The Must-Read October Book Releases: Your Ultimate Guide to Fall Reading

These Still Black Waters

Christina McDonald

Two women struggle toward a dark truth as a killer avenges the sins of the past in a twisting novel of suspense, where a violent home invasion, leaves the secrets of the Black Lake waters behind her home.

The Blackwoods

Brandy Colbert

The Blackwoods have been in Hollywood for decades, and acting even before that. Success has always come with a price, but there’s no denying that they’ve made it. But when Blossom, the matriarch of the family, passes away, the family comes up against answers to long-asked questions—and some new questions as well.

This multigenerational story about a Black Hollywood family told from four POVs opens with the death of Blossom Blackwood, a celebrated actress and matriarch. As her three teenage great-grandchildren help prepare for the estate sale, they examine the cost of ambition, the importance of family, and the rewards of trusting one’s heart.

The Hurricane Wars

Thea Guanzon

The heart is a battlefield.

All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, Talasyn has found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire’s shadows.

Prince Alaric, the emperor’s only son and heir, has been forged into a weapon by his father. Tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire’s rule with the strength of his armies and mighty Shadow magic, Alaric has never been bested. 

Talasyn and Alaric must decide… are they fated to join hands, or destroy each other?

Curious Tides

Pascale Lacelle

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.

Wildfire

Hannah Grace

The latest in the Maple Hills series follows two summer camp counselors who reconnect after a sizzling one-night stand.

Maple Hills students Russ Callaghan and Aurora Roberts cross paths at a party celebrating the end of the academic year, where a drinking game results in them having a passionate one-night stand. Never one to overstay her welcome (or expect much from a man), Aurora slips away before Russ even has the chance to ask for her full name.

Imagine their surprise when they bump into each other on the first day of the summer camp where they are both counselors, hoping to escape their complicated home lives by spending the summer working.

Will the two learn to peacefully coexist? Or did their one night together start a fire they can’t put out?

The Scarlet Alchemist

Kylie Lee Baker

Zilan dreams of becoming a royal alchemist, of providing for her family by making alchemical gold and gems for the wealthy to eat in order to stay young forever. But for now, she’s trapped in her impoverished village in southern China, practicing an illegal form of alchemy to keep food on the table—resurrecting the dead. But for a price.

Lore Olympus: Volume Five

Rachel Smythe

Scandalous gossip, wild parties, and forbidden love–the Greek tale of Hades and Persephone gets a romantic modern update.

An ingenious take on the Greek Pantheon, Lore Olympus is a modern update on the story of Hades and Persephone. Follow the propulsive love story of two Greek gods, told with lavish artwork and contemporary sensibilities.

Midnight Is the Darkest Hour

Ashley Winstead

This is a twisted tale of murder, obsessive love, and the beastly urges that lie dormant within us all…even the God-fearing folk of Bottom Springs, Louisiana. In her small hometown, librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider, even as her beloved father rains fire-and-brimstone warnings from the pulpit at Holy Fire Baptist.

Unfortunately for Ruth, the only things the townspeople fear more than God and the Devil are the myths that haunt the area, like the story of the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to steal into sinners’ bedrooms and kill them on moonless nights.

Silence and Shadow

Erin Beaty

After confronting a killer and fleeing her home to be with each other, Cat and Simon arrive in the sprawling city of Londunium 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.

And Don’t Look Back

Rebecca Barrow

After her mother’s death, a teen pieces together the truth of her family’s past and what her mom was hiding from

Becoming the Boogeyman

Richard Chizmar

This haunting sequel to the thriller Chasing the Boogeyman—a tale of obsession and the adulation of evil, explores modern society’s true-crime obsession with unflinching honesty, sparing no one from the glare of the spotlight. Will those involved walk away from the story of a lifetime in order to keep their loved ones safe? Or will they once again be drawn into a killer’s web? As the story draws to its shattering conclusion, only one person holds all the answers—and he just may be the most terrifying monster of them all.

Madame

Sara Cate

They think they know me, but they have no idea.
As a professional Domme, I see men and women come and go. But no one ever sticks around, and I like it that way.
I have a secret to protect—at all costs.
So when the cocky, handsome, and submissive Clay Bradley weasels his way into my heart, I do the one thing I’ve always excelled at. I push him away—forever. And like a good boy, he listens.
But a few months later, during a chance encounter, he shows up again, but this time he isn’t alone. He has the stunning Jade on his arm. And she has a request of her own.
She wants me to teach her.

By Any Other Name

Erin Cotter

A down-on-his-luck actor and an English lord reluctantly team up to solve the murder of Christopher Marlowe in this Shakespearean-era young adult romp perfect for fans of F.T. Lukens and Mackenzi Lee.

London, 1593. Sixteen-year-old Will Hughes is busy working on Shakespeare’s stage, stuffing his corsets with straw and pretending to be someone else. Offstage, he’s playing a part, too. The son of traitors, Will is desperate to keep his identity secret—or risk being killed in the bloody queen’s imperial schemes. All he wants is to lay low until he earns enough coin to return to his family.

But when his mentor, the famous playwright Christopher Marlowe, is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Will’s plans are hopelessly dashed. Now, to avoid uncomfortable questions, prison, or an even more terrible fate, Will reluctantly starts his new career, which—yes—will secure him the resources to help his family…but at what cost?

Hopeless

Elsie Silver

Beau Eaton is the town prince, a handsome military hero with a tortured past.

I’m the outcast bartender, a shy girl from the wrong side of the tracks.

He’s thirty-five and all man, and I’m twenty-two and all… virgin.

He’s also my fiancé. Correction: my fake fiancé.

We start out as a bet. He doesn’t believe that anyone holds my last name against me. So he offers me his to prove a point.

It’s a win-win. He gets a break from his concerned family’s prying, and I get a chance to shed my family’s reputation while I save up to ditch this small town.

He once told me he’d never fall in love.

And yet here I am, head over heels for my fake fiancé.

The Unmaking of June Farrow

Adrienne Young

Trust Me! Don’t read a synopsis on what this book is about and just read it. Allow it to unfold and immerse you in the words. It is beautifully written and mysterious. I was so intrigued after a few chapters that I could not put it down until I was finished. You can’t help but say this was a great book in the end!

Soon it will destroy everything, including the life Kaija has lovingly built. But once a witch’s rage boils, regret means nothing—she can’t take back what’s already done. 

Lilith

Nikki Marmery

In the tradition of Madeline Miller and Claire North, Lilith is the story of the first woman, who was expelled from Paradise for disobedience. A retelling of the Hebrew myth that justified and explained woman’s subjection to man, Lilith will have her revenge – however long it takes.
In the Garden of Eden, at the beginning of time, an outrageous lie is born: that women are inferior.

Lilith and Adam are equal and happy in the Garden of Eden. Until Adam decides Lilith should submit to his will and lie beneath him. She refuses – and is banished forever from Paradise.

Two Twisted Crowns

Rachel Gillig

In the luscious, dark sequel to One Dark Window, Elspeth must face the consequences of what she’s wrought – perfect for readers of Hannah Whitten’s For the Wolf and Alexis Henderson’s The Year of the Witching.

A Curse for True Love

Stephanie Garber

In this finale to the Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy. Evangeline has ventured to the Magnificent North in search of her happy ending, and it seems as if she has it. She’s married to a handsome prince and lives in a legendary castle. But Evangeline has no idea of the devastating price she’s paid for this fairytale. She doesn’t know what she has lost, and her husband is determined to make sure she never finds out . . . but first he must kill Jacks, the Prince of Hearts.

King of Greed

Ana Huang

He had her, he lost her…and he’ll do anything to win her back.

The Reformatory

Tananarive Due

A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.