Mermaid


Carolyn Turgeon - 2001
    One gloomy, windswept morning, as she stands in a convent garden overlooking the icy sea, she witnesses a miracle: a glittering mermaid emerging from the waves, a nearly drowned man in her arms. By the time Margrethe reaches the shore, the mermaid has disappeared into the sea. As Margrethe nurses the handsome stranger back to health, she learns that not only is he a prince, he is also the son of her father's greatest rival. Sure that the mermaid brought this man to her for a reason, Margrethe devises a plan to bring peace to her kingdom.Meanwhile, the mermaid Princess Lenia longs to return to the human man she carried to safety. She is willing to trade her home, her voice, and even her health for legs and the chance to win his heart...A surprising take on the classic tale, Mermaid is the story of two women with everything to lose. It will make you think twice about the fairy tale you heard as a child, keeping you in suspense until the very last page.

Midnight with the Devil


Emma Castle - 2018
     What would you do to save a loved one’s life? Make a pact with the Devil? In Diana Kingston’s defense, it was the middle of the night in the deserted hospital chapel… surely it was just a dream. She hadn’t really sold herself to a brooding stranger to save her father’s life, right? Then she wakes and her father is fully recovered and a mysterious letter arrives from the tall, dark, handsome—um, Devil? Yep, it was right there on the contract, Lucien Star, aka Lucifer Morningstar, that had been his name in the dream… Gulp. What would the Devil himself want with her? Sex. Three months of hot, sweaty, Friday night sex. Ooookay. Breaking a pact with the Devil doesn’t seem like a smart move. So she’ll do it—but she won’t like it. Not much anyway. But she starts liking it – a lot—and every night they spend together, she likes it and Lucien a little more. Being with him allows her naughty side to come out and play, but Diana starts to see more than just a sexy-as-sin, rock-hard … er…Anyway, he might be Satan, but even he was an angel once. Kind. Noble. And she sees glimpses of that man still inside him… But how in Heaven’s name do you save the Devil from himself?

Gothikana


RuNyx - 2021
    An enigmatic man. An ancient castle. What could go wrong?An outcast her entire life, Corvina Clemm is left adrift after losing her mother. When she receives the admission letter from the mysterious University of Verenmore, she accepts it as a sign from the universe. The last thing she expects though is an olden, secluded castle on top of a mountain riddled with secrets, deceit, and death.An enigma his entire life, Vad Deverell likes being a closed book but knowing exactly everything that happens in the university. A part-time professor working on his thesis, Vad has been around long enough to know the dangers the castle possesses. And he knows the moment his paths cross with Corvina, she's dangerous to everything that he is.They shouldn't have caught each other's eye. They cannot be. But a chill-inducing century-old mystery forces them to collide. People have disappeared every five years for over a hundred years, and Corvina is getting clues to unraveling it all, and Vad needs to keep an eye on her.And so begins a tale of the mystique, the morbid, the macabre, and a deep love that blossoms in the unlikeliest of places.

Broken


A.E. Rought - 2013
    Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.

The Hunted


Bethany-Kris - 2019
    The halfling prince with murder in his eyes and the sea’s songs in his blood will make sure of that.He should kill her.Perhaps, keeping her might be worse.Two kingdoms are falling. One king is losing it all and another threatens to ruin everything. The rules of the land and sea are changing. Secrets of the past are spilling.And all because of a prince and his little mermaid—whether they live or die—nothing in the realm will ever be the same.*In The Hunted, Bethany-Kris opens a new world—the 9INE REALMS—for readers with a dark fairy tale retelling, and pulls inspiration from the cult classic favorite and the Hans Christian Andersen original to redefine what it means to be The Little Mermaid.

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly


Stephanie Oakes - 2015
    As she languishes in juvenile detention, she struggles to un-learn everything she has been taught to believe, adjusting to a life behind bars and recounting the events that led up to her incarceration. But when an FBI detective approaches her about making a deal, Minnow sees she can have the freedom she always dreamed of—if she’s willing to part with the terrible secrets of her past.The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly is a hard-hitting and hopeful story about the dangers of blind faith—and the power of having faith in oneself.

Before Midnight


Jennifer Blackstream - 2013
    A fierce and loyal pack, Etienne and his family have protected their kingdom with tooth and claw—literally—for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, the spell of a well-meaning witch is slowly stealing the beast from inside him. Only the bite of a cursed werewolf—one who was not born with the beast inside—can save him from losing everything. He has no time for anything that will not lead him to a cure for the curse. Not even the beautiful maiden whose gentle nature soothes his soul even as she tempts him into primal pursuits of an entirely different nature… A maiden enslaved by her stepfamily, who dares to reach for more...Loupe lives in terror. Terror of the bloodthirsty stepfamily who treats her like a slave, and terror of the beast trapped inside her. Bitten by a werewolf while dealing with the illegal gains of her stepfamily’s poaching, Loupe’s dreams of a strong husband who would take her away from her servant-like existence are over. A woman who becomes a mindless beast on the night of the full moon has no place in a marriage bed. Not even if that bed belongs to a prince with the manners of royalty and the hungry eyes of a wolf. Nothing will stand between an alpha wolf and his mate... A grand ball. The stroke of twelve. A magic “slipper.” All kinds of things can happen when you don’t leave the ball... Before Midnight.

Comfort Me with Apples


Catherynne M. Valente - 2021
    Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect.It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze...But everything is perfect. Isn't it?

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 Artisans


Julie Reece - 2015
    But after the death of her mother, seventeen-year-old Raven Weathersby gives up her dream of becoming a fashion designer, barely surviving life in the South Carolina lowlands. To make ends meet, Raven works after school as a seamstress creating stunning works of fashion that often rival the great names of the day. Instead of making things easier on the high school senior, her stepdad's drinking leads to a run in with the highly reclusive heir to the Maddox family fortune, Gideon Maddox. But Raven's stepdad's drying out and in no condition to attend the meeting with Maddox. So Raven volunteers to take his place and offers to repay the debt in order to keep the only father she's ever known out of jail, or worse. Gideon Maddox agrees, outlining an outrageous demand: Raven must live in his home for a year while she designs for Maddox Industries' clothing line, signing over her creative rights. Her handsome young captor is arrogant and infuriating to the nth degree, and Raven can't imagine working for him, let alone sharing the same space for more than five minutes. But nothing is ever as it seems. Is Gideon Maddox the monster the world believes him to be? And can he stand to let the young seamstress see him as he really is?

Beauty and the Beast


Georgia Le Carre - 2020
    But it is starting to look as if I may have made a bargain with the devil himself because he won't let me go even though the time we agreed upon is long gone.He now claims he's not done with me and our agreement ends when he says it does.And if I attempt to leave or involve the authorities he will hurt my loved ones My skin always crawled when he touched me, but I gritted my teeth and told myself it was only for a month, but that comfort has been snatched away.I fear there is no way out other than another crazy act.Then out of nowhere everything changes. A lifeline.A tall, mysterious man with icy gray eyes that pierce my soul and sensuous lips that make my heart race, steps into the sordid world I am living in.He's wearing the kind of suit and shoes that costs thousands, and a scar on his face that rumor says came from a tiger.Yeah, I've heard of him. In this city who hasn't?Luca Messana, the head of Boston's ruling Mafia family.He wants me. That much is clear.What he does next takes my breath away...

The Maiden Thief


Melissa Marr - 2016
    Her father blames her when one of her sisters is one of the taken.

The Sea Queen


Jovee Winters - 2015
    Spitting mad. Ghosts of the dead are fouling her waters. She wants this problem fixed, and she wants it fixed now. Rushing off in search of Hades, Lord of the Underworld, to demand answers, she’s soon shocked to discover him bound and standing trial before a jury of his peers—for nothing less than murder. Calypso normally despises the beastly gods, all of them, but there’s something about seeing Hades bound as he is that gives her an evilly clever idea. Tired of being a virgin queen, she wishes to shed that boring image once and for all, and no one seems quite as fit for the task as the gorgeous and brooding Hades. Of course, there is the minor problem of murder to deal with, but Calypso is bound and determined to have her way. And when a dark queen gets an idea, nothing and no one can stand in her way…

Red as Blood and White as Bone


Theodora Goss - 2016
    Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss is a dark fantasy about a kitchen girl obsessed with fairy tales, who upon discovering a ragged woman outside the castle during a storm, takes her in--certain she’s a princess in disguise.

The Shrike & the Shadows


Chantal Gadoury - 2020
    It’s been that way for as long as Hans and Greta can remember, though they have never seen the witch themselves; no one has. When men start to disappear once again in the cover of night - their bloody hearts turning up on doorsteps - the village falls into frenzied madness.Hans and Greta, two outcast orphans, find themselves facing accusations of witchcraft and are met with an ultimatum: burn at the stake, or leave the village forever. With nowhere else to go, they abandon their only home. As they venture into the strange forest, their path is fraught with horrific creatures, wild and vivid hallucinations, and a mysterious man tied to the witch's past.The Shrike is watching, just beyond the deep darkness of the woods.