Showing results by narrator "Stacy Gonzalez" in All Categories

If there's no place like home, that's more than okay for Mara Makinen. In fact, she prefers it that way. Going back to the place where she made the worst mistake of her life? Not ideal. So when a family emergency forces Mara to return home to her small lake town in Maine after seven years, she knows there's only one way she'll get through it unscathed: avoid Ambrose King at all costs. But that might prove difficult considering he lives right across the street.

Veronica Ruiz is on the run for the first time in her life—though certainly not the last. After being falsely accused of stealing money from her college sorority, she packs up and heads to her cousin Ramón's apartment, planning to change her name and rebuild start over away from backstabbing girls and university drama (and far, far away from her arrest warrant in Maryland). At the local bank on the first morning of her new life, it occurs to Vero that she'd be a better bank teller than most of the current employees.

Senior Sunrise is the highlight of the summer - an epic overnight at the beach to kick off senior year. But for Natalia and Ethan it's the first time seeing each other after junior prom, when they almost crossed the line from best friends to something more and ruined everything. Now, after ghosting each other, Natalia is desperate to pretend she doesn't care and Ethan is desperate to fix his mistake. But when it's time for the senior class tradition of writing letters to themselves - what they wish they would do this year if they were braver - Natalia pours her heart out. So does Ethan.

If you're the White parent of a transracially or internationally adopted child, you may have been told that if you try your best and work your hardest, good intentions and a whole lot of love will be enough to give your child the security, attachment, and nurturing family life they need to thrive. The only problem? It's not true. What White Parents Need to Know About Transracial Adoption breaks down the dynamics that frequently fly under the radar of the whitewashed, happily-ever-after adoption stories we hear so often.

Cari Dix didn't know her whole life was a lie; she only knew she didn't belong here. Growing up with the most ordinary parents ever, all Cari wanted was a life of adventure and a little bit of fun. When she discovers an old, restored computer from her father's past, Cari stumbles into a fantasy game world she'd always thought a part of her childhood imagination. Taking her combat fencing skills with her, she sets out to explore a world her parents said didn't exist.

Margot Ortega always struggled to be the princess in her own fairytale: a successful career, a huge salary, a gorgeous apartment, and a perfect fiancé. But on her wedding day, she suffers a major panic attack and has to call it off. Devastated and ashamed, Margot decides to drown her sufferings in a mad night of alcohol and dancing. The next day, she goes back to the sleazy club to retrieve her sister's cell phone and has a crazy encounter with David Sánchez, the handsome, fun-loving bartender who persuades her to pretend to be his new girlfriend in order to make his ex jealous.

On Christmas Eve, 85-year-old Miriam Caravasios steps onto the ice that surrounds her seaside estate on Maine's Mount Desert Island. As a younger woman, she used to steal out on winter nights to meet her lover, walking across the frozen reach to their secret meeting place. She knows the way—but not the year. Miriam, her mind clouded by dementia, doesn’t hear the snap of thin ice until it’s too late.

Logan Jackson is all tattoos, beard, and swagger. With his devilish looks and unrepentant charm, he's a danger to my tattered heart. Especially when he makes it clear, I'm the one he wants. It doesn't matter how desperately I'd like to give in to the heated promises in his dark eyes or how my heart always stutters in his presence. I have to think about my son and giving him the life he deserves. But I underestimated the sheer determination Logan has to break down my walls brick by brick. The closer we become, the harder it gets to keep the past from intruding.

Chloe, Avery, and Madison can't wait to camp out in the backyard. It will be a night of telling scary stories and trading secrets while roasting marshmallows. Elijah, the kid next door, keeps trying to prank them, but it's all in good fun. Who doesn't like a little scare after the sun has set and the moonlight casts creepy shadows everywhere?

In his introduction, guest editor S. A. Cosby observes that writing short stories is “a special skill that combines brevity with wit and cleverness and the hint of the existential malaise that imbues crime fiction with its gravitas.” The stories in this collection overflow with gravitas in the most unexpected ways: a cryptic note left on a windshield, a murder for hire meets a game of Mouse Trap, a swipe right on a dating app goes horribly wrong.

Right now, you are conscious energy manifested in physical form. You can learn how to release that energy from the physical body to venture into other realms. This guide will take you on an amazing journey through seven of the astral realms of energetic worlds you never imagined existed. Chapter by chapter, you will discover the limitless potential of the universe, and what lies beyond will be revealed. From the home of spirit guides to the masters of the multiverse, you will learn how to explore them all through soul travel.

In the courtroom, defense lawyer Quinn Cortez has a reputation as a ruthless predator who always gets what he wants. In the bedroom, it's no different. Quinn is an accomplished seducer with a long list of conquests. But now, someone has brutally slaughtered one of them, and Quinn has no memory of the night he was found in her home . . .

Dragonfly Lake is the perfect place to hide while I find myself after years of being told who to be and who to love. The whole world has an opinion, and this once, I need to drown it all out before I lose myself completely.

Emi Vargas, whose parents helped save the world, is tired of being told how lucky she is to have been born after the climate crisis. But following the public assassination of a dozen climate criminals, Emi’s mother, Kristina, disappears as a possible suspect, and Emi’s illusions of utopia are shattered. A determined Emi and her father, Larch, journey from their home in Nuuk, Greenland to New York City, now a lightly populated storm-surge outpost built from the ruins of the former metropolis. But they aren’t the only ones looking for Kristina.

Despite the undeniable fact that Indigenous communities are among the most affected by climate devastation, Indigenous science is nowhere to be found in mainstream environmental policy or discourse. And while holistic land, water, and forest management practices born from millennia of Indigenous knowledge systems have much to teach all of us, Indigenous science has long been ignored, otherized, or perceived as "soft"--the product of a systematic, centuries-long campaign of racism, colonialism, extractive capitalism, and delegitimization.

Gillian Armstead-Bancroft—Pride of the East Side and once-perfect bruja, wife, and mother—is going to spend her summer getting good at being bad. The first time she left Freedom, Kansas, behind, she did it by doing everything right. This time, she’ll hide from the large Mexican American family welcoming her home and work in secret to break the curse that’s erased her magical life. Only by doing it all wrong can Gillian get herself and her two children away from the ghosts of her hometown by summer’s end.

OKRs are about goals bigger than the next story, or even epic. They prioritise purpose and strategy over the ever looming, high maintenance backlogs we all know too well. OKRs are important to agile teams because they deal with the big things, they inspire forward thinking, encourage engage senior leaders, and help debug strategy. Acclaimed author Allan Kelly describes why you should use OKRs, how to write them successfully, how to set measurable KRs, execute against OKRs in an agile environment to deliver outcomes, and the pitfalls and problems to avoid so you can deliver your outcomes.

When my employer Henry Aldridge is set to claim a large inheritance from his deceased father, he drags me along with him - because he needs his assistant. Henry drags me to a small town where everyone knows your business and to a family that’s more broken than close. The Aldridge brothers are handsome, arrogant, and sinful. They’re also too much to handle. Except you should never judge a book by its cover. And Henry Aldridge has more hiding beneath the surface than I ever thought possible....

Cari Dix is tired of playing by the rules. Let everyone else race to rescue the fate of an empire. She chooses a return to the high seas and her raider ship, the Vengeance. Then, Cari discovers a secret that could change the world and once again save the heir to the Crystal Throne. The chase is on for Raider Captain Cari Dix. Her parents, Hal and Mona, follow along behind, trying to catch up to their daughter, lost in the game of Fantasma.

Everything has been one elaborate lie. My name. My identity. My entire existence. Brody Harcourt exposed me as a fraud, turning me from a queen into a pariah. Now there will be hell to pay.