is the series that started it all, and this is the book that lets you see behind the curtain. "Ari, this is Aimee James. She's different, like you." The old lady smiled brightly. "Until you get to know each other, I wouldn't go holding hands. Who knows what'll happen." Something powerful, dark, and dangerous lurks inside of young Ari. She's the queen of self-control and commitment until suddenly she isn't.

Although the Stock Market had crashed recently, it was too early for most people to predict that the Great Depression was about to get underway. For 39-year-old spinster schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers, it’s business as usual. And part of her usual business is taking her class for an outing to the aquarium to see the penguins. Instead, she spots the floating corpse of Wall Street broker Gerald Lester and quickly realizes that Inspector Oscar Piper of NYPD Homicide isn’t up to solving this tricky case.

The moon peers out from behind the dark clouds, but deep within the swamp, even the tiniest sliver is like a beacon in the pitch black. The path is barely discernable, but she knows the way. She steps up to the edge of the water and stares at the silver locket in her hand, a picture of two girls inside. One is her. The other…is waiting. She begins to sing, and the winds pick up her tune. The water stirs, and from the center of the angry current, the young woman emerges. Her haunting voice carries over the water.

Thick flakes of snow are falling on Fifth Avenue at twilight - and then the body of a young man suddenly falls among them, mysteriously out of the sky. Momentarily the wheels of traffic are halted, but other wheels spin relentlessly on - the wheels of death, the wheels on which bloody murder moves silently through Manhattan’s streets. Once again Miss Hildegarde Withers, the schoolteacher-detective, matches her wits against an unknown X, armed only with the precious gift of common sense and a cotton umbrella.

Beyond dares to imagine a fantastic future for humans in space - and then reminds us that we're already there. Human exploration has been an unceasing engine of technological progress, from the first homo sapiens to leave our African cradle to a future in which mankind promises to settle another world. Beyond tells the epic story of humanity leaving home - and how humans will soon thrive in the vast universe beyond the Earth.

Amber Olivier awakens in a cold sweat, the bitter taste of blood in her mouth and her head throbbing. Not even a hint of light reaches her. She reaches left, right, and above, but within inches, her hands meet a solid structure covered with satin. She bangs on the top of the enclosure, but the cushioned fabric only creates a dull thud. Beyond panicked, she screams until her throat burns and she doesn’t have another breath of air in her.

With help from the Seaside Knitters, Mary Pisano converts her charming inherited home into a B&B, and the first week is booked by her very own family in town to discuss their grandfather's will. Mary is hoping the tranquility of the setting will smooth over ill feelings among them. But when her cousin Pam is found murdered, she realizes she was dead wrong. With the holiday cheer severely disrupted, Mary relies on the Seaside Knitters to set things right.

What if the stories we read were true? What if somewhere along the line monsters created in fiction were really based upon lives torn apart by tragedy? Hanna doesn't know what's happening to her. She doesn't know why her father has just sacrificed his life for hers. She doesn't know who Aimee James is or why she must fear her. She doesn't know what the Roses are or why they're interested in her. She knows there is a dusty stack of journals that drag her into a world she can't comprehend.

"You here for the Midnight Coven?" Icy words, whispered upon her lips in the night, used to scare Lorelei Huntington. But that was before. Before her mother tried to have her killed, before her world went back 50 years, before the magic of the swamp found its way into Lorelei's blood. Now she finds the whispers and the cold breath of the dead a comfort. That is until she's warned, by a small ghost haunting Whit's family's castle, about the secrets of the bloodthirsty family she resides with.

Questionable advice to avoid violence, like “don’t go shopping alone,” comes mostly from the police or other men in authority. But gender-based violence is often enacted in the most intimate spheres of our lives, not when we’re out grocery shopping. To stop this violence, we need strategies that are just as intimate. In The Cost of Fear, nationally recognized violence prevention expert Meg Stone helps listeners separate fact from fiction. It’s full of practical, research-based strategies that listeners can use to keep themselves and their communities safer.

They say that if you don't have your happy ending, the story isn't over. They have no idea just how right they are. This story is only just beginning...and it begins with a bang. Aimee James, along with every dream and every person she has ever loved, has changed. Each of the people she loves is holding on to their humanity by a thread that gets thinner each day. But Aimee is lucky. She has something tying her to her mortal heart. A single feather. What started with a kiss will end with a kiss.

Icy whispers brush against her cheeks when she's sleeping. Most nights she wakes to the voices of her ancestors, always at 2:47 a.m. Like all monsters, only the light keeps them at bay. Lorelei Huntington knows what it means to fall for the wrong guy. She knows what it's like to hide in the dark and wait for the light to save her. She knows how it feels to watch while everyone you love and everything in your life is taken.

Two months have passed, and the horrors of Death Farm still torment police officer Susan Marlan and college professor Eric Evans. Susan struggles to regain her zeal for fighting crime, while Eric is slowly coming to terms with his newfound “gift” of seeing the dead. Seeking much-needed rest, Susan and Eric follow their musician friend Jake and his band to Washington State. But once they reach the cheerless town of Clancy, Eric’s murderous visions start again. Something seems wrong about its aloof citizens - and suspicions turn to dread when members of Jake’s band go missing.

How do we explain our newfound cultural investment in empathy and social justice? For decades, Joseph Campbell had defined our cultural aspirations in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, emphasizing the value of seeking glory and earning immortality. His work became the playbook for Hollywood, with its many male-centric quest narratives. Challenging the models in Campbell's canonical work, Maria Tatar explores how heroines, rarely wielding a sword and deprived of a pen, have flown beneath the radar even as they have been bent on social missions.

A black cloud of remorse and regret haunts Ari and the Roses, shrouding the house at the end of the road in darkness. With the help of the witch Ophelia has become, Ari decides to make one final push - the push to save them all. But nothing ever goes the way she plans. Instead she resets everything, sending them scattering across the continent.