Book picks similar to
Wilted Lilies by Kelli Owen


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Christmas Revels: Four Regency Novellas


Hannah Meredith - 2014
    Allen."A Light in Winter or The Wicked Will” – Debt-ridden Connor Grayson inherits his uncle's title and ruined estate. But in order to receive his uncle's money, the new Viscount Roxbury must marry an ancient crone—a fate he considers...until he meets her companion. “The Lord of Misrule” – Everyone expects the Earl of Morrell to propose to Alice Caruthers during the Christmas holidays. Finally! But when the earl’s best friend arrives as the lucky First Foot on New Year’s Eve, Alice’s world turns upside-down. “God Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen” – Newlywed Eugenia, Lady Hunter, wants to impress her aristocratic in-laws with her first Christmas house party — but blackmail, dead bodies, and being snowed in with a killer are not part of her plan. “A Perfectly Dreadful Christmas” – Three not-so-wise gentlemen, a pregnant stranger, several tumbling footmen, and an unexpected snowstorm will turn Elizabeth's Perfectly Ordinary Christmas into a disaster...or a Christmas miracle with the man she loves.

Sinister Cinnamon Buns


J. Lee Mitchell - 2018
     Recipes included in each book. In Castle Creek West Virginia, rivalries run deep, but has this tiny town’s biggest rivalry finally led to murder? When widely disliked socialite Macie Dixon is found dead on the set of her cooking show, suspicion falls on her rival, elderly family matriarch, and owner of the Red Herring Inn, Liddy Lou Cormier. As the investigation heats up, friendships will be tested, and long buried secrets will come to light. With the evidence stacking up against Liddy Lou, her granddaughter Q’Bita will risk her relationship with Sheriff Andy Hansen, and her own life, to clear her Nana’s name. It will take every ounce of Q’Bita’s culinary cunning, and a little help from her best friend Jamie and brother-in-law Rene, to figure out who’s behind the sinister cinnamon buns that killed Macie Dixon. Sign up for the Red Herring Inn newsletter using the link on the About J Lee Mitchell page to get access to contests, freebies, and an inside look at upcoming books. New subscribers will receive BONUS CONTENT as a thank you for signing up.

Dark Faith


Maurice BroaddusMatt Cardin - 2010
    Experience the spiritual side of the zombie apocalypse in "The Days of Flaming Motorcycles" and transcend both hell and nirvana in "Zen and the Art of Gordon Dratch's Damnation." Look into "The Mad Eyes of the Heron King" to find the beautiful brutality written in the moment of epiphany or "Go and Tell it On the Mountain," where Jesus Christ awaits your last plea to enter heaven--if there is a heaven to enter when all is said and done.Horror's top authors and promising newcomers whisper tales that creep through the mists at night to rattle your soul. Step beyond salvation and damnation with thirty stories and poems that reveal the darkness beneath belief. Place your faith in that darkness; it's always there, just beyond the light.

Awake in the Night


John C. Wright - 2014
    Wright's four brilliant forays into the dark fantasy world of William Hope Hodgson's 1912 novel, The Night Land. Widely considered to be the finest tribute to Hodgson ever written, this novella was previously published in 2004 in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection. The five-million year epic that begins with "Awake in the Night" continues in AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND, which in addition to "Awake in the Night" contains "The Cry of the Night-Hound", "Silence of the Night", and "The Last of All Suns", which collectively tell the haunting tale of the Last Redoubt of Man and the end of the human race. John C. Wright has been described by reviewers as one of the most important and audacious authors in science fiction today. In a recent poll of more than 1,000 science fiction readers, he was chosen as the sixth-greatest living science fiction writer.

Faster


Calvin Demmer - 2014
    It’s a contract that follows him throughout his days, a contract he can’t escape. Or can he? One night on the road, he must decide whether to keep running or surrender. . . Either choice has its price.A short story.

Warm Up


V.E. Schwab - 2013
    His wife moved out, taking his son with her, and a devastated David hasn’t left his house since, terrified of the mysterious new power that followed him home from the ill-fated expedition.After months in seclusion, David’s ready for a fresh start, and ventures out, determined to keep his power in check. But David’s power isn’t the one he needs to worry about.

Badwater: A Horror Story (The Shattered God Mythos)


Travis Liebert - 2019
    We see a lot of strange and disgusting things. But what I saw last week has me questioning both my job and reality." There's a place in the river where not even search and rescue divers are supposed to go. It's called Badwater. But when Joseph Albright dives into this forbidden region, he discovers something beyond comprehension. Intent on solving a mystery as old as the earth itself, he comes into contact with forces beyond fathom. Get this riveting new horror story and learn of the terrors that pervade our world.

The Found World


Hugo Navikov - 2018
    To entice him to travel underneath one of the most dangerous volcanoes on Earth to find the scientist, this shadowy organization will pay him the only thing he cares about: information that will allow him to avenge his family's murder. But before he can get paid, he and his team must enter an underground hellscape of killer plants, giant insects, terrifying dinosaurs, and an army of other predators never previously seen by man. At the end of this journey awaits a revelation that could alter the fate of mankind ... if they can make it back from this horrifying found world.

The River: A Christopher Radcliff Short Story


A.D. Swanston - 2018
    . . Cambridge on the morning of a day in April, the year of Our Lord 1569.And Christopher Radcliff, Doctor of Civil Laws at Pembroke Hall and recruiter of clever young men to the service of the Earl of Leicester, is amongst a crowd of excited townsfolk and university scholars gathered on a field to watch a game of foot ball. It is to be played between the apprentices of the town and pupils of the colleges and it is hoped it will reconcile differences between town and gown. Bets are placed, wagers made. On the field long-standing animosities surface and violence breaks out but not before the college team is victorious, thanks to the skill of a Pembroke Hall man, John Groom.Later that day, Radcliff is summoned to the senior tutor’s rooms. It transpires that John Groom has been locked up on a serious charge of assault – he’d nearly caused a cobbler’s apprentice to drown. If found guilty, Groom would be expelled from college and face imprisonment. But Christopher smells a rat. He believes the charge to be the fabrication of someone with a serious grudge against the young man, and yet it does seem as if Groom is hiding something. Enlisting the help of his friend Edward Allington and his wife Katherine, Dr Radcliff knows the truth lies somewhere within the infamous den that is Slegge’s gaming house…

The Thing From the Lake


Eleanor M. Ingram - 1921
    Immediately however, an unseen mysterious woman begins giving him warnings during nocturnal visits to leave the house at once. Soon he begins hearing strange ominous sounds emanating from the tiny lake at the back of the house coupled with a permeation of sickly odors. An evil presence then begins to visit him during the witching hours of the late night, challenging him to a battle of wits from which there can be only one victor. Is his mysterious female visitor there to help and encourage him to flee from the house, or is she working in tandem with The Thing From the Lake? A gripping, occasionally frightening tale, Ms. Ingram wastes no time in grabbing the reader into the story and manages to weave a tale that will leave the reader guessing at every turn of events. (Summary by Roger Melin)(from Librivox)

Homecoming


Richelle Mead - 2012
    They are going back to Russia to see Dimitri's family, something that both of them sorely need. Dimitri had finally been restored into a Dhampir, after being forcibly changed into Strigoi. His family needs to see him for themselves, and Rose needs to go back to Russia and face her trauma from the trip she made before.(Published in the Foretold: 14 Tales of Prophecy and Prediction collection)

SIN


Patrick Reuman - 2017
    With the whole town on high-alert, he refuses to let this dead city kill what’s left of his relationship. But, a house in the woods may hold a deadlier fate than the town ever could.

Once She Dreamed


Abbi Glines - 2016
    They made their life there. Got married, had kids, lived in the same houses that were always there along the streets that never changed. The whole white picket fence and tree swing might look good on greeting cards but in real life it was boring, at least to Sammy Jo.When Sammy Jo was a little girl she began dreaming of something bigger. Brighter. Something that wasn’t her town. She wanted to see the world and experience it all. Just how she was going to do that she had no idea. Because if her momma had her way, she’d marry one of the boys in town and be spitting out babies and going to church on Sunday with them all lined up in a row.The day Hale Christopher Jude III walked into the bakery she worked at, she knew he was it. That part of life she was missing. He smelled of foreign places and exciting things. He represented all the bright lights she dreamed of and simply put, she hoped he was her way out of this place.What Sammy Jo didn’t realize was things that appear perfect… aren’t. And chasing her dreams could lead to something very different.

The Lockdown Trade-Off


Sam West - 2020
    In the Cornish seaside town of Treeve, Cat’s husband, Brian Oxley, is on the brink of losing everything. Eight pubs, five restaurants, and six pasty shops worth of everything…When a potential, financial bailout comes in the form of lottery winner Ewan Davies, it is the answer to all of Brian’s prayers. The creepy, ex-furniture restorer makes Brian an offer he can’t refuse. His offer is twenty million.And the price of Brian’s salvation? His wife.Never in her wildest imaginings, could Cat imagine what lies in store for her at the millionaire’s mansion. She will never look at a piece of furniture in the same way again…This is an extreme horror novella. It contains some scenes that readers may find upsetting.

The Map


William Ritter - 2015
    Abigail hopes that her birthday will slip by unnoticed and uncelebrated, but her employer, detective of the supernatural R. F. Jackaby, has other plans. Using magical party crackers that teleport the pair to unknown destinations in time and space and a cryptic map that may lead to a forgotten treasure, Jackaby intends to give Abigail what he considers to be the best gift of all--adventure. Abigail and Jackaby must tame an enormous (and carnivorous) rabbit, defend a castle, and master a dirigible if they want to find the treasure and get back to New Fiddleham alive.