Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commissions from qualifying purchases from Amazon.com.
Boo! It’s October, which might just be my favorite month of the year… The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting colder, and Halloween is right around the corner. It’s the perfect atmosphere to pick up a little spooky read. I’ve put together a list of standalone books and book series you absolutely must read this Fall!
Books marked with an * are on my TBR, so I have not read them yet, but can’t wait to!
Title: Burn
Author: Suzanne Wright
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Dark in You
Pages: 301
I read this series a while ago as the books were being released. I fell in love with Harper and Knox. Knox is an absolute Demon Daddy *red alert* through and through. Most powerful demon daddy in the world? Check. Billionaire? Check. Mates? Check. Romance AND badass-ery? Yes and yes. What are you waiting for?
Official Blurb
The first book in Suzanne Wright’s bestselling witty, paranormal romance series, Dark in You.
Part of a small demon lair in Las Vegas, tattooist Harper Wallis lives a pretty simple life. That changes overnight when she discovers that her psychic mate, or ‘anchor’, is a guy who’s rumoured to be the most powerful demon in existence…
Compelling, full of secrets and armed with raw sexuality, Knox Thorne is determined to claim her as his anchor, creating a psychic bond that will prevent their inner demons from ever turning rogue.
The billionaire also wants Harper in his bed.
She’s not so sure she wants either of those things. No one seems to know what breed of demon Knox is, only that he’s more dangerous than anything she’s ever before encountered. But he refuses to walk away. And when an unknown danger starts closing in on Harper, it seems that Knox is the only one who can keep her safe.
As Prime of his Las Vegas lair and a successful businessman, Knox Thorne is used to being in control. He’s also used to people fearing and obeying him. Harper does neither, which unexpectedly amuses him. Unpredictable, elusive and complex, she draws Knox and his inner demon like nothing ever has.
Knox is used to getting what he wants, and he wants Harper. He’ll have her, and he’ll keep her safe from the threat that looms over her. Because Knox protects what’s his. He won’t allow anyone to take her from him. Even if it will mean letting the demon inside him rise and wreak the havoc it was created to make.
Title: Half Truths
Author: Claire Contreras
Genre: Suspenseful Romance
Series: Secret Society
Pages: 372
I love this series by Claire Contreras! It’s the perfect series for a Fall read. There are so many secrets to figure out. It’s actually “suspenseful” like the series claims. And to top it off, there’s a nice little romance!
Official Blurb
You’ve heard of these groups – the secretive ones that only the crème de la crème are invited into, the ones outsiders speculate about for centuries – I’m the second in my family invited to attend, but to them, I’m fresh meat. New blood. New money, too.
They think they’ll elbow past me, that I’m here for their amusement, for them to walk all over, they’ll find out soon enough that I’m not.
I may look like one of them, with my designer bags and clothes straight from the Parisian runways, but I’m not. I’m here for answers, to take revenge for blood spilled on their centuries-old Persian rugs.
I transferred to Ellis University in search for answers about what happened to my older brother, who hightailed out of here, and my friend who seemingly disappeared into thin air. I certainly wasn’t here for the attention of the star hockey player, regardless of how much he willed my eyes his way. I wasn’t here for his scrutiny or his judgment or to read into his mysterious aura. I was here for the society, because only they held the answers I needed. That was, until I found out that in order to get those answers, I needed to go through him. He’s saying if I want in, I have to play by their rules, follow their lead.
It’s a game I’m willing to play.
I may be the second person I know of to be invited into their society, but I’ll be the first to make it out intact.
*This is a complete standalone novel*
Title: Twisted Circles
Author: Claire Contreras
Genre: Suspenseful Romance
Series: Secret Society
Pages: 297
I liked book 2 just as much as book 1! I daresay there might be even more secrets!
Official Blurb
From New York Times Bestselling author Claire Contreras comes a new mysterious, sexy, STANDALONE secret society novel . . .
When someone tells you who you are, do you believe them?
The first question the cops asked me was if anything out of the ordinary happened to me lately.
When I woke up this morning in the room of a mental institution I couldn’t remember a thing – not my name nor how I got there. Not how I left or how I ended up in that interrogation room.
The only thing I knew came from the contents inside my bag. A wallet, a student ID, a key that opened an unknown door, and two notebooks.
They tell me my name. It matches my IDs.
They tell me my story. I shut my eyes and try to piece it together, but can’t.
They tell me why they picked me up in the first place. They thought I was my sister. My brain stays stuck there. I try to rewind and fast-forward, as if my memories were on a videotape, but it’s no use. I can’t recall having a sister.
They put me back in the car and drop me off in front of a mansion they call The Manor and I discover that the mysterious key in my backpack opens the front door, and just as quickly wish I’d never unlocked it at all.
This is a 100% standalone in the world as Half Truths.
Title: Rhapsodic
Author: Laura Thalassa
Genre: High Fantasy, Romance
Series: Bargainer
Pages: 423
I love love love IOU style books. I love a good bargain (hello ACOTAR), and I don’t know why. Oh, and did I mention the Bargainer is a fae king? And Laura Thalassa has a dark writing style, so is this the perfect Halloween series? I think it might just be.
Official Blurb
Callypso Lillis is a siren with a very big problem, one that stretches up her arm and far into her past. For the last seven years she’s been collecting a bracelet of black beads up her wrist, magical IOUs for favors she’s received. Only death or repayment will fulfill the obligations. Only then will the beads disappear.
Everyone knows that if you need a favor, you go to the Bargainer to make it happen. He’s a man who can get you anything you want … at a price. And everyone knows that sooner or later he always collects.
But for one of his clients, he’s never asked for repayment. Not until now. When Callie finds the fae king of the night in her room, a grin on his lips and a twinkle in his eye, she knows things are about to change. At first it’s just a chaste kiss—a single bead’s worth—and a promise for more.
For the Bargainer, it’s more than just a matter of rekindling an old romance. Something is happening in the Otherworld. Fae warriors are going missing one by one. Only the women are returned, each in a glass casket, a child clutched to their breast. And then there are the whispers among the slaves, whispers of an evil that’s been awoken.
If the Bargainer has any hope to save his people, he’ll need the help of the siren he spurned long ago. Only, his foe has a taste for exotic creatures, and Callie just happens to be one.
Title: The Dead List*
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Pages: 330
I’m obsessed with everything JLA writes. I have no doubt this will be just as good. This is on my TBR for this fall season!
Official Blurb
When Ella is mysteriously attacked on her way home from a party, her entire life changes as she finds herself at the center of an attempted murder investigation.
Ella tries to move on, but her attacker isn’t done yet. He shows himself in the form of horrifying signs and symbols: a clown mask strewn on her bed, a dead bird in her backpack, a shadow moving past her window in the night. And as the weeks pass, it turns out that Ella isn’t the only one being tormented.
With the help of an old flame, Jensen Carver, and her friends and family, Ella tries to attain some sense of normalcy, but she can’t seem to shake the feeling that there’s a dark pattern hidden in the killer’s every move. Suddenly, even those in her innermost circle seem suspicious. In her seemingly safe West Virginia town, Ella starts to wonder who she can trust.
Title: Beautiful Disaster
Author: Jamie McGuire
Genre: New Adult, Dark-ish Romance
Pages: 434
Okay, so this book doesn’t really have anything to do with fall or Halloween except for the fact that it takes place mostly during the fall, and there’s a Halloween party. So that’s good enough for me! I loved this book when it came out, and I think I’m due for a re-read this fall season.
Official Blurb
A New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller about a good girl dangerously drawn to the ultimate bad boy.
The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.
Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.
Title: Till Death
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Genre: Mystery, Romance
Pages: 400
This is another TBR by my fave JLA that sounds perfect for spooky szn!
Official Blurb
In New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout’s gripping new novel, a young woman comes home to reclaim her life—even as a murderer plots to end it. . .
It’s been ten years since Sasha Keaton left her West Virginia hometown . . . since she escaped the twisted serial killer known as the Groom. Returning to help run her family inn means being whole again, except for one missing piece. The piece that falls into place when Sasha’s threatened—and FBI agent Cole Landis vows to protect her the way he couldn’t a decade ago.
First one woman disappears; then another, and all the while, disturbing calling cards are left for the sole survivor of the Groom’s reign of terror. Cole’s never forgiven himself for not being there when Sasha was taken, but he intends to make up for it now . . . because under the quirky sexiness Cole first fell for is a steely strength that only makes him love Sasha more.
But someone is watching. Waiting. And Sasha’s first mistake could be her last.
Title: Ninth House*
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Series: Alex Stern
Pages: 476
This book has been getting a lot of talk this year. It sounds fairly similar to Claire Contreras’ Secret Society series I mentioned earlier, so I think if you like this trope, you’ll enjoy this too! It’s on my TBR!
Official Blurb
The mesmerizing adult debut from Leigh Bardugo, a tale of power, privilege, dark magic, and murder set among the Ivy League elite
Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide…
Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. Their eight windowless “tombs” are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street’s biggest players. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And, sometimes, they prey on the living.
Title: Poison Princess
Author: Kresley Cole
Genre: Paranormal, Post-apocalyptic
Series: Arcana Chronicles
Pages: 386
Poison Princess is the first book in the Arcana Chronicles series by Kresley Cole. This is a YA series, and I started it when it first released. I’m still invested in the story and awaiting what I think is the final installment! This is A+ Halloween material, because the characters are based on Tarot cards. Oh, and there’s a love triangle…
Official Blurb
#1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole introduces The Arcana Chronicles, post-apocalyptic tales filled with riveting action, the dark mysticism of Tarot cards, and breathtaking romance.
She could save the world—or destroy it.
Sixteen year old Evangeline “Evie” Greene leads a charmed life—
until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, killing everyone she loves, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future—and they’re still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux.
But she can’t do either alone.
With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can’t totally trust Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?
Who can Evie trust?
As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it’s not always clear who is on which side…
In Poison Princess, New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole introduces a dark and intriguing world, full of unspeakable danger and irresistible romance.
Title: Mexican Gothic*
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Genre: Gothic Horror
Pages: 304
Another TBR of mine and getting a lot of traction this year! Supposedly this is a great read if you like Jane Eyre/Wuthering Heights. Which hey… I do! Gothic horror… this is an absolute Halloweekend read.
Official Blurb
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “It’s Lovecraft meets the Brontës in Latin America, and after a slow-burn start Mexican Gothic gets seriously weird.”—The Guardian
IN DEVELOPMENT AS A HULU ORIGINAL LIMITED SERIES PRODUCED BY KELLY RIPA AND MARK CONSUELOS
An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . .From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico.
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.
And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.
Let me know if you read any of these book – in the comments or over on Instagram! If you liked this book list, I’d love for you to share this post!













