Showing results by narrator "Michelle H Lee" in All Categories

Taking an analytical approach to Hogwarts's irascible, protective Potions professor, author Lorrie Kim presents a closer look at how Dumbledore's double agent operates behind the scenes throughout the Harry Potter series. By examining the story from Snape's point of view, this in-depth exploration pierces the defenses of the wizarding world's famed Occlumens, revealing the man for who he truly is: one of pop culture's most memorable heroes.

1506, Joseon. The people suffer under the cruel reign of the tyrant King Yeonsan, powerless to stop him from commandeering their land for his recreational use, banning and burning books, and kidnapping and horrifically abusing women and girls as his personal playthings. Seventeen-year-old Iseul has lived a sheltered, privileged life despite the kingdom's turmoil. When her older sister, Suyeon, becomes the king's latest prey, Iseul leaves the relative safety of her village, traveling through forbidden territory to reach the capital in hopes of stealing her sister back.

Hazel wants a new life. She’s thirty years old, single, and her private investigation business is months away from folding. Her luck takes a turn when Madeline Hemsley, a mysterious socialite, pays Hazel a visit with an offer too enticing to resist. An orphan girl has disappeared from a children’s home—The Orphanage By The Lake, as the locals call it—and Madeline wants Hazel to find her.

For twenty-four-year-old Jane, finding love in New York City is even harder than making it as a playwright. So, when Jane meets Colin, a sweet software engineer, she can't believe her luck: they're perfect for each other. Even when Colin breaks off their blooming relationship after six dates, Jane is certain that this is just a stumbling block. She'll get him back. She knows she will. That is, until Colin starts dating Zoe, a perfect, luminous, up-and-coming Brooklyn artist.

In a race to stop an ancient evil from destroying the worlds as they know them, Sunny comes to a startling, heartbreaking realization: if she chooses love—everything will burn. Sunny Cho aspires to be the dullest, least interesting person in any given room, which can be challenging for a nine-tailed fox spirit. So she drifts from city to city—staying clear of any and all attachment—and keeps her fox buried deep inside her. It is better this way. She would rather live as half of herself than risk losing control of her terrible powers.

1758, Joseon. There are few options available to illegitimate daughters in the capital city, but through hard work and study, eighteen-year-old Hyeon has earned a position as a palace nurse. All she wants is to keep her head down, do a good job, and perhaps finally win her estranged father's approval. But Hyeon is suddenly thrust into the dark and dangerous world of court politics when someone murders four women in a single night, and the prime suspect is Hyeon's closest friend and mentor. Determined to prove her beloved teacher's innocence, Hyeon launches her own secret investigation.

Inspired by the life of Easton’s grandmother, White Mulberry is a rich, deeply moving portrait of a young Korean woman in 1930s Japan who is torn between two worlds and must reclaim her true identity to provide a future for her family.

A reborn beauty is already turning heads at school! The old Hero-King Inglis was thrown far into the future, reborn as a beautiful girl. Now, together with Rafinha, her lifelong friend, and Leone, an aspiring knight the two met on their journey to the capital, Inglis studies the ways of war at the royal knights' academy—where she's turning heads with her battle prowess more than for her looks! School life isn't all about making new friends, though, as she hears rumors of a Rune-Eater that targets knights.

Emery Jung is living his dream. Known by his stage name M, he is loved by millions of fans around the world as a member of the rising K-pop group NEON. But all fame comes with a cost, especially when one slip-up can have viral consequences.

You Belong Here offers a new framework that allows each of us to define how we want to be seen, heard, and valued on our own terms so we feel a sense of belonging in any situation. Further, it serves as a launchpad for organizational leaders and culture builders to create safe spaces for individuals to show up as their authentic selves. Listeners will explore our four identities: Our Lived Identity is made up of the aspects of our identity we inherit when we are born into the world.

Hazel has everything she wants. Business is booming at her boutique private investigation firm. She's dating the man of her dreams. Even her perpetually skeptical mother seems impressed. Then the NYPD finds a beloved neighborhood priest dead along with a mysterious red letter. Hazel investigates the murder as a favor to an old friend and discovers that the priest wasn’t the only recent murder victim to receive a red letter...and one victim has ties to a psychopath from a past life that Hazel thought she had buried.

Fighting to survive is a way of life for 17-year-old Everly. After years living on Seattle’s streets, she is so close to finding a home and saving her best friend from losing her life to drugs the same way her mom did. But when Everly breaks her number one rule to save an enemy, her carefully laid plans are derailed when she’s kidnapped to the land of Faery. According to the mysterious stranger who saves her life, the portal won’t reopen for six weeks. To stay alive, Everly reluctantly joins his band of rebels fighting against the evil queen.

After everything they’ve been through, Oliver and his mom finally have a place to call home. But Oliver’s fresh start feels more like a dead-end at his fancy new private school, where kids fly in on helicopters, wear the latest and most expensive sneakers, and go on luxury vacations. Oliver is only there because his mom’s the school custodian. Oliver wishes his life could be easier. And then one day, after slipping a wish into a mysterious mail slot, it suddenly comes true.

Jae-Young has just left everything she’s ever known, not that it was much: her thankless job, her infested apartment, and her abusive boyfriend—who happens to be dead on the kitchen floor. Murder was never the way she envisioned leaving, but times were desperate. Now on a train to the bustling city of Seoul, Jae-Young is hoping to escape her transgressions and just become invisible—safe. On the train, she meets a chatty mother fleeing with her infant son from an unfaithful husband and hoping to find refuge with the in-laws she’s never met.

From his deathbed, Hero-King Inglis, the divine knight and master of all he surveys, gazes down on the empire he built with his mighty hand. Having devoted his life to statecraft and his subjects' well-being, his one unfulfilled wish is to live again, for himself this time: a warrior's life he'd devoted himself to before his rise to power. His patron goddess, Alistia, hears his plea and smiles upon him, flinging his soul into the far future.

Can’t I Go Instead follows the lives of the daughter of a Korean nobleman and her maidservant in the early 20th-century. When the daughter’s suitor is arrested as a Korean Independence activist, and she is implicated during the investigation, she is quickly forced into marriage to one of her father’s Japanese employees and shipped off to the United States. At the same time, her maidservant is sent in her mistress’s place to be a comfort woman to the Japanese Imperial army. Years of hardship, survival and even happiness follow.

Nineteen-year-old never-been-kissed keyboardist Paisley Kim has gotten good at hiding things, including the panic attacks she experiences before she steps on stage with her high-profile band, The Painted Daisies. To her bandmates, she’s still the baby, the one who needs protecting. But to troubled bad boy Jonas Riccoli, she’s the hope for a future he never thought possible, and he’s much more than a boy she befriends at the studio. But their long-awaited reunion and the ensuing sparks are destroyed when Paisley’s sister is found murdered.

Inglis and her friends decide to protect Ripple at the academy until the problem of her attracting magicite beasts is solved. As the academy's elite are gathered, Inglis makes the acquaintance of a young man who's the only current student with a special-class Rune and a Runeless girl who shows exceptional strength. Inglis is already feeling great as the number of strong people around her continues to increase, and when she hears of a Steelblood plot to assault the palace, that same excited grin is back on her face.

With the hieral menace Ripple now safe and the school in a reconstruction phase, Inglis—former hero—king and current talk of the town—is summoned by the king himself to the palace, where she's offered a promotion to captain of the Royal Guard! This leap up the ranks is as unconventional as it would be desirable to almost anyone else, but Inglis turns it down as a matter of course, preferring to someday fight on the front lines.

Claire Pedersen and her husband are relocating from NYC to the Catskills—they have found a terrific deal on a property in foreclosure. The house has been in April Ives’s family for three generations, but the single mother of three children from two different fathers needs the money. Claire and April are instantly antagonistic, but the sale proceeds, and renovations begin. Soon after, Claire’s husband develops an erotic fascination with Anna, a young member of a nearby religious community called The Eternals. Two marriages—and one pregnancy—swiftly and dramatically end.