BP Note: October! Wow time has both flown and moved extremely slowly this year. Change is in the air as the fall harvest and spring planting begins. We have quite a mixed bag of Must Haves this month. Some awaited for years (Bluebell and Sparkle) and returning to Diablo Lake while being careful around Normal Girls and Elderly Ladies are more recent discoveries. We hope you find something to enjoy on this list and drop us a comment. Let us know what enjoyed reading? What should we check out? Everyone’s TBR needs a few more titles. Take care of yourselves and each other. You matter!
Happy reading.
~E
- Contemporary Romance
- Dark Fantasy
- Fantasy
- Fantasy Romance
- Horror
- Mystery
- Paranormal Romance
- Science Fiction Romance
- Steampunk
- Thriller
- Urban Fantasy
Contemporary Romance
A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli – 5 Oct (Berkley)
Twenty-nine-year-old Niki Randhawa has always made practical decisions. Despite her love for music and art, she became an analyst for the stability. She’s always stuck close to home, in case her family needed her. And she’s always dated guys that seem good on paper, rather than the ones who give her butterflies. When she’s laid off, Niki realizes that practical hasn’t exactly paid off for her. So for the first time ever, she throws caution to the wind and books a last-minute flight for her friend Diya’s wedding.
Niki arrives in India just in time to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, where she meets London musician Sameer Mukherji. Maybe it’s the splendor of Mumbai or the magic of the holiday season, but Niki is immediately drawn to Sam. At the wedding, the champagne flows and their flirtatious banter makes it clear that the attraction is mutual.
When Niki and Sam join Diya, her husband and their friends on a group honeymoon, their connection grows deeper. Free-spirited Sam helps Niki get in touch with her passionate and creative side, and with her Indian roots. When she gets a new job offer back home, Niki must decide what she wants out of the next chapter of her life–to cling to the straight and narrow like always, or to take a leap of faith and live the kind of bold life the old Niki never would have dreamed of.
A Thorn in the Saddle (Cowboys In California #3) by Rebekah Weatherspoon – 26 Oct (Kensington)
Ranch owner Jesse Pleasant always felt too big for his desert town–literally–and too brutish to fit in with his charming, cowboy brothers. After his temper gets the best of him one time too many, he’s ready to accept the truth: he’s cursed to be alone. But when the Senate selection committee comes looking for a man of his public standing, he knows this might be his chance to prove to his family and friends that he can keep his cool, all while giving back to his community. There’s only one problem. While Jesse definitely has a mind for business, his people skills are more than lacking.
Former tech consultant Lily-Grace Leroux has had it up to her hat with hot-tempered men who think they know what’s best, especially a big headed rancher set on keeping her widowed father from dating his grandmother. But after Lily-Grace learns of Jesse’s softer side during a painfully awkward showing at a community date auction, one thing becomes clear; Jesse Pleasant is not ready to run for public office. At least not yet. Against her better judgement, Lily-Grace offers to help Jesse learn how to connect with his prospective constituents. She never dreamed they would build their own connection, one destined for its own happily ever after…
All the Feels (Spoiler Alert #2) by Olivia Dade – 26 Oct (Avon)
Alexander Woodroe has it all. Charm. Sex appeal. Wealth. Fame. A starring role as Cupid on TV’s biggest show, God of the Gates. But the showrunners have wrecked his character, he’s dogged by old demons, and his post-show future remains uncertain. When all that reckless emotion explodes into a bar fight, the tabloids and public agree: his star is falling.
Enter Lauren Clegg, the former ER therapist hired to keep him in line. Compared to her previous work, watching over handsome but impulsive Alex shouldn’t be especially difficult. But the more time they spend together, the harder it gets to keep her professional remove and her heart intact, especially when she discovers the reasons behind his recklessness…not to mention his Cupid fanfiction habit.
When another scandal lands Alex in major hot water and costs Lauren her job, she’ll have to choose between protecting him and offering him what he really wants—her. But he’s determined to keep his improbably short, impossibly stubborn, and extremely endearing minder in his life any way he can. And on a road trip up the California coast together, he intends to show her exactly what a falling star will do to catch the woman he loves: anything at all.
Donut Fall in Love by Jackie Lau – 26 Oct (Berkley)
Actor Ryan Kwok is back in Toronto after the promotional tour for his latest film, a rom-com that is getting less-than-stellar reviews. After the sudden death of his mother and years of constant work, Ryan is taking some much-needed time off. But as he tries to be supportive to his family, he struggles with his loss and doesn’t know how to talk to his dad—who now trolls him on Twitter instead of meeting him for dim sum.
Innovative baker Lindsay McLeod meets Ryan when he knocks over two dozen specialty donuts at her bakery. Their relationship is off to a messy start, but there’s no denying their immediate attraction. When Ryan signs up for a celebrity episode of Baking Fail, he asks Lindsay to teach him how to bake and she agrees.
As Lindsay and Ryan spend time together, bonding over grief and bubble tea, it starts to feel like they’re cooking up something sweeter than cupcakes in the kitchen.
Inked Devotion (Montgomery Ink #20: Fort Collins #3) by Carrie Ann Ryan – 26 Oct (Carrie Ann Ryan)
Brenna Garrett watched her best friend fall in love with another woman all the while keeping his darkest secrets from her. Now she’ll have to figure out who she is without him while not letting the rest of the Montgomerys see her break.
When her family forces her on a road trip, she finds herself bringing Benjamin Montgomery with her. The problem? He’s her best friend’s twin, so there’s no escaping that familiar face.
Benjamin didn’t want to leave his family in a lurch, but Brenna isn’t the only one who needs a break. Only a drunken mistake leads to a night of passion with unintended consequences.
When it turns out they can’t walk away, they’ll have to make a choice: remain just friends or start something new and possibly risk everything.
Including themselves.
Strictly Confidential (Grants of DC #3) by Donna Hill – 26 Oct (Harlequin Desire)
To save her family business, Lexi Randall joins professional forces with Montgomery Grant, careful to conceal why she desperately needs this project. Fortunately, the real estate developer shares her vision for their Washington, DC, community—but keeping their hands off each other becomes a losing battle. When an unwelcome blast from Monty’s past shows up, Lexi knows it’s only a matter of time before her secret is no longer strictly confidential. Will her choices cost them everything or take their partnership to a whole new level?
Dark Fantasy
Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn – 19 Oct (Tordotcom)
We are a people who do not forget.
Survivors from a flooded kingdom struggle alone on an ark. Resources are scant, and ravenous beasts circle. Their fangs are sharp.
Among the refugees is Iraxi: ostracized, despised, and a commoner who refused a prince, she’s pregnant with a child that might be more than human. Her fate may be darker and more powerful than she can imagine.
Fantasy
A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables #1) by Alix E. Harrow – 5 Oct (Tordotcom)
It’s Zinnia Gray’s twenty-first birthday, which is extra-special because it’s the last birthday she’ll ever have. When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition. Not much is known about her illness, just that no one has lived past twenty-one.
Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia’s last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, something strange and unexpected happens, and she finds herself falling through worlds, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate.
Briarheart by Mercedes Lackey – 5 Oct (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
Miriam may be the daughter of Queen Alethia of Tirendell, but she’s not a princess. She’s the child of Alethia and her previous husband, the King’s Champion, who died fighting for the king, and she has no ambitions to rule. When her new baby sister Aurora, heir to the throne, is born, she’s ecstatic. She adores the baby, who seems perfect in every way. But on the day of Aurora’s christening, an uninvited Dark Fae arrives, prepared to curse her, and Miriam discovers she possesses impossible power.
Soon, Miriam is charged with being trained in both magic and combat to act as chief protector to her sister. But shadowy threats are moving closer and closer to their kingdom, and Miriam’s dark power may not be enough to save everyone she loves, let alone herself.
Along the Saltwise Sea (Up-and Under #2) by A. Deborah Baker (Seanan McGuire) – 12 Oct (Tordotcom)
After climbing Over the Woodward Wall and making their way across the forest, Avery and Zib found themselves acquiring some extraordinary friends in their journey through the Up-and-Under.
After staying the night, uninvited, at a pirate queen’s cottage in the woods, the companions find themselves accountable to its owner, and reluctantly agree to work off their debt as her ship sets sail, bound for lands unknown. But the queen and her crew are not the only ones on board, and the monsters at sea aren’t all underwater.
The friends will need to navigate the stormy seas of obligation and honor on their continuing journey along the improbable road
Little Thieves by Margaret Owen – 19 Oct (Henry, Holt, and Co)
Once upon a time, there was a horrible girl…
Vanja Schmidt knows that no gift is freely given, not even a mother’s love–and she’s on the hook for one hell of a debt. Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele’s dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja’s otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back… by stealing Gisele’s life for herself.
The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as princess and jewel thief, charming nobility while emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed.
Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele’s sinister fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja’s tail, she’ll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life.
Fantasy Romance
Fumiko and the Finicky Nestmate (Amaranthine Saga #5) by Forthright – 22 Oct (Twinkle Press)
She could make a mess of everything. Especially him.
The Junzi—also known as the Four Gentlemen—are a set of ancient weapons fashioned from remnants. Dragons refer to them as the Four Storms, and Hisoka Twineshaft believes they will make a difference in the hunt for the rogue. But someone else is interested in gathering up these crystal masterpieces. The so-called Gentleman Bandit is responsible for two thefts already, and Hisoka is concerned for the Bamboo Stave. So he deploys an elite taskforce to guard the treasure. And to catch a thief.Juuyu Farroost and his teammates regroup at a safehouse tucked under the boughs of one of the oldest—and most heavily fortified—orphan trees in the Americas. Fumiko and her tree twin have enough rooms for all of them. If they can shift enough of the woman’s clutter to set up their equipment. Juuyu’s expertise is essential to the success of their mission, but he can barely focus thanks to Fumiko, her messes, and Akira, who apparently owes Boon a favor.
Horror
Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw – 19 Oct (Tor Nightfire)
A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.
It’s the perfect wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends.
But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.
And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.
Mystery
An Elderly Lady Must not be Crossed by Helene Tursten – 5 Oct (Soho Crime)
Everyone’s favorite octogenarian killer is back in this new collection of stories by Swedish crime writer Helene Tursten that is sure to have you in stitches.
Eighty-eight-year-old Maud is never looking for trouble, but it always seems to find her. First, a woman in her building met an untimely end: tragic. Then, just recently, a dead body mysteriously appeared in her very own apartment, prompting an investigation by the local Gothenburg authorities. Such a strange coincidence. When it seems suspicion has fallen on her, little old lady that she is, Maud decides to skip town and splurges on a trip to South Africa for herself.
In these six interlocking stories, memories of unfortunate incidents from Maud’s past keep bubbling to the surface, each triggered by something in the present: an image, a word, even a taste. When she lands in Johannesburg at last, eager to move on from the bloody ordeal last summer, she finds certain problems seem to be following her. Luckily, Maud is no stranger to taking matters into her own hands . . . even if it means she has to get a little blood on them in the process.
Don’t let her age fool you. Maud may be nearly ninety, but this elderly lady still has a few tricks before she’s ready to call it quits.
*Includes cookie recipes*
A Line to Kill (Hawthorne and Horowitz #3) by Anthony Horowitz – 19 Oct (Harper)
When Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, author Anthony Horowitz, are invited to an exclusive literary festival on Alderney, an idyllic island off the south coast of England, they don’t expect to find themselves in the middle of murder investigation—or to be trapped with a cold-blooded killer in a remote place with a murky, haunted past.
Arriving on Alderney, Hawthorne and Horowitz soon meet the festival’s other guests—an eccentric gathering that includes a bestselling children’s author, a French poet, a TV chef turned cookbook author, a blind psychic, and a war historian—along with a group of ornery locals embroiled in an escalating feud over a disruptive power line.
When a local grandee is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Hawthorne and Horowitz become embroiled in the case. The island is locked down, no one is allowed on or off, and it soon becomes horribly clear that a murderer lurks in their midst. But who?
Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest – 26 Oct (Atria)
Meet Leda Foley: devoted friend, struggling travel agent, and inconsistent psychic. When Leda, sole proprietor of Foley’s Flights of Fancy, impulsively re-books Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt’s flight, her life changes in ways she couldn’t have predicted.
After watching his original plane blow up from the safety of the airport, Grady realizes that Leda’s special abilities could help him with a cold case he just can’t crack.
Despite her scattershot premonitions, she agrees for a secret reason: her fiancé’s murder remains unsolved. Leda’s psychic abilities couldn’t help the case several years before, but she’s been honing her skills and drawing a crowd at her favorite bar’s open-mic nights, where she performs Klairvoyant Karaoke—singing whatever song comes to mind when she holds people’s personal effects. Now joined by a rag-tag group of bar patrons and pals alike, Leda and Grady set out to catch a killer—and learn how the two cases that haunt them have more in common than they ever suspected.
Paranormal Romance
Sing for the Dead (London Shifters #2) by Piper J. Drake – 12 Oct (KU)
There is beautiful mercy in a killing dance
Were-leopard Kayden is helping the London werewolf pack keep the zombie infestation in check and he works solo—until he discovers a beautiful fae woman surrounded by the aftermath of battle. He’s immediately drawn to Sorcha and his interest only intensifies as he discovers the tempest of emotions beneath her outward calm.
Half Bean Sidhe and half berserker, Sorcha trained over centuries to become the perfect warrior. She agrees to work with local weres to investigate zombie attacks on the fae folk in London—and finds her partner, Kayden, to be her match in strength and passion. Even better, his kiss fills her with insatiable desire instead of terrible bloodlust.
Their bond grows as they fight side by side and each bare their deepest scars for the other to see. But with the force behind the deadly new zombies poised to overwhelm the city, Sorcha can only hope that the next time her bloodlust strikes, Kayden isn’t among the fallen…
Author’s Note: For tropes, tags, and CWs, please check the author’s website.
Her Wolf in the Wild by Rien Gray – 19 Oct (Carina Press)
The Hounds of God MC live outside the law and protect their own. They only have three rules:
(1) look out for each other
(2) obey the club president
(3) never show a human your werewolf form.
Christiana Arjean needs to get out. She tried to fix her relationship, but making a break for it is her only shot. She almost doesn’t make it, until a butch biker with a shock of white hair tosses Christiana on the back of her bike. Micah is as mysterious as she is attractive, and Christiana wants to know what’s under that tough exterior.
Micah Nubilo knows a little bit about keeping secrets. Rescuing Christiana is a bad idea, and letting her hang around is even worse. But there’s something calling to Micah: an impossible bond no werewolf should ever feel for a human, even one as beautiful as Christiana.
Their growing intimacy is threatened when they realize their pasts are connected in ways they never could have imagined. Christiana and Micah must fight against threats both outside the pack and inside themselves for a chance at putting it all behind them and finding a way forward—together.
Diablo Lake: Awakened (Diablo Lake #3) by Lauren Dane – 26 Oct (Carina Press)
It’s autumn in Diablo Lake and the town is buzzing with preparations for Halloween, Samhain, Collins Hill Days, and the wedding of the newly elected mayor and her wolf shifter fiancé.
Ruby Thorne can’t think of a better time of year to come back for good and open the health clinic she’s been planning for the last six years. Her connection to the town and its veins of magic have snapped back into place, flooding her with a power eager to jump to her call.
She has a sense of rightness. This witch is exactly where she’s supposed to be. So it’s not much of a surprise that he comes back into her path just like he was meant to…
Damon Dooley has spent the last few years learning how to run the pack at his older brother’s right hand. There’s been upheaval. Outrage. Violence. Old rules have created a silence so crushing it’s collapsed the fabric of not just the wolf shifters, but the town as a whole.
And yet, Ruby has returned. Man and wolf agree she needs to be in their life regularly, and before long, things move from serious to something magically deeper.
Bound to one another heart and soul, both committed to what’s best for Diablo Lake, Ruby backs Damon as he pushes for much-needed change. But when something falls into Ruby’s lap and she learns the whole, terrible truth, secrets need to be spilled. How—and by whom—becomes the only question.
Captivated (Deep in Your Veins #6) by Suzanne Wright – 28 Oct (KU)
Three novellas set in The Hollow, a gated community on a private island that homes the ruling vampires, their legion, and many other vampires and humans. It is not necessary to have read the earlier books in the series, but it may help.
SHATTERED – Max and Paige
If there was one thing Paige West thought she knew for sure, it was that Max Kincaid did not like her. So when an argument between them ends in an explosive kiss, she’s more than stunned. Even more shocking? He proposes a deal—she’ll spend three nights in his bed, they’ll burn off the relentless sexual chemistry, and then they’ll each go their own way. Sounds simple. What could go wrong? Nothing, providing she can walk away emotionally unscathed. The trouble is … she’s not so certain she can.
ENTICED – Damien and Lexi
None of Lexi Solomon’s life plans had included living on an island filled with supposedly mythical creatures. Being inexplicably drawn to one of them isn’t so great, considering relationships between humans and vampires have no future, but Damien Addams compels her like nothing else. He also wants her in his bed. More, he wants to claim her as his vessel, meaning no vampire but him will be allowed to feed from her. Tempting. But it would also be reckless … because she’s falling too fast and too hard for a man she can’t keep.
DARED – Ryder and Maya
Maya Duncan knows that moving on from Ryder Kingsley won’t be easy, even if all they had was a brief fling before he left for a six-month-long trip. Well now he’s back, and it’s clear he has no interest in picking up where they left off. But after a group game of Truth or Dare forces them to put their hands on each other again, their resolve to keep their distance crumbles into nothing. But can the fling amount to more this time round, or are the rumours true? Is Ryder too deep in grief over a woman he lost to ever truly move forward?
Invocation (Mosley Coven #1) by Katrina Jackson – 31 Oct (Self)
A witch’s power is in the blood. Her blood. Your blood. My blood.
Josie Mosley is a normal girl in her early twenties with a degree she can’t use, a job as a waitress that doesn’t pay all the bills, an apartment in the city that boasts a great view of an alleyway that also doubles as an amateur boxing ring every third Thursday of the month, and a secret.
She’s a witch.
For close to six years, she’s been able to hide her powers from her friends and pass as a normal post-grad slacker still trying to figure out what to do with her life. But all that changes when Josie’s mother dies and she inherits generations of power. She returns home not just as the prodigal daughter but as one of the strongest witches in Greeneville.
Just before she crosses the threshold into her hometown to take over the family throne, Josie encounters a man who she would have stayed very far away from, if only she’d bothered to ask his name. But as was once prophesied, a quickie in the back of a bar sets Josie, the Mosley witches and all of Greeneville on a reckoning with the past that not everyone will survive.
Oh well. When the price is blood, everyone pays in the end.
Science Fiction Romance
Her Alien Forgemasters (The Drift: Haven Colony #3) by Susan Hayes – 5 Oct (Black Scroll Publications LLC)
She doesn’t do mornings, cardio, or long-term relationships. Then her mates walked into her bar…
Anya couldn’t be happier. Her tavern is packed every night, her staff is amazing, and her nosy mother is busy hauling cargo on the far side of the galaxy. It’s taken her years of work to reach this moment, and she’s ready to relax and enjoy the ride.
The last thing she needs is a romance to mess up her plans. She’s managed quite well without a man in her life, so why did the universe send her two?
He’d always known they’d find their destined mate. He just never imagined she’d be human.
Tra’var loves his new life. Haven colony isn’t perfect, but it’s far better than the unchanging, inflexible society they left behind. Here everyone is free to be themselves.
All that’s missing is the female who will complete their triad and forge them into the family he’s always dreamed of… but he wasn’t prepared for Anya. She wasn’t anything like he’d expected, even if she might be everything they need.
He’s been an outcast his whole life… what female would ever want him?
Damos can transform ordinary steel into anything from weapons to ornaments, but he’ll never be able to change the one thing he truly wishes he could… himself.
Born flawed in a society where genetic perfection is the standard, he’s only been tolerated but never accepted. Haven might be different. But when Anya learns the truth, will she see past his flaws and embrace him as her mate?
Pets in Space 6 by Carol van Natta et. al. – 5 Oct (Pets in Space Books for Chavanch Press)
Join the incredible authors in this year’s Pets in Space 6 for another out-of-this-world adventure. This award-winning, USA TODAY Bestselling anthology is packed full of your favorite Pets in Space®. Featuring 11 original, never-before-released stories from some of today’s bestselling science fiction romance and fantasy authors, Pets in Space 6 continues their vital support of Hero-Dogs.org, the non-profit charity that improves quality of life for veterans of the U.S. military and first-responders with disabilities. Don’t miss out on this limited-edition anthology before it’s too late!
Pets in Space 6 is edited by Carol Van Natta. Contributing authors: S.E. Smith (NY Times and USA TODAY bestselling author), Veronica Scott (USA TODAY bestselling author), Honey Phillips, Carol Van Natta (USA TODAY bestselling author), Cassandra Chandler (USA TODAY bestselling author), J.C. Hay (USA TODAY bestselling author), S.J. Pajonas (USA TODAY bestselling author), Greta van der Rol, Deborah A. Bailey, Melisse Aires, and Kyndra Hatch.
Steampunk
Isolate (Grand Illusion #1) by L.E. Modesitt Jr. – 19 Oct (Tor Books)
Industrialization. Social unrest. Underground movements. Government corruption and surveillance.
Something is about to give.
Steffan Dekkard is an isolate, one of the small percentage of people who are immune to the projections of empaths. As an isolate, he has been trained as a security specialist and he and his security partner Avraal Ysella, a highly trained empath are employed by Axel Obreduur, a senior Craft Minister and the de facto political strategist of his party.
When a respected Landor Councilor dies of “heart failure” at a social event, because of his political friendship with Obreduur, Dekkard and Ysella find that not only is their employer a target, but so are they, in a covert and deadly struggle for control of the government and economy.
Steffan is about to understand that everything he believed is an illusion.
Thriller
State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny – 12 Oct (Simon & Schuster)
State of Terror follows a novice Secretary of State who has joined the administration of her rival, a president inaugurated after four years of American leadership that shrank from the world stage. A series of terrorist attacks throws the global order into disarray, and the secretary is tasked with assembling a team to unravel the deadly conspiracy, a scheme carefully designed to take advantage of an American government dangerously out of touch and out of power in the places where it counts the most.
The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield – 12 Oct (Mulholland)
1973: a final, top-secret mission to the Moon. Three astronauts in a tiny spaceship, a quarter million miles from home. A quarter million miles from help.
NASA is about to launch Apollo 18. While the mission has been billed as a scientific one, flight controller Kazimieras “Kaz” Zemeckis knows there is a darker objective. Intelligence has discovered a secret Soviet space station spying on America, and Apollo 18 may be the only chance to stop it.
But even as Kaz races to keep the NASA crew one step ahead of their Russian rivals, a deadly accident reveals that not everyone involved is quite who they were thought to be. With political stakes stretched to the breaking point, the White House and the Kremlin can only watch as their astronauts collide on the lunar surface, far beyond the reach of law or rescue.
Urban Fantasy
A Veiled and Hallowed Eve (Soulbound #7) by Hailey Turner – 1 Oct (Self)
Death is the last lover you will ever know.
SOA Special Agent Patrick Collins has lived a life full of lies, and it has finally caught up with him. There’s no denying his past any longer, not after giving up the truth to save himself from a murder charge. But truth alone can’t set Patrick free, and time is running out to stop the Dominion Sect from turning his father into a god.
Jonothon de Vere knows survival isn’t a guarantee, but he’s desperate to keep Patrick safe, even as hope slips through his fingers. With the future unknown, Jono will follow Patrick wherever he goes, even to Salem, where a family reunion reveals a bitter secret that was never going to stay buried.
With New York City under control of their god pack, Patrick and Jono must fall back on every alliance they’ve brokered to fill the front lines of a war coming directly to the city streets. The veil is always thinnest on Samhain, and what awaits them on the other side is the stuff of nightmares. For when it tears, all hell will break loose, and the gods will be summoned to face a reckoning the world isn’t ready for.
The stakes have never been higher, failure has never been so deadly, and the Fates have never been kind to heroes. Patrick knows that better than anyone—because everything has a price, every debt always comes due, and it’s finally time for Patrick to pay his.
The Wicche Glass Tavern (Sam Quinn #3) by Seana Kelly – 5 Oct (NYLA)
I’m Sam Quinn, the werewolf book nerd owner of the Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar. Clive, my vampire gentleman caller, has asked me to marry him. His nocturne is less than celebratory. Unfortunately, for them and the sexy vamp doing her best to seduce him, his cold, dead heart beats only for me.
As much as my love life feels like a minefield, it has to take a backseat to a far more pressing problem. The time has come. I need to deal with my aunt, the woman who’s been trying to kill me for as long as I can remember. She’s learned a new trick. She’s figured out how to weaponize my friends against me. To have any hope of surviving, I have to learn to use my necromantic gifts. I need a teacher. We find one hiding among the fae, which is a completely different problem. I need to determine what I’m capable of in a hurry because my aunt doesn’t care how many are hurt or killed as long as she gets what she wants. Sadly for me, what she wants is my name on a headstone.
I’m gathering my friends—werewolves, vampires, wicches, gorgons, a Fury, a half-demon, an elf, and a couple of dragon-shifters—into a kind of Fellowship of the Sam. It’s going to be one hell of a battle. Hopefully, San Francisco will still be standing when the dust clears.
Booked for Kidnapping (Vigilante Magical Librarians #2) by R.J. Blain – 7 Oct (Pen & Page Publishing)
Following the assassination of Senator Maybelle, widespread rioting and unrest transform the presidential campaign into a lethal circus. With protests raging over the new bill, the government scrambles to restore peace and order.
Armed with a probationary private investigation license, Janette and her friends race against time to prevent the next murder. On the surface, the motive for the killings seems simple enough: the senate bill, if passed, would transform the United States into a militant dictatorship.
As hostilities around the nation intensify and the pressure of the investigation strains Janette’s relationships with her family and friends, she learns loyalty only goes so far, friendships are as easily forged as they are broken, and justice means little to those determined to preserve their personal liberties.
But when a murder attempt turns into a kidnapping, she’s left with one choice:
Uncover the truth, or die trying.
Archangel’s Light (Guild Hunter #14) by Nalini Singh – 26 Oct (Berkley)
Illium and Aodhan. Aodhan and Illium. For centuries they’ve been inseparable: the best of friends, closer than brothers, companions of the heart. But that was before—before darkness befell Aodhan and shattered him, body, mind, and soul. Now, at long last, Aodhan is healing, but his new-found strength and independence may come at a devastating cost—his relationship with Illium.
As they serve side by side in China, a territory yet marked by the evil of its former archangel, the secret it holds nightmarish beyond imagining, things come to an explosive decision point. Illium and Aodhan must either walk away from the relationship that has defined them—or step forward into a future that promises a bond infinitely precious in the life of an immortal…but that demands a terrifying vulnerability from two badly bruised hearts.
Martyr’s Promise (Elemental Covenant #2) by Elizabeth Hunter – 26 Oct (Recurve Press LLC)
When Summer Mackenzie and her boyfriend disappear in the fog-shrouded forests of Northern California, it sets off more than one alarm. The sheriff’s department is looking for them, the state rangers are on their trail, and even private security companies have gotten involved.
But Summer wasn’t an ordinary college student; she was a human born into the immortal Mackenzie clan, a line of powerful vampires from the Great Smoky Mountains. Now Carwyn ap Bryn and Brigid Connor are getting messages from allies across the world, old rivals, and new friends, all wanting to know where Summer is and why hikers along the Lost Coast keep going missing.
If Brigid and Carwyn can’t find Summer, tensions between vampire clans might just snap, leaving more than just the immortal world bloody.
They may know how to search the wilderness, but the Northern California woods hold more than the average share of mysteries. Secretive immortals, suspicious humans, and ancient myths are all at home in a land where human highways come to a dead end, and dense forests meet rugged coast.
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