After being hit by the bullet, Huai Mo Lian opened his eyes again. He was dressed in a bridal dress and had been taken in by the aphrodisiac. The self-control that Baili Ye was proud of was completely destroyed by her. After the festivities, this woman had actually used the hairpin to force him into a corner. Interesting woman. You will be my wife from now on. Life is my man, death is my ghost!
A woman initiates passionate sexual encounters with two articulate but bumbling and crass middle-aged men, but what she demands in return soon becomes untenable. A short time later she goes missing, prompting the county sheriff to open a murder investigation.
Under glittering lights in the Louvre palace, the French court ballets danced by Queen Marie de Médicis prior to Henri IV’s assassination in 1610 attracted thousands of spectators ranging from pickpockets to ambassadors from across Europe. Drawing on newly discovered primary sources as well as theories and methodologies derived from literary studies, political history, musicology, dance studies, and women’s and gender studies, Dancing Queen traces how Marie’s ballets authorized her incipient political authority through innovative verbal and visual imagery, avant-garde musical developments, and ceremonial arrangements of objects and bodies in space. Making use of women’s "semi-official" status as political agents, Marie’s ballets also manipulated the subtle social and cultural codes of international courtly society in order to more deftly navigate rivalries and alliances both at home and abroad. At times the queen’s productions could challenge Henri IV’s immediate interests, contesting the influence enjoyed by his mistresses or giving space to implied critiques of official foreign policy, for example. Such defenses of Marie’s own position, though, took shape as part of a larger governmental program designed to promote the French consort queen’s political authority not in its own right but as a means of maintaining power for the new Bourbon monarchy in the event of Henri IV’s untimely death.
As an historical figure Mary Queen of Scots has been perpetually represented on canvas, page and stage, and has captured the British imagination since the time of her death in 1587. The 'real' Mary Stuart however has remained an enigma. Mary Queen of Scots: Romance and Nation sheds light on Mary's life by exploring four main themes: * the history of Mary's representation in Britain from the late Tudor period focusing on key periods in the formation of the British identity and closely analysing several texts against a background of the visual, musical and literary works of each period * the reasons why those representing Mary have been so conscious that her image was largely a debatable fiction * the identification of symbolic styles, using Mary to reveal the habits of representation in each historical period * The link between the image of Mary Stuart and Britain's long struggle to define itself as a single nation, focusing on the roles of gender and religion in this development.
“Once you gave your mask to me, you would be allowed to venture down that path. The handmaidens of the forest would prepare you for me...all control surrendered, waiting and ready for my claim. Oh, you will find it a bit dreadful, I must admit.” Princess Evaline I should not be so intrigued by the King of the Revels’ wicked promise. I should not wish to abandon my family and remain in this faery land of song and dance forever. But it was a temptation, when in my own homeland of Torina, my pious mother forbids me from my beloved music and dancing…much less dancing with beautiful men. But do I love the King of the Revels enough to belong to him? I was locked up with the princess. There was something about her delicate features, her small mouth slightly open in sleep, and her breath slowly rising and falling, that stirred a deeply protective instinct like I had never felt before. Will I haven’t been the same man since the King of Torina sent me to fight in his pointless, bloody war. I came home with a limp and bad memories of my friends dying in my arms, but now the king has offered Princess Evaline’s hand to anyone who can figure out why her slippers are worn out in the morning. I accepted out of revenge. But as soon as I saw her, I knew I wanted to capture her heart fair and square. First, I’ll have get past the King of the Revels… These Wicked Revels is a standalone fairy tale retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses for those who like an unabashedly adorable happily ever after with a side of serious steaminess! (Even the trees are naughty in this one. You've been warned.)
Blood, lust, and pixie dust. . . The Crocodile continues to drain Neverland of its life, and the world is running out of time. The very soil is dying, and no one can stop it. The clock is ticking. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tink knows Neverland will never be the same, and though the Daughters face the dangers from the Crocodile and the Lost constantly attacking, that isn't the only threat on the horizon. A choice must be made, to live or die, to fight or perish, and there's no clear path to take. But even at the end of the world, love stumbles before the pixie, and though she's the Wicked Queen, her heart carries a battle axe. Tick. Tick. Tick. The happy thoughts are piling up, and Tink must face them head on. Can the Daughters stop Neverland from dying? Can they save the ones they care for most? Every monster has a heart. Every demon has a home. And every pixie must believe. Tick. . .tick. . .tick. . .
A chilling, lavishly illustrated who’s who of the most despicable people ever to walk the earth, featuring stories from the Lore podcast—now a streaming television series—including “Black Stockings,” “Half-Hanged,” and “The Castle,” as well as rare material. Some monsters are figments of our imagination. Others are as real as flesh and blood: humans who may look like us, who may walk among us, often unnoticed, occasionally even admired—but whose evil deeds and secret lives, once revealed, mark them as something utterly wicked. In this illustrated volume from the host of the hit podcast Lore, you’ll find tales of infamous characters whose veins ran with ice water and whose crimes remind us that truth can be more terrifying than fiction. Aaron Mahnke introduces us to William Brodie, a renowned Scottish cabinetmaker who used his professional expertise to prey on the citizens of Edinburgh and whose rampant criminality behind a veneer of social respectability inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Then there’s H. H. Holmes, a relentless and elusive con artist who became best known as the terror of Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair when unwitting guests were welcomed into his “hotel” of horrors . . . never to be seen again. And no rogues’ gallery could leave out Bela Kiss, the Hungarian tinsmith with a taste for the occult and a collection of gasoline drums with women’s bodies inside. Brimming with accounts of history’s most heinous real-life fiends, this riveting best-of-the-worst roundup will haunt your thoughts, chill your bones, and leave you wondering if there are mortal monsters lurking even closer than you think. The World of Lore series includes: MONSTROUS CREATURES • WICKED MORTALS • DREADFUL PLACES
An island paradise hides a fiery secret. Will it be their salvation... or their doom? A freak storm tosses Ryan O'Rourke, demon assassin, onto a mysterious island teeming with magic. Escape seems impossible, but a far greater threat stirs within the tropical haven. A demon, imprisoned for millennia, hungers for freedom. It’s goal: destroy the world Ryan left behind. Thrust through the veil of time, Morgan, an enchanting Druid sorceress, finds herself bound to the beast by a perilous magic. Light and darkness war within her, and she’s the only one who can stop the demon's rise. But Morgan harbors a secret as potent as her magic—a fated connection with Ryan. Their mission? Stop an apocalypse. Their obstacle? Each other. Ryan conceals a plan for the demon, one that clashes with Morgan's desperate quest. Forced into an alliance, they must navigate treacherous landscapes riddled with betrayals, ancient curses, and an igniting passion. As the demon's power grows, so does the undeniable pull between them. But love is a luxury they can't afford when Earth’s salvation hangs in the balance. Can they outrun fate and save the world, or will their desires become their undoing?
Horses are not indigenous to India. They had to be imported, making them expensive and elite animals. How then did Indian villagers—who could not afford horses and often had never even seen a horse—create such wonderful horse stories and brilliant visual images of horses? In Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares, Wendy Doniger, called "the greatest living mythologist," examines the horse’s significance throughout Indian history from the arrival of the Indo-Europeans, followed by the people who became the Mughals (who imported Arabian horses) and the British (who imported thoroughbreds and Walers). Along the way, we encounter the tensions between Hindu stallion and Arab mare traditions, the imposition of European standards on Indian breeds, the reasons why men ride mares to weddings, the motivations for murdering Dalits who ride horses, and the enduring myth of foreign horses who emerge from the ocean to fertilize native mares.
