Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker – unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

    Old Dame Groach recruits him as caretaker of her crumbling estate, where he must tend her poisonous garden, beat her white horse daily, and keep far away from the mysterious closet beneath the stairs... and that's only the start of his fantastical troubles! A retelling and shameless embellishment of the French-Canadian folk tales "Scurvyhead" and "Sir Goldenhair."

    A small miscalculation sends her through the roof of an enchanted chateau. Stranded until her broken leg mends, Elle is forced to rely on the good will of the sour chateau owner —the cursed Prince Severin. Prince Severin—the commanding general and staunch supporter of his brother the crown prince—is cursed to look like a beast until a maiden falls in love with him. However, he has given up all hope of shattering the curse after several painful and failed attempts to break it. As such he has only disdain for Elle, leaving her to the devices of his bossy servants. This suits Elle perfectly as she dislikes the entire royal family, Severin included. Unfortunately for the unsuspecting pair, the chateau servants are determined to break the curse and spend the majority of their time pushing Elle and Severin together. After bonding over gardens, animals, and terrifying squirrels Elle and Severin show signs of friendship, and perhaps something more… But not all love stories can end that easily. After all, Elle is not what she seems, and Severin’s life is placed in danger when hostilities flare between his brother and the monarchs of a neighboring country. If they really want the love of a lifetime Elle, a loyal liar, and Severin, an indifferent beast, will have to use every trick they know to survive.

    Each year on Legacy Day, students sign the Storybook of Legends to seal their scripted fates. For generations, the Village of Book End has whispered that refusing to sign means The End-both for a story and for a life.As the daughter of the Evil Queen, Raven Queen's destiny is to follow in her mother's wicked footsteps, but evil is so not Raven's style. She's starting to wonder, what if she rewrote her own story? The royal Apple White, daughter of the Fairest of Them All, has a happy ever after planned for herself, but it depends upon Raven feeding her a poison apple in their future.What if Raven doesn't sign the Storybook of Legends? It could mean a happily never after for them both.

    Play as Hamlet, Ophelia, or King Hamlet--if you want to die on the first page and play as a ghost. It's pretty awesome! Readers can follow Yorick skull markers to stick closely to Shakespeare's plot, or go off-script and explore alternative possibilities filled with puzzles and humor.Each ending in the book is accompanied by a full-color, full-page illustration by one of the 65 most excellent artists working today, so each rereading yields new surprises and rewards. Ryan's prose is, as always, colloquial and familiar but full of clever references, vivid imagination, and only the most choice of jokes. Inventive devices like a book-within-a-book (to mirror Hamlet's play-within-a-play) take full advantage of the gamebook medium and liven up the original story for even the most disinterested of Shakespeare readers!To Be or Not to Be became a sensation when it launched: over 15,000 people backed the book in just one month, and it remains the number-one most funded publishing project ever on Kickstarter.com.To be, or not to be: that is the adventure!

    I like to think of them as poisoned apples. Once you taste them, you will never see fairy tales in the same light again.This Grimm Diaries Prequels are a number of short books in the form of epistolary diary entries. The diaries are more of teasers for the upcoming series: The Grimm Diaries, allowing you to get a glimpse of what to expect of the series. The 6 diaries are told by The Evil Queen, Peter Pan, Little Red Riding Hood, the Devil, Prince Charming, and Alice Grimm The first book in the Series will be out in February 2013, called SNOW WHITE SORROW.Series Description:The Grimm Diaries are pages written in a Book of Sand, where each fairy tale character confessed the true stories once altered by the Brothers Grimm two centuries ago. To keep the truth about fairy tales hidden, the Brothers Grimm buried the characters in their dreams to never wake up again. But the curse was broken and they allowed to wake up every one hundred years.

    Ballard of Ketach Tor holds no hope of escaping his fate until his son returns home one day, accompanied by a woman of incomparable beauty. His family believes her arrival may herald Ballard’s salvation. ...until they confront her elder sister. Determined to rescue her sibling from ruin, Louvaen Duenda pursues her to a decrepit castle and discovers a household imprisoned in time. Dark magic, threatening sorcerers, and a malevolent climbing rose with a thirst for blood won’t deter her, but a proud man disfigured by an undying hatred might. Louvaen must decide if loving him will ultimately save him or destroy him. A tale of vengeance and devotion.

    The wizard has some bad news: the real Arthur has run off with a shepherdess, and whoever pulls the sword from the stone is to become the King of England. Unfortunately for Britt, the sword slides out like butter when she pulls it after fighting with Merlin. Long Live King Arthurs!

    Darcy, she despised him and was sure he felt the same. Angered by his pride and reserve, influenced by the lies of the charming Mr. Wickham, she never troubled herself to believe he was anything other than the worst of men--until, one day, he unexpectedly proposed. Mr. Darcy's passionate avowal of love causes Elizabeth to reevaluate everything she thought she knew about him. What she knows is that he is rich, handsome, clever, and very much in love with her. She, on the other hand, is poor, and can expect a future of increasing poverty if she does not marry. The incentives for her to accept him are strong, but she is honest enough to tell him that she does not return his affections. He says he can accept that--but will either of them ever be truly happy in a relationship of unequal affection?Diverging from Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice at the proposal in the Hunsford parsonage, this story explores the kind of man Darcy is, even before his "proper humbling," and how such a man, so full of pride, so much in love, might have behaved had Elizabeth chosen to accept his original proposal.

    Read all about it in this exclusive Ever After High short story by Newbery Honor author Shannon Hale.

    Little does 'Fina know, her great aunt is actually a Baba Yaga, a magical witch who lives in an even more magical cottage.Summoned to the cottage, Serafina's life takes an amazing turn as she finds herself becoming the new Baba Yaga. But leaving behind home and the boy she loves isn't easy, and as Serafina grows into her new and magical role answering the first question any stranger might ask her with the truth, she also learns about the person she's meant to be, and that telling the future doesn't always mean knowing the right answers.In her inimitable and bestselling way, ED Baker has crafted a funny and romantic story that combines some fabulous details from the original Slavic tale, with an all new spin!

    The complete eBook collection of the New York Times bestselling The Wicked Years series by Gregory Maguire, including Wicked, Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz.

    Robin Hood, the Bold and Brave Outlaw of Sherwood Forest, is cowardly, spineless, and a girl.Robyn unwittingly starts the Robin Hood farce when she is mistaken for a male while saving her friend, Marian, from two foresters. Forced into hiding, Robyn unwillingly collects "Merry Men" while grudgingly robbing from the rich fools that wander through Sherwood. What starts as small scale robbery blows up into complex heists when Little John and Will Scarlet join her team, and the idiotic Prince John and his legion of soldiers comes to town. However, Robyn can't stop the theft—not when King Richard is being held ransom.Cowardly Robyn’s best chance to raise money for King Richard’s release is to rob his brother, Prince John. Will she survive the heist, or swing in the gallows?

    Same two families. The fight to the altar is about to happen. All. Over. Again. This homage to the classic Shakespearean tale of Romeo and Juliet will have readers pining for a star-crossed love of their very own. Now an ABC TV show from producer Shonda Rhimes!

    But Raven has a spark of rebelliousness in her heart and she knows one thing for sure-evil is so not her style. Read all about her getting ready to return to Ever After High in this excerpt from the upcoming book The Storybook of Legends.

    But what if she meets the woodsman of her dreams instead? Read all about it in this exclusive Ever After High short story by Newbery Honor author Shannon Hale.

    Yes, I have a stepmother who is a witch and whom I hate most passionately. Yes, I have two stepsisters that are a pain in my arse and who lost their brains when they were little. Yes, my life is like a cliché from a bloody fairy tale, but you know what is missing? The fucking Prince Charming! And where is he? Nowhere to be found! Probably he’s dancing in his palace with a stupid and empty-headed Barbie. Arsehole. Who needs him, anyways? Certainly, not me. I’m almost Cinderella, but you can call me Ella.

    Cinderella is the evil one in the family and Letty is determined to prove it. Unfortunately, that’s kinda hard to do from behind bars. After the debacle at the ball, Letty and her sister Dru were dragged off to the Wicked, Ugly and Bad Mental Health Treatment Center and Maximum Security Prison. While Cindy’s planning her dream wedding, her two stepsisters are being forced to endure life in the dreariest dungeon in the land.Luckily, Letty has a plan to change that unhappy ending. If she can just get to Prince Charming and prove the glass slipper doesn’t fit Cinderella’s foot, she can reclaim her life. In order to do that, though, she needs to convince The Big Bad Wolf to lend a hand in organizing a jailbreak.Marrok Wolf isn’t sure what to make of the idealistic redhead in his group therapy sessions. With fifty counts of Badness on his criminal record, Marrok’s used to being surrounded by crooks and scumbags. Scarlett wants to lecture him about equal rights for trolls! When the little do-gooder comes up with an elaborate plan to break their entire “share circle” out of prison, though, Marrok is certainly willing to go along with the plot. And not just because he wants to see her naked. The woman may not be wicked, ugly, or Bad, but she’s definitely the only one who can save him.Together with a wicked witch, a timid bridge ogre, an evil prince, and other villains straight out of a storybook, Scarlett and Marrok are about to make sure that Baddies finally have a happily ever after.

    But he may be surprised by what he finds. This brand-new story and perspective from A.G. Howard's dark, magical world stands alone, but also provides a tantalizing glimpse of what's to come in Unhinged, the sequel to Splintered.

     Wren and her brothers, Henry and Max, are orphans. They wish to be adopted, but no one wants to take in all three of them. Wren won’t be separated from her family, but no matter how hard she fights to keep them together, she fears she will lose them nonetheless. She wants more for both of them - for herself. She wants an escape. Prompted by a world she sees in a dream, Wren begins to tell her brothers stories of a place where they can be carefree forever - a place called Nevermor. It is an island at the edge of the universe, where all dreams go. There is a boy who guards it, and he is known only as the Rifter. Wren believes that this place truly exists and desires her own life there, where she can keep her family together without anyone tearing them apart. Wren gets more than she bargained for when she is kidnapped by the arrogant and volatile Rifter and taken to Nevermor against her will. It is not completely unwelcome, however. The land is beautiful and there is freedom. The Rifter and his pack of wild boys accept her, and she feels that her brothers will be happy in this place too. Wren falls in love with Nevermor - and with the Rifter - and yet the more she learns of the conflict between the Rifter and a wicked man called the Scourge, the more she comes to realize that Nevermor is not a place for children. Nevermor is a dark fantasy based on the legend of Peter Pan.

    What happens when he has to hide his real feelings about hunting in the forest-and about a forest maiden, too? Read all about it in this exclusive Ever After High short story by Newbery Honor author Shannon Hale.

    One that will forever alter the course of those she loves...Want to find out what happened to Alice and Hatter after Danika dropped Trishelle off at Hook's feet? Author's Note: This is a companion short story to the Kingdom Series. This is a novelette that bridges the Bad Five storyline to the new Kingdom Series (Dark Princess) storyline .

    She forgets her manners and enters a little yellow cottage belonging to a family of Pink Pandas. She devours their food, breaks Pumpkin’s comb and snores in their bed. Will she remember her manners?

    Now his wife, Galatea is expected to be obedience and humility personified, but it is not long before she learns to use her beauty as a form of manipulation. In a desperate bid by her obsessive husband to keep her under control, she is locked away under the constant supervision of doctors and nurses. But with a daughter to rescue, she is determined to break free, whatever the cost...

    It is a time of war, tyranny and terror. Napoleon Bonaparte wants to conquer all of Europe, and Hessen-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, the Grimm brothers decide to save old tales that had once been told by the firesides of houses grand and small all over the land.Dortchen knows many beautiful old stories, such as Hansel and Gretel, The Frog King and Six Swans. As she tells them to Wilhelm, their love blossoms. Yet the Grimm family is desperately poor, and Dortchen's father has other plans for his daughter. Marriage is an impossible dream.Dortchen can only hope that happy endings are not just the stuff of fairy tales.

    I wanted you to read it as an apology since I have been slow with releasing the rest of the books, but I am working on it:) It includes, Jack, Ladle Rat, Marmalade, Wolfy, Pete, Sleeping Beauty, and and it is narrated by Willie Winkie.

    My other foot followed. I looked back at Cinderella - I mean Gabriella - who watched from the other side of the miraculous door. Behind her, I could still see the sacks of boxes in my grandmother's attic. Gazing into reality while standing in a fantasy was a pretty weird sensation. Then, without warning, the door began to close. I scrambled to grab it, but something seemed to force it shut. Perhaps Gabriella, the supposedly sweet angel, had closed the door herself."Gabriella! Help me!"Seventeen-year-old Brinlee is a modern girl living in Idaho. When she discovers a secret portal in her attic bedroom, she accidentally swaps places with the main character from her favorite fairy tale, cinderella. Lost in Cinderella's world, Brinlee threatens to ruin one of the world's greatest love stories. New mysteries surround the characters of the beloved tale, and Brinlee is determined to uncover the secrets. On

    To teach the villagers that sharing brings joy, they announce they are making soup from stones. This idea is so surprising that the soldiers convince the self-centered villagers to add something to their soup for additional flavor. Their contributions to the water and stones become a delicious pot of soup. Soup-making turns into a village-wide celebration and changes the villagers forever. This retelling of the classic folktale demonstrates community spirit and the joy of sharing.

    This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

    This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

    Republished as a standalone ebook.

    In her quest to find home, she discovers that Charlie might not truly be gone after all, but when she meets Oswin, the prince of Terra Mirum, she must face her own fears and raise an army against The Nightmare Queen, or surrender as the world of dreams is consumed by terror and darkness forever.

    In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.

    From a seemingly insignificant word comes the most magical of fairytales. SUMMARY:Possessing magic sucks.What doesn't suck? Fashion, Cindy's boyfriend Gabe, and her best friend, Snow White.Cindy (Cinderella...shhh, don't tell) was born a witch. It's part of who she is. But there's more to her than that. She loves deeply. And has a big heart. She'd do anything for those she cares about, including risk her own life to save theirs.When her fairy godmother demands she leave Salem, Massachusetts and return to the land she was born to rule, she has two options. Tell her fairy godmother no, and seal a death sentence on complete strangers. Or, leave all she's ever known behind, including the love of her life, for an unknown land she's fated to save.So, yeah, life sucks.But Cindy is determined to change that.The Cindy Chronicles:Witch MagicWitch LandWitch TimeWitch KissWitch LoveWitch EndBooks in the BLOOD AND SNOW world.Blood and Snow: The Complete Season 1Cindy WitchThe Hunter's TaleGabriel: a blood and snow short ~ coming Dec 1After the Kiss (Blood and Snow season 2) ~ coming Winter 2013

    Why couldn't Ryley have bacne, chronic case of nose bleeds, genetic baldness, or uncontrollable gingivitis? Oh no, he had to be perfect in every way. And, that body... Nuff said. It was all I could do to convince my knees not to weaken at the sight of him. Forming coherent words when he spoke my name was dang near impossible. Perhaps if his frontal lobe was a teensy weensy smaller, I might have been able to convince myself that he wasn't so intellectually stimulating. But, he was stimulating,in more ways than one; there was no denying that; no matter how badly I tried to hate him, I couldn't. That made what I was about to do so delightfully horrible that even the wicked Queen of Hearts would be impressed--Alice Mae.

    In this parody of the famous children's book We're Going on a Bear Hunt, two parents set off for a night on the tiles, and encounter a series of watering holes and bars before an alarming encounter with a 'bear' sends them running home to their children.Gillian Johnson is the author and illustrator of the successful Monster Hospital and Thora series for children. Her illustrations bring this story to life, gently parodying the original but adding an anarchic edge as the evening progresses.We're not going on a bar hunt again!

    Unlocking them from the old stories is a way to 'rescue the other half of [their] souls.' And so Sleeping Beauty arrives at the emergency room, Red Riding Hood reaches the car dealership, and Rapunzel goes wandering in the desert - their journeys, re-imagined in this inventive collection of poems, produce other dangers, betrayals and nightmares, but also bring forth great surprise and wonder." —Rigoberto González, author of Black Blossoms Unexplained Fevers, the third full-length poetry collection from Jeannine Hall Gailey, is due for release in Spring 2013 from New Binary Press.

    Published author Michelle Rodriguez brings you 10 more of her most loved stories, previously posted for the “phans”, and a few from her vaults. There is something for everyone on the pages of Manifestations of a Phantom’s Soul, volume 2 as a man seeks to prove he is more than the portrait of his face and that love can transform a soul.

    Jeanette has never gotten over his mysterious disappearance nor has she gone back into the park. While that traumatic night still haunts her, Jeanette distracts herself by balancing her time between trying to pass Spanish, hanging out with her friends, and reading the latest manga.But, when a promise to a friend drives her back into the park, she's forced to re-live the memories of that night. Lost and confused, Jeanette crosses paths with Tamrin, whose violent reaction to her provides yet another reason to avoid the park.Tamrin, a knight of the Summer Court, has been sent to Earth to guard a garden of roses that hold special meaning to the queen of the Summer faeries. When his distraction at meeting Jeanette leads to her picking one of the Summer Queen’s roses, Tamrin vows to right his failure to do his duty. However, the equivalent of one of the queen’s roses is a human heart and Tamrin’s reluctance to readily exact the sum from Jeanette sets in motion a spiral of love, betrayal, and magic that could mean damnation for them both.*This is an Upper YA paranormal romance novel with NA and contemporary fantasy appeal.

    That should be strange enough, but to top it off Ginn’s being hunted by the Order of the Grimoire, a secret society who’ll stop at nothing to harness the power of a real genie. Ginn struggles to stay one step ahead of the Grimms with the help of Rashmere, Guardian of the lamp and the most loyal friend a girl never knew she had. The Grimms are being helped, too—but by whom? As much as she doesn’t want to, Ginn’s beginning to question the motives of her long-time crush Caleb Scott and his connection to her newest, most dangerous enemy.

    Helena survived with triple scars that disfigured her face, and strange tales of a wolf that stood upright and spoke to her.Now at age sixteen, she knows it was no wolf. And it was not alone. A pack of similar animals banded together to kill Francois, the woodcutter who saved her from the first wolf. These creatures now threaten Helena’s family and everyone in the French province of La Rue Sauvage. To stop them, Helena must do things she never planned to do, and become something she never planned to become. Donning a red hood and cloak like the one she was forbidden to wear after the first attack, she arms herself with a repeating crossbow and other assorted weapons. She then wages a private war against the wolves, refusing to stop or slow down until she wipes them out. She only hopes she can somehow defeat the monsters when she confronts them … whatever they actually are.THE RED RIDERThe New Action-Adventure Fairy Tale Thrillerby Randall Allen DunnCome along for the ride.

    The aforementioned dwarf, Rumpelstiltskin, has escaped the Tower prison of Thiside determined to finish the sinister plot he started so many years ago. Robert Darkly, oblivious that he is the son of the Mad Hatter, must partner with the mysterious ‘Agency’ to pursue Rumpelstiltskin across our world and the world of Thiside and uncover the treacherous secret that threatens to throw both realities into eternal chaos.

    In this hilarious parody, poor Mary has one very sleepy, slumbering, snoozing sheep named Sheppard and Mary’s mom is not happy.Can Mary can keep her sleepy sheep awake?Young readers will laugh along at Mary’s zany attempts, as she tries everything from spicy-hot fiestas to water fights. The humor is fast and fun in this easy to read rhyming adventure.

    Drawing inspiration from The Opera Ghost in all his incarnations through book and film; and remaining faithful to key story elements from the classic original, the author weaves a haunting tale of Christine Daae’s companionship with the mysterious Angel of Music. Book One~Orphan in Winter: opens with the tragic death of ten year old Christine Daae’s father, ushering in dramatic changes when she is left in the care of Madame Louise Giry. Christine makes her new home in the The Paris Opera’s conservatory where she encounters a bohemian world of singers and dancers, and where she is visited by the unseen Angel of Music.

    So do mermaids, millers’ daughters, princes (charming or otherwise), even big bad wolves. They may be a bit darker–fewer enchanted ball gowns, more iron shoes. Happily-ever-after? Depends on who you ask. In Wolves and Witches, sisters Amanda C. Davis and Megan Engelhardt weave sixteen stories and poems out of familiar fairy tales, letting them show their teeth.

    . . hot, popular, and proud. She’s. . . plain, eccentric, and persistent.There’s nothing common between them except that they hated each other.Not good, right?But why was he determined to find her, while she was determined to escape him?Twists got turns, fates had entangled. Life had even become harder than before.And their once-upon-a-modern-time story started with a dance.

    Dark fiction sets the stage to explain how each dwarf developed the personality they are known by. The authors of this collaboration are some of the top notch newer or indie authors worthy of reader attention. Although these authors may generally write paranormal, science fiction, crime, steampunk, erotica, fantasy and beyond, together, they tell you the untold tales of the seven dwarfs that will chill your bones and leave you never looking at the storybook dwarf in the same sweet manner again.

    She's hardened, sure, though mostly just wants to fly under the radar until graduation. But her natural ability with computers catches the eye of Z, a mysterious guy at her new school. Soon, Z has brought Liv into his team of hacker elite―break into a few bank accounts, and voila, he drives a motorcycle. Follow his lead, and Olivia might even be able to escape from her oppressive foster parents. As Olivia and Z grow closer, though, so does the watchful eye of Bill Sykes, Z's boss. And he's got bigger plans for Liv…Thanks to Z, Olivia's about to get twisted.

    A Crusader returns from the Holy Land to his home in Nottinghamshire, where he is known as a murderer. His name is Robin of Locksley. Following a youth spent with lowborn friends Robin is determined to settle into the role his father wanted for him: a lord dispensing justice to the county. But a false rumour of his death in the East has stolen Robin’s lands from him, and the country he left only four years before is now crippled by taxation and struggling to maintain the King’s law. It seems Robin must choose between his desire to regain his lost inheritance and his intention to help the commons.In this lucidly imagined and carefully researched recreation of the era of King Richard ‘the Lionheart’, England is torn between the land-owning Norman lords and their English subjects, and it soon becomes clear that Robin can accomplish more outside the law than within it...In this her first novel, Lauren Johnson’s knowledge as a historian brings a vividness to the project, presenting us with an authentic depiction of the sights, sounds, conflicts and furies that defined this era. A story of redemption, loss, romance and adventure, this novel will excite and enthral.Writing and telling stories has been Lauren’s passion since she was a child. Since graduating in History from Oxford University she has pursued her interest in storytelling as Research Manager for a historical interpretation company based at heritage sites including Hampton Court Palace, Dover Castle and the Tower of London. There, she had plenty of practice at immersing visitors in a living historical world – a skill she has now brought to the world of historical fiction.

    Althea, unable to cry, became light with grief and floated, and so was locked away. Digby, so heavy-hearted that he could never smile, one day declares war. Althea, forced out of hiding, escapes, only to encounter the solemn prince on contested land and the warring heirs begin a passionate affair. But for Althea to find real love, she must first face her own deepest fears.

    When a court official suggests paying the soldiers more money so they don’t have to beg for food, the furious emperor is ready to throw him in jail. Now everyone fears saying anything displeasing to the emperor. When two swindlers decide to take advantage of him by selling him invisible clothes with special powers, none of the emperor’s advisors dare to tell him the truth. The emperor parades through the city in his underwear until one young lad is brave enough to speak honestly and opens the emperor’s eyes. In this retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen classic folktale, the emperor learns to value honest advisors, even when the truth is unpleasant.

    But without that single gesture, when Christine turns the Scorpion her life is forever altered. Bound by the vows she made before God and faced with new challenges as Erik's wife, she must learn how to let go of her past and embrace the future she has chosen with a man she simply cannot hate.

    He to be a rogue pirate, roaming the seas with no chance for love, and her to submissively accept the safe but mundane life that has been laid out for her. Yet when fate, and a battle at sea, brings them together aboard the pirate ship called Phantom, everything they thought they knew was suddenly about to change. Join them in a swashbuckling twist on the beloved tale of The Phantom of the Opera, as they find love and adventure on the high seas while battling evil pirates, the French and English Navy, cannibals, mistaken identity and their own stubborn hearts.

    She, for one, is fascinated by the controversial work, until her mother dies and her father marries Anna van Burren, who brings two new sisters into the family. Cindy's misery only grows from there.Following her father’s untimely death, Cindy’s life spirals into darkness as she is forced to become a servant in her own home, to wait on her hated siblings and stepmother. She has become so sequestered that she can’t even let the one man she continues to think about know that she is alive.She met him once in the mortuary years ago - a handsome, curious boy who had been a surprise to her - until she'd discovered who he was. Now a man, Christian is a perfect specimen, and also the object of her step-sisters’ affections. According to a stipulation of his inheritance, he must marry before age twenty-one. That day is fast approaching. Any hope Cindy has of seeing him again – or of salvaging anything that should have been left of her life – seems lost. Cindy's world is filled with misfortune. She believes she must be cursed.It takes the appearance of a strange woman who brings a wicked prophecy before Cindy can see how blessed she could become – and to see what sacrifices were made to give her hope once again.

    When a new boy moves to town in this modern retelling of Sleeping Beauty, he learns that there's a house in the hills that no one has gone into in a hundred years.

    Geared toward children 4-9, the story follows young Peer "into the forest and out the other side" where he finds the mysterious Mountain King's castle and begins a harrowing chase that mirrors the movement of the music it’s based on. The book includes a CD with orchestral performances of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and four other pieces from the "Peer Gynt Suite."”

    These tales represent powers--from invisibility to shape-shifting--which people have dreamed of, conjured up, and strove for through the ages. Many of the powers are present in popular culture, making the superheroes who wield them the direct descendants of characters such as the princess who could see through walls or the invulnerable Isfandiyar.

    The ceremony itself promises to be the most glamorous social event of the decade. Snow White’s castle has been meticulously scrubbed, polished and opulently decorated for the celebration. It is already nearly bursting with jubilant guests and merry well-wishers. Prince Edel, Raven's fiancé, is a fine man from a neighboring kingdom and Snow White's own domain is prosperous and at peace. Things could not be better, in fact, except for one thing: The king is dead. The queen has been in a moribund state of hopeless depression for over a year with no end in sight. It is only when, in a fit of bitter despair, she seeks solitude in the vastness of her own sprawling castle and climbs a long disused and forgotten tower stair that she comes face to face with herself in the very same magic mirror used by her stepmother of old. It promises her respite in its shimmering depths, but can Snow White trust a device that was so precious to a woman who sought to cause her such irreparable harm? Can she confront the demons of her own difficult past to discover a better future for herself and her family? And finally, can she release her soul-crushing grief and suffocating loneliness to once again discover what "happily ever after" really means? Only time will tell as she wrestles with her past and is forced to confront The Reflections of Queen Snow White.

    On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword and follows her brave dwarf retainers into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. This queen will decide her own future – and the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems. Twisting together the familiar and the new, this perfectly delicious, captivating and darkly funny tale shows its creators at the peak of their talents.Lavishly produced, packed with glorious Chris Riddell illustrations enhanced with metallic ink, this is a spectacular and magical gift.

    Since it's MY version, the storyline differs from the classic mythology

    Whenever she asked the dog, cat, and duck to help, they always had excuses. A crisis occurred—a wicked fox captured the goose. When Little Red Hen went to her three friends, they again made excuses, so she went to the next farm, and Brown Dog helped her rescue the goose. Finally, harvest was over and Little Red Hen baked delicious bread which she shared with Brown Dog and the goose. When the scent of the bread reached her three friends, they asked if they could have some. Little Red Hen refused to share her bread with her lazy friends because they refused to share the work. This retelling of the classic tale demonstrates that you should not expect favors if you refuse to work.

    Legend is the wind that drives it. Its place of birth is the Fairy Tale.Richard Bowes' collection of modern Fairy Tales, their Fantasy offspring, and their legendary ancestors presents eight of his stories including “The Lady of Wands,” in which a Fey cop tells her story, that appears here for the first time. Also original to this book is Bowes’ afterword, “A Secret History of Small Books,” which traces the path of Fairy Tales as a refuge for women, gay/lesbian writers, and LGBT readers from the 17th century on.The collection also includes “Seven Smiles and Six Frowns” a story of the evolution of a Fairy Tale; “The Cinnamon Cavalier,” a Fairy Tale variation a critic has called, “The Gingerbread Man, writ large,” and “The Margay’s Children” a modern take on a “Beastly Bridegroom” tale; “The Progress of Solstice and Chance,” with its complex sexual relations and invented pantheon of gods, the outrageous situation and characters of “The Bear Dresser’s Secret,” and the “The Lady of Wands,” set in a fairy/mortal demi-monde; and two Arthurian tales, “Sir Morgravain Speaks of Night Dragons and Other Things” and “The Queen and the Cambion” in which the eponymous queen, though famous, is not Guinevere.

    When she hears an open call for bodyguards for the twelve headstrong princesses, she thinks the job could reverse her fortunes. Unfortunately, her new charges are under a nightly curse, and everyone seems determined to keep the details a mystery--including its victims.Luckily, Bay has a trick up her sleeve. Her imp owes her three wishes, and is desperate to grant them. She's been hoarding his magic for an emergency, but it might be time to cash in: according to a fine-print clause in her contract, if she cannot solve the princesses' curse in three nights, she'll be executed the following dawn.This 9000-word novelette first appeared in InterGalactic Medicine Show in January 2012.Cover elements by Jessica Truscott and Jeannie Ann Numos.

    Discover the real Snow White story through the eyes of Creepy, the unknown 8th dwarf! Meet a teen princess who hires "The Frog Prince" witch to get revenge on a Mean Girl at school! And learn how the giant, boy thief and magic beans tale truly went down! Check out the reviews for the first of the 3 stories (no longer available individually) here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...

    Or do we?Not everyone gets a happily-ever-after. What about the villains? Why were they so mean? And how did they turn out this way?Author Shea Berkley always wondered about the other side of the story. Was the wicked queen stepmother to Snow White always evil incarnate? And was King Thrush Beard, perhaps a lesser known fairy tale, such a mean trickster from childhood? What about the spoiled princess he tries to tame?Pull up a chair and join us for two tales told from the other point of view. The point of view of the Evil Queen and the Spoiled Princess. You might never feel the same way about the stories of Snow White and King Thrush Beard again.

    A young monk keeps getting in trouble with the head of the monastery who thinks the boy can't do anything right. Finally, the young boy decides to turn the tables with the help of a chicken and a little bit of a sticky snack called mieng. What happens next has become the stuff of legend for over 600 years! This is the hilarious tale of cleverness and ingenuity for children aged four and up.

    What, then, drove Alice to dream of bodily distortions and dangerous adults? What is happening in her waking life to cause this darkness? Reimagined using details from Carroll's original work, Jessica Young's collection ALICE'S SISTER focuses on Alice's older sister, Mary, and the trouble she faces--the quiet, shadowy disturbances--that affects everyone around. It seems the rabbit hole goes much farther down than we thought. Employing ambitious writing techniques such as rotating narrators, Young invites us in for the descent. "In this haunted reimagining of a Victorian children's book, wonderland conceals a darker story. Jessica Young writes with uncanny precision about the most occluded reaches of the heart. The breadth of compassion in these poems is all the more remarkable because of the clarity with which they make their case: that innocence is a dangerous fantasy imposed upon the young."--Linda Gregerson "Jessica Young's first collection takes us so far beyond the looking glass, it's a reluctant surprise to return to the world upon putting it down. We have here a young poet fully formed. Her voice is sure when it needs to be, and full of fear and questioning when that's called for. She has invented an entrancing time and place, and peopled it. But, although this collection has some of a fiction's best elements, this is song. Musical, all-encompassing. These poems call up for me all of my favorite poets, but Jessica Young sounds like no one else I've ever read."--Laura Kasischke "If you thought there was nothing else to say about the Alice in Wonderland story, think again. Jessica Young has taken on a detective-poet's role in potent poems of haunting, delicate strength. Read them closely to journey more deeply into the mystery of that classic, very strange book."--Naomi Shihab Nye "Jessica Young constructs a world so lush with characters and character--the red trillium flowers underfoot, the spruce piano keys--that we could be forgiven it we wished to simply linger, for a while, in the detail. But this book is far more than a poetic re-imagination of Lewis Carroll. In a series of striking formal experiments and narrative turns, Young's poetry takes on our dailiness in order to change it imperceptibly, "like a plum sliced/...silently pitted, twisted back/into place, and presented as if untouched, undamaged."--Tung-Hui Hu "I can't remember the last time I read a collection that was, all at once, as brilliantly conceived, as wondrous with language, and as fun to get lost in."--A. Van Jordan

    Bitsie gets caught while getting too curious. When Leo discovers her, Bitsie nearly becomes the lion’s dinner. She offers to help Leo someday if he will let her live, an idea he finds so funny that he sets her free. The tables are turned when Leo gets caught in a hunter’s trap. Bitsie keeps her word and comes to the rescue. Although Leo can’t believe tiny Bitsie can help him, she tries her best. Just as the hunters are about to capture Leo, Bitsie makes one last bite, and Leo bursts forth from his trap. This retelling of Aesop’s classic fable illustrates that great things often come in small packages.

    The story of Sarann has been extracted from Wright's novel and formatted into its own eBook and is now available for FREE download.

    Especially Disney fairytales, that tell of button-nosed sea princesses who fall in love with handsome, honourable princes and end up living happily ever after in their multi-turreted castles by the sea.That's not how it works. Deeper is the story of what really happens when a curious mer girl rescues a cynical, self-obsessed writer, living alone in his lighthouse by the sea. When she makes a pact she can't go back on, for love of a man she barely knows. If you think you know how it ends, you probably don't.

    At age ten she left behind a beloved dog, and her best friend, Jordan. Years later, when the move fails to keep her safe, Aurora ends up in a coma. Jordan is now a doctor working in her hospital, and he’ll do whatever he can to save her. Is it too late for these childhood sweethearts to reunite?This is from the 8th volume in the Flirts! collection. Check out Flirts!, Beach Flirts!, Holiday Flirts!, Fairy Tale Flirts!, Wedding Flirts!, More Flirts!, and Reunion Flirts! Look for Office Flirts! in fall 2013. You might also enjoy Lisa’s novella, Spouse Hunting, and her Willowdale Romance novels featuring No Foolin’, a Holt Medallion award of merit winner and Man of the Month.

    But even though her mother despises sweet, beautiful Marfa, Prascovia found herself adoring her new sister instead. Their mother’s spite drives Marfa one winter's night into the bitter cold, but astonishing them all, Marfa returns with violets, strawberries, and the favor of Lord Frost. However, having Father Winter as an admirer has its own perils, and Prascovia vows to save her beloved sister from Winter’s attentions. A haunting, lush re-imagining of the Russian “Jack Frost” fairy tale.

    Modern Grimmoire: Contemporary Fairy Tales, Fables & Folklore is a literary anthology in the Grimm persuasion.Awaiting you inside are the collected works of thirty-six emerging authors and artists from around the world, including prize recipients Michael Harris Cohen and Mandy Altimus Pond, along with Mona Awad, Catee Baugh, Tim Belden, Danielle Bellone, Amanda Block, Angela Buck, Simon P. Clark, Paul Crenshaw, Kimberly Duede, Steven Ehret, Danielle Fontaine, J. M. R. Harrison, Joyce Winters Henderson, John Kiste, David Kolinski-Schultz, Maude Larke, Clayton Lister, Carlos F. Mason Wehby, Colleen Michaels, Erin T. Mulligan, Jason Daniel Myers, Joann Oh, Elodie Olson-Coons, Julia Patt, Ariana Quinonez, Tay Sanchez, Sarah Elizabeth Schantz, Alex Stein, Michael Wasteneys Stephens, Cheryl Stiles, Samuel Valentino, Erin Virgil, Jennifer Whitaker and Sarah Wilson.Through short fiction, poetry and artwork, you will meet a talking cat-girl and a girl that talks to cats; librarians like you've never imagined and royalty like you always have; an ex-court painter, an all too persuasive frog, and an out-of-work wolfman.Some twist and twine their happily-ever-after predecessors in inventive ways; others craft entirely new magical faces and places. All collected, the anthology is ripe with sticky sweet revenge, altogether timely fates, and all-conquering (and conquesting) love.