Halloween Romance Books for Every Mood: Spooky, Spice and All Things Nice
It's that time of year again - the pumpkins are ready to be carved, and my local grocery store is running dangerously low in chocolate! If your perfect remedy against cold-weather blues includes a blanket, a candle and a spine-tingly combination of spooky, spice and all things nice then read on for my ultimate guide to Halloween romance books.
You love a ghostly seance? I've got you covered. You prefer a sinister folk horror movie? I have those, too. What about strong, sinister female leads? Yup, those too. I've sorted my list into 6 evocative moods - so whatever tickles your fancy, you should find it here!
Halloween Romance Book Vibes
Lesbian Vampire Romance
These picks are bursting with bloodthirsty sapphic desire - immortality never tasted so good!
A Long Time Dead by Samara Breger
Vampires, pirates, french opera singers; this is Victorian Romance with the stays blown off!
Poppy is a lady of the night – doubly so now that she is becoming a vampire and can no longer see the light of day. Roisin is a mysterious, evergreen woman who supports Poppy through her transformation. Her buttoned-up appearance hides deep passion; and Poppy cannot helped but be drawn towards her. But an eternity is a long time in which to accumulate emotional baggage, and Cane, Roisin’s abusive ex, isn’t prepared to let her go. This story explores kink, the effects of past abuse on new relationships, and what exactly what together forever means for a vampire couple.
Spice level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Before there was Twilight – before, even, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, there was Carmilla.
Laura lives with her father in a remote part of Austria. She remembers a dream where a woman bites her – a woman who looks just like the young woman who has just crashed (literally – her carriage is run off the road) into her lives. Left alone together, Laura and Carmilla grow (suspiciously) close – and both begin to suffer from a strange affliction that involves sleeping during the day and violent reactions to religious paraphernalia. This classic of the genre explores Victorian attitudes to female sexuality and queer attraction in a crazy inventive way!
Spice level: 🔥🔥
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
Leonore is trapped in a largely loveless, childless marriage to an ambitious steel magnate. Henry wants to impress the cream of society by hosting a hunt at an imposing countryside manor house – a hunt that threatens to draw out a terrible secret within their relationship.
A crashed carriage (sound familiar?) brings the bewitchingly beautiful Carmilla to Nethershaw manor. Carmilla glows by night, but by day is sickly – and soon has local girls falling ill with a terrible bloodlust. Lenore is caught between her marriage and Carmilla’s magnetic charms.
Spice Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Ghostly Romances
Sometimes the past doesn't want to let us go. Hauntings and seances blur past and present, and old loves won't stay forgotten.
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
Florence Day is a romance ghostwriter whose catastrophic breakup has ushered in a staggering bout of writer's block - she just doesn't believe in love anymore. But her overbearing (but very gorgeous) seditor has no plans of letting her give up that easily. He even turns up on her doorstep... as a ghost?!
The Dead Romantics is heartfelt, funny, and surprisingly healing. If you like stories about grief and second chances, this one’s pure magic.
Spice level: 🔥🔥🔥
Love and Ghosts by Carrie Pulkinen
A skeptic and a seance-holder ... what could possibly go wrong? For her part, what Emily wants is a fresh start free from the ghosts of her past – in fact, all ghosts. She kisses a handsome masked stranger at a charity ball... then finds herself on his ghost tour.
Sean LeBlanc is a psychic medium well-known in New Orleans for his abilities to commune with spirits – and for his theatrics. Emily Rollins is the toughest nut he’s yet to crack – and boy is he smitten! However, when Emily unwittingly releases a demonic spirit into her bedroom, Emily is going to have to trust Sean with everything.
Spice level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller
Alva Webster returns to New York after the death of her abusive husband. She wants to restore her reputation and her Hyde Park mansion, Liefdehuis, which could really do with a lick of paint. But there are rumours that Liefdehuis isn’t as empty as it looks: Vengeful spirits roam the empty halls.
At least, that is what Professor Samuel Moore thinks – apparently, he is the only one who can work out the mystery. Alva doesn’t think there is anything to investigate – ghosts aren’t real, right? This gilded age ghost story has a fabulous gothic edge and a strong heroine. What's not to love?
Spice Level: 🔥🔥🔥
Witchy Love Stories
Black cats and covens - meet the powerful, feral women reclaiming the romance narrative.
Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper
Emmy Harlow is back in town. She mostly left for the big smoke (Chicago) in order to forge her own path – and, maybe partly because of Garethy Blackmoore, magical nepo baby, heart-breaker and all-round Bad Guy. Enough about Gareth – Emmy just wants to see her best friend Linden, take her turn as arbiter in a spell-casting tournament, then head back to her normal life.
But then she runs into Talia Avramov, a badass witch with a broken heart... courtesy of Gareth! Apparently, Gareth has been two-timing Talia with Linden, and now they both want revenge. Maybe Emmy does too. But what she wants most of all is Talia...
Spice Level: 🔥🔥
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett
Agnes Aubert is single cat lady. Her cat shelter has been blown up in an inter-wizard battle. Sigh.
In desperation she rents a strangely affordable and very, very beautiful shop. It turns out that her cat shelter is a front for the Witch King, Havelock Renard’s secret lair – and his magnetism engulfs her in a world of warring wizards, enchanted objects, and night-time police raids.
This novel contrasts the chaotic, disorganized, destructive power of magic with the quiet, constructive power of sheer hard work. I loved it!
Spice Level: 🔥
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
If you love your romance tangled with dusty libraries and secret magic, this one’s a must.
Diana is a historian who accidentally unearths a bewitched manuscript, and Matthew is a centuries-old vampire who really shouldn’t be this charming.
In order to protect the magical community from the imminent threat she has uncovered, Diana must learn to embrace the magical part of herself she has suppressed - with a little help from a very sexy vampire! The mix of history, science, and forbidden attraction is delicious.
Spice level: 🔥🔥
Slasher Romance
Final girls and hatchet-wielding killers make for seductive bedfellows!
How to kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson
Jamie Prescott and her bestie Laurie are speed-dating. Mostly for the plot and to get fast food after. She never thought one of her dates would end with his throat being cut during a blackout.
With only makeshift weapons and Jamie’s encyclopedic knowledge of the slasher genre for protection, the remaining daters must make their escape before the killer strikes again.
Love triangles, bloodshed and friendship make this gory romance one for the books!
Spice Level: 🔥
Butcher and Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
Vigilante murderers Sloane and Rowan were never meant to meet. But when a planned hit goes wrong, Rowan saves Sloane’s bacon. The two engage in a bloody head-to-head race where they select a dangerous killer as their target, and whoever kills first wins.
Their hunt takes them from West Virginia to downtown Boston and back to Rural Texas – and as the competition brews, so too does an intense emotional bond.
This genre-defying rom com/ serial killer thriller turns romance on its head. Luckily, this is only book one in Weaver's Ruinous Love Trilogy!
Spice Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Folk Horror
Welcome to the dark side of autumnal rituals. All is not as it seems when the reaper comes to call...
The Horned Thing In The Cornfield: A monster Romance by Ophelia Frost
Clara Hollister has inherited a farmhouse from her grandmother. At least, that’s what she thoughts, It turns out that something else lurks in the golden cornfields. Tall, dark and furry with hooves and enormous horns. He is called Edrik, and he is Clara’s family protector in exchange for salt, honey and meet.
Now, the agreement has passed on to Clara, and the dark presence beneath the cornfield is threatening to stir. And, weirdly, the offerings of flowers are being left on her threshold by her horned neighbor...
Spice Level: 🔥
Hayseed: A Scarecrow Monster Romance by Vera Valentine
This spicy novella centers on a harvest festival.
Fleeing her boyfriend’s drunken outbursts, Maisie runs into the cornfields to hide. She stumbles upon a scarecrow she doesn’t remember from a childhood spent running between the plants.
Ancient magic has given the straw man a sentry’s reprieve on the night of the equinox. He offers her a dark, sweet, heady bargain; will Maisie agree?
Spice Level 🔥🔥🔥
The Corn Bride by Mark Stay
It's May, 1941. Faye Bright is a spy-in-training, but for now all she can think about is marrying her sweetheart, Bertie. That is, until a ghostly vision of the burning Corn Bride threatens to stop her wedding.
Faye recruits a coven of witches to help her get to the bottom of the mystery. An evil, vengeful force is gathering strength, and he doesn’t care how many weddings he needs to crash to get his own back.
Expect zombies, pensioners-cum-sleuths, and a talking budgie.
Spice Level: 🔥🔥
Gothic Romance
Brooding heroes and ruined mansions with a mind of their own. Strange happenings are afoot!
A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers
Genevieve Tummons is a phony spiritualist sponging off wealthy mourners. But when a fatal mistake gets her thrown in prison, the game is up. Until a stranger throws her a lifeline – Mr. Pemberton is distraught since his wife’s death, and wants nothing more than to talk to her again. If Genevieve can convince Lord Pemberton of her abilities as a medium, freedom will be hers.
Mr. Pemberton believes that his wife was murdered, and a convincing seance will draw out the real killer. But Genevieve is convinced that ghosts really do haunt his Somerset Park Estate.
Spice Level 🔥🔥
The Bone Debt by Cherri Measchino
Dekabey Calder is a mortician from a family of funeral home workers in Hallowfen. She is bound to her abusive husband, Caleb, whose public sweetness hides a black cruelty.
When Haze Harlow, Delaney’s first love who died in a tragic accident, returns to her, her world is turned upside down. Haze cannot leave Delaney – an unbreakable curse binds them together.
Ancient curses, the truth of Haze’s untimely death, Caleb’s ruthlessness... nothing in Hallowfen stays buried forever.
Spice Level 🔥
Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft
Wren has just lost her position as a Queen’s Guard, and the separation from the life – and the girl – she loved, is hitting her hard. When the lord of Colwich Hall writes to her asking her to cure his servant, all she sees is an opportunity for redemption.
But all is not as it seems at this rambling, crumbling, ice-cold manor house. Wren’s patient is in fact Hal Cavendish, her kingdom’s sworn enemy. Wren and Hal will have to work together to save their kingdoms. Will they discover the cause of Hal’s sickness before it claims him? Will their desire mean the end of everything?
Spice Level 🔥
I love the transgressive nature of these fabulous series, novels and novellas, and the wonderful, dark, powerful places they take the reader to. Grab your favorite drink, dim the lights and let these romances take you somewhere completely unexpected. I hope they get you in the mood for Halloween!
Although none of my books have any specific Halloween stories, they are filled with autumnal moments in New York, or pure passion in the office, so don’t forget to check them out on my site here or over on Amazon!
Love,
Eve x
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