Search Results for: there will come a darkness

‘A masterful fantasy debut‘ Sebastien de Castell

‘A can’t miss debut from an exciting new talent’ Kiersten White

THE AGE OF DARKNESS APPROACHES.
FIVE LIVES STAND IN ITS WAY.

For generations, the Seven Prophets guided humanity – until they disappeared, one hundred years ago.

They left behind a secret prophecy, foretelling an Age of Darkness and the birth of a new Prophet who could be the world’s salvation . . . or the cause of its destruction. As a dark new power rises, five souls are set on a collision course that will determine the fate of their world:

A prince exiled from his kingdom
A ruthless killer known as the Pale Hand
A once-faithful leader torn between his duty and his heart
A reckless gambler with the power to find anything or anyone
And a dying girl on the verge of giving up

One of them – or all of them – could break the world. Will they be saviour or destroyer?

Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows meets Kristin Cashore’s Graceling in this showstopping debut YA fantasy from Katy Rose Pool.

‘Unforgettable . . . feels both utterly original and like the best of classic fantasy’ Tasha Suri, author of Empire of Sand

‘Katy Rose Pool combines lovable characters, a gorgeously tangible world and an intricate puzzle-box plot to create a story that will pull you inexorably toward the explosive end’ Sarah Holland

‘A well-crafted, surprising and gripping start to a new trilogy’ Kirkus

‘Compelling… Keeps the pages turning. The final cinematic scene, of a vast landscape filled with enormous armies, nicely sets the stage for book three of this daringly unconventional series in the Tolkien mold.’ – PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

‘A journey unlike any other you have experienced. Part Dante’s “Inferno” and part Conrad’s “Heart Of Darkness”, this is fantasy literature like you’ve never read before.’ – Blogcritics

A score of centuries has passed since the First Apocalypse and the thoughts of men have turned, inevitably, to more worldly concerns…

A veteran sorcerer and spy seeks news of an ancient enemy. A military genius plots to conquer the known world for his Emperor but dreams of the throne for himself. The spiritual leader of the Thousand Temples seeks a Holy War to cleanse the land of the infidel. An exiled barbarian chieftain seeks vengeance against the man who disgraced him. And into this world steps a man like no other, seeking to bind all – man and woman, emperor and slave – to his own mysterious ends.

But the fate of men – even great men – means little when the world itself may soon be torn asunder. Behind the politics, beneath the religious fervour, a dark and ancient evil is reawakening. After two thousand years, the No-God is returning. The Second Apocalypse is nigh. And one cannot raise walls against what has been forgotten…

A startlingly original and assured epic fantasy debut. A tale of conspiracy, holy war, empire-building and intrigue set in the most vividly imagined fantasy world since Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

Books by R Scott Baker:

Prince of Nothing Trilogy
The Darkness That Comes Before
The Warrior-Prophet
The Thousandfold Thought

Aspect-Emperor
The Judging Eye
The White Luck Warrior
The Great Ordeal
The Unholy Consult

Novels
Neuropath
Disciple of the Dog
Light, Time, and Gravity

Can a stranger share your memories?

That’s the question that haunts PI Brenna Spector when she first sees footage of missing webcam performer Lula Belle. Naked but hidden in shadow, the ‘performance artist’ shares her deepest, darkest secrets with her unseen male audience . . . secrets that, to Brenna, are chillingly familiar.

Brenna has perfect memory, able to recall in astonishing detail every moment of every day of her adult life. But her childhood – those carefree years before the traumatic disappearance of her sister, Clea – is frustratingly vague. When Brenna listens to the stories Lula Belle tells her audience, stories only Brenna and Clea could know, those years come to life again in vivid detail. Convinced the missing internet performer has ties to her sister, Brenna takes the case – and in her quest for Lula Belle unravels a web of obsession, sex, guilt, and murder that could regain her family . . . or cost her life.

Discover the second of the two masterful hit novels adapted for the massive new BBC One Drama series In The Dark, featuring brilliant heroine Helen Weeks – continuing from number one bestseller Time of Death.

‘Billingham produces an astonishing final twist’
Sunday Telegraph

A rainy night in London. Shots are fired into a car which swerves on to the pavement, ploughing into a bus stop. It seems that a chilling gang initiation has cost an innocent victim their life. But the reality is far more sinister…

One life is wiped out and three more are changed forever: the young man whose finger was on the trigger; an ageing gangster planning a deadly revenge, and the pregnant woman who struggles desperately to uncover the truth. Two weeks away from giving birth, how will she deal with a world where death is an occupational hazard?

In a city where violence can be random or meticulously planned, where teenage gangs clash with career criminals and where loyalty is paid for in blood, anything is possible. Secrets are uncovered as fast as bodies, and the story’s final twist is as breathtakingly surprising as they come.

The hugely acclaimed latest novel in Mark Billingham’s bestselling series, Love Like Blood, is out now.

At the end of the nineteenth century Charlotte Metcalf is a child of good fortune: a prosperous father, a loving mother, a loved brother all cocoon her from the fears of the outside world. But then her father dies… and she is plunged into poverty and the workhouse becomes her miserable home.

Yet Charlotte escapes, determined to find her lost brother, and her search brings her to Barras Hall, home of unknown relations where fine clothes, good food and wealth seem to promise her all she desires. But at night the horror begins – of sound and sense, surpassing all earthy terror. And Charlotte finds that daytime comfort comes at a price…and she must fulfil her terrible destiny.

Praise for Jonathan Aycliffe:

‘Aycliffe has a fine touch’ Independent

‘Aycliffe conjures up a feeling of dread that deepens with each unsettling incident’ Time Out

‘Naomi’s Room must rank among the finest of English ghost stories… They certainly don’t come more dark or fearsome.’ Newcastle Evening Chronicle

Dominic of the Dragonseeker lineage – one of the most powerful lines the Carpathian people has – ingests vampire blood laced with parasites in order to infiltrate the heart of the enemy camp and learn their plans. This is a one-way mission. He plans to get in fast, relay the information to the leader of the Carpathians living in the area and go out fighting – an honourable way to end his life.

Solange Sangria is one of the last of the jaguar people, a royal pure-blood. Her people, once many, are now nearly extinct. She has long been alone fighting to save the remaining women who are able to shift from the hands of Brodrick the Terrible, her own father who slaughtered everyone she loved. Wounded, weary, she plans one last battle, hoping to stop the man who has made an alliance with the vampires, accepting she will not come out alive. They are two warriors who have lived their lives alone. Now, at the end of their time, they find each other, a complication neither sees coming.

The town of Oleander is postcard perfect.

Until one day.

The day the Devil came to Oleander.

Whatever they called it, through the months to come – through the funerals and the dinners and the sidelong glances between formerly trusting neighbours – it was all anyone could talk about. It seemed safe to assume it was all anyone would ever talk about, just as it was assumed that Oleander had been changed for ever, and that, once buried, the bodies would stay in the ground.

But then the storms came . . .

Savannah Dubrinsky is a mistress of illusion, a world-famous magician capable of mesmerising millions. But there is one man she fears: Gregori, the Dark One. With a dark magic all his own, Gregori – the most powerful of Carpathian males – whispers in Savannah’s mind that he is her destiny. That she was born to save his immortal soul. And now, here in New Orleans, the hour has finally come to claim her. To make her completely his. In a ritual as old as time…and as inescapable as eternity.

Imagine falling for someone who can fly you through the air. Imagine loving someone who can see your darkest thoughts. Imagine having secrets that could destroy the things you cherish . . .

Midnight in Bixby hides more than one secret, and uncovering them will put Jessica and her friends in more danger than they could have imagined.

The Midnighters aren’t the only ones seeking truth in the darkness. And if the group allow their own secrets to come between them they risk losing one of their own – forever.

No.1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan now delivers her most eagerly awaited novel of all – ten years in the making.

In DARK LYCAN, Christine Feehan journeyed into the heart of the Carpathians, and into the souls of two lifemates stirred by the flush of passion and the threat of annihilation. In DARK WOLF, the breathtaking story continues as the bonds of family are imperiled, and the fate of two lovers lies hidden in the seductive shadows between life and death.

Skyler Daratrazanoff always recognized the miracle that was Dimitri Tirunul, a man beyond any dream that had ever engaged her nights. But she was human. Vulnerable. He was Carpathian. Nearly immortal. She was nineteen. He was an ancient. Yet she held half his soul, the light to his darkness. Without her, he would not survive. Caught between the two warring species, Dimitri has spent centuries hunting the undead to keep his people free, and humans safe. He had survived honorably when others had chosen to give up their souls. But now, marked for extermination by the Lycans, Dimitri found himself alone, and fearing for his life. But salvation was coming. . .

No Lycan would ever suspect someone like Skyler to dare mount a secret rescue operation. A teenage girl. A human of untested abilities. But she had something no one else had. She was predestined for Dimitri – as he was for her. And there was nothing stronger for Skyler than her desire to see her life-dream come true. Whatever the risk.

Lovers challenge destiny and risk their lives in the new Carpathian novel by the #1 New York Times bestselling ‘queen of paranormal romance.’ (J.R. Ward)

Gabrielle has had enough of battles, of wars, of seeing Gary Jansen, the man she loves nearly lose his life when it isn’t even his fight. Once he was a gentle and very human researcher. Now he’s a fearless and lethal Carpathian warrior with the blood of an ancient lineage coursing through his veins-a man Gabrielle still needs and desires and dreams of with every breath she takes. All she wants is a life far away from the Carpathian mountains, far from vampires and the shadows cast by the crumbling monastery that hides so many terrible secrets. But Gabrielle soon learns that promises made in the dark can pierce the heart like a dagger.

And she isn’t the only one in search of answers in the corners of the unknown…. Trixie Joanes has come to the Carpathian mountains in search of her wayward granddaughter, fearing that she has been lured there by something unspeakable. Instead, Trixie has stumbled into the path of a desperate man and a woman in love and on the run. And they’re all fated for the lair of a mysterious ancient with revenge in his soul and the undying power to make bad dreams come true.

‘After Bram Stoker, Anne Rice and Joss Whedon, Christine Feehan is the person most credited with popularizing the neck gripper.’
Time

‘Feehan has a knack for bringing vampiric Carpathians to vivid, virile life in her Dark Carpathian novels.’
Publishers Weekly

Preston, 1741. The drowning of drunken publican Antony Egan is no surprise – even if it comes as unpleasant shock to coroner Titus Cragg, whose wife is the old man’s niece. But he does his duty to the letter, and the inquest’s verdict is accidental death.

But Cragg’s close friend Luke Fidelis finds evidence to cast doubt on the events leading up to Egan’s demise. Soon, suspicions are roused still further when a well-to-do farmer collapses and it appears he was in town on political business. Is there a conspiracy afoot? With the help of Fidelis’s scientific ingenuity he sets about bringing the true criminals to light…

He is the dark guardian of his people. So how, after centuries of a bleak, soulless existence has he, Lucian Daratrazanoff, suddenly come to crave petite, curvy, colourful policewoman Jaxon Montgomery, who foolishly makes it her life’s work to protect others from harm? Fiercely daring, Jaxx will sacrifice anything to shield others. And piercingly erotic Lucian is powerfully, perilously mesmerising – oddly gentle yet clearly a born predator. He has vowed to possess her, to guard her for all time. Yet with his every thirsty kiss, is he drawing Jaxon more deeply into danger…and his dark, mysterious desires?

Dark Descent tells the story of Joie Sanders, a bodyguard, and Traian Trigovise, an ancient hunter, meeting after a battle in a deep cave filled with mystery and wonder. Set in the Carpathian Mountains, Joie, with her brother and sister go caving and come across the ancient warrior beset upon by several vampires. They have no choice but to throw their lot in with the hunter and do their best to escape with their lives from the underground labyrinth filled with ancient traps left behind by a powerful race.

A fantastic novella by Christine Feehan, never before published in the UK, and with exciting new material available for the first time!

Discover Piatkus Entice: temptation at your fingertips – http://www.piatkusentice.co.uk

Rosa and her mama go to school together-in the dark of night, silently, afraid that any noise they hear is a patroller on the lookout for escaped slaves. Their school is literally a hole in the ground, where they and other slaves of all ages gather to form letters out of sticks, scratch letters in the dirt, and pronounce their sounds in whispers. Young Rosa is eager to learn the letters and then the words, because after the words comes reading. But she must have patience, her mama reminds her, and keep her letters to herself when she’s working on the plantation. If the Master catches them, it’ll mean a whipping-one lash for each letter. No matter how slow and dangerous the process might be, Rosa is determined to learn, and pass on her learning to others.