Xe Sands has narrated 231 audiobooks on Listento.it by 179 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 3,703 ratings. The most-rated is Silent Child.
Darkness Before Dawn
Summary
Maggie Bennett’s irresistible beauty and deadly skills in the martial arts always got her out of the tight spots. But she couldn't escape a stab of pain and passion when her new partner turned out to be tall, sensual Randall Carter. Once before, his kisses had promised forever - until the morning he'd walked out of her life. Now a thrilling, high-voltage chase after a mysterious spy has led her back into his arms and behind Europe's Iron Curtain, where Maggie and Randall become desperate players in an electrifying game - ready to break every rule...in danger and desire.
©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Driftwood Point
Summary
Up-and-coming artist Lisbeth Parker finally has a chance to show the folks back home what it means to leave Cannonball Island and make something of yourself. As a native whose stubborn father forbade her from befriending townies, Lis always felt like an outsider in St. Dennis. So while her work is on display in the local art gallery, she records her ailing centenarian great-grandmother's stories of the island's rich history and spearheads a fight for its survival. Lis was Alec Jansen's secret dream girl growing up, even after she flat-out refused to be his prom date. Now the handsome environmental engineer and the whip-smart beauty are on opposite sides of a debate over the island's future. Hired to prove that developing the shore will have little impact on the area's natural integrity and huge gains for its economy, Alec is determined to change his alluring, headstrong rival's mind - and to win her heart.
©2016 Marti Robb (P)2016 Tantor
Sylvia Plath
Summary
Sylvia Plath is widely recognized as one of the outstanding poets of the 20th century. When her Collected Poems was published it won the Pulitzer Prize. Her only published novel, The Bell Jar, has become a modern classic. Because Plath drew so heavily on her own life in both her poetry and her fiction, the outlines of her life are familiar to listeners. But, like most writers, Plath changed the facts of her life in her writing. In her determination to be both wife and mother, on the one hand, and teacher and writer on the other, Plath tried simultaneously to fulfill and to fight the conventions that bound women in the 1950s. In this biography, the first to draw on unpublished journals and letters recently made available, Linda Wagner-Martin examines the ironies and contradictions of Sylvia Plath's life, as well as her achievements.
©1987 Linda Wagner-Martin (P)2020 Tantor
Keepsake
Summary
For her previous novels (Things We Didn’t Say, The Life You’ve Imagined, Real Life & Liars), author Kristina Riggle has garnered fabulous reviews and established herself as a rapidly rising star of contemporary women’s fiction. In Keepsake, she explores that most complicated of relationships, as two sisters raised by a hoarder deal with old hurts and resentments, and the very different paths their lives have taken. As always, Riggle approaches important topics poignantly and honestly—including hoarding and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in her remarkable Keepsake—while writing with real emotional power and compassion about families and their baggage. For readers of Katrina Kittle and Elin Hildenbrand, Kristina Riggle’s Keepsake is a treasure.
©2012 Kristina Ringstrom (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
The Path of a Christian Witch
Summary
A unique mix of memoir and how-to that includes practical daily Pagan rituals, this inspiring book shows how one woman blended Christian traditions with the magic and beauty of a Wiccan practice. Raised in the Catholic faith, yet strongly drawn to Paganism, Adelina St. Clair spent many years questioning and soul-searching before she found a way to blend aspects of Wicca and Christianity into a vibrant and loving belief system. Filled with personal anecdotes, this book tells the story of St. Clair's journey of self-discovery and revelation, from her initial fear and guilt to her ultimate sense of peace and joy. With warmth and heartfelt reverence, St. Clair discusses vital aspects of Witchcraft and Christianity, as well as the commonalities between the two. Monotheism vs. polytheism Magical practice The teachings of Christ Goddess worship
©2010 Adelina St. Clair (P)2020 Tantor
Flood Rising
Summary
In a minute everything changes. Fifteen-year-old Jenna Flood's discovery of a bomb ticking down from sixty seconds is the first in a series of explosive revelations that destroy her understanding of the world and her place in it. Jenna believes she is an ordinary teenager, busy with schoolwork and helping her father run a Key West charter boat. But when a team of killers shows up, intent on erasing her from existence, she learns the unbelievable truth: she is not who she thinks she is. Alone and on the run, betrayed at every turn, Jenna's path takes her from sun-drenched Key West to the alligator-infested Everglades, the streets of Miami, and the Caribbean islands. Along the way brutal criminals, deadly assassins, and the forces of nature conspire to end her life unless she can rise to embrace an impossible destiny and unleash her own lethal potential. Everything Jenna has been told about herself is a lie, and the truth is a secret that may destroy the world--or save it. Jeremy Robinson and Sean Ellis, the best-selling team behind The Brainstorm Trilogy, Prime, and Savage, have thrilled audiences with stories of science gone wrong and monsters on the rampage. Now they break new ground with a taut suspense thriller sure to appeal to fans of 24 and The Bourne Identity, with all the pulse-pounding, gut-wrenching action you've come to expect.
©2014 Jeremy Robinson (P)2015 Jeremy Robinson
Sweetest Mistake
Summary
When friends become lovers.... Firefighter and former Marine Jackson Wilder has tough guy down to an art, but he's learned the hard way that promises were made to be broken. Abigail Morgan was once his best friend, his first kiss, his first love, his first everything. He'd just forgotten to mention all that to her and she blew out of his life. Five years later, she's back and he's battling a load of mistrust for her disappearing act. But for some reason he just can't keep his lips - or his hands - to himself. It can lead to disaster or.... When her stint as a trophy wife abruptly ends, Abby returns home to Sweet, Texas, and comes face-to-face with Jackson - her biggest and sexiest mistake. Time and distance did nothing to squash her love for the act-first-think-later stubborn hunk of a man, and when he suggests they renew their old just-friends vow, Abby realizes she wants more. She'd cut and run once. Could she do it again? Or could she tempt him enough to break his promise?
©2014 Candis Terry (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers
The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables
Summary
The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables explores L. M. Montgomery's deep connection to the landscapes of Prince Edward Island that inspired her to write the beloved Anne of Green Gables series. From the Lake of Shining Waters and the Haunted Wood to Lover's Lane, you'll be immersed in the real places immortalized in the novels. Using Montgomery's journals, archives, and scrapbooks, Catherine Reid also explores the many similarities between Montgomery and her unforgettable heroine, Anne Shirley.
©2018 Catherine Reid (P)2018 Tantor
Finding Us
Summary
Happily ever after is just what Felicity is searching for, but she never dreamed Officer Russo could fulfill that wish. USA Today bestselling author Heather B. Moore welcomes you to Pine Valley! Felicity Miner is not normally an anxious person, and she’s been on her own since high school. But after a shoplifter steals from her bookshop, she calls the cops. When Officer Leo Russo shows up, Felicity has to tell herself that just because the romance novel she’s been reading has a hero police officer doesn’t mean she needs to project her imagination onto the real man. Yes, Officer Russo is unexpectedly generous, and he helps make Felicity’s home more secure when her worries won’t settle down. But the more Felicity is around Officer Russo, the more she imagines a future between them. Is he merely doing his duty, protecting and serving the citizens of Pine Valley, or is there potential for something more? Pine Valley Series: Worth the Risk Where I Belong Say You Love Me Waiting for You Finding Us Until We Kissed Aliso Creek Series: Picture Perfect Third Time’s the Charm The Daisy Chain Lost then Found One Chance Falling Series: Falling for Sydney Falling for Maria Falling for June Falling for Lucy Tangerine Street Romance Series: The Fortune Café The Boardwalk Antiques Shop The Mariposa Hotel Delilah's Desserts The Newport Ladies Book Club Series: Athena Ruby’s Secret Tying the Knot Contemporary Romance: Tide Pools A Taste of Sun Historical Romance: Love is Come An Ocean Away A Fortunate Exile A Season in London Mail Order Bride Heart of the Ocean Power of the Matchmaker Twelve Months The Duke's Brother Timeless Romance Anthologies: Winter Collection Spring Vacation Collection Summer Wedding Collection California Dreamin’ Collection Valentine’s Day Collection And more! About the author: Heather B. Moore is a USA today bestselling author who writes sweet romance. Under H.B. Moore she writes historicals and thrillers. Under Jane Redd, she writes young adult. There are more than 9,000 five-star reviews for Heather's books on Goodreads!
©2018 Heather B. Moore (P)2019 Heather B. Moore
Is This Tomorrow
Summary
It’s 1956, and working-mother Ava Lark and her son, Lewis, have rented a house in a less-than-welcoming Boston suburb. There, Lewis finds he is only able to befriend the other fatherless kids on the block, Jimmy and Rose. But when Jimmy goes missing, neighborhood paranoia ramps to new heights, further ostracizing Ava and Lewis. Lewis never recovers from the loss of his childhood friend. In his twenties, he is a failure in love, living without direction, estranged from his mother. When Jimmy’s disappearance is unexpectedly solved, however, Lewis, Rose, and Ava are thrown together once more to try to untangle the remaining pieces of the puzzle and reclaim something of what they have lost.
©2013 Caroline Leavitt (P)2013 HighBridge Company
The Voucher Promise
Summary
The Voucher Promise examines the Housing Choice Voucher Program, colloquially known as "Section 8", and how it shapes the lives of families living in a Baltimore neighborhood called Park Heights. Eva Rosen tells stories about the daily lives of homeowners, voucher holders, renters who receive no housing assistance, and the landlords who provide housing. While vouchers are a powerful tool with great promise, she demonstrates how the housing policy can replicate the very inequalities it has the power to solve. Rosen spent more than a year living in Park Heights, getting to know families and learning about the neighborhood's history. Voucher holders disproportionately end up in this area despite rampant unemployment, drugs, crime, and abandoned housing. Exploring why they are unable to relocate to other neighborhoods, Rosen illustrates the challenges in obtaining vouchers and the difficulties faced by recipients in using them when and where they want to. Yet, despite the program's real shortcomings, she argues that vouchers offer basic stability for families and should remain integral to solutions for the nation's housing crisis. Delving into the connections between safe, affordable housing and social mobility, The Voucher Promise investigates the profound benefits and formidable obstacles involved in housing America's poor.
©2020 Eva Rosen (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
The Songbird's Call
Summary
From international bestseller Rachael Herron, comes a book too delightful to put down: Once Adele, Molly, and Lana were The Darling Songbirds, a world-famous country band. Now they're just three sisters who barely speak. But that's about to change. Middle sister Molly arrives in town, and is immediately drawn to the neglected little café where she worked as a teenager. Could she dare to bring it back to life? As lead singer, Molly had always been the voice of the band. But caught between controlling big sister Adele and demanding baby sister Lana, she never felt heard. If she's going to reopen the café, she'll do it on her own terms, no more being bossed. So the last person she should fall for is the handsome Sheriff Colin McMurty - the man whose job it is to tell people exactly what to do.
©2016 Rachael Herron (P)2017 Rachael Herron
The Last Kid Left
Summary
When a scandalous small-town crime goes viral, a teen girl takes center stage in the story of a 21st-century Puritan witch hunt. The Last Kid Left begins when a car smashes into a sculpture of a giant cowgirl. The police find two bodies in the trunk. Nineteen-year-old Nick Toussaint Jr. is arrested for murder, and after details of the crime rip across the Internet, his 16-year-old girlfriend, Emily Portis - a sheltered teen who's been off the grid until now, her first romance coinciding with her first cell phone - is nearly consumed by a public hungry for every lurid detail, accurate or not. Emily and Nick are not the only ones whose lives come unmoored. A retired police officer latches on to the case. Nick's alcoholic mother is thrust into an unfamiliar role. A young journalist who left her hometown behind is pulled into the fray. And Emily's father, the town sheriff, is finally forced to confront a monstrous secret. The Last Kid Left is a bold, searching novel about how our relationships operate in a hyperconnected world, an expertly portrayed account of tragedy turned mercilessly into entertainment. And it's the suspenseful unwinding of a crime that's more complex than it initially seems. But mostly it's the story of two teenagers, dismantled by circumstances and rotten luck, who are desperate to believe that love is enough to save them.
©2017 Rosecrans Baldwin (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Alive in Shape and Color
Summary
Even before Lawrence Block could rest on his laurels from "In Sunlight or In Shadow", a question arose. What would he do for an encore? Suppose each author was invited to select a painting from the whole panoply of visual art - from the cave drawings at Lascaux to a contemporary abstract canvas on which the paint has barely dried. And what a dazzling response! Joyce Carol Oates picked "Le Beaux Jours" by Balthus. Warren Moore chose Salvador Dali's "The Pharmacist of Ampurdam Seeking Absolutely Nothing". Michael Connelly has a go at "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Harry's namesake Hieronymous Bosch. S. J. Rozan finds a story in Hokusai's "The Great Wave", while Jeffery Deaver's "A Significant Find” draws its inspiration from-yes-those prehistoric cave drawings at Lascaux. And Kristine Kathryn Rusch moves from painting to sculpture and selects Rodin. In artists ranging from Art Frahm and Norman Rockwell to Rene Magritte and Clifford Still, the impressive concept goes on to include Thomas Pluck, Sarah Weinman, David Morrell, Craig Ferguson, Joe R. Lansdale, Jill D. Block, Justin Scott, Jonathan Santlofer, Gail Levin, Nicholas Christopher, and Lee Child. Contains mature themes.
©2017 Lawrence Block (P)2021 Tantor
Return to Magnolia Bloom
Summary
Her marriage was magical. Until it wasn’t... With divorce looming, Paige MacInnes isn’t sure what to do with herself. She’s spent so much time being everything to everyone else that she’s pretty sure she’s forgotten how to just be Paige, the woman. Maybe, she’ll be able to find herself again in Magnolia Bloom.... With the help of loved ones and lifelong friends (and maybe even a sexy Scotsman), Paige will need to figure out how to preserve the legacy of the MacInnes estate - all while learning the importance of trusting her heart, the power of second chances, and ensuring her own happily ever after. Welcome to Magnolia Bloom, where anything is possible - even an authentic Scottish castle in the magnolia groves of East Texas, brought to life not by a man’s desire, but by a woman’s determination and defiance.
©2020 Paula Adler (P)2020 Paula Adler
Exquisite Corpse, Season 1
Summary
A dying film maker determined to turn his own death into his most celebrated work of art enlists one of his former actresses, Annie, to assist. But when he relinquishes the directors chair he also relinquishes his power, and Annie has her own plans for this most final of performances. A haunting tale of sci-fi horror in which the women abused by the ultimate bad media man take exquisite revenge.
©2018 Cassandra Khaw, Paul Cornell, Brian Keene, Michelle Garza, Melissa Lason, Paul Tremblay, Richard Chizmar, Christopher Golden, Stephen Kozeniewski, Nick Mamatas, Alyssa Wong (P)2018 Serial Box
The Shadow Drawing
Summary
Leonardo da Vinci has long been celebrated for his consummate genius. He was the painter who gave us the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, and the inventor who anticipated the advent of airplanes, hot air balloons, and other technological marvels. But what was the connection between Leonardo the painter and Leonardo the scientist? Historians of Renaissance art have long supposed that Leonardo became increasingly interested in science as he grew older and turned his insatiable curiosity in new directions. They have argued that there are, in effect, two Leonardos - an artist and an inventor. In this pathbreaking new interpretation, the art historian Francesca Fiorani offers a different view. Taking a fresh look at Leonardo's celebrated but challenging notebooks, as well as other sources, Fiorani argues that Leonardo became familiar with advanced thinking about human vision when he was still an apprentice in a Florence studio - and used his understanding of optical science to develop and perfect his painting techniques. The Shadow Drawing vividly reconstructs Leonardo's life while teaching us to look anew at his greatest paintings. The result is both stirring biography and a bold reconsideration of how the Renaissance understood science and art - and of what was lost when that understanding was forgotten.
©2020 Francesca Fiorani (P)2020 Tantor
Ties That Bind
Summary
In her compelling, beautifully crafted novel, New York Times best-selling author Marie Bostwick celebrates friendships old and new - and the unlikely threads that sometimes lead us exactly where we need to go. Christmas is fast approaching, and New Bern, Connecticut, is about to receive the gift of a new pastor, hired sight unseen to fill in while Reverend Tucker is on sabbatical. Meanwhile, Margot Matthews’ friend, Abigail, is trying to matchmake, even though Margot has all but given up on romance. She loves her job at the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop and the life and friendships she’s made in New Bern, but she never thought she’d still be single on her fortieth birthday. It’s a shock to the entire town when Philip A. Clarkson turns out to be Philippa. Truth be told, not everyone is happy about having a female pastor. Yet despite a rocky start, Philippa begins to settle in - finding ways to ease the townspeople’s burdens, joining the quilting circle, and forging a fast friendship with Margot. When tragedy threatens to tear Margot’s family apart, that bond - and the help of her quilting sisterhood - will prove a saving grace. And as she untangles her feelings for another new arrival in town, Margot begins to realize that it is the surprising detours woven into life’s fabric that provide its richest hues and deepest meaning.
©2012 Marie Bostwick (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Deadly Defiance
Summary
Stan's bankruptcy client, Maureen Thompson, is accused of her husband's murder. Her alleged motive is the proceeds of a large insurance policy on her husband's life that would cure her financial woes. Stan assigns the case to his partner, Paula Waters, who at first is excited about getting a new high-profile murder case - but her excitement is soon dampened when she learns this isn't the first of Maureen Thompson's husbands to be hacked to death with an ice pick! While Paula is trying to prove Maureen Thompson isn't the Ice Pick Widow, Turner & Water's new associated Jodie Marshall goes under cover in a wrongful death case against Alliance Fabrication, a sweatshop that fronts for a Mexican drug cartel's money-laundering operation. Stan enlists the Dallas Police and FBI to help out in their quest to prove Icaro Melendez ordered the murder of Romildo Alvarez but they still find themselves in mortal danger and wonder if they haven't made a big mistake in taking on such an impossible case.
©2011 William Manchee (P)2011 William Manchee
The Marvel of Martyrdom
Summary
The Marvel of Martyrdom is about how self-sacrifice can change lives and how martyrs can change the world. The book starts large - with famous and influential martyrs such as Jesus and Gandhi - and ends small - with ordinary people whose own experiences of self-sacrifice give martyrdom its political power. Seeking the developmental origins of self-sacrifice, the book explores children's folklore and the success of mega-hits such as The Matrix and Harry Potter. Seeking the everyday rewards of self-sacrifice, the book shows the potential for finding meaning and happiness in helping others. The Marvel of Martyrdom takes a broad perspective on self-sacrifice and martyrdom, bringing together religion, popular culture, history, psychology, and mythology. Stories of individuals both famous (Gandhi) and obscure (Rodrigo Rosenberg) intertwine with research on altruism, happiness, and radicalization to terrorism. The changing landscape of the book's setting - from The Roman Empire to 19th-century Russia to Nazi Germany to post-World War II India to present day Ukraine - makes the power of self-sacrifice and martyrdom come alive and shows their potential to change people and cultures.
©2019 Oxford University Press (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books