Hello & Happy Friday Readers! Fall is officially in the air and now I get to go full throttle spooky for the next month and change. Speaking of Fall, this season is about more than spooky, though the spooky times are my favorite. The days are growing shorter, the weather colder. It's perfect curl up and read weather, my favorite time to snuggle up on the couch with a book and I have a few favorites I revisit at this time of year. So today, I thought I would pull back the curtain and share some of my favorite seasonal reads with you.
Sword & Silk Blog Maven's Favorite Fall Reads
Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez
Kicking it off with a healthy dose of my favorite pairing: Horror & Humor. A. Lee Martinez is someone who also had an influence on my own writing and this book remains one of my favorites. Bloodier than Fried Green Tomatoes!
Funnier than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre!
Welcome to Gil's All Night Diner, where zombie attacks are a regular occurrence and you never know what might be lurking in the freezer. . . .
Duke and Earl are just passing through Rockwood county in their pick-up truck when they stop at the diner for a quick bite to eat. They aren't planning to stick around--until Loretta, the eatery's owner, offers them one hundred dollars to take care of her zombie problem. Given that Duke is a werewolf and Earl's a vampire, this looks right up their alley.
But the shambling dead are just the tip of a particularly spiky iceberg. Seems someone's out to drive Loretta from the diner, and more than willing to raise a little hell on earth if that's what it takes. Before Duke and Earl get to the bottom of the diner's troubles, they'll run into such otherworldly complications as undead cattle, an amorous ghost, a jailbait sorceress, and the terrifying occult power of pig Latin.
And maybe--just maybe--the End of the World, too.
The Darkest Powers Trilogy by Kelley Armstrong
There is just something about the delightfully imperfect characters in this YA trilogy that I love revisiting over & over. They aren't too pretty. They have human flaws. And they are monsters. I love them. I reread this trilogy about once a year, in a two day span, kicking off with 'The Summoning'
Chloe Saunders used to have a relatively normal life.
But now she finds herself in the middle of some really strange situations because:
~She suddenly starts seeing dead people.
~She gets locked up in a group home for unstable teens.
~The group home isn't what it seems.
My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.
All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost—and the ghost saw me.
Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? It's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House... before its skeletons come back to haunt me.
It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas
Something you should know about me is I am also a sucker for historical romance and the Wallflowers series is one of my first loves. Of all the Wallflowers, Lillian & Marcus may be my favorite because it plays with enemies to lovers and that is one of my favorite tropes. Plus Lillian is pure spunky goodness.
It happened at the ball.
Where beautiful but bold Lillian Bowman quickly learned that her independent American ways weren't entirely "the thing." And the most disapproving of all was insufferable, snobbish, and impossible Marcus, Lord Westcliff, London's most eligible aristocrat.
It happened in the garden.
When Marcus shockingly—and dangerously—swept her into his arms. Lillian was overcome with a consuming passion for a man she didn't even like. Time stood still; it was as if no one else existed—thank goodness they weren't caught in the act!
It happened one autumn.
Marcus was a man in charge of his own emotions, a bedrock of stability. But with Lillian, every touch was exquisite torture, every kiss an enticement for more. Yet how could he consider taking a woman so blatantly unsuitable . . . as his bride?
The Replacement by Brenna Yavonoff
You want some spooky season vibes, here be some spooky season vibes. And another one from "the monster's POV". This story has a seriously creeptacular vibe throughout and I cannot recommend enough. Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.
Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.
The Changeover by Margaret Mahy
I first read The Changeover as a teenager and it has stayed with me for over twenty years of my life (yes I am that old). It's one of those gorgeous atmospheric pieces you find that brands itself in your brain in the best way. This one is a modern classic and it is the PERFECT read for this season. The face in the mirror. From the moment she saw it, Laura Chant knew that something dreadful was going to happen. It wasn’t the first time she’d been forewarned. But never before had anything so terrible happened. The horrifyingly evil Carmody Braque touched and branded her little brother – and now Jacko was very ill, getting steadily worse.
There was only one way to save him. Laura had to change over: had to release her supernatural powers. And that meant joining forces with the extraordinary and enigmatic Sorenson Carlisle…