Contemporary Gothic

Only five still guard the borders between the worlds. Only five hold back what waits on the other side. Once the Oversight, the secret society that polices the lines between the mundane and the magic, counted hundreds of brave souls among its members. Now their number can be tallied on a single hand. When a drunkard brings a screaming girl to the Oversight's London headquarters, it seems their hopes for a new recruit will be fulfilled - but the girl is a trap, her appearance a puzzle the five remaining guardians must solve or lose each other, and their society, for good.

Hard Luck is an evocative collection of seventeen stories that glimpse into the lives of the often broken and downtrodden people in small-town southern Indiana. Some residents escape while others are consumed by their drug-fueled, crime-ridden environments. A man’s love triangle goes awry in CRANKED. Sex, drugs, and gambling seduce the characters in LOOKING FOR ACTION. In the title story, HARD LUCK, a hard-drinking sheriff enforces his own kind of law. A once imprisoned biker returns to his hometown to witness a backwoods, bare-knuckle brawl in THE FIGHT. In the dark, hillbilly gothic ...

Stella Campbell has come back to Silverton, Georgia to bury her wicked witch of an aunt. But is she strong enough to endure what's to come? Zane Weathers has been around a long time, like, two thousand years. But he's never met anyone who touches his warrior soul, like Stella. Together they must face not only personal obstacles, but obstacles straight from hell!

***Can be read as a stand alone*** ‘Beyond the Veil.’ It’s the expression people use for life after living – the mysterious place all souls linger after inevitably vacating earth and floating to finality. To arrive, one must first experience death. It can be quick or slow and torturous. Death can happen again and again. Forever – none of us can Escape Reality. Each time, Mistress Death brings with her a lesson. That’s what it feels like for Mary and Hudson. Since the moment they said their vows, they’ve died a hundred deaths. What started as ‘true love’ quickly became ...

The horrors women face aren’t confined to ghost stories. A music festival should be an escape, but in #RescueMe, one woman learns that some nightmares refuse to end. In Red Eyes, two lovers on the verge of breaking up realize the world isn’t just cruel—it’s hungry. A daughter uncovers the devastating cost of survival in The Hoard, where trauma doesn’t just linger—it spreads. He promised her everything, but in Does This Bring You Joy, when his lies are exposed, she refuses to be another discarded dream—she’ll carve out the life she deserves, no matter what it takes. And in ...

J’ai bien vu sa façon de me regarder. Le Capitaine. Le chef incontesté de ce paquebot. Un paquebot dont je veux être libérée. Un homme dont je veux m’éloigner autant que mes jambes peuvent me porter. La société qu’il a conçue, ses règles, l’éternel bras de fer…

The Great Charleston Earthquake catapults Penrose Heatherton from the 1880s into the present day. Though she's still residing in Arundell Manor, it's a very different world - with a different man inhabiting the ancestral estate. And Keat Arundell is every bit as brooding and intriguing as his ancestor - her former lover - had been.

Catherine Tilney had settled in for a quiet, respectable, distinctly non-Gothic English life in the countryside with her husband, the Reverend Henry Tilney. Unfortunately, a quiet, respectable, distinctly non-Gothic life had not settled itself for her. An original sequel to Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Nachtstürm Castle whisks the reader and its heroine away to the border countries in the Austrian Alps, where adventure, mistaken identities, lost heirs, and terrifying butlers lurk.

FORSAKEN LAND: SELECTED STORIES brings in fifteen selected stories by Jeremy Perry from his books Hard Luck, Chicken Liver Blues, and other online publications. In this collection, you’ll dive headfirst into the underbelly of a fringe society in rural America that often forces many to live by their own rules. These are people who live in an environment saturated with drugs, crime, and other evils. This culture believes you need to get what you can, while you can, before the forsaken land comes calling. These are stories of crime, rural noir, and hillbilly gothic. KING OF THE COUNTY - ...

Thirty-three-year-old Todd is playing at the beach with his son, Anthony, when he catches sight of an approaching figure. Instantly, he recognises Jack, his high school tormentor. Radiant, repentant, and overjoyed to have 'run into' Todd, Jack suggests a meal to catch up. And can he spend the night? What follows is a fast-paced story of obsession and suspense, as Jack gaslights his way back into Todd's life, pushing his old 'friend' to the brink.

Dele – Do no evil I’ve made her my neighbor; I’ve made her my muse; and I will make her mine… I dominate these dirty bayou streets. Soon, I will make a big splash in the music industry. Kendis is the aloof bestie of my best friend’s little sister. Everyone dances to my whim. Alive or dead. Except Kendis. Like tonight. I gave her the impression I am a gentleman, gentle I am not. My taboo dealings may haunt us, but Kendis is mine to protect. Sweet Kendis suspects my dodginess. If she could leave me, she would. Still, everyday, I want to make music with her body the way I do on my ...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Tomorrow by Damian Dibben, read by George Blagden. Tomorrow tells the story of a 217-year-old dog and his search for his lost master. His adventures take him through the London Frost Fair, the strange court of King Charles I, the wars of the Spanish succession, Versailles, the Golden Age of Amsterdam, 19th-century Venice and the Battle of Waterloo.

In this gothic stepbrother romance, Celia will uncover secrets about her mysterious employer, Thomas Bly, as well as her own family and everything she held to be true about her life. Will she be able to handle the truth, and, more importantly, will she be able to control the terrible passion it incites?

Gabriel Woolf is unstoppable. A ruthless businessman, he has perfected the art of revenge. Ever since his mother's death, Gabriel has harbored only one wish: To take down the man who ruined their lives. But all bets are off when he meets his father's stepdaughter, Honor St. James. Beautiful and innocent, she is everything Gabriel never knew he wanted - and now there's no turning back. Honor wasn't born yesterday.

Twenty Beautiful Lies stand before me. I can feel one’s hatred from across the ballroom. She loathes me and all that I stand for...that’s why she will be my choice, my belle of the ball. Born into a secret society that strangles the life out of me, I have no choice but to face my demons head on. Inheritance isn’t about money or land, it’s much more twisted than that.... A sinful birthright. A dark heritage. A secret tradition only the most powerful and wealthy are aware of. The Order of the Silver Ghost.

This is the first book in the Fantasy of Love series. In this book you will listen to three individual stories from the perspective of those in love with a young lady born under a curse called The Broken Mirror. The reason for the curse and how it will be broken will unfold through the details of each story. For those who have been in love, are in love, seek to be in love, or those who wish to never be in love again, this book has been created for you. Please keep in mind that no one owns love and sharing love with someone you choose is a luxury, not a right.

Meine süße Gefangene mag es nicht, berührt zu werden. Sie wird es lernen. Sie hat nicht länger das Recht, sich zu weigern. Sie zuckt beim Anblick meines vernarbten Gesichts zusammen, aber die Art und Weise, wie sie wimmert und zittert, lässt in mir ein perverses Vergnügen aufkommen. Ich habe die kleine FBI-Agentin gefangen genommen, als sie versuchte, mein Drogenimperium zu Fall zu bringen, und das kann ich nicht zulassen. Meine hübsche Geisel ist etwas stur und hat einen scharfen Verstand, aber ihr kluges Gehirn ist meinem eisernen Willen nicht gewachsen.

Rosemary’s Baby meets Revolutionary Road… On the border between the necropolis of Colma, home to over two million dead souls and 1,794 somewhat live ones -- and the gritty industrial working-class town of South City -- At 1015 Crestview, little seven-year-old Reynaldo cowers under the escalating abuse hurled by an adoptive mother who now sees him as a burden. Allen, a workaholic Silicon Valley techie, seeks relief from domestic conflict by slipping away to sample the sweet brews at McCoy’s, a mysterious pub and Hell’s Angels hangout. Up the street, young adults Rad and Tawny drift ...

After the suicide of his uncle, Lucas Heathfield inherits Stoneborough Manor in Oxfordshire. He imagines it as a place where he and his tight-knit group of friends can spend time away from London. But from the beginning, the house changes everything. It begins to have a strange effect on Lucas and he becomes haunted by the death of his uncle, obsessed by ciné films of his uncle's friends at Stoneborough 30 years earlier. Within the claustrophobic confines of the house over a hot, decadent summer, secrets slide out of the past and sexual tensions escalate, shattering the group's friendship and changing their lives irrevocably.

She's determined to get the story... Tabloid reporter Frannie Fielding arrives at Haliday Hall with three ghost hunters to investigate possible ghost infestations. But there's more to Frannie and the ghost hunters than meets the eye. He'll do whatever it takes to stop her... Sinclair Haliday, a dead ringer for Heathcliff or Mr. de Winter, finds the peskiest of the intruders to be Frannie with her endless questions - although he has to admit she's the cutest living creature he's ever seen.