Fresh New Books January 20, 2026 - Kiss Your $ Goodbye!
New Books Because You Know 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.
I'm a little late today because I didn't finish this draft before leaving for a trip. But I'm here now and boy is there ever a ton of good sounding weird fiction being released today. Will I find time to read all 9 of them? Highly unlikely but I'll try to read a bunch before 2026 is over.
First the HORROR and HORRORish because it'll always be my first love.
A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James
Siblings return to the house they fled eighteen years before, called back by the ghost of their long-missing brother and his haunting request to come home.
Strange things happen in Fell, New York: A mysterious drowning at the town’s roadside motel. The unexplained death of a young girl whose body is left by the railroad tracks. For Violet, Vail, and Dodie Esmie the final straw was their little brother's shocking disappearance, which started as a normal game of hide-and-seek.
As their parents grew increasingly distant, the sisters were each haunted by visions and frightening events, leading them to leave town and never look back. Violet still sees dead people—spirits who remind her of Sister, the menacing presence that terrorized her for years. Now after nearly two decades it’s time for a homecoming—because Ben is back, and he’s ready to lead them to the answers they’ve longed for and long feared.
I have enjoyed all of the Simone St. James books I've read so far and am really forward to this one. She has a way of combining both the thriller and supernatural genres in the best way. I'll probably catch it on audio since I have a few credits to burn soon before they expire.
Learn more at Goodreads.
Dead Fake by Vincent Ralph
Would you Swipe to Die?
When the new craze takes over Bleak Haven High, Ava Wilson refuses to join in. As the niece of an infamous murderer, it’s the last thing she needs.
The mysterious website allows people to view their own ‘death’ – an AI generated version of their final slasher-movie-moments. But, when some of her classmates’ deepfakes are replicated in real life, Ava can either catch the killer…or be the next victim.
I love a fun slasher and this sounds like it might be one of those.
Learn more at Goodreads.
Eminence Front by Rebecca Rowland
A winter storm ravages a small community in New England, but the residents of one street are unprepared for what the snow an ancient curse, an entity that knows both their sins and their regrets and will stop at nothing to consume what belongs to it.
When John Stephenson peers out of his window on a Tuesday morning, he sees nothing but clear, gray skies hovering above the houses on his staid suburban street, but the next 48 hours will prove to be a waking nightmare from which John and his neighbors cannot escape. As the first flakes fall, the whispering begins. A woman walking her dog leans into the sidewalk as though something buried beneath speaks to her. As the storm grows in ferocity, each of the residents hear the storm calling.
What it says, however, few may survive to repeat.
From Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Award finalist Rebecca Rowland comes a winter horror novel of cosmic proportions, one in which one neighborhood comes face to face, and ear to ear, with a malevolence as old as the world itself.
There's no better time to read a winter horror novel than this week when it's going to be 2 degrees in NH!
Learn more at Goodreads.
Hemlock A Novel by Melissa Faliveno
A woman haunted by a dark inheritance returns to the woods where her mother vanished, in this queer Gothic novel—a butch Black Swan.
Sam, finally sober and stable with a cat and a long-term boyfriend in Brooklyn, returns alone to Hemlock, her family’s deteriorating cabin deep in the Wisconsin Northwoods, where her mother disappeared years before and never returned. But a quick, practical trip takes a turn for the worse when the rot and creak of the forest starts to creep in around the edges of Sam’s mind. It starts, as it always does, with a beer.
As Sam dips back into the murky waters of dependency, the inexplicable begins to arrive at her door in the forms of a neighbor who leaves no trace, a talking doe who sounds just like Sam’s missing mother, and a series of mysterious gifts that might be a welcome or a warning. And as Sam’s stay extends—as the town’s grip on her tightens and her body takes on a strange new shape—the borders of reality begin to blur, and she senses she is battling something sinister—whether nested in the woods or within herself.
Hemlock is a carnal coming-of-addiction, a dark sparkler about rapture, desire, transformation, and transcendence in many forms. What lives at the heart of fear—animal, monster, or man? How do we contain a threat that may come from within? And how can we reject our own inheritance, the psychic storm that’s been coming for generations, and rebuild a new home for ourselves? In the tradition of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, Hemlock is a novel of singular style, with all the edginess of a survival story and a simmering menace that glints from the very periphery of the page.
I am so looking forward to reading as many gothic horror novels as I can in 2026!
Learn more at Goodreads.
The Night Ship by Alex Woodroe
An apocalyptic world turned into a pitch-black sea of nothingness, but smuggler Rosi and her crew of survivors aren't alone. Something hungry lurks below...
Driving a logging truck through the Romanian mountains, smuggler Rosi and her crew come across a radio signal that hints at impending doom. As the world goes completely dark, their truck becomes a vessel sailing across a sea of nothingness.
But they’re not transmissions trickle in through the radio from similar isolated islands across the country, from amateur radio hobbyists and police cars and customs facilities.
Attempting to rescue survivors and find a way out, the group save more lives, but soon discover that something hungry lurks below, and it's sending up agents – and transmissions – of its own.
This one sounds incredibly creepy.
Learn more at Goodreads.
Porcelain Lullaby by Blaine Daigle
An abandoned orphanage. A buried secret. A dark truth.
Jake and Nate Shepherd’s world shattered when they were children. After a night of horror, the boys woke to find their home the site of an unspeakable tragedy. One that fundamentally cracked the boys’ psyche and left them orphaned.
Two decades after that night, the brothers don’t talk much anymore, the weight of their childhood too heavy for either to confront or bear. But when they receive a message from their long dead mother calling them to an old, abandoned orphanage called Meadowland, they find themselves drawn there.
It's a dark place of lost voices and broken souls. Where little figures lurk in the shadows and the echoes of the past grow louder and clearer by the moment.
The deeper they dig, the more the cracks in their fragile psyche begin to grow and the more their world sinks into a nightmare. Because nothing stays buried forever. Beneath the broken walls and floors of Meadowland lie secrets too dark to keep and truths too horrible to accept.
Experience a chilling psychologic horror story filled with twists from Blaine Daigle, the bestselling author of The Broken Places and A Dark Roux.
This sounds good and is currently on Kindle Unlimited (for those with a membership)
Learn more at Goodreads.
The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski
The Remains of the Day meets The Royal Tenenbaums in this darkly funny debut novel about a wealthy, eccentric family in decline and the secrets held within the walls of their crumbling country manor.
Thornwalk, a once-stately English manor, is on the brink of transformation. Its keys are being handed over to a luxury hotelier who will undertake a complete renovation—but in doing so, what will they erase? Through the keen eyes of an enigmatic neighbor, the reader is taken on a guided tour into rooms filled with secrets and memories, each revealing the story of the five Gilbert siblings.
Spanning the eve of World War II to the early 2000s, this contemporary gothic novel weaves a rich tapestry of English country life. As the story unfolds, the reader is drawn into a world where the echoes of an Edwardian idyll clash with the harsh realities of war, neglect, and changing times. The Gilberts’ tale is one of great loves, lofty ambitions, and profound loss, and Angela Tomaski’s mordantly witty yet loving account is an immersive experience. Reminiscent of the haunting atmospheres in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Infamous Gilberts offers a fresh take on a classic genre, capturing the essence of a troubled but fascinating family.
Oh lookie another gothic!
Learn more at Goodreads.
Fruit of the Flesh by I.V. Ophelia
Behind the glamour of Gilded Age New York, a marriage of convenience between an artisan and a ballerina masks their shared appetite for revenge in this darkly seductive gothic romance.
In early 1900s New York, former ballerina Petronille De Villier makes an unconventional choice: Marry struggling sculptor Arkady Kamenev. For her, it’s an escape from her family’s unsavory legacy. For him, the De Villier name promises the patronage his art desperately needs. It should be a simple arrangement.
But beneath their marriage of convenience lurks a darker recognition. In each other, they see a reflection of their own dangerous appetites. As buried secrets surface and bodies begin disappearing, Petronille and Arkady discover their union runs deeper than social advantage. Their shared obsessions draw them into an intoxicating dance of predator and prey, though it’s never quite clear who is which.
Bound by law, God, and blood, they must decide if their monstrous natures will tear them apart or forge them into something terribly wonderful together. In a world where nothing is quite what it seems, two creatures of shadow learn that true love requires a taste for the macabre.
This sounds like a me book but alas the pub rejected my Netgalley request (boo hiss) so I'm putting it last here because I will be bitter in this year of 2026, lol.
Learn more at Goodreads.
Valentine's Slay by Navessa Allen
Roses are red, violets are blue, Emma’s not dead, and her gravedigger’s hot too. This Valentine’s Day, love claws its way out of the grave in #1 New York Times bestselling author Navessa Allen’s steamy and hilariously dark rom-com.
Louisiana gravedigger Noah Evans’s Valentine’s night shift takes an unexpected turn when his high school crush starts screaming from her freshly dug grave. Whoever tried to bury Emma six feet under is in for a nasty surprise—they should have checked for a pulse because she’s got unfinished business, starting with the hot gravedigger who just saved her life. As they unearth a deadly family conspiracy, Noah and Emma discover that old flames burn even hotter the second time around—especially when someone’s trying to kill them.
Navessa Allen’s Valentine’s Slay is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute: Second Chances, stories for star-crossed lovers and hopeless romantics. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Let’s do it again.
They had me at gravedigger, haha.
Learn more at Goodreads.
And it would be a very sad new book post without at least one MONSTER-ROMANCE!
Untethering Dark by Desirée M. Niccoli
In the shadows of the forest, he waits…
A bloody and bewitching monster romance from Desirée M. Niccoli.
A winter hag in training, Astrid spends her days in the Black Forest sharpening her spell craft and flinging axes at tourists, and her nights leaving offerings to the ancient eldritch monster that guards the woods. She’s one sex ritual away from leaving the last trace of her unwanted humanity behind and stepping into her full power.
It’s the perfect life. Until a group of unruly humans brings that same deadly monster to her doorstep. Now, her only hope for survival is a plate of poisoned cookies.
Gudariks has roamed the Black Forest since it sprouted its first trees, consuming any who violate his beloved land. Lured to the witch’s gate, he is amused at her attempt to poison him with sweets…but spending time with her awakens millennia of repressed desire. Astrid doesn’t shy away from the gentle caress of his claws or his most ravenous attentions.
As witch and monster find long-buried heat in the wintery landscape they call home, signs of a dark, lost magic begin to appear in the forest. When a rising supernatural threat has them questioning not only their ability to protect the forest, but Gudariks’s own immortality, their only solution may be to share their strength and create a union beyond mortal comprehension.
I mean, would you LOOK at that cover?!
Learn more at Goodreads.
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