speakandbeHeard

After a devastating shark attack takes everything, the world-renowned piano prodigy, Alice Gannoway, moves to the scene of the crime with her family to face reality and move on. But nothing is the same, and nothing will ever be the same.For starters, she unwittingly becomes entangled in the complex life of Noah White, the beach local who saved her life. He's the opposite of an open book, and yet Alice can't stop herself from flipping through the pages. Soon she's caught hook, line, and sinker, and there's nowhere to go but down.But when secrets unravel and facades break, Alice finds herself amidst a scandal and a crisis large enough to consume her entire being. If she ever wants to move on and be happy, she'll have to suck it up and do the unthinkable.She'll have to face the truth.…

speakandbeHeard

(TH#8) "The thing about pain, is, everybody suffers different. Everybody is always hurting. And nobody ever wants to do anything about it."After the accident that changed her life forever, all Ruby Harding wants is to disappear. And then her mother puts her in a camp for the socially inept, and it's the last thing she's able to do. But when her past comes back to haunt her, Ruby has to fight tooth and nail to keep it from defeating her again, even if it means confronting the very things that keep her up at night. However, along her journey of faith and healing, Ruby stumbles upon a truth that threatens everything she's believed for the last two years. A truth so large and so dangerous it stands to change the entire game. With a free-spirited Skyler Richardson by her side, Ruby delves back into the past in an attempt to uncover what truly happened that fateful night. Unfortunately for her, the reality is something not everyone is ready to face.And her problems are only beginning.…

speakandbeHeard

*Short sequel (sequella?) to Hayley* "Well, if you stop coming within breathing distance of death, then I'll stop playing hero." -Jason…

speakandbeHeard

There's nothing more depressing than finding yourself alone on Christmas, but that's exactly where Holly Watkins finds herself. And she's not the only one. Ben Harrington, the mysterious recluse across the hall, is also decidedly alone, and even if it's just by singing Christmas carols, Holly is determined to make the holidays a little bit better for the both of them.All she has to do is convince him there's something worth celebrating.…

speakandbeHeard

It's been six months since Ellie's faked death, and nothing anymore is as it seems.Her sister is power-hungry, her father is satanical, and her mother is obsessive.Time is running out to stop her father's mission of spreading his genetically-modifying virus, but with the Prophets to worry about and a world that thinks she's dead, there's so much else to take care of first. However, as she finds out, she can't do it alone, and she can't do it as the unfeeling killer her mother is trying to make her. So that leaves only one option.Ellie risks everything by running away, but together again, her and August may just find a way to stop her insane family.If they don't die first, that is.…

speakandbeHeard

(Ellie Armstrong Trilogy Book #2) After finding out she has a colder, much deadlier twin sister, Ellie Armstrong is once again in hiding, trying to figure out what to do next. But Angel doesn't promise to make things easy, and as the stakes rise higher and higher, Ellie finds herself pressed for time to seek out her twin and put an end to the carnage. Until then, however, she has to deal with a few problems of her own, including the repercussions of a reticent sister, stunted emotional capabilities, and an intense, growing attraction to August Masterson. Between personal problems and familial problems, Ellie's got a lot to deal with. But nothing can prepare her for the last decision she has to make.And she might have to pay the ultimate price.…

speakandbeHeard

"We love when we are hurt, when we are sad, when we are happy. We love when it seems like the only thing to do. We love when it makes no sense. We love because we want to find somebody with an emptiness that matches ours, so we can be whole again. But most of all, we love because deep down inside of us, we believe the more love we give, the more we spread around, can somehow liberate this world from evil and misery. And maybe it can. Maybe it can't. The only solution I can see is to keep on loving, every day, all the time, and see where it takes us."A compilation of True Heart series one shots.…

speakandbeHeard

(TH#1.5) "They live inside us all, those little demons clawing and ripping their way up your body. Normally, you can hold them back. You can box them up. But sometimes, sometimes, you lose. Everybody loses eventually. Eventually, everybody falls to them."After the suicide of her mother, clinically depressed Jemma Knight finds herself shipped off to start over in the quaint town of Heart, North Carolina. Alone and grieving, it's the last thing she wants, but probably the only thing she needs. Jacob Hall hides his struggle behind a flawless facade. At school he's whoever he wants to be; charming, the star basketball player, confident. At home he's nothing but a forgotten son taking care of a little brother with the help of a nanny that replaces his carefree mother. When an eccentric English teacher pairs the two together on a semester-long project, they have no choice but to get to know each other. Getting along will be the toughest feat, but as they discover, it's okay to be a little broken inside. And it's okay to be a little sad. Because the world is imperfect, and life is imperfect, but that doesn't meant they can't find something close to perfect with each other.…

speakandbeHeard

(Ellie Armstrong Trilogy Book #1)Ellie Armstrong was alive, and that was the problem.She was alive, and different, and for some reason, that made her dangerous. On the run from those who wish her harm, all she wants to do is survive and find answers, and return to normalcy. But when things turn south, she enlists the help of college student August Masterson, and together they embark on a journey that becomes more and more indefinite as they go. And as Ellie finds out, there's something bigger waiting for her, an unexpected secret that changes everything she thought she knew, and the truth that she can never really be normal ever again.…

speakandbeHeard

(TH#7)"Life could be too much like fire. Unpredictable, scorching, and roaring out of your control faster than you could believe."Life isn't perfect. In fact, most of the time, it's far from it. Annie Davis knows this, which is why she's thoroughly divided her life in half, working hard to embrace the flawless side she's created for the world, and the crumbling reality she struggles to hide. All she wants to do is get out and start on her promising journalism career. That is, until she meets Ezra Burns.New and selectively mute, and definitely hiding something, he becomes the big story Annie needs to leave senior year with a bang. But she finds out she may have bitten off a bit more than she can chew, when big secrets are revealed, the chemistry between them becomes undeniable, and she finds out firsthand just how deep the fire can burn you.…

speakandbeHeard

(NaNoWriMo 2013) Is death the end, or just another beginning? Evangeline Walker asks herself this question daily, since witnessing her mother die and nearly dying herself. Her life is falling apart at the seams, and she doesn't know what to do. With the entrance of a man into her life who claims to be be a ghost, things get even more complicated. Evie finds herself tangled in a dangerous world built off grief and fueled by sorrow, where death is never the end. And where your greatest enemy at every turn is yourself.…

speakandbeHeard

(TH#5)"And maybe in the end, in spite of all we said, all we did, all we met, we are only thoughts that evaporate into the effervescent whirlwind of time."Cole Winters is a perfect example of high school done right; star quarterback, good-looking, popular, he has the whole package. Things couldn't possibly go wrong. He lives for the present with no certainty on the future or anything it holds.Grace Loving is terminally ill. She's been cancer-free, but it can't be gone forever. She knows it. Everybody knows it. And it's only a matter of time before she bites it. But to maximize her living expectancy, her parents bring her to a well-known doctor operating a hospital just outside of Heart, North Carolina, where she finds her new home and, ultimately, Cole Winters.It's not love at first sight. It's not even love at fourth sight. But as they're thrown together in odd and unsavory circumstances, it becomes a battle between love and the desire not to hurt or be hurt, and the realization that in life you cannot have one without the other.…

speakandbeHeard

(TH#4)"His mind is a chaotic mess, built of the kind of stuff you read about in a Stephen King novel. He couldn't control his anger any more than I could control my stomach from rumbling when I was hungry. He thought cursing like a sailor at others was morally acceptable, and most of all didn't seem to give a rat’s ass about himself. Any normal person would have stayed far, far away. But me? Well, I wasn't normal.”When Lilia Matthews' argumentative and dysfunctional family becomes too much to bear, she moves in with her grandfather for a summer in Heart, North Carolina. What she doesn't expect? Alec Grey. He's creepy, and dark, and frankly everything Lilia doesn't need to be getting involved with. But he has a few problems of his own. Besides the fact that he's certifiably crazy, he can't remember any of the events that led to him showing up on her grandfather's doorstep. And Lilia's apparent mission? To help him regain those memories. When they clash it's like fire and ice, but as Alec and Lilia find out, it's the craziest moments of all when that fine line between love and hate seems to blur. When you find out maybe going against the world all on your own isn't all it's cracked up to be. And that sometimes, it takes delving into the insanity of another to find the sanity within yourself.…

speakandbeHeard

(TH#3)“'If you can look me in the eye and tell me anybody has ever held you like this, kissed you like this, loved you like this, then I will let you go. I will leave and I will never come back.'And as much as I wanted to say that, yes, someone else had, I would be lying. Because nobody, not one person, had ever cherished me like he did."A father convicted of a murder, and Elsie was there to witness the entire thing. It should have left her scarred and afraid, but because of the help from Sam, a mysterious and kind stranger, she powered through it. He was her best friend, always there when she needed him most . . . Until he left her. Nearly eight years later and as Elsie finds herself stuck in a troubling situation under less-than-optimal circumstances, he suddenly comes out of nowhere again. But something has changed, with both of them. The secrets are heavier, the pain is greater . . . and what was once a friendship has turned into the roots for something more. Something that frightens both tortured souls equally. It's big enough, strong enough, to hold through, if they just acknowledge how much they need it to. Everybody has bruises . . . Some just take longer to heal than others.…

speakandbeHeard

(TH#2)After a traumatic bullying experience and an almost fatal mistake, Emmalyn Hall moves with her family to Heart, North Carolina in hopes the same magic that healed her parents can possibly mend her as well. She moved to forget the memories of that horrible night, but she finds it's not as easy as she thought. Rhys Richardson is a lost soul stuck in an imperfect household. With an estranged mother, a workaholic father, and dozens of women amateurishly filling the maternal role in turn, his life is a chaotic mess. On the surface, they're exact opposites. Deep down, no two people could be more alike. And with that comes undeniable chemistry. But when nightmares from Emma's past come back to haunt her, one question remains: is it ever too late to love and forgive?…

speakandbeHeard

After a tragedy leaves her broken and unable to shift, June West has steadily been trying to put her life back together. But when her pack thinks it will be good for her to spend time away from werewolves, they send her to live with her Aunt Theresa in Miami, Florida. The stay was expected to be normal and cleansing, until strange things start to happen. The family next door is hiding something, and the mysterious and closed-off boy living there stirs a feeling in June she's never felt before. Add to that the heinous possibility there could be werewolves in Miami, and she's gotten herself in quite a mess. So what will she do when, as she's dealing with all of this, the nightmares from her past come back to haunt her? The only difference is this time, she might not make it out alive.…

speakandbeHeard

(TH#1) While struggling to keep the demons within herself at bay, Jemma Knight is having a hard time dealing with the suicide of her mother, the departure of her father, and the welcoming of her Aunt Clara and Heart, North Carolina into her life. Although popular and good-looking, Jacob Hall hides most of his true identity beneath a flawless facade. At school he's who he wants to be. At home he's just the son without a father and a mother who's never home. But when these two kids are stuck together on a project, they find out they have more in common than not.…