Stocking up for Spooky Season w/ my September BOTM box

Finally,after taking a book buying break this August, I was able to fulfill a promise to myself by shopping in September, beginning with Book of the Month Club.

Given that most people are eager for October (aka spooky season)to begin already,much like the stores putting out candy corn by the first day of school, BOTM had a few fearsome  offerings this month that I snapped up quick. 

For my Main Selection, it was Play Nice by Rachel Harrison. Our leading lady is Clio, an influencer who has just inherited the house that her mother Alex has claimed for years to be haunted by a demonic presence. Alex even took that belief far enough to publish a book about what she experienced.

Upon her mother’s sudden death, Clio sees this as an opportunity to do the ultimate house flip , a notion that neither of her sisters is at all interested in. She’s willing to go this route alone yet along the way, starts to learn a few family secrets that not only could validate her mother’s claims but change her own life for the worse in more ways than one.

I’ve heard a lot of great things about Rachel Harrison’s work and very thrilled to check her newest book(an early release from BOTM) for a specially themed readathon this fall. This novel does feel rather timely as the saying goes, home is where the horror is….:

When it came to picking add ons, my first choice was the latest by T. Kingfisher,Hemlock & Silver, a sinister sorcery take on the classic Snow White story.

Anja has made the study of poisons her specialty as a healer and her knowledge of them, along with their antidotes, brings royal trouble right to her door.

Requested by the king himself to discover what is ailing his daughter Snow, Anja reluctantly journeys to the isolated estate where the regal family lives and while Snow is quite ill( and a bit ill tempered as well), the cause is not easily known.

Nevertheless, Anja is determined to find out what is causing the princess to be as physically sick as she is, with the assistance of Javier, a royal bodyguard. The two of them find Snow eating a rather odd looking apple one day, a clue that leads to a darkly dangerous discovery of a mirror world that reveals less than it reflects…

I do love a twisted take on fairy tales and my favorite Disney villain happens to be the Evil Queen from Snow White(yes, she was wicked but she had style!), so this book sounds like my cup of poisonous tea indeed:

To round this terrifying trio out, I went with The Possession of Alba Diaz by Isabel Cañas.

Set in Mexico during the 1800s, our title heroine has fled with her family to a small mining town to escape the plague ravaging their city.

Her fiancé Carlos is happy to have Alba and her family stay with him but all is not calm and peaceful as it should be. For one, his cousin Elías has newly arrived from Spain, planning to chime in on the silvery wealth of his relatives and who has an instant attraction to Alba.

While Alba feels the same, she’s more concerned about her strange new habits of sleepwalking and bizarre visions that have developed since she got to town. All too soon, it appears that an unholy force has taken hold of her and the only real help that she can get is from Elías. Can Alba save her soul and her heart from what is determined to claim both?

Canas has a relatable nuance to her terror tales, focusing strongly on the emotional elements that dominate her characters just as equally as the otherworldly threats that are facing them. 

Possession stories are more than just scary faces and shocking moments; they’re metaphors for internal conflict that forces one person to be the catalyst for others to reveal their true nature. Having read and enjoyed her prior novels (Hacienda, The Vampires of El Norte), I have no doubt that Isabel Canas will deliver the gruesome yet glorious goods here:

As happy as I am to be getting some Book of the Month Club reads, sadly, my time with Aardvark has come to an end. It’s just not in my budget right now but I did get some wonderful books from them(a few that I still need to catch up with) and would gladly recommend Aardvark to anyone preferring a more offbeat selection of new reads.

In the meanwhile, I do have plans for one or perhaps two of these books to be on my FrightFall TBR later this season-stay tuned for that announcement!

 The way things are going these days, looking forward to some serious trick or treat time that involves a good scary read and perhaps a snappy spooky song to hum along as I turn the pages with fearsome delight: