Book picks similar to
The Creation of Eve by Leigh Anderson


horror
historical-romance
gothic
historical-fiction

The Mirror


Marlys Millhiser - 1978
    The virginal Brandy, in turn, awakes in Shay's body to discover herself pregnant. What follows is a fascinating look at how two women—and their families—cope with this strange situation.

The Darkling Bride


Laura Andersen - 2018
     The Gallagher family has called Deeprath Castle home for seven hundred years. Nestled in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland, the estate is now slated to become a public trust, and book lover and scholar Carragh Ryan is hired to take inventory of its historic library. But after meeting Aidan, the current Viscount Gallagher, and his enigmatic family, Carragh knows that her task will be more challenging than she’d thought. Two decades before, Aidan’s parents died violently at Deeprath. The case, which was never closed, has recently been taken up by a new detective determined to find the truth. The couple’s unusual deaths harken back a century, when twenty-three-year-old Lady Jenny Gallagher also died at Deeprath under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind an infant son and her husband, a renowned writer who never published again. These incidents only fueled fantastical theories about the Darkling Bride, a local legend of a sultry and dangerous woman from long ago whose wrath continues to haunt the castle. The past catches up to the present, and odd clues in the house soon have Carragh wondering if there are unseen forces stalking the Gallagher family. As secrets emerge from the shadows and Carragh gets closer to answers—and to Aidan—could she be the Darkling Bride’s next victim?

Firelight


Kristen Callihan - 2012
    . . Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family's fortune decimated and forced her to wed London's most nefarious nobleman.They will burn for eternity . . .Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man. Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it's selfish to take Miranda as his bride. Yet he can't help being drawn to the flame-haired beauty whose touch sparks a passion he hasn't felt in a lifetime. When Archer is accused of a series of gruesome murders, he gives in to the beastly nature he has fought so hard to hide from the world. But the curse that haunts him cannot be denied. Now, to save his soul, Miranda will enter a world of dark magic and darker intrigue. For only she can see the man hiding behind the mask.

Touch Not the Cat


Mary Stewart - 1976
    After the tragic death of her father, Bryony returns from abroad to find that his estate is to become the responsibility of her cousin Emory. Her family's estate with its load of debt is no longer her worry. Still, her father's final, dire warning about a terrible family curse haunts her days and her dreams. And there is something odd about her father's sudden death... Bryony has inherited the Ashley 'Sight' and so has one of the Ashleys. Since childhood the two have communicated through thought patterns, though Bryony has no idea of his identity. Devastated, she believes, that the mysterious stranger is her destiny... the lover-to-be who waits for her now at Ashley Court. Now she is determined to find him. But passion is not all that will greet Bryony upon her return -- for the crumbling walls of the old mansion guard dark secrets, tragic memories... and inescapable peril.

The Magicians and Mrs. Quent


Galen Beckett - 2008
    Quent. A first novel. 30,000 first printing.

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.

Nowhere Man: Another John Pickett Novella


Sheri Cobb South - 2020
    As weeks go by with no responses to his newspaper advertisement, he has taken to spending his days wandering idly about London rather than admit his failure to his beloved wife Julia, the former Lady Fieldhurst.One day, while loitering amidst the crowds thronging the Covent Garden market, he wonders morosely if it might have been better had he not been born at all. Then he sees one of his former colleagues and, in an attempt to make a discreet exit, contrives instead to knock himself unconscious.He awakens to discover that his Bow Street colleague doesn’t seem to remember him, and after staggering back home to Curzon Street, he finds someone else living in the house where he lived with Julia. But still greater surprises are in store for Pickett as he attempts to navigate his way through a world in which he never existed…With a wink and a nod to Frank Capra’s classic film IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, NOWHERE MAN offers an alternate version of many of the earlier entries in the John Pickett mystery series.

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.

Camille


Tess Oliver - 2010
    Bennett, live a most unconventional life. They hunt werewolves. When unwitting victim, Nathaniel Strider, wanders into one of their full moon pursuits, Camille and Dr. Bennett believe they have found a specimen for their study. Finding a scientific key to unlocking the mystery of lycanthropy would end their late night excursions. Yet beneath the irresistible exterior, Nathaniel is transforming into a flesh-tearing monster, and as each experiment fails, Camille loses another inch of her soul to him. In a month’s time, she must face the prospect of destroying the boy who has stolen her heart.

The Shivering Sands


Victoria Holt - 1969
    Caroline Verlaine, a young widow, comes to work at the estate hoping to discover the cause of the mysterious disappearance of her sister, who had been studying the nearby Roman ruins. Caroline found her employers a strange family, haunted by tragedies of the past, scarred by distrust. Yet she found herself irresistibly attracted to them - especially to the family's dark, moody young scion. But not until she had retraced her sister's fatal last steps could she answer the crucial questions about the family's past - and her own future.

A Bride's Deception (Wagon Wheel Justice #1)


Blythe Carver - 2021
    Complete with a case ready to go. Adelaide’s come up with an idea. Masquerading as a madame and a lady of the night. Sadie’s the one who has the gumption to pull off the ruse, so it’s settled. She and Adelaide will go to a mining town to solve the mystery Uncle Gabriel left behind.Larson Donaldson’s not a lawman anymore, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need to eat. Of course, he does, so he gets himself a job as private security for a madame and her sportin’ woman. He’s never had a job quite like this one. Then again, he’s never met a woman quite like Sadie Salinger.Things seem fine until an attempt is made on their lives. That’s when he determines he needs to know the truth. He can’t protect the women when he doesn’t know what in creation’s name they're actually doing in this mining town.

Opium and Absinthe


Lydia Kang - 2020
    Tillie Pembroke’s sister lies dead, her body drained of blood and with two puncture wounds on her neck. Bram Stoker’s new novel, Dracula, has just been published, and Tillie’s imagination leaps to the impossible: the murderer is a vampire. But it can’t be—can it?A ravenous reader and researcher, Tillie has something of an addiction to truth, and she won’t rest until she unravels the mystery of her sister’s death. Unfortunately, Tillie’s addicted to more than just truth; to ease the pain from a recent injury, she’s taking more and more laudanum…and some in her immediate circle are happy to keep her well supplied.Tillie can’t bring herself to believe vampires exist. But with the hysteria surrounding her sister’s death, the continued vampiric slayings, and the opium swirling through her body, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for a girl who relies on facts and figures to know what’s real—or whether she can trust those closest to her.

Valhalla Cupcakes (The Cursed Painting #1)


Cassidy Cayman - 2016
    Now she’s got loansharks breathing down her neck for a hundred thousand dollars she doesn’t even owe, and her five hundred year old painting of a sexy Viking just came to life. Fortunately for her, he has to do whatever she says, and pretty soon, he’s stirring up more than just cupcake batter. A lighthearted, steamy standalone romance with no cliffhanger!

Marysvale


Jared Southwick - 2010
    Without that knowledge, he has no idea of the enemies that lie in wait. Now grown up, John lives a solitary life, in a world enslaved by ignorance and superstition, when anyone unusual is treated with distrust and even killed and has some very unusual gifts. When he is accused of witchcraft, John does the only thing he's ever done, Run! That is, until he meets Jane, who lives in the bleak, imprisoned town of Marysvale. Life outside the saftey of the town walls means certain death from the brutal monsters that hunt there. However, life inside, under the rule of a tyrannical leader, means no life at all. As the love between John and Jane grows, the dangers of Marysvale unfold; and for the first time in his life, John discovers that there is something worth dying for.

Dorchadas House


Emmanuelle de Maupassant - 2018
    Drawn to the wild landscape, Iris hopes to forget the burdens of her past: her father’s death, a narrow life in a small-minded town. But the dilapidated manor houses its own secrets. There are strange cries in the night, and is the stoic housekeeper Mrs McInnes all she seems? Iris begins to have disturbing dreams about the maze, planted centuries ago in the manor grounds to honour the ‘old ways’, concealing something even older. “Even on that first night, I dreamt. A presence, in the darkness.” Despite the consuming task of refurbishing the manor as a guesthouse, Iris increasingly feels the brooding presence of Neas and Eachinn, the two brutish farmhands who seem as much a part of Dorchadas House as the old maze. As autumn wanes and Samhain Eve approaches, the island folk prepare to honour the dead and the Goddess Nicneven, as they have done for generations past. “The women play their part, too. We’re the most important, you could say …” Has something more than chance drawn her to Eirig? 'Dorchadas House' is a 1940s Gothic mystery, combining elements of folk-horror with adult themes.