Fresh New Books, March 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. 

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 must find the courage to step into her power and claim her identity, but that would mean facing whatever hides in the cellar below the cellar— a place that seems to be waiting for her. Full of delightfully weird surprises and off-kilter characters, this adult coming-of-age story explores themes of female empowerment, spirituality, identity, and community. For fans of Kelly Link, Karen Russell, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Leonora Carrington.

Learn more at Goodreads

The Fourth Wife by Linda Hamilton

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas meets “Sister Wives” in a deliciously chilling, darkly romantic, historical gothic horror with a feminist slant, as a young Mormon woman is haunted by a malevolent presence in the decrepit Salt Lake City mansion she shares with her new husband and his other wives…

Hazel Russon’s life in 1879 Utah territory is defined by three the Mormon church, polygamy, and the men who control both. She knows she’s supposed to suppress her sinful dreams of a monogamous life with her sweetheart, and her desire for the freedom to play her beloved piano. Every Mormon woman’s duty is to live obediently and meekly, devoted to her husband and her calling as a sister wife. Her eternal salvation depends upon it.

Commanded to become the fourth wife of a man she’s never met, Hazel is relieved that Jacob Manwaring is attentive and handsome. However, she is shocked to discover that instead of living separately as is custom, all of Jacob’s wives and children live in the same house—a large, dilapidated manor that inexplicably fills Hazel with dread. 

Despite Jacob’s tenderness, Hazel senses dark secrets and resentments among her sister wives. She hears strange music, sees blood oozing from the very walls, and glimpses apparitions that grow more terrifying every day. And as her nightmares worsen, Hazel can’t be sure if she has more to fear from the living—including her mysterious husband—or from a sinister presence that seems to animate the house itself . . .

Drawing on little-known Mormon folklore and the author’s own polygamous ancestors, this fascinating, suspense-filled historical novel debut is by turns darkly romantic, spine-tingling, and wholly unforgettable.

Learn more at Goodreads

Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell

Once upon a time, on the edge of a forest, there was a lonely child with only his older sister for company. So his sister made him a playmate — Daye, a girl woven from carefully selected flowers and words. And finally, this boy, Rory, had a friend.

Rory is gloriously happy, until he learns that Daye is a seasonal creature. At the end of each season, she must be woven back together or fall gruesomely apart. And when, one autumn, his sister fails to return home from university in time, Rory has no choice but to watch his best friend slowly crumble, not knowing until the last second if she can be pieced together again.

Realizing he can no longer rely on his sister to keep Daye alive, Rory determines he must leave home to learn how to do it himself. And the more he learns, the more he starts to Why can’t Daye survive more than one season? Can he do anything to break this cycle of bloom and decay? But as Rory grows older, his thoughts turn darker too . . .

While Rory sinks deeper into research and experiments, ensconced in libraries and hunched in university labs, Daye is left to wait for his return. Alone. Sometimes, the silence seems to seep all the way to her branch-bones. Sometimes, the company of birds is the only thing to remind her that she is still alive. And as Rory keeps pushing his experiments further and further, Daye starts to wonder – how far is too far?

An entrancing, inventive and unsettling reimagining of the story of Blodeuwedd from Welsh mythology, Honeysuckle is a feminist Frankenstein with flowers; a deliciously dark, twisted, horror-tinged fairytale with rot at its heart . . .

Learn more at Goodreads.

Maneater by Ellie Graves

Revenge is tough to swallow...

Things for Renee Landis are finally looking up. She just quit her dead-end job at a chicken shop after landing the coveted role of junior chef at London’s pristine NOVA restaurant.

But it's not the restaurant that draws Renee in - it's the executive chef. Gracie Fitzgerald is as legendary as she is secretive, known for her succulent, signature dishes and the notorious methods in which she runs her kitchen. No one can touch her workspace with bare hands. No other chef can taste her signature dishes. And no one, under any circumstances, is allowed to enter her personal freezer…

Learn more at Goodreads.

Palmetto Boy by D.A. Jobe

She thought she’d escaped the monster that tormented her family decades ago…

Alane is determined to give her 12-year-old son, Ray the stable childhood she didn’t have. After moving into a new apartment, Alane works two jobs to make ends meet, leaving Ray alone in the evenings. Ray loves his new independence, but soon that love turns to fear as he begins to hear strange sounds from the attic crawl space. Doors slam where there aren’t any. Something is chewing a hole in his bedroom ceiling.

Long-buried memories of an old family tale surface, a monster Alane and her little brother called Palmetto Boy. Alane must confront the creature that has haunted her for years and destroy it for good—before it rips away her son and the future she’s fighting to build.

Palmetto Boy is a novel about the inescapable legacy of family folklore and the risks we take to keep those we love safe.

Learn more at Goodreads.

Sourwood by Logan Spurgeon

Reed and Leighton never imagined they would meet their grandparents or discover the place their family came from. The roots of their family tree had been concealed by their parents and all their secrets died with them. That is until the siblings received a call from their estranged grandmother, Violet.

After years of searching Violet finally found them, but she gives them surprising news. Their grandfather Royce will pass soon and a sizable inheritance awaits them on one condition—they pay a visit to Ashfeld Manor, their ancestral home.

The siblings, each with their own hidden motivations, agree. But nothing at Ashfeld Manor is as it seems: the house is falling apart, a humming noise fills the stale air, the sourwood trees around the property are rotting, and a strange creature roams the night sky.

As they uncover the roots of their family tree, Reed and Leighton unveil horrific secrets that will forever transform them. Together they must save each other from their cursed bloodline.

Learn more at Goodreads.

Wretch by Eric Larocca

From rising horror star and award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke comes a nightmarish, haunting, tech-Gothic thrill ride about sorrow, memory, and the unabashed complexity of love as a transgressive act.

After his husband dies, Simeon Link finds himself overcome by grief and seeking comfort in an unusual support group called The Wretches, who offer an addictive and dangerous source of relief. They introduce Simeon to a curious figure known as Porcelain Khaw—a man with the ability to let those who are grieving have one last intimate moment with their beloved...for a price.

Hallucinatory, fiendish, and destructively beautiful, Wretch transports us to a world where not everything is as it seems, and those we love may be the ones who haunt us most.

Learn more at Goodreads.

I feel like I should love the way this author writes as they are constantly compared to Clive Barker & Poppy Z Brite but the one book I tried, You've Lost a Lot Blood, didn't work out so great for me. You can read about it here. I gave it a 2.5 but I'm willing to try again.

Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher

Something darker than the devil stalks the North Carolina woods in Wolf Worm, a new gothic masterpiece from New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher.

The year is 1899 and Sonia Wilson is a scientific illustrator without work, prospects, or hope. When the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house and put her talents to use. But soon enough she finds that there are darker things at work than the Carolina woods. What happened to her predecessor, Halder’s wife? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about “blood thiefs?”

With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder’s entomological studies have taken him down a dark road full of parasitic maggots that burrow into human flesh, and that his monstrous experiments may grow to encompass his newest illustrator as well.

Learn more at Goodreads.

I almost always love T. Kingfisher books and am excited to get this one started this week!

Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas

The acclaimed author of the “disorienting, creepy, paranoia-inducing” (Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World) A History of Fear returns with a spine-tingling new thriller about a weight loss treatment with potentially murderous side effects.

Retail worker Emmett Truesdale has never fit the Southern California mold of six-pack, suntanned masculinity. Over three hundred pounds, he carries the weight of his childhood trauma and millennial ennui around his waist and in his soul. After trying every diet under the sun, he remains stuck—in his dead-end job, in love, and in his body.

Desperate for help, he enrolls in a clinical trial for a new weight loss product called Obexity. The treatment is as horrifying as the results are miraculous and as Emmett sheds pounds at superhuman speed, every part of his life improves overnight.

Unfortunately, Obexity comes with some killer side effects, including lost stretches of time and overwhelming cravings. Worse, people who were cruel to him have started disappearing and when the police warn of a cannibalistic killer on the loose, he fears that Obexity is turning him into a monster. But how can he give it up now that people are finally starting to treat him like he’s human?

Nerve-racking, sinister, and at times surreal, Nothing Tastes as Good is an unputdownable thriller that combines The Substance with the best of Stephen King and keeps you guessing until the final page.

Learn more at Goodreads.

This sounds incredibly disturbing. I must read it.

ROMANCE

The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Say You'll Remember Me comes a beautiful, compelling novel that revels in laughter, friendship, and the messy choices life can throw our way.

In everyone’s life, there’s a split-second decision that can change everything...

For Larissa, it came when choosing which guy to ride home with after a concert. That night, she had no idea she’d met the perfect man. She and Chris are great together, co-parenting a slightly unhinged rescue Yorkie, sharing their favorite books, and judging bread (pumpernickel for the win!). For the first time amid all her side hustles to scrape by, things finally feel easy.

But Chris isn't the one who drove Larissa home all those months ago—Chris is her boyfriend's best friend. All Chris wants is for Larissa to be happy. Standing by on the sidelines is slowly killing him, but making a move would destroy someone else. And he’s just not that guy.

Learn more at Goodreads.

MONSTER & FANTASY ROMANCE

Don't Eat Your Human Boyfriend by Lily Mayne

I like to describe myself as an ethical ghoul. I’ve been working at Broth with a Bite in the Creepy Court Mall food court for eight years so that I can get my… very specific nutritional needs in a way that doesn’t make me feel like too much of a monster. I work in the ‘special’ kitchen, preparing food for our customers with the same, ahem, dietary issues, and I’m totally fine working alongside the humans who run the other kitchen and have no idea what’s actually served.

Until the new guy starts. The new human guy with the cutest shy smile and the raddest hair and a body that makes my mouth water. He looks like a very decent mouthful and smells like the best five-course meal rolled into one.

Suddenly, Ricky is all I can think about. Sweet, delicious Ricky who has no idea he’s working in a restaurant for ghouls, who has no idea ghouls even exist, and who I just want to take a big bite out of. Not, like, literally. Kind of.

It's totally wrong for a ghoul to lust after a human. They’re food. But I can’t help it. I want Ricky bad. I just have to remember to keep my teeth in check.

Learn more at Goodreads.

Out of this World by Ari Wright

Sofi didn't mean to get abducted by aliens.

But when one unfortunate t-shirt, a few test-tube shots, and an ill-advised nightclub choice land her on a transport pod, bound for another planet... Yeah. Maybe she should have stayed in.

As if being taken from her home and her two best friends wasn't bad enough, Sofi soon finds out she's been selected for a very special she's a perfect breeding vessel. Or as the aliens say, "an omega."

Sofi may not know what that is, but she soon finds out what it

She's been claimed.

By an alien king.

An alpha.

Which would be bad enough... But, turns out? On Khanos? Bad news comes in threes.

Literally.

Learn more at Goodreads.

Looks like another good week for book lovers! Anything catch your eye this week? Let me know in the comments.