Showing results by narrator "Daniela Acitelli." in All Categories

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This semi-autobiographical story was first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. In this story, which was written after a severe bout of postpartum depression, Charlotte gives us a disturbing and surreal view of the deterioration of a woman's mental health and her descent into psychosis from her depression.

The Past Awakens by Ali Kaden is a riveting journey through the enigmatic town of Baneford, Massachusetts, where the shadows of history loom large over the present.

Can corals build worlds? Do rattlesnakes enchant? What is a raccoon, and what might it know? Animals and the questions they raised thwarted human efforts to master nature during the so-called Enlightenment—a historical moment when rigid classification pervaded the study of natural history, people traded in people, and imperial avarice wrapped its tentacles around the globe. Whitney Barlow Robles makes animals the unruly protagonists of eighteenth-century science through journeys to four spaces and ecological zones: the ocean, the underground, the curiosity cabinet, and the field.

In Eden Valley, not all the monsters hide in the dark. Genevieve Kane is happy in Seattle and is in no way concerned about the demon brand that appeared last year nor the painful—and painfully accurate—premonitions that have plagued her ever since. And she definitely isn’t longing for Sam, the sexy demon with whom she’d had a fling on her last trip. Viv knows the only way to keep herself safe and sane is to distance herself from her past and the family who’d betrayed her, even if that means losing the best friends she’d ever had and another chance with Sam.

Drina skips foreplay when she seduces traitors. Rather, she specializes in afterplay: deporting them to a not-so-perfect island in the Mediterranean. All goes well for this Gypsy spy until Carlo walks into her honey trap. She loses her heart to the man twenty years her junior. Carlo is one of three young adults who roam the region in search of fathers they have never known. When he meets one of them, Theresa, there is an instant spark.

Paige Henley has always dreamed of owning a bakery, but her busy life in New York City has never left much room for following her heart. So, when she’s given the chance to move to Port Landon to set up her own bakery, she’s ready to take a leap of faith and make her dreams a reality. When single dad and local veterinarian Cohen Beckett enters Paige’s bakery for her grand opening, there’s an undeniable connection, and Paige can’t help but notice an unfamiliar feeling in her chest.

Piper Robbin and the American Oz Maker is an adult fantasy that takes one of world's favorite tales and transforms it into a dark and epic landscape few can escape much less understand. Imagine Potter meets Avengers in Emerald city and you're getting close. After a magical hostile from Orion falls to Earth and proceeds to play cat-and-mouse with the human race, the 21st century's greatest sorcerers create a network of seven Oz-like city worlds designed to protect everyone from the alien entity. But the alien is far more powerful than anyone suspected.

“Better dead than divorced", responds a young wife to those who urge her to divorce her adulterous, manipulative, and abusing husband, who plans to kill her. She knows about his evil intentions, and she is urged to leave him and save her life, but her love, her devotion, and societal prejudice against divorced women make her stay. And dead she ends up by a commissioned assassin. Her cousin, a principled man, fights beyond his modest means in a corrupt system to have justice for her loss served.

When one of the Synod's shadow wraiths arrives on Oracle Briana Spurrier’s doorstep offering the answer to her prayers, she’s willing to defy both Zyne law and cosmic order to strike a bargain with him. But the journey will take her to the far reaches of the globe and into a spellbound forest that is the lair of an ancient enchantress.

In 1954, the small Florida Panhandle town of Torreya had more Klansmen per acre than fire ants. Sparrow, a bag lady; Pollyanna, an auditor; and Jack, the owner of Slade’s Diner, step on fire ants and Klansmen whenever they can while an unknown archer fires fate-changing arrows at the Klan’s leadership. They are not who they appear to be, and while they take risks, they must be discrete lest they end up in the Klan’s gunsights.

Ashe Mathison has always been the even keeled member of The Ryder Hart Band. Unlike his friends, he had a stable childhood. In order to follow his dream, Ash had to walk away from his family with nothing but a few dollars in his pocket, a guitar slung over his back, and a driving ambition to be the best. Belle Richards seems to have the perfect life. What else could she ask for? How about love? Or passion. For Ashe and Belle, passion, once tasted, is impossible to ignore. But is that all there is? Can they have a future when their lives are so different?

While excavating Viking Ruins on the Isle of Man, Sean Murphy and Cleo Foster discover a ghostly presence that draws them into a labyrinth of hidden sea caves with impossible Egyptian hieroglyphics and a floating sphere of water. They get more than they bargained for as an ancient pharaoh rises from the Egyptian sarcophagus, gives them a cryptic message, and jumps through the sphere of water.

Investigative journalist, Billy Daniels, never expected his interview with Riley, a delightful ten-year-old, would result in the overdose of her homeless single mother and Riley’s disappearance. She was last seen next to their broken-down 1996 Impala parked in a DC alley . . . holding her mother’s body. Billy searches for Riley only to discover her life is in mortal danger. A Russian covert operation—one that could shake the nation to its core—is headquartered in Washington. Agent Nika Rolinska, a daring and skilled assassin, has orders to tie up loose ends.

Heartbroken, carrying a bag of antique coins and the heavy burden of her aunt's untimely death, Emily leaves the world of time travel and her beloved husband, Dell, behind. It doesn't take long for her youth, beauty, and valuable coins to assist her in finding a new life in the Italian nightclub scene of the 1980s. Regardless of which time she is occupying, however, Emily cannot escape her past or forgive herself for the lives she ruined. So when that past finds her, Emily must choose between her new life and an uncertain future with the loved ones she abandoned.

Homeless, broke, and broken, Eaven Alexander strives to resurrect her life. Her degrees in historical architecture and antiques attract a lucrative but questionable job offer to locate an important document for the mysterious Greg Sault. The hunt takes her inside a decaying mansion and into conflict with Clayton Mercer, a town heavyweight and Greg’s enemy. Too late, she realizes that something insidious is lurking behind Astoria’s idyllic façade. And that no one is who they claim to be.

Zoe Hart knows who she is. Sister, friend. And lead guitar player for The Ryder Hart Band. A childhood filled with all-to-real monsters and the uncertainty of foster homes left her no choice but to grow up fast. To survive, she built a wall that over time has grown higher - thicker. Only her closest friends get to see behind her mask. And even they don’t know all her secrets. Zoe doesn't need a man in her life to make it better. She doesn't need a man. Period. Especially a cocky, charming rock star who is used to women falling at his feet.

In this unnerving Edgar Allen Poe tale, our narrator insists on his sanity after carefully calculating and committing the brutal murder of an old man because of his monstrous eye. He argues that it is quite sane to cut the body into pieces and hide it under the floorboards. Will our narrator's guilt be his undoing? To what extent will he go to defend his sanity?

Single mother Lily Brentwood yearns to leave small town life behind and start again with her young daughter in Chicago. The bright city lights promise an escape from the ex who dismissed her dreams and broke her heart. But when her car breaks down outside the sleepy town of Port Landon, she is stranded miles from Chicago and reliant on the generosity of local mechanic Jason Forrester. A single parent too, Jason turns out to be handsome, funny...and bearing bad news – the car repairs will take longer than expected. Lily has no choice but to stay.

Sophia appears to have it all - money, the right boyfriends, designer clothes, and expensive cars. But nothing good in her life ever lasts, and the sooner she can distance herself from it...the better. Behind her affluent, shallow lifestyle and fake friends, the real Sophia lies hidden in a dark world she’s fought her whole life to escape. A place she’s kept secret, until now.

Compiled by the Dark Poet Princess, Xtina Marie, here are 16 delectably horrific tales of the sinister side of dark romance, where not everything is hearts and flowers, and moonlight strolls hand-in-hand with your beautiful soulmate. This phenomenal anthology - named in honor of that unique part of the female anatomy believed by some to summon satan himself - overflows with the darkest storytelling and the brightest talent on the independent writing scene today: Madison Estes, John Leonard, J.N. Cameron, Arista Cyrene, Steve Wands, Joe Palumbo, Jeremy Billingsley, and more.