Showing results by narrator "Darla Middlebrook" in All Categories

Kersey is afraid. After years of hiding away from Mydian, a vengeful god, she has been pushed to her limit - to her threshold of anger and resentment. A powerful vampire with the uncanny ability to control the dead, Kersey is a force to be reckoned with. But Mydian is not dissuaded. From the ashes of death, he sends Dyne back to the world of the living - to Mystyria to hunt her down. In the shackles of a human body, she will struggle against all odds - mortal inadequacies, rivalry, jealousy, and deceit.

In the far reaches of Mystyria lies Hope’s Covenant, a small, coastal town at the foot of the world. Beneath a mansion in the outskirts, a powerful treasure is buried. A secret treasure. One that Dyne, a 300-year-old vampiress will stop at nothing to claim. With her vampiric army in tow, Dyne steps foot on the Birchlock Estate with Hannah, the small child she stole away from a torn family. But in Hope’s Covenant, Tranas Anvaar arrives to bring justice to the vampiress - to make her pay for the lives she’s destroyed.

It’s Christmas in Brilliant, Minnesota, and Brilliant is known for its glitzy Christmas traditions. A world-renowned Christmas pageant, the town square decked out with Santa’s Village, and a live nativity scene bring visitors to Brilliant each year. Just as the tourists arrive, Jezabelle Jingle and her mystery writer friend, Miranda, find the body of Ernest the elf dead and wrapped in a bundle of Christmas lights in the town square.

Two sex demons walk into a church and get married in the sight of God, surrounded by their friends and family. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke? Not so much. All Perrian “Perry” Haines wants is to marry the man of her dreams - more like nightmares - and be left alone, but when Samael, a psychotic archangel, is out to murder her and all her kind, it puts a damper on her not-so happily ever after. Submitting to Samael almost seems safer than her new husband, the seductive sex demon O’Neil Haines, whose secrets hold the key to her survival and her humanity.

Ora has returned to Conjuragic, along with the Gayden army, determined to thwart the overwhelming prejudice in the magical realm and stop the sinister Master who wishes to rule them all.

Thalia of Tarkin is the last dragonslayer of a long and noble line. When dragons return to their ancient lands in the kingdom of Oghast, the crown prince offers her a proposition. Slay Malik, the Dragon Lord, and he will make her his princess, his bride. Fail or refuse, and she will die. But Malik is by far the largest and fiercest dragon Thalia has ever encountered, considerably more cunning than a common wyrm and infinitely more cruel. He is more than any animal and a much greater threat to the prince and his crown than she could ever guess.

Baltimore - Kim and Sharon’s friendship spans from their small-town childhood through their college years. Now in their 30s, they appreciate each other more than ever as they navigate adulthood. When Kim’s husband, Kevin, is killed in a home invasion, Sharon is there to help her friend through the grieving process. Months after his murder, the case remains unsolved. Kim is having a difficult time dealing with the loss and is encouraged to seek professional group therapy. Sharon, always the devoted friend, agrees, albeit somewhat reluctantly, to accompany Kim through her healing process.

Flicker is a modern-day ghost story set in a haunted diner. When Charlie Brace buys, refurbishes, and opens a diner that’s been up on blocks for many years, he gets much more than he bargained for.

The Bronze Age saw the beginning of empires, as well as their mysterious and catastrophic end. In a world not unlike our own, the nomadic Whisperers of the Gods have been given a grave vision of the gods destroying the world in a great flood, and they send three messengers to the great empires in hopes of appeasing the gods. Finding themselves in strange new lands with even stranger customs, the Whisperers soon discover the hardest thing is not only convincing the kings and queens to listen, but also reaching their destinations without falling prey to the dangers and temptations of these new lands.

Ora Stone's memories were erased for her protection. She is a witch, hidden in the human realm, hidden from the others of her kind, and protected by ancient magic. On her first day of college, she loses her amulet, releasing her long-dormant powers. Purely by accident, she performs a levitation spell, an action that breaks the Concealment Code and summons Protectors from Conjuragic to investigate. She is arrested and taken across the Veil to stand trial for her crimes.

A homesick, 16 year-old Roman girl and her illegitimate child, are exiled by the Emperor Nero to Britannia. A middle-aged Celtic king of an insignificant tribe is trying to find middle ground between Celtic tradition and Roman rule and is making enemies on both sides. The shadow of martyred Queen Boudicca is like a curse on the land. An old Legionary is willing to give his life for a friend, and there's a former Greek slave with a secret past that rescues him.

In a land of vast forests and clustered cities, humans and anthelai live in uneasy proximity. Forced deep into the wilds, the anthelai are feared and hated. They are perceived as monsters, servants of the dark god Enas, master of the hell-like Plains of Centura. Halfbloods, the children of two species, are extremely rare. The blood does not mix easy, but when it does, the result belongs to neither side. They are outcasts. The lone survivor of an attack that destroys her home and family, one halfblood girl is captured by a man bent on transforming her into a deadly assassin.

Samantha's regular life is suddenly turned around when her existence is somehow erased from the world. Nobody seems to remember her, and her own apartment is occupied by the uninvited tenants. Even her sister, the only family Samantha has, is unable to recognize her. Lost and confused, Samantha accepts help from a stranger, a charismatic man named Archie, whom she accidentally encounters and unwillingly joins him in his fight against the silent invasion of the planet.

What do you get when you mix mystery and speculative fiction, then toss in the holidays for good measure? A mobster Santa, genetic hanky-panky, Victorian villages, time-travelling detectives, Krampus, eerie bell spirits, and more-this collection of short cross-genre fiction is the perfect counterpoint to traditional holiday stories!

Contacted by her father who is trapped in The Lost, a waiting room between Heaven and Hell, Blank begins a journey to take her from ordinary teenager to the hero who might save Savannah. In her path she will not only see the dark side of the city, but a man named Abraham who calls that darkness his home.

Isabel Kramer's dream of running competitively, frustrated since age 17, reveals itself when, on a lark, she joins her daughter in the Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco. Now age 60, Izzy challenges her misgivings, the sage and well-intentioned advice of family and friends, and prepares for long-distance running. Izzy, a psychiatrist and professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, has no illusions about the likelihood of success and the possibility of injury, but amazingly, she outperforms expectations.

In the sentient land of Veridia, Fila dreams of a simple future: using her women's magic of creation to help the Toiler people of the countryside. But when Veridia loses its Servant, the human conduit linking Veridia and its peoples, it chooses her daughter, Fila, as its new Servant. Mourning her mother and her lost dreams and doubting her worthiness, Fila sets out for the capital to be invested. On her journey, assassins attack, sent by a usurper with corrupted magic.

During a dark, foggy night, Vyking ships from the Isles of Welkstone slip into Hoffnung Bay to aid Lord Waxxon's coup to take Hoffnung's throne from half elf Queen Taube. As Lord Waxxon's guards storm the castle, Queen Taube flees to Lady Dawn's chambers to help her daughter escape. After Hoffnung's fall, Lady Dawn flees for her life in the hope of gathering together an army to overthrow Lord Waxxon, who killed her mother to take the throne.

While vacationing in Egypt Jeannette Walker, a cynical scientist jaded by swarms of tour groups and knick-knack shacks, is lured by a teenage tour guide to visit a newly discovered tomb. No other tourists there! Inside the chamber, she tumbles down a shaft and 3,000 years back in time. Now, in a world where deities walk the streets and prophecy stinks up the air, Jeannette is desperate for normal and the simple pleasures of sanitation and refrigeration.

Often the smallest unexpected surprises garner the most demanding dilemmas, which proves to be the ordeal that entomologist Ben Whytten faces. While netting butterflies to add to his vast collection, he mistakenly sweeps what he thinks is the most spectacular butterfly he has ever seen into his net. Upon examining his catch, Ben is horrified to discover he has captured a faery and shredded her delicate wings into useless ribbons.