Showing results by narrator "Tara Sands" in All Categories

As an assistant publicist in Hollywood, Nicola spends her days (and nights) sweeping up the scandals of singers, movie stars, and TV actors. Fresh from Ohio, she's rapidly discovering the real Hollywood is rotten under its glittering skin. Everyone is a hustler with a hard bottom line and a soap opera sob story. When she breaks her own rules and starts dating a movie star, the Los Angeles scene starts to spill into her own life.

Elizabeth O'Connell has survived one of the worst betrayals a wife can imagine. Finding out that she wasn't the only woman in her husband's life meant the end of her marriage and a year of personal hell. Now she's focusing on her new business and raising her two kids. Carter Hudson isn't part of her plan. When he's introduced to Liz by well-meaning friends, her dislike is instant. But as she spends time with him, Liz realizes she likes having Carter in her life.

Welcome to Hokey Pokey. A place and a time, when childhood is at its best: games to play, bikes to ride, experiences to be had. There are no adults in Hokey Pokey, just kids, and the laws governing Hokey Pokey are simple and finite. But when one of the biggest kids, Jack, has his beloved bike stolen - and by a girl, no less - his entire world, and the world of Hokey Pokey, turns to chaos. Without his bike, Jack feels like everything has started to go wrong. He feels different - not like himself - and he knows something is about to change. And even more troubling, he alone hears a faint train whistle. But that's impossible....

To celebrate her 14th birthday, Sammy’s newly found, long-lost father takes her and best friend Marissa on a cruise. As Sammy navigates her feelings about this new relationship, she and Marissa become involved in another family’s bizarre drama which includes the mysterious disappearance of the wealthy matriarch and suspicious activity by the greedy heirs.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Lily Robbins! In this funny first story in a the Lily series, you’ll meet red-headed sixth-grader Lily Robbins. After receiving a compliment about her looks from a high-powered woman in the fashion industry, Lily obsesses over becoming a model, setting her sights on winning the "model search" fashion show. Overnight, she packs away her rock and feather collection in exchange for fashion magazines and lip gloss - but is God in the middle of this change in Lily’s life? When the unthinkable happens a couple nights before the fashion show, Lily learns a valuable lesson about real beauty.

In the final mystery of this series, one of the bad guys has finally caught up with the skateboarding sleuth of Santa Marina and worse, landed her in the hospital out cold. This time Sammy’s family and friends must solve the crime - who did this to her and why? In a heartwarming, fitting finale the people whose lives she has impacted over the years come together to help uncover the truth and save their beloved Sammy.

Thirteen-year-old Jamie Bunn made a mistake at the end of the school year. A big one. Every kid in her middle school knows all about it. Now, she has to spend her summer vacation volunteering at the local library - as punishment. What a waste of a summer! Or so she thinks.

Once upon a time, Millie, Nora, and Bea were best friends who loved slumber parties, exploring their Manhattan neighborhood, and making fortune tellers with their Magic Markers. Now, in the summer before seventh grade, they haven’t spoken in over a year—thanks to a big fight, the pandemic shutting down their school, and each girl moving away for different reasons. The girls routinely check each other’s social media, but none of them can muster the courage to reach out, even if they might want to.

Mila has been running for her life for so long. But that was before she betrayed Hunter, the boy she'll always love, and before she discovered she was an incredible danger to anyone who dares to get close to her. Now she's gone into hiding with friend and tech expert Lucas. But when Mila discovers that her enemy, General Holland, is an even bigger threat to humanity than she is, she must make a choice: either push aside her fears and fight him with everything she's got...or turn her back on the world forever.

Haven Equals Safety. This slogan is emblazoned on the minds of every Haven employee. But for Glory, life inside Haven is anything but safe. Most of all, she must keep her special "Deviant" gift - the ability to kill with her eyes - a secret from those who would want to expunge her. Far from her family, Glory faces danger at every turn as she trains to be a Compliance Officer - to terminate her own kind - while she works undercover to rescue as many Deviants as she can.

Five years have passed since Angie Favorite’s mother, Laura, disappeared without a trace, and Angie still hasn’t recovered. Sure, things look normal on the surface — she goes to school, works her summer job, and argues with her older brother Jason — but she can’t shake the feeling her mother didn’t leave by choice. Angie’s dad does the best he can, but his work as a musician keeps him on the road and away from home, where it’s up to Angie’s grandmother to keep an eye on the kids. She can’t be with them all the time, though, and so Angie is alone when she’s snatched from a strip mall parking lot by Scott Bittner. Angie narrowly escapes, and Bittner is arrested, but he takes his life in jail before he can offer an explanation for his crime. When his mother makes contact, begging forgiveness on her son’s behalf, Angie agrees to meet with her in hopes of finding answers to the seemingly random attack. But when she arrives at the massive Bittner estate, she is overcome by an unshakeable sense of foreboding… Part thriller, part coming-of-age tale, Favorite is an engrossing young adult novel in which nothing — and no one — is as it seems.

Who ever said being nice would get you to the top? Certainly not Alexandra Miles. She isn't nice, but she's more than skilled at playing the part. She floats through the halls of Spencer High, effortlessly orchestrating the actions of everyone around her, making people bend to her whim without even noticing they're doing it. She is the queen of Spencer High - and it's time to make it official.

Virginia "V" Dunn is alone when her dog is hit by a car. Lucky's back leg is shattered, and when she comforts him, his blood is wet on her hands. Suddenly the monotony of V's suburban life dissolves: Lucky is in a cast; her best friend, Eileen, is avoiding her; her mother's drinking is getting worse; and her father is sick with a mysterious illness.

Lifelong rivals Natalie and Reid have never been on the same team. So when their school’s art budget faces cutbacks, of course Natalie finds herself up against her nemesis once more. She’s fighting to direct the school’s first ever student-written play, but for her small production to get funding, the school’s award-winning band will have to lose it. Reid’s band. And he’s got no intention of letting the show go on.

Thirteen-year-old Gabby Woods is looking forward to another summer vacation at her family’s lake house, even though she would rather bury herself in a mystery novel than make new friends. But soon Gabby befriends Paige, a snarky kid from Chicago, and they get caught up in a local mystery: the sudden disappearance of a glamorous couple and the extravagant lake house they left behind. To gather clues about the missing couple, Paige coaxes Gabby into trespassing, even though she knows it’s wrong. Yet, each sneaky visit to the abandoned lake house uncovers new mysteries.

Lucy Clark has had it. After being bullied one too many times, Lucy retaliates. But when the fallout is far worse than she meant it to be, she gets sent to Manhattan to serve as a full-time companion to the eccentric Edith Fox. Edith is glamorous and mysterious - nothing like Lucy expected. Though Edith’s world of hidden gardens and afternoon teas is beguiling, there’s one other thing about her that makes her unlike anyone Lucy has ever met...she thinks someone is trying to kill her.

In this 15th book about the irrepressible Sammy Keyes, she deals with the zaniest character to come out of her town yet - Justice Jack, Santa Martina's very own superhero. Dressed in spandex and a mask, he drives around on a dirt bike hoping to fight crime. Though everyone else seems taken with Jack, Sammy's not so sure and now that she has a real mystery to solve her detective skills are pushed to the limits by Jack's antics.

While serving school detention in the soup kitchen at St. Mary's Church, Sammy finds herself the prime suspect in the theft of Father Mayhew's ivory cross. But there have been other robberies at the church recently, and as Sammy attempts to discover the real thief, all the suspects appear to be religious figures who are above suspicion. That is, until Sammy cuts through disguises to uncover an enormous heist!

Sammy and her friends are startled when they interrupt what seems to be an attempted murder on Halloween. While trick-or-treating at a spooky old, house, they find the door open, and inside a man is tied to a chair while a fire rages on the floor. A robbery? But what valuable could be missing from the home of a reclusive old man?

It's Christmas, but leave it to Sammy Keyes to find trouble even in the midst of the holiday parade. Trying to help a friend, she reluctantly volunteers on the Canine Calendar float, only to have the famous cover dog dog-napped on her watch! The animal's owner orders Sammy to find the dog before the $50,000 ransom being demanded comes due.