Showing results by narrator " Joel Froomkin" in All Categories

Cranky and jaded Lord Fine—Wesley, now, to the kind-hearted lover he cynically doubts life will let him keep—arrives in Manhattan with one goal: find the American paranormals and get their help with the relic burdening Sebastian. His plans are upended when the other paranormals seem to have vanished, and a mysterious letter warns Wesley that he’s in danger.

I was an ordinary girl living an ordinary life until I sold my soul to save my mother. Now, I am forced to choose between my heart and my conscience. Either way, someone I love will die.

Dance has always been the answer to everything. It soothed my soul, it kept me sane, and it gave me purpose. It brought the Breakers back to me. It healed us. This time, dance isn’t enough. It’s time to face our enemies. It’s time I fight back. But at what cost? My soul? The death of everyone I care about?

All Callie wanted was a quiet weekend with her best friend. She promised her mom she could handle running her family’s escape room business while her mom is out of town. Instead a Satanic cult shows up, claiming that the prop spell book in one of the rooms is the real deal, and they need it to summon the right hand of the devil. Naturally they take Callie and her friend, Mag, along with them. But when the summoning reveals a handsome demon in a leather jacket named Luke who offers to help Callie stop the cult from destroying the world.

The town of Willow Creek is seemingly free after Remy's sacrifice set off a life-altering chain of events that resulted in the demise of most of the world's vampire population. Sabine flees to her home afterward, except her family has disappeared and a "For Sale" sign is planted in her front yard. Just when she thinks she's lost it all, she's summoned back to Willow Creek Manor.

Francis Bacon is charged with investigating the murder of a fellow barrister at Gray's Inn. He recruits his unwanted protégé Thomas Clarady to do the tiresome legwork. The son of a privateer, Clarady will do anything to climb the Elizabethan social ladder. Bacon's powerful uncle, Lord Burghley, suspects Catholic conspirators of the crime, but other motives quickly emerge. Rival barristers contend for the murdered man's legal honors and wealthy clients. Highly-placed courtiers are implicated as the investigation reaches from Whitehall to the London streets. Bacon does the thinking; Clarady does the fencing. Everyone has something up his pinked and padded sleeve. Even the brilliant Francis Bacon is at a loss - and in danger - until he sees through the disguises of the season of Misrule.

Valroy will let nothing block his path to the Unseelie Crown. He is willing to stop at nothing to see both Tir n’Aill and Earth as his dominion, and he'll crush the self-righteous Seelie beneath his bootheels. He had wished for Abigail to stand beside him as his queen, but that went terribly wrong when she chose death over becoming his bride. It was a setback, certainly, but not one he could not overcome. Yet despite being wrenched from the song of life, Abigail returns to Tir n’Aill, only to be hunted by both Seelie and Unseelie alike.

The deathly silence is about to be broken. She disliked the company of others and death did little to warm her spirit. She had led an independent life and she faced death in much the same way. She was finally alone, finally free from the mindless babble of others, at least that's what she thought. May Elizabeth Trump was the rarest of spirits and she was none too happy about it either. She was a dead medium, a ghost who can speak with the living, and her services were to become in great demand.

Weird Tales magazine is known for launching a number of sub-genres of fiction—cosmic horror, swords & sorcery, dark fantasy, and others. It has also greatly added to existing genres like science fiction, horror, and—a personal favorite of editor Jonathan Maberry—weird mystery stories. Or, as they became known—occult detective tales.

When a rash of jewel thefts strikes London, magistrate Patrick Colquhoun deploys his Bow Street Runners to put a stop to the crimes. A Russian princess is to attend a production of Handel’s Esther at Drury Lane Theatre, where she will wear a magnificent diamond necklace. The entire Bow Street force will be stationed at various locations around the theatre - including John Pickett, who will occupy a box directly across from the princess.

When the prize is death, some games are better lost than won. If she loses, she becomes his queen, and he unleashes war across Earth and Tir n’Aill alike. If she wins, he dies. The answer seems clear. But then why can’t she bring herself to want victory? The longer Abigail wanders through his Maze of Shadows, the less sure she becomes of anything—allies, enemies, wrong, right, evil, good, hate…and love. With every twist and turn, her heart is more fully trapped in his snare.

As author Ethan Mordden looks back at Chicago's various moving parts - including the original 1926 play that started it all, a sexy silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, a talkie remake with Ginger Rogers, the musical itself, and at last the movie of the musical - we learn how the American theater serves as a kind of alternative news medium, a town crier warning the public about the racy, devious interior contradictions of American society. Opinionated, witty, and rich in backstage anecdotes, All That Jazz brings the American musical to life in all its artistry and excitement.

From the vast lore surrounding King Arthur, Camelot, and the Knights of the Round Table comes an anthology of gender-bent, race-bent, LGBTQIA+ inclusive retellings.

When Grand Duke Reginald Winchester is exiled in disgrace, he vows he won't go down without a fight. Crossing paths with Zee Wilder and her younger sister Ava at a gambling resort in Miami is the stroke of luck he needs. Zee is the counterfeit courtier in Reggie's plan to humiliate Rowan, the controlled heir who kicked him out of the kingdom. In return, the sisters get a permanent spot on Easy Street. If only Zee didn't keep finding herself in a clutch with Cal, Rowan's playboy younger brother.

Brian Belovitch has the rare distinction of coming out three times: first as a queer teenager; second as a glamorous transgender woman named Tish, and later, Natalia Gervais; and finally as an HIV-positive gay man surviving the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. From growing up in a barely-working-class first-generation immigrant family in Fall River, Massachusetts, to spinning across the disco dance floor of Studio 54 in New York City, Brian escaped many near-death experiences. Trans Figured chronicles a life lived on the edge with an unforgettable cast of characters.

When Sir Donald MacDonald, Baronet of Sleat, meets trews-wearing, musket-wielding, redheaded Mary of Castleton, he's completely flummoxed. Such a woman would never fit in to his aristocratic way of life. And Mary wants nothing to do with her father's wishes for her betrothal. Indeed, the two agree on one thing: They are completely, utterly and inarguably incompatible.

The Sour Grape holds grudges for every reason under the sun. Lime never returned a scarf they borrowed? Grudge! Orange never called back? Grudge! But when a friend holds a grudge against the Sour Grape without listening to an explanation, the Sour Grape realizes how unfair grudges can be. Could a bunch of forgiveness and compassion be enough to turn a sour grape sweet?

Mason Dixon is a verified Internet celebrity. Yet his vlog is just a ruse to spread disinformation so he can secretly relocate endangered cryptids. But when Mason and his camera operator Emma find themselves on a dragon-like gowrow's bad side, calling cut won't save them. Can Mason save the endangered beasts before he becomes extinct?

When one of his colleagues witnesses a robbery in which one of the participants, a child, bears a striking resemblance to a certain Bow Street Runner, John Pickett realizes he has a young half-brother who has been “apprenticed” to a criminal gang. The brutal murder of the pursuing constable makes the crime far more serious than a simple robbery would be - and 10-year-old Kit is linked to the crime by the toy soldier he dropped while fleeing the scene.

Returning to London after his honeymoon (For Deader or Worse), Bow Street Runner John Pickett soon discovers wedded bliss is not without its pitfalls, as he finds it galling to be financially dependent on Julia, his aristocratic bride. When he is summoned to the home of Lady Washbourn, Pickett finds he has something in common with the young countess: like himself, Lady Washbourn has married above her station and now finds herself adrift in a world to which she does not truly belong.