strange and random happenstance

Death Card by Jasmine Smith
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A dark contemporary fantasy featuring witchcraft, tarot, death, and a bit of romance that's perfect for fans of Immortal Dark and Cinderella Is Dead.

On an ordinary Monday morning, eighteen-year-old Mikaela Broussard receives the shock of her life. During a customer's tarot reading at her family's occult shop, she turns over the Death card and envisions the beautiful stranger stabbing her in the heart.

In order to determine why the girl, Joelle, wants to kill her, she'll have to keep her close. But the more time Mikaela spends with her soon-to-be murderer, the more irresistible she finds her.

As if imminent death isn't worrisome enough, witches are turning up with their magic stolen. And it's clear some very dark magic is at work. Mikaela, as the next Witch Queen of her coven, is tasked with figuring out who's behind the horrific acts - a mystery that will put her and her power to the test.

Death Card is a dark, pacy, and romantic fantasy about one witch's journey to find the strength to fight for herself, her future, and her beloved community."

Maybe avoid the person you saw killing you? 

Want Me, Take Me, Haunt Me, Make Me by Isabel Crowley
Published by: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Hazel Lewis has a serious problem. The guy who hired her to conduct a seance before he died turned out to be a serial killer with a demonic contract, and the seance itself was a trap. Hazel escaped with her life, but not as she knew it: the bite of a demon is spreading through her body, letting the supernatural bleed into the world around her, and the now-dead serial killer is waiting to take over her body if she dies.

Hoping to contain the damage, Hazel moves to a small house in a remote location. She figures she'll stay on her own until she gets a handle on her new dark reality, but she soon finds out that she's not alone. There's the reporter demanding answers, the friendly neighbor with chemistry she doesn't need and problems he can't talk about...and the mysterious face she sees beyond her window, watching her every night with glowing red eyes.

Making her hunger.

Hazel knew a little bit about the world beyond the physical. Now she's learning how much she doesn't know, including who she can trust...and who she can become if she trusts herself enough to give in to the shadows stalking her dreams."

See, this is why I like reading about seances but not participating in them, so much can go wrong.

Saint Delilah by Isabelle Spotts
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Delilah is dead. But her story is far from over. In this feminist supernatural suspense novel, she will find her peace - and give hell to the man who killed her.

Delilah's death was not swift or painless. A ghost at nineteen, business entirely unfinished, her last breath was angry. Someone killed her, but she doesn't know who.

Undead creatures stalk Delilah's spirit, eager to feed on her soul until nothing is left but a frightening poltergeist. She can't pass on until the violence of her death is balanced with a life for her life.

Her killer must be killed.

If anyone can find her murderer and keep the darkness at bay, it's Magda, the owner of the strip club where Delilah danced - and a powerful spirit medium. And when a young man comes to town seeking Magda's supernatural services, he can see Delilah. He can hear her, touch her, and make her feel alive again.

The three come together to search for Delilah's murderer. As the creatures close in, Delilah's soul weakens but her power as a poltergeist grows, allowing her to affect the living.

Delilah may be dead, but she won't waste this second chance - she'll take those who've harmed her down with her."

This is a week for mediums and I am loving it!

There Are Ghosts Here by Adrienne Tooley
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Willa has no memory of anything before arriving at Dorsey House, and when she meets two sinister girls who seem to already know her, she slowly begins to lose her grip on what is real...and what is a lie. A haunting contemporary speculative thriller for fans of Kill Creatures and We Were Liars.

Willa Childs doesn't know why she's at Dorsey House. The tragic accident that banished her to the mysterious reformatory perched at the edge of the sea is lost in the recesses of her murky memory. The Dorseys themselves offer no answers, and the only other wards, Caroline and Ivy, seem intent on keeping Willa in the dark - and on the outside of their obsessive friendship.

Yet as the days pass, it begins to feel like the sinister twosome knows Willa better than she knows herself. And as her memories gradually return to focus, the girls become even stranger, doing their best to convince Willa that she's been at Dorsey House before. Only, that's impossible.

Or is it? If they're telling the truth, Willa can no longer trust her own mind. The line between reality and nightmare begins to blur. Willa is certain Dorsey House is haunted, but by what? And if she can't remember leaving, how will she ever escape?"

Or, she's really being gaslit... 

She Haunts Me Still by De Elizabeth
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"These violent delights have violent ends.

After surviving a shadowed childhood marked by ghost stories and loss, Mallory Webb is ready to start fresh as a theater major at her mother's alma mater, a sanitarium turned liberal arts university in Rhode Island. Landing the lead role in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet feels like a dream - until the blood-soaked spirit she suspects caused her mother's death resurfaces after years of quiet. With nothing to go on but cryptic symbols in an old college notebook, Mallory hopes the reason behind her mother's haunting lies somewhere on campus, and resolves to find answers before she meets the same fate.

She's surprised to make an unexpected ally in Ezra Pierce, the magnetic fourth year directing the play, and takes solace in their undeniable chemistry. But Ezra is a master secret-keeper, and it's clear he knows more than he's letting on about Saskia Garin, Mallory's elusive understudy whose past eerily mirrors her own.

When an ancient, bloodthirsty evil calls to collect on a bargain that dates back to the New England vampire panic, Mallory, Ezra, and Saskia will have to untangle the tragic ways in which their histories are linked - and face the devastating consequences of their own star-crossed love story."

Anyone who isn't Westworld should stop using that Shakespeare quote.

Dreamland by Olivie Blake
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times bestselling author Olivie Blake comes a tantalizing story of power, seduction, and the omens you'll ignore when everything you've dreamed of feels just within reach.

The headlines are calling it the "summer of exsanguination" in LA - girls are being murdered, the Santa Ana winds are blowing a strange energy into the city, and all signs point to fire season.

More pressing for Anya Morris, though, is the drudgery of living at home, working part time at the family store, and contending with her mother's disdain for the acting career Anya knows she's destined for but that feels more impossible by the day.

It's in this suffocating late summer heat that Anya receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, an invitation to work for the de Witt family, one of LA's most influential film dynasties. Soon, she's spending her days and nights at their strange villa high in the Hollywood Hills, where she meets Jude, a recluse who is both the family's heir apparent and its most closely guarded secret.

There's a magnetism to Jude that Anya cannot resist, despite warning signs that scream like sirens in the night. Because the villa holds generations of bloodstained history, and an occult family curse may even live within its walls - or within Jude himself.

In this city, everyone cuts a deal with the devil. When Anya comes face to face with a devil of her own, she'll learn just how far she's willing to go to get everything she's ever wanted."

It's Hollywood, she'll sign on the dotted line.

Night Songs by Alli Dyer
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this haunting family saga, a young woman must delve into her country star mother's music to break a curse that has plagued the women in her family for generations - before her time runs out.

On the morning of Rhea's eighteenth birthday, she makes a shocking discovery - her mother was the famed singer of some of country music's most iconic tunes, the legendary Lulabelle "Belle" Powers, and she's just inherited her massive estate. Eager to know more about this woman she barely remembers, Rhea travels to Nashville to retrace her mother's footsteps. But as she gets to know Belle's closest friends and learns more of her story, she can't help but think something is being kept from her.

It isn't until years later that her mother's best friend Hess reveals the truth - her mother believed all the women in her family were cursed to die at thirty-three - Belle's exact age when she passed away in a mysterious plane crash. Hess dismisses the curse as pure superstition, but Rhea feels something sinister stalking her, her own life beginning to mirror her mother's as she gets closer to her thirty-third birthday. Desperate for answers, Rhea delves deeper into her mother's music, uncovering Belle's last unpublished album Night Songs, which leads her back to her roots in ways she never could have imagined.

Alternating between Rhea's journey and Lulabelle's untold rise to country queen, Night Songs is an electric story of inheritance and resilience, love and freedom, and the power of music to connect across generations."

If Hess was her mother's best friend perhaps telling Rhea about the curse before she's about to turn thirty-three would have been nice?

Devil by Sierra Simone
Published by: Bloom Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 528 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From USA Today bestselling author Sierra Simone comes an ALL-NEW standalone romance in the Priest universe.

Birdie Cooper has nothing left.

Just one moment of weakness seven years ago - and she lost her job, her church, her only friend. Now she's working nights at a gas station to scrape together a living and a way to care for her sister, completely alone and separated even from the art that gave her life meaning.

Ryan Bell has never forgotten his first obsession.

He's been trying to find the tremblingly shy lecturer from his senior year of college after she abruptly disappeared after their first and only kiss. So when he comes upon a statue of Lucifer carved in Ryan's own likeness, two things become starkly apparent.

One: he knows how to find her now. And two: he's been haunting Birdie Cooper's memory as much as she's been haunting his.

Ryan can't offer love - or even an apology - but he can offer her a bargain, one crafted first and foremost to free him from his punishing obsession with her. If Birdie agrees to be his in every way for a single year, then he'll pay for her sister's care for as long as she's alive. And what does Birdie have left to lose anyway? The forbidden fruit is her only chance at salvation.

Unfortunately for Birdie, she might just be the only chance for his..."

I'd take this deal...

A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young
Published by: Tor Nightfire
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 112 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"First the flood
Next the sickness
Last the change

Visionary Korean author Kim Bo-Young unleashes a Lovecraftian nightmare of infection, transformation, and abomination.

While waiting for a train to Haewon, an isolated Korean seaside village, bodyguard Mu-young gets a disaster alert on her phone. TVs throughout the station report breaking news of a massive earthquake on the eastern coast. Despite the danger, Mu-young boards the train with her niece: she'd rather face the earthquake than leave the girl in her mother's care. That choice haunts her for the rest of her life.

Three years later, Haewon Village is home to horrors. The earthquake unleashed an ancient plague that transforms its victims into fishy monsters, and the government's lockdown has cut off any hope for help. Mu-young's niece is dead, and all that's left for her is to hunt villagers who break isolation. When an officious bureaucrat from Seoul arrives in the village, he stirs up even deeper trouble. Will Mu-young survive? Does she even deserve to?"

Yeah, she shouldn't have got on that train...

Reliquary by Hannah Whitten
Published by: Run for It
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A young woman is lured to her late fiancé's remote island estate - only to uncover eerie family secrets, a haunting past, and a monstrous hunger stirring beneath the sea in this deliciously atmospheric horror debut from New York Times bestselling author Hannah Whitten.

When Claire's fiancé mysteriously dies of an unknown neurological illness, she's prepared to sink back into the lonely life she lived before. Orphaned by a freak boating accident in her childhood, she never expected to find connection like she did with Elias, anyway. Their relationship wasn't perfect - his coldness, his secrets, his strange aversion to the ocean - but what relationship is?

When Elias's family reaches out - his incredibly wealthy family, from whom he was estranged - and invites Claire to a three-day wake at Harrow Point, their family home on a private island, Claire is given the chance to find family again. To belong to something, just like she's always wanted. Just like Elias knew she was desperate to have.

Even if that family is a little strange. Even if their coastal home stirs up memories of the accident that killed her parents and sister. Even if Ash, Elias's older brother, seems insistent on Claire leaving as soon as possible.

As she dives deeper into the world of Harrow Point, she will uncover the nature of her own traumatic connection to the ocean. There is something swimming in the bowels of Harrow Point, and it is hungry..."

Final girl orphans, run from that island!

Stay Buried by Jennifer McMahon
Published by: Gallery Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the New York Times bestselling author of Children on the Hill comes a queer folk horror in which a woman must confront decades of secrecy and superstition to learn the truth about her mother's death.

Some towns stay isolated for a reason.

1919: Frankie O'Massey has always been the black sheep of isolated Boone's Ferry, Vermont. Her uncle, Dr. Thomas Endicott, has been training her in the science of medicine, something the townspeople are wary of. When a mysterious illness strikes the town, and the community suspects supernatural forces, the two desperately search for a logical explanation. Patient zero seems to be the town's knackerman - a recluse who collects dead and dying farm animals to make use of their parts.

2016: Siblings Ashley and Malcolm lost their mother two years ago. When their grandmother dies, they inherit a property in Boone's Ferry - a place they've heard of but their grandmother has always refused to talk about - and embark on a trip to their ancestral home. The idyllic town is full of autumnal décor, picturesque farmland, and small-town charm. But some of the townspeople aren't very welcoming - and they have some unsettling traditions, like leaving offerings to a vengeful spirit four times a year."

Widow's Bay meets The Wicker Man.

The Hill in the Dark Grove by Liam Higginson
Published by: Hogarth
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this gripping debut, steeped in Welsh folklore, a husband and wife living in the beautiful but isolated mountains of Snowdonia stumble upon a buried Neolithic ruin - awakening a mysterious, ancient presence with its own dark designs.

Carwyn and his wife, Rhian, have lived a quiet life as sheep farmers in the remote Welsh mountains for decades, tending to ancestral land that has been in Carwyn's family for generations. But recent years have taken their toll: local friends lost one by one to old age or rising prices; the accumulation of debts; new English tourists, more every year, disrespecting the land - littering, camping on private property, needing to be rescued when they misjudge the elements.

When Carwyn finds a strange stone head in a disused corner of the farm, he realizes the artifact is just one piece of something much larger - something unfathomably old. Despite Rhian's protests, Carwyn becomes obsessed with unearthing the structure, and soon neglects the daily work of the farm to keep digging. Meanwhile, the sheep fall sick more easily than any season before, and a tragic accident on market day threatens to leave an increasingly isolated Rhian without a way to satisfy their ever-more-insistent creditors. Through it all, Carwyn becomes convinced that uncovering the site and determining its original purpose will be the key to solving everything. But there was a reason his ancestors kept the past buried, and in disturbing the earth, he has called forth a power greater and more terrible than he could have imagined.

Enthralling and atmospheric, Liam Higginson's The Hill in the Dark Grove expertly weaves together myth, psychological suspense, and supernatural horror, heralding a sparkling new literary talent."

I mean, when your ancestors don't leave guidelines, it's their fault as much as yours...

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Published by: Bramble
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a tale of love and betrayal set in a world where scandal is a razor-sharp weapon.

They're called the Beautiful Ones.

Loisail's most notable socialites: the wealthy, powerful, beloved.

This spring is Nina's last chance to join their ranks, but the Grand Season has just begun and Nina's debut has already gone disastrously awry. Neighbors call her the Witch of Oldhouse - the haphazard manifestations of her powers making her the subject of malicious gossip.

So when entertainer and fellow telekinetic Hector Auvray arrives to town, Nina is dazzled. He's traveled the world performing his talents for admiring audiences. And he sees Nina not as a witch, but as something more. With Hector's help, Nina's talent blossoms, as does her love for him.

But great romances are just for fairytales. In the glittering, gossip-laden world of Loisail, where everyone conceals secrets, can their courtship survive?"

I have something to say, I hated the original cover of this book. Hated it. To have this amazing cover from Bramble just makes my day. 

World's Okayest Oracle (Reluctantly) Seems Demon by Olivia Dade
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An oracle who can see the future teams up with the far-too-hot demon from her past to avert catastrophe, in this steamy paranormal romance from the USA Today bestselling author of Zomromcom.

Gwen Wexloff might be able to see the future, but not when it matters. Her visions invariably involve piddling issues, which means - unlike most oracles - she's spent her life predicting for everyday humans instead of international power brokers. After a clutch of brain-slurping zombies escapes from their walled-off compound, though, Gwen experiences the first genuinely world-altering vision of her life...and now she needs help.

Unfortunately, that help comes from Hugh Blacke, the same starchy (but annoyingly cute) demon who watched her bomb her oracle verification test years ago. To Gwen's dismay, the two of them will need to work together to unravel the deadly conspiracy behind the zombie breach, despite their complicated past and the secrets they're keeping.

Even with her newfound power, she couldn't have foreseen how quickly they'd both want more than a simple partnership. But the clock is ticking - and with the fate of humanity at stake, Gwen and Hugh will have to decide how much they're willing to risk for an unexpected, passionate love...and a future together that might prove very short indeed."

Deal with the zombies first.

Twice Bitten by S.E. Babin
Published by: Second Sky
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Kindle, 331 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"I was bitten by a vampire AND a werewolf. Now everyone wants a piece of me.

I never wanted to be a powerful witch. I'm happiest pulling espresso shots at the Three Beans café and keeping my magic secret.

But trouble is brewing...

When a turf war between vampires and shifters erupts outside the café, I get caught between the irresistibly charming Vampire Prime and the ruggedly handsome Shifter King. As these two apex predators blindly tear into each other, I am bitten, clawed, and left for dead.

My magic flares just in time to save my life, but there are...side effects. Suddenly, I find myself staring at customers' necks. And feeling suspiciously twitchy before the full moon.

It's impossible but...am I transforming into a vampire and a werewolf?

The Vampire Prime finds me immediately. Captivated by my scent, he tempts me with danger and luxury. The Shifter King is equally obsessed, and determined to claim me for his pack.

I am caught between them once more - but this time it's me that they're fighting over. And since my new blood brings strange new powers, it won't be long before I'm the most wanted prey in town...

Perfect for fans of Patricia Briggs and Charlaine Harris, the Fangs and Fur series is a thrilling urban fantasy adventure with a love triangle romance to die for."

An urban fantasy with humdinger of a twist. 

In What World by Bridget Morrissey
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two high school rivals begrudgingly reunite as adults to investigate the disappearance of their beloved former teacher, only to wind up traveling through a series of alternate realities together.

Total opposites, Marlowe Jenkins and Priscilla Covington-French hated each other in high school. Now in their thirties, Marlowe is barely scraping by while Priscilla is wildly successful. Their rivalry should be long dead, yet both women remain connected through their mutual mentor, drama teacher Dallas Winthrop. Their unending tension has nothing to do with the fact that they've kissed. More than once.

When Dallas goes missing, each woman believes she can figure out where he is. Except this is no ordinary disappearance. Dallas has found a way to explore alternate versions of reality. While trying to follow him, Marlowe and Priscilla find other versions of themselves instead, surprised to learn not all Marlowes and Priscillas are fueled by hate. In fact, some Marlowes and Priscillas have very different strong feelings for one another...

The more Marlowe and Priscilla are forced to rely on each other, the harder it becomes to ignore their simmering attraction. But with every alternate reality they search, they only get further from their real life and responsibilities. Do they play it safe and hide behind their rivalry, or take a chance on each other that could permanently change the world as they know it?"

Or are they being manipulated by seeing all these other options their lives could have taken?

A Witch in Notting Hill by Alexandra Paige
Published by: Avon a
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Perfect for fans of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, this cozy and whimsical romance follows an accident-prone witch and a hot grumpy occult bookstore owner who doesn't believe in magic as they travel across London to undo a spell gone awry.

When rising Hollywood actress and secret witch Willow James accidentally turns her manager into a cat while trying to escape her contract, she's sure she's hit her magical low point. Determined to fix her mistake, she journeys to London in search of a rare spell hidden within the famed occult bookstore, Coven and Codex. The last thing she expects? The shop's brooding, handsome owner, Oliver Hadley, who'd rather avoid magic altogether.

Together - with a ragtag group of friends (both human and feline) - Willow and Oliver must scour every corner of the city, from museums to festivals to bustling street markets, to find the missing pieces of the spell. Along the way, Willow's unpredictable magic and Oliver's skeptical heart will face the one thing they can't escape...love.

Filled with enchanting adventures, sparkling romance, and a dash of mischief, A Witch in Notting Hill is a sweet and spirited tale of discovering magic where you least expect it."

Personally I'd keep the manager as a cat...

You'll Be the Death of Me by Holly Michelle
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Cole is spending the rest of his eternity as an overworked Afterlife Clerk, processing souls for the Afterlife Administration. But when he accidentally claims the soul of the wrong Verdella Rodgers, Cole and Verdella must race to fix his cosmic blunder - and try not to catch feelings along the way. A swoony and whimsical romp, You'll Be the Death of Me is a romance to die for.

Verdella "Dell" Rodgers is at the top of her game. As the chef de cuisine at San Francisco's hottest new restaurant and on the cusp of marrying the mayor's son in the social event of the season, her life is perfect. That is until the week before her wedding when she wakes up and finds herself very much dead.

Enter Cole, a charming but bumbling entry-level clerk in the Afterlife Administration who accidentally confuses Dell for a 95-year-old woman in Kansas with the same name, claiming the wrong soul. When Cole tries to fix his mistake, their worlds collide in life-and death-changing ways.

Now walking the city as a ghost only visible to Cole, Dell is frantic to get back to her perfect life but soon learns that it wasn't what it appeared to be, particularly when it came to the man she was about to marry and his high-profile family.

Meanwhile, Cole has no memory of who he was before working for the Afterlife Administration. As they try to uncover Cole's past and remedy Dell's future, they realize the mistake that brought them together might just be a twist of fate. With time running out to bring Dell back to the land of the living, she'll have to decide if the life she left behind is truly what she wants, or if Cole's untimely appearance could lead to an unexpected change that she didn't know she needed."

A change as in, staying dead!?!

The Magic We Made by Meg Cabot
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"She doesn't believe in magic. He is magic. But when they meet, a spark is lit, and neither will ever be the same - in this charming new stand-alone in the Witches of West Harbor series from New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot.

Frankie
A trained therapist, Francesca Giovanni knows there's a scientific explanation for everything. Unfortunately, she lives in West Harbor, CT, a town that's recently exploded in popularity thanks to "witch tourism." Suddenly, witches are everywhere, offering locals their psychic services. Frankie's fine with this...until aspiring teenage witches begin to disappear, and strange things start happening in the lake house next door. Frankie suspects not all newcomers to West Harbor have the good of the community in mind - especially not her new neighbor, Ash Merit.

Ash
Ash Merit finds lost things - and people - for a living. All he wants is to help his clients, and maybe get to know the stunningly beautiful (and newly single) Dr. Frankie Giovanni a little better. But thanks to some troublesome young witches - not to mention his often faulty psychic "superpower" - everything goes wrong. If only Frankie wasn't so distractingly attractive...and so unwilling to admit there might not be a logical reason for everything, including the flames that ignite whenever the two of them kiss. Ash hopes to change that, but first he and Frankie have to find the missing girls, as well as the truth about what's happening in West Harbor…a truth that could change everything they thought they knew about themselves - and the magic of love."

People unwilling to believe in magic when the proof is right in front of them exasperate me.

A Thousand Painted Hours by Barbara O'Neal
Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 543 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An epic, emotionally charged novel about love, art, and survival spanning 1900s colonial India to Blitz-era London by the USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids.

In the shadow of the London Blitz, artist Elsie Turner clings fiercely to her canvases, refusing to let war dim the colors that define her. The bombs test her nerve, but the struggle also stirs memories of her golden youth in India and of the long-lost love of her life.

The daughter of a British civil servant in the Himalayan station of Nainital, Elsie crosses cultural divides to forge an unlikely bond with Tanveer Singh, a Sikh prince with hopes, dreams, and far-reaching ideas. What begins as shared sketchbooks and stargazing becomes first love and a secret correspondence. When Elsie's father is summoned to England, Elsie is severed from the world she knows - and is determined to preserve it through both her art and a connection with Tanveer that endures through the most tumultuous years of their lives.

Across four decades and two continents, Elsie navigates a journey from lush colonial India to war-torn London, amid landscapes of beauty, protest, and peril. As past and present collide, the most impossible choices and sacrifices are yet to be made in the name of love, war, and survival."

A more artistically bend to The Jewel in the Crown.

A Betrothed's Betrayal by Deb Marlowe
Published by: Deb Marlowe
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A Regency-set Cozy Mystery featuring a charming Cotswold village, an intrepid heroine, a cast of quirky characters, a handsome but reserved carpenter, an attractive but suspicious constable, and a baby goat or two.

Lady Lisette Birtwhistle is feeling bereft and very much alone after ending her betrothal, then losing her brother, the Duke of Winbury, to an unexpected illness.

The duke knew his sister well, however, and has inexplicably left her the leases on nearly the entirety of Lockstone Hollow, a village near one of the ducal estates. Perplexed, but hopeful, Lisette travels to the small Cotswold village.

Her spirits lift a little when she finds a sleepy little spot in need of someone with her abilities in managing, organizing, and décor, but she is shocked to her core when a body is discovered in the village soon after her arrival - and it is her former fiancé.

With the help of some new friends, a cast of colorful local characters, a handsome but reserved carpenter, an attractive but suspicious constable, and a baby goat or two, Lisette must uncover secrets and expose lies in order to find the killer and clear her own name."

SO HERE for the baby goats!

Murder in Blackfriars by Jennifer Ashley
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In Victorian London, valiant cook and amateur sleuth Kat Holloway must help the man she loves solve the murder that will finally uncover his mysterious past, from the New York Times bestselling author of A Silence in Belgrave Square.

Kat Holloway's beau, Daniel McAdam, has always had a past shrouded in mystery. He knows nothing about his origins, only that he was rescued from the streets many years ago. So when someone claiming to know where Daniel came from turns up dead moments before meeting with him, Daniel goes on the hunt for the killer. It soon becomes clear that to see justice served, Daniel will have to figure out who he truly is. When he asks Kat for her assistance, she readily complies, knowing she'll do whatever she must to protect the man she's come to love.

The quest takes Kat and Daniel deep into the East End, where they face dangerous foes from Daniel's rugged past who will stop at nothing to keep Kat and Daniel from uncovering their secrets. As Kat begins to learn things about Daniel's history, she fears that the darkest secret - his true name and lineage - will tear apart the tender bonds they've begun to form."

Either you trust that your bonds are strong enough or you don't help him!

A Killer Plot by E.C. Nevin
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the follow-up to A Novel Murder, mystery author Jane Hepburn is back and determined to keep her sleuthing skills in the pages of her novels. That is, until she's invited to a prestigious literary party in London - where the gathering of glamorous attendees may be hiding a killer.

Jane Hepburn has almost made it. After solving the murder of her literary agent at last season's crime-book festival, Jane receives a burst of internet fame that lands her an invite to a splashy book launch in London. Visiting beloved bookstores along the winding alleyway of Cecil Court, and brushing shoulders with famous writers and the editors and agents who made them stars, Jane is looking forward to a fun, murder-free weekend and a distraction from her own writer's block. The party might not be for her novel, but still, Jane's happy to celebrate her far more successful friend with free wine and plenty of books.

However, things take a turn for the worse when the hotshot editor is nowhere to be seen. And they really go south after Jane discovers a body in the bookshop cellar.

To ensure that another event isn't overshadowed by an unsolved murder, Jane and her two friends - debut novelist and star of the party Natasha Martez and clumsy publicity assistant Daniel Thurston - must put their sleuthing skills to the test. But nothing is as it seems at a party full of attendees with secrets they'd do anything to keep."

If Midsomer Murders has taught me anything, it's that authors are all prime suspects. 

Death at a Scottish Halloween by Lucy Connelly
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When Dr. Emilia McRoy stumbles upon a dead body in a haunted house, she resolves to find the killer before another body can fall.

Halloween isn't the only cause for fright in the fifth Scottish Isle mystery, perfect for fans of Paige Shelton and Connie Berry.

It's the week of Halloween - or as they say in Scotland, All Hallows' Eve - and the town of Sea Isle is full of spooky celebrations. Dr. Emilia McRoy loves being part of her new community and is eager to help out in any way she can. But the festivities are interrupted when she and her assistant, Abigail, find a dead body in a haunted house. A real one. They're too late to save the victim, but they'll do whatever it takes to find his killer.

There's just one problem: There are too many suspects.

Constable Ewan would prefer the good doctor and her friends stay out of the investigations, but that isn't how Dr. Em rolls. As she and her gang investigate, they realize the killer is searching for something - and has no problem murdering anyone who gets in the way of finding it.

Dr. Em must stay one step ahead if she's to survive this Halloween season alive - either that or she might just end up the next victim."

The title didn't need that outline. It's tacky.

Brimstone Hollow by Archer Sullivan
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Following her powerful debut in The Witch's Orchard, private investigator Annie Gore returns in Brimstone Hollow, bringing readers back to the mountains that author Archer Sullivan, a ninth-generation Appalachian, knows so well.

There isn't much that happens in the Appalachian Mountains that Private Investigator Annie Gore hasn't seen. Before she was an Air Force Special Investigator, she was born and raised in those rolling hills, and lately Annie's cases have called her away from her Louisville office and closer to the small towns of her youth than she ever anticipated. But when her newest client asks if she's ever been to a snake-handling church, Annie knows she's about to enter unknown territory.

Katie May has been estranged from her father - one of Appalachia's last infamous snake handling preachers - for twenty years. But when Katie finds out he's been fatally bitten, and a funeral was held within twenty-four hours, she questions whether someone deliberately rushed the process. Despite Annie's doubts, she takes the case. After all, when she looks at Katie, she sees a version of herself: a girl who needs to understand her father in order to understand herself.

As she navigates the hidden hollers and dangerous secrets of this insular Eastern Kentucky town, Annie works fast, hoping to find the truth in record time for her client - and before too many memories from her own childhood surface. But it soon becomes apparent that someone wants Annie's investigation to stop - by any means necessary."

The worst thing about investigating a murder by snake is that the killer might send the snake after you.

Don't Cross Mo Ellery by Birdie Horne
Published by: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A laugh-out-loud mystery following the indomitable hot mess Mo Ellery, whose job as a school crossing guard pulls her into an unhinged murder investigation.

Mo Ellery's 29th birthday is a disaster. After one small accident - the exposure of her boyfriend's genitals (well, maybe not that small) on a work video call - she manages to get fired, dumped, and kicked out of their overpriced Chicago apartment. Luckily, a sign appears to guide Mo to her new life: "Looking for flexible part-time work? Become a school crossing guard!" It's everything Mo has been looking for: health insurance. How hard can it be?

A few weeks later, Mo is adjusting to her new low-paying job, her bisexual reawakening, and her new neighborhood's wacky characters. There's Claudia, an old woman who refuses to let Mo help her cross the street, and Marlowe, a tween cell phone prodigy whose antics terrify her. But Mo's greatest nemesis is Poodle Dude, a guy with an SUV full of poodles who speeds through her intersection each morning...until the day he speeds into a sinkhole. Mo tries and fails to shield innocent eyes from his bloody corpse, but succeeds in accidentally becoming the guardian to his three poodles.

And that's not the worst of it: some of the locals are convinced that Poodle Dude was murdered. Their allegations are obviously ridiculous, but Mo, desperate for distractions - and for several hot neighbor-suspects - reluctantly agrees to help. But Mo the detective is just as chaotic as Mo the underemployed adult, and the three entitled poodles are not helping. When a second local dies under mysterious circumstances, it's going to take all of Mo's broadly applicable and transferrable skills to find the killer.

Murderers beware...DON'T CROSS MO ELLERY!"

Wait, crossing guards get health insurance!?! Looks like a Illinois thing.

Bridget and Gabe Are Not Okay by Lex Croucher
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The sequel to the unforgettable New York Times bestseller Gwen and Art Are Not In Love that invites readers on a quest chock full of wit, undeniable yearning, and second chances.

They fell in love. They fought a great battle. And they won. Now, Camelot's famous couples have fallen apart.

Newly crowned King Gabriel is having panic attacks in cupboards in-between council meetings. He can't tell Arthur just how not okay he is - so he's set him free, to find love with someone who can get through the day without breaking down.

Bridget has lost her spark for sparring, forfeiting again and again in the lists. When she's invited to join Gabriel's round table, she hopes it'll be the change she needs. But trying to navigate the post-happily-ever-after reality of a relationship with Gwen, when Bridget no longer feels like the dashing knight Gwen fell in love with, feels impossible.

With the kingdom still reeling from an attempted uprising, and rumored sightings of the holy grail, the questing beast, and the green knight happening across the country, the gang depart on a PR tour destined for disaster. Can Gabriel be the king his country deserves? Can Bridget get her jousting groove back? And will they find their way back to the courtly love that once seemed fated?

In the much anticipated follow-up to Gwen and Art Are Not in Love, Gabriel and Bridget set out on a daring quest to put love back on the table."

Because happily ever after isn't the end...

For the Love of the Quest by Alexandra Ammon Parthun
Published by: Alcove Press
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The search for King Arthur's Excalibur invites danger - and potentially love - in this sapphic historical romance, perfect for fans of Cat Sebastian and Freya Marske.

Lady Edith Darling is supposed to live a quiet life in her family's manor. She is not supposed to go unchaperoned on a quest to find Excalibur. But Edith won't let that stand in her way, especially not when she's on this mission to honor her beloved grandmother's dying wish. Determined to prove her grandmother right, Edith packs her satchel with Arthurian legends, pastries, and her grandmother's ashes and runs off to hire a mercenary.

Thomasin Shaw leads the most feared gang in London. For years, she had the constabulary safely in her pocket, until a scandal involving the chief inspector's wife was brought to light. Now he's demanding an enormous sum of money - without which Thomasin will lose the protection of the police along with her criminal empire. But when the rich Lady Edith waltzes into her life seeking an escort for a treasure hunt, Thomasin sees a willing kidnapping victim and a massive ransom.

As Edith's clues lead them to underground chambers booby-trapped with arrows, doors locked with arcane puzzles, and even Arthur's fabled round table, Thomasin finds herself swept up in the quest - and in Edith herself. Edith is also drawn to Thomasin, despite the ruthless mask she wears. But the chief inspector won't let Thomasin forget her crimes, and Edith's father is intent on bringing her home. Every legendary quest has an ending, but finding Excalibur might not be enough to make this a happy one."

There HAS to be a secret society keeping all these Indiana Jones level puzzles in action.

The Wandering Inn by pirateaba 
Published by: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 640 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Enter the Innverse: the massive epic fantasy world created by pirateaba that has become a LitRPG sensation, now for the first time in a physical edition!

"No killing Goblins."

So reads the sign outside of The Wandering Inn, a small building run by a young woman named Erin Solstice. She serves pasta with sausage, blue fruit juice, and dead acid flies on request. And she comes from another world. Ours.

It's a bad day when Erin finds herself transported to a fantastical world and nearly gets eaten by a Dragon. She doesn't belong in a place where monster attacks are a fact of life, and where Humans are one species among many. But she must adapt to her new life. Or die.

In a dangerous world where magic is real and people can level up and gain classes, Erin Solstice must battle somewhat evil Goblins, deadly Rock Crabs, and hungry [Necromancers]. She is no warrior, no mage. Erin Solstice runs an inn. She's an [Innkeeper].

Thus starts the first volume of The Wandering Inn, an epic fantasy series filled with heart and fear, magic, dragons, and monsters, adventurers and chess players…and humans pulled from the real world into a wondrous and deadly land where the game is to survive and these new pieces could decide who's the winner."

Your new LitRPG obsession. 

All the Queen's Curses by Alyssa Hollingsworth
Published by: Page Street YA
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Kit may be a princess, but her life is no fairy tale.

Chronically ill and abused by her new stepfather, Princess Kit finds solace in her kind stepsister Catharine. Yet the sisters may not be together for long - Catharine is intended to be wed to a prince of the Northern Isles.

Kit's mother, the queen, strikes a bargain with the fae to free her daughter from the king's abuse and give Kit a happier ending; the fae swaps Kit's ailing body for Catharine's before Catharine can depart. Horrified, Kit and Catharine abandon their home and travel north to find the fae who cursed them.

Kit and Catharine soon discover the prince is under his own fae curse. He offers to help the princesses. But Kit finds herself unsure she wants to switch back if it means she can't be with the prince - and worse, must return to her own suffering body..."

When dealing with the fae there are always moral dilemmas. 

These Vile Hearts by Melody Robinette
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A delightfully wicked, fizzy debut romantasy - an enemies to lovers tale about a desperate mortal woman and a cursed fae prince.

Maddox Sinclair has run out of options. No job means no health insurance - a death sentence for a type one diabetic like herself. She flees to the forest to make a desperate deal with a dryad queen: kill the Redwood King and be cured of the illness that threatens her life.

In the redwood treetops, Prince Castor, is cursed - anyone who loves him is doomed to die. Like Maddox, he has made an equally unwise pact with his brother, the Redwood King: get a mortal to fall in love with him by solstice and be free of his curse forever.

When Maddox mistakes Castor for the king, sparks fly and troubles ensue. Each must decide what is more important - survival and freedom, or the love they (kind of, almost) feel in their traitorous, vile hearts.

Darkly funny and brimming with magic, These Vile Hearts by Melody Robinette manages to be both wicked and warm, beguiling and moving - a richly woven story of survival and fate."

I love that we have this fairy tale world yet it has the serious real life concern of diabetes. 

Season of the Serpent by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Award-winning author Suyi Davies Okungbowa returns in the final installment of the Nameless Republic trilogy with a tale of villains, allies, and a world on the brink of destruction, perfect for fans of Tasha Suri, Evan Winter, and James Islington.

The old world has fallen. Now is the time of serpents.

The continent is split. The islands have sunk. The empire of Bassa is no more. With the resistant Nameless Republic and the conquering Kangalaland on the brink of war, all must choose a side: ally, or fall. Oon's heroes and villains must rise from their ashes and meet a Third Great War.

Peace won't come easy. Long-lost family will fight to reach Danso before war erases him forever. Lilong has survived the island catastrophe but lost her power, and will do anything to get it back. And fate will find Esheme where it left her - will the dead queen rise again?

For Oon, the first season of the five states is a season of serpents. After the storms pass and winds blow, what will remain? And who will survive?"

Another epic cover by Dan Dos Santos! 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alli Dyer, Alyssa Hollingsworth, Barbara O'Neal, Bridget Morrissey, E.C. Nevin, Jennifer McMahon, Lex Croucher, Meg Cabot, Melody Robinette, Olivia Dade, Olivie Blake, pirateaba, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Suyi Davies Okungbowa

A Cold Highland Wind by Tasha Alexander
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this new installment of Tasha Alexander's acclaimed Lady Emily series set in the wild Scottish highlands, an ancient story of witchcraft may hold the key to solving a murder centuries later.

Lady Emily, husband Colin Hargreaves, and their three sons eagerly embark on a family vacation at Cairnfarn Castle, the Scottish estate of their dear friend Jeremy, Duke of Bainbridge. But a high-spirited celebration at the beginning of their stay comes to a grisly end when the duke's gamekeeper is found murdered on the banks of the loch. Handsome Angus Sinclair had a host of enemies: the fiancée he abandoned in Edinburgh, the young woman who had fallen hopelessly in love with him, and the rough farmer who saw him as a rival for her affections. But what is the meaning of the curious runic stone left on Sinclair's forehead?

Clues may be found in the story of Lady MacAllister, wife of the Laird of Cairnfarn Castle, who in 1676 suddenly found herself widowed and thrown out of her home. Her sole companion was a Moorish slave girl who helped her secretly spirit her most prized possessions - a collection of strange books - out of the castle. When her neighbors, wary of a woman living on her own, found a poppet - a doll used to cast spells - and a daisy wheel in her isolated cottage, Lady MacAllister was accused of witchcraft, a crime punishable by death.

Hundreds of years later, Lady Emily searches for the link between Lady MacAllister's harrowing witchcraft trial and the brutal death of Sinclair. She must follow a trail of hidden motives, an illicit affair, and a mysterious stranger to reveal the dark side of a seemingly idyllic Highland village."

Every book by Tasha is like solving a mystery with old friends. This volume is no different, though I did pick up some new old friends along the way.

The Mystery of the Missing Heiress by Patricia Rice
Published by: Book View Cafe Publishing Cooperative
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Paperback, 314 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Bestselling author Patricia Rice offers the next book in her Regency historical mystery series...

Wycliffe Manor, a magnet for murder...

On a long-delayed errand to remote Wycliffe Manor, ex-Lieutenant Jack de Sackville stumbles across the murdered body of London dandy, Basil Culpepper, in the hedgerow, a long way from his usual haunts. To Jack's dismay, he discovers the earl's daughter Culpepper ruined hiding in Wycliffe's kitchen.

Disguised as a lowly cook, Lady Elspeth Villiers may have liked to shoot Culpepper for ruining her life, but she dropped out of sight for more immediate reasons than an old scandal - her wealth has become the focus of greedy men. The arrival of Jack, the man she's adored since childhood, along with Culpepper's corpse, mean her hiding place is no longer safe.

But once Lady Elsa reveals herself to the unconventional inhabitants of Wycliffe Manor, they become the protective family she has never known. Outraged to learn the beautiful woman he once loved and lost has become a target of greed, Jack joins the investigation into Culpepper's death.

With a murderer on the loose, the amateur sleuths must unravel a deadly tangle of kidnappers and counterfeiters or the Manor's eccentric inhabitants will be in as much danger as their cook."

Yeah for found family protecting you from a murder rap!

Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout
Published by: Harpervia
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A sapphic reimagining of Mary Shelley's youth, vividly exploring innocence, young love, Gothic mystery and the roots of her literary masterpiece, Frankenstein.

Switzerland, 1816. A volcanic eruption in Indonesia envelopes the whole of Europe in ash and cloud. Amid this "year without a summer," eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley and her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley arrive at Lake Geneva to visit Lord Byron and his companion John Polidori. Anguished by the recent loss of her child, Mary spends her days in strife. But come nightfall, the friends while away rainy wine-soaked evenings gathered around the fireplace, exchanging stories. One famous evening, Byron issues a challenge to write the best ghost story. Contemplating what to write, Mary recalls another summer, when she was fourteen...

Scotland, 1812. A guest of the Baxter family, Mary arrives in Dundee, befriending young Isabella Baxter. The girls soon spend hours together wandering through fields and forests, concocting tales about mythical Scottish creatures, ghosts and monsters roaming the lowlands. As their bond deepens, Mary and Isabella's feelings for each other intensify. But someone has been watching them - the charismatic and vaguely sinister Mr. Booth, Isabella's older brother-in-law, who may not be as benevolent as he purports to be...

With gripping mastery and verve, Anne Eekhout brings to life a defining moment in Mary Shelley's youth: the creative wellspring for one of the most original, thrilling, and timeless pieces of literature ever written. Provocative, wonderfully atmospheric and pulsing with emotion, Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein is a hypnotic ode to the power of imagination.

Translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson"

I am all about the birth of Mary Shelley's writing prowess. 

The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A sparkling, witchy reimagining of Pride and Prejudice, told from the perspective of the troublesome and - according to her - much-maligned youngest Bennet sister, Lydia.

In this exuberant retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Lydia Bennet puts pen to paper to relate the real events and aftermath of the classic story. Some facts are well known: Mrs. Bennet suffers from her nerves, Mr. Bennet suffers from Mrs. Bennet, and all five daughters suffer from an estate that is entailed only to male heirs.

But Lydia also suffers from entirely different concerns: her best-loved sister Kitty is really a barn cat; Wickham is every bit as wicked as the world believes him to be, but what else would one expect from a demon? And if Mr. Darcy is uptight about etiquette, that's nothing compared to his feelings about magic. Most of all, Lydia has yet to learn that for a witch, promises have power...

Full of enchantment, intrigue, and boundless magic, The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch, has all the irreverent wit, strength, and romance of Pride and Prejudice - while offering a highly unexpected redemption for the wildest Bennet sister."

Oh my, I'm swooning, it's REGENCY MAGIC TIME! Also, Kitty is a barn cat. I can't stop laughing.

Night of the Witch by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis
Published by: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling authors Sara Raasch and Beth Revis weave a tale of romance, vengeance, and magic in this start to the Witch and Hunter duology, an epic enemies to lovers fantasy romance.

Fritzi is a witch. The lone survivor of a brutal attack on her coven, she's determined to find her only remaining family member and bring the hexenjägers - zealot witch hunters - to justice for the lives they ended. To do this, she will need to take down their leader, the merciless and enigmatic Kommandant Dieter Kirch.

Otto is a hexenjäger - but that's just his cover. Years ago, the hexenjägers burned his innocent mother alive, and he has been plotting his revenge against the people who tore apart his family ever since. And now the time has come for them to pay for what they've done.

When Fritzi and Otto are unexpectedly thrown together, neither is sure they can trust the other. The reluctant truce fueled by their common enemy takes them from the city at the heart of the hexenjägers' power to the wild and mysterious Black Forest. As old truths come to light and new dangers are revealed, Fritzi and Otto uncover a horrifying magical plot at the center of the hexenjäger attacks that leads back to Kommandant Kirch...but their own growing feelings for each other may be the most powerful magic of all."

It's October, time to read about some zealot witch hunters.

The Voice Upstairs by Laura E. Weymouth
Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In 1920s England, a working-class girl who can see spirits works with a lord's son to solve mysterious deaths at the local manor home in this eerie historical mystery perfect for fans of The Haunting of Bly Manor and Downton Abbey.

Wilhelmina Price has a dubious reputation in the village of Thrush's Green. Ever since her mother's untimely death, she has been able to see a person's spirit leaving their body days or hours before they die. Wil has never been able to prevent these deaths, so her unusual skill has made her an outsider to most except her lifelong friend, Edison, the youngest son of Lord Summerfield. But when a maid at the Summerfield's estate dies in the same mysterious way as Wil's own mother, Wil takes on a housemaid's position to investigate whether these women might, in fact, have been murdered.

There is nothing Ed Summerfield values more than his friendship with Wil, which is why he's desperate to disguise how hopelessly in love with her he's become - and his belief that he may be haunted by the ghost of his older brother, Peter. Because if Wil, with her supernatural powers, can't see the same evidence of hauntings that Ed does, he worries he may actually be losing his mind.

Together, Wil and Ed must dig deeper into the Summerfields' hoard of secrets, though the truth won't give itself up without a fight that could prove deadly to the both of them, as they face cunning adversaries among the living and the dead."

Yes. Yes to ALL OF IT!

A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From award-winning author Elizabeth Hand comes the first-ever novel authorized to return to the world of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House - a "scary and beautifully written" (Neil Gaiman) new story of isolation and longing perfect for our present time.

Open the door....

Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play Witching Night, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It's enormous, old, and ever-so eerie - the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play.

Despite her own hesitations, Holly's girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house's peculiarities are made known: strange creatures stalk the grounds, disturbing sounds echo throughout the halls, and time itself seems to shift. All too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself. It seems something has been waiting in Hill House all these years, and it no longer intends to walk alone..."

This is THE BOOK for this Halloween season! I can not wait to read it!

The Night House by Jo Nesbo
Published by: Knopf Publishing Group
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the internationally best-selling author, a chilling fresh spin on the classic horror novel - When the voices call, don't answer.

In the wake of his parents' tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He traces the number that Tom prank-called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Mirror Forest. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear...

She's going to burn. The girl you love is going to burn. There's nothing you can do about it.

When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence - and preserve his sanity - as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction. Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story..."

So THIS is why we got ride of all telephone booths!

Midnight Showing by Megan Shepherd
Published by: Hyperion Avenue
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Discovering her father's strange final manuscript has brought only mayhem and darkness to Haven Marbury's life. In Book Two of the Malice Compendium, what has leapt of the page threatens everybody.

Now both hunter and prey, Haven travels far and wide to discover the contours of her family curse and escape the worst of her late father's creations. Constantly looking over her shoulder, she fears Uncle Arnold the most. His irresistible whispers compel victims to commit horrifying deeds, and he's hungry to use Haven's abilities to rewrite the world to his liking.

Drawn to the desert scrublands and Hollywood mansions of California, Haven discovers a string of murders that point directly to members of her family. Given shelter by a mysterious benefactor, Haven and her sister forge questionable allegiances, using some otherworldly creatures to hunt down others. And when the trail of death ends at a studio from the Golden Age of horror films, reality and fiction become the strangest of bedfellows indeed."

I just ADORE that space where horror collides with the Golden Age of Hollywood. Which is probably why I love Scream 3 so much...

The Quiet Room by Terry Miles
Published by: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 432Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The lore and legends around the underground game known as Rabbits gain new dimensions in this twisty tale set in the world of the hit Rabbits podcast.

After nearly winning the eleventh iteration of Rabbits, the mysterious alternate reality game so vast it uses the entire world as its canvas, Emily Connors suddenly finds herself trapped in a dimensional stream where the game does not exist. At all. Except...why do sinister figures show up to stop her every time she goes looking? Does Rabbits truly not exist, or is it being hidden? And if it's being hidden, why - and by whom?

Meanwhile, architect and theme park designer Rowan Chess is having the weirdest month of his life, full of odd coincidences and people who appear one moment and vanish the next, with no trace they ever even existed. The game that is hiding from Emily seems to have found Rowan - with a vengeance.

But only when Rowan and Emily meet do things start to get dangerous, for together they uncover a conspiracy far deeper and deadlier than either of them expected - one that could forever change the nature not only of the game, but of reality itself."

I dare you do go down the Rabbit hole.

Out There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele
Published by: Random House
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The visionary writer and director of Get Out, Us, and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates this groundbreaking anthology of all-new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation.

A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes where the headlights of cars should be that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus ride that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the depths of the Earth in search of the demon that killed her parents. These are just a few of the worlds of Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele's anthology of all-new horror stories by Black writers. Featuring an introduction by Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a master class in horror, and - like his spine-chilling films - its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world...and redefine what it means to be afraid.

Featuring stories by: Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L. D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull."

Perhaps what Jordan Peele should have done all along instead of The Twilight Zone reboot... 

Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson
Published by: Tor Nightfire
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Knock Knock, Open Wide weaves horror and Celtic myth into a terrifying, heartbreaking supernatural tale of fractured family bonds, the secrets we carry, and the veiled forces that guide Irish life.

Driving home late one night, Etain Larkin finds a corpse on a pitch-black country road deep in the Irish countryside. She takes the corpse to a remote farmhouse. So begins a night of unspeakable horror that will take her to the very brink of sanity.

She will never speak of it again.

Two decades later, Betty Fitzpatrick, newly arrived at college in Dublin, has already fallen in love with the drama society, and the beautiful but troubled Ashling Mallen. As their relationship blossoms, Ashling goes to great lengths to keep Betty away from her family, especially her alcoholic mother, Etain.

As their relationship blossoms, Betty learns her lover's terrifying family history, and Ashling's secret obsession. Ashling has become convinced that the horrors inflicted on her family are connected to a seemingly innocent children's TV show. Everyone in Ireland watched this show in their youth, but Ash soon discovers that no one remembers it quite the same way. And only Ashling seems to remember its star: a small black goat puppet who lives in a box and only comes out if you don't behave. They say he's never come out.

Almost never.

When the door between the known and unknown opens, it can never close again."

Children's entertainment is inherently creepy, so I'm all for this book.

My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon
Published by: MGallery/Scout Press
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The New York Times bestselling author of the "otherworldly treat" (People) The Drowning Kind and The Children on the Hill returns with a spine-tingling psychological thriller about a woman who, after taking in her dying, alcoholic mother, begins to suspect demonic possession is haunting her family.

Alison has never been a fan of Christmas. But with it right around the corner and her husband busily decorating their cozy Vermont home, she has no choice but to face it. Then she gets the call.

Mavis, Alison's estranged mother, has been diagnosed with cancer and has only weeks to live. She wants to spend her remaining days with her daughter, son-in-law, and two granddaughters. But Alison grew up with her mother's alcoholism and violent abuse and is reluctant to unearth these traumatic memories. Still, she eventually agrees to take in Mavis, hoping that she and her mother could finally heal and have the relationship she's always dreamed of.

But when mysterious and otherworldly things start happening upon Mavis's arrival, Alison begins to suspect her mother is not quite who she seems. And as the holiday festivities turn into a nightmare, she must confront just how far she is willing to go to protect her family."

Evil at Christmas? Oh yes, the more supernatural the better!

Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle
Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Ninth House meets A Deadly Education in this gorgeous dark academia fantasy following a teen mage who must unravel the truth behind the secret society that may have been involved in her classmates' deaths.

Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best - until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.

Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.

To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school's most reclusive student, Baz - a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory's best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she's convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore - alive - only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.

And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society's attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she's searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere...to face the fate she was never meant to escape."

Dark academia! YAS!

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A gorgeously modern Gothic fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of Ten Thousand Doors of January.

I dream sometimes about a house I've never seen....

Opal is a lot of things - orphan, high school dropout, full-time cynic and part-time cashier - but above all, she's a determined to find a better life for her younger brother Jasper. One that gets them out of Eden, Kentucky, a town remarkable for only two things: bad luck and E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth century author of The Underland, who disappeared over a hundred years ago.

All she left behind were dark rumors - and her home. Everyone agrees that it's best to ignore the uncanny mansion and its misanthropic heir, Arthur. Almost everyone, anyway.

I should be scared, but in the dream I don't hesitate.

Opal has been obsessed with The Underland since she was a child. When she gets the chance to step inside Starling House - and make some extra cash for her brother's escape fund - she can't resist.

But sinister forces are digging deeper into the buried secrets of Starling House, and Arthur's own nightmares have become far too real. As Eden itself seems to be drowning in its own ghosts, Opal realizes that she might finally have found a reason to stick around.

In my dream, I'm home.

And now she'll have to fight.

Welcome to Starling House: enter, if you dare."

Oh oh, I dare! 

Silence and Shadow by Erin Beaty
Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The sequel to Erin Beaty's buzzworthy YA medieval fantasy-thriller Blood and Moonlight, Silence and Shadow is full of swoony romance, dangerous magick, and murder - perfect for fans of Kerri Maniscalco and Mary E. Pearson.

After confronting a killer and fleeing her home to be with each other, Cat and Simon - renown for his uncanny insights into the minds of criminals - arrive in the sprawling city of Londunium. They are pretending to be a newly married couple, but don't expect to keep up the ruse for long. Cat looks forward to honing her healing magick at the local Selanae university, but instead finds a council of ruthless leaders threatening to erase her non-Selanae "husband's" memories to protect their secrets.

Terrified to lose him, Cat takes desperate steps to keep him safe. But when a string of mutilated bodies turns up in the woods outside the city, and Simon is recruited to profile the killer, Cat is pulled back into a world of murder, mayhem, and magick - one that threatens to consume her, and everything she loves."

Londunium? Hell yes!

Menewood by Nicola Griffith
Published by: MCD
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 720 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the much anticipated sequel to Hild, Nicola Griffith's Menewood transports readers back to seventh-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change.

Making a much-anticipated return to the world of Hild, Nicola Griffith's Menewood transports readers back to seventh-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change. Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking's court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is eighteen, honed and tested, the formidable lady of Elmet, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood.

But old alliances are fraying. Younger rivals are snapping at Edwin's heels. War is brewing - bitter war, winter war. Not knowing whom to trust, Edwin becomes volatile and recalls his young advisor to court. There Hild begins to understand the true extent of the chaos ahead - and realizes she must find a way to navigate the turbulence and fight to protect both the kingdom and her own people.

She will face the losses and devastation of total war, and then must summon the determination to forge a radically different path for herself and her people. In the valley, her last redoubt, Hild draws strength from the fierce joy she finds in the natural world, as, slowly, her community takes root. She trains herself and her unexpected allies in new ways of thinking, learning what it means to gather and wield true power. And she prepares for one last wager: risking all on a single throw for a better future.

In the last decade, Hild has become a beloved classic of epic storytelling. Menewood exceeds it in every way."

I mean, we've all been "patiently" waiting for this book yes?

Unruly by David Mitchell
Published by: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A rollicking history of England's kings and queens from Arthur to Elizabeth I, a tale of power, glory, and excessive beheadings by award-winning British actor and comedian David Mitchell.

Think you know the kings and queens of England? Think again.

In Unruly, David Mitchell explores how early England's monarchs, while acting as feared rulers firmly guiding their subjects' destinies, were in reality a bunch of lucky bastards who were mostly as silly and weird in real life as they appear today in their portraits.

Taking us back to King Arthur (spoiler: he didn't exist), Mitchell tells the founding story of post-Roman England up to the reign of Elizabeth I (spoiler: she dies). It's a tale of narcissists, inadequate self-control, middle-management insurrection, uncivil wars, and a few Cnuts, as the English evolved from having their crops stolen by the thug with the largest armed gang to bowing and paying taxes to a divinely anointed king.

How this happened, who it happened to, and why the hell it matters are all questions that Mitchell answers with brilliance, wit, and the full erudition of a man who once studied history - and won't let it off the hook for the mess it's made.

A funny book that takes history seriously, Unruly is for anyone who has ever wondered how the British monarchy came to be - and who is to blame."

This book is also for everyone who loves and adores David Mitchell. Yes, that means me.

A Winter in New York by Josie Silver
Published by: Dell
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A young chef stumbles on a secret family recipe that might lead her to the love - and life - she's been looking for in this stunning novel from the New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December.

When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is - all the nostalgic movies set in New York she'd watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn't quite do it justice.

But Bobby, Iris's best friend, isn't about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye - could it be the same shop that's in an old photo of her mother's?

Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their family's gelato recipe, is recovering from a stroke and can no longer remember it, so they can't make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she's not sure why Gio's uncle gave it to her mother in the first place?

Iris offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio's uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life - and new love - she's been building all winter long."

A kind of While You Were Sleeping tale.

Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Paperback, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"All aboard, but beware! Passengers who sleep on this train may never wake up.

In the early hours of Christmas Eve, the sleeper train from London to the Highlands derails, along with the festive plans of its travelers. With the train buried in snow in the middle of nowhere, the passengers have only each other, and not all of them will reach their holiday celebrations.

As a killer tries to pick passengers off one by one, former Met Detective Roz Parker can't resist one last investigation, but murder in a locked room is a formidable puzzle for even the most seasoned investigator. As accusations begin to fly, the group of travelers fractures and unexpected alliances form. Can Roz find the culprit before anyone else is lost?"

This, right here, this is the book I've picked as my first read for this holiday season.

Winter Chills Vol. 2 by Layne Adamsson, A.Q. Hart, S.J. Lomas, and Dan MacDonald
Published by: 8n Publishing
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Paperback, 158 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"This wintry collection of supernatural stories will send a tingle down your spine.

Four short stories include a scavenger hunt leading to either madness or clarity, tapping into the other side or is it the other way around, a ghost hunt that may give a skeptic something to believe in, and quieting personal demons in the wilds of Alaska.

Grab a blanket, your favorite hot drink, and settle in for some Winter Chills.

Stories included:
Tipping Points by Layne Adamsson
She Gives Me Light by A. Q. Hart
All That Glitters by S.J. Lomas
Dead Air by Dan MacDonald"

Because it's getting cold out and everyone needs to catch a chill this winter!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexandra Benedict, Alix E. Harrow, Beth Revis, David Mitchell, Elizabeth Hand, Erin Beaty, Jennifer McMahon, Jo Nesbo, Jordan Peele, Josie Silver, Megan Shepherd, Patricia Rice, Tasha Alexander, Terry Miles