For the past few months, I’ve been sharing a monthly reading recap on Instagram and thought I’d share my October reading recap here too (so I can blather on about my favorite reads without the pesky 2200 character limit). I read spooky books and monster romance year-round, but I did lean into it for spooky season. Most of the books I read were fantastic, and I even fit in my monthly writing craft book.
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October Reading Recap — Novels and Novellas
I started off the month by finishing up two books for my Orctober rec list.
The Orc and the Manny by Chloe Archer is a feel-good small-town monster romance with adorable orc twins, cute pets, a loud and proud manny, and a reclusive hunky orc professor (full review here).
Games with the Orc by Kathryn Moon was a reread for me. It’s the first book in the Monster Smash Agency series (book two, Howl for the Gargoyle, comes out this December!) and features a plus-sized heroine who books five days with a male orc escort to explore her deepest desires. It’s supposed to be a business transaction, but as time progresses, Sunny and Khell’ar have trouble telling fantasy from reality (full review here).
The Orc and the Manny by Chloe Archer (Monsters Hollow Book 1)
Games with the Orc by Kathryn Moon (Monster Smash Agency Book 1)
Continuing my obsession with Sleepy Hollow retellings (last month I read Hollow by CM Nascosta (mini review here)), I read Hollow by Karina Halle, Book 1 of A Gothic Shade of Romance. It’s a historical fantasy romance with dark academia vibes. There are witches and hauntings and secrets and I couldn’t get enough. Book 1 is MF + MM, but book 2, Legend, will be MMF. Check out my mini review for Hollow.
Hollow by Karina Halle (A Gothic Shade of Romance Book 1)
Anna Fury and Amy Pennza released the final book in their Beautiful Nightmares series, Kiss the Slipper. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know I’m obsessed with this series. There are MM & MMM dark fairytale retellings and I just love them. I started with book three, Sacrifice the Sea (a MMM Little Mermaid retelling with tentacles review here), and read book four, Temper the Flame (a Beauty and the Beast retelling with dragons review here) when it came out.
I decided to go back and read the first two books, Hunt and Wood (a Little Red Riding Hood retelling with witches) and Steal the Sky (a Rapunzel retelling with vampires and gargoyles), before diving into Kiss the Slipper (a Cinderella retelling with elves and pixies). While the books can be read as standalones, reading the first four before the last was a good decision. Many characters from the first books make appearances and there are callbacks to events that happened in those books as well. This is a fantastic series, and I’ll do a review for Kiss the Slipper soon, and likely a full series review as well.
Hunt the Wood by Anna Fury and Amy Pennza (Book 1)Steal the Sky by Anna Fury and Amy Pennza (Book 2)Kiss the Slipper by Anna Fury and Amy Pennza (Book 5)
His Pretty Kitty by Sinistre Ange has been on my TBR and in my thoughts for a while now. It’s a dark and steamy MMFF BDSM romance with pet play and an enemies-to-lovers subplot. Criminals are sent to prison planets and forced to enact their captor’s desires. For Katherine, this means becoming a kitty, complete with fur implants, a face mask, and a tail. Being submissive is difficult enough for Katherine, but in a twist of fate, the household ‘dog’ is a former nemesis. This book probably isn’t for everyone but I loved it. It’s really well done and filled with spicy encounters and hilarious moments. (Tw: for dubcon.)
His Pretty Kitty by Sinistre Ange (Planets Apart Book 3)
Haunted House Books
I am a big fan of haunted house stories. It’s just something I can’t get enough of. I have a great big whack of them in my TBR and I wish I could have gotten to more of them this month. Ah well.
You Are Invited by Sarah A. Denzil came recommended by author Darcy Coates (who writes amazing haunted house novels, most with a slice of romance) so I couldn’t resist. Five social media influencers gather at an abandoned monastery with a dark history in the Carpathian Mountains. But not all is as it seems, and things go bump in the night. If you like social media inserts, wolves, vampires, unreliable narrators, and psychological thrillers, you’ll love this. Bonus points for asexual representation and mental health representation. I loved this one so much.
You Are Invited by Sarah A. Denzil
The Ghost and Charlie Muir, by Felice Stevens, and Love at First Haunt, by Carrie Pulkinen, are both stories with premises I loved. I really wanted to love these books, but at the end of the day, they just didn’t work for me.
Spooky Anthologies
I preordered two anthologies this month. Both are really big books (1000 and 1200 pages in ebook format) so I didn’t read everything. I cherry-picked from authors I knew, authors I wanted to try, and scenarios I found intriguing. I will go back and continue to read from these as I liked them both a lot.
Creepy Court: A Monster Mall Anthology will transport you (back) to the ’80s when mullets and Farrah Fawcett hair reigned supreme. The anthology features 14 monster romance stories that range from sweet to terrifying. I love how while the stories are standalones, there are callouts to other places and characters featured in the other stories (which made me keep reading because I want to read them all).
Of the stories I’ve read so far, my favorites are:
Vampires Totally Suck by C. Rochelle (MMF, Vampires and Goth Girl)
Don’t Eat Your Human Boyfriend by Lily Mayne (MM, Ghoul and Human)
Lost and Found by Vera Valentine (MM, Nix and Human)
The Creepy Court anthology will be available for sale until mid-December 2023, so grab it before it’s gone.
Creepy Court Anthology: Monster Romance set in the ’80s
Phobia is a dark romance anthology where each story is based on a different phobia. I bought this because I wanted to read Nyla K’s story, but I’ve found many other stories I enjoyed. There’s a mixture of MM and MF romances, but so far I’ve just read the MM. I’ll link to Goodreads (here) because this anthology is no longer for sale. It was released on October 13th and was live for just one week. I’m glad I snagged a copy when I did because it’s good stuff (but mind the tws).
My faves so far:
No Sleep by Nyla K. (MM, fear of falling asleep (and I have such heart eyes for Asa and Jules))
A Taste of Crimson by Hellie Heat (MM, fear of blood, vampires)
Writing Craft Book of the Month
Every month I aim to read one book on writing craft. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. I wasn’t able to read one in August, and September was a heavy-reading month for my editing course, so this month I wanted to make sure I got one in. GMC: Goal, Motivation, Conflict by Debra Dixon has been on my TRB for a while and I’m so glad I read it. She uses movie examples (Wizard of Oz, The Fugitive, Casablanca, and more) to fill out her character sheets. These focus on the internal and external goal, motivation, and conflict for each character (and can change over the course of the story). According to Dixon, every problem in a novel boils down to the goal, motivation, and conflict (or lack thereof), and reexamining these aspects can put your novel back on track.
I put this knowledge to use by preparing GMC charts for the two main characters in my upcoming NaNoWriMo project.
GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict by Debra Dixon
Final Thoughts:
And that’s everything. Overall, I had a pretty good reading month. Looking ahead to November, I plan to read Legend, by Karina Hall, part two of the Gothic Shade of Romance duet. I also have my eye on Finley Fenn’s Fall of the Orc, which was released recently. I’ve got some library holds coming up, including a couple more writing craft books. I’m doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November, so it will be a “review light” month for me, but I do have a few reviews planned. I will likely do a monthly wrap-up as well as some NaNo check-ins (if not here, then on Insta).
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