I'm sad to see October leave. I already miss all the scary movies and haunting books.  Until next year, here's a recap of my Spooktacular Reads.

You can't talk about Spooktacular Reads without having Kelly Martin at the top of your list. Whether you open the door to What Rachel Did or stroll through Trinity Row you are sure to have a frightful good time. 

Lost Souls from Daniele Lanzarotta is a collection of intertwining short stories revolving around a Murder House. If you are in to audiobooks this is a great one to snag.

Also available in audio, The House by Jo Michaels. I am currently finishing up this one. It is a collection of short stories revolving around a house and its tenants. It is told from the POV of the house. It is seriously twisted and not for the faint of heart. 

I hope you find a few spooky reads to soothe your inner beast. Until next year my ghouls and goblins keep stalking! ~ Lynn

Kelly Martin is a quiet Southern Christian gal who writes terrifying tales that will scare the bejesus out of you.  Not really a description one would expect to see together, but that's sweet Kelly in a nut shell. You wouldn't know it to look at the her but she loves discovering old abandoned houses with her hubby. And has even been known to visit the infamous Waverly Hills Sanitorium. It's rumored that she lives in a haunted house too.

While I haven't officially met Kelly in person, she is one of my besties. She is amazeballs and I consider her a mentor.  Her books have won awards and she was the Keynote Speaker at this year's Virtual Books & Boos. For this and so much more, Kelly Martin is the Queen of Horror.

Join me tonight at 7:30PM EST for a FB LIVE Q&A with Kelly Martin!
CLICK HERE.

Kelly is both independently and traditionally published with two titles with  Monster Ivy - Trinity Row and What Rachel Did. 

The only thing better than discovering 'new to me' authors is finding them in a Halloween Anthology.  I am a huge fan of Heather Karn and Melanie Gilbert's work already and now I can add Ella Beaumont and Christis Christie to that list too. ~ Lynn

Something in the Shadows
by Melanie Gilbert, Christis Christie, Heather Karn, Elle Beaumont
Published by: Midnight Tide Publishing
Release Date: 10/28/20
Preorder for 99¢

I know not everyone is a fan of creepy horror stories this time of year so for today's Spooktacular Reads I present the less scary version.  I L-O-V-E everything Carolyn Ridder Aspenson writes. Her Halloween theme stories include ghosts, psychics, cute pooches, and corn mazes delivered with a dose of humor.  Below are a few of her books. You can read them all for FREE in Kindle Unlimited. 

​Widow Missy Kingston takes on the job of a lifetime—and it’s not the one at her town’s animal shelter.
​
It’s Halloween season, and the local animal shelter’s pooch adoption manager, Missy Kingston, is excited to show off the available dogs at her town’s Halloween festival!
But when she discovers the festival’s organizer dead in a pile of pumpkins, Missy’s convinced there’s more to the story than meets the eye.
When Missy sets out to investigate the murder on her own, what she discovers could solve the case—but only if the killer doesn’t get to her first.

If you love dogs, and you love small town mysteries, you’ll love Missy Kingston and the Pooch Party Cozy Mystery Series!

​Halloween is like a free-for-all for ghosts.

I’m pretty new to the whole, "I see dead people" thing. But I’ve never been one not to go with the flow—as a divorced mom, that’s kind of a requirement, right?
So, go with the flow I am. To celebrate the season, I set up a haunted historical tour through my job as the Castleberry, Georgia historical society manager.
What I didn’t expect was to find my own house haunted by ghosts desperate for my help. And they’re in a hurry, which puts a whole lot of stress on me.
Let’s hope I can figure out how to help them before time runs out.
Otherwise, I might just wind up on the wrong side of the living.
​
If you like Southern paranormal cozy mysteries, you’ll love this stand-alone novella!

​A Lily Sprayberry Realtor Cozy Mystery Novella

All of Bramblett County is keyed up and rarin' to go for the annual Abernathy Farm, "It's Fall, Y'all" festival, including realtor Lily Sprayberry and her friends. The haunted corn maze has been decorated with homemade scarecrows. Volunteers are hiding among the cornstalks, ready to scare the festival-goers. And as evening descends, people flock to finally enter.
But something is "off" with the maze this year. Eerie scarecrows have been be-headed, and Lily is spooked to discover what looks to be real blood on the pumpkins. The farther into the maze Lily ventures, the more convinced she becomes that there is more at play than the work of some overzealous volunteers.
​
Join Lily as she braves the creepy maze to find the answers!

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Mattie Hathaway's story spans two series that include fifteen books. I am not even half way through the two series but I can adamantly tell you that they are perfect Spooktacular Reads. I love Mattie's tragic story. You can dive into the series for FREE with book 1, The Ghost Files.

​Cherry blossom lipstick: check
Smokey eyes: check
Skinny jeans: check
Dead kid in the mirror: check

For sixteen year old Mattie Hathaway, this is her normal everyday routine. She’s been able to see ghosts since her mother tried to murder her when she was five years old. No way does she want anyone to know she can talk to spooks. Being a foster kid is hard enough without being labeled a freak too.

Normally, she just ignores the ghosts and they go away. That is until she see’s the ghost of her foster sister… Sally.

Everyone thinks Sally’s just another runaway, but Mattie knows the truth—she’s dead. Murdered. Mattie feels like she has to help Sally, but she can’t do it alone. Against her better judgment, she teams up with a young policeman, Officer Dan, and together they set out to discover the real truth behind Sally’s disappearance.

Only to find out she’s dealing with a much bigger problem, a serial killer, and she may be the next victim…

Will Mattie be able to find out the truth before the killer finds her?

Every year for the month of October I share some of my all time favorite scary stories with you as well as reviews on a few new to me ghoulish tales. I am kicking off the month with a new to me author, Nic Sheff. Harmony House will definitely leave you wonder is houses retain the memories of prior bad acts.
​~ Lynn 

​Jen Noonan’s father thinks a move to Harmony House is the key to salvation, but to everyone who has lived there before, it is a portal to pure horror.

After Jen’s alcoholic mother’s death, her father cracked. He dragged Jen to this dilapidated old manor on the shore of New Jersey to “start their new lives”—but Harmony House is more than just a creepy old estate. It’s got a chilling past—and the more Jen discovers its secrets, the more the house awakens. Strange visions follow Jen wherever she goes, and her father’s already-fragile sanity disintegrates before her eyes. As the forces in the house join together to terrorize Jen, she must find a way to escape the past she didn’t know was haunting her—and the mysterious and terrible power she didn’t realize she had.

​4 Stars
A perfect October read!

Nic Sheff's Harmony House weaves the past and present into a spine-tingling horror story that reminded me of Stephen King's Carrie.

Jen and her evangelical father move into Harmony House to serve as caretakers to the property. Jen's mom is deceased and her father Anselm is determined to keep the same "demons" from taking his daughter. Jen is self-medicating to get through the pain of the loss of her mother and her father's daily prayer rituals. She has visions of HH when it was a convent and a place for unwed mothers. But the convent isn't a kind place and the Mother Superior is anything but a woman of God. The house seems to be affecting her father as well. Anselm is becoming more like the deadly Monsingor in Jen's visions. 

Since Jen was little she has had this fire within her. When she becomes angry or scared things happen. Light bulbs exploding. Pictures flying off walls and hitting people. <--- Hence the nod to Carrie.

Jen must weave through her visions to discover the atrocities harbored in Harmony House before the house consumes her and her father.