Showing results by publisher "HarperAudio" in Gothic

Desley Barron is ready to prove her doubters, and herself, wrong about her flagging writing career. She's won a spot at an exclusive writing retreat in the Blue Mountains. Only instead of feeling creative, Desley finds her insecurity increases while the ghost stories about the house have her jumping at shadows.

History meets fantasy in A. Rushby's tale of sisterhood, betrayal and reclamation revolving around three Anatomical Venuses—ultra-realistic wax models of women—that come to life at night to murder men who have wronged them.

With the stroke of a pen, twenty-three-year-old Ivy Radcliffe becomes Lady Hayworth, owner of a sprawling estate on the Yorkshire moors. Ivy has never heard of Blackwood Abbey, or of the ancient bloodline from which she’s descended. With nothing to keep her in London since losing her brother in the Great War, she warily makes her way to her new home.

When my father arranged for me to marry the heir to the Costa crime family, I swore I’d do anything to escape that fate. I have more to offer than being some man’s arm candy and producing heirs. Marcelo Costa might be my fiancé, but he’ll never be my husband. So when he and his father are killed in a car bombing, I consider myself lucky. No longer will I have to go from being a mafia princess to becoming a mafia wife, I can now attend the Sicuro Academy—a private college created for mafia children like me.

If it was still beating. Angus MacKay has been undead for almost 500 years and it's not often something, or someone, surprises him. Until Emma Wallace. The sight of this luscious agent from the CIA's elite Stake-Out team was enough to stop Angus in his tracks. But then he discovers that she's a vampire slayer, intent on killing the "monsters" who killed her parents. And it's Angus's job to stop her.

In Victorian London, Genevieve Timmons poses as a spiritualist to swindle wealthy mourners—until a failed con lands her in jail. Then a stranger appears with a peculiar offer: a nobleman, Mr. Pemberton, has lost his beautiful fiancée under tragic and mysterious circumstances. If Genevieve can convince him that his beloved rests in peace, she’ll earn her freedom.

Miranda has had a rough few years. Her successful career as a social media influencer has come crashing down after the controversial flop of her fertility app. Humiliated, she moves reluctantly back home to her judgmental father and cold stepmother's house to nurse her wounds, feeling more than ever the loss of her mother. Miranda's mother, well-known author Tessa Summer, died when Miranda was young, leaving behind her best-selling book, The House of Brides - a book that chronicled the generations of brides, each more notorious and tragic than the last.

A mysterious stranger shows up at Riccardo’s apartment with some news: his grandmother Perihan has died, and Riccardo has inherited her villa in Milan along with her famed butterfly collection. The struggling writer is out of options. He’s hoping the change of scenery in Milan will inspire him, and maybe there will be some money to keep him afloat. But Perihan’s house isn’t as opulent as he remembers. The butterflies pinned in their glass cases seem more ominous than artful. Perihan’s group of mysterious old friends is constantly lurking. And there’s something wrong in the greenhouse.

November 1816: Restless but naive Emeline Fitzpatrick is desperate to escape her stifling life in foggy Halifax. Her guardian is lining up repugnant suitors, but Emeline has her eyes set on a lieutenant in the British Navy. She just needs to persuade him to propose, or her one chance at happiness will be gone forever. But when Emeline’s hopes end in scandal, she finds herself with only one suitor left: the wealthy and enigmatic Captain Graves. Having already lost two wives to tragic circumstances, the widower is seeking a new companion in his cloistered seaside manor, Faraday House.

Nicoletta knows all too well the curse that plagues the house of Scarletti. Then she gazes into the dark, mesmerizing eyes of Don Scarletti and she fears for her future - for it is Scarletti's ancient right to select a bride from among his people...and he has chosen her. Compelled by duty, driven by burning, inescapable desire, Nicoletta surrenders to this powerful, hypnotic man, giving her body willingly into his keeping. But will the tormented don be her heart's destiny... or her soul's destruction?

Diana Cooke was "born with the century" and came of age just after World War I. The daughter of Virginia gentry, she knew early that her parents had only one asset, besides her famous beauty: their stately house, Saratoga, the largest in the commonwealth, which has hosted the crème of society and Hollywood royalty. Though they are land-rich, the Cookes do not have the means to sustain the estate. Without a wealthy husband, Diana will lose the mansion that has been the heart and soul of her family for five generations.

Julia Lombardi is a mystery even to herself. The beautiful model can’t remember where she’s from, where she’s been or how she came to live in Rome. When she receives an offer to accompany celebrated eccentric artist Salvador Dalí to the Sacro Bosco—Italy’s Garden of Monsters—as his muse, she’s strangely compelled to accept. It could be a chance to unlock the truth about her past…

At just three years of age, Estella is taken from her mother, adopted by the wealthy but eccentric Miss Havisham and taught how to break men's hearts. Satis House is dark and oppressive and life with the vengeful Miss Havisham a confusion of contradictory lessons, but the kindness of the household cook and Estella's love of the nearby marshes bring her some joy. Forced to play with Pip, a local boy from a lowly background, Estella captivates his soul and breaks his heart, exactly as Miss Havisham has planned.

In the village of Kiln Creek in the Victorian Highlands, a ghost gum falls in a storm. Tangled in its roots are the bones of a small child and the tattered remains of her clothing, including a pair of bright red sneakers. Single mum Jude Mees is in her early forties and struggling to get her business off the ground while raising her ten-year-old daughter Katie, and managing a fractious relationship with her controlling ex-husband.

For Olivia Markham, laMalediction is the ideal setting in which to complete her work. But something is sending a chill up the usually fearless author’s spine. There are the unearthly noises, the sliding panels, the hidden passageways…and John Landry, the sexy caretaker. Working together to uncover laMalediction’s alarming secrets and root out the evil stalking them, John finds Olivia impossible to resist, and he knows it’s only a matter of time before something unexpected—and undeniable—happens between them….

England, 1898: When Evelyn first married the famous novelist William Aubrey, she was dazzled by his brilliance. But their newlywed bliss is brief when William is gripped by writer’s block, and he becomes jealous of Evelyn’s writing talent. When he commits the ultimate betrayal — stealing a draft of her novel and passing it off as his own — Evelyn decides to write her way out of their unhappy marriage.

England, 1840. Orabella Mumthrope spies an unexpected visitor in her uncle’s parlor. Scruffy in appearance yet claiming to be the scion of a fabulously wealthy family, Elias Blakersby declares a deep desire to make Orabella his wife. The orphaned daughter of a white man and a Black woman—an outsider with no fortune or connections—Orabella never expected to marry. But her uncle has many debts, and Orabella, curious about the seeming devotion Elias bestows upon her, agrees.

A whimsical, moving novel about a retirement home for literary legends who spar, conjure up new stories, and almost magically change the lives of the people around them. Alfonse Carducci was a literary giant who lived his life to excess - lovers, alcohol, parties, and literary rivalries. But now he's come to the Bar Harbor Home for the Elderly to spend the remainder of his days among kindred spirits: the publishing industry's nearly gone but never forgotten greats. Only now, at the end of his life, does he comprehend the price of appeasing every desire.

Agnes Corey, a junior editor at a small independent publisher, has been hired by enigmatic author Veronica St. Clair to transcribe the sequel to her 1993 hit phenomenon, The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights. St. Clair has been a recluse since the publication of the Jane Eyre-esque book, which coincided with a terrible fire that blinded and scarred her. Arriving in the Hudson Valley at St. Clair’s crumbling estate, which was once a psychiatric hospital for “wayward women,” Agnes is eager to ensure St. Clair’s devoted fans will get the sequel they’ve been anticipating for the past thirty years.

Shanghai, 1911. Lisan Liu is elated when she is hired as secretary to wealthy American Caroline Stanton, the new mistress of Lennox Manor on the outskirts of Shanghai’s International Settlement. However, the Manor has a dark past due to a previous owner’s suicide, and soon Lisan’s childhood nightmares resurface with more intensity and meld with haunted visions of a woman in red. Adding to her unease is the young gardener, Yao, who both entices and disturbs her.