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.

Endlessly hunted and hunting with a destiny to be killed and die along with another whose fate is intertwined with hers, the time has finally come to understand and stop the cycle in Laura Steven’s Our Infinite Fates. Able to remember her past lives and aware that in each one she’s been killed before her eighteenth birthday by someone whose fate is intertwined with hers, Evelyn has both actively hunted her counterpart, Arden, and been hunted by him; however, in this latest life, she desperately feels the need to stay alive so she can donate bone marrow to her sister.

Fiend by Alma Katsu is out today.

Having dreamt about a house she’s never stepped foot in, connected to a book she’s obsessed with, a young woman’s chance to finally find a place to call home comes only with a strange fight in Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. Responsible for looking after herself and her younger brother, Jasper, Opal is determined to do what’s needed to secure a better future for him away from their small town, where they seem to encounter nothing but bad luck, as she tirelessly works to support them both.

A pair from families with a long-standing feud are brought back into one another’s lives and social circles with a chance and a spark to ignite something more if they dare in These Violet Delights by Madeleine Roux. After her affair with her art instructor was exposed, it disrupted her artistic debut in London and marred her reputation, creating a dramatically disastrous scandal for Violet Arden, so she escaped to the countryside to her cousin Emilia Graddock’s estate to recuperate and rebuild her art skills.

A magical hotel with a lore and legacy of its own brings together two lost souls from different centuries behind its unique doors for an unforgettable experience and a chance of a lifetime in The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell. An art appraiser with a tendency to keep to herself, 27-year-old Eve Shaw is tortured and haunted by an accident on her fourth birthday that led to her sister Bella’s death, a trauma she’s carried with her, manifesting visually with the appearance of rabbits following her around and her octopus tattoo that roams around her body.

Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson is out today.

Where the Light Flickers by Ryan Burden is out today.

Intersecting lives within an isolated coal mining town highlight and emphasize the role confrontations between and within their lives have in their prospective development and futures in Where the Light Flickers by Ryan Burden. Within Appalachian coal country is the isolated Shokten, where two families are set on a path of intersection that alters their lives the more that they interact.

A Land So Wide by Erin A. Craig is out today.