FCRAs Runner-Up! Take a step back from the Snow White tale you know. Step back to get a better look. Skin pale as snow. Hair black as ebony. Lips red as blood. What does that sound like to you, dear reader? A creature of the dark. One that lives in the shadows, that cowers at the bright glow of the sun, that lives on the blood of others. She's manipulative, or she's magic, for no one seems to see the harm she does. Only the sweet, innocent facade that she puts up. When I married her father, that's all I saw as well. But on his death bed, he made me promise to end her because he never could. I promised him. I failed. • • • As the young Queen Maris is left to rule the icy kingdom her husband left her, dreams of the summer wind in her heart, she's left with the shocking dilemma the king has given her as his dying wish. To kill his only daughter, the beloved and fair Snow White. Maris isn't a killer, but as her rule progresses, she alone begins to see the princess for what she truly is, a bloodthirsty creature that could end up destroying the kingdom of Krithane In an attempt to save the life of a dear friend, Maris hires a Huntsman from the West to take Snow away and kill her. But when Beck comes back empty handed, Maris is left with only one choice. She has to be the one to kill Snow White. With Beck at her side, Maris sets out to rid Krithane of the icy grip that Snow has on it. But how can she defeat her when so many others have failed? Only with more power than Snow can she ever hope to best her, but the only thing that can give her that kind of power is even darker than the creature she's fighting. ----- Thanks to @seventhstar for that gorgeous cover!!!

In a land laid waste by human greed, we looked above for salvation. We should have been looking below. Entry into @TheCryptic_ Herculean contest

[This story is now FREE] Florette moves to Versailles, only to discover a group of Fae are destroying France. Allying with the battled-scarred Destan, she has to save the kingdom. ***** Florette, a painter's apprentice, is finally welcomed to the palace of Versailles. Ready to work, she notices that several of the courtiers are too beautiful to be human. Soon a battle-scarred warrior, Destan, tells her the truth: a faction of Fae have left the faerie and are slowly destroying the French monarchy. Determined that France must not fall, Florette is forced to use her skill to smuggle messages about the Fae inside her own paintings. Can she trust the rugged warrior at her side? And can Florette save France from creatures beyond mortal control?

NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK AND E-BOOK This is a 10-chapter sample of a published novel. A stolen kiss. An unstable curse. One big mess in the making. Derric Harver never expected to amount to anything more than the palace stableboy, but when Princess Maria's curse keeps her from accepting a prince's proposal, she turns to him for help, and he doesn't dare refuse. With the help of a lady's maid and a prince, Derric and Maria embark on a dangerous adventure to find the sorceress who cast the curse. Along the way they battle monsters, make friends, and discover new truths about themselves--not to mention the undeniable chemistry between them. Reaching their destination won't be easy, but the true danger lies in the truths they've fought for years to hide. A Stolen Kiss is the first in the Stolen Royals Series--an adventure with magical creatures, dangerous lies, and being true to the power within.

Aku hampir hidup menjadi bagian dunia ini hampir lima ratus tahun lamanya. Jika usiaku genap lima ratus namun kekuatan ajaibku belum mencapai tingkat tertinggi, aku harus rela menjadi cermin biasa seperti apa yang ada di rumahmu. Dan aku takkan membiarkan hal itu terjadi. Bagaimana pun caranya.

'I was falling. And he was going to catch me. I just knew he was.' For Megan Walden, life is all about perfection. She's the perfect friend, the perfect wife, the perfect office dogsbody, but what happens when she makes a decision that cracks the glass protecting her perfect little world? During a night-out in the shadow of her effervescent best friend, Megan meets Harper Cain and is instantly intrigued by the mysterious tattooed rocker-type with his trace of Bostonian accent and brooding darkness that lurks behind his smile. Knowing instinctively that she is playing with fire, and yet finding herself inexplicably drawn to the irresistible Harper, Megan embarks on a course that will destroy the foundations of her whole world and force her to question everything and everyone she has ever known. Plunging headlong into a nightmare she cannot stop, Megan realises too late that playing away with a mysterious stranger is the least of her worries. It's time for her perfect life to come to an end Will Harper catch her? Or will Megan be able to save herself?

It doesn't matter how she ended up in this four-walled room. What matters is she gets out. ***** After a night out in New York City, Liliana Rossi wakes up in a windowless room with no recollection of how she got there. And she's not alone. The dark and tattooed Mateo Aguilar is also held captive. As the two struggle to survive and hatch an escape plan, they also struggle with growing attraction toward each other, facing Lili with the biggest question yet: is Mateo the reason she's here, or the one who's going to save her? ✨ Wattys 2018 Shortlist & Featured Story ✨ Content warning: this story references themes that readers might find triggering, including drug use and sexual assault. [[word count: 60,000-70,000 words]] Cover designed by Stefanie Saw

A violent, epic, action-packed urban quest full of very eccentric, often hilarious, extremely dangerous characters who also happen to be animals - the wildlife of New York City, to be exact. Reviews 'Artfully imagined and constructed ... Through the eyes and hearts of Evans's furry characters, Beasts of New York gets at a lot of complex stuff: issues of identity, specifically nature versus nurture, are explored without being heavy-handed, and the real-life distances between bravery and cowardice, loyalty and disloyalty, hope and despair are often revealed to be just a hair's breadth apart.' (Julie Eakin, ForeWord Magazine) 'EPIC! 'Beasts of New York is about a squirrel named Patch who, out of desperation and need, adventures beyond his home in Central Kingdom to try and save it. While it seems that fate is conspiring against him, taking him further from his home than any squirrel has traveled, his journey is a necessary step to saving all of Central Kingdom from the evil trying to consume it.... 'This book reads like a fantasy novel, even though it is set in New York City. The horrors that Patch encounters at times seemed so unreal to me, despite knowing where they were. Seeing them from another pair of eyes gave some things a new air of terror and others one of wonder. 'This is not a light novel. It is very dark, and at times absolutely horrifying, but I connected so much to Patch as a hero that, in the end, I was left with tears of relief and happiness in my eyes.' (Kate, GoodReads) About the Author Jon Evans's novels have been published around the world, translated into half a dozen languages, and praised by The Economist, The Times of London, and the Washington Post. His journalism has appeared in Wired, Reader's Digest, The Guardian, The Globe & Mail, and The Times of India, and he writes a weekly column for TechCrunch. He can be found online at www.rezendi.com.

At the age of eighteen, everyone's blood changes colour. Whether it becomes blue, green or otherwise, the colour is either hereditary or a random, biological selection. However, when Pearl Damocles discovers that her blood is colourless - in a society where people are segregated by blood colour -, she travels to an institute for people like her with a handsome yet mysterious man named, Malik Ahmed. After months of training and planning - with a team of quirky, newfound friends and trained militants by her side - she decides begins to hatch a plan. One to bring everyone together, and abolish the inequality of the blood colours.

**CURRENTLY A FEATURED STORY** highest ranking: #11 in Science fiction ❝true happiness is only achieved without freedom. There is a girl who wakes to a world that she was supposed to protect. Instead, she fights it. There is a man who is cursed with the ability to dream. A glass city is their cage, a city filled to the brim with unanimity and order, a paradise on an earth laid to waste by an artificial snowstorm. Sunlight filters through the glass buildings and through glass walls, pierces glass floors. It illuminates the city square when it is strongest at noon, surrounded by a huddled mass of citizens, all as perfect as the city they inhabit. And they all think: everything is as it should be. And it is. Or, it was. -- long live perfection.❞ (c)sarahgaier2016 #diverselit | #LoveEqualsLove | #helpfightcliches | #freethelgbtq | #badassreads check out my Science Fiction novella, Sector-33, here! https://www.wattpad.com/story/62174094-sector-33