While supporting myself as I got my MFA, I worked as a bridal stylist at an upscale Beverly Hills wedding salon. Just like most of the main characters in these books, I was thrust into a new world that was full of couture, decadence, and wealth. It was also full of backstabbing, competition, and elitism and I endured my share of it. As a girl from a blue-collar family who grew up with no fashion sense whatsoever, it was an experience that fed my fascination with glittering societies that have dark sides and inspired my first young adult novel, A Dress for the Wicked.
A Dress for the Wicked is about a fashion-obsessed Victorian society. Every few years, there is a cutthroat competition to gain entry to the prestigious Fashion House and, for the first time ever, a girl from the country, Emmy, is admitted as a contestant. Emmy thinks her dreams have come true only to realize that the Fashion House is using her as a political pawn and that sabotage is always in style. Stolen kisses, midnight galas, and backstabbing unfold, and Emmy learns that ambition has a dark side—and that she might too.
Once Upon a Broken Heart is a fairy tale with a knife. Here, you’ll discover wily stories that change their endings, a bad boy (…if he is indeed human…) with a deadly smile, and poisons delivered through kisses. 19th-century fashions abound but, just like the plot, these outfits all have unexpected twists. What I love is how this novel is a love letter to both the hopeless romantics and the cynics.
'An unputdownable fairy tale' Kerri Maniscalco, New York Times bestselling author of Kingdom of the Wicked
From the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Caraval series, the first book in a new series about love, curses, and the lengths that people will go to for happily ever after.
For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in happily ever after. Until she learns that the love of her life is about to marry another, and her dreams are shattered.
Desperate to stop the wedding, and heal her wounded heart, Evangeline…
Sometimes a single mansion can contain a world within itself and the one contained here must be explored at your own peril. Intricate passages, decadent décor, and an upstairs/downstairs divide await, along with murder, mystery, and magic. The story centers on a girl who possesses an insidious gift that can save the ones she loves but at a deadly cost. Told against a backdrop full of lavish ballet costumes, this novel left me wondering how far one should go for another, especially when the sacrifice might be fatal.
Marit doesn't like to use magic too often; it always comes with a heavy price. When her best friend Eve is adopted by a legendary former dancer and placed in an elite ballet program outside of Copenhagen, Marit draws upon her powers to secure a job with the wealthy family so that she can watch over her. But Marit has another, secret motivation: her father died while working for the dancer's family, and she has reason to believe he was murdered.
While Marit adapts to her glittering new life in Copenhagen, she starts to investigate her father's death in earnest.…
The forest is hungry and the lake is thirsty and only outsiders can satiate them. Nature is its own intricate, brutal character in this artfully drawn novel about a girl who lives in an insular society protected by a seemingly vicious habitat. Outfits inspired by seasons and folklore enchant the mind’s eye, along with questions about whether the monsters in ourselves are scarier than those found in the forest deep or the lake’s depths.
"Mara Rutherford’s The Poison Season took me on journey through a bloodthirsty forest, where two star-crossed lovers discover the true meaning of poison. It brims with evocative storytelling that left me enchanted!" — Emily J. Taylor, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel Magnifique
Outsiders are always given a choice: the Forest or the lake. Either way, they’re never heard from again.
Leelo has spent her entire life on Endla, coexisting with the bloodthirsty Forest and respecting the poisonous lake that protects her island from outsiders who seek to destroy it. But as much as Leelo cares for her community,…
This icon of Russian literature presents an unflinching look at the human heart as it navigates its deepest passions while flung about by the currents of high society. Every aspect is used to its fullest potential, including the fashions which are as ravishing as they are symbolic. The heart is fickle but it has one constant: the need for a good outfit!
In 1872 the mistress of a neighbouring landowner threw herself under a train at a station near Tolstoy's home. This gave Tolstoy the starting point he needed for composing what many believe to be the greatest novel ever written.
In writing Anna Karenina he moved away from the vast historical sweep of War and Peace to tell, with extraordinary understanding, the story of an aristocratic woman who brings ruin on herself. Anna's tragedy is interwoven with not only the courtship and marriage of Kitty and Levin but also the lives of many other characters. Rich in incident, powerful in characterization,…
Court life under the reign of Henry VIII comes to vivid, excruciating life in this novel following Mary Boleyn, a young girl used by her cunning family to seduce the king. But, as history reveals, such a quest can quickly turn deadly. A sibling rivalry plays out on pages that cannot be turned quickly enough while gowns and jewelry are used to catch the eye of the king and stay on top…and to keep one’s head.
The acclaimed international bestseller of the Tudor court, during the years of Henry VIII's pursuit of Anne Boleyn - and the revolutionary sequence of events that followed.
1521. Young Mary Boleyn arrives at court, maid in waiting and favourite to Queen Katherine of Aragon.
Yet Mary catches the eye of the capricious king and - propelled by the ambitions of the powerful Boleyn family - she betrays her queen, and takes her place as Henry VIII's new mistress.
But while Mary is in childbed, a rival comes to court - her sister Anne, a…
I have been a writer for more than twenty years and have favored pursuing “truth in fiction” rather than “money in formula.” I also spent over thirty years in the corporate world and was exposed to many situations reminiscent of those described in my fiction and in these recommended books. While I support enterprise, “enlightened capitalism” is preferable to the bare-knuckle type we have today, and which seems to resurface whenever regulation weakens. I also find writing novels closer to my lived experience connects me intimately with readers who are looking for socio-political, realist literature.
Avery Mann, a retired pharmaceuticals executive, is in crisis.
His wife dies of cancer, his son’s marriage is on the rocks, his grandson is having a meltdown, and his good friend is a victim of the robocalls scandal that invades the Canadian federal election. Throw in a reckless fling with a former colleague, a fire that destroys his retirement property, and a rumour emerging that the drug he helped bring to market years ago may have been responsible for the death of his wife, and Avery’s life goes into freefall.
Does an octogenarian beekeeper living on Vancouver Island hold the key to Avery’s recovery, a man holding secrets that put lives in jeopardy? Avery races across the country to find out, with crooked bosses, politicians, and assassins on his tail. Joseph spins a cautionary tale of corporate and political greed that is endemic to our times.
Avery Mann, a retired pharmaceuticals executive, is in crisis. His wife dies of cancer, his son’s marriage is on the rocks, his grandson is having a meltdown, and his good friend is a victim of the robocalls scandal that invades the Canadian federal election.
Throw in a reckless fling with a former colleague, a fire that destroys his retirement property, and a rumour emerging that the drug he helped bring to market years ago may have been responsible for the death of his wife, and Avery’s life goes into freefall.
Does an octogenarian bee keeper living on Vancouver Island hold…
10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them.
Browse their picks for the best books about
curses,
Russia,
and
orphans.
