Allyson Ryan has narrated 118 audiobooks on Listento.it by 101 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 1,124 ratings. The most-rated is No Rules Rules.
The Admissions
Summary
The Admissions brilliantly captures the frazzled pressure cooker of modern life as a seemingly perfect family comes undone by a few desperate measures, long-buried secrets - and college applications! The Hawthorne family has it all. Great jobs, a beautiful house in one of the most affluent areas of Northern California, and three charming kids whose sunny futures are all but assured. And then comes their eldest daughter's senior year of high school.... Firstborn Angela Hawthorne is a straight-A student and star athlete, with extracurricular activities coming out of her ears and a college application that's not going to write itself. She's set her sights on Harvard, her father's alma mater, and like a dog with a chew toy, Angela won't let up until she's basking in crimson-colored glory. Except her class rank as valedictorian is under attack, she's suddenly losing her edge at cross-country, and she can't help but daydream about a cute baseball player. Of course Angela knows the time put into her schoolgirl crush would be better spent coming up with a subject for her English term paper - which, along with her college essay, has a rapidly approaching deadline. Angela's mother, Nora, is similarly stretched to the limit, juggling parent-teacher meetings, carpool, and a real estate career where she caters to the mega-rich and super-picky buyers and sellers of the Bay Area. The youngest daughter, second-grader Maya, still can't read; the middle child, Cecily, is no longer the happy-go-lucky kid she once was; and their dad, Gabe, seems oblivious to the mounting pressures at home because a devastating secret of his own might be exposed. A few ill-advised moves put the Hawthorne family on a collision course that's equal parts achingly real and delightfully screwball - and they learn that whatever it cost to get their lucky lives, it may cost far more to keep them. Sharp, topical, and wildly entertaining, The Admissions shows that if you pull at a loose thread, even the sturdiest lives start to unravel at the seams of high achievement.
©2015 Meg Mitchell Moore (P)2015 Random House Audio
Crash
Summary
If what you see is what you get, Jules is in serious trouble. The suspenseful first in a series from the New York Times best-selling author of the Wake trilogy. Jules lives with her family above their restaurant, which means she smells like pizza most of the time and drives their double-meatball-shaped food truck to school. It’s not a recipe for popularity, but she can handle that. What she can’t handle is the recurring vision that haunts her. Over and over, Jules sees a careening truck hit a building and explode...and nine body bags in the snow. The vision is everywhere - on billboards, television screens, windows - and she’s the only one who sees it. And the more she sees it, the more she sees. The vision is giving her clues, and soon Jules knows what she has to do. Because now she can see the face in one of the body bags, and it’s someone she knows. Someone she has been in love with for as long as she can remember. In this riveting start to a gripping series from New York Times best-selling author Lisa McMann, Jules has to act - and act fast - to keep her vision from becoming reality.
©2013 Lisa McMann (P)2013 Simon & Schuster
Eternal
Summary
With diabolical wit, the author of Tantalize revisits a deliciously dark world where vampires vie with angels - and girls just want to have fangs. At last, Miranda is the life of the party: all she had to do was die. Elevated and adopted by none other than the reigning King of the Mantle of Dracul, Miranda goes from high school theater wannabe to glamorous royal fiend overnight. Meanwhile, her reckless and adoring guardian angel, Zachary, demoted to human guise as the princess's personal assistant, has his work cut out for him trying to save his girl's soul and plan the Master's fast-approaching Death Day gala. In alternating points of view, Miranda and Zachary navigate a cut-throat eternal aristocracy as they play out a dangerous and darkly hilarious love story for the ages.
©2009 Cynthia Leitich Smith (P)2009 Random House Audio
The One That I Want
Summary
Tilly Farmer is 32 years old and has the perfect life she always dreamed of: married to her high-school sweetheart, working as a guidance counselor in her hometown, trying for a baby. Perfect. In fact, on the surface you might never know how tough things used to be. At 17, Tilly lost her mother to cancer, her father drowned his grief in alcohol, and she played parent to her two younger sisters more often than being a kid herself. Still, Tilly never let tragedy overtake her belief that hard work and good cheer could solve any problem. Of course she's also spent a lifetime plastering a smile on her face and putting everyone else's problems ahead of her own. But that relentless happiness has served her well - her sisters are grown and content, her dad is 10 years sober, and she's helping her students achieve all their dreams while she and her husband, Tyler, start a family. A perfect life indeed. Then, one sweltering afternoon at the local fair, everything changes. Tilly wanders into the fortune tellers tent and is greeted by an old childhood friend, now a psychic, who offers her more than just a reading. "I'm giving you the gift of clarity," her friend says. "It's what I always thought you needed." And soon enough, Tilly starts seeing things: her father relapsing, staggering out of a bar with his car keys in hand; Tyler uprooting their happy, stable life, a packed U-Haul in their driveway; and even more disturbing, these visions start coming true. Suddenly, Tilly's perfect life, so meticulously mapped out, seems to be crumbling around her. And she's not sure what's more frightening: that shes begun to see the future or what the future holds. As Tilly furiously races to keep up with - and hopefully change - her destiny, she faces the question: Which is the life she wants? The one she's carefully nursed for decades, or the one she never considered possible?
©2010 Allison Winn Scotch (P)2010 Random House
Dearly Beloved
Summary
To have. To hold. To die. On a windswept New England island, he waits, fingering the wedding gowns he's had made for each of them...the dresses they will wear when he kills them. Three women have come to the Bramble Rose Inn. Sandy Cavelli longs to find romance through a personal ad. Liza Danning hopes to land a publishing deal with a reclusive author. And Jennie Towne, masquerading as her own twin, seeks a getaway weekend. They have nothing in common - or so it seems. Then a storm bears down on the eerie, isolated inn, and the three women are plunged into a terrifying fight for survival. Because someone consumed with revenge has chosen them - for better, for worse...'til death do them part.
©1996 Wendy Corsi Staub (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers
Not That Kind of Guy
Summary
An office attraction becomes something more when they're off the clock in this delightful romantic comedy by the USA Today best-selling author of Not the Girl You Marry. State attorney Bridget Nolan is successful in all aspects of her life - except romance. After breaking up with her longtime boyfriend, she's been slow to reenter the dating scene. To be honest, she has more important things to do like putting bad guys behind bars. But with her brother's wedding right around the corner, she suddenly needs a date and fast. Lucky for Bridget, the legal intern is almost done with his program. Matt Kido is dumbstruck by Bridget - total love at first sight - but there's one problem. She's totally off-limits while she's his boss. But the moment he no longer reports to her, Matt decides to take a chance. An impulsive decision takes them to Las Vegas where, as the saying goes, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Unless you put a ring on it.
©2020 Andie J. Christopher (P)2020 Penguin Audio
The Hex Files: Wicked Long Nights
Summary
When a powerful witch goes missing from the NYPD, Dani is dragged out of retirement to assist her sometimes boyfriend, sometimes boss Captain Matthew King in locating the detective before it’s too late. But things are never that easy, and Dani is soon faced with three bodies missing from the morgue, two reports of necromancy that rock the borough, and a new strain of illegal magic wreaking havoc across Wicked. Dani doesn’t know who to trust. The medical examiner is lying. A detective is reverting to dangerous habits. A rich lawyer is wrapped up in a gruesome murder-suicide. In addition to the job, Dani’s forced to balance a potential new suitor with her complicated feelings for Matthew while demons from her past threaten to destroy the future. When the case begins to crumble from the inside out, Dani must re-examine those she loves most...and risk losing everything in the name of justice.
©2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Secret of the Shadow
Summary
In The Secret of the Shadow best-selling author Debbie Ford shows us how to rediscover our true essence, which is hidden in the shadows of our own dramatic life stories. In her blockbuster The Dark Side of the Light Chasers, Ford introduced us to our "shadow." Now she uncovers our "story", the collection of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that prevent us from having all the love, happiness, and success we desire. Our personal dramas contain important information and wisdom that can help us discover our essential selves and true purpose in life. The process of making peace with our stories requires us to identify, understand, accept, and embrace everything in our past that has caused us pain. In order for us to heal, we must stop chasing what Ford calls "the feel-good moments" and embark on the extraordinary journey of loving and embracing all that we are. The process outlined in this book offers us a way out of the never-ending cycle of pain and discontent. Whether we suffer from depression, ill health, a sense of unworthiness, arrogance, or low self-esteem, the road to healing is the same. This clear process (including action steps and contemplations in each chapter) will help you to discover your unique purpose and realize the fulfillment of your deepest desires.
©2002 Debbie Ford (P)2020 Tantor
Forward: My Story
Summary
Abby Wambach has always pushed the limits of what is possible. Named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of 2015, the iconic soccer player captured the nation's heart when she led her team to its recent World Cup championship. Admired for her fearlessness and passion, Abby is a vocal advocate for women's rights and equal opportunity, pushing to translate the success of her team to the real world. She has become a heavily requested speaker to a wide a range of audiences, from college students to executives at Fortune 500 companies. In Forward, Abby recounts her own decisions, wins, and losses and the pivotal moments that helped her become the world-class athlete and leader she is today. Wambach's book goes beyond the soccer field to reveal a soulful person grappling with universal questions about how we can live our best lives and become our truest selves. Written with honesty and heart, Forward is an inspiring blueprint for individual growth and a rousing call to action.
©2016 Abby Wambach (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers
The Black Widow
Summary
In a chilling new thriller from New York Times best-selling author Wendy Corsi Staub, one woman looking for love online is entangled in a killer's terrifying scheme... In the moonlight, shovelfuls of earth fall on a wooden crate at the bottom of a deep pit. Soon the hole will be filled and covered over with leaves, erasing all trace of the victim below, waking to the horror of being buried alive... Newly divorced Gaby Duran isn't really expecting to find her soul mate on a dating site like InTune. She just needs a distraction from pining over her ex-husband, Ben, and the happy marriage they once had. And she's wise enough to know that online, the truth doesn't always match the profile. Almost everyone lies a little - or a lot. But Gaby quickly discovers there is much more at stake than her lonely heart. Local singles are going missing after making online connections. And a predator is searching again for the perfect match. One who will fulfill every twisted desire... or die trying.
©2015 Wendy Corsi Staub (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers
Judy & Liza & Robert & Freddie & David & Sue & Me...
Summary
No star burned more ferociously than Judy Garland. And nobody witnessed Garland's fierce talent at closer range than Stevie Phillips as proven in this revelatory memoir. During the Mad Men era, Stevie Phillips was a young woman muscling her way into the manscape of Manhattan's glittering office towers. After a stint as a secretary, she began working for Freddie Fields and David Begelman at Music Corporation of America (MCA) under the glare of legendary über-agent Lew Wasserman. When MCA blew apart, Fields and Begelman created Creative Management Associates (CMA), and Stevie went along. Fields convinced Garland to come on board, and Stevie became, as she puts it, "Garland's shadow", putting out fires - figurative and literal - in order to get her to the next concert in the next down-and-out town. Philips paints a portrait of Garland at the bitter end and although it was at times a nightmare, Phillips says, "She became my teacher", showing her "how to" and "how not to" live. Stevie also represented Garland's fiercely talented daughter, Liza Minnelli, as well as Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, George Roy Hill, Bob Fosse, Cat Stevens, and David Bowie. She produced both films and Broadway shows and counted her colleague, the legendary agent Sue Mengers, among her closest confidantes. Now Stevie Phillips reveals all in Judy & Liza & Robert & Freddie & David & Sue & Me..., a tough-talking memoir by a woman who worked with some of the biggest names in show business. It's a helluva ride. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press
©2015 Stevie Phillips (P)2020 Macmillan Audio
Tell Me Who We Were
Summary
Infused with the keen insight of Joyce Carol Oates and haunting power of Kelly Link, a radiant collection of linked stories that explore the vulnerability, resilience, and hidden desires of women, following six girls over the course of 60 years, from their first semester at boarding school to the twilight of their lives. It begins with a drowning. One day Mr. Arcilla, the romance language teacher at Briarfield, an all-girls boarding school, is found dead at the bottom of Reed Pond. Young and handsome, the object of much fantasy and fascination, he was adored by his students. For Lilith and Romy, Evie and Claire, Nellie and Grace, he was their first love and their first true loss. In this extraordinary collection, Kate McQuade explores the ripple effect of one transformative moment on six lives, witnessed at a different point in each girl’s future. Throughout these stories, these bright, imaginative, and ambitious girls mature into women, lose touch and call in favors, achieve success and endure betrayal, marry and divorce, have children and struggle with infertility, abandon husbands and remain loyal to the end. Lyrical, intimate, and incisive, Tell Me Who We Were explores the inner worlds of girls and women, the relationships we cherish and betray, and the transformations we undergo in the simple act of living.
©2019 Kate McQuade (P)2019 HarperAudio
Christmas with the Sheriff
Summary
After fleeing her beloved small town five years ago, Julia Bailey is back to spend Christmas with her family. Returning is hard, but keeping the devastating secret about her late husband is even harder. Her place isn't in Big Sky Country any longer...but the more time she spends with the irresistible Sheriff who saved her once before, and his adorable little daughter, the more Julia starts wishing she could let go of the past and start a new life. Single dad and county Sheriff Chase Donovan had been secretly in love with his best friend's wife for years. But after her traumatic loss, he knew Julia needed to get away from Shadow Creek, even though helping her leave was the last thing he wanted to do. Now she's home, and he doesn't intend to lose her a second time. Chase is going to prove to Julia just how good they can be together this Christmas...and forever.
©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
No More Fighting
Summary
No More Fighting offers fast strategies to stop fights now and build a stronger relationship long-term. All couples fight - but a little guidance goes a long way to tackling the issues that trigger fights in the first place. No More Fighting offers couples fast and effective strategies to overcome common relationship problems and build lasting love together. In just 20 minutes per week, couples will learn how to effectively speak and listen to each other as they confront critical relationship issues. From reconciling different values to navigating intimacy issues and everything in between, No More Fighting gives you the skills you need to fight less and love each other more. No More Fighting tackles challenges head-on, with: 52 relationship challenges illustrated through real case studies, and address intimacy issues, gender roles, communication blocks, love languages, and more. 20-minute exercises that help you unpack each challenge through tailored prompts, dialogues, and shared experiences. Supportive guidance that motivates you and your partner to tackle each exercise, with practical advice and helpful tips. Don’t escalate - find quick resolutions for a lifetime of mutual understanding, love, and acceptance with 20-minute strategies from No More Fighting. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2018 Zephyros Press (P)2019 Audible, Inc.
All the Way Home
Summary
From Wendy Corsi Staub, the New York Times best-selling author of Nightwatcher and Shadowkiller, comes a gripping work of suspense.... For years, Rory Connelly has been haunted by the memory of her sister, Carleen, who vanished from her bed one night and was never seen again. When Rory returns home to care for her ailing mother and teenage sister, she discovers a family that has never recovered from the tragic events of so long ago. That summer, the quiet little town of Lake Charlotte was torn apart when four teenage girls vanished - a mystery that still puzzles its residents. Now, a decade later, on the anniversary of the first disappearance, another girl goes missing, and the community is consumed with fear. Rory is forced to relive her worst nightmare...only this time, her own life is at stake.
©1999 Wendy Corsi Staub (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers
Once You Go This Far
Summary
Once You Go This Far is the fourth thrilling mystery from Shamus Award-winning and Anthony and Macavity Award-nominated author Kristen Lepionka. Junior-high school Nurse Rebecca Newsome was an experienced hiker - until she plummeted to her death at the bottom of a ravine in a Columbus metro park. Her daughter, Maggie, doesn’t believe it was an accident, and Rebecca’s ex-husband is her prime suspect. But he’s a well-connected ex-cop, and Maggie is certain that’s the reason no one will listen to her. PI Roxane Weary quickly uncovers that the dead woman’s ex is definitely a jerk, but is he a murderer? As she pieces together the days before Rebecca died, what Roxane finds doesn't quite add up. From a series of trips to Detroit and across the border to a casino in Windsor, Canada, to strange calls from Rebecca’s home to a charismatic political candidate, to a women’s health organization, to a secretive church group that seems to have more information about its members than it should, Roxane needs to figure out how everything is connected before a dangerous secret gets someone else killed.
©2020 Kristen Lepionka (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
Working Stiff
Summary
Sofie’s getting her feet under her as a PI and business is booming. So much so that she’s hired her (formerly) layabout cousin and a one-time petty criminal as “boys of all work.” Okay, so her reputation’s become, well, complicated - everyone in Astoria, Queens, knows that from time to time she shoots one of her own clients - but on the whole, she’s getting a lot more respect than when she was best known for leaving her groom at the altar. In fact, Sofie’s just landed her first big criminal case - one so big that it’s on the news nearly every night. A young man from not quite the wrong side of the tracks has been accused of murdering his beautiful, wealthy girlfriend. His alibi’s a mess and his attitude’s worse. But his sister believes he’s innocent, and soon, so does Sofie. Now she just has to prove it - or find the real killer. If only she didn’t have a host of distractions: a body disappears from her aunt Sotiria’s funeral home (it’s only a week before Halloween, so this might be a prank, or it might have something to do with the dead man’s mysterious life). Sofie sees her Dino keeping company with her sister Efi (are they flirting? how dare he? how dare she?); and Jake Porter returns, somehow connected to the missing body and, as always, making Sofie go weak in the knees. And since Dino’s otherwise occupied.... Meanwhile, young Johnny is facing a life sentence. And Sofie Metropolis, budding PI, is his only hope.
©2008 Tori Carrington (P)2008 Books on Tape
The Talented Miss Farwell
Summary
Catch Me If You Can meets Patricia Highsmith in this electrifying pause resister of greed and obsession, survival and self-invention that is a piercing character study of one unforgettable female con artist. "Becky Farwell is one of the most wickedly compelling characters I've read in ages - a Machiavellian marvel, a modern Becky Sharp, a character to root for despite your better judgment - and her story, both topical and timeless, will knock you off your feet." (Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers) At the end of the 1990s, with the art market finally recovered from its disastrous collapse, Miss Rebecca Farwell has made a killing at Christie's in New York City, selling a portion of her extraordinary art collection for a rumored 900 percent profit. Dressed in couture YSL, drinking the finest champagne at trendy Balthazar, Reba, as she's known, is the picture of a wealthy art collector. To some, the elusive Miss Farwell is a shark with outstanding business acumen. To others, she's a heartless capitalist whose only interest in art is how much she can make. But a thousand miles from the Big Apple, in the small town of Pierson, Illinois, Miss Farwell is someone else entirely - a quiet single woman known as Becky who still lives in her family's farmhouse, wears sensible shoes, and works tirelessly as the town's treasurer and controller. No one understands the ins and outs of Pierson's accounts better than Becky; she's the last one in the office every night, crunching the numbers. Somehow, her neighbors marvel, she always finds a way to get the struggling town just a little more money. What Pierson doesn't see - and can never discover - is that much of that money is shifted into a separate account that she controls, "borrowed" funds used to finance her art habit. Though she quietly repays Pierson when she can, the business of art is cutthroat and unpredictable. But as Reba Farwell's deals get bigger and bigger, Becky Farwell's debt to Pierson spirals out of control. How long can the talented Miss Farwell continue to pull off her double life?
©2020 Emily Gray Tedrowe (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers