The Dolls


Kiki Sullivan - 2014
    Eveny hasn’t seen her hometown since her mother’s suicide fourteen years ago, and her memories couldn’t have prepared her for what she encounters. Because pristine, perfectly manicured Carrefour has a dark side full of intrigue, betrayal, and lies—and Eveny quickly finds herself at the center of it all.Enter Peregrine Marceau, Chloe St. Pierre, and their group of rich, sexy friends known as the Dolls. From sipping champagne at lunch to hooking up with the hottest boys, Peregrine and Chloe have everything—including an explanation for what’s going on in Carrefour. And Eveny doesn’t trust them one bit.But after murder strikes and Eveny discovers that everything she believes about herself, her family, and her life is a lie, she must turn to the Dolls for answers. Something’s wrong in paradise, and it’s up to Eveny, Chloe, and Peregrine to save Carrefour and make it right.

A Cottage by the Sea


Ciji Ware - 1996
    . .But after a scandalous Hollywood divorce, Blythe Stowe considered it damage control for body and soul. The pain, the humiliation, the daily tabloids shouting details as her famous husband dumped her for her own sister demanded a serious getaway: to the wild coast of Cornwall and a cottage by the sea that her Wyoming grandmother claimed had been home to her ancestors.Some might call it chance . . .But Blythe encountered more than just a quaint retreat nestled amid vivid skies and gorgeous ocean. And she had the odd sensation that her wickedly handsome neighbor Lucas Teague was more than a British gentleman going broke. He might be her destiny . . .

The Rest Falls Away


Colleen Gleason - 2007
    If not for the vampire slayers of the Gardella family, these immortal creatures would have long ago taken control of the world. In every generation, a Gardella is called to accept the family legacy, and this time, Victoria Gardella Grantworth is chosen, on the eve of her debut, to carry the stake. But as she moves between the crush of ballrooms and dangerous moonlit streets, Victoria’s heart is torn between London’s most eligible bachelor, the Marquess of Rockley, and her dark, dangerous duty. And when she comes face-to-face with the most powerful vampire in history, Victoria must ultimately make a choice between duty and love.

Gods and Monsters Box Set 1


Quinn Blackbird - 2020
    “I could kill you a thousand different ways where you sit.”The nail cut deeper. Blood beaded, then spilled down my front, over my breasts. I choked on a whimper.“Now tell me everything.”1. Prince PoisonFew knew Valissa's secret but it already carried a death toll. One.If the Gods ever discovered what she was, they would capture and flay her alive.But in the land of Gods and Monsters, no secret stays hidden for long.Lissa—drunk on the high of a midnight party that's rife with mysterious pirates—gets too close to one of the pirates, who turns out to have secrets of his own.Jasper is no pirate. He is a servant of the Gods. And the moment she touches him, she steals his power.He kidnaps Lissa, and he's taking her to one of the most brutal Gods in all the lands ... He's taking her to Prince Poison.Prince Poison's mere touch kills and his cruelty is said to stretch beyond even the darkest pits of Lissa's soul. But when she's standing in front of this fearsome God, ready to face her gruesome fate, the Prince might see more in her than she ever thought possible.2. CaptiveValissa is an abomination among Gods and Monsters.She's cursed with the unexplained ability to steal power from the children of the Gods. It's a curse worthy of death, but her fate is much worse than that.Prince Poison, the cruelest of them all, keeps her captive in the stardust palace, where she's forced to train her abilities into something that terrifies her, while evading the malicious interest of those around her.What's worse than holding the interest of a God whose touch kills and whose lips enchant?Becoming his captive...3. PhantomValissa’s death toll is on the rise:One—before she was stolen away to the cruel Prince Poison. Seven—under the Prince’s malicious watch.The worst part? Valissa just doesn’t care anymore, not about the lives of those she doesn’t know when her own life is falling apart all around her.Ava’s not speaking to her. Jasper pushes her in training to the point of exhaustion. And though Valissa does everything he wants, the Prince grows distant.Valissa finds the closest thing to a friend in the mysteriously dark stranger who haunts her in the stardust palace. Damianos; a God or aniel she most definitely knows better than to trust.In the Land of Gods, is it really ‘better the devil you know’? And what about when the devil you don’t know is just so damn intoxicating?What’s worse than being the prisoner of a God?Abandoning all hopes of freedom.This is Box Set 1 of 2. It includes the first three books in the Gods and Monsters 6-book series.Box Set 2 is available for preorder, release date: January 2020.Disclaimer: Please read content warnings.

The Gargoyle


Andrew Davidson - 2008
    As the book opens, he is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body. As he recovers in a burn ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned, he awaits the day when he can leave the hospital and commit carefully planned suicide—for he is now a monster in appearance as well as in soul. A beautiful and compelling, but clearly unhinged, sculptress of gargoyles by the name of Marianne Engel appears at the foot of his bed and insists that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly injured mercenary and she was a nun and scribe in the famed monastery of Engelthal who nursed him back to health. As she spins their tale in Scheherazade fashion and relates equally mesmerizing stories of deathless love in Japan, Iceland, Italy, and England, he finds himself drawn back to life—and, finally, in love.He is released into Marianne's care and takes up residence in her huge stone house. But all is not well. For one thing, the pull of his past sins becomes ever more powerful as the morphine he is prescribed becomes ever more addictive. For another, Marianne receives word from God that she has only twenty-seven sculptures left to complete—and her time on earth will be finished.

Timeless


Alexandra Monir - 2011
    In their historic Fifth Avenue mansion, filled with a century's worth of family secrets, Michele discovers the biggest family secret of all - an ancestor's diary that, amazingly, has the power to send her back in time to 1910, the year it was written. There, at a glamorous high-society masquerade ball, Michele meets the young man with striking blue eyes who has haunted her dreams all her life. And she finds herself falling for him, and into an otherworldly romance.Soon Michele is leading a double life, struggling to balance her contemporary high school world with her escapes into the past. But when she stumbles upon a terrible discovery, she is propelled on a race through history to save the boy she loves - and to complete a quest that will determine their fate.

The Casquette Girls


Alys Arden - 2013
    But with home resembling a war zone, a parish-wide curfew, and mysterious new faces lurking in the abandoned French Quarter, normal needs a new definition. As the city murder rate soars, Adele finds herself tangled in a web of magic that weaves back to her own ancestors. Caught in a hurricane of myths and monsters, who can she trust when everyone has a secret and keeping them can mean life or death? Unless... you’re immortal.

Strands of Bronze and Gold


Jane Nickerson - 2013
    . . .When seventeen-year-old Sophia Petheram’s beloved father dies, she receives an unexpected letter. An invitation—on fine ivory paper, in bold black handwriting—from the mysterious Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, her godfather. With no money and fewer options, Sophie accepts, leaving her humble childhood home for the astonishingly lavish Wyndriven Abbey, in the heart of Mississippi.Sophie has always longed for a comfortable life, and she finds herself both attracted to and shocked by the charm and easy manners of her overgenerous guardian. But as she begins to piece together the mystery of his past, it’s as if, thread by thread, a silken net is tightening around her. And as she gathers stories and catches whispers of his former wives—all with hair as red as her own—in the forgotten corners of the abbey, Sophie knows she’s trapped in the passion and danger of de Cressac’s intoxicating world.Glowing strands of romance, mystery, and suspense are woven into this breathtaking debut—a thrilling retelling of the “Bluebeard” fairy tale.

The Emperor's Seal


Amanda Roberts - 2018
    The Empress will do whatever it takes to get it back. Jiayi has a gift – she can travel through time just by touching historical artifacts. More than anything, she wants to escape the clutches of the Empress and run away to a foreign land. Finding the Emperor’s Seal could be her only chance at freedom, but is she willing to risk the wrath of the Empress? Historian and wannabe archaeologist Zhihao has no love for the Empress or the Qing Dynasty, but when the Empress orders him to find the Emperor’s Seal in exchange for funding China’s first history museum, he cannot refuse. It is only after he accepts the assignment that he realizes the key to finding the seal lies in the hands of a palace slave. Civil unrest and encroaching foreign powers threaten Jiayi and Zhihao's mission and lives as they hunt for The Emperor's Seal.

The Historian


Elizabeth Kostova - 2005
    The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of, a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself--to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive. What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends? The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe. In city after city, in monasteries and archives, in letters and in secret conversations, the horrible truth emerges about Vlad the Impaler's dark reign and about a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive down through the ages.

Florence & Giles


John Harding - 2010
    Banned from reading, Florence devours books in secret and talks to herself—and narrates her story—in a unique language of her own invention. By night, she sleepwalks the corridors and is troubled by a recurrent dream in which a mysterious woman appears to threaten her younger brother Giles.After the sudden violent death of the children's first governess, a second teacher, Miss Taylor, arrives, and immediately strange phenomena begin to occur. Florence becomes convinced that the new governess is a malevolent spirit who means to do Giles harm. Against this powerful enemy, Florence must use all her intelligence and ingenuity to protect her little brother and preserve her private world. This Gothic page-turner in the tradition of The Woman in Black and The Fall of the House of Usher is told in a startlingly different and wonderfully captivating narrative voice.

Lost to the Night


Adele Clee - 2015
    With nothing left but bitterness in his heart, he locks himself away in his dilapidated Elizabethan mansion and chains the gates to all intruders. A lady hoping to prove love conquers all ... When her aunt suffers an injury in a carriage accident, Evelyn Bromwell rushes through the forest in search of help. Drawn to the mysterious old mansion, she is left aghast to find such a frosty reception. Yet despite the earl’s rude and brusque manner, Evelyn is eager to discover the reason behind his austere façade. Once desire begins to burn, Alexander and Evelyn are unable to deny the soul-deep connection that exists between them. But Evelyn must make a choice —— marry the kind and affable Mr. Sutherby or risk everything in the hope of thawing an immortal’s frozen heart. Features: Regency paranormal (vampire) romance novel. This novel contains descriptive love scenes. This book can be read as a standalone novel but is part of 'The Brotherhood' series. 60,000 words 5* Reviews "An exciting story about the redemptive and life-altering power of love, LOST TO THE NIGHT is a thoughtfully-written novel and a recommended read for anyone seeking to escape into an elegant and magical world of timeless passion" - The Romance Reviews"The author took three of my favorite things, bundled them up, and made me an extremely happy person [...] there is nothing I love more than coming across something fresh- a new twist I haven't seen before. Loved this book." - Goodreads"Her writing is so well balanced, eloquent, just beautiful!" - Amazon"The story line was gripping and kept me engrossed till the end. There was a good balance between the love story and the ongoing plot of the book." - Amazon Click 'Buy Now' at the top of the page to read this historical paranormal romance story on your kindle today!

Guarded


L.L. Frost - 2020
    Will Adie’s friends and loved ones be safe under the council’s watch, or will everything she’s worked so hard to achieve come undone?Part 1 of Succubus Undone.Join Adie on her (mis)adventures toward achieving a quasi-normal life among humans.

The Cure for Dreaming


Cat Winters - 2014
    It’s 1900 in Oregon, and Olivia’s father, concerned that she’s headed for trouble, convinces a stage mesmerist to try to hypnotize the rebellion out of her. But the hypnotist, an intriguing young man named Henri Reverie, gives her a terrible gift instead: she’s able to see people’s true natures, manifesting as visions of darkness and goodness, while also unable to speak her true thoughts out loud. These supernatural challenges only make Olivia more determined to speak her mind, and so she’s drawn into a dangerous relationship with the hypnotist and his mysterious motives, all while secretly fighting for the rights of women. Winters breathes new life into history once again with an atmospheric, vividly real story, including archival photos and art from the period throughout.

A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor


Kathryn Moon - 2021
    Even better, the invitation comes by the hand of the handsome Dr. Underwood, a delicate gentleman with a ferocious alter ego who knows exactly what he wants from Esther.Upon arrival the men and the daily decadence of the manor feel too good to be true for a girl of Esther’s station. There are rules to be followed, expectations to meet, and Esther is afraid she might be too wicked even for a place like Rooksgrave.Temptations lurk around every shadowy corner and Esther has never been a girl able to resist. But the risk of disappointing her new gentlemen isn’t all that’s threatening Esther’s new position. Rooksgrave Manor’s protections for its unusual patrons are failing, the wards are crumbling, and Esther’s new and exquisitely pleasurable life may all come tumbling down.Author's Note: I've returned to Rooksgrave Manor to polish and complete Esther's story (previously published in 2018) and rediscovered a whole world of monsters and devious young women that I absolutely adore!