Showing results by narrator "Jasmin Walker" in All Categories

Aunt Octavia would be so proud! Maddy has turned Baby Cakes Bakery—named for her 250-pound English Mastiff, Baby—into a runaway success, and she’s marrying the love of her life, veterinarian Michael Portman. #DreamWedding! Plus the timing couldn’t be better: the country’s biggest bridal expo has come to New Bison, Michigan, and Maddy has secured a spot for Baby Cakes to showcase their cakes. She’s also entered a contest for an all-expenses-paid wedding extravaganza offered by world-renowned wedding planner Serafina.

On Mermaid Day, the mer-queen throws a fin-tastic party! She decorates her underwater castle and creatures of all kinds swim inside to celebrate together. Dolphins dance, narwhals play ring toss, and as night falls, the guests prepare to say goodnight to a mer-mazing day. But are all welcome to celebrate under the sea?

Liv. Reese. Faith. Yes, they are plus-size, curvy, thick, whatever. Point is, they are past sick of society’s relentless body shaming defining them. Liv slays in dance classes, where she shakes off her frustrations as a struggling writer. Introverted Reese avoids “taking up too much space” by staying in the background as Liv’s sidekick. And while diva-cold professional dancer Faith aces countless auditions, she’s “too big” for starring roles. At the end of their respective ropes, all it takes is one more insult … for Liv to suddenly have an idea that will unite them all.

Jordan Peele and Jeff Vandermeer meet The Overstory in comedy writer Allison Mick’s darkly humorous debut eco-horror novel, as a Black woman returns home to the redwood forests of northern California, only to unearth the monsters that lurk among the trees....

From businesswoman…to pregnant queen! Regina Devereaux knew she couldn’t become entangled with Aléxandros. Theirs was a one-time passion. He’s the tortured King of Obsidian Island and infamously steely. So she’s stunned when he proclaims he’ll help her business…if she meets him at...

Every athlete knows what it takes to win. But for players who are teen girls, the stakes are so much higher. In this anthology, the voices of these athletes come alive, highlighting the ferocity of those who are often shunted to the side. From navigating rampant misogyny to forging a sisterhood through sweat or just reveling in the love of the game, the stories in Out of Our League address the phenomenal physical and emotional power of teenage athletes as they compete, persevere, and thrive, on and off the field.

Investigative reporter Rose Howard is exhausted from trying to manage her seemingly perfect life. With her marriage to the man she thought was her one true love collapsing, she desperately needs for one thing to go right. While striving for a promotion to senior reporter, her efforts are interrupted when she learns her former best friend and travel vlogger, Eve Castillo, isn't responding to attempts to contact her at the North Carolina cottage she's reviewing. Rose knows Eve can be flaky and irresponsible. 

Once a child prodigy of puzzles and logic games, Gillian Charles now barely ekes out a living in Los Angeles. With her sick mother facing eviction from her care facility, Gillian can’t say no when her childhood nemesis, Tommy, shows up at her apartment with a $50k offer. All she has to do is return to the place where it all started, where she swore she’d never set foot again: Miscellany.

Two sisters are trapped on opposite sides of reality in this entrancing and deeply moving debut novel that weaves together a contemporary narrative with a parallel fantasy world. One year ago, a tragic car accident killed 22-year-old Laine’s parents and left her 18-year-old sister, Alyssa...

Keely Tucker knows designing a showstopping wedding dress for a movie starlet is the career-making opportunity of a lifetime. But Jacob Chatman has sent her focus into a tailspin! When a blackout leaves her stranded with a rancher she can’t resist, their passion practically sets the sheets on fire. Jacob admires her drive … but is their hookup worth Keely risking her hard-earned ambitions for a life in Texas?

As a newly minted junior professor, Daphne Ouverture spends her days giving lectures on French colonialism, writing her first academic book, and going on atrocious dates. Her small world suits her just fine. Until Sam Taylor dies. The rising star of Harrison University’s anthropology department was never one of Daphne’s favorites, despite his popularity. But that doesn’t prevent Sam’s killer from believing Daphne has something that belonged to Sam—something the killer will stop at nothing to get.

Benched with a career-ending injury, NFL wide receiver Jahleel Walker is forced to return to his hometown of Peachwood Bay, Georgia, during the holidays to heal, despite his rocky relationship with his father. Nothing shocks him more than running into Lucille “Bebe” Gordon.

In the past year, Hasani has learned she’s a witch, been accepted by Les Belles Demoiselles, and formed her own coven—and her YouTube followers for her makeup channel are growing every day. Now that she’s in eighth grade, she’s ready to rule the school with all her witch powers and best friends by her side. But frenemy LaToya is still at Riverbend Middle causing trouble, both magically and socially. LaToya’s determined to befriend every single possible witch at school (and turn them against Hasani), and Hasani can’t help but wonder if she’s got another scheme going

Traffic is piling up, and strange things are headed your way in this new story collection by World Fantasy Award-winning author Tobias S. Buckell. In these twenty-four stories you’ll find inhabitants of a small town who won’t vaccinate against a zombie plague, a lone sentry keeping motorists from stumbling into something ancient and evil, a man who puts stranded ghosts to rest, an ex-soldier traveling the seas who trades his new life of hardship for a return to swords and blood, and many more tales of speculative fiction.

Social media queen-turned-small-town baker Maddy Montgomery, her feisty friends, and her faithful English mastiff know you have to break a few eggs to solve a murder … As Maddy’s wedding day approaches, friends and family descend on the little town of New Bison, Michigan, to celebrate—so...

Wary of love after divorce, Janae Sanders focuses on the best things in her life: her son James and her besties in the Savvy, Sexy, and Single Club. As for romance? Not today, Satan. That is, until high school heartthrob Adam Henderson crashes back into her life at their 20-year reunion. Sparks fly, but just when Janae considers dating again, the new superintendent of James’ school district slashes his beloved arts program. Instead of getting her groove back, Janae gets her protest on.

Trillionaire Igbal Renz has constructed a starship capable of making the twentyyear journey to Alpha Centauri. So why is he stopping at barely one-tenth that distance, with a cargo of a hundred frozen scientists and diplomats? Rumors abound that Renz Ventures, Inc., has made contact with … something.

JC Burke catapulted straight from film school to Hollywood darling, churning out “Black trauma” films that have made her a household name but at what price? When she abandons the set of her latest production to flee to her hometown Parable, Texas, JC is forced to reconsider the career that made her a superstar, as well as reexamine her deteriorating relationship with her producing partner, Hudson Pyke.

In 1920, as art and writing flourished during the Harlem Renaissance, W. E. B. Du Bois published The Brownies’ Book: A Monthly Magazine for Children of the Sun—the first periodical for African American youth, collecting original art, stories, letters, and activities to celebrate their identities and inspire their imaginations and ambitions. Building upon Du Bois’s mission, esteemed professor and scholar Karida L. Brown and celebrated artist Charly Palmer reimagine the groundbreaking publication with The New Brownies’ Book, gathering the work of more than 50 contemporary Black writers.

Freedom fighter, brilliant businessperson, devoted wife, master of languages, and ultimately, savior of a European dynasty. Claudia Patterson would become all of these—spurred on by the fiercely powerful loves and losses along the way … Denny Clark. An abused thirteen-year-old White boy whose life twelve-year-old Claudia saves—complicating her own life for years to come.