Spooky Book Bingo: Featured Books 2021

Unboxed

How far would you go for one million subscribers?

Greg Zipper is a paranormal vlogger whose livelihood relies on his online popularity. When a fight between him and his girlfriend goes viral for all the wrong reasons, Greg purchases a dark web mystery box in hopes of restoring his audience’s faith in him and hitting one million subscribers. But when Greg opens the box, he gets much more than he bargained for, including a Boxer who’s determined to stop him from taking his loved ones for granted. Now Greg must do all he can to stop the Boxer, or else he’ll lose his livelihood—along with the woman he loves.

By The Grace

It is difficult enough in this age of awareness to be autistic, but in 1918 it didn’t yet exist as a diagnosis. With no vocabulary to describe her experiences or explain why certain things bother her, Julia Grace must navigate the social minefield that is Mt. Sinai School for Young Ladies. She leans on her best friend and roommate, Ada Brooks, for support. Ada, who loves her despite her quirks and acts as interpreter for the social cues Julia is prone to missing. But when Ada is found dead one morning before classes all that crumbles.

To make matters worse, the police don’t seem to care, saying she was “asking for it” and they don’t want to prosecute the boy responsible. Maybe that’s why Ada’s spirit can’t rest and continues to roam the halls of the school, growing increasingly angry and violent.

Enraged, Julia sets out on a mission to find the killer and make him pay. But the influenza pandemic sweeping the country—and the entire world—is closing in on their isolated corner of Ohio, and it’s only a matter of time before it breeches the walls of Mt. Sinai. If Julia has any hope of accomplishing anything, she’ll have to win over her classmates and get their help in her plan.

Lady Vago’s Malediction

In the blackened heart of a cursed forest, a banshee haunts her crumbling castle with lethal screams.

Lady Vago is trapped in this place. She cannot fulfill her purpose as a banshee: to warn her loved ones of their deaths and watch over them while they pass. To solve the mystery of her imprisonment, she must sift through the rubble and ruin that surrounds her. By communing with old paintings, broken furniture, and even the stones themselves, she rediscovers who she was in life.

Before she was Lady Vago, she was Rovena Stoddard, a sharp-witted horse merchant’s daughter that caught the eye of a charming baron. Lord Kalsten Vago’s life as a wandering knight was over, but it inspired visions of a better life for his most vulnerable subjects. Rovena was far less afraid of bold change than his staunch and loyal steward, who saw her presence as a threat to Lord Kalsten’s success. Love and shared dreams alone wouldn’t overcome the controversy of the couple’s hasty and unequal union, as well as the trials of governing a fledgling barony—Rovena knew that. What she failed to recognize was the deeper darkness taking root in Vago lands and hearts…

Every memory of what Rovena loved is a reminder of what she lost, but she cannot let grief halt her search. Devoted spectres of ash are begging their lady for an end to their torment, and she will not let their agony–or her own–go unanswered anymore.

An intensely atmospheric and emotional story of corrupt magic and lost love, Lady Vago’s Malediction is a dark fantasy with gothic flair.

Ready, Shift, and Go

Spoiler Alert: description contains spoilers for book one in the series.
Now that Billie knows she’s able to shapeshift outside of her limited territory, she’s determined to find other shapeshifters and get some of the answers she thought were out of reach. Unfortunately, that means a long road trip with her dad, whom she still hasn’t forgiven for his role in her mother’s death. He says he knows some shifters in Durango, but when he and Billie show up on their doorstep, Billie realizes she’s found herself in the middle of a crime scene. Again.
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Meanwhile, Caleb is stuck in Juniper, still healing from being attacked by the Scarlet Monster. When a newcomer offers to heal his wounds, she also awakens some strange powers he never knew he had. To make matters worse, the animals in Juniper have started acting strangely, and Caleb is pretty sure they’re about to have a whole epidemic of Scarlet Monsters on their hands.

Blood Pact

In Hiro’s world, youkai are a supernatural story used to scare children into obedience, and to keep men out of back alleys and brothels. Until Sakurai Hideyoshi walks through his door with a fantastical tale of a samurai who had killed a thousand men and drank the blood of his enemies, a man that lived in darkness but sought beauty to keep it at bay.

A story both terrifying and romantic…and completely ridiculous.

Unless it is true.

Convinced something softer lurks behind Hideyoshi’s hard mask, Hiro follows him home. And discovers the story is real.

Only instead of the blood of his enemies, it is innocent blood taken.

Hideyoshi tells him never to return. Yet after Hiro’s mother is mortally wounded, Hiro runs back to the one being he knows with the power to save her. When Hideyoshi can’t, Hiro begs him for the next best thing: the power to avenge her.

As Hiro becomes youkai, he faces a new threat, something darker, older, and far more dangerous. With Hideyoshi at his side, Hiro must decide what he’s willing to sacrifice–and what he’s willing to do–to protect this new life before he loses everything for a second time.

21 Grams

In the bowels of an unassuming, ever-moving funerary parlor, a mortician known as the Operator hides a fearsome machine called the Godwin, rumored to have the ability to resurrect the dead. It runs, like a soul does, on logos: on words. And in exchange for those words—for a client’s life story—the corpse of their choosing might yet walk again.

Careful, though. Words bear weight, so one must choose them wisely.

Author M. Regan delivers a harrowing and beautiful glimpse into a world filled with desire, darkness, love, and loss.

Tales From the Storm Vol 1

The storm rages on, leaving death and destruction in its path. With the chaos comes strange tidings and wicked ordeals.

From C.R. Langille, author of the Dark Tyrant Series comes a collection of weird and horrifying stories spanning all across history: the Spanish Conquest; the Old West; present day; and even a desolate, apocalyptic future.

Haunted hotel rooms, mysterious, mind-bending spots, infernal cargo, and misplaced wishes abound in this collection.

Stories Included:
The Spot
Brine & Blood
The Deep Well
All Aboard
Damned
The Scratch
Horishi Tom

Only one thing is certain when the storm passes by–nothing will ever be the same again.

Dread Softly

A woman struggles to outsmart the demon who bargained for her father’s soul. An elderly shut-in with a monstrous secret is tormented by a door-to-door salesman. Six-eyed creatures congregate on the ceiling of a remote bungalow, puzzling a newly rescued tabby cat. An imp’s loyalties are torn between a vulnerable child and the god of dreams.

In her debut horror collection, award-winning author Caryn Larrinaga spreads her nightmares under your feet. Fed by the dread her anxiety brings her, each of these eleven tales is a journey into an unsettling universe just parallel to our own—one populated by haunted objects, unwanted urges, and creatures from beyond human understanding. Dread softly.

Featuring award-winning stories and three never before published tales.

Unwelcome Space and Other Stories

The crew of the small space research station in orbit were expecting a routine day and maybe a little Halloween fun until one of their astronauts started having trouble outside the station during some routine maintenance.

Their communications with each other, and to command on Earth, broke down through interference. Then, the astronaut’s voice came back through the comms, but it wasn’t their voice. Then something beat against the hatch.

Crew started to panic.

Then screaming.

Commander Davis tries to hold their small, international team together while something outside wants in. Something that doesn’t want them out there. Something that will send them back. When in space, the stars are invisible due to the sun shining directly on you. Nothing but featureless black in all directions.

Black, but not empty.

(this collection also includes the stories A Lot Of Things Wrong and Run Till You Can’t; cover by Adrian Baldwin)

Bloodflower

Born into a world of futuristic technology, ecologist Jàden Ravenscraft wields starship fuel like magic but she’s losing control of her power. Marked as a dangerous weapon, she’s trapped in hypersleep for 4000 years and wakes in the backwoods of a terraformed moon. Now she’s determined to find her reincarnated lover and escape back to the stars before her captor discovers she’s no longer asleep.

Because one life is not the end.

The man she loves has lived more than twenty lives without her, and Jàden’s alone in a world of swords and sorcery. When exiled prison guard Captain Jon Ayers shields her from an attack, Jàden seizes the chance for safety and human connection. Using her magic, she ties her energy to Jon, forging a bond to keep him close to her side.

But Jon is hunted by mercenaries for the pendant he carries, a key to the gateway between worlds, and their bond stirs a desire neither can ignore. When the jackass who trapped her in the future ambushes them at sea, Jàden will be faced with the hardest choice of her life between Jon and her reincarnated ex. Saving one lover will destroy the other, and the wrong choice will land her in chains she can never escape.

Restless Dreams of Darkness

Glaice is the demonic consort of the dark goddess known as The Queen. He enjoys a privileged life and is blind to the horrific conditions his lover enforces on the enslaved males of his kind. Seeing them as traitors and a danger to his status, he hunts down the disobedient Brothers and delivers their hearts to his Queen to fuel her dark magic. Arrogant and unruly, he dances with danger every time he defies his Queen.

When his Queen has enough of his capricious nature, she enacts a dire punishment. The devastating personal loss opens his eyes to the cruelty and unjust nature of his mate. As his eyes are opened, everything he thought was true begins to unravel. He discovers a foul plot and the truth behind his Goddess. Caught in an ancient war between deities, will Glaice oppose his Queen and save his people? Or will he doom them all with his thirst for vengeance?

Restless Dreams of Darkness is a Dark Fantasy novel with mature horror themes told through the eyes of a villain.

Cursed Song

Bound by Song. Cursed by Fate.

Ruyne, Leader of the Dusksinger bards, travels with his band from town to town, thrilling crowds with inspiring music born from ancient magic. He leads a charmed life with his brother, and two life-long best friends.

Disaster strikes when Ruyne ignores a cryptic message from a loved one. The band’s idyllic peace is shattered by a monster from the past, and the horrifying truth about their magic is revealed, leaving their lives in tatters and the hearts of the four men forever scarred. Scattered and broken, can they harmonize their Song in time to prevent a tragedy of apocalyptic proportions?

Cursed Song is a Dark Fantasy/Apocalyptic Horror novel with adult horror themes (gore, violence, monsters, death). It has four LGBTQ main characters and some steam. 

Long Grows the Dark

Before
Glenna, court sorceress in service to Princess Jael, struggles to hide her feelings for her best friend’s betrothed. Yet even as the realm approaches its golden age, an unforeseen enemy rises to corrupt the princess and take the land for himself. Fate may lead them down a path too painful to contemplate, but are Glenna’s choices enough to dispel the inevitable darkness set to veil their future?

Now
Gwendoline Hallewell, a Starford University student in a world where magic is commonplace, has always been unusual. When her casting book summons a man from the past to interfere with her dangerous new present, she has no choice but to trust him. As she and her friends Colt and Everleigh reconcile what happened before with what must happen in the present, Gwendoline must decide what it means to make her own choices, suffer her own consequences, and if free will is really within her grasp. 

Moonshadow’s Guardian

All Riana has ever wanted is freedom. Unfortunately, that’s the one thing her kind cannot have.

Bound by the curse in her demonic blood for millennia, Riana has tried several times to bend the rules and live out her life in the mortal realm. Now her consistent rule breaking has drawn the attention of Loki, God of Mischief, the main tormentor of Riana’s kind. But instead of punishing her, he offers her the escape she has always desired. All she has to do is save the kingdom of Moonshadow from a mysterious magical plague.

Armed only with the inherent power of her own blood and Loki’s pet dragon, Riana is determined to fight for the right to create her own destiny.

However, when her mission forces her to destroy the last remnants of an ancient culture, Riana must ask – what is freedom really worth?

Moonshadow’s Guardian is a dark fantasy novel about the meaning of belonging, and the struggle to create a future not defined by your past.

Trigger Warnings: PTSD, depression, torture, gore, death.