English Gothic

A fusion of travel literature and cultural criticism investigating the dark history of the US and exploring how past horrors – from witch trials to slavery and genocide – continue to haunt the national consciousness. Haunted States is a unique guidebook that explores the dark, often horrifying, history of the US. Based on the author’s journey across the United States in summer 2022, it explores locations connected to Gothic fiction and film, tracking the relationship between the American landscapes and the various forms of fictional horror the nation has produced over the centuries.

When lonely Grace Ferguson meets fellow student Lir Murphy in her marine biology lab the last thing she expects is to fall into a deep, startling obsession with the young man. Lir is strange, quiet and filled with a love for the sea that nobody else understands. When he surprises Grace by reciprocating her feelings she’s convinced she’s found her oddball happily ever after.

Ravi Gupta’s dark secret is unravelling. After years of hiding a dangerous portal discovered through foolish magic, the regretful academic worries his brilliant student has recklessly used it to travel to an alien world. And though he’s loath to go back, he stealthily opens a passage and journeys to the perilous land, desperate to save the missing scholar.

Joseph Warren Revere, a grandson of the legendary Paul Revere, served in the U.S. Navy; circumnavigated the globe; raised the first American flag in Sonoma, California during the Mexican War; battled pirates, sharks, and Indians; searched for gold; had a scandalous affair; joined the Union Army and received a court-martial for his actions at the Battle of Chancellorsville during the Civil War. And then he began the fight of his life.

Berry Barry and his companions are back after their battle with the Flesh-Cursed creatures that lurked within the southern border wall mists. Barry, Fogwarth, and Ak-Lok, along with their newest tag-along, Goomba, must now return to the Mothric Kingdom and report what they have found back to the king.

Dorian has it all: good-looks, money, and a prominent social status. But when he agrees to sit for a portrait, he is introduced to a man who unwittingly plants a dangerous idea inside Dorian’s head. As Dorian becomes more and more obsessed with the painting, he seeks out supernatural means of retaining his youth and beauty.

When her father dies, college dropout Lillian Mullins steels herself for a future of nothing special in Pittsburgh. An invitation to Magnolian holds promise, but nightmares, ghosts, and murder threaten to derail her attempt to get a life. Lillian heads to the South, leaving Donovan Ross, an angst-ridden potential lover, behind. After she finds her mother's old journal at Magnolian and learns a shocking secret, Lillian resolves to find out what happened nearly 40 years ago to her mother's African American lover, Samson Jones.

When you’ve already died, there should be nothing left to fear… When Adam Ramsdell pulls Elle’s half-frozen body from the surf on a lonely California beach, she has no memory of what her full name is and how she got those bruises ringing her throat.

Giles Chamberlain returns to a snowbound Cambridge after Christmas spent with his girlfriend. Determined to prove himself to her family, he sets out to discover what became of her missing brother. But when he encounters a sinister figure prowling the college’s rooftops, he suspects last semester’s creature was not the only entity to cross into our world.

When the willfully independent Isabel Drake refuses to marry the man her parents want her to, her mother decides, as punishment, she will be forced to take lessons on how to be a proper lady. But the man sent to instruct her makes her feel anything but proper. Her attraction to Mr. Weston is instant, but the confusing man seems set in keeping her in her place - even if she detects he feels something for her?

Alex has forgotten everything. Damon will use any means necessary to make her remember. Alex Rayne has a normal life until she gets a sexy stalker who turned up everywhere she goes. Then her life suddenly changes. Then changes again. She realizes that reality may not be real as Damon chases her across different lives. Damon tried for years to resist Alex. He yearns to be with her. Due to the laws that forbid them to be together, he couldn’t have her. Then one night he risks everything and has to pay for giving into his urges. He loses Alex over and over again.

On a lonely cliff beside the vast blue sea there is a house. In the house there lives a girl, and in the girl there lives a dream. Soon she'll be as free as the fishes that swim beneath the water. But until then she bides her time and lives quietly, her every move ruled over by an uncaring, heartless stepmother. The hope for freedom is all she has to hold onto. So close she can almost taste it. But when her stepmother’s estranged younger brother comes to stay, he presents a mystery that lures her in.

When they were young, at Oxford University, Henry and Gabriel’s love burned hot and bright, and they thought to change the world together until a devastating tragedy ripped them apart. Now, as youth fades away, Henry can no longer stand to see his own reflection in the mirror. All he sees is a sad, tired old man whose body has betrayed him. He craves the touch of another, to feel attractive and vital once more but his obsession with finding a cure for insanity has stolen his life away, and now, his work has taken on a dark and sinister dimension.

Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest brother of King Charles II is a handsome man with sound principles. When the 20-year-old prince contracts smallpox in 1660, his life takes a decidedly sinister turn. Obsessed with Henry from afar, Contessa Griselda di Cuorenero -one of the Devil's concubines - turns him into a vampire and plunges him into the world of night. But Henry soon discovers that not all horrors are of the paranormal kind.

Agata flees from Verona to Venice with nothing but the clothes on her back. Accused of witchcraft, she prefers to risk the unknown than face the terrifying charge. Determined to secure her financial and social future, she aids the Veronese warlord Cangrande I della Scala in committing vile acts that will earn her a place in Hell. Although she is handsomely compensated, she wants more - and she'll do whatever it takes to get it.

Innkeeper’s daughter Jane Heatherington is sold into indentured servitude to cover her father’s debts. She's sold to Aidan Warrick, a man whose handsome face and form mock the rumors that skulk in his shadow, rumors that paint him a smuggler, a pirate...and worse. Isolated and alone, Jane's only companion is the man she dare not trust, the man who looks at her with heated desire she both fears and craves. Jane must decide if Aidan Warrick is the dark prince of her dreams or a monster preying on the innocent....

Betrayed by those she trusted, penniless and alone, Darcie Finch is forced to accept a position no one else dares as assistant to dangerously attractive Dr. Damien Cole. Ignoring the whispered warnings and rumors he's a man to fear, she takes her position at his eerie estate, where she quickly discovers nothing is at it seems, least of all her handsome and brooding employer. As Darcie struggles with her fierce attraction to Damien, she must also deal with the blood, the disappearances...and the murders.

Destitute and desperate, Catherine Weston accepts the summons from her childhood friend Madeline St. Aubyn to attend her at Cairncroft Abbey. Madeline's health is in a poor state, and she is terrified of her cousin Gabriel. But Gabriel has quite a different effect on Catherine, stirring longings and desires she believed long buried. Then a young woman is found dead, and Madeline's ravings point to a link between this horrific crime and Gabriel - and Catherine must decide if he is a man worthy of her love or a sinister stranger determined to make her his next victim.

Elizabeth Canham accepts a position at Burndale Academy, an isolated girl's school where she meets mysterious widower Griffin Fairfax, a man dogged by dark rumors who both frightens and fascinates her. Soon, a woman is found dead in the nearby woods - the victim of a brutal murder...a murder that bears terrifying similarity to others. Then Beth discovers all the victims were intimately connected to Griffin. Beth’s heart tells her Griffin cannot be the charming, seductive killer stalking the night, stealing women’s hearts...and lives.

A Southern family saga emerges as Nettie begins a quest to discover who she is. 21 years old, Annette Roberta Randall is searching, looking for herself. The perception and sensitivity she relied on to bolster her through an isolated childhood have disappeared, and with them, her sense of self. Nettie also seeks the truth, information about her dysfunctional family and the mysteries that whisper to her in their eccentric family home.