Showing results by narrator "Gail Shalan" in All Categories

Like every other being in our world, fantastical creatures have been forced to adapt to the climate, industrial, and cultural changes of the modern era. Countless formerly common creatures including akeki and cave trolls have been driven out by urban sprawl and climate change while others, like ether sprites and brownies, have been able to thrive in abundance, creating homes in city environments.

Twelve-year-old Autumn Malog is a servant at the enchanting Inglenook School, where young magicians study to become the king’s future monster-hunters. Along with her Gran and three too many older brothers, she works as a beastkeeper, tending to Inglenook’s menagerie of terrifying monsters. But when she isn’t mucking out the wyvern stalls or coaxing the resident boggart to behave, Autumn searches for clues about her twin brother’s mysterious disappearance.

When Colin finds a shoebox full of letters hidden in a stranger’s attic, he knows he’s supposed to throw them away. That’s his summer job, getting rid of junk. But Colin wants to rescue the letters—and find out what really happened to best friends Rosemary and Toby way back in the 1970s.

Grace Coulter has been hiding in the kitchen of her family restaurant since she was eight years old. That's when the name-calling began. Stretch, skinny-minny, boy in girl's clothes, all because of the slender height that had her towering over even the tallest boys in the class. Now, nearly thirty years later, Grace is head chef of the failing restaurant and still hiding in the kitchen. Like many businesses during the current recession, Coulter's may have to start laying off employees or even close.

Fall in love all over again. Seventeen-year-old Taylor Lawton has a crush on Timothy Cooper, a boy at her school, and as crushes go, things are normal. He ignores her. She doesn't speak to him. Until their English teacher, Mrs. Walker puts them on a project together. A turn of fate then throws them both for a loop. For an entire week, they will stay beneath the same roof. Will this be too much togetherness? What will Taylor do with Timothy's painful secret? A light audiobook with a touching storyline, this tale is enjoyable for both young adults and grown-ups alike.

Jellybean is a clumsy dragon. As a matter of fact, all dragons are clumsy. So when Jellybean falls from the sky and lands in front of Emma, a 10-year-old astronaut, naturally a series of calamitous events occur forcing Emma to eventually leave her land and meet more clumsy dragons. However, Emma soon learns to live with Jellybean and experience a whole new and exciting life as well as building her vocabulary!

October, 1917 - Lena Garson, 19 years old, daughter of an old-fashioned banker and his wife, thinks of herself as a very well brought up young lady leading a quiet life with a predicable future. When Clarence Muldoon, son of the richest man in town, begins to court her, Lena feels her life is now going in the direction her parents want for her.

In the second of the Hometown trilogy, ex-Afghanistan vet paramedic Frankie McGill and resident deputy Gabe Zantos are caught up in a case of arson. A house at the end of a country road has stood vacant for years; it's occupants mice and the stray raccoon or two. When the derelict house catches fire, the only reason the Hawkesford Fire Department responds is because of the danger to the dry wheat fields surrounding it. But then not only a gunshot victim, but a charred body is found inside the house, along with evidence of a meth cooking operation. Accident, or murder? 

In Privilege Lost, Jessi Streib traces the lives of over 100 youth born into the upper-middle-class. Following them for over 10 years as they transition from teens to young adults, Streib examines who falls from the upper-middle-class, how, and why don't they see it coming. In doing so, she reveals the patterned ways that individuals' resources and identities push them onto mobility paths - and the complicated choices youth make between staying true to themselves and staying in their class position. 

It's been almost a year since Sila's mum travelled halfway around the world to Turkey, hoping to secure the immigration paperwork that would allow her to return to her family in the United States. The long separation is almost impossible for Sila to bear. But things change when Sila accompanies her father (who is a mechanic) outside their Oregon town to fix a truck. There, behind an enormous stone wall, she meets a grandfatherly man who only months before won the state lottery. 

It's Christmas and there are wedding bells ringing around Coulter's Restaurant as they prepare to celebrate Rosalie and Michael's wedding. But the bride is hiding something, a secret that she won't even share with her fiance, and that secret has Rosalie calling off the wedding. Can Grace, her best friend, intervene in time to save Rosalie from making the biggest mistake of her life?

Midsummer used to be a day of feasts and bonfires. A day when cares were set aside for the joy of grass between our toes, warm hands in our palms, laughter in our hearts. Our celebrations dimmed with the light. Something upset the balance of our woods. Something so deep that even our bonfires can't lure the sun back. And he has something to do with it. Of that we're sure, which is why I'm being given to him.

After a year of preparation, 18-year-old Raven Smith has planned out every detail of her summer vacation in Europe. Yet, while still enroute to Italy, Raven finds a letter in her carry-on suitcase that tells her not to go to Europe, that an "evil agent of Hell" is looking for her and he will find her if she disregards the letter's message.

Noe Wiley couldn’t be more excited to move. After the slumber party sleepwalking incident of last year, she’s ready to make some new friends. But Noe didn’t expect the sullen, strange girls who live on her new street. And she certainly didn’t expect the strange warning they give her - to stay out of her basement, no matter what. Noe’s not going to let these girls boss her around. She’ll go in her own basement whenever she wants. So she does. And there he is. And now there’s no going back.

In the early 1800s, Lark and her brother set out to cross the North American continent to settle in the west. In the wilderness, she finally tastes the freedom her restless soul has thirsted for all her life. However, when she meets Charles, a half Crow who feels just as out of place in the world as she does, Lark begins to understand that her wanderlust isn't just a hunt for a new home - it's for someone who can love her independent spirit.

 She'd inherited Jack Manning's bold heart, tempered once in a very great while by her stepfather's gentle upbringing and her mother's practical nature. But as far as Jackie Manning Bradshaw is concerned, she'll need that bold heart to work her way onto the Broadway stage, the only place she's ever wanted to be.

When Lena Manning finds herself widowed after World War I, she must build a new life for herself and her infant daughter. With the help of her church, she finds stability and contentment until the arrival of a new pastor turns her quiet life upside down. Turned out of her job at the church, Lena is offered employment and a home with a wealthy family. When the son of the house pursues her, she is drawn into the seductive world of wealth and power. Can she survive the secrets of that world, or will fear drive her back to her church where she can no longer be sure of her welcome?  

How does someone give their heart away when they don't have all of the pieces? Not that Makenna really wants a second chance at love anyway. She is stuck in her tragic past, secretly living every day for her deceased fiancé, while her new boyfriend, Drew, is gently nudging her into the present. Desperate to appear normal again, she slaps on a happy face and goes through the motions of a normal, healthy relationship - but with the exception of even a single kiss.

Emma is in a race against time to break free from her father's mark while the drums of war draw nearer. The darkness inside her is growing, so too is the hunger for power, which begs the question: Who will she be when it's all over? Adrianna, forced to remain in Sheol with her controlling protector, has begun the work of altering Levaroth's mind. But his sacrifice, along with her magic, will be just what Emma needs to survive. 

Patty Gayle and the Legend of Kingsley is a fantasy set in Kingsley Lake, Florida, in 1960. It's the journey of Patty Gayle, a twelve-year-old awkward girl, who doesn't think she has much purpose in life until she is given a key that unlocks possibilities of which she could only dream. The key leads her on an adventure to a magical land that she thought only existed in her grandmother's stories.