Authors Briggs and Steinbrenner offer two short tales inspired by The Dark Woods trilogy’s First Bite. In Snow White’s Knight, dark adventures await Prince Reiden when he attempts to rescue the innocent princess from the terrible fate destined by her stepmother. In Shakespearesque tragedy Magic Mirror, a vengeful wizard, an obsessed warlord, and a callous ruler are connected by a fatal prophecy from the enchanted mirror.

Once upon a time, in a village in Germany, there traveled a poor opera company. With them was a brilliant young composer whose career was yet to be written by history…and a young soprano whose past was a tragedy forgotten even by her.

As the stage is set for the composer’s masterpiece, the young woman is destined to face her worst fear. A dark opera unfolds around her, a simple children’s tale becomes a nightmare driving her towards her past beneath the shadows of the Konigsforst.

Into the woods we go…

Julia Allen is a waitress by day, painter by night, and.a famous 1800s authoress on weekends?

Moonlighting as Jane Austen for a historical open house is a strange hobby for a contemporary artist, but Julia loves the role-until she falls asleep and gets locked inside after all the visitors are gone! Rushing home from the dark, historical mansion, she collides with a stranger in the snowy park, and discovers later her shortcut cost her the rare copy of Austen's Northanger Abbey borrowed from a friend's treasured collection.

Book historian Eliot Weston thinks he imagined the Regency-era figure, but the book he finds in her wake proves otherwise. The first edition of Jane Austen's novel is authentic and incredibly rare, but he fails to find any trace of its owner. Reminders of the unusual encounter keep popping up, however, like the pretty modern artist eager to buy an identical volume. Coincidence? Or Divine intervention making it clear this is anything but an ordinary Christmas for these two hearts?

They are born of a drop of milk on the water; of a burning live coal in a barrel of wet ash, a rose petal sunk in a heap of sand.

There are three kinds of fairies-or so the stories claim-the last of which are the faerie godfolk. The wish-granters and half-human of the fairy world, they are meant to atone the mischief of fairies among men.

But do they? When young Baillie Albus learns the truth of her own strange gifts and becomes an apprentice destined to grant a human's wish, she discovers a complex existence. and darker truths.beneath the surface of a world that is both faerie and mankind.

Alice Headley has a solid faith, a strong sense of family, and a business partner who shares her artistic ideals--a guy who just happens to be her childhood sweetheart. But she also has a "perfect" boyfriend--the man she's been dating for two years--so when he pops the question, she can't believe her answer isn't an automatic "yes."

Moments after his surprise proposal, Alice takes a tumble down the restaurant's staircase. A fall that leaves her with a nasty head bump and some very strange side effects: Visions of three female ancestors, figures who seem as real as the women Alice remembers from childhood experiences and family stories. They must be illusions, but she can't deny the truth behind their personal stories of heartbreak and love.

Is this a trick of the mind? Or God's way of saying her heart belongs with someone else--the youthful love she consigned to the past?

Beauty...

Is the illusion the Queen cannot live without. It drives her to horrors beyond the imagination of those beneath the spell of her charms. Leaving ruined kingdoms in her wake, a dire prophecy before her–and one chance to conquer her fate.

Youth...

Is the only chance Fortulla has to escape the grim fate that awaits one branded as a servant of evil since her memories begin. She longs for the chance to be free, to grasp hope and happiness beyond the curse of her existence.

Innocence...

Is the child whose existence could change everything. A princess whose life is threatened by a force beyond her understanding; her destiny intertwined with good and evil.

First Bite reweaves the classic story of Snow White from the perspective of its dark and desperate villainess, one of the greatest in fairy tale lore. Told with the backdrop of pagan lore, magic, and mystery, the story of a desperate Queen and an innocent princess is connected to a servant girl’s secret past, their fates merging in an ending only a Magic Mirror could forsee.

Writer Laura Briggs steps outside her usual sweet romance genre and pairs with her fellow indie author for their first full-length independent novel, adding a touch of romance to a fantasy tale of suspense.