Best of
Gothic

2022

Gallant


V.E. Schwab - 2022
    Even the world we live in. And as with every shadow, there is a place where it must touch. A seam, where the shadow meets its source.Olivia Prior has grown up in Merilance School for girls, and all she has of her past is her mother’s journal—which seems to unravel into madness. Then, a letter invites Olivia to come home—to Gallant. Yet when Olivia arrives, no one is expecting her. But Olivia is not about to leave the first place that feels like home, it doesn’t matter if her cousin Matthew is hostile or if she sees half-formed ghouls haunting the hallways.Olivia knows that Gallant is hiding secrets, and she is determined to uncover them. When she crosses a ruined wall at just the right moment, Olivia finds herself in a place that is Gallant—but not. The manor is crumbling, the ghouls are solid, and a mysterious figure rules over all. Now Olivia sees what has unraveled generations of her family, and where her father may have come from.Olivia has always wanted to belong somewhere, but will she take her place as a Prior, protecting our world against the Master of the House? Or will she take her place beside him?

Twilight at Moorington Cross


Abigail Wilson - 2022
    But what if her heart belongs to a third?Brushed cruelly aside by the only father figure she’s ever known and then hospitalized by her arranged husband months before his death, Amelia Pembroke means to take control of her future at last, one way or another. Yet she knows all too well she faces an uphill battle, considering her transient sleeping spells are only getting worse.Cluett’s Mesmeric Hospital has been something of a refuge for Amelia over the past year, even if it didn’t exactly improve her condition. But when her doctor is murdered and her name surprisingly turns up in his will, her options take a drastic turn. She has thirty days to marry one of two named gentlemen—strangers to her—and she will inherit everything from her friend and doctor, Mr. Cluett. One simple decision and all her financial troubles are at an end. The only problem is it’s not a simple decision anymore. Not when she’s falling in love with another man.Ewan Hawkins has received his first assignment as an apprenticed solicitor: to update a man’s will. Finally, a chance to prove to society that possessing a disfigurement won’t hold him back. Thus, he means to do his job well. Of course, he never could have anticipated a murder, nor the strange clause added to the will—nor, most importantly, the charming widow who has found a way to capture his heart.

The Clockwork Girl


Anna Mazzola - 2022
    In the midst of winter, as birds fall frozen from the sky, a new maid arrives at the home of a celebrated clockmaker and his clever, unworldly daughter. But rumours are stirring that Reinhart's uncanny mechanical creations - bejewelled birds, silver spiders - are more than mere automata. That they might defy the laws of nature, perhaps even at the expense of the living...But Madeleine is hiding a dark past, and a dangerous purpose - to discover the truth of the clockmaker's experiments and record his every move, in exchange for her own chance of freedom.Meanwhile, in the streets, children are quietly disappearing - and Madeleine comes to fear that she has stumbled upon a greater conspiracy. One which might reach to the heart of Versailles...

Broken Discipline: A Dark Assassin Romance (The Marked Blooms Syndicate, #2)


Audrey Rush - 2022
    But the only way out was death, and our marriage was a nightmare.Then one day, I woke up in an unfamiliar house. Concrete walls surrounded me like a cage, and a stranger with blue-gray eyes held the chains to my freedom. Finn Carter says my husband sold me to him, but I know he’s lying. The truth is far more violent.Each night, Finn uses my past to control me. He’s completely possessive, forcing me to surrender to his degrading desires, and he won’t stop until I give him my body, heart, and mind.And yet, my mind screams to run. It doesn’t matter if he keeps saving my life; he’s dangerous, and I have to escape. But he will never let me go. Author’s Note: Broken Discipline is a dark romance. It contains disturbing content and a gruesome secret society. Reader discretion is advised.

The Winter Guest


W.C. Ryan - 2022
    Its windows stare down at Harkin and the sea beyond . . .January 1921. Though the Great War is over, in Ireland a new, civil war is raging. The once-grand Kilcolgan House, a crumbling bastion shrouded in sea-mist, lies half empty and filled with ghosts - both real and imagined - the Prendevilles, the noble family within, co-existing only as the balance of their secrets is kept.Then, when an IRA ambush goes terribly wrong, Maud Prendeville, eldest daughter of Lord Kilcolgan, is killed, leaving the family reeling. Yet the IRA column insist they left her alive, that someone else must have been responsible for her terrible fate. Captain Tom Harkin, an IRA intelligence officer and Maud's former fiancé, is sent to investigate, becoming an unwelcome guest in this strange, gloomy household.Working undercover, Harkin must delve into the house's secrets - and discover where, in this fractured, embattled town, each family member's allegiances truly lie. But Harkin too is haunted by the ghosts of the past and by his terrible experiences on the battlefields. Can he find out the truth about Maud's death before the past - and his strange, unnerving surroundings - overwhelm him?

The Mermaid in the Millpond


Lucy Strange - 2022
    But life at the mill is hard and cruel– a far cry from the fresh start Bess hoped for. The only way to survive is to escape, but the mill is like a prison, with no way out. Meanwhile, rumours are spreading about a vicious creature that lurks in the millpond. Bess is sure it’s all nonsense, until one night she sees something stir in the murky water. But is it really a monster that lives in the depths of the pond? Or a creature trapped and alone, just like Bess, desperate to escape?

Anatomy: A Love Story


Dana Schwartz - 2022
    Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry. Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die. When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, the university will allow her to enroll. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books – she’ll need bodies to study, corpses to dissect. Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living, then. But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets. Hazel and Jack work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.A gothic tale full of mystery and romance about a willful female surgeon, a resurrection man who sells bodies for a living, and the buried secrets they must uncover together.

Ill Shadows


Jean NasserJean Nasser - 2022
    It is home to the forbidden Black Sands beach. Rumor has it, no one ever comes out alive. No one ... but them.Jeremy has lived in the Outland for most of his life.Mason is the brother of a convicted criminal.Natalie is the mayor's daughter.Bri just wanted to join the fun.Now, they are locked up in dorm arrest after breaking into the forbidden beach, winning the title of the ILL SHADOWS, the only survivors of Black Sands Shore.A reputation like that sure comes with its advantages, but when they see the girl that died that night alive and breathing, the circumstances turn for the worst. Jasamine is able to communicate with the dead. She watches from the sidelines. She wasn't involved, but because of her powerful gift, she knows more about the truth than anyone else. Five teenagers ...One mistake ...Only one truth ... How will they face retribution while lost in the midst of what happened that night? Don't miss the sequel...SOULS ADRIFT, coming Winter 2023.

Monstress #37


Marjorie M. Liu - 2022
    Trapped in the labyrinth of her mind, Maika begins to unravel the horrific secrets she and Zinn have long kept buried in their memories—secrets that will change her life forever.

The Bone Orchard


Sara A. Mueller - 2022
    The last of a line of conquered necromantic workers, now confined within the yard of regrown bone trees at Orchard House, and the secrets of their marrow.Charm is a prisoner, and a survivor. Charm tends the trees and their clattering fruit for the sake of her children, painstakingly grown and regrown with its fruit: Shame, Justice, Desire, Pride, and Pain. Charm is a whore, and a madam. The wealthy and powerful of Borenguard come to her house to buy time with the girls who aren't real.Except on Tuesdays, which is when the Emperor himself lays claim to his mistress, Charm herself. now—Charm is also the only person who can keep an empire together, as the Emperor summons her to his deathbed, and charges her with choosing which of his awful, faithless sons will carry on the empire—by discovering which one is responsible for his own murder.If she does this last thing, she will finally have what has been denied her since the fall of Inshil—her freedom. But she will also be betraying the ghosts past and present that live on within her heart.Charm must choose. Her dead Emperor’s will or the whispers of her own ghosts. Justice for the empire or her own revenge.

The Alpha’s Mate: Book 1 (The Alpha's Mate)


Bella Lore - 2022
    

Arkana


RuNyx - 2022
    Official blurb and cover coming soon.

The Marquess of Yew Park House


Lotte R. James - 2022
    Inside he’s haunted by nightmares. Seeking sanctuary at his Scottish estate, his peace is disturbed by a new tenant, widow Genevieve de l’Omont. Her beauty and spirit lead to a growing desire that distracts him from his troubles, but as he unravels a mystery from his past, he discovers Genevieve has secrets of her own… From Harlequin Historical: Your romantic escape to the past.Gentlemen of Mystery

The Marquess of Yew Park House (Gentlemen of Mystery Book 2)


Lotte R. James - 2022
    James will be available Feb 22, 2022.

The Haunting of Las Lágrimas


W.M. Cleese - 2022
    Ursula Kelp, a young English gardener, travels to Buenos Aires to take up the role of head gardener at a long-abandoned estate in the Pampas. The current owner wishes to return to the estate with his family and restore the once-famous gardens to their former glory. Travelling deep into the Pampas, the vast grasslands of South America, Ursula arrives to warnings from the locals that the estate is haunted, cursed to bring tragedy to the founding family of Las Lágrimas. And soon Ursula believes that her loneliness is making her imagine things – the sound of footsteps outside her bedroom door, the touch of hands on her shoulders when there’s no one there. Most strangely of all, she keeps hearing the frenzied sound of a man chopping down trees in the nearby forest with an axe, when all her staff are in sight.  As the strange occurrences intensify – with tragic consequences – Ursula questions if there’s truth in the rumours about the cursed estate. The family’s return is imminent – are they in danger? And the longer Ursula stays at the estate, the more she realises that she too is in mortal danger.

The Marsh House


Zoë Somerville - 2022
    But once there, the strained silence between her and her daughter, Franny, feels louder than ever. Digging for decorations in the attic, she comes across the notebooks of the teenaged Rosemary, who lived in the house years before. Though she knows she needs to focus on the present, Malorie finds herself inexorably drawn into the past...July, 1930Rosemary lives in the Marsh House with her austere father, surrounded by unspoken truths and rumours. So when the glamorous Lafferty family move to the village, she succumbs easily to their charm. Dazzled by the beautiful Hilda and her dashing brother, Franklin, Rosemary fails to see the danger that lurks beneath their bright façades...As Malorie reads on, the boundaries between past and present begin to blur, in this haunting novel about family, obligation and deeply buried secrets.

The Age of the Succubus


Nona Limmen - 2022
    Foreword by Chelsea Wolfe.

The Shepherd and the Horned Girl


Breanna Bright - 2022
    The locals know it. They know dark things hide in it. They know the fog is growing thicker...When Ivas enters the fog to find a missing girl, he comes upon the knowledge that something much worse than the monster-filled mist is coming for them all.And it hungers…

The Key In The Lock


Beth Underdown - 2022
    Smoke unfurling out of an upper window and a hectic orange light cascading across the terrace. By day, Ivy Boscawen mourns the loss of her son Tim in the Great War. But by night she mourns another boy - one whose death decades ago haunts her still. For Ivy is sure that there is more to what happened all those years ago: the fire at the Great House, and the terrible events that came after. A truth she must uncover, if she is ever to be free. Brimming with secrets, this lyrical haunting historical thriller is perfect for fans of Elizabeth Macneal, Sarah Waters and Diane Setterfield.

Up from the Downtrodden


Katya MillsKatya Mills - 2022
    The poems within, culled from a period of inspiration and resurgence after more than a decade of hopeless struggling and despair, honor both the darkness and the light. There is a chance, when the two are integrated, to turn what is bitter in life, sweet.‘heavy metals’dissociativestaring at the wall againthey turned up the volumezero calorie heavymetals to defend against theydemons

The Manor House


Jane Holland - 2022
    When Eleanor meets famous young poet, Lyndon Chance, he offers a way to flee her abusive father. In return, she must pretend to be Lyndon's wife. He takes her home to a Tudor manor on the Camel Estuary in Cornwall, where she finds herself in the middle of a feud between Lyndon and his twin brother, Oliver. It's soon clear that the old house hides many dark secrets. But could they be a threat to Eleanor?Now. Taylor has come to idyllic Cornwall to research for her Master's thesis, combining her love for conservation with a personal interest in Chance's poetry. Haunted by her own tragic past, Taylor finds Chance's notoriety fascinating. If only the poet's grandson, Julius, wasn't so determined to thwart her attempts to uncover his family secrets.As Eleanor realises she's out of her depth at Estuary House, drawn to Lyndon like a moth to a flame, Taylor and Julius must fight their own attraction - but could shadows from the past tear them all apart?