Tag: spooky

Book previews, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Halloween 2025

veritywilde

I had lofty plans for my reading for a Halloween post this year, because it’s been a couple of years since I have done a Halloween Recommendsday post. But due to my extreme flakiness when it comes to reading, I only finished one of the books that I was planning to read – and that was yesterday’s BotW. But I’m turning that to the good, and instead of giving you reviews, I’m going to tell you what I’ve got waiting to be read that fits a Halloween vibe, but appeals to me and my reading tastes.

I’m starting with Olivia Dade‘s ZomRomCom. I bought this at Saucy Books in the summer and I think the fact that it’s in paperback is the reason I haven’t read it yet – because I’ve been away from home so much. Anyway, as the name suggests this is a Zombie Romantic Comedy where two neighbours team up to try and prevent the Zombie apocalypse. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Dade’s style and sensibilities transfer over into a paranormal romance, if I can just find some time at home to read it…

Also in paranormal rom-coms, I have Rosie Danan‘s Fan Service on the pile. I mentioned this back in March when it came out, and it had a price drop this month so here I am with a Kindle edition of this novel about a star of a werewolf detective TV show who has just discovered that he might be a werewolf for real.

Among the books waiting on the monster to-read pile are three Virago Designer Classics that look beautiful, but that I’m a little afraid may be too scary for me. The first a book of Daphne DuMaurier’s Don’t Look Now, has five short stories that are described as “haunting and evocative” and the second is The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton, where the problem is clearly in the name. Finally there is The Talented Mr Ripley, which I don’t think counts as Halloween-y, unless you count psychological thrillers as Halloween reading, and I’m pretty confident that that one is too scary for me, given that as as a teenager I failed to make it to the end of the movie version!

And finally, I’m confident that I will have finished The Murder at World’s End by this time next week – but that of course is too late for this post. It’s got a remote mansion, the passing of Haley’s Comet, a seemingly impossible murder in a locked room and a new servant who arrives the day before the murder and finds himself in the sights of Scotland Yard. I’m not sure if it’s actually Halloween-y per se though – but it’s certainly mysterious, and from where I have got to so far (about a third of the way through at time of writing) it has good potential to get really creepy.

Have a great Halloween if that’s your thing, if it’s not I hope you manage to escape the madness and in case you haven’t read it yet this season, I present my second favourite* McSweeney’s article ever: It’s Decorative Gourd Season.

*My favourite is of course I Regret To Announce That My Wedding to Captain Von Trapp Has Been Cancelled. You’re welcome.

Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Romances with Ghosts

veritywilde

It s the day before Halloween and in Saturday’s post, I mentioned a bunch of this year’s new releases with a spooky or somewhat Halloween-related theme and of course the newest Jen DeLuca which features some ghostly goings on was BotW last week, so today for Recommensday I wanted to mention a few of the less new books that are also suitable for the season.

Lets start with a paranormal romance series: Darynda Jones’s Charley Davidson books. Charley is a part-time Private Investigator and also a grim reaper, oh and she’s got a thing going on with the son of Satan. It’s been seven years (!) since the first in this series was a Book of the Week pick, and I released while writing this that I haven’t got to the end of the series, so I should probably pick up another one or two and see how it goes. They are on the edge of too dark for me though, so your mileage may vary on that front.

Equally, if you like a paranormal series – I’ve written series posts for several of Charlaine Harris’s series which have varying degrees of romance. Obviously there is the Southern Vampire series – aka Sookie Stackhouse aka the source material for the TV series True Blood (too violent for me on TV, I only made it to the end of series 2, but absolutely fine as books) – but there’s also the Harper Connelly series, although that has less romance to it and then the Midnight, Texas series, which I haven’t written about yet, but reviewed a couple of them here when they were new.

Then there are the standalone romances – and all of these are books I’ve mentioned before (sorry, not sorry). First of all there’s Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics, which has a ghostwriter who goes home to her family’s funeral parlour because her father has died, only to have her editor turn up as a ghost at her door. Then there are a couple of newer ones as well – firstly this summer’s Love of my Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood which has a heroine who gets a reprieve from death – but needs to find the love of her life or she’ll be permanently dead. This has now been optioned for a film by the same production company as It Ends With Us. And finally there’s Sarah Adler‘s Happy Medium which was a BotW back in May and has a fake psychic who spots a real ghost at the home of a sexy and sceptical farmer.

And that’s your lot for today – I hope you have a great Halloween if that’s something you celebrate, if it’s not, I hope you manage to avoid the trick or treaters and have a cozy night doing something else!

Happy Reading!