Amy Melissa Bentley has narrated 130 audiobooks on Listento.it by 75 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 165 ratings. The most-rated is The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet.
A Cajun Christmas Killing
Summary
Maggie Crozat is back home in bayou country during the most magical time of the year. In Pelican, Louisiana, Christmastime is a season of giant bonfires on the levee, zydeco carols, and pots of gumbo. Except, this year, the Grinch has come to stay at the family-run Crozat Plantation B&B. When he floods travel websites with vicious reviews, Maggie thinks she's identified him as rival businessman Donald Baxter. That is, until he's found stabbed to death at Maggie's workplace. And Maggie and her loved ones become top suspects. The Crozats quickly establish alibis, but Maggie's boyfriend, Detective Bo Durand, remains under suspicion. With Bo sidelined during the investigation, Maggie finds herself forced to work with an unlikely ally: longtime family enemy Rufus Durand. Her sleuthing uncovers more suspects than drummers drumming, and lands her in the crosshairs of the murderer. The sleigh bells are jingling, and the clock is ticking for Maggie and Rufus, who must catch the killer, or it will be the opposite of a Joyeux Noël.
©2017 Ellen Byron (P)2019 Tantor
Signs from the Afterlife
Summary
Afterlife communications are delivered every day, but some messages are given in ways that require more interpretation and extra awareness. From the Other Side, signs are used by loved ones to connect with their family and friends on this earthly plane. Oftentimes, the gifts they share are difficult to identify. Mastering a new language is hard work, but learning to speak the language of spirit is more difficult. This book is an ABC's narrative for identifying signs, messages, and signals from the afterworld. It shares a simple way to look for, and read, communications from the hereafter. Our special ones want to connect with us. For anyone looking to continue their relationship with a loved one in the afterlife, this book can help teach you how to identify their gifts from the Other Side. Love lives forever, and so do we.
©2015 Lyn Ragan (P)2016 Tantor
Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop
Summary
After Lindsey Bakeswell catches her celebrity chef fiance sizzling in the arms of another woman, Lindsey leaves big city Wall Street for small town Beacon Harbor, Michigan, to pursue her own passion as a pastry baker - and gets mixed up in someone's sweet taste of revenge.... More interested in kneading dough than adding it up, Lindsey's breakup inspired her to set up the shop she always wanted in a place that always made her happy. She'd spent many childhood summers near this beach community and converting the old run-down lighthouse into a bakery cafe and home offers a perfect fresh start for Lindsey. But not everyone in town has a sweet tooth. The preservation society won't have the lighthouse's history sugar coated by lattes and cakes - and a protest group crashes Lindsey's Memorial Day opening. Then her ex-fiance Jeffrey Plank and his girlfriend Mia Wong arrive to trash the place. In the ensuing chaos Mia chokes on a donut and dies. An autopsy reveals cyanide in Mia's bloodstream and Lindsey is the police's prime suspect. To clear her name, she's going to need to combine ingredients found in the town's checkered past to uncover the identity of a desperate killer....
©2021 Darci Hannah (P)2021 Tantor
Don't Forget Me
Summary
Sparks are flying between these best friends. Could a practice kiss change everything? Seventeen-year-old Eliana Costa has never kissed a guy. Her best guy friend, Jess, is more than willing to help her out. He has plenty of experience, since he finds a new girlfriend every other week. But when a practice kiss brings on feelings Eliana hadn't bargained for, her already messy life is thrown into a new level of chaos. Life is already more than she can handle after her dad's disappearance. Eliana worries that if she admits her feelings to Jess, she just might lose her best friend. And right now, a best friend is all she needs. But when another girl tries to date Jess, Eliana is forced to decide if taking a chance on love is worth the risk.
©2017 Judy Corry (P)2019 Tantor
My Second Chance
Summary
They broke the rules. He broke her heart. Does their love deserve a second chance? Sixteen-year-old Juliette Cardini has been keeping a secret for months. Before she went to her semester abroad in Paris, she dated her best friend's older brother, Easton Stevens. What had started as a whirlwind romance filled with forbidden meetings came to a crashing halt when they crossed a line together from which neither of them could return. Now, she's back in Ridgewater and has to face everyone she left behind. But there's one more secret she is afraid for anyone to discover: She's pregnant - and Easton is the father. But she has a plan: go to her grandma's house in Buffalo for the next few months. Keep the baby a secret. No one will ever have to know. But when Juliette sees signs that Easton might want a second chance, she wonders if keeping everything to herself is the best choice. Can a relationship built on such a rocky foundation have a chance at a happy ending? And what will Easton do if Juliette's secret comes out?
©2018 Judy Corry (P)2019 Tantor
On Love's Gentle Shore
Summary
Fifteen years after she left Prince Edward Island, Natalie O'Ryan had no plans to return. But when her fiancé, music producer Russell Jacobs, books their wedding in her hometown and schedules a summer at Rose's Red Door Inn, she sets out to put the finishing touches on the perfect wedding. But she can't possibly prepare for a run-in with Justin Kane - the best friend she left behind all those years ago after promising to stay. Justin's never forgotten Natalie or the music career he always dreamed of pursuing. He'd been prepared to follow her off the island until his dad died and he was left to run the family dairy farm. He's done the best he can with the life that was thrust upon him - but with Natalie back in the picture, he begins to realize just how much joy he's been missing. After Natalie's reception venue falls through, she must scramble to find an alternative, and the only option seems to be a barn on Justin's property. As they work together to get the dilapidated building ready for the party, Natalie and Justin discover the groundwork for forgiveness - and that there may be more than an old friendship between them.
©2017 Liz Johnson (P)2017 Tantor
Thriving with Social Anxiety
Summary
Hattie Cooper, the blogger behind The Anxious Girl's Guide to Dating, knows anxiety. She has lived with generalized anxiety disorder for years. Listening to this book is like getting advice from a friend who has been there. Hattie shares immediate, easy-to-use strategies for tackling your social anxiety disorder and creating healthy habits. Featuring expert advice from foreword writer and registered psychotherapist Kyle MacDonald, the tools in this book will help you beat your anxiety and reveal your most confident self. Does this sound familiar? You reluctantly decide to attend a networking event with a coworker who backs out at the last minute. The idea of going alone fills you with debilitating anxiety. You dread an upcoming job interview. Giving a presentation at work keeps you awake at night. For the millions of Americans affected by social anxiety disorder (SAD), it can make them avoid situations that have the potential to lead to positive outcomes. Fortunately, social anxiety can be overcome. In Thriving with Social Anxiety, you'll get a practical, accessible primer from someone who knows what it's like to live with social anxiety - and in-the-moment strategies to manage and overcome your anxiety. Hattie Cooper guides you to reframe negative thoughts, achieve goals, better understand your disorder, and - through the process - better understand yourself. Using the strategies in this book as part of your treatment plan, you will learn quick, effective ways to manage your social anxiety and put your most confident self forward in any social situation. Learn valuable methods for managing your anxiety, with: Five, 10, and 30-minute therapeutic strategies Sample daily schedules, quick quizzes, and worksheets A brief brain-body primer detailing the connection between your thoughts and physical reactions Mindfulness activities, including meditation, essential oils, and exercise Celebrity tips for coping with social anxiety (including singer Adele and actress Jennifer Lawrence)
©2014 Althea Press, Berkeley, California (P)2019 Tantor
Brutal Curse
Summary
From Carey L. Bond, a fairy tale retelling where Alice in Wonderland meets Beauty and the Beast Prince Carden of Tierney lost his home, family, and claim to the throne in one fell swoop when he rebelled against his father for a cause he knew was right. Instead of wallowing in despair, he embarks on a new journey, starting a new life on the Southern Isle. When he finds himself caught in a web woven by the famously ruthless fae queen, Coeur, he insults her and she vows to teach him the most difficult and heart-breaking lesson he will ever learn: that humans are incapable of love, and that hearts are beastly things. Arabella wasn't really living, she was existing and surviving as best she could. A chance encounter with Carden changes everything for her, but the deadly game he's dragged her into might cost her life. Still, she agrees to play. The rules the fae queen gives them are vague, and it's obvious there are things Queen Coeur isn't telling them. She's sure of it. But what she does know is that together, she and Carden must pass a series of tests and trials. If they fail, game over. But if they succeed, she just might be able to restore her family and carve out the life she's always envisioned.
©2018 Casey L. Bond (P)2019 Tantor
The Roll of the Drums
Summary
How far will she have to go to keep a promise? Ruby Weaver's curly red hair isn't the only thing that sets her apart from her Amish community in 1863. Twenty-eight and single, Ruby doesn't believe a woman needs to be married in order to be happy. Her ailing friend Lovinia Fischer, however, has other ideas and wants Ruby to promise to marry her husband after she dies. Never imagining she'd have to fulfill that vow, Ruby agrees. And she's not the only one. Lovinia has extracted a similar promise from her husband, Gideon. With both Ruby and Gideon reluctant to keep their promises, a compromise must be reached. Ruby will spend her days with Gideon's family - helping to raise the children and keep the house - but her nights will be spent at her sister's neighboring house. But this arrangement raises eyebrows in their conservative Amish community, and it soon becomes clear that Ruby must make a decision - marry Gideon or turn her back on her friend, the children she's grown to love...and their father.
©2019 Jan Drexler (P)2021 Tantor
Murder in the Bayou Boneyard
Summary
Maggie Crozat, proprietor of a historic Cajun Country B&B, prefers to let the good times roll. But hard times rock her hostelry when a new cell phone app makes it easy for locals to rent their spare rooms to tourists. With October-and Halloween-approaching, she conjures up a witch-crafty marketing scheme to draw visitors to Pelican, Louisiana. Five local plantation B&Bs host "Pelican's Spooky Past" packages, featuring regional crafts, unique menus, and a pet costume parade. Topping it off, the derelict Dupois cemetery is the suitably sepulchral setting for the spine-chilling play Resurrection of a Spirit. But all the witchcraft has inevitably conjured something: her B&B guests are being terrified out of town by sightings of the legendary rougarou, a cross between a werewolf and vampire. When, in the Dupois cemetery, someone costumed as a rougarou stumbles onstage during the play-and promptly gives up the ghost, the rougarou mask having been poisoned with strychnine, Maggie is on the case. But as more murders stack up, Maggie fears that Pelican's spooky past has nothing on its bloodcurdling present.
©2020 Ellen Byron (P)2020 Tantor
Four Doors Down
Summary
Becca McKenzie is just trying to make it through her senior year of high school. She has good friends and a gorgeous boyfriend, but Ryan Jackson, the bane of her existence, keeps popping up everywhere. She doesn't care that they were best friends for years. She doesn't care that their moms are close, and therefore, she hears more about him that she'd ever care to know. She doesn't care that their mutual friend, Jake, keeps pushing them all to hang out together, and she especially doesn't care that the rest of the school bows down and worships him. Becca decided years ago that he wasn't worth her time, and nothing, nothing, is going to change her mind. Contains mature themes.
©2016 Emma Doherty (P)2019 Tantor
Unlocked
Summary
Princess Raya of Paruth lived alone on a deserted island in a towering lighthouse, forgotten by time. With only a loyal albatross as a friend, she had little hope or joy in her life until he washed up on her shore in the middle of a raging winter storm. Prince Trevor of Galder left his father and kingdom behind to travel north in search of a wife. It was time to settle down and forget Ella Carina, the woman who chose to love a peasant and follow her heart instead of choosing Trevor and fulfilling her duty to her people. He didn't heed the warnings about the North Sea in winter, and his ship, crew, and captain paid the price. Raya and Trevor must work together to find a way off the island, or risk being trapped there for the rest of their lives. But sometimes the simplest lessons are the hardest, and each will have to learn that the only thing that can truly set you free is love. Perfect for fans of Holly Black and C.J. Redwine, Unlocked is a unique and imaginative retelling of Rapunzel, set in the world of The Seven Kingdoms as seen in Riches to Rags (Cinderella) and Savage Beauty (Sleeping Beauty) also by Casey L. Bond.
©2018 Casey L. Bond (P)2018 Tantor
Savage Beauty
Summary
Once upon a time, a beautiful queen was cursed by a dark faery. That curse, inherited by twin princesses, Aura and Luna, binds their lives in the strangest of ways. At an early age, the girls were more than sisters. They were the strongest of allies until a combination of jealousy, anger, and dark magic tore their relationship to shreds. Aura took everything from Luna: her home, her family, and her love by murdering the prince who'd chosen her instead of Aura. Luna wants revenge, but she's running out of time. She must sever the magical bond tying her life to Aura's before their 18th birthday or be bound to her forever. In desperation, she seeks help from a dark fae prince, but the price is steep - a piece of her soul. Fate is a real witch. Luna was willing to give up anything to stop her sister, until Prince Phillip of Grithim, the brother of the only man she's ever loved, falls into her life. Neither of them can fight their attraction, despite their guilt. With Aura hell-bent on destroying everything she holds dear, Luna must decide whether she wants revenge or Phillip. She can't have both, and in the end, this may be a battle both sisters lose.
©2017 Casey L. Bond (P)2018 Tantor
Forget Me Always
Summary
It's been 19 days since Isis Blake forgot about him. The boy she can't quite remember. She's stuck in the hospital with a turban-size bandage on her head, more Jell-O than a human being should ever face, and a tiny bit of localized amnesia. Her only goal? To get out of this place before she becomes a complete nut job herself. But as Isis' memories start to return, she realizes there's something important there at the edges of her mind. Something that may mean the difference between life and death. Something about Sophia, Jack's girlfriend. Jack Hunter - the Ice Prince - remembers everything. Remembers Isis' purple hair and her smart-ass mouth. Remembers that for a little while, Isis made him feel human. She made him feel. She burned a hole in the ice, and it's time to freeze back up. Boys like him don't deserve girls like her. Because Jack is dangerous. And that danger might be the only thing protecting her from something far more threatening: her past.
©2016 Sara Wolf (P)2016 Tantor
Love Story
Summary
When Lucy Hawkins receives a job offer in San Francisco, she can't wait to spread her wings and leave her small Virginia hometown behind. Her close-knit family supports her as best they can, by handing over the keys to a station wagon that's seen better days. The catch? The cross-country trip comes with a traveling companion: her older brother's best friend, a.k.a. the guy who took Lucy's virginity hours before breaking her heart. After spending the past four years and every last dime caring for his sick father, Reece Sullivan will do just about anything to break free of the painful memories - even if it means a two-week road trip with the one girl who ever made it past his carefully guarded exterior. But after long days of bickering in the car turn into steamy nights in secluded motel rooms, Reece learns that, when it comes to Lucy, their story is far from over. And this time, they just might have a shot at a happy ending. Contains mature themes.
©2017 Lauren LeDonne (P)2018 Tantor
Where Two Hearts Meet
Summary
In her kitchen at the Red Door Inn, executive chef Caden Holt is calm, collected, and competent. But when her boss asks her to show off their beautiful island to impress a visiting travel writer and save the inn, Caden is forced to face a world much bigger than her kitchen - and a man who makes her wish she was beautiful. Journalist Adam Jacobs is on a forced sabbatical on Prince Edward Island. He's also on assignment to uncover a story. Instead he's falling in love with the island's red shores and Caden's sweets. When Caden discovers Adam isn't who she thought he was, she realizes that the article he's writing could do more than ruin the inn's chances for survival - it might also break her heart.
©2016 Liz Johnson (P)2017 Tantor
The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back
Summary
Everyone knows how all those fairy tales go. The princess gets beautiful, nabs her prince, falls instantly in love, lives happily ever after and leaves her evil stepsisters in the dust. But what happens when you're the ugly stepsister and your obnoxiously perfect - read pretty, smart, and, worst of all, sickeningly nice - stepsister is dating the charming, tall, devastatingly handsome guy you've had a thing for since you were nine years old? Quirky, artistic and snarky Mattie Lowe does not lead a charmed life. Her mother is constantly belittling her on Skype. Mercedes, the school mean girl, has made it her personal mission to torment Mattie. But worst of all? Her stepsister Ella is the most beautiful, popular girl in school and is dating Mattie's secret longtime crush, Jake Kingston. Tired of being left out and done with waiting for her own stupid fairy godmother to show up, Mattie decides to change her life. She'll start by running for senior class president against wildly popular Jake. Ella can keep her Prince Annoying. Mattie's going to rule the school. And no one, not even a cute and suddenly flirty Jake, is going to stop her.
©2017 Sariah Wilson (P)2018 Tantor
Fatal Cajun Festival
Summary
Louisiana B&B owner Maggie Crozat kicks up her heels at a country music festival - but she'll have one foot in the grave if she can't bring the killer of a diva's hanger-on to heel. Grab your tickets for Cajun Country Live!, the pickers' and crooners' answer to the legendary New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Maggie Crozat, proprietor of the Crozat Plantation B&B, plans to be in the cheering section when her friend Gaynell Bourgeois takes the stage with her band, Gaynell and the Gator Girls. The festival's headliner, native daughter Tammy Barker, rocketed to stardom on a TV singing competition. She has the voice of an angel...and the personality of a devilish diva. But Maggie learns that this tiny terror carries a grudge against Gaynell. She's already sabotaged the Gator Girls' JazzFest audition. When a member of Tammy's entourage is murdered at the festival, Tammy makes sure Gaynell is number one on the suspect list. Gaynell has plenty of company on that list - including every one of Tammy's musicians. Posing as a groupie, Maggie infiltrates Tammy's band and will have to hit all the right notes to clear her friend's name.
©2019 Ellen Byron (P)2019 Tantor
The Promposal
Summary
Now that life has finally given her everything she's ever wanted, Mattie Lowe has one thing on her mind: prom. Determined to throw the most epic prom ever, Mattie sets out to plan a memorable and magical event - one that would make the late John Hughes proud. But when her gorgeous and perfect boyfriend, Jake Kingston, hasn't popped the most creative promposal of all time, Mattie starts to worry. Actually, Jake hasn't asked her at all - he's been distant and quiet. And Mattie isn't about to go to her senior prom solo. Suddenly, it seems that everything is stacked against her and falling apart quickly. With rivals vowing to sabotage her event and her boyfriend's odd behavior, Mattie's convinced the night is headed toward ruin. Will the snarky, purple-haired manga artist lead her class to an unforgettable night of fun and frolic, or will she go down in high school history as the worst president to run the school?
©2017 Sariah Wilson (P)2019 Tantor
Starless Nights
Summary
Beau Hale: She said that she was my best friend, and then one day she wasn't. I should be over this by now, it's been years, but I can't escape the memories that haunt me. Everyone around me is moving on with their life, so now I need to do the same. Tennis brought me to Columbia University, and I am quickly proving that I will not let anyone defeat me, past or present. I am in control now. Life has taught me the hard way to remember that. But after all this time, I'm still searching for an answer to the one question that is constantly burning in the back of my mind... why? Leila Starling: He said that he was my best friend, and then one day he wasn't. It took one moment to change my entire life. What I thought I knew became a lie and nothing was ever the same. Slowly, I picked up the pieces and focused on what I could control... me. I live in New York City and attend one of the world's most prestigious fashion and design schools. Day after day, I am getting closer and closer to making my dreams come true. I know my future is bright, even if my heart is destined to stay in the dark. The dull ache that still lingers is my daily reminder to rely on no one but myself. Although, after all this time, I still can't help but wonder... why? Contains mature themes.
©2014 Kathryn Andrews (P)2019 Tantor