Fresh New Books February 24, 2026 | Kiss Your $ Goodbye!
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. For a short while I was posting all the horror books I could find but there are too many of them and it was taking up too much of my reading time. Unless there is a really slow week, going forward I'll only showcase the ones I plan on eventually reading.
HORROR. HORROR-adjacent & THRILLERS
Dollface by Lindy Ryan
Barbie meets Scream with a 90s nostalgia twist in this horror romp from Bless Your Heart author Lindy Ryan.
Horror author Jill has just moved to suburban New Jersey, hoping to fit in with the new PTA moms and maybe not weird everyone out with her Final Girl coffee mug. You know. Make some real friends.
But then a plastic face-masked serial killer begins slashing their way through town, one overly made-up mom at a time. The police are incredulous. The moms are indignant. And Jill is slowly wrapped into a killer’s murderous spree, until she might just be the last woman standing.
A delightfully murderous novel that is equal parts scathing and salacious, Dollface will win you over with its gossip and gore, one body at a time.
This sounds like a fun horror thriller mashup & a few of my fellow bloggers have given it good reviews.
Learn more at Goodreads.
The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall
From the bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods, No One Can Know, and A Killing Cold, a new novel about a search & rescue expert, a kidnapped woman, and the lost girls who haunt them both.
There is a girl in a basement.
The door has stopped opening.
The light is gone.
Stranger is trapped in the dark, with only her imagination and the scribbles on the wall left by long-dead girls to keep her company. Nearly out of food and water, she makes one last attempt to escape. But if the door opens at last, will it mean salvation, or only the beginning of her fight to survive?
Audrey is a search and rescue expert who never stopped looking for her ex-best friend, Janie, who disappeared when they were teenagers. Janie used to love the local legend of a forest witch who saves girls from bad men, but Audrey knows now that for every one saved, there’s always another one lost. When she stumbles upon evidence in the forest that a teenage runaway might have actually been kidnapped from land belonging to the town’s most prominent family, she will have to dig through decades of secrets to reveal the biggest one of all: what happened to the girls before.
I loved These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall and keep meaning to read more of her work.
Learn more at Goodreads.
House, Body, Bird by Bernie Jean Schiebeling
Birdie Goodbain, last of the House’s daughters, thought only the dolls were watching...
Raised in her family’s dollhouse museum, Birdie grew up surrounded by models of perfect daughters that she could never be, haunted by a father who refused to accept her and a mother who wouldn’t protect her. Birdie fled and didn’t look back.
A home, a girlfriend, a job—a summons to the House she left behind.
After ten years, Birdie returns to her mother’s welcoming arms, but something has changed in the centuries-old family home. Strange dogs hide in the foundations, her bedroom door locks on its own, her father won’t leave the basement—and something new and terrible lurks behind her mother’s eyes. She knows that she should leave, but eyes far older than the dolls’ have been watching her.
The House allowed Birdie to escape once. It refuses to let her shame the family again.
This sounds like a weird one and I like weird but I think I may wait until another review or two shows up because I've never read this author and the pb, like all new books, is pricey. If you've read it let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Learn more at Goodreads.
Weavingshaw by Heba Al-Wasity
In this debut gothic fantasy, the first book of an enthralling fantasy romance trilogy, a young woman who can see the dead strikes a deal with a magnetic and dangerous purveyor of dark secrets to save her brother’s life.
Three years ago, Leena Al-Sayer awoke with a terrible power.
She can see the dead.
Since then, she has hidden herself from the world, knowing that if she ever reveals her curse she will be locked away in an asylum.
When her beloved brother, Rami, falls fatally ill, Leena is faced with a terrible CHOICE: Let him die or buy the expensive medicine that will save his life by bartering the only valuable thing she has—her secret.
The Saint of Silence, a ruthless merchant who trades in confessions and is shrouded in unearthly rumors of cruelty and power, accepts her bargain, for a deadly price. Leena must find the ghost of Percival Avon, the last lord of Weavingshaw—or lose her freedom to the Saint forever.
As Leena’s search takes her and the Saint to Weavingshaw, she finds the estate and the surrounding moors to be living things—hungry for blood and sacrifice. Fighting against Weavingshaw’s might, Leena must also fight her growing pull toward the enigmatic Saint himself, whose connection to Percival Avon remains a mystery.
As the house begins to entomb them, time is running out on their desperate hunt for answers.
For Leena has come to see that here in Weavingshaw, the dead are not hushed—and some secrets are better left buried with them.
A new gothic fantasy sounds good to me!
Learn more at Goodreads.
ROMANCE
And Now, Back to You by B.K. Borison
Two competing meteorologists are forced to find common ground in this opposites attract, When Harry Met Sally inspired romance, from New York Times bestselling author B.K. Borison.
Jackson Clark and Delilah Stewart have had their fair share of run-ins over the years, often ending in disaster. While Jackson thrives on routine and organization from the comfort of his radio booth, Delilah loves the spontaneity and adventure out in the field. When they’re partnered against their will to cover the snowstorm of the century, they find themselves scrambling to figure out how to work together.
Eager to be taken seriously as a journalist, Delilah offers Jackson a deal. If he can help her ace this assignment, she’ll help him rediscover his long-lost fun side. With an undiscovered chemistry burning beneath their clashes, the unlikely partnership quickly tumbles into an easy and surprising friendship.
But when other feelings start to enter the equation, can Jackson and Delilah withstand the storm? Or does what happens in the mountains, stay in the mountains?
This is book #2 in the Heartstrings series. Book #1 First Time Caller was fun so I'll be checking this one out.
Learn more at Goodreads.
MONSTER & FANTASY ROMANCE!
I couldn't find much in the way of monster romance releases today but I did find this new series about Orcs by C.M. Nascosta (author of the ridiculously fun Hollow) that I somehow missed! The newest book comes out today but the blurbs say they should be read as a series so here they are!
Girls Weekend by C.M.Nascosta
A weekend with friends, fun in the sun, and huge, naked orcs. What could be better?
That’s what three suburban elves think when they book a trip to an orc nudist resort, well known for its libidinous residents and hedonistic parties. The plan is to sample the DTF locals and work on their tans, not catch feelings. Confident Ris is single and ready to mingle, insecure Lurielle is open to adventure, but has her reservations, and Silva...well, poor Silva was tricked into the trip in the first place. When Lurielle meets a syrupy-voiced gentleman who seems interested in more than just a weekend fling, she finds sticking to the plan is easier said than done. From a public bathhouse to a back alley pub, the trip has unintended consequences on the lives of the three work friends and the orcs they meet.
Can a weekend of no-strings sex actually end in love?
Parties by C.M.Nascosta
Several months after a weekend girls' trip, suburban elves Lurielle, Ris, and Silva are still affected by their experiences at the resort and the orcs they met there.
Lurielle discovers that being in a multi-species relationship presents its own unique challenges: meeting Khash's family, introducing him to hers, and facing the harsh realities that lie ahead if they stay together. A lifetime together or a lifetime apart — she must decide if she can bear all that the future holds.
When Ris returns to the resort on a whim, an unexpected encounter with a slightly familiar face upends this elf's desire to be a free as the wind. Ainsley is simultaneously everything and nothing that she's looking for - smart and sexy and completely unattached, and happy to stay that way . . . but how long can they "keep things casual?"
Silva struggles juggling her two halves: Daytime Silva, crushed beneath the expectations of her family and snobbish Elvish society, and Silva of the Nighttime, unfettered and free, seeing Tate in secret. When her web of lies tangles beyond her control, she must make a choice — will she follow the carefully mapped life of privilege her family has planned for her in their Elvish community . . . or throw it all away to follow her heart, for a man with his own heart full of secrets.
Parties is a multi-POV story, following all three girls through a succession of soirees, each one winding their separate storylines — and the work friends — tighter together.
Invitations by C.M.Nascosta
You’re invited to the wedding of the year . . .
Lurielle didn’t dream of her wedding day as a little girl. Hard to think about a far-off future when she was too busy trying to get through her awkward adolescence at the Elvish club as invisibly as possible. Unlike every other elf she knew, she did not have binders of wedding plans ready to be activated at a moment’s notice.
Now the orc of her dreams is telling her he’s going to build her a bridal fire they can see from space, leaving her unprepared and completely out of her depth. It doesn’t help that the engagement of one of the Cambric Creek elite has gripped the entire town in the throes of wedding mania, and as Khash catches the fever, all Lurielle wants to do is elope.
At least she can count on her friends to help her through the most mortifying highs and lows of dress shopping . . . at least, she thinks she can.
Ris isn’t sure how she managed to get so lucky. Ainsley is everything she wants — her crops are watered, her skin is clear, she’s getting her back blown out weekly, and she’s ready to be the best bridesmaid in the history of matrimony. But when his support system vanishes, the carefree no-strings-attached Ainsley she loves seems to disappear overnight. In his place is an orc who wants more than Ris thinks she’s prepared to give.
It’s hard to focus on someone else’s happily ever after when her own is going through such hard growing pains. Thank the stars Silva is there to help with the wedding planning minutiae . . .
For as long as she could remember, Silva had daydreamed about her dream wedding to the tiniest detail, and now she’s ready for the new future she’s planning — Silva of the Nighttime and the orc of her dreams living their best life together, because nothing is going to stop her from getting what she wants.
Nothing, except for the truth Tate hid from her so thoroughly.
Choosing between what her heart wants and what she needs to do isn’t easy, but as the secret she keeps grows large enough to swallow all of Cambric Creek, Silva doesn’t need to wonder which choice Tate would have her make.
It’s hard to plan someone else’s happily ever after when you don’t believe in them anymore.
Reunion by C.M.Nascosta
There's no blurb for this one yet but it's the final book of the series and is releasing today.
Learn more at Goodreads.
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