Tantalizing Tales — March 2025 — Part Two

Hello, dear readers! With the advent of the spring equinox, I’m going to pivot towards spotlighting upcoming books in this column and not just ones that have recently published that I’m super excited to get to. So here’s a bonus column rounding up some of those latter, beginning with the third and latest installment of the bestselling The Kindred’s Curse Sage, Penn Cole’s Heat Of The Everflame.

After her disastrous coronation, Diem finds herself at the center of the conflict between the Descended and the Guardians. With her newfound friends and the man she’s falling for on one side, and the mortals she has vowed to protect on the other, Diem must walk a careful line to save the people she loves… even that means saving them from each other.

When the mystery of her unusual heritage begins to unravel, it sends Diem and Luther on an unexpected journey across the realms. The answers they seek may hold the key to winning the war, but finding these answers will require Diem to face painful truths about her mother, her bloodline and her very fate.

Meanwhile, the Crowns have set Diem in their sights. Some of them could be her greatest allies, while others want her dead. In order to end their oppressive reign, Diem must sort friend from foe and risk it all to build an army of her own. But a powerful figure in the north has plans that could change everything…

The collectible hardcover edition also includes gorgeous full-color endpapers, an exclusive hardcover case and a never-before-seen bonus chapter written from Luther’s point of view. Get it while it’s still in stores!

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Next up, we have a darkly humorous thriller set entirely in our own reality… but with a paranormal twist. Ojibwe writer Dennis E. Staples’ Passing Through A Prairie Country is a tale of the ghosts that haunt the temples of sin and excess that we call casinos, and the people who get caught up in a web resting on high stakes and low odds.

Fleeing a recent breakup, Marion Lafournier, a mid-20s Ojibwe, is seeking solace in the dim halls of the Hidden Atlantis Lake Resort & Casino, Languille Lake Reservation’s main tourist attraction and source of revenue. To his dismay, he soon finds himself once more at a crossroads between worlds and spirits.

For decades, a dark force has been terrorizing this reservation. A figure known only in whispers as “a sandman in the shadows” lurks in the casino, leeching the dreams and ambitions from its citizens. Drawn by the siren song of the slot machines, Marion soon falls afoul of the sandman. Aided by the timely intervention of two casino security guards, his own cousins Alana and Cherie, he barely escapes what could have been a deadly and highly consequential confrontation.

For Marion and Alana are the last members of the Bullhead clan, a family with ties to a sacred past and a fierce determination to ensure their future. Alana with her Seven Fire Sight is the only person who truly grasps the danger that the sandman poses. Aware of Marion’s ability to sometimes navigate the spirit world, she enlists his help in defeating this scourge.

Meanwhile, Glenn Nielan, late out of the closet and aspiring to greatness, hopes to capture the faces of the land for a documentary while experiencing the thrill of a reservation casino again. But all who choose to play the sandman’s wicked games are in danger of his hold.

As the power and reach of the sandman’s menace go far beyond even what Alana anticipated, she and Marion will find themselves in a battle for the very lives and souls of the reservation’s residents.

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Another novel with queer protagonists is Kellan McDaniel’s “romantic, political, sexy, violent, and insatiable” debut YA horror novel, Till Death. It follows two gay men — one young, one ageless — as they sink their teeth into reclaiming their lives and identities from those who would silence them.

Howard is biding his time until he can finally leave for college, where he has been promised that it gets better. The last thing he expected was to meet a boy. But George reminds Howard of the movie stars from the 1960s he’s obsessed with. Plus, George is endearingly formal and well-read, and his grandpa fashion is super authentic.

After over twenty years together, George is about to lose his life partner. He met James when they were teenagers, then lost track of him until they reconnected in their early sixties. Now, James is going somewhere beyond George’s reach — because George is a vampire, forever trapped in the body of a nineteen-year-old.

As George and Howard grow closer, George begins to see a future beyond losing his first love, and Howard stops imagining himself as forever alone… even if companionship comes at the cost of his mortality. When the discrimination the men have suffered their whole lives rears its ugly head and threatens to take away their happy ending, they finally strike back at a world that’s done its best to keep them subdued.

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Saratoga Schaefer’s Serial Killer Support Group is another absorbing queer debut. This adult thriller follows Cyra Griffin, a woman hellbent on vengeance, no matter what it forces her to do.

When her younger sister is murdered by a serial killer, Cyra knows better than to expect justice from the hands of the police department. With the investigation already dying its own slow death, Cyra follows the blood trail and finds her own way forward.

Using insider information — don’t ask — Cyra infiltrates a support group for serial killers by pretending to be one herself, in the hopes of finding the person who ended her sister’s life. Proving herself to them comes at a cost, but one Cyra is willing to pay in the name of revenge.

Unfortunately, the dangerous men in the group aren’t the only obstacles in Cyra’s ongoing quest for justice. The further Cyra descends into the deadly world of serial killers, the harder it becomes for her to hold on to her humanity.

This dark, witty debut novel is a cunning homage to women’s wrongs that will have you wondering exactly how many monsters walk unseen among us.

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Another juicy and highly topical revenge novel is Matt Plass’ debut The Ten Worst People In New York. This psychological thriller will have you reconsidering the notions of both crime and justice, as an FBI agent and a British filmmaker find themselves in a desperate race to uncover the truth behind a series of mysterious deaths.

A late-night TV chat show feature, the titular The Ten Worst People in New York, is the talk of the Big Apple. At first, it seems like just a coincidence when a real estate mogul on that list jumps to his death. But after a corrupt NYC councilor who’s also one of the Ten Worst dies under suspicious circumstances, recently widowed FBI Special Agent Alex Bedford starts to believe that foul play is involved, and that the crafty killer is nowhere near done.

Young British filmmaker Jacob Felle arrives in New York to connect with his estranged sister, Elizabeth, and to reconcile a long-buried family trauma. Unfortunately for him, he soon becomes a suspect in the ongoing deaths of the Ten Worst.

Alex and Jacob are on a collision course, as they find themselves in a race to unravel the mystery before more people die. Both men must confront their worst fears and put their lives on the line as they try to find the answer to two key questions: why are the killers targeting the Ten Worst list? And who will be the next to die?

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Finally, we have Tess Gerritsen’s latest thriller The Summer Guests, the chilling follow-up to The Martini Club series debut, The Spy Coast.

When former spy Maggie Bird retired to Purity, Maine, she settled in with her chickens to live a quiet life. Enemies from her past, however, soon threatened to destroy everything. Maggie survived, as chronicled in The Spy Coast, thanks to her wits and the collective intelligence of the Martini Club, the circle of ex-CIA friends in her cocktail-sipping book club.

Their handiwork, however, caught the attention of young police chief Jo Thibodeau. Now Jo and her neighborhood ex-spies have settled into an uneasy alliance.

After a teenager vanishes ― and Maggie’s neighbor becomes the prime suspect ― Maggie joins the investigation, determined to prove her friend’s innocence. But the girl’s wealthy family are pushing for a quick arrest. When authorities discover a long-dead corpse in a nearby pond, the case becomes doubly complicated, with unthinkable ties to the area’s long-buried secrets. As Jo attempts to solve two mysteries by following the rules, Maggie and rest of the Martini Club must turn to their arsenal of spy skills to uncover the truth.

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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 in my Bookshop storefront linked below!