strong female side character awakens novel Audiobooks

When you grow up in Home, WA, the road always leads you to… well, home. I’m Bartlett Rough, and I’ve never left the mountain where I was raised with my six brothers and sisters. Cheesy as it may sound, Home really is where the heart is. But we’re all growing up, building cabins of our own, taking claim of our land. Things are changing. I feel that more than ever, when the winter winds sweep Abby into town. This wild, fierce beauty is everything I’m not. I own the hardware store, know everyone in this town by name, and am expected to settle down with someone local. Abby tumbled into town on a train, with nothing to her name, clutching her dog Hijinx, and holding onto her memory of Home from when she came through here years ago. I’ve played it safe my whole damn life. After one night with Abby, I have someone to fight for. A reason to risk it all. But falling for her has no guarantees -- she could leave as fast as she came, taking my heart along with her. Coming Home to the Mountain is a new filthy-sweet, high heat series by Frankie Love featuring rugged mountain men who fall hard, fast and forever. And with the women they love at their side, they choose to put family first. In this series, Dad shows up. Sister’s remember to call, big brother’s always look out for you, and Mom knows to keep an extra seat at the table for Sunday dinner. Not every family is perfect -- and the Rough family has its own set of problems -- but at the end of the day, they know what matters: Coming Home.

An enthralling, atmospheric new novel from Emily Littlejohn, the author of acclaimed debut Inherit the Bones , featuring Colorado police officer Gemma Monroe. "Recommend to fans of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache novels." Booklist On a bright Saturday in early spring, Detective Gemma Monroe responds to a missing person call at Lost Lake, near the small town of Cedar Valley, Colorado. With its sapphire waters and abundance of wildflowers, the lake is a popular camping destination in the summer. But for now, ice still grips the lake and snow buries the flowers. When Gemma arrives at the shore, she meets three friends who have been camping there: the fourth of their group, Sari Chesney, has disappeared in the night without a trace. Sari is an assistant curator at the local museum, which is set to host a gala that night―a project she’s worked on for months and would never intentionally miss. As Gemma begins to understand the complex dynamics of the supposedly close-knit friendship group, she realizes that more than one person is lying to her―and that the beautiful, still waters of Lost Lake may hide more terrible secrets . . .

Renowned thriller writer David Hagberg continues his New York Times bestselling Kirk McGarvey series with this riveting origin story for the CIA assassin in First Kill . It is the beginning of Kirk McGarvey's career as a CIA black ops officer. Fresh out of the Air Force OSI, he receives his first assignment: assassinate a Chilean general known as the Butcher of Valparaiso, a monster who has tortured and killed more than one thousand dissidents at a soccer stadium in Valparaiso. McGarvey manages to cross the border over the mountains from Argentina without being discovered, and even makes his way to the general's remote compound. But the odds are stacked against him. Chile's National Intelligence Agency, the ANI, has been warned of his approach and wants him to fail—and someone back home in Washington is working to make sure he does. For this newly-minted assassin, killing the butcher is only the beginning. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Lady Alice Chivers is done being controlled by her family. On the run from an arranged marriage, she needs a strong Highlander to escape. Only Philip MacGregor insists on sending her back to her pampered life, so she’ll just have to blackmail him instead. But now they find themselves in an accidental marriage, and soon they’re both playing a role that feels like it was meant to be real. Philip is cautious, in control, and in way over his head with his unexpected wife. She’s intense, spontaneous, and can’t follow an order to save her life. And he might be falling completely in love with her. However, her distractions endanger the lives of those he loves. Now he must somehow undo the damage that has been done, before his friends pay with their lives. Each book in the MacGregor Lairds series is STANDALONE: * How to Lose a Highlander * How to Ensnare a Highlander * How to Blackmail a Highlander * How to Forgive a Highlander

In this international bestseller by the award-winning novelist Mariana Leky, a heartwarming story unfolds about a small town, a grandmother whose dreams foretell a coming death, and the young woman forever changed by these losses and her loving, endearingly oddball community On a beautiful spring day, a small village in Western Germany wakes up to an omen: Selma has dreamed of an okapi. Someone is about to die. Luisa, Selma’s ten-year-old granddaughter, looks on as the predictable characters of her small world begin acting strangely. Protesting that they are not superstitious, each of the villagers grapples with the buried secrets and deferred decisions that have suddenly become urgent in the face of death. Luisa’s mother struggles to decide whether to end her marriage. An old family friend, known only as the optician, tries to find the courage to tell Selma he loves her. Only Sad Marlies remains unchanged, still moping around her house and cooking terrible food. But when death finally comes, the circumstances are outside anyone’s expectations. Across three defining moments in her life, Luisa grapples with life's big questions alongside her devoted friends, young and old. A story about the absurdity of life and death, a bittersweet portrait of village life and the wider world that beckons beyond, it is also a thoughtful meditation on the way loss and love shape not just a person, but a community. Mariana Leky's What You Can See from Here is a charmer―a moving novel of grief, first love, reluctant love, late love, and finding one's place in the world, even if that place is right where you started.

This spectacular pause-resisting novel is part war story, part love letter to small-town America and the people who live there, and it features one of the most compelling and surprising duos in King fiction, who set out to avenge the crimes of an extraordinarily evil man.

THE MURDER OF MARION MILEY is the novelization of the 1941 murder of a nationally beloved ladies golf star. This novel has been described as Sea Biscuit meets In Cold Blood and The Lovely Bones . In the early morning of September 28, six shots ring out on the otherwise quiet grounds of the Lexington Country Club. As dawn breaks, news spreads that golf champion Marion Miley – winner of every US women’s amateur tournament save the National Title – has been brutally murdered. A giant manhunt begins, and a flood of support pours in from around the country to bring the killers to justice. Bell’s novelization of the Kentucky murder, which hit headlines across the world, captures the chaos of the first three weeks following Marion’s death, and then oscillates between three voices through the sensational trial: Marion’s father, Fred; her best friend, Fritz; and the first man to confess to the crime, Tom Penney. Marion's determination and success against the odds, as the daughter of a golf pro competing against high society darlings, endeared her to everyone who crossed her path, including jazz crooner Bing Crosby. Young Marion’s high-flying ambition and her killers’ low, scheming tactics explore the impact of class, family, and opportunity.

Take Your Leadership to the Next Level With This Award-Winning Business Book Winner, 2018 Foreword Indies, Adult Nonfiction/Career Award Finalist, 2018 Best Book Awards, Business/Careers Winner, 2019 International Book Awards, Business/Careers Winner, 2019 Discovery Award, Best First Book/Nonfiction Honorable Mention, 2019 Eric Hoffer Book Award, Business Strategic leadership is essential to business success: Strong leaders are those who successfully navigate a great shift: from tactical doer to strategic leader. Regardless of your industry, line of business, or sector, your organization desperately needs strategic leaders. A strategic leader is tuned in to the needs of the business, understands how his or her actions impact corporate objectives, and uses data to make smart decisions. Whether you're leading a department team or running your own company, a strategic leader clearly propels business performance. Building a ladder to strategic leadership: Stephen R. Covey famously explained strategic leadership via the metaphor of workers clearing a jungle. The strategic leader was able to climb a tree and tell everybody they were laboring in the wrong jungle. In this book you will start out on the jungle floor and build a ladder to give you that strategic view over the tops of the trees. You'll learn how to: Develop your strategic skills Set meaningful direction Build a strategic plan Make decisions to win Proven approach to strategic leadership: You'll get the training straight from the personal career journeys of two business women who have decades of experience and education. They come together to create a proven approach to understanding the big picture of what your organization is trying to accomplish and how to be an effective leader.

He’s got all the right moves to fulfill her every fantasy . In Sundance, Wyoming, you can’t throw a boot without hitting a McKay cowboy, so Ben McKay is used to fading into the background. Except at The Rawhide Club, where he’s known as Bennett, an imposing Dom surrounded by female subs eager for the attention of his long…whip. At her first visit to The Rawhide Club, businesswoman Ainsley Hamilton is amazed by how well Bennett read her every secret yearning. Since the club was in another small town, she thought she was safe exploring her darker desires. She's stunned when she and Bennett come face to face in Sundance. Now Ben’s urging her to explore her submissive side outside the club, and there’s something in his commanding gaze that makes it too easy to let him take the reins. Can Ben help Ainsley overcome her fear that a relationship built on physical pleasure won’t last and prove he’s not just another heartbreaker in a cowboy hat?

"The perfect combination of sweet, sexy, and make-you-grin moments." - Lyssa Kay Adams, author of The Bromance Book Club "An ode to everything we love about rom-coms." - Alexis Daria, author of You Had Me at Hola In her trade paperback debut, Melonie Johnson brings her signature humor, sexy romance, and strong female friendships in this hilarious romantic comedy about finding perfectly imperfect love, Too Good to Be Real . She plans to prove there's a dozen reasons why life isn't like a romantic comedy, only to discover the one reason it is… While her friends wish for meet cutes worthy of their favorite rom-coms, Julia is ready to give up on love. Swiping right has replaced getting swept off your feet and good old-fashioned romance has become, well, old-fashioned. A writer for a popular website, love becomes the last thing on her mind when impending layoffs threaten her job. As Julia searches for the ultimate pitch to impress her boss, she stumbles upon a resort offering guests a chance to live out their romantic comedy dreams. Real life dating is so bleak, who wouldn't want to spend a week in a fantasy rom-com world with your best friends? At the resort, Julia literally falls into a not-quite-meet-cute involving an aggressive seagull and an adorably awkward guy named Luke who is also participating in the rom-com experience. Julia hides the fact she is there to do a story, but Luke harbors a few secrets of his own. Among further encounters with thieving seagulls, a gaggle of corgis, kisses in the rain, and even a karaoke serenade, their feelings deepen quickly. But could their love be real when they haven't been honest about their true identities? Once the fantasy is over, can they have a relationship in the real world?