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Illusion by Stephanie Elmas
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The Wishing Thread
Lisa Van Allen - 2013
The Van Ripper women have been the talk of Tarrytown, New York, for centuries. Some say they’re angels; some say they’re crooks. In their tumbledown “Stitchery,” not far from the stomping grounds of the legendary Headless Horseman, the Van Ripper sisters—Aubrey, Bitty, and Meggie—are said to knit people’s most ardent wishes into beautiful scarves and mittens, granting them health, success, or even a blossoming romance. But for the magic to work, sacrifices must be made—and no one knows that better than the Van Rippers. When the Stitchery matriarch, Mariah, dies, she leaves the yarn shop to her three nieces. Aubrey, shy and reliable, has dedicated her life to weaving spells for the community, though her sisters have long stayed away. Bitty, pragmatic and persistent, has always been skeptical of magic and wants her children to have a normal, nonmagical life. Meggie, restless and free-spirited, follows her own set of rules. Now, after Mariah’s death forces a reunion, the sisters must reassess the state of their lives even as they decide the fate of the Stitchery. But their relationships with one another—and their beliefs in magic—are put to the test. Will the threads hold? Includes an exclusive conversation between Sarah Addison Allen and Lisa Van Allen Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Girl on a Wire
Gwenda Bond - 2014
When her family is offered a prestigious role in the new Cirque American, it seems that Jules and the Amazing Maronis will finally get the spotlight they deserve. But the presence of the Flying Garcias may derail her plans. For decades, the two rival families have avoided each other as sworn enemies.Jules ignores the drama and focuses on the wire, skyrocketing to fame as the girl in a red tutu who dances across the wire at death-defying heights. But when she discovers a peacock feather—an infamous object of bad luck—planted on her costume, Jules nearly loses her footing. She has no choice but to seek help from the unlikeliest of people: Remy Garcia, son of the Garcia clan matriarch and the best trapeze artist in the Cirque.As more mysterious talismans believed to possess unlucky magic appear, Jules and Remy unite to find the culprit. And if they don’t figure out what’s going on soon, Jules may be the first Maroni to do the unthinkable: fall.
Bounty Hunters and Black Magic
Kristen Banet - 2019
Meet Adalyn Lovett, the local and only witch of Redstone and a bone to pick with anyone who wants to cause problems for her supernatural home. After losing the town sheriff to a demon attack the year before, she’s taken the task of protecting Redstone on herself. The idea? If any demon outlaws roll through, she’ll have the magic and skill to banish them, protecting everyone. She just needs to test the spell, a little piece of illegal black magic she shouldn’t even have. Not too hard. Just banish a demon with it. Things seem to be going as planned until they don’t. Adalyn has brought all manner of things home with her without even knowing. Demons, bounty hunters, and an aggravating, warlock US Marshal who thinks he knows best. Adalyn’s got a bit of a mess to clean up. A sexy mess, but a mess nonetheless. Witch of the Wild West is a steamy fast burn RH paranormal romance series set in the Wild West! From hellhounds to warlocks, and everything in between, jump into Adalyn’s wild world and join her in following her wild heart. Expect fun adventures, hot scenes, and a feisty female lead who won’t let anyone tell her what to do and won’t choose between the men she falls in love with. It’s all or nothing in the Wild West!
Welcome to the Underworld
Con Template - 2012
This society is so powerful that it can control a nation, strike fear into the bravest of men and bring turmoil onto the most unsuspecting of victims...There is a dangerous society in Seoul that is plaguing Choi Yoori.Her world is turned upside down when she is told that she bears a strong resemblance to the “Queen of the Underworld,” a notorious Underworld crime lord who died 3 years prior—the exact same time Yoori woke up with amnesia. The dangers of this new world is crashing in on her and Yoori's only grip on stability lies with the guidance from her crime lord boss and the secrets the Queen of the Underworld hid from her powerful society.Welcome to a world where “Gods” walk amongst humans. Where the heartless and vengeful are revered like Kings and Queens—and the weak, the distracted are punished without mercy.It is a cruel world and once you’re in, the only exit is death.
Endless
Amanda Gray - 2013
After all, not everybody can see the past lives of people around them.When she befriends Ben Daulton, resident new boy, the pair stumble on an old music box with instructions for “mesmerization” and discover they may have more in common than they thought. Like a past life.Using the instructions in the music box, Ben and Jenny share a dream that transports them to Romanov Russia and leads them to believe they have been there together before. But they weren't alone. Nikolai, the mysterious young man Jenny has been seeing in her own dreams was there, too. When Nikolai appears next door, Jenny is forced to acknowledge that he has travelled through time and space to find her. Doing so means he has defied the laws of time, and the Order, an ominous organization tasked with keeping people in the correct time, is determined to send him back. While Ben, Jenny and Nikolai race against the clock - and the Order - Jenny and Nikolai discover a link that joins them in life - and beyond death.
The Tale Of The Vampire Bride
Rhiannon Frater - 2009
But my fate was far more terrible than an arranged marriage when my family became prisoners to one of the most fearsome and powerful vampires of all time, Count Vlad Dracula. Imprisoned in the decrepit castle in the Carpathian Mountains, my new life as a Bride of Dracula was filled with bloody feasts, cruel beatings, and sexual depravity. There was no hope of escape It was only when he took me to the picturesque city of Buda on the Danube River and I met a handsome, mysterious vampire in the darkened city streets, did I dare hope to find love and freedom.
Bottled
Carol Riggs - 2016
For a thousand years, she fulfills the wishes of greedy masters--building their palaces, lining their pockets with gold, and granting them every earthly pleasure. All that sustains her is the hope of finding Karim, the boy she fell in love with as a human. When at last she finds a note from her beloved, she confirms he has access to the elixir of life and that he still searches for her. But someone else also hunts her. Faruq--the man who plots to use her powers to murder and seize the life forces of others--is just one step behind her. With the help of a kind master named Nathan, Adeelah continues to search for Karim while trying to evade Faruq. To complicate matters, she begins to experience growing fatigue and pain after conjuring, and finds herself struggling against an undeniable attraction to Nathan. As Faruq closes in, Adeelah must decide just how much she'll risk to protect Nathan and be with Karim forever. How much power does she really have to change her future, and what is she willing to sacrifice for an eternity of love? If she makes the wrong choice, the deaths of many will be on her hands.
House of Echoes
Brendan Duffy - 2015
Ben has hit a dead end with his new novel, Caroline has lost her banking job, and eight-year-old Charlie is being bullied at his Manhattan school.When Ben inherits land in the village of Swannhaven, in a remote corner of upstate New York, the Tierneys believe it’s just the break they need, and they leave behind all they know to restore a sprawling estate. But as Ben uncovers Swannhaven’s chilling secrets and Charlie ventures deeper into the surrounding forest, strange things begin to happen. The Tierneys realize that their new home isn’t the fresh start they needed . . . and that the village’s haunting saga is far from over.House of Echoes is a novel that shows how sometimes the ties that bind us are the only things that can keep us whole.
Slow Boat to Purgatory
Vernon Baker - 2011
Given a second chance at redemption he has walked the earth for over seven-hundred years.Dominicus Bureau, a renegade priest, torn between his vows and the secret he pursues, a secret protected by an immortal. He carries a silenced pistol and uses it. Often.Alex Donovan, a modern day warrior thrust into an ages old war, a war between good and evil, heaven and hell. Armed with an ancient chronicle of the life of Gaspar, Alex searches for the immortal and perhaps his own destiny.All three men, passengers on a Slow Boat To Purgatory.
ART
Matt Shaw - 2014
This novel is intended for a mature audience only. Martin Andrews is in a rut. Tired of the daily grind of life as a police officer and with a heavily pregnant wife, he is disillusioned, desperate to give his unborn child a chance in a world in which he has lost all faith. Little does Andrews know that amid the petty crimes and muggings, robbery and prostitution, a new threat is looming, one which will push Andrews to the very edges of his sanity. His nemesis is a man without limits. A man with a grand idea for a great work; a masterpiece which will give him the recognition he craves, no matter the cost. From the minds of Matt Shaw (Sick B*stards, Happy Ever After, The Cabin) & Michael Bray (Whisper, Funhouse, MEAT) comes ART. Told from the viewpoint of both killer (Shaw) and Detective (Bray), ART is a journey into the darkest, most twisted part of the human psyche. Two authors. One ending.
The Spirit Chaser
Kat Mayor - 2015
Some places should be left alone.Austin Cole has it made. Star of the hit television show Spirit Chaser Investigations, he has become the world’s most famous paranormal investigator. Although hard work, a talented investigation team, and favorable genetics have something to do with it, it’s his lack of fear and willingness to take risks no one else will that make Spirit Chaser Investigations cable’s number-one show. When a ghost-hunt-gone-wrong seriously injures his best friend and lead psychic, Austin is forced to find a replacement for a team member he considers irreplaceable.Casey Lawson can’t catch a break. She’s been on her own since she turned eighteen and is scraping by as a part-time psychic and cashier at a New Age store. When a desperate Austin Cole calls her up and offers her a position on his team, has her fortune finally changed?He’s a control freak; she’s stubborn and opinionated. It takes time, but when they finally realize they’re working on the same side, everything clicks, both on and off screen. Just when things are looking up, a new threat emerges. Over the years, Austin has angered plenty of demons, and one of them has set her sights on him. Now he’s the one in danger, and it’s up to the team to rescue him from the riskiest investigation of their lives.
Forever in One Second
Finn Marlowe - 2012
Nothing would please him more than to share those stolen moments with the man who, literally, held his life in his hands. First, though, he has to find him. Then convince him it’s safe to come out of his self-imposed shadows.Even if it means playing dirty.Court has no regrets about manipulating that one second of fate to save Dane’s life, but having this accursed power to cheat death isn’t the only thing darkening his lonely existence. The last thing he needs is an eternal optimist shining a cheery light on the dark, tortured corners of his past. Except now that Dane has found him, there’s no shaking him...and the longer Court basks in Dane’s relentless warmth, the more he begins to believe that maybe, just maybe, happiness can at last be his.Distracted by the devilish sparkle in Dane’s eyes, Court begins to forget that there are those who would kill to control his stunning power. And that Dane is the perfect bait…Warning: Beware—features a man with absolutely no scruples about resorting to seduction and cheap tricks to get what he wants. Plus a skittish, supernaturally gifted paramedic who’s about to discover that it’s okay to go along for the ride.
Hide Me Among the Graves
Tim Powers - 2012
A malevolent spirit roams the cold and gloomy streets of Victorian London, the vampiric ghost of John Polidori, the onetime physician of the mad, bad and dangerous Romantic poet Lord Byron. Polidori is also the supernatural muse to his niece and nephew, poet Christina Rossetti and her artist brother Dante Gabriel.But Polidori's taste for debauchery has grown excessive. He is determined to possess the life and soul of an innocent young girl, the daughter of a veterinarian and a reformed prostitute he once haunted. And he has resurrected Dante's dead wife, transforming her into a horrifying vampire. The Rossettis know the time has come – Polidori must be stopped. Joining forces with the girl's unlikely parents, they are plunged into a supernatural London underworld whose existence they never suspected.These wildly mismatched allies – a strait-laced animal doctor, and ex-prostitute, a poet, a painter, and even the Artful Dodger-like young daughter – must ultimately choose between the banality and constraints of human life and the unholy immortality that Polidori offers. Sweeping from high society to grimy slums, elegant West End salons to pre-Roman catacombs beneath St. Paul's cathedral, Hide Me Among The Graves blends the historical and the supernatural in a dazzling, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride.
The Night Crossing
Robert Masello - 2018
She brings it back with her to the foggy streets of Victorian London, unaware of its dangerous power…or that an evil beyond imagining has already taken root in the city.Stoker, a successful theater manager but frustrated writer, is drawn into a deadly web spun by the wealthy founders of a mission house for the poor. Far from a safe haven, the mission harbors a dark and terrifying secret.To save the souls of thousands, Stoker—aided by the explorer and a match girl grieving the loss of her child—must pursue an enemy as ancient as the Saharan sands where it originated. Their journey will take them through the city’s overgrown graveyards and rat-infested tunnels and even onto the maiden voyage of the world’s first “unsinkable” ship…
Runes
Ednah Walters - 2013
The last thing she needs is Torin St. James—a mysterious new neighbor with a wicked smile and uncanny way of reading her. Raine is drawn to Torin’s dark sexiness against her better judgment, until he saves her life with weird marks and she realizes he is different. But by healing her, Torin changes something inside Raine. Now she can’t stop thinking about him. Half the time, she’s not sure whether to fall into his arms or run. Scared, she sets out to find out what Torin is. But the closer she gets to the truth the more she uncovers something sinister about Torin. What Torin is goes back to an ancient mythology and Raine is somehow part of it. Not only are she and her friends in danger, she must choose a side, but the wrong choice will cost Raine her life