Book picks similar to
Mistress of Misfortune: A Gothic Romance by Hazel Hunter


historical-romance
historical-fiction
historical
gothic-romance

Forever Yours


Rita Bradshaw - 2010
    A tragic house fire kills both her parents, but Constance Shelton escapes, rescued by her eight-year-old neighbour, Matt Heath. She is brought up by her grandparents, but the two children become inseparable and, as she enters her teens, these strong feelings turn into love. But Matt sees her only as a sister and Constance can do nothing when he proposes to another girl. When Constance discovers that the fire that killed her parents wasn't an accident, but in fact the actions of a jealous man, she finds herself in terrible danger and is forced to leave the village and everyone she knows. Although Constance makes a good life for herself elsewhere, her heart remains with the only man she has ever loved. But what will it take for Matt to realise his true feelings for her?

Seductive Danger


Wendy Vella - 2019
    Kate Sinclair leads him back to his estranged brother and a family he wants nothing to do with. He's drawn into the yuletide festivities against his will and soon captivated by everything about her. Rory desires Kate more than any woman he's ever met, yet he cannot pay the price she asks, forgiveness of the past and reuniting with his family.Join the Sinclair and Raven families as they celebrate the wedding and festivities of Christmas at Raven Castle.BOOKS IN THE SINCLAIR & RAVEN SERIESSensing DangerSeeing DangerTouched By DangerScent of DangerVision Of DangerTempting DangerSeductive DangerGuarding Danger

A Spy in the House


Y.S. Lee - 2009
    Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls is a cover for an all-female investigative unit called The Agency, and at seventeen, Mary is about to put her training to the test. Assuming the guise of a lady’s companion, she must infiltrate a rich merchant’s home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships. But the household is full of dangerous deceptions, and there is no one to trust — or is there? Packed with action and suspense, banter and romance, and evoking the gritty backstreets of Victorian London, this breezy mystery debuts a daring young detective who lives by her wits while uncovering secrets — including those of her own past.

In Another Life


Julie Christine Johnson - 2016
    But instead of finding solace in the region's quiet hills and medieval ruins, she falls in love with Raoul, a man whose very existence challenges everything she knows about life--and about her husband's death. As Raoul reveals the story of his past to Lia, she becomes entangled in the echoes of an ancient murder, resulting in a haunting and suspenseful journey that reminds Lia that the dead may not be as far from us as we think. Steeped in the rich history and romantic landscape of rural France, In Another Life is a story of love that conquers time and the lost loves that haunt us all.

Altar of Bones


Philip Carter - 2011
    “They didn’t have to kill him…He never drank from the altar of bones.”  Cryptic dying words from a murdered homeless woman in present day San Francisco unlock a decades-buried secret that changed history.  Now a pair of ruthless assassins are sent to cut the few living "loose ends."  And a young, resourceful woman on the run encounters a determined man with his own connected past and vengeful agenda.  Forced to partner for survival and answers, a fast-paced and deadly game of cat and mouse ensues, taking them across the globe from the winding streets of Paris to the faded palaces of Budapest to the frozen lakes of Mongolia...where destiny, passion, and further betrayal await them.  The Altar of Bones has it all: The Russian mob.  KGB spies.  Presidential assasination.  A doomed Hollywood legend.  Deathbed confessions.  Corrosive power.  Shattered families.  Guardians of an ancient religious icon housing a secret others will kill to possess.  The dark promise of immortality. And it delivers on its ambitious premise to leave you stunned and breathless at the end.

Incarnation


Emma Cornwall - 2012
    . .If one is to believe Bram Stoker’s legendary vampire tale, Lucy Weston is Dracula’s most wanton creation, a sexual creature of the night who preys on innocent boys. But the real-life Lucy is nothing like her fictional counterpart -- and she demands to know why the Victorian author deliberately lied. With Stoker’s reluctant help, she’s determined to track down the very fiend who transformed her -- from the sensual underworld where humans vie to become vampires, to a hidden cell beneath a temple to madness, and finally into the glittering Crystal Palace where death reigns supreme.Haunted by fragmentary memories of her lost life and love, Lucy must battle her thirst for blood as she struggles to stop a catastrophic war that will doom vampires and humans alike. Ultimately, she must make a choice that illuminates for her -- and for us -- what it means to be human.

Creatures of Will and Temper


Molly Tanzer - 2017
    . . Molly Tanzer is at the top of her form in this beautifully constructed novel.”—Jeff VanderMeer, best-selling author of the Southern Reach trilogy Victorian London is a place of fluid social roles, vibrant arts culture, fin-de-siècle wonders . . . and dangerous underground diabolic cults. Fencer Evadne Gray cares for none of the former and knows nothing of the latter when she’s sent to London to chaperone her younger sister, aspiring art critic Dorina.At loose ends after Dorina becomes enamored with their uncle’s friend, Lady Henrietta “Henry” Wotton, a local aristocrat and aesthete, Evadne enrolls in a fencing school. There, she meets George Cantrell, an experienced fencing master like she’s always dreamed of studying under. But soon, George shows her something more than fancy footwork—he reveals to Evadne a secret, hidden world of devilish demons and their obedient servants. George has dedicated himself to eradicating demons and diabolists alike, and now he needs Evadne’s help. But as she learns more, Evadne begins to believe that Lady Henry might actually be a diabolist . . . and even worse, she suspects Dorina might have become one too.Combining swordplay, the supernatural, and Victorian high society, Creatures of Will and Temper reveals a familiar but strange London in a riff on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray that readers won't soon forget.   “An artful, witty, Oscar Wilde pastiche with the heart of a paranormal thriller.”—Diana Gabaldon, best-selling author of Outlander

Forget Me Not


Michelle M. Pillow - 2004
    Pillow comes a tragically beautiful love story that defies perception.When the scandalously independent Isabel Drake refuses to marry the man her parents choose for her, they force her to take lessons on how to become a respectable lady. However, her new tutor makes her feel anything but proper. Although her attraction to Mr. Weston is instantaneous, he resolves to keep her in her place—even as his desires for her become unmistakable.Things are not what they seem at Rothfield Park. With Mr. Weston’s arrival, there comes an abundance of restless spirits who insinuate themselves into her life. Quickly, Isabel loses her grasp on reality, not knowing who’s alive or dead. Time is running out, and Isabel must solve the ghostly mystery of the eerie night mist that surrounds the manor before it comes to claim everyone she holds dear—including her Mr. Weston.Forget Me Not, Re-Edited and Revised 17th Anniversary Edition published November 2020Paranormal Regency Historical Ghost Gothic RomanceFormerly Titled: The Mists of Midnight, Originally Published 2004​

Plain Bad Heroines


Emily M. Danforth - 2020
    Flo and Clara, two impressionable students, are obsessed with each other and with a daring young writer named Mary MacLane, the author of a scandalous bestselling memoir. To show their devotion to Mary, the girls establish their own private club and call it The Plain Bad Heroine Society. They meet in secret in a nearby apple orchard, the setting of their wildest happiness and, ultimately, of their macabre deaths. This is where their bodies are later discovered with a copy of Mary’s book splayed beside them, the victims of a swarm of stinging, angry yellow jackets. Less than five years later, The Brookhants School for Girls closes its doors forever—but not before three more people mysteriously die on the property, each in a most troubling way. Over a century later, the now abandoned and crumbling Brookhants is back in the news when wunderkind writer, Merritt Emmons, publishes a breakout book celebrating the queer, feminist history surrounding the “haunted and cursed” Gilded-Age institution. Her bestselling book inspires a controversial horror film adaptation starring celebrity actor and lesbian it girl Harper Harper playing the ill-fated heroine Flo, opposite B-list actress and former child star Audrey Wells as Clara. But as Brookhants opens its gates once again, and our three modern heroines arrive on set to begin filming, past and present become grimly entangled—or perhaps just grimly exploited—and soon it’s impossible to tell where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins. A story within a story within a story and featuring black-and-white period illustrations.

Asylum


Madeleine Roux - 2013
    An outcast at his high school, Dan is excited to finally make some friends in his last summer before college. But when he arrives at the program, Dan learns that his dorm for the summer used to be a sanatorium, more commonly known as an asylum. And not just any asylum—a last resort for the criminally insane.As Dan and his new friends, Abby and Jordan, explore the hidden recesses of their creepy summer home, they soon discover it's no coincidence that the three of them ended up here. Because the asylum holds the key to a terrifying past. And there are some secrets that refuse to stay buried.Featuring found photos of unsettling history and real abandoned asylums and filled with chilling mystery and page-turning suspense, Madeleine Roux's teen debut, Asylum, is a horror story that treads the line between genius and insanity.

Risking Everything: A Steamy Anthology of First Responders


Kara LianeK.L. Montgomery - 2019
    All proceeds go to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.Romance on the Rig by Kara Liane: Finding love on and off the ambulance proves difficult for Air Force veteran Murf—until he meets Lana, a game-changer. Murf may be an EMT hero, but he’s only human. Mistakes happen in love, and a misunderstanding keeps them apart. It’s time to make things right and answer the call from the heart.Reconstructed Heart by K.L. Montgomery: Trey Prince never expected to make a gruesome discovery at an accident scene only a few months into his new job with the Collision Reconstruction Unit, and he never expected Trooper Jenna Labato to be the one who helped him pick up the pieces. No matter how badly Jenna wants to help him heal, Trey isn’t sure his heart or faith can ever be restored—not without something close to a miracle.Walk the Line: Gage by Harlow Layne: Gage Walker never thought a call to a scene would change his life forever until he met Claire Blake. Sparks fly, but when his fellow Brothers in Blue’s girlfriends are targeted, Gage wants nothing more than to protect her—even if that means he has to give her up.Always Kind of Love by Amanda Siegrist: The last thing Ethan McCord wants to deal with is his old high school flame, even though his desire for her hasn’t diminished. Battling the burning blazes and an arsonist bent on destruction is nothing compared to fighting the temptation to rekindle the love he always wanted.Beautiful Persuasion by A.K. MacBride: Raelyn wasn't supposed to fall for the rebound guy, but the moment Griffin opened his mouth, he drew her in with his sexy Irish accent and dark gaze. As one night of sizzling passion develops into something more, she's forced to choose between the man who sets her heart ablaze and the only family she has left.Going Down by Jody Kaye: Devastated by her parents’ divorce, Kat’s looking to regain the stability she took for granted. Dash Newhouse is a drifter, paying his bills by skiing at a new mountain each season. Paired together on ski patrol, Dash reminds Kat that she can’t live life to the fullest while playing it safe. But when the snow melts, will he ride off with her heart?Rescuing Ryan by Syd Ryan: Ryan is out of the frying pan and into the fire, working the oldest profession of all time to finish her last year of nursing school. On the first day, she meets Chris, the sexy firefighter, as he is licking his wounds of rejection. For Chris, rescuing Ryan will be the hardest rescue of his life.Perfect For Me by Alyne Hart: Firefighter Luke O'Conner and ex-model Grace Adams shared all their firsts in a tiny cabin just outside Sugar Creek. Nine years later, Grace is back in town, and they find themselves waiting out a storm in that very same cabin. Fire burns between them as neither seems able to keep their lips or their hands to themselves.Call of Fate by Kelsey Cheyenne: After surviving a school shooting, Aubrey Winters became a dispatcher, dedicating her life to helping people. One fateful call and a meet-cute at a coffee shop leads Aubrey into the arms of English teacher Noah Burgess. Can their trauma be overcome when true love calls?Loving Lindsey by Larissa Gail: Firefighter Gavin Thomas has no desire to settle down anytime soon. He’s having too much fun playing the field. That is until he meets Officer Lindsey Allen, who’s moved to Oaktown to start over after a devastating loss. Can the blue-eyed beauty convince him to change his ways?