Showing titles in Gothic

On Christmas Eve, 85-year-old Miriam Caravasios steps onto the ice that surrounds her seaside estate on Maine's Mount Desert Island. As a younger woman, she used to steal out on winter nights to meet her lover, walking across the frozen reach to their secret meeting place. She knows the way—but not the year. Miriam, her mind clouded by dementia, doesn’t hear the snap of thin ice until it’s too late.

After the tragic death of Bridget’s parents, her grandmother took her in. Vera Bitter raised her from behind a closed door—cold and uncaring from the moment she arrived at Bitter House. After Bridget’s high school graduation, Vera kicked her out without so much as a goodbye, and Bridget never heard from her again. Which is why, when she receives word of Vera’s passing and discovers she’s inherited the family manor, she’s immediately filled with dread. Those worries are amplified when she arrives at Bitter House after years away to find an enigmatic piece of her past waiting for her.

Marguerite has been locked in the attic of her family home, a disintegrating Chelsea house overlooking the stench of the Thames. For company she has: a sewing machine, a copy of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management and trays of congealing food carried up to her with little regularity. Marguerite has been confined by her mother, Cécile, who is concerned about her engagement to an older, near-penniless solicitor, Mr Lewis, and wishes to educate her daughter on ‘proper’ married conduct – lest she drag the family’s good name into disrepute.

Kassia is a thief and a soon-to-be oath breaker. Armed with only a reckless wit and sheer bravado, 17-year-old Kassia barely scrapes out a life with her older sister in a back alley of the market district of the Imperial city of Corium. When a stranger shows up at her market stall, offering her work for which she is utterly unqualified, Kassia cautiously takes him on. Very soon, however, she finds herself embroiled in a mystery involving a usurped foreign throne and a vengeful nobleman.

Audrina remembers a better time, when her husband, Arden, was a young man with a heart filled with devotion for her. He didn't used to be this ambitious, this expansive...this cruel. But then, the death of Aurdina's father changed a great many things. When the reading of her father's will reveals that Audrina herself will control 51 percent of the family brokerage, the halls of Whitefern again don't feel safe. Arden's protestations become frantic, nearly violent.

Jane Chandler is an apprentice healer. From childhood, she and her mother have used herbs to cure the sick. But Jane will soon learn that her sheltered life in a small village is not safe from the troubles of the wider world. From his father's beatings to his uncle's raging sermons, John Sharpe is beset by bad fortune. Fighting through personal tragedy, he finds his purpose: to become a witchfinder and save innocents from the scourge of witchcraft. Widdershins tells the story of the women who were persecuted and the men who condemned them.

I'm an offering. A test. A pawn in an agreement I know little about. Fly to Andorra Sector. Allow them to experiment. Mate an X-Clan wolf alpha. Hope for the best. Those are my orders. My fate. My current existence. There's nowhere to run, and the moon is a clock I can't ignore. One of these alphas will claim me, assuming our genetics are a match. And if not, well, that's a fate worse than death.

The charm of spending the Christmas holidays in South Wales, with its crumbling castles and ancient myths, seems the perfect distraction from the nightmares that have plagued literary agent Lyn Ravenshaw since the loss of her baby five years ago. Instead she meets an emotionally fragile young widow who's convinced that Lyn's recurring dreams have drawn her to Castle Farm for an important purpose - and she's running out of time.

Based on true crimes, The Specimen is a mesmerizing story about one woman’s search for truth and vengeance in the darkest of places—where the deadliest secrets lie hidden in plain sight on a freshly dusted shelf.

An old house can hold many secrets. Hollowpark in the west of Ireland certainly does. At the heart of the gardens is an intricate maze, named after a deadly poison, belladonna. If you know the way through, it's magical, a hiding place and playground like no other. If you don't, it's a place of fear and sinister riddles, where a young girl once went missing and was never seen again. Grace comes to Hollowpark as a nanny for young Skye FitzMahon. Soon the mysterious past of Hollowpark has seduced her.

Nancy has spent her whole life on the vibrant and gritty streets of Victorian London, first as one of Fagin's child pickpockets and now on the arm of violent and mercurial Bill Sikes. Nancy does what she must to get by. She's attuned to the harsh realities of life, but also knows how to find moments of beauty amid the grime, even if it is only the scent and taste of an orange - its miraculous colour and form. When she embarks on a relationship with enigmatic gentleman Mr Rufus, it awakens emotions she's never felt before, and makes a better life feel possible for the first time.

I made a mistake. Hearts are the most fragile part of the body, and I trusted mine with Jude Carlisle. My villain. My weakness. My stepbrother. Fairytales have a way of turning the most innocent things wicked. Jude lied through his teeth, and I fell for every word. Then he burned both our families to the ground in a sick game of revenge and never looked back.

Step into the eerie and unsettling world of The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, a gripping tale brought to life by the compelling narration of George Griffin. This science fiction classic follows Edward Prendick, who finds himself stranded on a mysterious island inhabited by grotesque hybrid creatures, the results of the sinister experiments of Doctor Moreau. As Prendick uncovers the horrifying truth about the island, he faces questions of morality, humanity, and the limits of scientific exploration.

Carina: My life has been a hard one. Sometimes seeming unbearable. But things have been on the upswing in years since I took the reins back. That was, until I seen Emery Stanner, C.E.O. of Stanner Enterprises on the news. Something about his eyes, his face, brought the nightmares I’ve fought for years to keep away. All the therapy, all the hypnosis, went right out the window. Now, I’m hellbent on getting closer to him. To getting rid of the nightmares for good. By getting my revenge.

On a night out, four friends witness a stranger in trouble. They decide to do nothing to help. Later, a body washes up on the banks of the Thames - and the group realises that ignoring the woman has left blood on their hands. But why did each of them refuse to step in? Why did none of them want to be noticed that night? Who is really responsible? And is it possible that the victim was not really a stranger at all?

When the Wildbloods presented their daughters to me on the night of the Tithing, they knew what was to come for the chosen girl. The crescent moon that marked Willow made her mine. I had no choice but to take her. Destiny determined our fates long before we were born, laying our roles out for us. A sacrifice would be made. A tithe paid. Only then would our families be free, at least until the next payment came due.

We met at his ex's wedding, where she uttered their safe word in her vows. Immediately, his jaw clenched, and his hands balled into tight fists. Moments later, he told her I was with him. When in reality, I had snuck into the wedding. Knowing full well he was trouble, I tried to leave when he gripped my arm and whispered in a low, intimidating voice, "Do you sneak into weddings often?" His words had me stuck to the spot.

Before there was a modern-day town called Dark Moon Vale, there was an ancient kingdom nestled in the Transylvanian Alps. Before there was a primordial species called the Vampyr, there was a celestial race begotten of gods and men. Before light battled shadow, the sacrifice became mandatory, or the first Blood Moon adorned the celestial sky... There was The Curse.

I never dreamed I'd be a sorority girl, but from the moment I arrived at my mother's alma mater, the sisters of TZE have welcomed me with open arms. Unfortunately, Kingston University has hidden monsters of its own. I thought I'd be safe here, but I'm not. My past has found me, and it intends to chase me down. These brutal boys of SIN have a singular focus—making my life a living hell. I don't deserve the hate they're doling out or the games they're playing with my head. One savage hunter. One unhinged stalker. One brutal fighter. Royal. Beckham. Wilder.

For centuries, the people of remote Ballybrine have kept the peace with their gods by sacrificing a Red Maiden to ferry souls from the Mother’s realm of the living, through the Dark Wood, to the Wolf’s realm of the dead. Soon it will be Rowan’s turn. Ripped from her family as a young girl, Rowan Cleary has been forced into a cloistered life learning to please the wolf and wield her spirit-enchanting voice. Though none of the previous maidens have survived their five-year term, Rowan is determined to beat the odds and protect the women who have become family to her.