Bark At The Ghouls

             New Books Because You Deserve Them! This is where I spotlight the sparkling new weekly releases that are tempting me so you can succumb to temptation too. The focus will be on dark fiction and romance with the occasional thriller tossed in that catches my eye.  This week is a little slim because I accidentally included a few of this week's releases on last week's post. Oops! You can see them here . HORROR,   HORROR-adjacent & THRILLERS Monumental by Adam L.G. Nevill A Novel of Pagan Terror from the Author of The Ritual A story of life and death in the wilderness, and a horrifying tale of extreme survival against supernatural powers, from the four times winner of the August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel. Disaster strikes quickly and without warning. What should have been a glorious weekend of kayaking and camping, in a secluded beauty spot, is transformed by a scream. The first crisis, initiating a deadly momentum t...

They say a narrator can make or break or a book . . .  My 2 Cents for Free! Something Bad Happened Here by Zoe Rosi Released October 2025 Source: Netgalley See more @  Goodreads I want to thank Netgalley, the author and the publisher for sharing this audiobook with me but I have to be honest in all of my reviews or what’s the point? Something Bad Happened Here but it wasn’t a haunted house, or a demon or any of those supernatural things. It was a thin plot and an absolutely terrible choice when it came to the narration. Not that he was a bad narrator. He wasn’t. He may be a fine dapper fellow for all I know. This is nothing personal against him, but he was such a poor choice for this book. The main character and most of the secondary characters are women and he reads their parts in a falsetto that made me cringe and he narrates the other parts as if the book were a cozy mystery which it isn’t, well, at least in its last ¼ it isn’t. This choice bewilders me. Carmen is drowning ...

 Sometimes a DNF has to happen. My 2 Cents for Free! Where the Darkness Goes by Kiersten Modglin Released October 2024 Source: Library Borrow See more @  Goodreads I guess this a romance with a hint of mystery, but I may never know because I am calling it quits at the 60% mark. It's irritating me and it's boring me, and I just can't do this anymore. I don't give a cat's bum who killed who or who is going to get killed. Perhaps they'll both get it, and I'll miss out, but I can't be bothered. I listened on audio and the modern timeline/teen timeline kept throwing me. Now that I've read a little bit further, I'm pretty sure it's because they still think like horny teens in the modern time. The romance is so cheesy/cliche and not in an entertaining way. Sometimes cheesy is super fun but this one felt lazy. "She smells sweet like coconut and tastes like heaven.” "I remember what you like, my good girl." Maybe all the darkness has mo...

            New Books Because You Deserve Them! This is where I spotlight the sparkling new weekly releases that are tempting me so you can succumb to temptation too. The focus will be on dark fiction and romance with the occasional thriller tossed in that catches my eye.  HORROR,   HORROR-adjacent & THRILLERS The Cellar Below the Cellar by Ivy Grimes A playfully dark folk horror inspired by the fairy tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful" and the mythology around Frau Perchta, set under the blazing sky of endless auroras. When a wild solar storm wipes out all electronics and traps Jane at her grandmother' s house in the woods, she is forced to start a new life off-grid as part of a small, isolated community. However, there is something very strange about her new neighbors, and the longer she lives under the eerie glow of the auroras, the more she feels her grandmother may be hiding unsettling secrets. To have any hope in her new world, Jane ...

I love Chuck Tingle's work but this one wasn't my favorite. My 2 Cents for Free! Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle Released August 2025 Source: Purchased See more @  Goodreads I’ve read all of Tingle’s horror novels and each and every one is a little weird, but this one definitely wins the prize for most imaginative and outrageously strange turns. It’s deeper than many books I typically read and in all honestly wasn’t my favorite of his work. I realize it’s delving into matters of identity and existence and nihilism and bi-erasure but there was so much zaniness going on at points and a few changes in tone that were disorienting to me as I was reading. It almost felt like an X-Files episode with some insane trauma, an unsupportive mother and something called the Low Propensity Event that must be investigated tossed in. It was all a little too chaotic to keep my focus at times but maybe it’s just me. Lucky Day starts out introducing Vera who is about to celebrate her first book release ...

           New Books Because You Deserve Them! This is where I spotlight the sparkling new weekly releases that are tempting me so you can succumb to temptation too. The focus will be on dark fiction and romance with the occasional thriller tossed in that catches my eye.  Sorry so late but still in time for the weekend! These are the books that look pretty darn good that have released this week. HORROR,   HORROR-adjacent & THRILLERS Cold Snap by Angela Sylvaine The highly anticipated sequel to FROST BITE! WORMS GONE WILD! It’s 1998, and the town of Demise, North Dakota, is recovering from the Meteor Murders, hundreds of deaths caused by alien worms but blamed on a mass poisoning by a doomsday cult. While nineteen-year-old Realene’s heroic actions saved the lives of many, she wants nothing more than to hide from the world and mourn the ones she couldn’t save. When a second half of the meteor is found north of the border where her best frie...

I didn't like this one nearly as much as I thought I would. My 2 Cents for Free! The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch Released October 2024 Source: Purchased See more @  Goodreads I thought I was going to love this one, but I only ended up liking it. The plot had too much political nonsense that was no fun at all. I picked it up to escape reality and instead I found myself reading about yet another man attempting to control the world (holidays) to enrich his holiday and make himself look like some sort of savior. Ugh. I wasn't at all in the mood for this so it's probably me not the book. And, oof, the capitalism of it all.  Anyhow, the romance was cute and the two MC's adorable although I wish Hex had been given more of a POV, but the bigger plot overshadowed it all for me and sucked a lot of the joy out of it. A 2.5 bumped up to 3 because though I was bored and annoyed by the political wrappings, the characters weren't awful and I'll probably read the ne...

I'm trying my best to keep a real schedule here for once but there will be no new book release post today because I've been sick and didn't get it finished in time. So, here's my dog Benny at work with me making his best disappointed in me face so you don't have to do it, lol.  

This was really fun on audio. My 2 Cents for Free! Dollface by Lindy Ryan Released February 2026 Source: Netgalley See more @  Goodreads This is a fun thriller/slasher with a horror writer as the main character that grabbed me from the chilling opening scene. It’s not heavy or depressing, even though it could have been due to the content, and it’s pretty fast paced and a fun slasher is always a good way to escape the world for a few hours. If you enjoy audio, it’s definitely the way to go with this one. The narrator does a fantastic job voicing all of the characters but especially the main character who sounds appropriately stressed and relatable. Jill, her husband, their young son and their golden retriever Lugosi have recently moved to a creaky not creepy house in suburbia for his job. She’s a horror writer struggling with a new story idea and has some insecurities about fitting in and being known as the horror tee wearing weirdo mom. But she is who she is, and I liked that she d...