Showing results by narrator "James Babson" in All Categories

Alexandra Bouvier is born in Paris in 1900, at the dawn of a new century. From an early age, she is encouraged to think for herself by her enlightened family: her father, a French doctor; her mother, an American nurse; and her maternal grandfather back in the Midwest, a highly regarded newspaperman. Then at age fourteen, her comfortable life is upended as war erupts across Europe. Her parents follow their sense of duty to the front, performing triage at a field hospital and confronting the horrors of poison gas and trench warfare.

Born to a French mother and American father, graceful Dahlia de Beaumont has been sole owner and CEO of the venerable family perfume business based in Paris since her early twenties, following the death of her parents. For twenty-five years, after losing her young skier husband in an avalanche, her life has centered on running Lambert Perfumes and being a devoted single mother to her four now-adult children: indecisive Charles, volatile Alexa, kind-hearted business visionary Delphine, and dreamy artist Emma. 

Allegra Dixon has never felt loved or wanted. Rejected by her mother—a cold, beautiful socialite—and her absentee military father, Allegra's only escape from her lonely existence is through books and her own rich fantasy world. When she marries her childhood sweetheart, Shepherd Williams, it seems Allegra's life has finally taken a turn for the better. But as Shep is pulled into the dark world of military conflict, he is slowly destroyed by the horrors he has seen in combat, and becomes a dangerous man that Allegra doesn't recognize.

Joachim von Hartmann was born and raised in Buenos Aires by his loving German mother, inseparable from his identical twin. When Joachim moves to Paris with his mother in his late teens, his twin stays behind and enters a dark world. Meanwhile, Joachim begins training to be a butler, fascinated by the precision and intense demands, and goes on to work in some of the grandest homes in England. Olivia White has given 10 years of her life to her magazine. A bequest from her mother allows her a year in Paris to reinvent herself. It is then that her path and Joachim's cross.

From the bestselling author of Lost in Time and Quantum Radio comes a new mind-bending thriller: a group of strangers with tinnitus begins seeing numbers—numbers they soon realize are a code that will change the world.

Meredith White was one of Hollywood's most recognizable faces. But a personal tragedy cut her acting career short and alienated her from her family. For the last 15 years, Meredith has been living alone in San Francisco with two trusted caretakers. Then a massive earthquake strikes Northern California. Meredith invites her stunned and shaken neighbors into her mostly undamaged home as the recovery begins. These people did not even realize that a movie star was living on their street. Now, they are sharing her mansion, as well as their most closely kept secrets.

Molly McKenzie's bright personality and on-trend fashion and beauty advice have earned her an impressive social-media following, as well as a shiny monthly paycheck. When her manager-turned-boyfriend tells her of an upcoming audition to host a makeover show for America's underprivileged youth, all her dreams finally seem to be coming true. There's just one catch: She has little experience interacting with people in need. 

After her parents perish in a tragic accident, Cosima Saverio assumes leadership of her family's haute couture Italian leather brand. While navigating the challenges of running a company at twenty-three, Cosima must also maintain the elegant four-hundred-year-old family palazzo in Venice and care for her younger siblings: Allegra, who survived the tragedy that killed their parents, and Luca, who has a penchant for wild parties, pretty women and poker tables.

Even after their breakup, Ellie Davis can’t seem to shake her ex-fiancé. First it was the cheating, then it was the rumors, and now she finds out Jason’s been trying to get his greedy hands on her parents’ property. Where does it end? With revenge, Ellie decides. But she might just need a little help first. Enter Fernley Island’s OddJobs app. When the local boat mechanic she hires sends his nephew instead, Ellie has to readjust her plans to account for Hugh Hartford, who’s handsome, brooding, and only in town for a few days.

Joachim von Hartmann is born into a wealthy Argentine banking family and spends his early years in Buenos Aires. Blond-haired and blue-eyed, he has inherited the looks of his German ancestors, while his twin brother, Javier, could not be more different. Following the death of their father and when details emerge about Joachim’s maternal grandfather’s wartime activity, both boys and their mother, Liese, are cast out from the family. After the years of glamour and luxury, she must raise them alone with no financial support.

He is a killer, a rapist, a monster and knows only pain and survival. That is until the capo's sister walks into his life and changes everything. She's a light who makes his darkness darker; her smile makes his heart turn to ice, and he can't escape the fear her seductive looks instill - knowing it's only a matter of time before he fails again and takes her for himself.

There are two sides to every story, and theirs isn't pretty, but then again, what's pretty about the Mafia? Trace Rooks, that's what. But she wants only one of them, and he'll kill the other before he lets him have her. The only problem is that they're cousins - and she may just be their long-lost enemy. Whoever said college was hard clearly didn't attend Eagle Elite University. Welcome to hell, also known as the Mafia, where blood is thicker than life, and to keep yours, you must keep your friends close - and your enemies even closer.

When the ever-cautious Val Locklier moves cross-country with her son for a secure job, everything she’d planned unravels within the first week. After Val reluctantly agrees to rent an apartment from her best friend’s brother, an unexpected chance at an elite filmmakers’ mentorship ignites fresh hope for a dream career. But as Val’s community begins to expand, so do her insecurities, especially those heightened by her growing attraction to a certain friendly landlord.  

In the streets of Beverly Hills, secrets are the most valuable currency. Meredith Fox, a once-prominent Hollywood publicity agent, has clawed her way back from the brink of obscurity. Now, she’s poised for a comeback, leveraging the dark secrets of her celebrity clients to put herself back on top. But when a routine money drop goes fatally wrong, Meredith finds herself caught in a deadly web of betrayal.

Company spy Ben Calix returns to Paris to find his perfectly ordered world has collapsed. A sniper attack. An ambush. A call for help that brings French SWAT forces down on his head. Ben is out. This is a severance - reserved for incompetents and traitors. Searching for answers and anticipating a coming attack, Ben and a woman swept up in his misfortunes must travel across Europe to find the sniper who tried to kill him, the medic who saved his life, the schoolmaster who trained him, and an upstart hacker from his former team.

A fifteen-year-old girl disappears from a Montana truck stop. The police believe she's just another runaway, not in any serious danger. They're dead wrong. And ex-Special Forces commando Cole Maddox knows it. Though he and the missing girl never met, her grandfather helped him as a boy and now he wants to help the family. However, when Cole sets out to find her, he learns her disappearance is part of a sinister conspiracy far darker than anything he suspected.

Jack Picaro came to America to seek his fortune. But after killing his best friend in a drunken duel, the apprentice gunsmith flees westward, leaving behind children he does not know, Gus and April. As Jack ventures up the Missouri River, he finds unspoiled land where a man can live free - and also be attacked by an Arikara war party. His rifle stolen in the bloody skirmish, Jack sets out alone to reclaim it. His wild escapade ends in a fight to the death with a legendary Crow warrior named Standing Wolf. So begins a fateful epic search across the last frontiers of the untamed West. 

A crew of terrorists storm into a five-star resort in Bozeman, Montana. They want something more than money. And to get it, they are ready to murder innocent hotel guests. But they haven’t yet realized ex-Special Forces commando Cole Maddox happens to be inside.

The wrong answer can cost everything. When brilliant math professor Ivy Reeves receives a cryptic note bearing her name at a crime scene, she's drawn into a deadly game where probability becomes a matter of life and death. Thirteen victims. Complex mathematical puzzles. A killer who understands...

This volume cultivates, for students and teachers in classrooms, as well as citizens in libraries and cafes, a language to deliberate about the possibilities and problems of democracy in America.