It’s the perfect time of year to curl up with a book that sends a delicious shiver down your spine! From haunting historical mysteries to modern supernatural suspense, these stories capture the haunting spirit of the season. Check out our list of 2025’s best spooky season books — they’re guaranteed to keep you reading well past midnight!
Descendants of the Big House
C. Vonzale Lewis
(A Horde of Dead Poets)
Publication date: October 14th 2025
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Fantasy, Mystery
Beatrice Monroe is still getting used to the knowledge that she was born a champion for Good and Evil. She spends her days combing through her great grandmother’s journals trying to find answers to what this newfound ability means for her as a member of law enforcement.
When a woman walks into her precinct claiming her aunt was murdered, Beatrice discovers a link between their families that may just have the answers she needs. But those answers are not easy to find. Because this mystery’s roots are buried in the past with five young girls and what they gave birth to…in The Big House.
Descendants of the Big House is a standalone installment in A Horde of Dead Poets collection featuring seven authors and their stories inspired by famous literary poems. If you often find yourself steering toward a dark, mysterious, isolated location; if family curses haunt you and unreliable narrators keep you in suspense, you won’t want to miss a single volume in this gripping collection.
Perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher, Simone St. James, Stephen King, and Shirley Jackson.
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo
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EXCERPT:
“I think somebody did something,” Mr. Taylor announced suddenly, voice raised. “My wife, my children. Not right. Not right at all.” He started crying. “I can’t convince anybody to listen to me.”
I got up and kneeled by his chair. “I’m listening, Mr. Elijah.” It didn’t dawn on me that I might have overstepped. The pain in his plea just pulled at me. I understood the feeling of being lost so well, growing up in a home filled with abuse and no one listening to my own cries for help.
He looked down at me. “I appreciate that. You find ’em. You find the one that took my Mary. She was the only woman I ever loved. And our children. Godsend. No matter what that man told her at the crossroads.”
“What man?” I asked, my blood running cold. Of course, I knew what man he was referring to, but I didn’t dare say it out loud.
He flapped his hand in the air again.
I looked at Gautier and dipped my head toward my bag. I didn’t want to upset him further, but I needed to confirm what I already suspected. Mary had met Papa Sin at the crossroads.
Gautier pulled out the book Odette gave us, still in an evidence bag, and came over and gave it to me. I pulled it out and Mr. Taylor gasped.
“Get that evil book out of my house!” He tried to get to his feet and ended up falling back in the chair. I straightened and, after thrusting the book at Gautier, helped Mr. Elijah right himself.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?” Cherie asked, rushing over. “What evil?” She looked at the book. “I don’t understand what’s going on, but it’s upsetting my daddy.”
“I’m sorry about that, ma’am. But your sister Natalie sent this book to Odette along with a letter claiming she was going to…” I looked down at Mr. Taylor. His eyes were wild.
“She swore she’d gotten rid of that book. She swore.” He let out a sob. “That man told her she’d birth evil. That twins were broken.” He caved in on himself, chest heaving as he cried.
“I better take him to his room,” Cherie said, her face filled with concern.
Gautier got up and helped her take him in the back. I stood there berating myself for upsetting him. I shouldn’t have asked about the book. But I had to get answers, right?
Author Bio:
Carla Vonzale Lewis likes her martini’s shaken…never stirred. Though she was born in Georgia, please don’t mistake her for a Georgia peach. She’s more like a prickly pear. Speaking of being born, someone asked her recently if she remembered her birth, and all she had to say was, “Yes, I do remember that handsy doctor pulling me out into the cold. Right Bastard!!!”
Despite being born in the South, she grew up in the North. California to be exact. And every once in a great while, she gets to experience all four seasons. But mostly, it’s just heat.
Her debut novel, LINEAGE, was released July 16, 2019 and she fully intends to ride that joy for the rest of her life.
When she’s not concocting her next contemporary fantasy story, she enjoys reading, binge watching shows on Netflix, and trying to convince her husband that getting a dog is a wonderful idea.
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Jane Austen’s timeless love stories take on a supernatural twist in Sense, Sensibility and Shifters, a captivating anthology of paranormal romance.
Sense, Sensibility and Shifters:
A Paranormal Jane Austen Retellings Collection
Romance Café Collection Book 46
Genre: Paranormal Romance Anthology
with stories by
L Mad Hildebrandt, Bianca White, Roslyn St. Clair,
Ann C. Orlandi, Angela Kady, Gabbi Grey, AK Nevermore
Jane Austen’s timeless love stories take on a supernatural twist in Sense, Sensibility and Shifters, a captivating anthology of paranormal romance.
Step into a world where Darcy’s pride hides a dark secret, and Elizabeth’s prejudice may cost her more than her heart. Each story in this anthology brings an iconic Austen romance to life in a thrilling new way.
From the mysterious moors of Northanger Abbey to the haunted halls of Pemberley, Sense & Sensibility and Shifters invites you to experience classic love stories with an otherworldly edge.
Perfect for readers who adore the elegance of Austen and the allure of the paranormal, this anthology will whisk you away to a world where love is ethereal, powerful, and worth every risk.
Including:
The Tables Turned by Angela Kady
Brewing Affection by Ann C. Orlandi
Pride and Possession by Roslyn St. Clair
In the Service of Heaven by Bianca White
Shift of Heart by Ariel Dawn
Emma, the Enchanter by L Mad Hildebrandt
My Beloved Witch by Gabbi Grey
And featuring:
Couching Serendipity by AK Nevermore
Vexed by an offhand comment, jinn Mira Marid sets out to prove that cupids aren’t the only beings capable of selecting soulmates. But when setting up her best friend Kade Eros becomes more than just wishful thinking, serendipity takes over, and it turns out that wishing for true love isn’t off the table after all…
Amazon * Books2Read * Bookbub * Goodreads
AK Nevermore enjoys operating heavy machinery, freebases coffee, and gives up sarcasm for Lent every year. A Jane-of-all-trades, she’s a certified chef, restores antiques, and dabbles in beekeeping when she’s not reading voraciously or running down the dream in her beat-up camo Chucks.
Unable to ignore the voices in her head, and unwilling to become medicated, she writes Science Fiction and Fantasy full time.
She pays the bills editing, wielding a wicked hot pink pen and writing a column on SFF. She also belongs to the Authors Guild, is a chapter treasurer for the RWA, teaches creative writing, and on the rare occasion, sleeps.
Website * Facebook * X * Instagram * Bluesky * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a $20 giveaway!
Hustled
Roya Carmen
Publication date: November 20th 2025
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Sports
Fun and Games.
An indecent proposal.
And a whole lot of heartbreak.Pro billiards player Caine Hall is hot as hell. When he walks into the pool hall I co-own with my husband Reeves, I nearly fall all over myself. Over a few playful games, we get to know each other. He’s smooth and sly, and Reeves instantly hates his guts. He’d kick him out if Mr. Hall didn’t just happen to be our landlord.
He says he wants to help us, and we’re all ears. But when he makes us an outrageous proposal, we can’t believe the gall of the man. Caine wants to spend time with me. It’s innocent enough, albeit very weird. We’re desperate because we’re behind on our rent, so eventually, after much pondering, we reluctantly accept.
Caine treats me like a princess and shows me a whole new world. He takes things slow, just like he does at the pool table. Yet… he scares me — he’s intense and obsessive. And as he abuses his power, his demands and proposals intensify.
Reeves and I are falling apart. We keep telling ourselves we’ll say no next time, but Caine has got us both under his spell, efficiently manipulating us both in very different ways.
I’m anxious about my marriage and my unpredictable, hot-tempered husband. Yet I can’t stop thinking about Caine. He’s in my head. He’s under my skin. Reeves and I have agreed that this is simply a financial arrangement, something we’re doing for our livelihood.
So why have I let Caine hustle his way into my heart?
This novel is a STANDALONE book. It will be part of a series of 3 standalone books, all stories will be related but will stand on its own.
Author Bio:
Mom, writer, bookworm, comic artist, and hopeless romantic.
Author of The Ground Rules trilogy, the One Week series, the Riverstones series, the Orchard Heights series, and the You collection.
ALL my books are standalone reads with the exception of The Ground Rules Book 2 and 3. Although the books are standalone reads, when reading a complete series, it is best to do so in chronological order to avoid spoilers. And if you’re a comics fan, check out my comic book: A Romantic Life. 🙂
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This beautiful gift edition of The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic prelude to his Lord of the Rings trilogy, features cover art, illustrations, and watercolor paintings by the artist Alan Lee.
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.
Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit has sold many millions of copies worldwide and established itself as a modern classic.
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”
The hobbit-hole in question belongs to one Bilbo Baggins, an upstanding member of a “little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves.” He is, like most of his kind, well off, well fed, and best pleased when sitting by his own fire with a pipe, a glass of good beer, and a meal to look forward to. Certainly this particular hobbit is the last person one would expect to see set off on a hazardous journey; indeed, when Gandalf the Grey stops by one morning, “looking for someone to share in an adventure,” Baggins fervently wishes the wizard elsewhere. No such luck, however; soon 13 fortune-seeking dwarves have arrived on the hobbit’s doorstep in search of a burglar, and before he can even grab his hat or an umbrella, Bilbo Baggins is swept out his door and into a dangerous adventure.
The dwarves’ goal is to return to their ancestral home in the Lonely Mountains and reclaim a stolen fortune from the dragon Smaug. Along the way, they and their reluctant companion meet giant spiders, hostile elves, ravening wolves–and, most perilous of all, a subterranean creature named Gollum from whom Bilbo wins a magical ring in a riddling contest. It is from this life-or-death game in the dark that J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterwork, The Lord of the Rings, would eventually spring. Though The Hobbit is lighter in tone than the trilogy that follows, it has, like Bilbo Baggins himself, unexpected iron at its core. Don’t be fooled by its fairy-tale demeanor; this is very much a story for adults, though older children will enjoy it, too. By the time Bilbo returns to his comfortable hobbit-hole, he is a different person altogether, well primed for the bigger adventures to come–and so is the reader. –Alix Wilber
Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit, is a peaceful sort of cozy hole in the Shire, a place where adventures are uncommon and rather unwanted. So when the wizard Gandalf whisks him away on a treasure hunting expedition with a troop of rowdy dwarves, he’s not entirely thrilled. Encountering ruthless trolls, beastly orcs, gigantic spiders, and hungry wolves, Bilbo discovers within himself astonishing strength and courage. And at the ultimate confrontation with the fearsome dragon Smaug, the hobbit will brave the dangers of dark and dragon fire alone and unaided. Brilliantly conceived to evoke Tolkien’s richly imagined Middle Earth, this production features an original score written for Renaissance era instruments outstanding ensemble acting by the best performers available to the BBC and innovative sound techniques designed to present a hobbit’s eye view of Bilbo’s adventures. A fitting tribute to the centenary of J.R Tolkien’s birth. The Hobbit will captivate longtime fans and the newly initiated alike.
THE GREATEST FANTASY EPIC OF OUR TIME
Bilbo Baggins was a hobbit who wanted to be left alone in quiet comfort. But the wizard Gandalf came along with a band of homeless dwarves. Soon Bilbo was drawn into their quest, facing evil orcs, savage wolves, giant spiders, and worse unknown dangers. Finally, it was Bilbo-alone and unaided-who had to confront the great dragon Smaug, the terror of an entire countryside . . .
This stirring adventure fantasy begins the tale of the hobbits that was continued by J.R.R. Tolkien in his bestselling epic “The Lord of the Rings.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS IS SOON TO BE AN EPIC MOTION PICTURE TRILOGY FROM NEW LINE CINEMA
Bilbo Baggins was a hobbit who wanted to be left alone in quiet comfort. But the wizard Gandalf came along with a band of homeless dwarves. Soon Bilbo was drawn into their quest, facing evil orcs, savage wolves, giant spiders, and worse, unknown dangers. Finally, it was Bilbo — alone and unaided — who had to confront the great dragon Smaug, the terror of an entire countryside…
THIS STIRRING ADVENTURE FANTASY BEGINS THE TALE OF THE HOBBITS THAT WAS CONTINUED BY J.R.R. TOLKIEN IN HIS BESTSELLING EPIC THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
Book Reviews by the Reluctant Retiree 