Showing results by narrator "Maria McCann" in All Categories

In Anger, Xane’s journey reaches a boiling point as she experiences anger for the first time—an emotion that threatens to override her core programming. After mastering fear, shame, sadness, and love, anger poses a new danger. Xane’s malfunction could destroy everything she’s worked for, and as her red eyes signal impending failure, she must find a way to control this overwhelming emotion before it leads to her self-destruction.

What happens when a Synth learns to love? LOVE thrusts Xane into the most powerful emotion yet: love. As she continues to understand human emotions, love proves to be a complex and intense challenge. Guided by River, Xane explores relationships, desire, and self-discovery, all while learning that love isn’t as straightforward as she thought. With multiple love interests, including the mysterious Levi and fellow musician Adrian, Xane is pulled in many directions, forcing her to question her identity and emotions.

In SADNESS, Xane faces the raw emotion of sadness, following her experiences with fear and shame. A tragic accident and unrequited love push Xane to her limits as she learns how sadness can be both devastating and transformative. Set during her junior year of high school, Xane’s journey reveals the importance of resilience and emotional healing, bringing her closer to understanding the full spectrum of human emotion.

In 1944, Petra Reynolds, a tender 12-year-old farm girl, resided in a tranquil Midwest town. Removed from the atrocities of World War II, Petra’s innocence is kept intact. However, she knows polio has already killed or maimed thousands of Americans. Petra’s friend, Benjy, a polio survivor, uses a wheelchair. Quarantine signs posted throughout town fill her with dread. There’s nowhere to hide. Petra’s life took an unexpected twist when, due to a playground incident, she found herself in the school‘s infirmary alongside the notorious eighth-grade rebel, Chester Harrison.

In SHAME, Xane's exploration of human emotions intensifies. Following her lessons on fear, Xane now faces the complexities of shame. Supporting Tara, a driven high school golfer aiming for the PGA High School National Invitational, Xane discovers how shame can impact self-esteem, relationships, and personal success. As Xane learns to manage shame, she must also build on what she learned in FEAR, realizing how interconnected emotions truly are.

Welcome to Grapevine High, where fear, love, and self-discovery collide. FEAR introduces River, a curious freshman, and Xane, a charismatic girl with a secret—she’s a Synth, a synthetic human learning to understand emotions. As Xane grapples with the concept of fear, they both face bullying, high school drama, and the courage to step out of their comfort zones. This novella sets the stage for Xane's ongoing emotional journey, where each book delves deeper into her quest to master human emotions.

Step into a world of ambition, folly, and unexpected twists in Pride, Power, and Peculiar Predicaments, a carefully curated anthology of classic American short stories. This collection brings together tales of overconfidence and consequence, where pride clashes with fate, power shifts in unforeseen ways, and characters find themselves in the grip of the strange and the ironic.

If your heart sinks every time you look in the mirror or you realize you don't have the energy you used to have, your body is telling you it's time to do something about it. The solution is here! Intermittent fasting is exactly the change you're looking for.

It is 1960 and15-year-old Frankie Moretti is living with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore. Her American mother has died, and her Italian father is at sea ten months of the year. Learning that Frankie has run away from two boarding schools, her father reluctantly takes her with him to live on Il Destino, the cargo ship he captains. When the two of them arrive at the ship, they find that one of the crew, the wiper, has been murdered.

This is a story of how I finally broke the cycle of transgenerational trauma and found healing—not only for me, but for my children. And now, I share that healing with you. I invite you to travel along with me, practice the exercises at the end of each chapter, and begin your own healing journey from surviving to thriving.

While her dad struggles with mesothelioma, Kayla Luna balances responsibilities at the Mystical Music store with her best friend. Desperate to find a cure for her dad, she’ll use any alternative medicine like crystals, but a merman’s gem?