Tantalizing Tales — October 2026 — Part Five

I always get a little excited whenever I have a fifth Tantalizing Tales column in a month: it feels a little special! And we certainly have some exciting titles coming for you this November, beginning with a brand new South Asian-inspired Young Adult romantasy decked out in delightfully seasonal colors.

The titular land of Radiya Hafiza’s The Silver Kingdom is otherwise known as Dakaria, where Prince Zayd spends his days fighting off pirate raids. In neighboring Sawan, Princess Layla dreams of running far away from her cruel and power-hungry mother. Their two countries exist in a fragile peace. But tensions are running high. When the two young royals meet, sparks fly despite them both being betrothed to others.

As dark forces begin to threaten Dakaria, a centuries-old prophecy is set in motion, driving Zayd to ever more desperate measures. Meanwhile, Layla discovers a latent ability that she doesn’t understand and barely knows how to handle, in no small part due to magic having been outlawed for over a century. Will she be able to overcome her fear of her newfound powers and find a way to use them to unite the kingdoms, even as her forbidden romance with Zayd threatens to tear everything apart?

~~~~~~~

If forbidden love isn’t dark enough for you — and I get it, ’tis the season! — then debut author Jacqueline White’s new adult romantasy Souls In Ruin might be just the thing.

This first book in a trilogy follows Mireille, the king’s bastard daughter, who is forced into marriage with Valen, the brutal conqueror threatening the borders of the very kingdom that scorns her. Her betrothed proves to be much more intriguing than she’d anticipated, as he stirs unexpected emotions and desires within her. Could she have found a way out of her humiliating position, and into one that will finally allow her to rule?

But the gods are not so kind. Her longed-for wedding turns into a nightmare, with her new husband throwing her into the dungeons in order to exact a cruel revenge against her father. Her only ray of light through days of torture is the voice of the prisoner in the cell next to hers. But can he be trusted? After all, she’d once thought Valen could be her escape from an impossible situation. Can she truly trust anyone besides herself?

~~~~~~~

Less dark and more sci-fi (but with more than a dash of fantasy adventure) is Maurice Africh’s upcoming Cello’s Gate. This book has received comps to the best of Matt Dinniman, Tamsyn Muir and Pierce Brown, which automatically put it on my TBR!

From the brilliant promotional materials:

“Captain Grey and his crew of sky pirates have a reputation for doing the impossible. From breaking into high-security military research facilities to conning the iCity elite—there isn’t a lock they can’t pick, a safe they can’t break, or a hidden treasure they can’t find. Until now.

“Returning from a harrowing heist involving a neon battery and a trash chute, Grey and his crew are approached by Dalia, the immortal daughter of the infamous ArchGovernor—and she has an offer.

“The job? Locate and steal the Stones of Indigo—seven fabled rocks invested with godlike power. The search for the first stone is a bona fide treasure hunt, guided by an ancient map to a deadly, uncharted island that’s protected by a mysterious guardian. The score? One million credits per crew member, per stone. The catch? Well, that’s where things get a little complicated.

“The stones don’t exist. They’re a myth. A bedtime story told to little pirates to make them believe that power and wealth are attainable if you just work hard enough.

“And to make matters infinitely worse, Grey’s never trusted immortals, and Dalia’s definitely hiding something. Something bad. And if they don’t figure out what it is, it might cost them their lives.”

~~~~~~~

And if you’re ready to shake off the dust of Spooky Season in order to better embrace winter and its festivities, then Therese Bohman’s My Street may be right up your, ahem, alley. Translated from the original Swedish by Marlaine Delargy, this Christmas story chronicles the unexpected friendship that grows between a young woman (also named Therese) and the man who will change her life.

Attending Stockholm University has proven a huge departure from the safety of Therese’s childhood home, and not in the ways she’s anticipated. Instead of living a grand adventure, she feels invisible in the lecture halls and insignificant in the vastness of the capital. Her days spent shuttling between campus and the small room she rents on the outskirts of the city are filled primarily with loneliness and anxiety.

That all changes when she meets brash, blase Andreas. He opens doors for her to an entirely different Stockholm, one filled with literary fanzines, smoky cafes and late nights in an apartment on Kammakar Street. Her life will transform that winter, as their friendship shapes the course of her entire life.

~~~~~~~

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!