I'd bring at least two pairs of extra panties if I were you.

    Now, at a veritable fairy-tale moment—witness the popular television shows Grimm and Once Upon a Time and this year’s two movie adaptations of “Snow White”—Philip Pullman, one of the most popular authors of our time, makes us fall in love all over again with the immortal tales of the Brothers Grimm.From much-loved stories like “Cinderella” and “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Rapunzel” and “Hansel and Gretel” to lesser-known treasures like “Briar-Rose,” “Thousandfurs,” and “The Girl with No Hands,” Pullman retells his fifty favorites, paying homage to the tales that inspired his unique creative vision—and that continue to cast their spell on the Western imagination.

     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

    Worse, she's been saddled with the brutish Carlo Castellan as her bodyguard for the last night of Bacchanal. There's only one thing to do: escape to the fabled House of the Severille...The imperious Lady Lucrezia expects to sate herself by dominating some poor house slave. What she gets instead is the harsh touch of a Severille Master who will stop at nothing to make the Lady submit.Excerpt below......Lucrezia had never been one to hide. She'd never felt the need. Hidingwas what one did when one wasn't sure of one's place in the world, andshe had always been quite sure of her place at the top. Suddenly she wasn't sure of anything. After a moment of stunned hesitation, Lucrezia had immediately fled toan unoccupied bench in a relatively secluded corner of the courtyard,partially obscured by the greenery of several tall, foreign lookingplants. She had thought to collect herself, and find a way to explainher mistake -- she was not a slave, and didn't know the first thing aboutsubmission to anything -- but there was no escape from the sights andsounds of the Severille: on the other side of the mottled green curtainwas a woman having sex with two men at once on a bench much like the oneLucrezia occupied. One of the men kept slapping the woman's reddenedbuttocks as he drove into her asshole from behind, while the other tookher pussy from below. She was crying unintelligibly with near constantpleasure.Once more, Lucrezia could not look away."How amusing," a deep voice rumbled behind her. She tried to turn toface the intruder, but a heavy hand grabbed her shoulder and kept herstill while a rougher hand clasped between her legs from behind. She gasped in shock, but did not move. She did not even speak. The sudden, bright fire from the hand between her legsseemed to blot out all words."Don't you know that those who hide in plain sight only wish to befound?" the voice continued, and she realized it was muffled by a mask.Still, it was resonant and rich, and with the calm authority of someonewho is rarely disobeyed. She opened her mouth to speak, but whoever hadtrapped her began to rub his fingers along the length of her slitthrough the thin fabric of her undergarment, and Lucrezia lost her wordsonce more. She felt herself begin to melt into him, and heard himchuckle softly."Do not move. Do you understand?""Yes," she heard herself say, and nearly choked on it.The man moved his hand from her shoulder to her breast, first over thesoft, expensive leather, then with impatience reaching under the topspiece to seize her naked flesh. He kneaded her breast until she leanedinto him, rolling her nipple between his fingers, massaging her pussywith his other hand. He pinched her nipple, hard, and laughed as shesquealed."Yes," the voice said, "you will do." He spun her around to face him. He was wearing a full black mask ofsmooth lacquer, his full mouth and stubbled chin all that was visible,and he was smiling. His dark eyes shown through the holes in his maskwith a kind of amused certainty, as Lucrezia imagined a cat might lookat a struggling mouse. What's more, he was powerfully built, with abroad frame wrapped in thick muscle, and shirtless to the waist. Hischest was dusted with fine dark hair, trailing all the way down to hisbelt. Just the sight of him was arousing. He reached out and tipped herchin up to him, taking a look at her blushing cheeks and wet lips. Thenhe grabbed her between the legs again, and drew her close. "This is now mine," he said....The Lady Submits is a 12,000 word erotic historical fantasy novelette featuring strongBDSM themes. If you don't like bondage, leashes, public display andhumiliation, or alpha male doms who brook no dissent, then this probablyisn't for you. Otherwise...enjoy. ;)

    A dark ritual turns a woman obsessed with supernatural powers against the people who love her most. A possessed TV proves that old B-Movie monsters can still terrify an unsuspecting audience…Scare Street’s roster of authors brings you eleven new tales of supernatural horror, in one blood-chilling volume. This macabre collection of short stories is guaranteed to get your pulse racing, and send shivers down your spine.Each deliciously dark tale will haunt your dreams, and keep you reading long past the witching hour. But wait…What was that noise? Did something move in the shadows?Just keep telling yourself… it’s only a story.

    That is what BDSM people are, behind all the pretense...»From critically-acclaimed creator Stjepan Šejić (Death Vigil, Ravine, Aphrodite IX, Witchblade) comes Sunstone, a love story like no other.Lisa's tastes were always...unique. Longing to be restrained, without restrain. Lisa always felt like something was missing from her love life─until she met Ally. Ally was implacably ordinary─successful job, nice house, an average childhood─except for her preference for bedroom domination. Originally posted on DeviantArt, this books collects the first volume of the often erotic, always amusing, and surprisingly heartfelt Sunstone.

    Trouble is, Matt’s firefighter outfit is pretty convincing, and the longer he keeps up the pretence the harder it will be to reveal the naked truth: that there’s nothing underneath his costume but a sequinned thong!

    By a man claiming to be his father. It turns out his entire life has been a lie, and now his 'father' will give him into the hands of another man to indoctrinate and train him. Gaven vows he will never shame his people by giving into the Masarians' way of loving other men.But Vlar, the legendary warrior to whom he has been given, has other plans. The blood-drinker is determined to have Gaven and to make him yield.Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, dubious consent, male/male sexual practices, violence, voyeurism.

    After a long day playing tourist, he's on the hunt for some cheap beer and a good burger. Instead he finds a man hunting him, an arrogant prick with only one thing on the brain: the kind of meat that doesn't come on a bun.Eighty-hour weeks at a trading desk don't leave Malcolm Kavanagh much time for meaningful relationships. Besides, in his world, everything's a competition-even sex. When his newest one-night-sub fails to show, Malcolm sets his sights on the pretty young Yank on the bar stool beside him.Owen's all for an adventure with a native, but he's not the pushover Malcolm thinks he is, and Malcolm's not as shallow as he tries to be. They both soon learn that nothing's too intimate to share with a stranger, and the strangest things happen when two people share the most important pieces of their hearts.

    A beckoning mansion in a dark clearing. A short modern-day retelling of Hansel and Gretel by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin.It’s bad enough that Hazel and Gray have defied the demands of Hazel’s foul stepfather. The Monster has forbidden their romance. Now they’ve awakened in the forest, phones dead, hours past curfew. But not far away is a grand estate in the middle of nowhere. The door is open. In this short story about choosing your own path, the fury of the Monster that awaits them back home may be nothing compared to what lies ahead.

    Although she flatly refuses to tell him her name or how she came to be riding with a raiding party, Duncan cannot countenance imprisoning a woman in his dungeon but neither can he release her without compensation. Unable to ransom her back to her family, he treats her as an honored - though exceptionally well-supervised - guest. He takes to calling her Reva and determines to seduce the truth of her identity from her. There’s just one problem - the reiver may steal his heart before he can reveal her secrets.This story was originally published in the Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance.

    But we can visit our fears at night, in the dark. We can turn them over and weigh them in our hands and maybe that will protect us from them. But maybe not.The characters in this collection find their aspirations for happy homes, happy families and happy memories dissected and imbued with shimmering menace. Alone in a remote house in Iceland a woman is unnerved by her isolation; another can only find respite from the clinging ghost that follows her by submerging herself in an overgrown pool. Couples wrestle with a lack of connection to their children; a schoolgirl becomes obsessed with the female anatomical models in a museum; and a cheery account of child’s day out is undercut by chilling footnotes.These dark tales explore women’s fears with electrifying honesty and invention and speak to one another about female bodies, domestic claustrophobia, desire and violence. From a talented writer who has been compared to Angela Carter, Things We Say in the Dark is a powerful contemporary collection of feminist stories, ranging from vicious fairy tales to disturbing horror and tender ghost stories.KIRSTY LOGAN WAS SELECTED AS ONE OF BRITAIN'S TEN MOST OUTSTANDING LGBTQ WRITERS by Val McDermid for the International Literature Showcase in 2019

    Running the Mad Hatter's Cupcakery and Tea Shoppe is a delicious job, until fate--and a fairy godmother with a weakness for bad boys--throws her a curveball. Now, Alice is the newest resident of Wonderland, where the Mad Hatter fuels her fantasies and thrills her body with his dark touch.The Mad Hatter may have a voice and a body made for sex, but he takes no lovers. Ever. But a determined fairy godmother has forced Alice into Wonderland--and his arms. Now, as desire and madness converge, the Hatter must decide if he will fight the fairy godmother's mating--or fight for Alice.39,500 words

    And though her family has turned her into a despised servant, Maia must always pretend to be happy, or else they'll all be struck dead by the curse.Anax, heir to the Duke of Sardis, doesn't believe in love either—not since he discovered that his childhood sweetheart was only using him for his noble title. What's the point of pretending to fall in love with a girl just so she'll pretend to fall in love with him back? But when his father invites all the suitable girls in the kingdom to a masked ball, Anax must finally give in and select a wife.As fate would have it, the preparations for the masquerade bring him Maia, who was asked by her eldest stepsister to deliver letters to Anax. Despite a prickly first encounter, he is charmed and intrigued by this mysterious girl who doesn't believe in love. Anax can't help wishing to see her again—and when he does, he can't help falling in love with her. Against her will, Maia starts to fall in love with him too. But how can she be with him when every moment his life is in danger from her mother's deadly bargain?

    Now, eight years later, she must risk her life to save her grandfather from a lynching, by playing for the wyvern that has terrorized her village throughout the summer. When she comes face-to-face with the beast at the haunted cliffs of Maldoza, she is both terrified and fascinated. Something about the creature reminds her of her long-lost lover, something more than just a shared name.Alaric has never forgotten nor stopped loving the human woman he left in a dusty village almost a decade earlier. So when he meets her again on the cliffs, wearing old dragon armor and playing her fiddle as if her heart would break, he is overjoyed.But Elsbeth never knew the man to whom she had given herself was only an illusion for the wyvern. Alaric must convince her that the heart of the beast is no less devoted than the heart of the man, and that leaving her a second time will not last another decade.Note: Some scenes contain graphic descriptions of physical intimacy.