Flowers Fiction

Kenyon Brooks is parched. And the only woman who can sate his thirst is Kamil Rodríguez.

This collection of 18 short tales, a novelette, and a short novel takes the listener inside the dark imagination of Elizabeth Engstrom, author of acclaimed horror classics like When Darkness Loves Us. In these stories, you will hear about a woman asked to be complicit in her own mother’s death, a grandmother with a macabre hobby, a bizarre, phallic-shaped flower that portends evil for a married couple, a father whose son is caught up in a sinister government experiment. These are weird and unsettling tales that will linger with the listener.

Amanita reached into her jacket and prised the letter from between her iPod and her headphones. She gazed at the writing on the front for a moment. It’s eloquent loops and scrawl communicating her father’s handwriting style - something she had never known before. Then she opened it.

Once upon a time Donovan assured Lily all of her dreams would come true. But how could he keep the promise of a fairy tale when her truest goals could not involve him, though her deepest desires did? Now, Lily has it all - love, passion, a family, and the career of her dreams - with Christopher. But something is lacking. She and Donovan have spent the last 10 years living apart, and the soul mates are eager to reunite.

Lily nurtures a secret love for a flawless man - the one who is her soul mate. Donovan is gorgeous, charismatic, and delights in all of Lily's talents and quirks. Their innate knowledge of each other is almost telepathic. Together they interlock like fine threads creating luxurious silk.

When the beautiful Korean housewife Bae learns that her college student daughter Hwan could be attending a party at a Fraternity House linked to numerous sex scandals, she races to prevent the corruption of her little girl. How could Bae have known that she would be the one corrupted by the boys of Phi Upsilon Kappa?

Six months ago Anastasia "Stasia" Fiore, an intelligence officer in Italy’s foreign security service, led an even more secret life on the side. She ran off-the-books missions with her friends Olivia and Beta, American and Czech foreign intelligence officers. The three women shared the same goal: take down predators. And then, Stasia’s life got way more interesting. After a complicated, surreal mission that went sideways, Stasia learned that she has angel blood, making her an Elioud.

It's been 19 years since ten-year-old Laurel was given a life sentence and six-year-old Rosie was given a new identity. The sisters were the very picture of innocence: two little girls who loved to listen to their mother's bedtime stories and play make-believe in the garden. But then an act of unparalleled horror tears their family apart, leaving Laurel behind bars. Neither sister has laid eyes on the other since then, during which time their lives have followed very different paths.

Kate Kingsley remembers little of her early childhood before being sent to live as the adopted daughter of Jack and Thea in Kenya. Now 20, she leaves Kenya for a new life in London. But this is 1936 - a time of decadence but also turmoil. Kate confronts personal danger, faces conflicting loyalties, and must make a heart-breaking choice before she can find a kind of freedom.

The Dark Flower has a universal theme - the positive powers and the disruptive effects of sexuality and desire. It is the story of Mark Lennan and his infatuation, adulterous affair, conventional marriage and obsession for a younger woman. The author drew on his own experiences for much of the substance of his work and was truly a free thinker with regard to the relationship between the sexes.

Two years ago, Gloria Cline had the worst night of her life. A music festival deep in the woods near the Porcupine Mountains turned deadly when Gloria and her best friend, Wren, went for a night walk. Twenty-four hours later, Gloria was found barely clinging to life with a horrific story of being abducted and nearly murdered. No trace of Wren was ever found. Today, Gloria has walled herself into a safe world that relies on routine and familiarity. She doesn’t leave her apartment—ever. But somehow evil has gotten in.

Three talented women brought together by a man’s love. When Lily Weaver is asked to help Alec Thurston, the one man she’s ever truly loved, and to come to Palm Desert, California, she doesn’t hesitate. He’s dying of cancer and needs her help in overseeing the sale of his hotel, the Desert Sage Inn, to another hotel group. For five wonderful years, she was his assistant at the hotel until he kindly told her their relationship was getting too serious, and he helped her find other work.

Since childhood, spending those cherished days with her father in his greenhouse, Rose Fiorni always understood the power of flowers to comfort and uplift a human heart. And now as adult, she needs uplifting bad. Single and unemployed, she’s back living at home with her parents in the old neighborhood along New York’s Hudson River Valley. Her dream airline career is more than grounded. It’s gone for good. At least by moving home she has Vinnie Scorsese, the boy she used to dream of marrying. Her long-time crush on Vinnie is stronger than ever.

Audrey Hamilton, a young American woman, comes to Paris to seek her fortune as an artist. Lurking beneath the glamour of the city, however, in a nation still recovering from the Great War of 1914-18, is the dark spiritual force of the poet Charles Baudelaire. Evil will rise from the moody old Cemetery of Montparnasse to ensnare Audrey's spirit and drag her to her doom.

It’s the year 1675. Eighteen-year-old Lukas Pietersen is about to consume the ceremonial substance, known as Moon Flower. The potent seeds from this nighttime blooming plant, as prepared and administered by a shaman, will cause Lukas to lose his memory and begin his quest to become a warrior of the Pequawket tribe. This epic tale follows Lukas, a young boy in the Dutch controlled territory of New Amsterdam, as he meets chiefs, shamans, warriors, and the English army on his quest to seek a connection with the Great Spirit.

1934: Lizzie Flowers has been mother and protector to her East End family, the Allens of Langley Street, since she was 15. Even when her doomed marriage to Frank Flowers collapses, she sacrifices her own happiness to keep the family united. But when Lizzie buys the infamous dockland's pub the Mill Wall, she discovers she's bitten off more than she can chew.

Little Flower chronicles the unique bond shared by two damaged souls: Sister Shanti, a mischievous, elderly nun from Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, and Meeta, a young prostitute with dreams of a life lived outside the brothel. Thrown together when a young man they love is murdered, they embark upon a darkly comic journey through New Delhi's underbelly in a search to understand the curious crime that has stolen him.

When Tanglewood flower shop owner Leanne enters Budding Stars - a floristry TV competition - she’s shocked to make it through to the televised stages where the pressure grows to prove herself a success. Luckily for Leanne, new Tanglewood Park Ranger Rex is a rose among the thorns as he provides support and friendship that could blossom into something more.... But Rex’s ex-girlfriend appears with some shocking news, and between busy schedules and the occasional mountain rescue, Leanne can’t see how romance could possibly bloom.

A 17-Year-old girl named Tanna Parmstring was born to terrible circumstances. Her early life full of trauma and abuse, caused her brain to not develop the fundamental synapses for caring for others, which created a toxic girl, who knew exactly what she wanted, and exactly how to get it. She meets an 18-year-old boy named Zeb, who was happy, and trustworthy. They fall in love, but he has a severe aversion to the feeling of another person's skin. This is a story full of betrayal, and toxic control.

Am Tag der Toten erwacht die Magie zum Leben Ausgerechnet vor einer Fernsehkamera verwandelt sich Valentina erneut in ihre Catrina-Gestalt und wird dadurch zur Zielscheibe bei der Jagd auf übernatürliche Wesen! Doch das ist nicht ihre einzige Sorge, denn ihr Bruder holt Tote aus dem Jenseits zurück - ohne zu wissen, welchen Preis er dafür bezahlen muss. Gleichzeitig versucht die Hexe Lily alles, um Valentina von ihrer Unschuld zu überzeugen. Kann Valentina ihr wirklich wieder vertrauen? In all dem Trubel merkt niemand, dass sich eine noch viel größere Bedrohung zusammenbraut.