Showing results by narrator "Natalie Ross" in All Categories

For whimsical Cody, many things are beautiful, especially ants who say hello by rubbing feelers. But nothing is as beautiful as the first day of summer vacation, and Cody doesn't want to waste one minute of it.

Musicians are being murdered in New Orleans. But Arnie Watson apparently died by his own hand. When Tyler Anderson plays the saxophone he inherited from Arnie, a soldier and musician who died soon after his return, he believes he sees visions of his friend's life - and death. He becomes convinced Arnie was murdered and that the instrument had something to do with whatever happened, and with whatever's happening all over the city....

If only Weezie could find her daddy, she’s sure her life would be happier. Tired of making up stories about a parent she knows nothing about, Weezie teams up with her bike-riding buddy, Calvin, and new friend, Louella, to find her mysterious father. Does he drive a truck? Sing country and western songs? Why, her real daddy might even be better than the made-up father she’s been telling lies about at school! Now, all she has to do is find him.

The Idaho Territory gold mines and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom come together for a wilderness-dwelling drifter in this tale of the Weird West.

Promise, a ranching community in the Hill Country, has a mysterious past. Yet it’s the kind of place that represents the strength of small-town and rural America. Because Promise is built on family and friendship. Hard work and endurance. Laughter and, above all, love. Nell Bishop, widowed mother of two children, is turning her property into a dude ranch. And one of her first guests is Travis Grant, an Easterner known for his books about the West. Her kids adore him - and she has to admit she’s drawn to him, too. But Nell isn’t ready to fall in love again. Or is she?

Promise, a ranching community in the Hill Country, has a mysterious past. Yet it’s the kind of place that represents the strength of small-town and rural America. Because Promise is built on family and friendship. Hard work and endurance. Laughter and, above all, love. Wade McMillen might be a minister, but he’s also a man. An unmarried and very attractive one. So is it as a man that he responds to Amy Thornton when she shows up in Promise, pregnant and alone? Or as a man of God? Maybe it’s both…

Katie Nash is 13 years old in 1961, and she's facing a summer full of conflict. Her father has enlisted her in two care-taking jobs - baby-sitting for the rambunctious Wexler boys and, equally challenging, looking after Mrs. Randolph, her elderly, bedridden neighbor. To make matters worse, Katie has been forcibly inducted into the "loser" Girl Scout troop, compliments of her only new friend Cynthia's controlling mother. Her only saving grace is a trip to her childhood hometown in Texas, to visit her best friend Cherylanne. But people and places change - and Cherylanne is no exception.

On the hot Texas army base she calls home, Katie spends the lazy days of her summer waiting: waiting to grow up; waiting for Dickie Mack to fall in love with her; waiting for her breasts to blossom; waiting for the beatings to stop. Since their mother died, Katie and her older sister, Diane, have struggled to understand their increasingly distant, often violent father. While Diane escapes into the arms of her boyfriend, Katie hides in her room or escapes to her best friend’s house - until Katie’s admiration for her strong-willed sister leads her on an adventure that transforms her life.

A story that tugs at the heartstrings...Thirteen-year-old Katie is new to her Missouri town, living alone with a stern, inaccessible father following her mother’s death. Unable to fit in at school, she forges alliances where she can: With her housekeeper, with a pimply fellow misfit named Cynthia, and with the gorgeous Taylor, who gets her kicks out of shoplifting. Most frustrating of all is Katie’s imperfect friendship with the proprietor of a local gas station, a handsome twenty-three-year-old who shares her love of checkers but doesn’t return her crush.

Who's the father of Caroline's child? Everyone in Promise wants to know, but no one's ever asked - or ever will. Maggie's five now, and Caroline Daniels has kept her silence all these years. It doesn't change how the people in Promise feel about Caroline. They're protective of her and Maggie; they care. Especially rancher Grady Weston, who's beginning to realize he more than cares....

They call her Dr. Texas. She's Jane Dickinson from California, a newly graduated GP who's working at the clinic in the small town of Promise, Texas. Just of a couple of years - then she'll head back home.... They call him Mr. Grouch. Cal Patterson was left at the altar by his out-of-state fiancee, and he's not over it yet. Too bad Jane reminds him of his almost-bride in more ways than one.

It’s one thing for a lady to be a little vague about her age, but Toots hasn’t been entirely honest with Phil about the number of marriages in her past. Frankly, after burying eight husbands, Toots suspects she should end her relationship rather than jinx Phil, too. As a distraction from her personal dilemma, Toots throws herself into helping Abby and Chris open an animal rescue on their plantation. And then another diversion hits - this one deadly serious. Two young children have disappeared after visiting.

Teresa "Toots" Amelia Loudenberry is a wealthy woman by anyone's standards. But the riches that mean most to her are the loving friends and family she's accumulated over the course of a life well lived. And now that her daughter, Abby, has married her beau Chris and settled down near Toots in Charleston, life is even more satisfying than the delicious pralines sold at Toots's bakery, The Sweetest Thing. Abby isn't the only one enjoying a little romance. Toots's friendship with Dr. Phil Becker has grown unexpectedly close…and that brings both joy and complications.

Cousins Coleman and Dinah Greene moved from North Carolina to New York after college to make their mark on the art world: Coleman is the editor of an influential arts magazine and Dinah is the owner of a print gallery in Greenwich Village. But their challenges are mounting as one of Coleman's writers is discovered selling story ideas to a competitor and The Greene Gallery is in the red because sales are down. When billionaire Heyward Bain arrives with a glamorous assistant, announcing plans to fund a fine print museum, Coleman is intrigued and plans to get to know Bain and publish an article about him.

It was stolen from a New Orleans grave - the centuries-old bust of an evil man, a demonic man. It’s an object desired by collectors - and by those with wickedness in their hearts. One day, its current owner shows up at Danni Cafferty’s antiques shop on Royal Street, the shop she inherited from her father. But before Danni can buy the statue, it disappears, the owner is found dead…and Danni discovers that she’s inherited much more than she realized. In the store is a book filled with secret writing: instructions for defeating evil entities. She’d dismissed it as a curiosity...until the arrival of this statue.

The time: 1941, at the cusp of America’s entry into World War II. The place: southwest Missouri, on the edge of the Ozark Mountains. A young single woman named Allen Liles has taken a job as a junior college teacher in a small town, although she dreams of living in New York City, of dancing at recitals, of absorbing the bohemian delights of the Village. Then she encounters two young men: George, a lanky, carefree spirit, and Toby, a dark-haired, searching soul with a wary look in his eyes.

Teresa “Toots” Loudenberry has a knack for finding adventure, even when she’s not looking for it. But ever since Sophie convinced her friends to start holding regular séances, life in Los Angeles is getting a little too dramatic even for Toots’s tastes. When Ida receives a message from the beyond suggesting that her late husband was murdered, a spooked Toots decides it’s time the Godmothers left LA for her hometown of Charleston. Meanwhile, Mavis has been acting suspiciously....

When innocent, wealthy Nora Marlowe came to visit the Wild West, she was as wide-open to adventure as the vast Texas horizon. Its rugged individualism - and dashing cowboys - suited her romantic spirit. That is, until the wrong cowboy decided to take the elegant heiress down a notch! Cal Barton didn’t like haughty Eastern misses. And he certainly didn’t appreciate one invading the ranch where he worked. But something about Nora was irresistible. The pull between them only grew stronger the longer she stayed - until a simple kiss became a full-fledged seduction....

Cole Whitehall had asked Lacy Jarrett to wait for him. But after the war, he returned to the rambling Whitehall cattle ranch a changed man, the promise of lasting love replaced by a cold, hard distance. Lacy yearned to reignite the once inseparable couple’s unquenched passion. Unwittingly compromised into marriage, the handsome Texan refused to come under Lacy’s thumb. But the hard press of aching desire had her longing to learn the secrets Cole harbored in his heart. Tormented, she wouldn’t let him shoulder the burden alone....

When Toots Loudenberry relocated to Los Angeles from South Carolina to be near her daughter, Abby, she expected to bump into the occasional celebrity. She just never expected them to be dead. Meanwhile, Toots, Sophie, and Mavis are concerned that the prestigious Dr. Sameer’s budding romance with Ida may have something to do with his ailing bank balance. And Abby’s attempted makeover of the celebrity magazine The Informer into the most talked-about tabloid in town could end more than just her career.