English Gothic

Blood. Death. War. A dynasty destroyed, leaving me as the ultimate prize. I'm an unmated Omega Wolf, a princess destined to rule. But the remaining Alpha Princes all want to claim me, their brutal methods terrifying and cruel. I’ve spent the last century running and hiding in places where no one would think to look. Only he found me: Prince Kieran, the most powerful shifter of them all. Our game of hide and seek has come to an end. It’s time for me to submit...or to die fighting.

As the age of the photograph dawns in Victorian Bath, silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. Still recovering from a serious illness herself, making enough money to support her elderly mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then one of her clients is murdered shortly after sitting for Agnes, and then another, and another. Why is the killer seemingly targeting her business?

1798, France. Nuns move along the dark corridors of a Versailles hospital where the young Sister Perpetué has been tasked with sitting with the patient who must always be watched. The man, gaunt, with his sallow skin and distended belly, is dying: they say he ate a golden fork, and that it’s killing him from the inside. But that’s not all—he is rumored to have done monstrous things in his attempts to sate an insatiable appetite…an appetite they say tortures him still.

As a forensic psychiatrist at New York's leading institution of its kind, Dr. Lily Dominick has evaluated the mental states of some of the country's most dangerous psychotics. But the strangely compelling client she interviewed today - a man with no name, accused of the most twisted crime - struck her as somehow different from the others, despite the two impossible claims he made.

Roderick was born an immortal prince in the realm of Thales. But all that changed the day his brother died and an evil descended upon his realm. With Thales on the verge of ruin, Roderick bound himself to the Shields to protect the realms from the evil that ravages them. Roderick's purpose has always been clear....until Elle. Elle makes Roderick long for things he cannot have. And Roderick must protect Elle, for she is of the chosen few. The only way to keep Elle safe is to keep her by his side, but can Roderick resist the temptation to take her love?

For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others - to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband, and grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined. Unfolding over the next 24 hours, this searing, fast-paced audiobook explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate.

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.

The 1850s are a time of discovery, and London is ablaze with the latest scientific theories and debates, especially when a spectacular new exhibition of dinosaur sculptures opens at the Crystal Palace. Mary is keen to make her name in this world of science alongside her geologist husband, Henry—but despite her sharp mind and sharper tongue, without wealth and connections their options are limited.

Everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows about the Horseman, but no one really believes in him. Not even Ben Van Brunt's grandfather, Brom Bones, who was there when it was said the Horseman chased the upstart Crane out of town. Brom says that's just legend, the village gossips talking. More than 30 years after those storied events, the village is a quiet place. Fourteen-year-old Ben loves to play "Sleepy Hollow boys", reenacting the events Brom once lived through. But then Ben and a friend stumble across the headless body of a child in the woods.

"Dog days and the fresh bodies are arriving once again." So begins the fall term at South Carolina Medical College, where Dr. Jacob Thacker is on probation for Xanax abuse. His interim career - working public relations for the dean - takes an unnerving detour into the past when the bones of African American slaves, over a century old, are unearthed on the campus. Out of the college’s dark past, these bones threaten to rise and condemn the present.

In the Gothic towers of the cathedral of Notre-Dame - which has been subjected to decades of degradation and neglect - lives its bell ringer, Quasimodo. Persecuted as wicked and pilloried for his broken appearance, he’s shown kindness only by the alluring Esmeralda, an outsider herself, who fills Quasimodo’s heart with a hope and devotion beyond reason. When she falls victim to the lies of the vengeful and lustful Archdeacon Claude Frollo, only Quasimodo can save her from the gallows. In sanctuary, looming high above Paris, their fates entwine.

The primal image of the black-caped vampire Dracula has become an indelible fixture of the modern imagination. It's recognition factor rivals, in its own perverse way, the familiarity of Santa Claus. In this critically acclaimed excursion through the life of a cultural icon, David Skal maps out the archetypal vampire's relentless trajectory from Victorian literary oddity to movie idol to cultural commodity, digging through the populist veneer to reveal what the prince of darkness says about us all.

Onboard the Anna, Amanda suspects that something fishy is going on. But when her investigation of the peculiar all-female Russian crew fails to uncover anything other than more speculation, she decides it's time to stop playing detective and face her real problem - a man she shouldn't want but can't live without.

The beautiful young Dorian Gray has his portrait painted by society artist Basil Hallward. Admired by all, the dazzling, wealthy, handsome young man has everything anyone could wish for, or so it appears. Oscar Wilde's novel is a masterly study of moral corruption, a tour-de-force of suspense and surprise.

A man condemned...Falsely accused of murder and mute from a near-fatal beating, Apollo Greaves, Viscount Kilbourne has escaped from Bedlam. With the Crown's soldiers at his heels, he finds refuge in the ruins of a pleasure garden, toiling as a simple gardener. But when a vivacious young woman moves in, he's quickly driven to distraction...A desperate woman...London's premier actress, Lily Stump, is down on her luck when she's forced to move into a scorched theatre with her maid and small son.

An unexpected connection led to a forbidden affair that ended in blood. Now Sethios will stop at nothing to find his mate, even if it means risking his life and love in the process. Caro’s mind is fractured, her body destroyed, her heart broken. She thought he would come for her, save her, free her from this nightmare. But her hope flees with every wave, her soul teetering on the brink of madness. Will Sethios arrive in time? Or will other powers intervene?

A desperate young woman’s bargain with a wealthy couple is not what it seems in this gothic tale of big city dreams gone wrong from the number-one New York Times best-selling author and literary phenomenon V.C. Andrews - whose books are now major Lifetime TV movies.

Savaged by critics for its supposed profanity and obscenity and bought in large numbers by readers eager to see whether it lived up to its lurid reputation, The Monk became a success due to scandal when it was published in 1796 - not least because its author was a member of parliament and only 20 years old.

I am not a liar or a thief or a criminal. At least, not anymore. But here I am doing the things that I promised myself I would never do again. Nicholas Crawford made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. He is dangerous and damaged but so am I. Our relationship is an addiction that we have to feed. Now, things are about to get even more complicated. Allegiances will be tested. Lies will be told. Truths will be revealed. We have both made promises that we can’t keep. The secrets we have uncovered only scratch the surface, and I’m afraid to find out what lies below.

After the publication of her short story “The Lottery” in the New Yorker in 1948 received an unprecedented amount of attention, Shirley Jackson was quickly established as a master horror storyteller. This collection of classic and newly reprinted stories provides listeners with more of her unsettling, dark tales, including the “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Summer People”.