Tensions rise and now I have two enemies that want me dead.But I've never felt safer.My wolf protects me. He cherishes me. And I think he loves me.This arranged marriage was detested by us both, but now I look at him with new eyes.My husband is strong, smart, and gorgeous. His coffee-colored eyes make me melt. My heart slowly starts to soften for this man and I fall deeper and deeper.I fall in love with my husband.
Till death do us part.My father married me off to one of the most powerful men in Italy.Maverick DeVille. But I call him the wolf.He calls me his sheep. The arranged marriage was detested by us both, but we had to make sacrifices for the right reasons. He needed to avenge his mother, and I needed protection from the mobs that want to torture me.He's not what I pictured for my husband. He's ruthless, calloused, and cold. His walls are higher than mine. He possesses cruelty that makes him feared.But it doesn't take long for me to respect him...even like him.I rely on my husband more than anyone else in the world. He provides for me, protects me, and chases away all my fears.He lets me graze in the meadow...not a care in the world.Because the wolf is always watching. "When people look in the darkness, they see shadows. I see monsters. And I kill the monsters that hunt my sheep." I hated this marriage in the beginning, but now I realize how lucky I am.How lucky I am to be the sheep the wolf protects...and doesn't eat.
ONE OF TIME'S 10 BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2020. Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR, Bustle, Good Housekeeping, the New York Public Library, Library Journal, Lit Hub, Electric Literature, and Tor.com "As enchanting as fairy tales, as mysterious as dreams, these exquisitely composed fictions are as urgent and original as any being written today.” —Sigrid Nunez, author of The Friend, winner of the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction An urgent and unsettling collection of women on the verge from Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel I Hold a Wolf by the Ears, Laura van den Berg’s first story collection since her prizewinning book The Isle of Youth, draws readers into a world of wholly original, sideways ghost stories that linger in the mouth and the mind. Both timeless and urgent, these eleven stories confront misogyny, violence, and the impossible economics of America with van den Berg’s trademark spiky humor and surreal eye. Moving from the peculiarities of Florida to liminal spaces of travel in Mexico City, Sicily, and Iceland, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears is uncannily attuned to our current moment, and to the fears we reveal to no one but ourselves. In “Lizards,” a man mutes his wife’s anxieties by giving her a LaCroix-like seltzer laced with sedatives. In the title story, a woman poses as her more successful sister during a botched Italian holiday, a choice that brings about strange and destructive consequences, while in “Karolina,” a woman discovers her prickly ex-sister-in-law in the aftermath of an earthquake and is forced to face the truth about her violent brother. I Hold a Wolf by the Ears presents a collection of women on the verge, trying to grasp what’s left of life: grieving, divorced, and hyperaware, searching, vulnerable, and unhinged, they exist in a world that deviates from our own only when you look too closely. With remarkable control and transcendent talent, van den Berg dissolves, in the words of the narrator of “Slumberland,” “that border between magic and annihilation,” and further establishes herself as a defining fiction writer of our time.
My gravest mistake was falling in love with my husband.It crept up on me so slowly that I didn't even notice it was happening until it arrived. I assumed he felt the same way every time he kissed me...every time he touched me.Until he proved me wrong.Kamikaze is dead, so I don't need him for protection anymore. Divorce is all I want now. I'll find a man that will love me the way I deserve, that won't bring home two strange women just to hurt me. I don't need him. Now it's time to start over.
“A writer with . . . vision and scope . . . breathtaking, shimmering prose.”—Anne Rice The armies of Charlemagne are poised to conquer Italy. The human side of shapeshifter Maeniel owes allegiance to Charlemagne. But the wolf acknowledges no master. Still, it is as both wolf and man that he embarks on a hazardous mission for the emperor. Captured, Maeniel is condemned to death. Now, with the help of a Saxon warrior whose love poses dangers of its own, Maeniel’s soul mate, Regeane, will brave the icy crags and crevices of the Alps to rescue her husband, only to find that he is the bait in a trap set for her by a villainous man from her darkest past. But there is another enemy at work. Behind the tangle of ambitions and animosities driving kings and commoners alike, an ancient evil thirsts for a revenge of its own: a revenge that demands the blood of Maeniel and Regeane…and of all humanity. “Action and intrigue-filled . . . Borchardt’s strength . . . is her deeply researched setting, which brings alive the barbaric era after the fall of the Roman Empire.”—Publishers Weekly
Winner of the prestigious Aurora Award and Silver Birch Award, Wolf Pack is the inspiration for the "certified hit" (Esquire) original series coming to Paramount+ Nothing gets between a wolf and its pack... Most of the time, Noble, Argus, Harlan and Tora are like any other teenagers. Prowling the halls of their high school in search of new crushes and true friendships, all while trying to keep up their grades. Except these teens are anything but ordinary... Discovered as wolf cubs in the wilderness of Redstone Forest, the pack knows their adoptive parents are the only humans they can trust with their shape-shifting secret. So whenever the siblings want to wolf around, they race to the forest to run—and relish their special bond. Until the terrible day a TV crew films their shocking transformation—and Tora is captured by a scientist determined to reveal her supernatural abilities to the world. Now the brothers will do anything to get their sister back. Even if it means taking their powers to a whole new level by becoming werewolves for the very first time--something their parents warned them never to attempt. But once the teens go to the dark side, will they ever make it back to the only life they’ve ever known? Praise for Wolf Pack “A well-plotted story. The plot moves quickly enough to hold interest and may appeal to reluctant readers.” — School Library Journal “WOLF PACK is a thrilling ride from start to finish.” — Canadian Children’s Book News “[A] great book to recommend to reluctant readers. ... WOLF PACK is a winner of the Aurora Award, Canada’s highest award for achievements in the fields of science fiction and fantasy. Recommended for YA and school library collections.” — Monster Librarian
On the battlefield, Wulfhere fights for his life but elsewhere the enemy is closer to home, sinister and shadowy and far more dangerous than any war. 1054, pious King Edward sits on the throne, spending his days hunting, sleeping and praying, leaving the security of his kingdom to his more capable brother-in-law Harold Godwinson, the powerful Earl of Wessex. Against this backdrop we meet Wulfhere, a Sussex thegn who, as the sun sets over the wild forest of Andredesweald, is returning home victoriously from a great battle in the north. Holding his lands directly from the King, his position demands loyalty to Edward himself, but Wulfhere is duty-bound to also serve Harold, a bond forged within Wulfhere's family heritage and borne of the ancient Teutonic ideology of honour and loyalty. Wulfhere is a man with the strength and courage of a bear, a warrior whose loyalty to his lord and king is unquestionable. He is also a man who holds his family dear and would do anything to protect them. So when Harold demands that he wed his daughter to the son of Helghi, his sworn enemy, Wulfhere has to find a way to save his daughter from a life of certain misery in the household of the cruel and resentful Helghi without compromising his honour and loyalty to his lord, Harold. Sons of the Wolf is a panoramic snapshot of medieval life and politics as the events that lead to the downfall of Anglo Saxon England play out, immersing the reader in the tapestry of life as it was before the Doomsday Book. With depictions of everyday life experienced through the minds of the peoples of the time; of feasts in the Great Halls to battles fought in the countryside, it cannot help but enlighten, educate and entertain.
“The Alienist set in eighteenth-century Stockholm: Brawny, bloody, intricate, enthralling—and the best historical thriller I’ve read in twenty years.” —A.J. Finn, #1 bestselling author of The Woman in the Window “Thrilling, unnerving, clever, and beautiful.” —Fredrik Backman, #1 bestselling author of A Man Called Ove “Chilling and thought-provoking. Relentless, well-written, and nearly impossible to put down.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) One morning in the autumn of 1793, watchman Mikel Cardell is awakened from his drunken slumber with reports of a body seen floating in the Larder, once a pristine lake on Stockholm’s Southern Isle, now a rancid bog. Efforts to identify the bizarrely mutilated corpse are entrusted to incorruptible lawyer Cecil Winge, who enlists Cardell’s help to solve the case. But time is short: Winge’s health is failing, the monarchy is in shambles, and whispered conspiracies and paranoia abound. Winge and Cardell become immersed in a brutal world of guttersnipes and thieves, mercenaries and madams. From a farmer’s son who is lead down a treacherous path when he seeks his fortune in the capital to an orphan girl consigned to the workhouse by a pitiless parish priest, their investigation peels back layer upon layer of the city’s labyrinthine society. The rich and the poor, the pious and the fallen, the living and the dead—all collide and interconnect with the body pulled from the lake. Breathtakingly bold and intricately constructed, The Wolf and the Watchman brings to life the crowded streets, gilded palaces, and dark corners of late-eighteenth-century Stockholm, offering a startling vision of the crimes we commit in the name of justice, and the sacrifices we make in order to survive.
When all seems lost, where can you find hope? Katherine and Jay Wolf married right after college and sought adventure far from home in Los Angeles, CA. As they pursued their dreams--she as a model and he as a lawyer--they planted their lives in the city and their church community. Their son, James, came along unexpectedly in the fall of 2007, and just six months later, everything changed in a moment for this young family. On April 21, 2008, as James slept in the other room, Katherine collapsed, suffering a massive brain stem stroke without warning. Miraculously, Jay came home in time and called for help. Katherine was immediately rushed into brain surgery, though her chance of survival was slim. As the sun rose the next morning, the surgeon proclaimed that Katherine had survived the removal of part of her brain, though her future recovery was uncertain. Yet in that moment, there was a spark of hope. Through forty days on life support in the ICU and nearly two years in full-time brain rehab, that small spark of hope was fanned into flame. Hope Heals documents Katherine and Jay's journey as they struggled to regain Katherine's quality of life and as she relearned to talk, eat, and walk. As Katherine returned home with a severely disabled body but a completely renewed purpose, she and Jay committed to celebrating this gift of a second chance by embracing life fully, even though that life looked very different than they could have ever imagined. As you uncover Katherine and Jay's remarkable story, you'll be encouraged to: Find lasting hope in the midst of struggle Embrace the unexpected Welcome God's miracles into your everyday life In the midst of continuing hardships, both in body and mind, Katherine and Jay found what we all long to find: a hope that heals the most broken place--our souls. Let Hope Heals be your guide along the way. Praise for Hope Heals: "As I read this book, tears streamed from my eyes even as joy flooded my heart. Jay and Katherine are a raw yet refreshing testimony to the unshakable trustworthiness of God amidst the unimaginable trials of life. This book reminds all of us where hope can be found in a world where none of us know what the next day holds." --David Platt, author of the New York Times bestseller Radical and president of the International Mission Board "Hope Heals is a beautiful, true story that illustrates the love and protection God has for us even in the darkest times of our lives. Katherine and Jay's dedication to each other and the Lord through their most devastating season is inspiring. This book will help your heart believe that He sees, He knows, He cares, and He is still working miracles today!" --Lysa TerKeurst, New York Times bestselling author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries
"Brian Ference writes a thrilling creature tale... With lots of action, gore and plot twists that will keep you guessing throughout. Praise for Lupari Werewolf Hunter. Highly recommended!" - Chris Turner, author of Denibus Ar and many other fantasy, adventure, and science fiction novels. "If you are a fan of werewolf fiction, this series is a must-read. Ference's writing and ability to spin a powerful tale is top notch." - Nickel Crow, author of Master of the Hunt "The visceral action scenes Ference writes will leave your heart pounding" - Toneye Eyenot, author of Blood Moon Big Top and Wolvz: Whispers of War Sage Holdsworth is a gifted painter with a terrible secret. One thing Sage cannot conceal is her infatuation with the handsome and charismatic Dorian Gray. Sage creates a lifelike painting of Dorian and a small wolf pup, but there is more to the painting than meets the eye. As Dorian unlocks his inherent darkness, a werewolf is spawned that begins killing in the streets of London. The lycanthrope turns to killing Dorian's enemies, but who is the real monster here? Sage never imagined her passion would give birth to a vicious monster that could cost her everything. Can Dorian and Sage save their souls? Or will the beast consume them all? This is the first book in The Wolf of Dorian Gray series: A Werewolf Spawned by the Evil of Man (Book 1) Purgatoryof the Werewolf (Book 2) Lupări: Werewolf Hunter (Book 3) "Rarely does romance and revenge intersect so pleasurably and delicately, forming a dance of passion and purpose that embraces a soul search and a confrontation between choices of salvation and sin." - Midwest Book Review "A delectable page turner. An excellent debut by Brian Ference. Full of excitement, anticipation, and rich scenery." - Pavan ★★★★★ "It has something for everyone with action, romance, and mystery." - Rachel ★★★★★ "Ference's debut puts a twist on Oscar Wilde's classic The Portrait of Dorian Gray, adding the dimension of a wild beast. The arrangement smoothly parallels the original...Victorian gentleman Dorian remains stunningly handsome after his youthful self is captured by an exceptionally talented artist in an eerily powerful painting. However, Dorian is not alone in this portrait; also depicted is a wolf cub, and after the painting is hidden away, the wolf is the one to change. A element of intense violence is added to this version, and there are some gender swaps, but the plot of a young man led astray into lusty debauchery remains the same. Passions and betrayals abound. Ference lifts some lines from Wilde's text and adds his own gift for description: 'Flowers, bright in sapphire blue and crimson reds, sang out from every corner of the ornately decorated room.'" - Publishers Weekly "There on my desk is the first passionate love-letter which I have ever composed in my life--and it is addressed to a dead girl." "The wolf had begun hunting human prey. They were plentiful in the dark city streets and provided enough good meat to satiate his gnawing hunger. He was still very careful not to let any who saw him live. To do otherwise would displease the Master. He would only stalk those people that were foolish enough to walk alone in the night." "The engorged moon hung full and low in the sky like a yellow skull. Misshapen clouds stretched across the floating orb with elongated hands and bony fingers grasping. As they neared the docks, the gas lamps grew fewer and the streets gloomier. The cobblestones blackened as they passed the deserted brickfields. Bottle-shaped kilns spat their outrage with orange tongues of fire into the cooling air. Mangy dogs snarled in hunger and wandering sea-gulls screamed their displeasure at the hansom's passage." Read more at brianference.com
