Showing results by narrator "Lauryn Allman" in All Categories

It’s hard to find an employer who doesn’t ask too many questions about my past. So I thank my lucky stars that the Garricks miraculously give me a job, cleaning their stunning penthouse with views across the city and preparing fancy meals in their shiny kitchen. I can work here for a while, stay quiet until I get what I want.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out...and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late. But I reassure myself: The Winchesters don’t know who I really am. They don’t know what I’m capable of....

From New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Freida McFadden comes the next installment of the unbelievably twisty, tension-packed and globally bestselling Housemaid series. This book can be enjoyed as a standalone listen: and once you start, it will have you up all night until the final explosive twist.

In this memoir, Natasha takes on the therapist's role with her past selves to drag her social anxiety into the open. From feisty Miss 6, lonely Miss 14 reeling from a tumultuous childhood, and defiant Miss 18 pushing back against a world where she didn't fit, through to her present self, Natasha explores the way social anxiety colored her experiences and finds healing through self-acceptance.

She bites her nails as she steals a glance at the stranger in the pickup truck beside her. She trusted him when he offered her a ride, but now, as he turns onto a deserted road leading into a dark pine forest, she knows she’s made a huge mistake. Special agent Beth Katz races through the dense Montana woodland toward a small, isolated cabin. She’s investigating the disappearance of her partner Dax Styles’s sister who went missing as she walked home from school, and Beth finally has a solid lead.

Paris, 1943. The scent of fresh baguettes hangs in the air as Coralie unbolts the door to her bakery with trembling fingers. She must get out of the city. Hiding her precious leather recipe book inside her coat, she promises never to let the secret locations of the people she worked tirelessly to save fall into German hands… Present day. Raven is unhappy about being shipped off to the other side of the country for the summer to stay with the mysterious French grandmother she barely knows.

The time has come for Roiben's coronation, and pixie Kaye is sure of one thing – she loves him. When she declares herself to Roiben during the celebration, he's forced to send her on a seemingly impossible quest to find a faerie who can tell a lie. But Kaye's adventure soon leads to danger when she finds herself caught up in the games of the Seelie Court. Queen Silarial wants Roiben's throne, and she will use any means necessary to get it. Can a pixie outplay a queen?

It's 1932 and adventuress and plant-hunter Emily Blackwood accepts a commission from Heinrich Vogel, a former dealer of exotic animals in Manhattan, living now with his macabre collection in a remote Scottish castle. Emily is tasked to find a long-lost treasure which Heinrich believes has been hidden within the castle walls. But instead she discovers the pages of a diary, written by Hester Vogel, who died after falling from the Brooklyn Bridge. Hester's diary leads Emily to an old book The Birdcage Library and into a treasure hunt of another kind.

I am at home with the television on when I hear the news. A woman has been found by the docks. In heavy tones, the reporter says it appears the notorious local serial killer has returned. My breath comes short in my chest. My legs tremble. I know that can’t be true, because I know who the killer was. My father. My sisters and I learned the shocking truth after his funeral. We made a pledge to say nothing: Revealing the truth would only bring more pain. We set fire to his confession, turning his secrets into ash. But now, someone is sending us a message. Someone knows we lied.

It was Beth Katz’s serial killer father who made her like she is: a successful FBI agent and an unstoppable vigilante dedicated to hunting down murderers who have evaded capture. Beth will push herself to the limits to deliver justice. Even if it means killing those who deserve to die.

Burnout is more widespread than ever before, and it's time to do something about it. Rooted in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), this book delves into the systemic, cultural, and economic contexts that contribute to burnout, and gives you the tools to exit the cycle. Exercises and reflection questions help you reconnect with your values to find what's really important, and disentangle yourself from unhelpful thought patterns. By engaging with your emotions rather than avoiding or suppressing them, ACT allows you to respond more effectively and become re-engaged in your own life again.

Young, bookish Sylvia Beach knows there is no greater city in the world than Paris. But when she opens an English-language bookshop on the bohemian Left Bank, Sylvia can't yet know she is making history. Many leading writers of the day, from Ernest Hemingway to Gertrude Stein, consider Shakespeare and Company a second home. Here some of the most profound literary friendships blossom - and none more so than between James Joyce and Sylvia herself.

Twenty years ago Ed Finch – America’s most notorious serial killer – used the Bay Area as his hunting ground. Now, his daughter Margot is a homicide detective with the San Francisco Police Department who has spent her whole life trying to forget who she is. But her daddy won’t let her forget. When Margot receives a phone call from his lawyer, she learns that Ed is back – transferred to death row at San Quentin. And her father has a message for her: he’s willing to disclose some long-held secrets. But there’s a catch. She has to visit him.

Earth, the distant future: climate change has reduced our verdant home into a hard-scrabble wasteland. Saints and sinners, lawmakers and sheriffs, travellers and gunslingers and horse thieves abound. People are as diverse and divided as they've ever been—except in their shared suspicions when a stranger comes to town. One night, a ship falls from the sky, bringing the planet's first visitor in 300 years. She's armed; she's scared...and she's looking for someone.

I planned the perfect vacation. But now my son is missing. Everyone believes my husband Donovan and I have it all—a loving marriage, two adorable children and the dream house. But beneath the surface of our enviable American lifestyle lies a secret that binds us tighter than our vows.

Kaye is used to drifting from place to place with her mother’s rock band, until an ominous attack forces them back to her childhood home. Kaye’s always had the unique ability to see faeries, so when she stumbles upon an injured faerie knight in the woods, she decides to save him. But this fateful choice has dire consequences, as she soon finds herself the unwilling pawn in an ancient and violent power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms. Will Kaye escape with her life?

Bisexuality is the largest sexual minority in the world and the least well understood. This book sets out to answer some of the questions that many people have about bisexuality. In Bi, Julia Shaw explores how people have defined and measured bisexuality during its long and important history. She looks at behavioural bisexuality in animals, and investigates whether there is a bi gene. She introduces some famous bi activists and scholars whom everyone should know.

When climber Nick Grevers is brought down from the mountains after a terrible accident, he has lost his looks, his hopes and his climbing companion. His account of what happened on the forbidden peak of the Maudit is garbled, almost hallucinogenic. Soon it becomes apparent more than his shattered body has returned: those who treat his disfigured face begin experiencing extraordinary and disturbing psychic events that suggest that Nick has unleashed some ancient and primal menace on his ill-fated expedition.

Meg Varnum. Maggie Littleton. Meg Upton. Different names for the same person, depending on the town, depending on the job. I'm not a con artist as much as an avenger. A righter of wrongs. But nothing about me is real, other than my desire to hold men like you accountable for the things you've done. I don't break any laws, and what I take is given willingly. I can't be blamed for how easy it is to manipulate you. It's a discipline involving confidence, cleverness and deception.

‘My name is Darcy, I’m your nurse and I’m here to help you.’ I repeat the words I’ve said so many times. Except this time, I don’t mean it… If you saw me walking down the street, you’d think I was pretty ordinary–I wear the typical crisp, white nursing uniform, my hands are scrubbed clean and you’d have no reason to believe I was anything other than a good citizen. A good nurse. But looks can be deceiving. You shouldn’t trust me–because I don’t even know if I can trust myself.