There is a story of a beast, and a merchant's daughter, and a curse that must be broken. This is not--quite--that story. Amber Gryce believes in magic the way anyone does: as a thing of the past, marked now only by the long reign of an ancient queen sworn to live until her stolen son is returned to her. Such stories are romantic but distant for Amber, surrounded by family and wealth. But like magic, wealth can disappear. Left destitute, Amber's family retreats to a forest holding far from their city home, where Amber's love of roses leads her into the heart of enchantment, and draws her into a retelling of the tale as old as time....

It is a truth universally accepted that well-bred members of Society are not beleaguered with magic. For Elsabeth Dover and her sisters, that truth means living in a perpetual state of caution, never using their sorcerous gifts in public. Elsabeth chafes under the stricture, but not enough to risk the possibility of good marriages for her sisters...until she meets handsome, arrogant Fitzgerald Archer. Elsabeth, attracted to Archer's wit and offended by his manner, strives to keep her youngest, impetuous sister's use of magic in check so that their eldest sister, Rosamund, might find happiness with Archer's wealthy friend Mr Webber. But when Elsa fails to keep young Leopoldina in line, Archer's disapproval of the family taint means an abrupt end to Rosamund's hopes, and leads to a terrible discovery about the price of magic....

The Phantom Queen, goddess of death, love and war, returns to strike fear into the hearts of mortals in the anthology, The Phantom Queen Awakes. Meet a washerwoman on the shores of the river; cleaning the clothes of the soon-to-be-dead; try to bargain with the capricious goddess of war; hear the songs of the dead as they cry for justice; walk with heroes of the past Revisit the world of the Celts; a land of mystical beauty, avarice, lust and war through stories told by Katharine Kerr, C.E. Murphy, Elaine Cunningham and Anya Bast, among many other talented authors.