Tantalizing Tales — November 2024 — Part One

Happy November, friends! I’ve been so overwhelmed with work that I had to take yesterday off from posting, though Halloween always feels like a good reason to work less and celebrate more. While I originally thought that I’d just be reading last night between bouts of handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, I ended up sharing hot toddies and maple cream pie with my neighbors outdoors in the gloriously mild weather. I hope you had a brilliant evening of it as well, dear readers, whether you spent it reading or otherwise.

We’ve got some great recommendations for the continuation of spooky season into November, starting with CJ Reede’s American Rapture, an apocalyptic horror novel that I’m desperately trying to cram into my own reading schedule right now. A virus is spreading across the country, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust. Sophie, a good Catholic girl, must traverse this hellscape to find her family. Along the way, she discovers that there are far worse fates than dying a virgin.

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Another horror novel that I’m desperate to get into is CG Drews’ Don’t Let The Forest In, which has come to me strongly recommended by industry insiders. High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales that he writes for Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. Thomas is the only person who can ground Andrew to reality. With his twin sister Dove inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance ever since their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend more and more.

But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas won’t say a word about it and shuts down whenever Andrew tries to ask him questions. Stranger still, Thomas is haunted by something, so much so that he seems to have lost interest in his artwork, the whimsically macabre sketches of the monsters that he draws from Andrew’s wicked stories.

Desperate to figure out what’s wrong with his friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a beast out of nightmare. Thomas’s drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure that no one else dies, the boys battle the creatures every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so too do the monsters, as Andrew begins to fear that the only way to stop these abominations might be by destroying their creator.

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If you’re so done with spooky season but are still looking for some realistic suspense, here’s a terrific legal thriller to get into instead! Robert Dugoni’s Beyond Reasonable Doubt is the second volume of his bestselling Keera Duggan series.

Jenna Bernstein, the disgraced wunderkind CEO of a controversial biotech company, is accused of murdering her former partner and lover. She turns to Seattle attorney Keera to defend her. Keera is more than just a master chess player who brings her intuitive moves into court — she’s also Jenna’s childhood friend. Considering their history tho, Keera knows that where Jenna goes, trouble follows. After all, it’s only been three years since Keera’s father successfully defended Jenna from being convicted for the killing of her company’s chief medical scientist, who had threatened to go public with allegations of corporate fraud.

Perhaps more importantly, Keera knows Jenna all too well. When she was a kid, Keera saw Jenna for who she really was: a manipulative and frighteningly controlling sociopath. But now, with only circumstantial evidence against Jenna, Keera is willing to bury any trepidation she might have to defend a woman whom she believes, this time, is actually innocent.

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On a lighter note, we have EB Asher’s This Will Be Fun, a cozy quest romantasy about a group of friends who once saved their magical land together but haven’t spoken since.

Everyone in Mythria knows the story of how best friends Beatrice and Elowen, handsome ex-bandit Clare and valiant leader Galwell the Great defended the land from darkness. It’s a tale beloved by all except for the former heroes. Devastated by what their quest cost them, they haven’t spoken to each other in a decade.

But when they receive an invitation to the queen of Mythria’s wedding, it’s a summons they can’t refuse. Their reluctant reunion is one for the ages, with Clare secretly not over his long-ago fling with Beatrice; Beatrice fighting the guilt she still feels over how everything ended; Elowen unprepared for the return of her former flame Vandra, and all of them lost without Galwell’s presence. And if reuniting with old friends and lovers wasn’t perilous enough, dark forces from their past have returned, plotting a domination that only Mythria’s one-time defenders can stop. Maybe.

Dusting off old weapons and old instincts, they face undead nemeses, crystal caves, enchanted swords, coffee shops and games of magical Truth or Dare. Hardest of all to face, however, is their past, rife as it is with wounds never healed and romances never forgotten. This time around, will their story end in happily ever after?

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Let me know if you’re able to get to any of these books before I do, dear readers! I’d love to hear your opinions, and see if that will help spur me to push any of them higher up the mountain range that is my To Be Read pile.

And, as always, you can check out the list of my favorite books this year so far in my Bookshop storefront linked below!