A young man with ambitions develops skills that enhance his life, but a mysterious and seemingly unstoppable danger pulls him into a duty-bound fight in EverBright by Craig Phillips. Half-halfling Tiernan has grown up working hard alongside his mother as a servant without being acknowledged by his father, yet he is filled with cheer and dreams of elevating beyond his place in life.

Having endured a frightening and formative event in his youth, a man experiences a recurrence of nightmares and an eerie series of events that threaten his family in Nightmare by Chad Nicholas. Burdened by recurring nightmares that are increasing in frequency, Scott does his best to ignore the accompanying fears and strange feelings lurking at the edge of his mind, which he’d worked so hard to bury and that appears to have now returned; however, after a car accident that should have killed him results in only minor injuries, things are slightly off and evidence begins to stack up pointing toward the reappearance of a monstrous being from Scott’s youth.

Coming back to work after a two-month hiatus forced by a mental breakdown and immediately facing protests on public decency and book banning, one librarian’s actions and reflections demonstrate the power and community a library provides in Is This A Cry For Help? by Emily Austin. Darcy’s life has evolved into one that is much greater and more filled with support and love than she could have imagined in her youthful years, when her life looked quite different.

As part of a mission from Professor Cake, Peter and Sir Tode seek out a young bookmender whose skills will help them all embark on a new adventure in Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard (The Vanished Kingdom #2) by Jonathan Auxier. Twelve-year-old Sophie Quire is the daughter of a bookseller, spending her days within her father’s bookshop, where she mends old books and reads as many as she can.

The crew of a spaceship traveling to Titan returns to Earth after helping to gather valuable data for humanity’s future, but it’s not quite as they left it, causing them to question just what happened and where they are in Detour by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart. A billionaire presidential hopeful, John Ward, has plans underway for three astronauts, Mike, Della, and Alonso, an astrophysicist in his employ, Padma, and a contest winner, Stitch, to travel to space on a two-year round-trip mission to Titan drop off a satellite that will help them gather data in preparation of an envisioned colonization that would help save humanity’s future as life on Earth grows ever more treacherous; however, the seat that was initially planned for Ward, along with a hefty payday, is instead offered to a hero cop, Ryan, when he instinctually saves Ward’s life from assassination while he happened to be nearby.

These Violet Delights by Madeleine Roux and Manifesting Destiny by Amanda Innes are out today.

Ariadne & Dionysus by Elysanthe is out today.

It's spooky how fast the month went by. During October, I read 8 books, bringing me to 86% of my annual goal. October Release Round-Up: A Grave Duet: Collected Halloween Horror by Kasey Fallon, Melisa Peterson Lewis, and Rissa Miller Sabrina Tells Maddie the Truth About Her Past by George Bachman The Dark Will End the Dark by Darrin Doyle…

Best Wishes from the Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki and translated by Jordan Taylor and The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell are out today.

The strong bonds of friendship forged between two teens drive them to protect one another despite the danger they face and the awareness they have that their futures will likely diverge in Manifesting Destiny by Amanda Innes. Growing up together and learning that one day they should transform into the animal of the Clan they belong to and leave the community, Cee and Marcus have become inseparable best friends despite the impending separation and heartbreak that their future will bring, and more so for Cee as she’s in love with him, knowing he doesn’t feel the same.

Balancing the demands of serving as Pharaoh and managing family-related affairs, Isis and her realm face threats that will have far-reaching consequences in Eyes of Isis: Serpent’s Sting by Brian Coggins Jr. Many years after seeing her beloved husband Osiris killed by his brother Set, Isis is determined to recover the fragments of his soul, embarking on heist-style jobs with trusted friends and members of staff to do so, though that means periodically leaving her pharaoh duties behind in pursuit of her goal.

A woman appears to be put together with confidence and a successful job, but the reality under the surface is a churning turmoil of anxiety in Discontent by Beatriz Serrano and translated by Mara Faye Lethem. Working at an ad agency in Madrid, Marisa’s life, by all appearances, is an enviable one: she has a nice apartment, a hot, friendly neighbor she can talk and sleep with, and she’s quickly risen through her company without putting in too much of her own effort.

One Grimm Night by Chad Nicholas is out today.

A cabin in the forest gathers a group of strangers whose tales may be familiar, yet they harbor their own dangerous or horrific secrets as they strive to survive the turmoil of a stormy night in One Grimm Night by Chad Nicholas. In a dark forest, there’s a cabin well off any path that belongs to a seemingly kind older woman that serves as a refuge on a stormy night for the older woman’s grumpy, reclusive friend who frequently mumbles in his sleep, a lost, blind prince, a girl in red fleeing from the monster chasing her, an emaciated stranger on the brink of death, a scarred woman in a dress with bloodstains seeking her missing prince, and two young siblings.

From the chaos instigated by connections forged and events or experiences hosted, the lives of the artists are gathered, resulting in dramatic turns in Dark Matter by Kathe Koja. Having been balancing their respective artistic interests and endeavors while maintaining their relatively new marriage, Ari and Felix’s relationship has a strong foundation, but some growing distance emerges with increasing demands that seem to pull Felix away.

A young, blind thief steals a box from a mysterious traveler, which sets him upon a quest filled with adventure that will reveal his true identity and forever change his life in Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes (The Vanished Kingdom #1) by Jonathan Auxier. Abandoned and blinded as a baby, Peter Nimble turned to thieving in order to survive before he’s taken in by an adult who uses his adept thievery skills to turn a profit.

A creative woman isolating herself while trying to avoid her past meets someone, with plenty of their own problems needing addressing, who gets her to confront the fears lurking within her past in Ariadne & Dionysus by Elysanthe. After fleeing from her deceptive marriage and previous life as an orchestra conductor in Germany, which she fought hard for after growing up in Greece, Ariadne has found herself with a quiet life working at an ad agency in Sweden.

Sabrina Tells Maddie the Truth About her Past by George Bachman and The Dark Will End the Dark by Darrin Doyle are out today.

While presenting stories that may initially seem to explore aspects and struggles of the familiar, relatively common, or trials of everyday life, the fifteen short stories in The Dark Will End The Dark by Darrin Doyle include an additional layer of weirdness to the narratives presented that converts each tale into something much more hauntingly strange, eerie, or shocking, often through an emphasis on bodily horror or visceral situations that would give an ordinary person reason to be disconcerted.

A Grave Duet: Collected Halloween Horror by Kasey Fallon, Melisa Peterson Lewis, and Rissa Miller is out today.

Throughout the first -ber month that marks the latter part of this year, I read 10 books and reached 78% of my annual goal. September Release Round-Up: A Land So Wide by Erin A. Craig Where the Light Flickers by Ryan Burden Gifts Between Us by C.C. Adams Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson Fiend by Alma Katsu

Holed up together in a ruined house as the world falls into chaos, the recorded discussion between two young women begins to reveal the secret and hidden parts of their lives in George Bachman’s Sabrina Tells Maddie the Truth About Her Past. While the world is in a state of utter chaos as unbelievable, apocalyptic events take place across the globe, Sabrina has been drawn back to the ruins of a house she previously escaped from and is now holed up there trying to escape from shadowy beings while performing a ritual with her friend Maddie, a Hollywood star, as Maddie continually prompts Sabrina with questions.

Unified by something of an eerie, supernatural, or horrific nature occurring on Halloween, A Grave Duet: Collected Halloween Horror by Kasey Fallon, Melisa Peterson Lewis, and Rissa Miller features seven stories that explore inhuman beings and fabulous fashion, dangerously insatiable appetites, a death loop with creepy, cryptic calls, a series of fears manifesting into deaths, a story of revenge and myth involving werewolves and ghosts, a bride willing to pay an unfathomable cost to see her departed husband again, and a bleak future with a doomed family within a community rebuilding itself years after deadly sickness that drastically changed life.

What an elderly man witnesses the man who saved him from a mugging doing afterward changes his outlook on continuing to live in Gifts Between Us by C.C. Adams. At 88 years old, Augustus has lived a long, miserable life and is waiting out the time until he finally meets his demise by drinking alone in his home with only memories of the loved ones he pushed away.

While taking a vacation to spend time together, a romantic getaway quickly becomes an investigation with dangerous implications into a black market operation in Criminology of a Character by Nicole Scarano. With vacation time to use, Bel joins Eamon for a charity event hosted on Dr. Hyde’s private island, which starts off as a romantic getaway for them, though while exploring the island, they accidentally uncover what appears to be a black market operation of surgically altering the faces of wanted criminals.