Kate Forsyth

A story of desire, black magic and love interweaves the true-life story of French novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force, who was banished from the court of Versailles by Louis XIV after a series of scandalous love affairs, with the Rapunzel fairy tale.

A Novel

Bitter Greens

One of the great untold love stories - how the Grimm brothers discovered their famous fairy tales - filled with drama and passion, and taking place during the Napoleonic Wars. The Wild Girl tells the story of Dortchen Wild. Growing up next door to the Grimm brothers in Hesse-Cassel, a small German kingdom, Dortchen told Wilhelm some of the most powerful and compelling stories in the famous fairytale collection. Dortchen first met the Grimm brothers in 1805, when she was twelve. One of six sisters, Dortchen lived in the medieval quarter of Cassel, a town famous for its grand royal palace, its colossal statue of Herkules, and a fairytale castle of turrets and spires built as a love nest for the Prince-Elector's mistress. Dortchen was the same age as Lotte Grimm, the only girl in the Grimm family, and the two became best friends. In 1806, Hesse-Cassel was invaded by the French. Napoleon created a new Kingdom of Westphalia, under the rule of his dissolute young brother J r me. The Grimm brothers began collecting fairytales that year, wanting to save the old stories told in spinning-circles and by the fire from the domination of French culture. Dortchen was the source of many of the tales in the Grimm brother's first collection of fairy tales, which was published in 1812, the year of Napoleon's disastrous march on Russia. Dortchen's own father was cruel and autocratic, and he beat and abused her. He frowned on the friendship between his daughters and the poverty-stricken Grimm Brothers. Dortchen had to meet Wilhelm in secret to tell him her stories. All the other sisters married and moved away, but Dortchen had to stay home and care for her sick parents. Even after the death of her father, Dortchen and Wilhelm could not marry - the Grimm brothers were so poor they were surviving on a single meal a day. After the overthrow of Napoleon and the eventual success of the fairytale collection, Dortchen and Wilhelm were at last able to marry. They lived happily ever after with Wilhelm's elder brother Jakob for the rest of their lives.

The Wild Girl

" Ava fell in love the night the Nazis first showed their true nature to the world ' A retelling of the Grimms' Beauty and The Beast, set in Nazi Germany. It's August 1939 in Germany, and Ava's world is in turmoil. To save her father, she must marry a young Nazi officer, Leo von L wenstein, who works for Hitler's spy chief in Berlin. However, she hates and fears the brutal Nazi regime, and finds herself compelled to stand against it. Ava joins an underground resistance movement that seeks to help victims survive the horrors of the German war machine. But she must live a double life, hiding her true feelings from her husband, even as she falls in love with him. Gradually she comes to realise that Leo is part of a dangerous conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. As Berlin is bombed into ruins, the Gestapo ruthlessly hunt down all resistance and Ava finds herself living hand-to-mouth in the rubble of the shell-shocked city. Both her life and Leo's hang in the balance. Filled with danger, intrigue and romance, The Beast's Garden, a retelling of the Grimm brothers' Beauty and The Beast', is a beautiful, compelling love story set in a time

Beast's Garden, The

Condemned by her people for lacking the horns prized by her people, Rhiannon's only chance for escape is to capture one of the land's legendary flying horses and ride it to freedom, as she finds refuge in the home of Lewen, a young apprentice witch, and joins forces with him to save all Eileanan from the dark forces that threaten the land. Original.

The Tower of Ravens

Since the day that witchcraft was banned, all of Eileanan has been shrouded in darkness, and Arch-Sorceress Meghan o'the Beasts, along with fiery warrior Iseult, embarks on an odyssey to usurp Queen Maya's reign of terror and restore the bright promise of sorcery to the land. Original.

The Pool of Two Moons

Tell your lord to beware, the wolves smell danger in the wind. Wolfhaven Castle has been attacked, and only four escape capture ... Tom, trained to scrub pots, not fight; Elanor, the Lords daughter; Sebastian, a knight in training and Quinn, the witchs apprentice. Somehow, if they are to save their people, these unlikely heroes must find four magical beasts from legend. But first, they have to make it out of the castle alive... Best-selling, award-winning storyteller, Kate Forsyth, weaves battles, beasts and bravery in this epic new five-book series.

Escape from Wolfhaven Castle

"A complex and gripping story of witches, enchantment, magical creatures and dragons. Dragonclaw Book One of the Witches of Eileanan A complex and gripping story of witches, enchantment, magical creatures and dragons. Dragonclaw is Kate Forsyth's first novel. Since the Day of Reckoning witches and magic have been outlawed on Eileanan. The great towers, once centres of learning, are now abandoned ruins. The penalty for practising witchcraft is death. Yet the lodestar still calls to the Righ, king of Eileanan, making him uneasy. And there are those determined restore witches and their craft to their rightful place in Eileanan. In a hidden valley deep in the mountains, in the shadow of the peak of Dragonclaw, Isabeau the foundling grows to womanhood in the care of Meghan, an old wood witch. Meghan can call animals to her hand and knows the secrets of herb-lore. But Isabeau dreams of adventure ... Carrying a magic talisman that contains the last hopes of the persecuted witches, Isabeau is hunted through the land by the evil Banrigh. Meanwhile the sea-dwelling Fairgean stir, children mysteriously disappear in the night, and Isabeau's guardian climbs Dr

Dragonclaw

Last, the smallest and the greatest...Though he must be lost before he can find,Though, before he sees, he must be blind,If he can find and if he can see,The true king of all he shall be.Prince Peregrine, rightful heir to the starkin and wildkin crowns, longs for adventure. But Vernisha the Vile, who seized the starkin throne, seeks to destroy Peregrine, his family, and all the wildkin of Ziva.With Stormlinn Castle under attack, Peregrine flees with his best friend, Jack, and Lady Grizelda - a starkin girl. Together they seek the Spear of the Storm King - the long-lost weapon which, it is prophesied, will destroy the starkin throne. But a hunter is on their tail and someone close doesn't want them to succeed...

The Starkin Crown

Emilia Finch and her cousin Luka are gypsies. For them, that means they live a strongly traditional life, rich with story, music, dance, and magic, governed by the laws of the clan and the ways of the road. To the repressive Puritanical government of 17th century England, however, the gypsies are thieving, fortune-telling vagrants who are most likely allies of the devil. While the Finches have managed to steer clear of trouble, it finds them when they decide to raise dowry money for one of their daughters, by performing in Kingston square one ill-fated market day. A series of terrible events lands the family in jail, charged with murder. Only Emilia and Luka manage to escape, promising to bring back help and free them. The only problem is -- how? Emilia believes in the legend of the charms: it is said that the luck of the Rom has turned sour ever since a long-ago gypsy matriarch broke her chain of charms, giving one charm to each of her five children. Since then, the gypsies have been persecuted and the families have dispersed. If they can gather the charms from the families, Emilia thinks, the strong magic of the Rom will somehow bring her family freedom. Luka, on the other hand, is more practical – he wants to enlist the help of the other clans to help the Finches escape. Emilia and Luka must race through the countryside, navigating a hornets' nest of Rom-hating Puritans, Royalist spies, and traitors, if they are to complete their quest before the magistrate delivers a death sentence… /DIVDIV

The Gypsy Crown

"A damaged family and their generations of dangerous secrets /b> t twenty, Sara is tormented by terror so profound she hasn't left her home in five years. Like the mermaid in the fairytale her Spanish grandmother once told her, Sara imagines she is dancing on knives. She feels suffocated by her family, especially her father the famous artist Augusto Sanchez whose volcanic passions dominate their lives. Then one stormy night, her father does not come home. His body is found dangling from a cliff face. Astonishingly, he is still alive, but the mystery of his fall can only be solved by the revelation of long-held family secrets. At once a suspenseful murder mystery and a lyrical love story, Dancing on Knives is about how family can constrict and liberate us, how art can be both joyous and destructive, and how strength can be found in the unlikeliest places. "

Dancing on Knives

Viviane de Faitaud has grown up alone at the Chateau de Belisama-sur-le-Lac in Brittany, for her father, the Marquis de Ravoisier, lives at the court of Louis XVI in Versailles. After a hailstorm destroys the chateau's orchards, gardens and fields an ambitious young Welshman, David Stronach, accepts the commission to plan the chateau's new gardens in the hope of making his name as a landscape designer. David and Viviane fall in love, but it is an impossible romance. Her father has betrothed her to a rich duke who she is forced to marry and David is hunted from the property. Viviane goes to court and becomes a maid-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette and a member of the extended royal family. Angry and embittered, David sails away from England with Lord Macartney, the British ambassador, who hopes to open up trade with Imperial China. In Canton, the British embassy at last receives news from home, including their first reports of the French Revolution. David hears the story of 'The Blue Rose', a Chinese fable of impossible love, and discovers the blood-red rose growing in the wintry garden. He realises that he is still in love with Viviane and must find her. Viviane escapes the guillotine and returns to the ruin of Chateau de Belisima to rebuild her life. David carrying a cluster of rosehips finds her there, and together they decide to grow the fabled red rose of China in France.

Blue Rose, The

In Crete during World War II, Alenka, a young woman who fights with the resistance against the brutal Nazi occupation, finds herself caught between her traitor of a brother and the man she loves, an undercover agent working for the Allies. May 1941. German paratroopers launch a blitzkrieg from the air against Crete. They are met with fierce defiance, the Greeks fighting back with daggers, pitchforks, and kitchen knives. During the bloody eleven-day battle, Alenka, a young Greek woman, saves the lives of two Australian soldiers. Jack and Teddy are childhood friends who joined up together to see the world. Both men fall in love with Alenka. They are forced to retreat with the tattered remains of the Allied forces over the towering White Mountains. Both are among the seven thousand Allied soldiers left behind in the desperate evacuation from Crete's storm-lashed southern coast. Alenka hides Jack and Teddy at great risk to herself. Her brother Axel is a Nazi sympathiser and collaborator and spies on her movements. As Crete suffers under the Nazi jackboot, Alenka is drawn into an intense triangle of conflicting emotions with Jack and Teddy. Their friendship suffers under the strain of months of hiding and their rivalry for her love. Together, they join the resistance and fight to free the island, but all three will find themselves tested to their limits. Alenka must choose whom to trust and whom to love and, in the end, whom to save.

The Crimson Thread

Seanan McGuire

Juliet Marillier

Nina Blazon

Julia Adrian

Diana Menschig

Nina Bellem

Christoph Marzi

Susanne Gerdom

Christian Handel

Fabienne Siegmund

Mara Lang

Tanja Kinkel

Anna Milo

Katrin Solberg

Björn Springorum

Susan Wade

Hinter Dornenhecken und Zauberspiegeln

Hannah Rose Brown is twelve years old when she finds out that her family is cursed. Desperate to find the truth about her father's disappearance, she travels to her ancestral home in Scotland, and discover a chain of dark secrets that plunge her into different worlds, timeframes and dangers... Another magical historical novel from the author of THE GYPSY CROWN

The Puzzle Ring

The Pre-Raphaelites were obsessed with liberating art and love from the shackles of convention. Dante Gabriel Rossetti was the self-professed leader of the mysterious brotherhood of young men who were convinced they could change the world. Rossetti was smitten with his favourite model, Lizzie Siddal. Lizzie had dreams of becoming an artist herself; however, gripped by jealousy at her lover's perceived infidelities she was falling prey to a laudanum addiction. Gabriel's friend Ned Jones had never had any artistic training and his family wanted him to be a parson. Only young Georgie Macdonald - the daughter of a Methodist minister - understood. Their Pre-Raphaelite brother William 'Topsy' Morris fell head-over-heels for a 'stunner' from the slums. Seventeen-year-old Janey Burden had a wild, dark beauty. She would become Morris' wife, but Gabriel's most famous model. Years later, cuckolded by the man he had hero-worshipped, Topsy turned to Georgie for comfort. She too was suffering. Soon after the birth of their daughter Margot, Ned had begun an ardent liaison with his model. Scandal threatened to destroy them all. Inspired by this true story of love, passion, betrayal and obsession, Beauty in Thorns is a novel about awakenings of all kinds.

Beauty in Thorns

In Eileanan, as Isault and Lachlan struggle to deal with the repercussions of a spy who compromised their most important tactical secrets, Isabeau the witch ventures to the Skull of the World in order to discover her true purpose in life and returns with mysterious gifts that could hold the key to defeating evil once and for all. Original.

The Skull of the World

After her adventures with the League of the Healing Hand, Finn the Cat finds life at Castle Rurach overwhelmingly boring and dreads the prospect of being molded into a "lady" by her mother, until she is summoned by Lachlan the Winged to embark on a perilous quest into the Forbidden Land to rescue a rebellious prophet who holds the key to the kingdom's salvation. Original.

The Forbidden Land

More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA

The Cursed Towers

The paperbacks of the exciting new six-book series by the bestselling author, Kate ForsythBook 2 - 13th-14th August, 1658:Emilia and her cousin Luka have the old gold coin, the gypsy crown, but are travelling with their menagerie of animals in search of the Hearne tribe hoping that this family, to whom they will soon be related, will surely help release their kin from gaol. Luka and Emilia find the Hearnes horseracing on the Downs above Epsom.But Emilia must compete to win their support. Will she have to give up her beloved mare in exchange for the Hearne family's charm - a small silver horse? And can they escape Coldham again?

Kate Forsyth

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