europe - Stories

Teacher Christopher Edwards believed his life began in the seaside town of Penmere. When memories return beneath the ancient Tor, he discovers another truth: he has lived before.

Across two thousand years, he and one other soul have found each other again and again, only to be torn apart. At the heart of the mystery lies one act of unbearable grief, when a priest's desperate refusal to accept death transformed love into an endless cycle of remembrance.

Christopher must decide whether the life he is living belongs to memory or to choice. For the first time in centuries, love may offer not a beginning, but an ending.

Having crashed and burned after early success as a composer, Alex has managed to rebuild his career and his life. Carpenter Neil is between girlfriends, and his knowledge of music is limited. Yet despite their differences the two come together, and each spurs the other on to explore life further and to take risks. Add in a pair of mothers who are friends and Neil’s fragile younger brother—as well as a manipulative rich uncle and some lively friends—and you have a dynamic mix.

Marcus Valerius Pulcher, a Roman noble raised on music rather than war, is sent to Germania’s raw frontier under the ambitious governor Varus. There he meets Ingomar, a Cherusci warrior, and finds something neither of them has words for, something a cithara, a hidden grove, and two empires’ worth of duty were never meant to allow.

But peace on this frontier is a fragile, borrowed thing. Warnings go unheeded. Confidence curdles into catastrophe. And as history’s most infamous ambush gathers in the forest ahead, Marcus and Ingomar must decide what love is actually worth paying for.

In a world where "magic" is just fear and misunderstanding, Shem is the worst swordsman in the valley. When goblins raid a nearby farm, he rides out with a bar mace he doesn't know how to use, a feral child who bites first and speaks second, and a crush who keeps stealing his left glove. The monsters aren't what they seem. Neither is he.

When the body of Lukas von Keller, a third-year student at Veridien, a prestigious all-boys academy, is found at the bottom of a ravine on March 10th, 1986, life at the quiet elite institution is shaken to the core.

After months of investigation, authorities are ready to rule the death a suicide. Detective Whitlock, however, is not. A chance to solve the case, now a personal nightmare, presents itself when Marius Vassier, a local private eye known for his sharp instincts and impeccable fashion, approaches him with a plan.

An unorthodox plan.

(Full summary inside)

Begin Again starts with one coffee. That had been the whole plan.

Evan wasn't looking for complicated. He had enough of it—a life he'd never settled into, a house in Wicklow he didn't know what to do with, and a habit of leaving before anyone could ask him to stay.

Then he meets Cian, an Irish arborist who is steady, direct, and clear about what he wants.

One night becomes another morning, a spare shirt, and a man who won't pretend this is less than it is. The sex is easy. Letting Cian see him afterward isn't.

Evan knows how to leave before anyone matters. Cian knows how much of that he'll tolerate.

Ly was different. He saw his surroundings differently. There were way too many worlds he had to belong to. His train of thought had no breaks, and his emotions got too loud at times. Sometimes he simply wanted to disappear.

Welcome to the world of Ly trying to figure out how to breathe in his chaotic life without losing himself or the man he loves.

The Flannan Isles Lighthouse Mystery is one of mankind's greatest mysteries, which has never been explained. Until now. In December 1900, three lighthouse keepers—James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald MacArthur—vanished from the remote Flannan Isles in Scotland. A relief crew found the lighthouse empty, with a stopped clock, an overturned chair, and, inexplicably, one set of oilskins left behind.

After a long day of physical work, Mihai returns home and asks Lorenzo to kneel and remove his boots. What begins as a simple act of service becomes the first true test of the trust, shame, desire, and power growing between them.

Robbie and Mark are young Irish musicians, on the brink of massive worldwide success. Robbie is secretly in love with Mark but hides both his feelings and his sexuality to protect their friendship and the band they’ve built together. When Mark begins to suspect that Robbie might be gay, their friendship begins to shift and Mark is forced to confront feelings he never anticipated and question everything he thought he knew about himself.

Spanning more than ten years, the story follows their lives, their rise to fame, and the complicated evolution of their relationship as love, friendship, and ambition become impossible to separate.