Book picks similar to
Laced by H.L. Burke
romance
fantasy
indie-books
whimsical-fantasy
A Rarer Gift Than Gold: Adventure for Art Lovers
Lucy Branch - 2015
Abigail Argent is a skilled craftsman working in the world of sculpture. Her particular talent lies in seeing the beauty in a plain piece of metal and being able to draw it out. When she comes across a book that links her craft with the ancient myth of alchemy, she's intrigued. Digging deeper, she discovers that some types of research can be dangerous. Delving into one of Italy's oldest secret societies, curiosity comes at a price that no-one should have to pay.
If you like a conspiracy theory that walks the line between myth and science, you'll love A Rarer Gift Than Gold.
A Rarer Gift Than Gold takes everything you think you know about alchemy and turns it on its head
Treat yourself to A Rarer Gift Than Gold as featured on Radio 4, BBC World Service & Timeout Magazine
Interview with the Author
Will you share a little about your book? It’s a conspiracy theory about alchemy. Set in the art and craft world, it’s low fantasy with high stakes. Readers who enjoy the Da Vinci Code should like it.
Will you share how you came up with the idea for this book?
I am a sculptural restorer specialising in metals. I wanted to convey my love of metals and the idea came to me when a historian friend was doing some research and calling up some pretty rare volumes. He got a warning to stay away from the material he was looking at. I wondered why anyone would be so protective of something so dry and academic. I wondered what motivation they could possibly have and what might happen if he ignored the warning. I built this book around this event.
Who or what was your inspiration for this book?
Every day, I work with historic objects and one of the questions I always ask myself when restoring them is ‘what is missing from this object. What can I not see?’ and ‘why might evidence have been lost?’ It has made me very interested in what’s absent from history and why. This story is about how history can be manipulated by the removal of physical evidence for personal gain.
It is said that authors write themselves into their characters. Is there any part of you in your characters and what they would be?
The only part of the lead character that is like me is her love of metals. That we share.
Have you been influenced by the writing style of other authors?
I adore and devour books, but trying to imitate someone else would just be too hard. Your own voice has to be authentic otherwise I think you come off as a hack.
Do you have plans to write another book?
Girl in A Golden Cage will be out at the end of 2016 – it’s another book in The Gold Gift Series
Free Four: Tobias Tells the Divergent Knife-Throwing Scene
Veronica Roth - 2012
This thirteen-page scene reveals unknown facts and fascinating details about Four's character, his past, his own initiation, and his thoughts about new Dauntless initiate Tris Prior.
Undone
Elizabeth Norris - 2013
Before their universes collided. Before they fell in love.Riveting and romantic, Undone: An Unraveling Novella contains three short stories set in the world of Unraveling, the first book in the gripping sci-fi duology by Elizabeth Norris.Before Ben Michaels saved Janelle Tenner’s life, Janelle saved Ben when he stumbled through an interuniverse portal into a completely new world. That day, he fell in love with the girl of his dreams. And he never forgot her.Through three stories told from Ben’s point of view, learn how Ben and his friends discovered their ability to travel between worlds, how Ben first met Janelle, and how he pined for her for years before he actually got the chance to meet her, save her life, and capture her heart. And find out what happens to Ben between the cliff-hanger conclusion to Unraveling and the beginning of its heart-stopping sequel, Unbreakable.
Bridal Jitters
Jayne Castle - 2005
He offers her his space to live and start up her business. What follows is an even more intriguing proposal-to become his wife. Strictly for professional reasons, of course. Their marriage of convenience would lead to a very lucrative business partnership, Gage & Burch Consulting. Until something throws a wrench into the plan: the undeniable sensual energy that naturally exists between them-and a love so strong that it could wake the ghosts below.
Happily Never After
Jeaniene Frost - 2008
Dangerously Wrong...but not if dashing vampire Chance has anything to say about it. As a favor to Bones, Chance has come to derail this wedding of beauty to the beast. Now if only he can keep his hands off the bride. From New York Times bestselling author Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress world, it’s the wedding of the season...that everyone wants to miss. (Originally appeared in Weddings From Hell anthology)
The Unleashed Creation: The Clan-Vampire Clash, A Prequel
Betsy Flak - 2017
Fire breathes life. Duncan lives in a world where it's kill or be killed, whether that's by his vampire allies or by the Clan's vampire hunters. But he wants something more. He wants freedom. When he stumbles across a rogue fire witch that the Clan has left to die, he knows it's his chance. If he can persuade her to switch sides, together they can unite the vampires and destroy the Clan itself. There's just one catch: Can Duncan convince the witch before she kills him? The Unleashed Creation is a stand-alone prequel novelette to the upcoming The Clan-Vampire Clash, a series of YA paranormal fantasy novels. If you like sinister villains, complicated superheroes, and supernatural suspense, then you'll love Betsy Flak's magical new series. Check out The Unleashed Creation today!
The Cannibal Princess
Nalini Singh - 2015
A short story about Sascha & Lucas' mated life.
Timeline:
Takes place some time after Slave to Sensation and before Visions of Heat.This story can be found on Nalini Singh's official website.
A Pocketful of Stars
Margaret Ball - 2018
CIA Case Officer Bradislav Lensky doesn't care what it is, as long as she can help track down a smuggling ring and the terrorists in their safe house in Austin. The other magicians nearby don't agree, and don't care for new rivals either! Now Thalia and the rest of her misfit crew are in a race against time, terrorists, common sense, grackles, and their graduate advisor to save the day!
Night's Edge
Maggie Shayne - 2004
Even so, when she somehow acquires a stalker, Layla Rue is surprised to find that Sean is the only one she can trust.Her Best Enemy by USA TODAY bestselling author Maggie ShayneKiley Brigham refuses to believe there's a ghost in her house, but when an unseen hand leaves a bloody message on her bathroom mirror, she's forced to turn to local psychic Jack McCain. As the two work to uncover a long-buried secret, Kiley finds that she's haunted not by spirits, but by thoughts of Jack.Someone Else's Shadow by Locus Award-winning author Barbara HamblyMaddie Laveau worries about her young roommate, Tessa, when she stays late to practice ballet in the old Glendower Building -- and when Tessa goes missing, Maddie enlists mysterious tenant Phil Anderson to help. But is Phil the white knight she needs, or the predator she fears?
Spaceships and Spellcasters
Glynn Stewart - 2018
A mage cop on his first assignment learns the world isn't as black and white as hopedA jump mage and a starship with matching needs turn out to be a magnet for troubleDigging in 1940s New York City awakens a monster--and brings in the elite of the FaeThe protected heir of an interstellar dictatorship is called to a battle no one expected him to fightAn explosive collection of four novellas from science fiction and fantasy author Glynn Stewart, spanning his ONSET, Starship's Mage, Changeling Blood and Exile universes, including two brand new urban fantasy novellas. Includes:ONSET: Murder by MagicStarship's Mage: Episode 1Fae, Flames and FedorasAshen Stars
Three Moments of an Explosion
China Miéville - 2009
Destroyed oil rigs, mysteriously reborn, clamber from the sea and onto the land, driven by an obscure but violent purpose. An anatomy student cuts open a cadaver to discover impossibly intricate designs carved into a corpse's bones—designs clearly present from birth, bearing mute testimony to . . . what?Of such concepts and unforgettable images are made the twenty-eight stories in this collection—many published here for the first time. By turns speculative, satirical, and heart-wrenching, fresh in form and language, and featuring a cast of damaged yet hopeful seekers who come face-to-face with the deep weirdness of the world—and at times the deeper weirdness of themselves—Three Moments of an Explosion is a fitting showcase for one of our most original voices.
The Girl Who Could See
Kara Swanson - 2017
At least, that’s what the doctors have claimed since her childhood. Now nineteen, and one step away from a psych ward, Fern struggles to survive in bustling Los Angeles. Desperate to appear “normal,” she represses the young man flickering at the edge of her awareness—a blond warrior only she can see. Tristan was Fern’s childhood imaginary hero, saving her from monsters under her bed and outside her walls. As she grew up and his secret world continued to bleed into hers, however, it only caused catastrophe. But, when the city is rocked by the unexplainable, Fern is forced to consider the possibility that this young man isn’t a hallucination after all—and that the creature who decimated his world may be coming for hers.
The Gifting
K.E. Ganshert - 2015
And crazy is dangerous."In a world where nothing supernatural exists, Tess Eckhart is positive she’s going crazy. After her complete freakout at a high school party, her parents worry she might be right. So much that they pack their bags and move across the country, next to a nationally-renowned facility for the mentally ill.Tess is determined to fit in at her new school, despite the whispers and stares. But when it comes to Luka Williams, a reluctantly popular boy in her class, she’s unused to a stare that intense. Then the headaches start, and the seemingly prophetic dreams that haunt her at night. As Tess tries harder to hide them, she becomes increasingly convinced that Luka knows something—that he might somehow be responsible.But what if she’s wrong? What if Luka Williams is the only thing separating her from a madness too terrifying to fathom?
On Luna Time
Amber Crawley - 2019
When she receives a strange letter from her mother three weeks before her 18th birthday, Vanessa knows it’s the only shot she has at finding her real family. The letter instructs her to jump off the Swan Pier into the ocean at midnight under the next full moon. With the steadfast hope that her mother would be waiting for her, Vanessa jumps, only to find that she’s come up for air seventy years in the past. Journals written by women who took the same time-altering jump help Vanessa realize that the mystery of her mother’s life spans generations and is far more complex than she could have ever dreamed. While living in 1949, Vanessa develops feelings for a boy despite the warnings from previous travelers not to fall in love. As she begins to unravel her mother’s web of secrets, Vanessa discovers that the truth is anything but easy, and the answers are not influenced by past, but have the power to alter her future forever.
The New Hunger
Isaac Marion - 2013
Then came a final blow no one could have expected: all the world’s corpses rising up to make more.Born into this bleak and bloody landscape, twelve-year-old Julie struggles to hold on to hope as she and her parents drive across the wastelands of America, a nightmarish road trip in search of a new home.Hungry, lost, and scared, sixteen-year-old Nora finds herself her brother’s sole guardian after her parents abandon them in the not-quite-empty ruins of Seattle.And in the darkness of a forest, a dead man opens his eyes. Who is he? What is he? With no clues beyond a red tie and the letter “R,” he must unravel the grim mystery of his existence—right after he learns how to think, how to walk, and how to satisfy the monster howling in his belly. The New Hunger is a glimpse of the past and a path to an astonishing future…