Book picks similar to
Velvet Shadows by Andre Norton


gothic
romance
gothic-romance
historical

A Spirited Manor


Kate Danley - 2013
    A house with secrets. And an invitation to a seance... When Clara O'Hare's husband passed away, she felt her life was over. But when she moves into a new home to escape the memories, she discovers that the veil between life and death is very thin indeed. Desperate to find answers, she attends a seance in a remote country home surrounded by a colorful cast of strangers. But something sinister has decided to make itself known. It will be up to her and the dashing young medium, Wesley Lowenherz, to find out what the spirits of the manor are dying to tell them. Laced with gothic romance and paranormal mystery, A Spirited Manor is book one in the O'Hare House Mystery penny dreadful series.

The School for Heiresses Series: Never Seduce a Scoundrel, Only a Duke Will Do, Beware a Scot's Revenge and an excerpt from To Wed a Wild Lord


Sabrina Jeffries - 2011
    These passionate tales feature young women who learn that there’s nothing textbook about love…NEVER SEDUCE A SCOUNDREL The ballrooms of Mayfair have become much more appealing to Lady Amelia Plume since the arrival of Major Lucas Winter, an American with a dark past and a dangerous air. Lucas is brash, arrogant--and scandalously tempting. Yet Amelia suspects that Lucas has a hidden motive in wooing her. And she intends to discover it, by any means necessary. ONLY A DUKE WILL DO Louisa North likes her independence very much. So when Simon Tremaine, the dashing Duke of Foxwood, whom she once loved, returns bent on marrying her, she's skeptical. The fire between them burns as hot as ever, but when Simon's ulterior motive for marriage is exposed, along with the deeply buried secrets of her past, Louisa vows to make him pay...and the price will be his heart. BEWARE A SCOT'S REVENGE When Lady Venetia Campbell is kidnapped at pistol point by her father's sworn enemy, Sir Lachlan Ross, she discovers the wickedly sexy Scot is even more intoxicating than she remembers...and much more dangerous. Lachlan plans to use her as a weapon against her father, but Venetia is determined that his lust for revenge will be trumped by an even more powerful desire.

The Fallon Blood


Robert Jordan - 1980
    From bondsman to rice planter, from planter to privateer, from the beautiful Elizabeth Carver to the loving Gabrielle Fourrier, from peace to the greatest Revolution the world had ever seen. Robert Jordan writings as Reagan O'Neal. HC: Forge.

Becoming the Dark Prince


Kerri Maniscalco - 2019
    Enigmatic, brooding, and darkly handsome, Thomas Cresswell has always been the one mystery Audrey Rose has never been able to fully solve. As brilliant partners in crime investigation, they understand each other perfectly...but as young lovers, their passionate natures have led to both euphoria and heartbreak throughout the Stalking Jack the Ripper series.This novella features a collection of scenes that takes place during and after the pair's horrifying Atlantic voyage in Escaping From Houdini. Experience new and familiar scenes from Thomas's unique point of view, including an intensely personal look into his plea for Audrey Rose's hand in marriage.With a romance for the ages, Audrey Rose and Thomas reach the conclusion to their epic, irresistible partnership in their final adventure, Capturing the Devil.

The Kat Dubois Chronicles Vol 1: Books 1-3


Lindsey Sparks (Fairleigh) - 2021
    We've been alone ever since. Kat Dubois is immortal, and she’s retired. She’s long since hung up her sword and left assassinating immortals to someone else...anyone else. She’s now a hard drinking, sass-flinging Seattle tattoo artist with the innate ability to read people’s fortunes using her charmed deck of tarot cards. Her days of bloodshed are over, and she has nothing but time--an eternity, in fact--to hide from her past. Until someone from her past shows up on her doorstep with news that her beloved older brother and mentor, Dominic, has gone missing. Kat may be the only person with the right skills--and access to the right magic--to track him down. She must confront her past if she’s to have any chance of finding and saving her brother. She must fight her demons. She must embrace the power within her. She must become the Ink Witch. This collection includes nearly 200,000 words of kick-ass action, mystery, and sass: 1: Ink Witch 2: Outcast 3: Underground Other books set in Kat's world: The Echo Trilogy: The Complete Series Echo in Time Resonance Time Anomaly Dissonance Ricochet Through Time

House of Shadows


Darcy Coates - 2015
    She's still reeling from the news when she's offered an unexpected solution: Mr Argenton, a wealthy stranger, asks for her hand in marriage.Marrying Mr Argenton will restore her family's fortunes and save them from scandal, but condemns Sophie to a life in Northwood, a vast and unnaturally dark mansion situated hours from civilisation.Sophie struggles to adjust to her new position as mistress over the desolate house. Mr Argenton's relatives are cold, and Mr Argenton himself is keeping secrets. Even worse, the house is more than it seems.Mr Argenton's young cousin, Elise, draws terrifying images. Doors slam. Inhuman figures slink through the forest surrounding the house. A piano plays in the middle of the night. Blood drips from the ceilings.Sophie is inevitably pulled towards the terrifying truth: Northwood's ancient halls are haunted by the family's long-dead ancestors. The malevolent spirits--produced by grisly deaths--resent her intrusion into their home.Trapped in Northwood and desperate for an escape, Sophie's fate is further complicated as she finds herself irrevocably drawn to the tall, dark-eyed man she married. She suspects her feelings are returned, but Mr Argenton is hiding the truth about the house--and his secrets are so dangerous that they might just be unforgivable.

The Widow of Pale Harbor


Hester Fox - 2019
    Gabriel Stone is desperate to escape the ghosts that haunt him in Massachusetts after his wife's death, so he moves to Pale Harbor, Maine, where there is a vacancy for a new minister. Gideon and his late wife had always dreamed of building their own church, and Pale Harbor is the perfect opportunity.But not all is as it seems in the sleepy town of Pale Harbor. Strange, unsettling things have been happening, and the townspeople know that only one person can be responsible: Sophronia Carver, a widow who lives with a spinster maid in the decaying Castle Carver on the edge of town. Sophronia is a recluse, rumored to be a witch who killed her husband.When Gabriel meets her, he knows the charming, beautiful woman cannot be guilty of anything. Together, Gabriel and Sophronia realize that the mysterious events have one thing in common: they all contain an element from the wildly popular stories of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. And when the events escalate to murder, Gabriel and Sophronia must find the real killer, before it's too late for them both.

Too Close for Comfort


Eve Gaddy - 1997
    . .to keep her alive.Dr. Marissa Fairfax is a calm, cool trauma surgeon. Police officer Jack Corelli is a tough cop who’s been assigned to protect her until she testifies at a murder trial—whether she wants his help, or not.Jack’s more than willing to enforce the mandatory protection order, but he’s got his work cut out for him.

The Scarletti Curse


Christine Feehan - 2001
    But a still more fearful secret lurked within its storm-tossed turrets. For every bride who entered its forbidding walls was doomed to leave in a casket.The BrideMystical and unfettered, Nicoletta had no terror of ancient curses and no fear of marriage...until she looked into the dark, mesmerizing eyes of Don Scarletti. She had sworn no man would command her, had thought her gift of healing set her apart, but his was the right to choose a bride from among his people. And he had chosen her.The BargainCompelled by duty, drawn by desire, she gave her body into his keeping, and prayed the powerful, tormented don would be her heart's destiny, and not her soul's demise.

The Rattled Bones


S.M. Parker - 2017
    She knows the rhythms of hard work and harder seas. But when she experiences the sudden death of her father, the veil between the living and the dead blurs and she begins to be haunted by a girl on a nearby, uninhabited island. The girl floats a song over the waves, and it is as beautiful as it is terrifying. Familiar and distant.Then Rilla meets Sam, a University of Southern Maine archeology student tasked with excavating the very island where the ghostly girl has appeared. Sam sifts the earth looking for the cultural remains of an island people who were forcibly evicted by the state nearly a hundred years ago. Sam tells Rilla the island has a history no locals talk about—if they know about it at all—due to the shame the events brought to the working waterfront community. All Rilla knows for sure is that the island has always been there—an eerie presence anchored in the stormy sea. Now Sam’s work and the ghostly girl’s song lure Rilla to the island’s shores.As Rilla helps Sam to unearth the island’s many secrets, Rilla’s visions grow—until the two discover a tragedy kept silent for years. And it’s a tragedy that has everything to do with Rilla’s past.

The Secret of Mirror House


Jennifer Blake - 1969
     After Amelia Harveston loses her mother to tragic circumstances, she fears she will be forced into poverty and the position of a desperate woman. When distant relatives invite her to live with them at Mirror House, the plantation home built by her grandfather, she readily accepts. Her expectations of a warm family embrace where she'll be loved and protected, though, are soon shattered. Mirror House is a home haunted by the past, by dark secrets and by the cruel games its inhabitants play. Alone and with no one to confide in, Amelia struggles to unearth the house's secrets. Then the accidents begin, and Amelia knows she's become the target for the hate that infests it. Out of the despair, two seeming allies appear. Two offers of marriage promise sanctuary. Both men claim to love her. One of them is lying. Amelia must choose the one man whose embrace promises the love and safety her very life depends on. But the house, it seems, has other ideas...

The Dark Shore


Susan Howatch - 1965
    But already Jon's estranged son Justin has changed the game by asking if he can return to Canada with them and Sarah becomes increasingly unsettled by Jon's insistence that they visit the house in Cornwall where he lived with Sophia. Buryan is a beautiful house with breathtaking views and cliff walks and Sarah momentarily forgets her misgivings. But all too quickly Jon's mood seems to shift, he becomes secretive, short tempered and withdrawn and Sarah realises that Jon is inexorably drawn to this house because he is trapped in the past. Too late, however, to stop a nightmarish replay of the mysterious events, which led to Sophia's death ten years before.

Blood in the Marsh


Ciana Stone - 2010
     Lyra Seville is about to find out that little in her life is as she believed it to be. She's come home for the summer to St. Simon's island where she grew up. She plans on relaxing and coming to terms with the loss of someone close to her. But fate has other plans in mind for Lyra. Just as she has returned to the island, so has something old and evil. Something that once caused much blood to be spilled in the sandy soil and marsh. Lyra will discover that evil can present itself in a form that is too appealing - so attractive that it's hard to recognize its true nature. She'll face the biggest test of her life and make decisions that could cost her life. And if she's very lucky, she'll find the love she's dreamed of. And survive.

Stitch


Sue Brown - 2014
    It is the first in a series of gothic m/m romance anthologies called gothika. The stories in this volume are:Made For Aaron by Sue BrownAs a teenager, Aaron Fox was sent to an asylum by his parents because he was gay, leaving him emotionally fragile after the treatment. However it gave him Damon Fox, the nurse he later married. For over twenty years, Damon’s devotion and strength has never faltered. When Damon is killed in a car accident, Aaron’s devastation soon gives way to confusion when he is shown Damon walking away from the hospital. Despite a desperate search, Damon isn’t seen again, and if Aaron can’t live with Damon, he may not want to live at all. But forces beyond Aaron’s understanding work behind the scenes, and if he can find the courage to unveil the secrets, he might get a second chance at happiness.Watchworks by Jamie FessendenHarland Wallace made his name as one of the premiere watchmakers in Victorian London, so he isn’t surprised when a handsome young gentleman named Luke Prescott comes to his townhouse to hire him for a repair job. He is apprehensive when he discovers it is not a watch Mr. Prescott wants repaired, but a complex prosthesis he has in place of a hand.As further repairs are needed, Harland begins to wonder how much of Mr. Prescott is real and how much is mechanical, but he cannot deny the growing attraction he feels toward him. When he learns Prescott’s household servants pose a threat to the man they see as a monster, Harland must choose between what his culture tells him is wrong and what his heart tells him is right.The Golem of Mala Lubovnya by Kim FieldingIn a small, 17th-century Eastern European town, a rabbi creates a man of clay—a golem—to protect the Jewish people from the threat of pogrom. Awaiting a call to duty, the golem spends a long time confined to an attic, lonely and sad. His only joys are watching the stonemason at work across the street and listening to a lovely voice singing prayers. When the golem meets the mason, Jakob, the two become friends, and Jakob names the golem Emet. But devout Jakob struggles with his attraction to Emet, and Emet dreads being used as an instrument for violence. Though Emet’s name means truth, honest love between a faithful man and a golem will only survive if they risk everything for a miracle.Reparation by Eli EastonOn the harsh planet of Kalan, weakness is not tolerated. When young spore farmer Edward suffers an carriage accident that kills his mail-order bride and his factory manager, Edward has little chance of survival, until Knox—an enormous “reconstitute” labor slave—plucks him from disaster. Recons are part machine, part human remains from executed Federation prisoners. But Knox is different from other recons. He can read and has flashes of brilliance. With no one else to rely on over the bleak winter, Edward forms an alliance with Knox, and against social taboos, they become friends. Edward struggles against his growing lust for the large humanoid, and while Knox thrives in his new life, memories of his past torment him.A twist of fate brought Knox and Edward together, but there will be a price to pay in blood when they learn how deeply their lives truly intersect.

Twittering from the Circus of the Dead


Joe Hill - 2013
    The show's about to begin. Step right up for the Circus of the Dead: where YOU are the concessions. #CircusoftheDead