Showing results by narrator "Michael Norman Johnson" in All Categories

The Crucible of War -- A floating asteroid the size of a small planet carving its way through the universe. Eight Cities, a million participants, death, blood, carnage, control. The Crucible is televised across the cosmos and provides entertainment for the The Great Galactic Empire and its Citizens. Every once in a while though it needs it's Contestants replenished. This time around Earth has been chosen. 50,000 humans are to be given the honor. One of those is 52 year old retired Army Master Sergeant, Jebediah 'Jeb' Stone.

This award-winning series from LJ Evans should come with a warning label: Do not listen unless you are prepared to invest your heart and soul. It's about finding yourself and your path on this wild ride called life while overcoming loss, heartbreaks, and illness. It's about family and hope and love. Each book can be listened to as a stand-alone novel but comes with spoilers for the first book in the series.

On the back of his confrontation with the Crimson King, formerly disgraced Crown sorcerer, Ambrose Drake, is sent to picturesque Port Douglas to investigate a curious emergence. Still reeling from his recent elevation to Regional Director, Drake and his companions are confronted by something ancient and hungry which has clawed its way out of the briny depths. Drake must meet this challenge while struggling to control the powerful Sovereign who resides within his flesh, a Hungerborn being that threatens to tip the balance and send Drake and his companions to a watery death.

These stories and more are featured in the third short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, continuing the saga of survival in a world transformed by the arrival of the System. Humanity has adapted to a new reality filled with Classes, magic and monsters, but the struggle for life, love and purpose never ends. This anthology brings together gripping tales from returning authors and two new short stories by Tao Wong.

It's scary how much life can change in an instant. One minute I'm preparing for a new school year in my San Diego town, and the next I'm being ripped from my childhood home. Making the cut from my father's death two years ago that much deeper. Not only am I being forced to leave a place that reminds me so much of him, but I'm being forced to move hundreds of miles across the country to a city I've only learned about through Mom and social media.

I've come to wreak vengeance on the man who killed my parents. My own little brother—an abomination, a snake in the nest. I'm Hazel Fury—a phoenix, a killer—and I'm not leaving this insane asylum until Baz is in a body bag. Someone has to do it and that someone will be me. Bring on your friends, little brother. Bring on death and mayhem—there's no stopping a phoenix. Nothing but you. I'll do whatever it takes. Even if that means using a trickster you can't outmaneuver and the big man himself—Dr. Stein. And don't worry about being lonely in Hell... I'll send your friends there with you.

Garath was a gamer that spent his time adventuring in magical worlds behind a keyboard. He was exploring one of those very worlds when the planet that he actually inhabited became suddenly, and drastically more interesting. The ability to shapeshift into a house cat or summon a demon to serve him were things that were only possible in video games and epic fantasy novels, until they weren't. He may not have had the luxury of a controller or mouse to explore his new abilities, but Garath's dream came true when Earth was fundamentally altered.

I'm a vampire hunter, a legacy meant only to care about killing monsters. But all I've ever cared about is Sebastian. I'm enamored... obsessed. Stalking him and manipulating fate to keep us together. We were assigned to Visamar Academy, where a group of powerful vampires gorge on the rich. I failed him as a partner and he paid the ultimate pricethe worst thing that can happen to a hunter.

"Who did this to you?" my enemy growls. You would think the most wanted criminal kingpin in the country would be too busy racking up bodies to care about the bruise on my cheek, but nope. Here he is, holding my chin, while I pretend his touch isn’t electric. I need to hate him. Scratch that, I will hate him again. The guy decimated my family, and I've been hunting him ever since, determined to make him pay. That one night we accidentally spent together before we discovered we were sworn enemies was great.

I don’t do commitment. And though I swing both ways, I don’t do men either. It’s too messy, too stressful, and just asking for trouble. I’d rather shine bright like the sun than drown in the rain, so I adopt a pounce-and-bounce lifestyle for which my sparkling charm keeps me from being hated. When I show up in Sweden for a semester abroad, I expect a roomie. What I don’t expect is Lars. The storm to my sun.

I was protected by the monsters under my bed when I was a kid in the foster system. I have a feeling I could use them again. My time in the foster system wasn’t great. Maybe they were imaginary, but when things got bad, the boogeyman and an imp always came to my aid. If I needed to run, a beautiful white stag would appear at my window to let me know to get out of there. I’ve touched the stag. I know he’s real.

Arianne Capizola is her father’s daughter. Humble. Hardworking. Honest. She’d rather spend her days helping at the local shelter than brushing shoulders with her vain and entitled classmates. Niccolò Marchetti is his father’s son. Dark. Dangerous. Deceitful. He’d rather spend his days getting bloody in the ring than attending class and keeping up pretenses.

I fell in love with Charles “Double-D” Brothers when I was just 16 years old. He was 19 and had just patched into the Aces High MC in Charleston, SC. The falling in love part didn’t matter though, because our life - our love - wasn’t destined to be an easy one. In the beginning - I was too young, he was too wild, and my family was able to send me away to keep us apart. Later, when I was 20 and he was 23 our paths crossed again. This time he was the one ready for me, but I wasn’t quite there yet.

Jeb, Bose and Bogie fell a bit short at getting through the warren that is the Skull and Bones Territory, an avalanche of Greenskins on their tails. Within a stone's throw to the safe haven that is the Emporium they are cornered. With very few choices they enter a Dungeon that just might be their end. They've grown strong in a short time but are still Bronze while the Dungeon is Iron. Jeb has been punching up his entire life, long before the System but this might test the boundaries of what he can do.

He's a blood stained monster, but one look at her and he knows she will be his. Gaven Belmonte is a cold-hearted killer. A hitman. Now, he's my jailer. Even though he's twice my age, I'm being forced into an arranged marriage to secure Gaven's position as the next head of the Price Family Syndicate.

Dorian Gray’s painting was never in the vault of the library. We currently have no idea where it is and the only person who can track it is probably being held hostage in a storage yard with all kinds of cursed objects. Balthazar’s dick is still cursed and there’s no easy way to remove it. I already made it worse once. I hope it doesn’t fall off this time. I was totally against marrying Reyson when he woke up and announced I would be his new wife, but my resolve on that is starting to weaken. I’m starting to care for the damned god.

I know nothing of the Sickness at Eastpoint University. I know only the backroads that slip past the southern beaches and the gators that make their way onto the swamp's shores. Until him. Until the killer known as Braxton Smalls finds his way into my stilted trailer on the coast of Port Charlotte. He came looking for Ace, but he found me instead…

With more than 10 stories from exciting new voices and a few veterans of the universe, the second anthology highlights the lives and struggles of humanity's best and worst years after system advent.

Darkness always works overtime. It thrives in the depravity of grown men. Hardening hearts and leaving them empty. It destroys everything and everyone it touches. Now it's coming for our innocent beacon of light. Stronger than she knows, but still so fragile. In the fight of her life, all I can do is watch. There's no outlaw justice for what she's facing. No protection from the cold realities of life and death. But there's also no limit to what I would do for her.

From Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling Author M. Robinson comes a coming of age, enemies to lovers, contemporary romance filled with angst and all the feels.