Tantalizing Tales — August 2026 — Part Four

I can’t believe August is already coming to a close, dear readers, or how cool it’s started getting out at night already. June and July were awfully hot, and I’m surprised August hasn’t been more of the same. While I’m glad it’s not worse, I’m also not super looking forward to colder weather already.

One book I am looking forward to, however, is Mackenzie Reed’s brilliantly titled adult debut I Hope This Email Finds You In Hell. This genre-blending urban romantasy satire revolves around Brie Benson, who does not love her job as receptionist at a life insurance company. Between the recent death of her parents and her mind-numbing daily routine, she’s learned to compartmentalize well.

Until, that is, she walks in on her uptight but undeniably hot boss Luke performing an exorcism on Debra from accounting. Luke reveals that he’s the latest in a long line of demon hunters and swears Brie to secrecy. Brie accepts, but when her emotional support coworker goes missing — presumably abducted by demons — she persuades Luke to let her accompany him on his rescue mission. Trouble is, that mission involves plumbing the depths of hell, which Brie discovers has uncanny parallels with the corporate monstrosities and bureaucratic nightmares she’s already familiar with. Will she and Luke be able to fight their way through the underworld, rescue their colleague and repair the torn veil between worlds, all while battling the attraction growing between them?

~~~~~~~

If you prefer your romances more darkly academic than infernal, check out Elizabeth Agyemang’s Divine Oaths, the second adult debut on our list this week. The (limited) first edition has gorgeous and exclusive sprayed edges: absolutely snag it if you can!

Sianna Adu has long dreamed of attending the remote Westfield University, hidden deep in the swamps of rural Virginia. Before she could enroll, however, tragedy turned her world upside down, taking away her family but also granting her the strange ability to access people’s lifelines and view scenes out of both their pasts and futures.

Now struggling to make ends meet, she’s astonished when Kasem Saint James, the handsome heir to Westfield, comes to her with a strange request. With her powers seemingly tied to him somehow, she follows him back to Westfield, and enters a dangerous Southern Gothic world of clandestine societies and dark secrets stretching back centuries. As they work together to figure out how to undo the curse that binds them, they’ll have to fight not only their growing feelings for one another but also the powerful interests that would rather the past stay buried, no matter the cost.

~~~~~~~

Prefer reading about sisters than lovers? Then take a look at Lana Harper & Jilly Gagnon’s Cards On The Table (tho I have been assured that there is at least a little romance in the book itself!) From the awesome publicity materials:

“As descendants of one of the original Salem Witch Trial victims, Tori and Cassie Bishop’s occult credentials are strong . . . but a trickle of tarot readings won’t pay the bills, and now they’re facing eviction. When they’re offered a massive sum to play “witches in residence” to an elderly widow at her secluded Berkshires mansion, it feels like fate.

“But from the minute they arrive at the opulent country estate it’s [clear that] they’ve been dropped into a far more dangerous game than their smoke and mirrors can save them from.

“The widow, Rose, is in her final days and desperate for the sisters to help with her unresolved spiritual needs before she passes. Her skeptical family and staff, however, are less enthusiastic about the sisters’ presence—with the exception of Rose’s nurse and her beloved great-nephew, who find themselves inexplicably drawn to Cassie and Tori.

“Thrown into a viper’s nest of competing motives and impenetrable intrigues, the sisters do their best to help Rose. But after Rose’s sudden death, millions of dollars disappear from the estate overnight, and Tori and Cassie quickly become the prime suspects. Someone in the house has framed the Bishop sisters, and in order to clear their names, the two must rely on their powers—magical or otherwise—to unravel the toxic family’s tangled web of greed, resentment, and deceit. If they don’t, Rose won’t be the only victim at Berwyn House. . .”

~~~~~~~

An even darker tale told from alternating perspectives is Stephanie Willing’s She Came Back Different, about a ballet school with something dangerous lurking within its walls.

The Stadler Ballet Conservatory turns out not only perfect dancers but perfect students. Some, like Neve, would say they come back too perfect. Her rebellious older sister Bex enrolled and came home prim and proper, almost an empty, if smiling, shell of her former self. Neve is determined to figure out what’s going on at the school and save Bex before her sister’s spark disappears for good.

Gemma, meanwhile, has been enrolled at Stadler by her demanding mother in hopes of smoothing off some of her “rough edges.” She doesn’t think that she’s the kind of person who could become a prima ballerina, but the more time she spends at Stadler, the more she begins to dream. Will her dream turn into a nightmare, however, when she learns the truth behind the academy’s success? She and Neve will have to learn how to trust each other and themselves, as they fight to uncover the dark secrets that have enabled Stadler to build its fearsome reputation, and the cost its students have had to truly pay in order to shine.

~~~~~~~

Finally, we have a thrilling murder mystery reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s diabolical classic And Then There Were None, but with a fascinating artistic twist.

In Jonathan Santlofer’s latest novel, Ten Perfect Guests, the title characters have been summoned to a remote tropical island following the unexpected death of the celebrated and enigmatic artist Victor D’Arcangelo. If they do not attend his memorial, they are told, they will forfeit all claims to their inheritance from him.

The gathering is already a hotbed of intrigue even before someone dies. As chaos descends and the guests are picked off one by one, the survivors will have to try to figure out who’s targeting them, why they’re being killed, and how to put a stop to all this madness before someone completes a masterwork of murder.

~~~~~~~

All of these books are either available or available for pre-order now, so let me know if you’re able to get to them before I do, dear readers! I’d love to hear your opinions, and see if that will 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!