Bark At The Ghouls

I have a bit of a backlog of these since I've been doing my best to get through some of my tbr pile. So anyhow, here's another post that everyone loves to see (lol and yikes).  However, I've always reviewed what I consider the good, the meh and the not-so-great and seeing books others have DNF'd also helps people decide what they'd like to read next. We can't all love the same things and someone might read my words and say "Hey, I love that thing you hate. Thanks for the recommendation!" But it's all helpful as long as it's not hateful. So here goes the first batch!  Ooops, nope. That's totally not what this post is about. It's your last chance to turn back! #1 The Baby Dragon Cafe by A.T. Qureshi I purchased this book new with a B&N gift card because the cover was so cute and the reviews at the time were all stupendous. Sadly, turns out I didn't think it was stupendous. The more I read, the more awkward the romance grew. I quit...

This was so incredibly disappointing in every way for me. My 2 Cents for Free! The Bloody Brick Road by Maude Royer Released January 2026 Source: Spotify Audiobook See more @ Goodreads I am not enjoying anything about this book. The characters are abrasive, the narration feels like it’s screaming at me and the story has veered so far off course it’ll never find its way back. It’s stressing me out and I’m calling it quits at 45%. I don’t even care that it’s not at all a Wizard of Oz retelling unless you squint so hard your brain bleeds but I do care that it is nothing at all like Maeve Fly or Tender is the Flesh and I’ve read them both. That’s why I picked this up. These untrue and terrible comparisons truly need to stop. Also, it’s a police procedural serial killer murder mystery and I was not expecting that when I picked it up. There is a brutal dog death and the dog is described as an ugly monster as if that’s supposed to excuse its brutal murder! There’s also baby death so be warned...

This is where I spotlight the sparkling new 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.  I only found a few this week that grabbed my attention which is probably a good thing. I'll start with the romance and move onto darker things. There's a new release by Chuck Tingle & Jeff Strand who are both always tons of fun.  New Books This Week! Candy Apple Kisses by Amy Clipston In a pumpkin spice-drenched best-friends-to-lovers sweet romance, a struggling artist returns to her hometown to save her best friend's orchard. Their fight against a corporate giant ignites an unexpected romance full of heart and small-town charm. Emily never expected to return to Splendid Lake, the quaint town that held her childhood memories, and certainly not to help save Jake's family orchard. She left years ago with dreams of artistic glory in the city, but when Ja...

This is a cute read with a little too much going on. My 2 Cents for Free! First Witches Club by Maisey Yates Released March 2026 Source: TBR See more @ Goodreads This was a cute book about three women who all happen to have lousy cheating cheaters for husbands. They come together when yet another victim of a cheating spouse lands in the hospital. They become unlikely friends and all find some kind of work in a nearby witchy apothecary. It moves along at a steady clip and new romances blossom super fast. Too fast for me actually. I think each woman deserved her own book because the romances felt really under baked. All three in one made it feel crowded and rushed and sometimes made my head spin. But it’s decent and a little witchy and has a slightly cozy feel despite all the dickhead husbands. Final Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Publisher Plot Synopsis  When three betrayed wives stumble into a magical apothecary shop, they discover that revenge is sweet—but finding true love and their own power is ...

Alas, this one wasn't for me. My 2 Cents for Free! Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey Released May 2026 Source: Netgalley See more @ Goodreads I have one more Netgalley audio to finish and then I think I have to call it quits on any and all ARC’s for a long while, if not forever. If it weren’t for the fact that I was reading this book for a Netgalley review, I would’ve definitely dnf’d it because finishing it felt like a chore. I’ve read Gailey’s books Just Like Home and Spread Me and enjoyed them but this one was a drag. It is a story about a woman named Celia who chooses to deal with her grief by escaping to a festival/retreat that claims it will change her life. And it does, so I guess, good for her! Who doesn’t want to live on an island with weird people who never wear shoes and seem to have no privacy? Where they take all of your personal belongings and lock them up. Where the babies belong to all, and where people seem to disappear but also never truly leave? Me, that's who! ...

This is where I spotlight the sparkling new 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.  We're going through a major heatwave so hopefully I can catch up on my reading and add a few of these newer ones to the tbr!  New Books This Week! Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay Philip K. Dick meets the Coen Brothers in this genre-bending near-future tech nightmare that is as bitingly funny as it is horrifically believable from the New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie. Meet Julia Flang, a twenty-something former semi-professional gamer, living with her retired uncle, and working two jobs she doesn’t like. Out of the blue, her estranged mother, a CFO for one of the world’s largest tech companies, offers her a temp job with a payday Julia can’t refuse. One sham interview later, she’s offered the job: to chaperone a man in a veget...

Need a slightly spooky read? You might like this one. My 2 Cents for Free! Grave Birds by Dana Elmendorf Released July 2025 Source: Spotify Listen See more @ Goodreads Grave Birds is a decent enough rainy-day summer read but it fell a little flat for me in the end. The southern atmosphere and mysterious start hooked me in pretty good. The heroine sees "grave birds" who tell her stories about people. Dark, tortured stories mostly and she has to piece it all together. Hollis is living in a greenhouse on a property she's been doing her best to buy until a handsome stranger comes to town and swoops in to steal it out from under her. Is he the devil? Is he part of the murky history that keeps coming back to her in flashes? Or is he just a handsome devil who wanted the house? Does it even matter? This book felt more like a light(ish) spooky mystery to me with a thread of under-developed romance. It was a pleasant enough read but I don't think it's going to stick with me...

A slow burn, atmospheric tale of dread and duty. My 2 Cents for Free! The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea Released February 2019 Source: Library Borrow See more @ Goodreads I've been reading a lot of dark and dreary gothic novels lately and realized there have been quite a few that flew under my radar in the past. This is one of them and I'm glad I finally found it! It's never too late to find a book, right? Rosa is in love with her childhood friend but marries an older man with means in order to save the life of her mother who is ailing from sickness and poverty. Set in Iceland 1686 she doesn't have a lot of options. She travels to this stranger's manor with one of his gruff men when he leaves immediately after their marriage to "care for his people". This is clearly going to be mostly marriage in name only. Once she arrives at his abode, she's isolated and told to obey and to spend her days cleaning, cooking, and slaving away while he's out doing wha...

It's always a horror show here, but Tammy is hosting the SUMMER OF HORROR over on her blog and you should check it out for more horror fun. Click the pic to check out her blog. My 2 Cents for Free! Body Count by Codie Crowley Released May 2026,  Source: Netgalley, Check it out @ Goodreads Body Count is a pretty good name for this one for two reasons. The first being it’s a monster/slasher novel and the second being that the teens are all vying to win the “slut cup” on their prom trip. So prepare yourself for some sexy times and some murder. Personally, I think the blurb here gives too much away as the prelude to the story isn’t completely revealed until midway through the story and much of the fun of the book is the discovery. So, if you haven’t already, maybe don’t read that publisher blurb. It's included below for anyone who doesn't mind being a little spoiled. Anyhow, Sundae is our main character and she’s about to go through some stuff. She, her friends and the new lov...

                  New Books This Week! This is where I spotlight the sparkling new 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.  Is it just me, or is it extremely hard to focus on sitting down and typing when the weather warms up? I've been reading a bunch but doing anything else book-related seems to be impossible. Anyhow, here are a few books that look super good that have been released since the last time I checked (May 15ish) Mid May-Mid June 2026 The Dorians by Nick Cutter - May 19, 2026 On a remote island in the Canadian wilderness, five elderly volunteers from different walks of life are given a tantalizing offer: to stall their biological clocks or even reverse them, restoring their lost youth. The chance to put death on pause—forever, perhaps. The remarkable secret lies in the high-tech harnessing...