A lonely girl plots revenge in the shadow of a mountain. A stolen princess fumbles a century backward. A dwarfish man crafts brilliant automatons. A Polish Jew strikes matches against the Nazis. A dead girl haunts a crystal lake. A terrified princess searches a labyrinth. A rich collection of six historically inspired retellings, Once is a new generation of fairytales for those who thought they'd heard the tales in all their forms. Featuring the novellas of Elisabeth Grace Foley, Rachel Heffington, J Grace Pennington, Emily Ann Putzke, Suzannah Rowntree, and Hayden Wand.Titles in this book set:The Mountain of the Wolf by Elisabeth Grace FoleyShe But Sleepeth by Rachel HeffingtonRumpled by J. Grace PenningtonSweet Remembrance by Emily Ann PutzkeDeath Be Not Proud by Suzannah RowntreeWith Blossoms Gold by Hayden Wand

     Except it wasn't flu, and death gave them back.Seventeen-year-old Ella copes the best she can; caring for her war-injured father, scrubbing the floors, and slaying the undead that attack the locals. Vermin they're called, like rats they spread pestilence with their bite. Ella's world collides with another when she nearly decapitates a handsome stranger, who is very much alive.Seth deMage, the new Duke of Leithfield, has returned to his ancestral home with a mission from the War Office -- to control the plague of vermin in rural Somerset. He needs help; he just didn't expect to find it in a katana-wielding scullery maid.Working alongside Seth blurs the line between their positions, and Ella glimpses a future she never dreamed was possible. But in overstepping society's boundaries, Ella could lose everything - home, head and her heart...

    Their kinship is the very fabric of her childhood. When her mother dies and her world darkens with sorrow, Isidore finds her belief in the fey folk wavering.The love of her new step-sister, Blessing, proves an unexpected gift in her time of need. Yet even as their friendship blooms, Isidore begins to see that Blessing is everything she herself has always wanted to be, but is not. Jealousy grips Isidore as she watches this beautiful new sister steal away all she holds dear.Driven to desperation, Isidore turns to the fey folk once more. She has only one wish to claim from them, one chance to make things right. But she must tread carefully. For wishes, like hearts, are easily broken. And obtaining the one thing she desires could mean destroying the one thing she truly needs.

     An old tale tells the story of how a little man named Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold and tricked a desperate girl into trading away her baby. But that’s not exactly how it happened. The real story began with a drunken father who kept throwing money away on alcohol and women, while his daughter, Aoife, ran the family farm on her own. When he gambled away everything they owned to the Duke, it was up to her to spin straw into gold to win it all back. With her wits and the help of a magical guardian, she outsmarted the Duke and saved the day. Well almost… Her guardian suddenly turned on Aoife and sent her on a quest to find his name, the clues to which were hidden deep in the woods, a moldy dungeon, and a dead woman’s chamber. Her feelings for one of the men who tricked her from the start threaten to complicate everything. Not the tale of a damsel in distress, this is the story of a tenacious, young woman who solved a mystery so great that not even the enchanted man who spun straw into gold could figure it out. Not until Aoife came along.

    A three-inch tall samurai faces a giant iron ogre with only a sewing needle and a coin. A scientist seeks an antidote to his formula gone wrong, with the help of his partner’s beautiful daughter. All of these stories and more are included in Steampunk Fairy Tales. Written by authors from three different continents, every enchanting tale combines the futuristic Victorian concept of steam and fashion with memorable stories, from the recognizable “Jack and the Beanstalk”, to other popular and unfamiliar works from Germany, France, Italy and Japan. With steam driven gadgets such as mechanical goggles, hoverboards, and an orchestra of automatons. Steampunk Fairy Tales is a charming and unique collection of works for current lovers of the genre, and those just diving in.

    Can she trust him to help her chase down the monsters they’re hunting?Wolves and Daggers is a retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale set in Melanie Karsak’s bestselling steampunk universe.

    Then a growing darkness threatens the kingdom and uncovers the lie at the centre of her whole life--a single pact that changes everything.Throwing off convention, she joins Rafe, a handsome, charming newcomer, on a quest to save her kingdom. Except he doesn't know she has a mission of her own--to discover the truth about her identity. Increasingly drawn to Rafe's strength and good humour, Marie is torn by her double purpose. With time running out and death and destruction looming, Marie will have to unravel the bargains that surround her and choose where her true allegiance lies.In this twist on the classic fairy tale, Rumpelstiltskin, a hidden identity is just one of the things Marie will have to unravel. Novella 3.5 - A Midwinter's Wedding: A Retelling of The Frog Prince Princess Cordelia is used to being overshadowed by her many brothers and sisters. So when she's offered the chance to attend her brother's wedding in a faraway kingdom, she leaps at it. In Northhelm, she'll finally have the chance to stand out. And maybe, just maybe, she'll even find romance.But not everything in the Northhelmian court is as it appears. With her brother distracted by the wedding, only Ferdinand, the ugliest man at court, will listen to Cordelia's concerns. An observant princess and a strangely amphibious soldier may be the only thing standing between all Four Kingdoms and disaster.Cordelia will have to overcome prejudice, deceit, and danger if she wants to save the day and find romance at A Midwinter's Wedding.A Midwinter's Wedding is a novella of approximately 35,000 words. Book 4 - The Princess Game: A Reimagining of Sleeping Beauty They call her the Sleeping Princess, but Celeste is far from asleep...Celeste has been cursed since her sixteenth birthday--just not in the way the rest of the kingdom thinks. All they see is her breath-taking beauty, marred by her foolishness. Only she knows that she retains her brilliant mind. And it's a secret she must keep at all costs.Over the years she's grown accustomed to the necessary deception. After all, her life depends on it. And she's even found a way to protect her kingdom, working from the shadows. But now a dangerous new threat has emerged, one that Celeste can't defeat alone. She needs the help of a newly-arrived prince. One who's altogether too handsome and too charming. Somehow she needs to keep her secret, save her kingdom, and find a way to free herself from the curse. The last thing she has time to do is sleep.In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty, it's only the princess' mind that is asleep. And sometimes appearances can be deceiving.If you enjoy clean romance, adventure and intrigue, then try The Four Kingdoms series now! Each of these young adult fairy tale retellings can be read as a standalone story. However, for greatest enjoyment, they should be read in order.

    Fairy tales aren’t real. Private detective Nick Beasley knows that. This is 1922 E.A. (Ever After), an age of big cities, automobiles, and airships. Nobody in the Afterlands believes in magic and monsters anymore. Especially not Nick, who’s made a name for himself in the city of Talesend by debunking fraudulent “magical” phenomena.But when a misadventure with alleged enchantress Lady Cordelia Beaumont goes awry, leaving Nick with claws, a tail, and quite a lot of fur, he begins to rethink his stance on magic.There’s only one way for Nick to regain his humanity. He and Cordelia will have to retrieve a powerful magical artifact from a ruthless crime lord—who happens to be Cordelia’s father. Otherwise, Nick won’t be the only monster roaming through Talesend.The fate of the Afterlands lies in the hands of a renegade enchantress and an extremely hairy detective. What could possibly go wrong?

    Her mom is gone now, though, and the Steps have turned her into a servant in her own home. But on her sixteenth birthday, Nicolette discovers a secret workshop in the cellar and begins to dare to imagine a new life for herself. Could the mysterious books and tools hidden there—and the mechanical menagerie, led by a tiny metal horse named Jules—be the key to escaping her dreary existence? With a technological exposition and royal ball on the horizon, the timing might just be perfect for Nicolette to earn her freedom at last.Gorgeous prose and themes of social justice and family shine in this richly imagined Cinderella retelling about an indomitable inventor who finds her prince . . . but realizes she doesn't want a fairy tale happy ending after all.

    As an agent for a secret society (the Fare) is dispatched to retrieve the plans, three tweens get caught in the middle as they try to protect brilliant inventor, Nikolas Klaus. Meet Tee Baker, granddaughter of the baker from secret society The Tub and of Nikolas Klaus, and her best friends Elly and Richy, as they come together heroically for the first time as the legendary Yellow Hoods. Danger, intrigue and secrets await, and the intense grows, as the series builds. A hit with those 9-15 and adults."highly recommended" - Readers' Favorite, 5 Star The Yellow Hoods books 1 & 2 were finalists for Book of the Year in Teen/Young Adult and Fantasy - Independent Authors Network's 2015. See the trailer for The Yellow Hoods at AdamDreece.com/booktrailer

    Rosalie Klampton is the daughter of a naval admiral. Her father has never been right after his head wound during the battle of Trafalgar, and only Rosie’s determination has kept her family together and out of the poor house. When her father tears down the ugly rose draperies in the country house owned by the elusive earl of Warnwick, Rosie finds herself in service to the earl. He has his own problems, mainly the spell turning him into a beast, the fact that all the magical scholars in England haven’t figured out a way to break the spell, and the scandal being a beast has caused. It will be up to Rosie to help Lord Warnwick navigate the social Season and evade whoever put the spell on him in the first place. Between the scandals and the French spies, working for an earl-turned-beast may be the least of Rosie’s worries.Note: Free for Email Subscribers to Tara Grayce's Newsletter

    But there’s no arguing with the strange, scarred host of a hidden valley who’s taken her brother captive. Without the resources to mount a rescue, Elissa desperately settles for the next best thing: exchanging her freedom for her brother.But the longer she stays in the valley, the more Elissa realizes it isn’t just her prison. It holds secrets that her host jealously guards. Secrets that could hold the key to her escape. Except maybe the curse isn’t a curse at all. And maybe secrets are the only thing keeping her alive. A Beauty and the Beast retelling, Rose of the Oath weaves the timeless elements of roses and captors and beauties with deeper shades of betrayal, sorrow, and sacrifice.The first novella in the Legends of Light series, this short novel is a stand-alone story and contains a handful of allegorical themes.

     But dreams never come true that easily. Among those by her side are a huntsman who is more than he seems, an enthusiastic talking squirrel, and a handful of dragons who are not as helpful as Snow would like. If she is to reclaim her throne, she must come up with a bold plan to stop the Queen before it's too late. Mirrors and Pearls is a stand-alone novella inspired by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a magical, adventurous retelling of the classic fairy tale.

    An underground kingdom. This retelling of Rapunzel offers a gripping blend of magic, romance, adventure, fairytale, and mystery.When 17-year-old army conscript Kasper Bator is chosen to join the elite guard that keeps watch over a dangerous prisoner in a tower, he believes what he's been told: the prisoner is a powerful witch. But when he meets the prisoner, Kasper's life will change forever—for the prisoner is no witch, but a beautiful young girl. The daughter of the country's enemy, the Prince of Night, Izolda has been held hostage since she was three. And she is in imminent danger, for a prophecy says she must die on her 16th birthday if Krainos is to be saved from the Prince of Night. Kasper decides to help her escape. As the days pass, their friendship turns into real love, but their hiding place won't stay safe forever.

    When her father is sent to Mars against his will to work on a mysterious science project and a benevolent official allows her to accompany him, Philadelphia knows she must keep her head down or be sent back to prison on Earth. But when she stumbles into the wrong hallway and accidentally learns too much, Philadelphia is faced with a question she doesn’t want to answer: the choice between returning to Earth—or destroying it.