Showing results by narrator "Chelsea Stephens" in All Categories

Emily Joiner was once part of an inseparable group—she was a sister, a best friend, a lover, and a rival. Summers without Emily were unthinkable. Until the fire burned the lake house to ashes with her inside. A year later, it’s in Emily’s honor that Chelsea and her four friends decide to return. The house awaits them, meticulously rebuilt. Only, Chelsea is haunted by ghostly visions. Loner Ryan stirs up old hurts and forces golden boy Chase to play peacemaker. Which has perfect hostess Kennedy on edge as eerie events culminate in a stunning accusation.

Even if it means exposing an unsettling past, Rowan is determined to get to the bottom of her mother's suicide before the serial killer who's tracking her finds her.

What exactly is the difference between a love letter and a suicide note? Is there really any difference at all? These might be the questions posed by Dear Sweet Filthy World, Caitlin R. Kiernan’s 14th collection of short fiction, comprising 28 uncollected and impossible-to-find stories. Here are 28 tales of apocalypse and rebirth, of miraculous transformation and utter annihilation. Here is the place where professing your undying devotion might be precisely the same thing as signing your own death warrant or worse.

When magic returns to Gloamington, the town holds a Spring Awakening Festival. It should be an opportunity to celebrate. Instead, it becomes the perfect stage for murder. When the mayor is found dead at the festival, Malcolm Fawkes and Ella Bloom find themselves hunting a killer among the celebrating crowd. The sheriff calls it an accident but the great detective knows better.

When wealthy Londoners take over Gloamington, it's time to spill the tea. But that's not all that gets spilled. Murder has a way of ruining every tea party. Hotel Beaufont is hosting the wedding of the century until the bride turns up dead before her vows. Malcolm Fawkes and Ella Bloom find themselves hunting a killer among wedding guests where motives are wrapped in silk gloves and served on bone china. The murdered bride had more enemies than bridesmaids.

Seconds from a meteoric career launch, cellist Courtney Starling suffers a frightening migraine attack during a key performance. While harmful rumors fly, she escapes to her happy place—her best friend’s Kansas bookshop. Courtney’s working incognito when a scream sends her leaping off a shelving ladder to find the woman who screamed cowering near the register.

The latest edition of Instagram for Business for Dummies puts you in the picture on how to showcase your product, craft your narrative, and gather insight into how your customers experience and react to your business. Presented in straightforward, practical language by three Instagram and marketing gurus, you'll swiftly go from setting up your account and profile to applying strategies for creating content that deliver super-engaged customers.

Sawyer’s life is simple, if not easy. Her home might be in ruins, but she can protect what’s left of it. A city destroyed by the bots - that’s home. Humans have been hunted, but Sawyer is one of a few who have turned the tables. She’s a Watcher. Taking out the bots one by one. Protecting what’s left. It’s the carbons she needs to be wary of. Faster and stronger than humans, they’re dangerous. But Sawyer’s smarter. That will keep her alive. At least, that’s what she believed. But the carbons are evolving, and their plans are ever more cunning.

For almost thirty years, Shirley Jackson Award–winning horror author Gemma Files has consistently served up tale after tale celebrating monstrosity in all its forms: the imperfect, the broken, the beautifully alien, and the sadly familiar. Her characters make their own choices and take their own chances, slipping from darkness into deeper darkness yet never losing their humanity—not even when they’re anything but.

After barely escaping an attempt on her life, veteran demon hunter Karian Vanador must root out infiltrators within her own order. At the same time, she is presented with a unique opportunity: Infiltrate the very realm of the demon kings to bring back a possible defector. With a family to consider and the risk of inciting a war between two worlds, Kari must decide: Is the life of a Syrinthian priestess worth the risk?

The war we feared has come, and leading the invading army is the only remaining dragon, the "Black Death". If it's not stopped, the dragon will slaughter thousands. I'm Angie Ritter, former army mage and the first source mage to be born in centuries. I might be able to stop the dragon. If I can learn to control my new magic. If I can master the ancient entity possessing me. If I can act like a grown-up and stop fantasizing about the sexy were-jaguar I'm traveling with.

I knew three things about my life before adoption: I was a baby rescued from a blazing house fire, I was found in the arms of a dead man, and no one ever came to claim me. No one. Not ever. Now, as a Montreal detective, I'm dedicated to hunting truths for a living. Unheard voices. Cold cases. Unsolved mysteries. Unearthing secrets hidden in the shadows is my jam. Until the fae veil falls . . . When the world learns magic is real, everything changes. Montreal begins seething with prana energy, dormant genes activate, and seemingly normal humans experience magical awakenings.

Life's pleasures used to be so simple: a fast ride on my motorcycle, a backyard barbeque with my siblings, and taking down criminals to safeguard Montreal's citizens. Sadly, those days ended the moment my fiery side emerged. I'm a fire elemental. Mind blown. The deadly Poreskoro family wants to feed on my fae essence. Rude. And if they succeed, they'll gain the strength to rebuild their army of evil. Terrifying. Demons, drug lords, and deception I can handle, but when a dark storm of danger falls over my family, things have gone too far.

In Caitlín R. Kiernan’s The Ammonite Violin & Others, one of contemporary dark fantasy’s most bewitching and distinctive voices is back with another banquet of the weird and unexpected. Within this book, you’ll discover a dazzling suite of stories situated on the borderlands between the unspeakable and the erotic, the grotesque and the sublime.

Caro Cassidy used to be a legend. During her career, Caro was one of the best defense players in women’s hockey. These days, she keeps to herself. Her all-girls hockey camp is her life, and she hopes it’ll be her legacy. Sure, her new summer hire is charming and magnetic, but Caro keeps her work and personal life strictly separate.

Since freeing our elemental powers, my siblings and I have been attacked, threatened, heckled, and told our entire life has been a massive magical cover-up. We are orphans of the decimated elemental kingdoms of the Fae Realm. The learning curve of our new lives has been butt-kickingly steep and all the things I thought I knew for sure . . . I didn't. Seelie warriors, amorous trolls, hellhounds, and a hunky fire guy with too many secrets. How's a girl to find her footing?

A rundown apartment in Koreatown. A Los Angeles winter. A strung out, worn out, wrecked, and used government agent is scraped up off the pavement, cleaned up, and reluctantly sent out into battle one last time. Ellison Nicodemo has seen and done terrible things. She thought her only remaining quest was for oblivion. Then the Signalman comes calling. He wants to learn if she can stop the latest apocalypse. Ellison, once a unique and valuable asset, can barely remember why she ever fought the good fight.

Set to protect the surviving elementals, my siblings and I spread the word through the network of empowered guilds that we're leaving our lives in the Human Realm behind. With Sasobek on the loose and the hostile opposition to Briar fulfilling his destiny as the true king of Litaui, our new beginnings will be hard-won. But hey, what else is new?

When Bakkali insisted I take a month off to rest and regroup before joining The Guild of the Laurentians, I had my doubts. Being away from police work has been tough, so when an end of summer celebration takes a disastrous turn, I'm eager to unravel the mystery. One thing is for certain—something is in the water. With multiple fatalities, injuries, and missing persons, my siblings and I set out to uncover what happened at Clock Tower Beach.

The undead still roam. But the war has just begun. Rachel North barely survived the horrors of Lost Rabbit. Now, deep into a brutal winter, Whispering Pines teeters on the edge of all-out war. Torn between gathering supplies and preparing for a siege, Rachel and her allies must face the grim reality: this won’t end without blood. Every choice risks lives. Every run into the wild might be their last. And in the distance, Mallory Graves sharpens her knives—ready to finish what she started. Meanwhile, a lone healer named Naomi shelters a wounded child in her isolated home.