Tantalizing Tales — September 2026 — Part Four

It has gotten downright chilly here in Maryland, tho the weather report assures me that temperatures will go back to being pleasant over the next few days, thank goodness. I wonder whether that’s part of the reason I’ve been able to plow through books a little more quickly than usual lately, as I eschew walks outdoors for indoor spin sessions (with a good book!) instead.

We have plenty more books arriving soon to keep you company no matter the weather! The first is a terrific mash-up of historical romance, mystery and the paranormal, as enemies turn into lovers in Martha Waters’ charming new novel Spellstruck.

Magic has been outlawed in 1920s London, but families with the gift still exist, often running illegal speakeasies to cater to a public that still yearns for enchantment. Vesper Holloway runs her family’s club, sprinkling a little magic over the cocktails and into the patrons’ lives. But accidents — some that could be and are becoming increasingly dangerous — keep occurring, and not just in her establishment.

Maxwell Ashbridge is a government agent charged with enforcing the ban. He has a vendetta against the magical elite, but not against Vesper, whose older brother he was actually once friends with. Maxwell promises her immunity for the club if she’ll help him infiltrate the underground speakeasy scene in order to find and stop the source of the tainted magic that’s corrupting everyone’s businesses. Vesper is hesitant but agrees, even as she struggles against the growing attraction between them. As the accidents both continue and escalate, and the fight to repeal the ban makes its way to Parliament, will Vesper and Maxwell decide that their relationship is also worth fighting for?

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If you’d like your romance with more than a hint of the supernatural and macabre, then you can’t miss Gillian Daniels’ Jenny Will Eat You Now. The promotional blurb for this horror romance (horrormance? Idk whether I do or do not want that portmanteau to happen a la “fetch”) is so perfect, I’ll just quote it for you here:

“Jenny Greenteeth prefers to keep her own company beneath the streets of Boston, where she’s lived for hundreds of years. With a conviction that she is far superior to humans—who are petty, dangerous, and fragile—she has no qualms about satisfying her hunger with their flesh. That is, until she comes face to face with a human man who, for the first time, she doesn’t want to eat (but also…she kind of does). Confused by these conflicting feelings, Jenny is intrigued.

“So, when two city-dwelling cryptids take up residence in her station, she (begrudgingly) asks them to help her find this mystery man. Along the way, Jenny experiences the modern world for the first time—discovering catcalling, pigeons, protests, fashion, friendship, and Dunkin’ Donuts. On her quest to find the man she couldn’t eat at first sight, Jenny finds herself falling in love. And as she falls in love, two conflicting hungers grow within her—the hunger to be seen and understood and the hunger for human flesh.”

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If your appetite leans more toward the actual, tho still with a hint of everyday magic, check out Fred Csibi-Levin’s jaw-dropping new cookbook Patisserie Extraordinaire.

Subtitled Impress With Modern French Entremets, this is the perfect book for anyone who wants to learn more about trompe l’oeil desserts… and by anyone, I mean me! I keep eyeing the delightful illusion entremets at my favorite French bakery and telling myself that one day I’ll actually try one of them. This book just might be the impetus!

As to learning how to make them, well. M Csibi-Levin is an accomplished pastry chef and instructor who guides readers through preparing these amazing desserts at home, by combining thoughtful instructions with foundational pastry essentials and step-by-step photography. I, personally, do not yet have the confidence to attempt this — I’m still working up the courage to attempt any of Karen Thi’s Spookie Cookies — but I’m definitely appreciating getting an in-depth look at the process!

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Another treat I’m looking forward to enjoying soon is Maureen Johnson’s upcoming The Velvet Knife, the latest in the Truly, Devious series that can also be read as a standalone.

Stevie Bell may be the best teenage detective that Ellingham Academy (and a world without Charlotte Grote, ahem) has ever seen, but even she can’t figure out what’s going on with her (ex?!- maybe?-)boyfriend David. He’s off snogging other girls in British pubs and sending her cryptic texts from across the pond. What she needs is a change of scenery and a nice, juicy mystery to get her mind off of him.

She gets more than she bargained for when a body turns up at the Manhattan apartment complex where she’s licking her wounds. As Stevie investigates the building’s mysterious inhabitants and even more tangled history, she’ll begin to question everything about human feelings and relationships. Do connections ever really mean anything in a world where the magnetic can manipulate people to their will? Do people ever figure out that they’re in a cult before it’s too late? And, perhaps most importantly to her bruised heart, is her relationship with David really over?

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Finally, we have another absorbing mystery coming out on October 1st, two days after the rest of these selections. Yasmin Angoe’s latest thriller, The Ferryman’s Daughter, follows the daughter of a serial killer trapped in a potential copycat’s twisted game.

When Sanaa Karrem’s serial killer father disappeared eighteen years ago, she did everything in her power to erase her old identity along with him. A former medical examiner, she now teaches forensic science under a different name and identity than she had back during his rein of terror.

But when bodies start turning up again with her father’s calling card — pennies left on the corpses’ eyelids — Sanaa’s waking nightmare returns with them. Soon, she’s receiving disturbing messages and “gifts,” none of which she can tell anyone about, not even her own fiance… who just happens to be the lead detective on the re-opened case. As Sanaa races to uncover the truth using her own forensic and investigative skills, she uncovers a legacy of horror that hits uncomfortably close to home, and that may still be lingering within her as well.

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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!