Showing results by narrator "Alyssa Smith" in All Categories

Three weeks before Christmas, the little town of Chug Water in Wyoming Territory is stunned by a brutal crime. The mayor's family has been slaughtered in cold blood on their ranch outside of Raw Hide Butte. As the townsfolk gather to pay their last respects, Duff MacCallister saddles up to go after the killers. He returns with two outlaws - a cold-blooded, nasty pair of snakes, Jesse and T. Bob Cave. 

Isabella Frank is spiraling. Recent traumas have triggered episodes of depression and anxiety, causing her to feel that not only has she lost her way, she’s lost herself too. The only thing giving her hope for better days is her regular meetings with her therapist. However, that sense of hope is ripped away when police handcuff her. Confused, disoriented and surrounded by blood, she is accused of a murder she’s positive she didn’t commit. But how can she defend herself if she blacked out and doesn’t recall anything? Blackout Girl is a psychological thriller and the author’s debut novel.

She wakes up in a hospital bed, her mind a foggy, empty void. She remembers nothing—not how she got there, not even her own name. Beside her sits a man with a steady gaze and a warm touch. He says she’s safe, that she just needs to rest, and the memories will come back.

In Hangtree, Texas, any day could be your last. For on the heels of the Civil War, Hangtree is drawing gamblers, fast women and faster gunmen. Amidst the brawls and shooting, the land-grabbing and card-sharking, two men barely hold the boomtown together: Yankee Sam Heller and Texan Johnny Cross. Heller and Cross can’t stand the sight of each other. And Hangtree needs them more than ever. A Comanche named Red Hand leads a horde of warriors on a horrific path of bloodshed and destruction, with Hangtree sitting right in Red Hand’s path. 

As the city that produces the most selium - that precious gas that elevates airships and powers strange magic - Hond Steading is a jewel worth stealing. To shore up the city's defenses, Detan promises his aunt that he'll recover Nouli, the infamous engineer who built the century gates that protect the imperial capital of Valathea. But Nouli is imprisoned on the Remnant Isles, an impervious island prison run by the empire, and it's Detan's fault.

The glaciers of the Sierra Nevada are melting, destroying the habitat of the mastodons, creating the rich land that will become California. The coastal people struggle to understand the changing world around them: their seer Sunchaser has lost his way to the Spirit World and mammoths continue to disappear. When a beautiful woman arrives, fleeing from her abusive husband, the people know what they must do - for if the Spirits are already taking the animals away, what will happen if they shelter a stranger? 

Wagon boss Hugh Hitchcock knows the cowboy life better than most: In 1883, if you’re a cowboy, you can’t own a cow and you are stigmatized as a drunk. Worse, you are exploited by the wealthy cattle owners who fence the range, replace traditions and trust with written rules of employment, refuse to pay a livable wage, and change things “that ought to be left alone”. The cowboys working in the Canadian River country of the Texas Panhandle decide to fight back, to do the unthinkable: Go on strike.

Clint Conner took the horse only to stop a man from mistreating it, but a vengeful judge sentenced him to six years. Quietly serving his time, Clint suddenly finds himself free after he's swept up in a daring jailbreak. Now a fugitive, Clint Conner will need courage, cunning, and cold-blooded ruthlessness as he rides the lawless prairie. But before Clint can escape to the hills of Montana, he'll have to outgun Sioux Indians and malicious outlaws, and face a final showdown with a marshal determined to bring him back as a prisoner - or a corpse.

All parties converge on the capital city, Triah - Cinzia and the Odenites to establish their new religion and appeal against a charge of heresy; Knot and Astrid to find answers in the vampire girl's past; and Winter has come to conquer the city, at the head of a tiellan army. But Winter is still struggling with her addictions and anger; Knot's efforts to be reunited with her can only lead to disappointment. Cinzia can't free herself from a terrible bargain. As the battle lines are drawn, the true nature of the goddess Canta, and the Odenites' final purpose, will soon be revealed....

Emma sees things she can’t explain—visions soaked in blood, flashes of violence she swears she didn’t commit. But when one of her hallucinations mirrors a real murder, she’s forced to confront the terrifying question: What if the killer she’s seeing… is her? Struggling to stay grounded in a world that feels increasingly unreal, Emma begins to unravel secrets buried deep in her past—ones her perfect family never meant for her to uncover. As her grip on reality slips, so does her ability to tell dream from memory, fiction from fact.

It took me too long to wake up. I let life drag me, beat me, break me. I walked into hell with open arms, made choices that chained me to the worst consequences. Then I had the nerve to feel sorry for myself, as if I wasn't the one who put myself there. I was. This wasn't fate. There was no grand design, no cruel god twisting the knife. It was me. My own hands built the prison I rotted in. And the worst part? I let it happen. I let myself be used. I let myself be broken. I became something less than human. Shame wrapped around my throat like a noose, whispering that I was nothing.