**A Blue Beard retelling** Based on Charles Perrault's fairytale, this YA Historical Fantasy short story set in Victorian England mixes romance, magic and mystery. After agreeing to an arranged marriage to escape her greedy relatives, 18-year-old heiress Amelia moves into her husband's manor determined to start a new life. But the gothic mansion's forbidding surroundings, the servants' strange demeanour and her husband's mysterious past soon awaken her suspicions. If Amelia truly wants to become the lady of the house, she'll have to discover what secrets lie beyond closed doors and unravel the mystery of the old house's forbidden room. But sometimes secrets are kept for a good reason... HIGHEST RANKING IN HISTORICAL FICTION # 44 Copyright © 2017. All works posted here are the property of EM Castellan. Please do not use without permission. Any duplication or reproduction of all or part of the work without explicit permission by the author is illegal. Cover artist: @seventhstar

WATTPAD ORIGINAL EDITION In 1955, mixed-race Ethan Harper leaves his progressive hometown for a summer in Alabama where he's not welcome, except by resident free spirit, Juniper Jones. ***** After getting himself into a bout of trouble, 16-year-old Ethan Harper's parents send him to Ellison, Alabama, to live with his aunt and uncle for the summer. But the year is 1955, and Alabama is a far cry from his beloved home of Arcadia, Washington. As much as it's hotter in temperature, it's colder in every other way, and Ethan learns the hard way that people see his mere existence as a threat. Amidst all the mayhem, a fiery, free-spirited, oddball walks into Ethan's life. Her name is Juniper Jones. She is the first person in Ellison who seems unfazed by their racial differences, and she promises to give Ethan a summer he will always remember, filled with endless adventure and discovery. With Juniper, Ethan can breathe, he can be, despite the incessant attention and bullying their newly formed friendship attracts. Can the two survive the summer, run in the light and block out the noise of the outside world? [Published version comes out June 16, 2020 with Wattpad Books!] [[word count: 70,000-80,000 words]]

Harriet has always been the type of girl who would rather ride horses than stitch embroidery, practice her sword-fighting than practice her curtsies, and she'd rather dream about being the first female knight in all of history instead of a docile wife on some nobleman's arm. When a war between the allies of Ecrivenia and the kingdom of Carigan starts to brew, Harriet begins to wonder if it might just be her chance to become the knight she's always wished to be. Taking a chance, Harriet enlists in the King's Army, disguising herself as the red-headed, slight-figured, and quick-witted boy, Harry. However, when she is put under the charge of the handsome and strict King of Marenta, Leopold, she realizes her troubles are just beginning. Not only will she have to keep the other men from noticing she is a woman, but she will also have to put up with the scrutiny of King Leopold, the best friend of her brother-in-law. Throw in grueling training sessions, whispers of treason, and the enemy's secret weapon, Harriet suddenly finds herself thrust into the reality of being a knight in a war that might not be able to be won. ------ This is a sister novel to the first draft of Glass Slippers. The gorgeous cover is made by the amazing @solidarity_! Make sure to check her work out if you get the chance!

Clara's problems can be summed up in two words: responsibility and family. After the loss of her mother, life for Clara was never the same. Although she loves her three siblings and tries to be the best sister and lady she can, the weight on her shoulders grows the more she learns and the more she has to know. When her father remarries to a secretive widow, Clara's responsibilities triple overnight. Through no fault of her own, Clara is thrown into an adventure she never counted on-- one of magic, tragedy, and romance. Through palace ballrooms, enchanted forests, and encounters with a handsome stranger she really shouldn't care for, Clara soon realizes that the only way to help her family and fix the problem is to do it herself. The only trouble is that she doesn't know how. A Cinderella Retelling. ----- Cover design made by solidarity_! First draft! *featured by Once Upon A Time as of 9/24/2015*

Some relatives are meant to stay distant. * * * Josephine Lyttleton-Bradley can't understand why she must leave her London home - in the middle of the night during a wicked storm, no less - to live with a relative she's never even met. When Josie realizes she's stuck indefinitely in Great Aunt Donatella's lavish, but spooky mansion in the English countryside, she must uncover why her parents kept details about this branch of the family a secret or risk missing her chance to ever leave. [Approx. 30K word Novella] (c) 2014 All Rights Reserved - R.S. Kovach

[This story is now FREE] Florette moves to Versailles, only to discover a group of Fae are destroying France. Allying with the battled-scarred Destan, she has to save the kingdom. ***** Florette, a painter's apprentice, is finally welcomed to the palace of Versailles. Ready to work, she notices that several of the courtiers are too beautiful to be human. Soon a battle-scarred warrior, Destan, tells her the truth: a faction of Fae have left the faerie and are slowly destroying the French monarchy. Determined that France must not fall, Florette is forced to use her skill to smuggle messages about the Fae inside her own paintings. Can she trust the rugged warrior at her side? And can Florette save France from creatures beyond mortal control?

After selling his ancestral estate, Archibald Colston decides to exchange the pastoral serenity of country society for a chance to make a new life for the Colston family in the wealthy elite of New York City. Upon their arrival, Archibald and his sister, Olivia, who is less than thrilled to be separated from the familiarity of English society, are thrown into the unbridled opulence of the New York winter season - but not without help. Millionaires might be made every day in the land of opportunity, but the old money is not so eager to welcome new money "Swells" into their exclusive circles. The Swells are ready for a showdown... and the opera is their chosen venue. Archibald and Olivia both find themselves with a vested interest in the successful opening of the Civic Opera House. With a show set to premiere on Christmas Eve, the future of the opera house, and a secure spot in society on the line, the pressure is high. Sparks will fly as the Colstons team up with a pair of eccentric producers, a spit-fire stage manager, a debutante with a golden voice, and a sensational corsetier to put on a show New York City won't soon forget.

When Christmas comes to the sleepy town of Hillbury, so does a love letter for Holly Ambrose - a love letter from a secret admirer. Amidst the yuletide balls and Christmas cheer of Victorian England, Holly vows to uncover the source of the letter, but will the self-avowed intellectual fall in love in the process? This Yuletide novella is twelve chapters long, with a chapter posted each day until Christmas beginning on Sunday the 14th. It's just a little christmas present to all my wonderful Wattpad friends.

#WATTYS2017 Winner - HIGHEST RANKING # 5 - DOWNTON ABBEY meets Libba Bray's THE DIVINERS in this YA Historical Fantasy set in 1922 England. Unlike all the Debutantes she knows, eighteen-year-old Vita couldn't care less about her coming out ball. Trapped in her gloomy country estate, all she wants is to spend the summer dancing to jazzy numbers in East End clubs with her best friend Izzy. Freshly returned from a year abroad, Izzy is ready for the thrill of the London Season, with its endless whirl of balls, shopping sprees and horse races. Most importantly, she's counting on Vita to help her find the rich and handsome husband every high society girl deserves. But when Vita is kidnapped and found barely alive in an East London alleyway, the carefree summer the girls had planned turns into something much stranger than they could ever have imagined. With flappers turning up dead all over the city, and Vita terrified of hybrid monsters she swears she can see lurking in Mayfair's marbled houses, Izzy can't help noticing that darkness is seeping into their lives. As Vita starts to believe she's turning into a monster herself, Izzy suspects her friend's sanity is slipping away. Both girls have to find out what's happening before they lose their friendship and status, and their crowd of Bright Young Things becomes a thing of the past. *** A Wattpad Featured Story from 16/02/17 to 25/07/17 HIGHEST RANKING: # 5 on the Wattpad Historical Hot List *** THE BRIGHT AND THE LOST Pinterest Board: http://uk.pinterest.com/emcastellan/the-bright-and-the-lost/ *** Cover designer: Amalia Chitulescu *** Copyright © 2016. All works posted here are the property of EM Castellan. Please do not use without permission. Any duplication or reproduction of all or part of the work without explicit permission by the author is illegal.