Romance

Robin is half Winter Wildling. His mother comes from the Wild Wood to the north of the little town where he was raised. All his life his magic has been a battle: human control against savage, icy sorcery. He can keep it in check most of the time, but sometimes he must answer the call of midwinter that rests in his heart.

This volume brings together the first three stories from the Call of Midwinter series:

The Call of Winter

When Spring Arrives

A Song of Farewell

Robin, wildling and sorcerer, has married his love, Mariam. Both of them still apprentices, they are living with Robin's Ma, who is also the town midwife. It is early Spring, and Mariam is heavily pregnant with the couple's first child, known fondly as 'Cabbage'. Cabbage is restless, and having inherited wildling power from both Rob and back up Mariam's family tree, that means Mariam has to put up with starts of magic to go along with normal baby kicks. When those kicks turn into labour, the untamed magic inside Mariam threatens her and her child.

Ma, outside the magic, can do nothing more than look after Mariam's human needs. Rob, too, in this is powerless. Mariam, ignorant of the ways of the Wild Wood, must battle her own body to survive and save her child. Can she make it through her ordeal, and can anyone help her?

When Spring Arrives is book 2 of The Call of Midwinter.

Robin Wild, apprentice sorcerer, has grown up among humans, but he only half belongs to their world. Rob was found as a baby two decades ago during the first snows of Winter. The kind-hearted, sensible residents of the town where he had been left saved him and then raised him as one of their own. That he is at least part Wildling, the mysterious creatures from the Wild Wood, has always been obvious; his winter magic sometimes running ahead of his human control. Now, though, the Wild Woods are calling him, and Robin must answer their summons.

When Ben promises to show his cousin, Ellen, a ghost, the pair set in motion a series of events that lead them into a terrifying encounter. Yet, within her fear, Ellen finds a purpose, and it is to find out what Millicent Van Curren, shot by her lover, wants from them.

Author's Note: For Phantom Love, my inspiration is a church yard in a little village in the Kent countryside called Wittersham. When I was a girl, my father was the rector of Wittersham and the primary school I went to was right next to the churchyard. There was only an open railing between us and what was a largely wild area. And, in the long grass, there were lots of rather dramatic tombs. One I remember vividly was made up of a large sarcophagus, broken in places and surrounded by brambles and a rusty fence. There was one time when a bunch of us were daring each other to stick our hands in the dark holes made by the breaks in the stonework.

I was never brave enough, but that dare is where the start of this story came from, so I hope you enjoy Ellen and Ben's tale.

Life is looking good for the Robin, Mariam and their daughter Rowan, still know affectionately by all as Cabbage. However, a storm is coming. Robin can feel an unsettled strangeness to the power of what should have been just an ordinary snowstorm. It is making Cabbage restless as well. Such nerves could be put down to the natural tumult reacting with their Winter Wildling blood. Yet, Mariam's power of divination comes from quite another source and she too is sensing that something is wrong. What awaits in the coming maelstrom? Is it trouble that Mariam is discerning? Robin must face the challenges brought by the ice and snow and use all that he is to fight a terrible destiny that comes from the same power that made him?

Two stories of love and romance sprinkled with real magic.

Of Cats, Curses, and Cheaters: A Magical Romance by Natasha Duncan-Drake

Jack loves his cat, Eric. Eric hates his boyfriend Matt. The reason why will change Jack's life forever.

What Fate Wants: A Fae-Human Romance by Sophie Duncan

Jay just wants to be an ordinary guy, but Fate won’t let him. The fae love-magic he inherited from his dad ran riot at his 17th birthday party, turning it into a orgy. After lots of tests and investigations, everyone has decided it wasn’t his fault, but what is worse for Jay is that no-one can say exactly why it happened, or stop the attacks from happening again.

At last, in disguise and shadowed by his family sprite, Jay starts his final A-level year as a new, anonymous pupil, at Boundlands school, hoping he can finish his education without his magic interfering. Things aren’t that easy for the young hybrid though; when one of the human pupils, Chris, reveals he knows Jay’s secret, it looks like the carefully planned new life is already imploding.

How does Chris know who Jay is and what will it mean for his erratic magic? Find out what Fate has in store for Jay and Chris in this tale of two unusual lives bound together by wild love-magic.