Horror Romance Suspense

Kate agrees to an arranged marriage with the mysterious Thomas Westwood to save her family's estate, but not everyone welcomes her at Wishwood, her husband's crumbling manor. The family members talk about a curse, lights move through the ruins at night, and Kate's maid won't spend the night in the house. Thomas is hiding something from Kate as well, but as she grows closer to him, a series of accidents makes her suspect that someone is willing to kill to keep Wishwood's secrets buried in the past.

A group of mountain climbers, caught in the dark, fight to survive their descent; in the British countryside, hundreds of magpies ascend into the sky, higher and higher, until they seem to vanish into the heavens; a professor and his student track a zombie horde in order to research zombie behavior; an all-girl riding school has sinister secrets; a town rails in vain against a curse inflicted upon it by its founders; and much more.

Seabury Quinn's short stories were featured in well more than half of the pulp magazine Weird Tales' original publication run. His most famous character, the supernatural French detective Dr. Jules de Grandin, investigated cases involving monsters, devil worshippers, serial killers, and spirits from beyond the grave, often set in the small town of Harrisonville, New Jersey.

For more than 30 years, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror fans crave. Now, with the 11th volume of the series, Daltow's back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. This light creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year chronicles these shifting shadows.

I wasn’t supposed to be at Olympus that night. And I definitely wasn’t supposed to witness a murder - or be caught by the killers. Hades, Apollo, and Ares run the mysterious masked fight club, and they wield more power in this town than I could dream of holding. They destroy my life with one decree: Kora Sinclair doesn’t exist. Sterling Falls was my chance to start over, but one night derails everything. My scholarship, my job - gone. I could run home, but giving up my dreams isn’t an option. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Romance: I wouldn't say these short stories are steamy hot in a sexual sense, but the romantic scenes are definitely filled with some flirting, sexual tension, and suggestive, humorous comments. As the author tried to keep it all clean to target a specific audience, you'll find that even the most trivial circumstances can create the most interesting and fun love stories. Fighting, miscommunication, awkwardness, and status add to the mixture, as the characters mingle and sometimes remain single.

Yorkshire, 1898. When twenty-one-year-old Lilianne Loxley is sent to Lord Bexton's isolated estate to work off her uncle's debts, she expects drudgery—not danger. With her gift for mimicry, she becomes Bexton's secretary—and his reluctant forger. Soon she's trapped in a scheme to create a "lost" novel by Emily Brontë, a deception that could make—or destroy—fortunes. The house is full of secrets: footsteps echo in empty corridors, lemon-scented ghosts haunt her sleepless nights, and a portrait seems to watch her every move. Yet it's the living who unsettle her most.

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?

Compiled by the Dark Poet Princess, Xtina Marie, here are 16 delectably horrific tales of the sinister side of dark romance, where not everything is hearts and flowers, and moonlight strolls hand-in-hand with your beautiful soulmate. This phenomenal anthology - named in honor of that unique part of the female anatomy believed by some to summon satan himself - overflows with the darkest storytelling and the brightest talent on the independent writing scene today: Madison Estes, John Leonard, J.N. Cameron, Arista Cyrene, Steve Wands, Joe Palumbo, Jeremy Billingsley, and more.

They call me a playboy. Society’s pretty pet. What they don’t know is I’m so much more. My only directive was to keep her hidden, and safe. After everything she’s been through I’m the last person to offer comfort and care. I have little experience with either. Both of us have been broken by our pasts. But mine is catching up to me, and I would deal with it as I usually do: with total decimation. But that puts her in the crosshairs, and that’s unacceptable.

Laney is my everything. Her smile became my obsession and when someone else threatened to take her from me, take her innocence, I took him out of the picture. They separated us, in hopes that our desires would fade, but the longer we stayed apart, the stronger my obsession grew. I have one chance to show her what we could be, and if I have to slaughter everyone in my path to do so… so be it.

Fourteen years ago, I killed sixteen people and I'd do it again. Were you expecting something different? Did you think I would be remorseful? No. Each and every one of them deserved to die. Now, I'm back to reclaim what was always supposed to be mine and destroy everyone who has wronged me or her. Those who took her from me will pay with their lives and I'll smile like the psychopath I am as I deliver my own twisted form of justice. After all, it's Halloween. The craziest things happen on All Hallow's Eve.. Myers is a dark, taboo horror romance retelling of Michael Myers.

One night, New York FBI agent Aiden Mahoney receives a visitor in a dream - an old friend named Richard Highsmith. The very next day he's sent to Sleepy Hollow because Richard's gone missing there. Maureen - Mo - Deauville now lives in the historic town and works with her dog, Rollo, to search for missing people. She's actually the one to find Richard…or more precisely his head, stuck on a statue of the legendary Headless Horseman.

One night, New York FBI agent Aiden Mahoney receives a visitor in a dream - an old friend named Richard Highsmith. The very next day he's sent to Sleepy Hollow because Richard's gone missing there. Maureen - Mo - Deauville now lives in the historic town and works with her dog, Rollo, to search for missing people. She's actually the one to find Richard…or more precisely his head, stuck on a statue of the legendary Headless Horseman.

I had to do the unthinkable—and now I've discovered that every move I've made has been part of a villain's maniacal plan. All this time I believed I'd found my freedom, I've still had someone pulling my strings. Those days are over. The man who considers himself my master is the worst monster I've ever known. My crew and I won't let him get away with his manipulations or the even more disturbing crimes we uncover. But no matter how talented we are in our killer skills, we're just five people up against a crime lord with more connections than I can count.

When Lark Cavanaugh’s life in New York City falls apart, she’s left reeling from a staggering betrayal. She escapes to Cape Cod, where a distant relative has left her an old house with a tragic past. Rumors of a haunting presence plague the abandoned home, but Lark doesn’t believe in ghosts...until she has no choice.

Lena thought she was free. She was wrong. The whispers haven’t stopped. The shadows still move. And when she looks in the mirror, something else looks back. As reality begins to unravel, Lena must uncover the truth before she loses herself completely. But the deeper she digs, the stronger he becomes. And this time, he won’t let her go.

In the beautiful Spanish countryside, evil lurks. Emiliano, a sadistic murderer, roams the land with his beautiful Succubus lover, Camilla. Leaving a trail of death and pain in their wake. Camilla nurtures Emiliano's perverse desires, indulging in every twisted urge without hesitation. But their path takes a turn when Emiliano takes a job as a caretaker for a secluded Spanish villa and meets the mysterious and alluring Elena. As he gets closer to Elena, Emiliano starts to question his relationship with Camilla and begins to feel emotions he's never experienced before — remorse and love.

Investigating a noise in the attic of her historic home, Maggie Holliday encounters a handsome man in a Civil War uniform. He calls her "Isabel", seduces her in ways the shy academic had never dreamed of, then literally vanishes. With every fleeting visit, Maggie's mysterious lover, Ethan, takes her closer to the edge of ecstasy and madness. Is he really a ghost? Far from chilling her, his touch is incendiary; it all feels so real and so very, very good. And so very familiar.

Violet thought she had made peace with her unique ability to sense the echoes of the dead and the imprints that cling to their killers . . . until she acquired an imprint of her own. Forced to carry a reminder of the horrible events of her kidnapping, Violet is more determined than ever to lead a normal life. However, the people who run the special investigative team she works for have no intention of letting her go. Violet will do whatever it takes to keep her loved ones safe - even if it means lying to her boyfriend, Jay.