Monster Fiction

When I answered an ad for a caretaker at Saint Mark’s Sanctuary, I thought I’d be dusting chandeliers and polishing floors. I didn’t expect to be tricked into a curse, going into debt to a monster, and being forced to take a self-paced “let’s learn magic” course so I can fix a 2,000-year-old problem. And that monster? Not your ordinary, everyday beast. He has hooves, and horns, and fur on his legs. But you know where he doesn’t have fur? Yeah. There. Which is fine. Except he doesn’t wear pants.

A trip to the grocery store changed my life. That's where I bumped into my "straight" coworker and good friend, Jake Perez. I decided to invite him to my book club night, not realizing the chain of events that invite would kick off. Immediately our chemistry became too explosive, making our friendship and work relationship complicated. That same night, a bloody package addressed to me lands on my doorstep. Falling for Jake was never in the plans—then again neither was being targeted by a dangerous stalker. This was going to be interesting.

Professor Sutton Dupont's tenure at Avernia College is as complicated as his family's bloody history. Still, when the most irresistible temptation he's ever faced slinks into his classroom, Sutton finds himself desperate enough to risk it all. After years of trying to make a name for herself in Hollywood, Elle Anderson winds up a college freshman at twenty-five, running from her past and lying to everyone she knows—especially the green-eyed professor whose forbidden kiss has her starving for more.

One of the many engineers that keep Beta, the city under the sea, running, Mira only wants to make her family proud and to prove herself worthy. She knows the mysterious city better than anyone and it's her dream to help it flourish. Then, on a solo job in an abandoned section of the city, she encounters a monster of legend: an undine, a dangerous merman from an ancient civilization, long forgotten.

I'm the new owner of a magical mansion. This mansion, well, it's not your typical building. It's a dungeon from another world, masquerading as just another private residence in the suburbs. It has enchanted rooms, can craft powerful items, build lethal traps, and produce incredible monsters. And it's my mission to protect and evolve its monstrous inhabitants.

She’s a fashion model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden freeway "accident" leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful center of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists. Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from becoming a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better. And that salvation hides in the last places you’ll ever want to look.

All his life, Mark Fields has dreamed of joining the Defense Force to fight the vicious, alien Exlian, just like the rest of his renowned family. But so far, he’s … a dishwasher, trapped in a dead-end job with no powers, no money, and even fewer friends. But an encounter with a dying woman changes everything—granting him the abilities he needs to join the training camps—and his life finally feels like it’s turning around, faster than a movie martial-arts montage (just ignore the weird cat).

Dominic Thompson becomes an Infernal dungeon core and is given one task: honor the dark goddess by killing adventurers. Choosing an avatar is merely the first step. To become the greatest, he must make the other dungeon cores submit to him. And that means shattering their jeweled hearts. Or seducing their avatars. Lucky for Dom, the dungeon’s avatars are beautiful monster girls. But they’re also the fiercest warriors in the realms, and there’s a fine line between murder and seduction.

I’m out for revenge. He’s out to rule the world. Kirill and I are as different as day and night. We shouldn’t have been in the same frame or universe. But we meet under the strangest circumstances. He’s my superior in the military and the man who’ll introduce me to carnage.

Rome Armanelli is supposed to be a monster—an enforcer for the strongest family in the Italian Mafia. Yet, when I saw him take a man’s life, he did it to save mine. Since then, Rome doesn't want me anywhere near him. Sparks may fly when we're in the same room, but his famiglia is all he cares about. He tells me to leave, but he, of all people, should know—the Mafia doesn't let anyone go. Blood, ties, and partnerships sink their claws in. And when we find out exactly why his family kept me around, there's no turning back.

New research has uncovered deeply buried military secrets—both the Allied and Axis special operations during WWII included monsters. Did the Soviets use a dragon to win the Battle of Kursk? Did a vampire fight for the Canadians in Holland? Did the US drop the second atomic bomb on a kaiju? This collection takes real events from World War II and injects them with fantastical creatures that mirror the “unreality” of war itself. Each story—and two poems—feature mythical, mystical, and otherwise unexplainable beings that change the course of history.

My dating life was already hell before I was spirited away to this treacherous Labyrinth with pitfalls and traps around every turn. The King holds my best friend hostage, while the men in the maze play with my life like I'm a disposable toy. The Minotaur hunts the twisted corridors, while a mischievous fox tempts me into dangerous trials, where each encounter is more terrifying than the last.

BONUS FEATURE: Afterword read by the author Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I’ll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me. Monster. FADE...

Demeter just wants to do her job: shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying—and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans. To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team of monsters. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil—Dracula.

The monsters already own my body…but do they want my heart? Left to die in a monstrous land, I’m saved by the monster I least expect. He hates me, but he loves what my body can do for him. I shouldn’t want to keep him. I shouldn’t want to keep all of them. I’m just their plaything, after all. But, one by one, they find their way into my heart. Even as the world falls apart around me, I realize that I’ve become just as obsessed with my monsters as they are with me.

Lost in the wilderness, I thought the handsome stranger was my salvation—until I looked into the eyes of a beast. They say not to bargain with the fae, but there was no other choice. The deadly prince of Stag Court claims I belong to him. I only have a year and a day to convince him to let me go before I'm his forever. He's without mercy, known as a ruthless killer. Yet he protects me. Defends me. Tells me his secrets. In front of the Court, he's the Beast, but behind closed doors he gives me the chance to choose him, or not.

When it comes to stealing from mafia men, there are three rules. Don't get caught. Don't be seen. And most of all—don't fall in love with them. After being hired to steal a painting, I find myself ensnared. Damon, Minos, and Aaecus are monsters, and they only want one thing: Me. Seven days of sin in exchange for freedom from the Three Fates Mafia. If only it were that easy. The strings of fate have bound the four of us together, and not even gods or monsters can keep us apart.

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting - he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth.

Prepare to meet the wicked progeny of the master of modern horror. In Lovecraft's Monsters, H. P. Lovecraft's most famous creations--Cthulhu, Shoggoths, Deep Ones, Elder Things, Yog-Sothoth, and more--appear in all their terrifying glory. Each story is a gripping new take on a classic Lovecraftian creature. Contributors include such literary luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Karl Edward Wagner, Elizabeth Bear, and Nick Mamatas.

Darla Drake, Duchess of Death, is a legendary monster who has haunted the woods around Camp Clear Creek for years. Until an existential crisis forces her to take a sabbatical from wreaking havoc on pimply teens while she figures out what she really wants from the rest of her (possibly infinite) life. But what does a monster do when her malevolent days are over? For Darla, it’s spending time with the decapitated—yet still overbearing—head of her mother, reading romance novels she steals from campers, and struggling with one monstrous case of melancholy. Until Jarko Murkvale arrives.