TWO NOVELLAS  by Leanbh Pearson
CATEGORY Alternate History / Gothic Horror
COVER ART  Greg Chapman
PAGES BLUEBELLS 110, LOVE LIES BLEEDING. 98

In the Devil's Garden Book 1 : BLUEBELLS

The War to End All Wars . . . and the world. 

What if the world changed with the Great War? What if the future we know never occurred? It's 1917 and in the aftermath of war, a dystopian visage of climate altered by biochemical warfare, populations decimated by a virus and governments collapsed. In the isolated town of Berrima, Australia, Anna Baylon waits for her older brother, Peter - enlisted in the war years before, to return. 

When all hope of Peter's return seems abandoned, the arrival of a stranger on her doorstep changes everything.  Nicolas, claiming to be Peter's lover sent to safely bring Anna to Sydney where he's recovering from war wounds. But Nicolas is as mysterious as he is charming. So Anna embarks on a journey to discover Peter's fate but the entanglements of duty, love and desire may be her undoing. Or is the greater danger not be Nicolas's vampiric nature but the darkness within him? Soon Anna's fortitude is tested when faced with Nicolas's hidden truth. When mind and lives are shattered, can she forgive him?

In The Devil's Garden, a trilogy of alternate history, gothic horror and dark romance in a world as tangled and twisted as heartbreaking and wondrous. 

In the Devils Garden Book 2 : LOVE LIES BLEEDING

1789. Vive la République

Nicolas is a merchant's son with the soul of an artist. The Revolution sweeps across the country and Nicolas is caught by the proud, daring and handsome libertine, the Marquis de Laon. Societal worlds apart, Nicolas is seduced by Marcellus, a vampire who begins a passionate romance that leads to a dark and brutal betrayal.

The old Republic falls and Nicolas and Marcellus must flee Laon. Separated in the chaotic collapse of the chateaux, Nicolas now a vampire, crosses miles and years waiting for Marcellus who never follows. Hiding from the terrors of Napoleonic war, suddenly Marcellus beckons to him.

Awoken from slumber, grief and loss, Nicolas finds Marcellus captive in the darkest and most torturous of places. Unable to escape together, Marcellus is sacrificed to blood and bullets.

Trapped in the army of the World War and crushed by sorrow, grief and hopelessness, Nicolas' mind is broken by savagery and death.But an Australian soldier offers Nicolas something he wasn't expecting - hope and love again.

Driven by a new purpose, Nicolas crosses battlefields and oceans for Peter. A mind broken can never be healed: yet can Peter accept the cruelty hidden in the shattered parts of Nicolas’ soul ?