Laural Merlington has narrated 292 audiobooks on Listento.it by 176 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 3,316 ratings. The most-rated is Scythe.
Under the Cajun Moon
Summary
What secrets can be found by the light of the Cajun moon? New Orleans may be the "Big Easy", but nothing about it was ever easy for international business etiquette expert Chloe Ledet. She moved away years ago, leaving her parents and their famous French Quarter restaurant behind. But when she hears that her father has been shot, she races home to be by his side and to handle his affairs, only to learn a long-hidden secret that changes everything she knew to be true about herself and her family. Framed for murder, Chloe and a handsome Cajun stranger must search for a priceless treasure, one whose roots weave through the very history of Louisiana itself. But can Chloe depend on the mysterious man leading her on this cat-and-mouse chase into the heart of Cajun country? Or by trusting him, has she gone from the frying pan into the fire? This exciting standalone from best-selling inspirational author Mindy Starns Clark is full of Cajun mystery, hidden dangers, and the glow of God's unending grace.
©2009 Mindy Starns Clark (P)2009 Oasis
This Time Love
Summary
Joy Anderson was innocent, young, and trusting when she met Gabe Venture. An aspiring journalist with worlds to conquer, Gabe came to New Mexico to explore the natural wonders of Lost River Cave, with Joy acting as his guide. Surrounded by staggering beauty they both surrendered to a passion too powerful to deny - and Joy gave herself freely to the most extraordinary man she had ever known. But Gabe was destined for great things, and even the intensity of their shared feelings could not bind him to this place or this romance. And so he left Joy with memories, a broken heart...and months later, with a cherished, if painful, reminder of their lost love: a daughter. Seven years have passed, and Joy - now a respected professor - has put what once was behind her, though the memory will always remain alive in the light that shines in the eyes of her beautiful child. Still, the life they have made has no room for shattered dreams. But now Gabe has returned. At the pinnacle of his profession, having tasted the fame and adventure that lured him away, he has never been able to fill the inner emptiness that has rendered his achievements bittersweet. The opportunity to revisit the endangered Lost River Cave - and a second chance at the young love he so heedlessly tossed away - is something he cannot let slip by. But the Joy awaiting him is not the same naive and eager innocent he once left behind. Worldly and independent, she has nursed her wounds and moved on. And he has arrived far too late, she tells him, to be welcomed back into her heart. But is it ever too late for love? Perhaps not, when there is still magic in a breathtaking world of natural wonder and mystery waiting for them once more beneath the rolling New Mexican desert - the place where a miracle was born.
©2004 Elizabeth Lowell (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Canteen Dreams
Summary
A heartwarming WWII historical from award-winning author Cara Putman. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Nebraska schoolteacher Audrey Stone wants to support the war effort in any way she can. When her community starts a canteen at the train station, Audrey spends nearly every spare moment there, offering food and kindness to the soldiers passing through. She never expected to fall for a local boy...or face the challenges of budding love in the face of war. Rancher Willard Johnson admires Audrey's passionate nature, but when his brother is killed in action, he feels he must avenge by enlisting himself. His father insists he stay, but Willard knows he must go. Reality intrudes, and he never expected the jealousy he experiences when he sees those in uniform. Can Willard's budding relationship with Audrey weather the storms of war? Or will one of the other soldiers at the canteen steal her heart?
©2017 Cara Putman (P)2017 Cara Putman
Yellow Dirt
Summary
From the 1930s to the 1960s, the United States knowingly used and discarded an entire tribe of people. The Navajo worked unprotected in the uranium mines that fueled the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. Long after these mines were abandoned, Navajos in all four corners of the Reservation (which borders Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona) continued grazing their animals on sagebrush flats riddled with uranium that had been blasted from the ground. They drank contaminated water from old pits, which had filled with rain. They built their houses out of chunks of yellowcake, they inhaled radioactive dust borne aloft from the waste piles the mining companies had left behind, and their children played in the unsealed mines themselves. Ten years after the mines closed, the cancer rate on the reservation shot up and the babies began to be born with crooked fingers that fused together into claws as they grew. Scientists filed complaints about the situation with the government but were told it was a mess "too expensive" to clean up. Few had heard this story until Judy Pasternak exposed it in a prizewinning Los Angeles Times series. Her work not only inspired this book, which is already a winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award, it also galvanized both a congressman and a famous prosecutor to clean the sites and get reparations for the tribe. Yellow Dirt powerfully chronicles both the scandal of neglect and the Navajo’s fight for justice.
©2010 Judy Pasternak (P)2010 Tantor
The 10 Habits of Highly Successful Women
Summary
The 10 Habits of Highly Successful Women is a collection of essays revealing the secret career habits and hard-won wisdom of a diverse group of accomplished women, selected by Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNicol, co-founders of TheLi.st, the well-known network dedicated to elevating professional women. Perhaps no group has experienced more upheaval in the last few decades than working women. In this series, each woman explores the one key habit or lesson that has made the difference in forging her career and attaining professional success. Whether it’s CNN personality Sally Kohn’s exploration of emotional correctness or What Not To Wear's Stacy London on the wear and tear of our aspirational “Culture of Extraordinary;” why millennial Nisha Chittal won't tell you her age and what Cindy Gallop learned about sex while dating men half hers; how lessons from waitressing led Jenna Wortham to the New York Times or how Paula Froelich perfected the art of the “controlled burn” to start over after the end of a dream career—these essays uncover the challenges and delights of chasing, and finding, success in work and life as a professional woman.
©2014 Lonely Goat Media Inc (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
The Liar's Wife
Summary
The beloved author at her storytelling best: four wonderful novellas of Americans abroad and Europeans in America. In these absorbing and exquisitely made novellas of relationships at home and abroad, both historical and contemporary, we meet the ferocious Simone Weil during her final days as a transplant to New York City; a vulnerable American grad student who escapes to Italy after her first, compromising love affair; the charming Irish liar of the title novella, who gets more out of life than most of us; and Thomas Mann, opening the heart of a high-school kid in America. These stories dazzle on the surface, with beautifully rendered settings and vistas, and dig deep psychologically. At every turn Gordon reveals in her characters' interactions those crucial flashes of understanding that change lives forever. So richly developed it is hard to believe they fit into novella-sized packages, these tales carry us away both as individual stories and as a larger, book-length experience of Gordon's mastery and human sympathy.
©2014 Mary Gordon (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Beautiful Dreamer
Summary
Nevada is home to Hope Gardener; its rugged, majestic beauty a balm for the aches of her heart and spirit. But the cattle ranch she owns and loves is dying, thanks to the worst drought the area has ever seen. Hope needs a miracle or she will lose the land that has been in her family for generations. And then, the miracle appears on horseback. Rio is the stranger who rides into the Valley of the Sun. A loner, a gentler of horses, a cowboy out of time, an anachronism in the modern-day West, he brings with him a tantalizing promise of salvation: a reputation for finding water in any desert. As a woman alone in a harsh and unforgiving place, Hope knows the dangers of trusting such a free spirit. But she has no choice. A man who makes dreams real, who is as wild and unpredictable as the wind that propels him across the vast and open western landscape, Rio has never had a dream of his own to follow. Yet he finds something in this extraordinary lady whose passion tempts him to defy his own rules and stay. Suddenly, two independent souls must confront the perils and the truths that reside in the deepest, most closely guarded corners of their hearts...as in the midst of adversity they search for a beautiful dream big enough to hold them both.
©2005 Elizabeth Lowell (P)2005 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Unfit to Practice
Summary
As an attorney championing desperate people, Nina Reilly has skirted the edges of legal ethics in pursuit of a just result but she has never before broken the rule of absolute protection of her clients' secrets. One September night at Lake Tahoe when her unlocked truck is stolen, her life changes forever. Inside are her most sensitive cases, complete with the sometimes brutally candid notes she took while interviewing her clients.It's the event that every attorney most fears - one careless moment that undoes a lifetime of building trust and respect. The worst has happened - the secrets are being revealed one by one, in ways that will cause the greatest harm.Nina's own clients complain to the State Bar of California, and suddenly Nina is fighting for her license and her livelihood in a Kafkaesque legal proceeding that may ultimately lead to her disbarment.In desperation, Nina hires a top San Francisco lawyer, Jack McIntyre, to represent her. She ought to know he's tough as well as cynical and funny - he's her ex-husband. And as personal tensions erupt between Jack and Nina's on-the-edge investigator Paul van Wagoner...as reputations are ruined and people begin to die...a malign pattern of rage and revenge comes into focus. Someone is bent on destroying the lives of her clients and, in the process, destroying Nina Reilly.
©2004 Perri O'Shaughnessy (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Lover in the Rough
Summary
Reba Farrall was lost - until a kindly old gentleman took her under his wing and helped heal her shattered spirit. Now her dearest friend is gone, leaving her with a doubting, broken heart...and half-interest in a California gem mine. But Chance Walker has burst into Reba's life - a daring adventurer who believes in nothing except the priceless uncut stones for which he searches the earth. In the blistering heat of Death Valley - in the intoxicating presence of a jewel more exquisite than any he has ever seen - Chance must confront a dire peril that stalks the sad and sensuous beauty. For only he can save Reba Farrall from harm - and only she can teach him how to love.
©2007 Elizabeth Lowell (P)2007 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Circle of Three
Summary
Patricia Gaffney's sensational national best seller,
The Saving Graces, won the hearts of readers everywhere and propelled her into the first ranks of contemporary women writers. Now this gifted author illuminates the silken bonds of family through the interconnected lives of three generations of women in a small town in rural Virginia.
"Can grief last for a person's whole life?" That is the question Carrie struggles to answer after the sudden death of her husband. She also mourns the death of their love - an emotional erosion that began long before her husband's heart gave out.
Complicating matters is Carrie's mother, Dana, a snobbish yet sympathetic woman who tries to do what she thinks best. Dana, too, mourns a painful loss - the disintegration of her relationship with Carrie. "I'd give anything for the closeness we used to have, but she won't let me in."
At the end point of these two generations is Carrie's daughter Ruth, who silently copes with a double tragedy of her own, the loss of her father and the emotional abandonment of her mother. "She's still got me, but she's about half the mother I used to have."
Through their stories, Patricia Gaffney explores all women's relationships - the things that sometimes divide them, but ultimately bind them together. Wise, moving, and heartbreakingly real, Circle of Three creates the perplexing and invigorating magic that is life itself.
©2001 Patricia Gaffney (P)2005 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Extraterrestrial Contact
Summary
The essential handbook for people who have experienced alien contact and those who love them. It has been 20 years since the publication of How to Defend Yourself Against Alien Abduction by Ann Druffel. This new book by UFO researcher Kathleen Marden is the handbook for this generation. It is the essential reference guide for those who have experienced contact with nonhuman intelligent entities, families and friends of those "experiencers," and anyone interested in alien abduction/contact and UFOs. The 10 chapters in this book are based on years of research and access to the files of MUFON and FREE. Chapters include: "Understanding Modern Contact" "Am I an Abductee, a Contactee, or an Experiencer?" "How to Investigate Your Contact Experiences" "What Social Researchers Know about Contact" "When You Discover That It Isn't ET: Ghosts and Paranormal Phenomena" "When You Want It to Stop: Coping Strategies and Resistance Techniques" Wide-ranging, informative, and helpful, this is a book that will find a place as an essential component of anyone fascinated by visitations from other worlds.
©2019 Kathleen Marden (P)2019 Tantor
The River King
Summary
For more than a century, the small town of Haddan, Massachusetts, has been divided, as if by a line drawn down the center of Main Street, separating those born and bred in the village from those who attend the prestigious Haddan School. But one October night, an inexplicable death thrusts the two worlds together, and the town's divided history is revealed in all its complexity.
The lives of everyone involved are unraveled, from Carlin Leander, the 15-year-old girl who is as loyal as she is proud, to Betsy Chase, a woman running from her own destiny; from August Pierce, a boy who unexpectedly finds courage in his darkest hour; to Abel Grey, the police officer who refuses to let unspeakable actions - both past and present - slide by without notice.
Entertainment Weekly has declared that Alice Hoffman's worlds are "replete with miracles", and The Boston Globe has praised her "iridescent prose, taut narrative suspense, and alluring atmosphere". Now she brings us a novel as compelling as it is daring, an exploration of forgiveness and hope, a wondrous tale of innocence and evil, and of the secrets we keep.
©2005 Alice Hoffman (P)2005 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Getaway
Summary
Part Three of the New Three-Part Godmothers Serial! The best of friends, Toots, Ida, Mavis, and Sophie have been there for each other through thick and thin. Now Sophie needs the rest of the Godmothers to help her through something they've never faced before.... Each of the Godmothers - Toots, Ida, Sophie, and Mavis - brings her own unique strengths to their extraordinary friendship. In particular, Sophie's psychic gift has helped rescue the Godmothers from a few tight spots. But her abilities can spark trouble too. And on the eve of her first wedding anniversary, Sophie begins experiencing some very strange events in the house she shares with her beloved husband, Goebel. As the Godmothers rally around Sophie, and Toots' daughter Abby puts her investigative skills to work trying to ferret out the truth, one of their own is targeted by an unseen enemy. The only option is to confront a terrible wrong that occurred within the house decades ago. And, just maybe, each of them will get the chance to claim a sweet, surprising future chiming with wedding bells when the task is done....
©2017 Fern Michaels (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Cult Insanity
Summary
Life for Irene Spencer was a series of devastating disappointments and hardships. Irene's first book, Shattered Dreams, is the staggering chronicle of her struggle to provide for her children in abject poverty and feelings of abandonment each time her husband left to be with one of his other wives. Irene was raised to believe that polygamy was the way of life necessary for her ticket to heaven. The hard knocks of her environment were just the beginning of Irene's shocking tale. In Cult Insanity, Spencer reveals the outrageous behavior of her brother-in-law Ervil---a self-proclaimed prophet who determined he was called to set the house of God in order---and how he terrorized their colony. Claiming to be God's avenger and to have a license to kill in the name of God, Ervil ordered the murders of friends and family members, eliminating all those who challenged his authority. Cult Insanity is a riveting, terrifying memoir of polygamist life under the tyranny of a madman.
©2009 Irene Spencer (P)2009 Tantor
Unlucky in Law
Summary
Nina has just received a last-minute call from her old boss and mentor in Monterey County, California, where she is enjoying the breathtaking scenery and spending time with her boyfriend, P.I. Paul van Wagoner. Klaus Pohlmann is in desperate straits and begs Nina to take over a seemingly unwinnable case: A luckless two-time felon named Stefan Wyatt has robbed a grave and made off with the long-buried bones of a Russian émigré. When he is caught and arrested, further devastating evidence found in the grave suggests that Stefan is guilty of a far more deadly crime.A young woman, a classmate of Stefan's, has been killed, and he is accused of her murder. Now, as a result of California's Third Strike law, Wyatt is looking at 25 years to life whether he's convicted of grand theft or murder. Either way, he's in big trouble. With her client's blood DNA found in the dead woman's apartment, Nina faces an uphill battle. Suspecting that her hapless client has been set up, Nina brings in a brilliant forensic pathologist who comes up with a startling theory about the case that could rewrite a crucial page of European history. As the evidence mounts against Nina's client, Paul launches his own investigation into the shadowy past of the two-decades-old skeleton. But long-held secrets nearly get him killed and reveal a more insidious evil at work - and an extraordinary story dating back to tsarist Russia and the Romanov court. As Wyatt edges closer to the unluckiest verdict of his young life, Nina makes an astounding discovery that just might save her client - or expose a killer who could bury them all.
©2004 Perri O'Shaughnessy (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Rooted in Deceit
Summary
It's summertime in Winsome. Washington Acres is abloom, Megan is preparing for the grand opening of her wood-fired pizza farm, and things with her beau, handsome Dr. Finn, are getting as hot as the August temperatures. But when Megan's father arrives with his high-maintenance Italian wife, Sylvia, and announces they're staying at the new yoga retreat center a town away, a sweet occasion sours. Eager to secure pieces for her Milan boutique, Sylvia finagles a meeting with up-and-coming artist Thana Moore, whose work is showing at the yoga retreat center. After their explosive encounter, Thana is murdered, and Sylvia becomes the prime suspect. Megan's idyllic summer is in danger of becoming nightmarish. If she doesn't find the killer, innocent people may be imprisoned - and even more could die.
©2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Vanishing Act
Summary
For the women of the Sisterhood, planning a lavish reception for their longtime ally, attorney Lizzie Fox, at their lux mountain retreat is the ideal way to unwind after their latest successful mission. The only cloud over the happy occasion is that their mentor, Charles, is still mysteriously absent. But amid the friendly bickering about floral arrangements, cake tiers, and wedding favors, the ladies of Pinewood receive a frantic phone call from Nikki's fiancé, Jack Emery. Harry Wong - Yoko's true love and a staunch supporter of the Sisterhood - has become the victim of a ruthless identity theft ring. Harry's bank accounts have been closed out, his beloved dojo is being foreclosed, and he's being evicted. Distraught, Yoko is about to rush down the mountain to Harry's aid when the Sisters intercept her. A situation like Harry's requires finesse, careful planning, and the Sisterhood's distinctive brand of vigilante justice.
©2009 Fern Michaels (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved
Tell Me No Lies
Summary
Lindsay Danner. Her worldwide reputation as an expert in ancient treasures and her knowledge of the international art market make her the perfect pawn in a deadly game. But she needs protection. Jacob MacArthur Catlin. A renegade ex-CIA agent whose name is still whispered in tones of hatred and admiration throughout Southeast Asia. Now it is his job to make sure Lindsay Danner succeeds . .and lives. Two puppets on a string. In a maze of intrigue, where each deadly twist and turn leads deeper into deception and forbidden desire, friends can be enemies. Truth may be lies. Trust is a dirty word. And the only chance of getting out of this game means breaking all the rules.
©2006 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Marriage Game
Summary
When Samantha Rainford - newly wed to Douglas Cosmo Rainford III - returns home from her honeymoon to find divorce papers waiting, she's shocked and heartbroken. Then she discovers that she's not the first to be abandoned - she's one of four (or maybe more) ex-Mrs. Rainfords - and decides it's time to put into practice that old truism: Don't get mad, get even. With the help of her longtime girlfriend Slick, a glamorous fashion model, Sam gathers together a highly unlikely team: Mrs. Kayla Rainford, an architect who moonlights as an exotic dancer; Mrs. Zoe Rainford, a plumber; and Mrs. Olivia Rainford, a former cheerleader and cartoon artist. Sam and Slick flunked out of FBI training school, but they still learned a few things there - like how to plan a mission. And the fivesome is determined to do whatever it takes to bring down Douglas Rainford III. Whatever it takes means attending a top-secret private special-ops training camp in the North Carolina mountains, where Sam meets fiercely disciplined ex-CIA operative Kollar Havapopulas. Six feet three and handsome as a Greek god, "Pappy" is the best at what he does - transforming civilians into highly skilled fighting teams. What he's less adept at, however, is telling a woman how he feels, and before long he discovers he's developing some very warm feelings for Samantha Rainford - an attraction that seems fated to be a total disaster. Two personalities as strong as Sam and Pappy are sure to strike sparks, but will the fire that burns between them consume everything in its way?
©2007 Fern Michaels (P)2007 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Presumption of Death
Summary
Nina Reilly needs a fresh start. In three years, she's taken on some of Lake Tahoe's most controversial cases and has turned her struggling one-woman law firm into a thriving practice. Now she's ready to sort out her complex relationship with her boyfriend, Monterey P.I. Paul Van Wagoner. So she's heading to the Carmel Valley, the place where she began her career and where her estranged father lives. It's also a place of dramatic contradictions and hidden tensions, of new wealth and old families. And, within days of her arrival, Nina is already feeling the heat, as a case of arson exposes some of the darkest secrets of her hometown. Two suspicious fires have already raged through the valley this summer, igniting suspicions of arson. When a third blaze ends in a fatality, police zero in on a suspect: Wish, the son of Sandy Whitefeather, Nina's ex-assistant. The dead man is identified as Wish's childhood friend, a troubled local auto mechanic who hated the changes wealthy newcomers had brought to the valley. Nina and Paul are certain that there is more to this strange case than meets the eye. As they work together to clear Wish, new, more frightening questions are raised, and another fire is set. And out of the flames a terrifying picture emerges: a community steeped in secrets and rage, a tangled history between two men, and a killer whose motives are dark and wrenching.
©2004 Perri O'Shaughnessy (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.