Horror | Fantasy & Science Fiction | Literary Fiction | Mystery & Thrillers | Nonfiction | Matthew’s Book Corner
Scion
James Islington
September 1, 2026
John Wick meets Ghost in the Shell in this fast-paced cyberpunk thriller by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Will of the Many and The Strength of the Few.
My job, when you think about it, isn’t so different from a lot of people’s.
The more old-fashioned crowd do still get hung up on the “killing people” part of it, I guess, but that’s a them problem: it’s been perfectly legal to take out lifers for ages. Besides, once ultrawealthy morons realised they had a way to live forever—limited resources be damned—there was only ever going to be one genuinely practical deterrent.
So, sure, I have to deal with a ton of boring planning. Inconvenient hours. Some pretty awkward face-to-face interactions. And like most of us, I’m really only clocking in to try to crawl out from beneath my debts. But someone’s got to do it.
Luckily, my genetic compatibilities make me really, really good at doing it.
Still. This next job…I don’t know. It’s something I haven’t had to deal with in years. Kind of the opposite of my regular duties. Strange, that it got thrown my way.
I’m sure it’ll all go totally fine though.
Reign
Bethan Croome
September 1, 2026
Found family, forbidden love, and a heroine who refuses to kneel— from Cosmopolitan‘s book imprint comes REIGN, a fierce feminist romantasy about choosing freedom over fear and setting fire to the throne.
The Kingdom of Lyonesse is absent of magic but not of rain.
In the rain-soaked Kingdom of Lyonesse, magic is outlawed—punishable by death.
So when Niamh’s forbidden witchcraft is exposed, she flees her rainy village disguised as a man.
She never meant to end up on a battlefield.
Mistakenly conscripted into a brutal war engineered by a paranoid king against a vengeful sorceress determined to reclaim the throne, Niamh now hides another secret—her womanhood. Between fighting terrifying beasts and confronting arcane powers she once believed were merely folklore, Niamh is thrust into a world where survival relies on more than luck—it demands alliances.
In battle, Niamh must obey Prince Fitzroy, the king’s infuriatingly handsome illegitimate son and sharp-tongued commander tasked with eradicating magic. He is everything she despises…and everything she struggles to resist. Back at camp, she forges a complicated friendship with Bash, a fellow soldier who sees her like no one else does and stirs forbidden feelings that could shatter her disguise.
As war tightens its grip on the kingdom, Niamh is forced to choose: obey the prince who could expose her, trust the soldier who could love her, or embrace the forbidden magic that could save them all.
But war is merciless, and not everyone will live to see which side prevails.
Hawk & Sparrow
Ayana Gray
September 1, 2026
Sparks fly in this Gilded Age novel of mystery, magic, and romance by the author of the New York Times–bestselling Beasts of Prey.
Nineteen-year-old Vesper Evans has always resented Basalton’s high society, and the sorcery that provides them with a luxurious life unimaginable to most. Orphaned as a child and rescued by the editor of The Basalton Globe, Vesper is now an ambitious reporter determined to keep her newspaper afloat.
While covering a lavish society gala, Vesper happens upon a shocking scene: the murdered body of an inventor whose new machine promised to bring the benefits of sorcery to everyone. Several of the powerful magical elite may want the man dead, but the prime suspect is wealthy industrialist Maximilian Kite.
The Pumpkin Bride
Fiona Buttercup
September 1, 2026
Some curses just need a cozy fire, a little magic, and a second chance to break them.
A cursed knight.
Sir Bram Duncan was once a knight of legend in Harvest Hollow—until the whim of a jealous prince and the trickery of an autumn sprite turned him into the hulking orc Jask Bone-Cracker, and tethered him to Grimroot Farm. For three long, lonely years, he’s hidden his monstrous form and the truth of what happened the night he lost everything, including his true love, Princess Marigold.
A runaway princess.
Fleeing an arranged marriage to the vain and intolerable Prince Crispin, Marigold finds a safe haven when she stumbles across Jask’s charmed pumpkin farm deep in the forest. Sensing glimmers of gentleness—and a surprising talent for baking—beneath the grumpy orc’s imposing exterior, she begins to feel a familiar longing she believed dead when her Bram disappeared.
One true love.
As magic stirs and pies are baked, truths about Jask’s curse begin to surface. But curses don’t break easily, and wronged princes don’t capitulate. As their peace is threatened, Jask and Marigold must decide: cling to the lies that protect them, or risk everything for a love that could set them free.
Our Strange Duet
Erin A. Craig
September 1, 2026
A reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, spotlighting Christine Daaé as she rises to fame while torn between love, ambition, and the haunting secrets of the opera house from #1 New York Times bestselling author Erin A. Craig.
She was never just the voice he shaped . . .
A rising soprano with a gift she is only just learning to embrace, Christine Daaé has moved through the glittering world of the Opera Populaire longing to find her purpose. Instead, she finds herself caught between two men who refuse to let her slip quietly into the chorus.
One is Raoul, her childhood friend turned devoted admirer, offering her a future filled with warmth, safety, and a love that feels like sunlight. The other is a mysterious masked figure who lurks beneath the Opera House: The Phantom. His brilliance, obsession, and dangerous devotion to nurturing Christine’s talents ignites a dark and complicated passion in her heart.
As Christine’s star ascends, so does the tension between Raoul and the Phantom. She must decide who she is when the curtain falls—and what she’s willing to risk for the life she wants.
Set against the sweeping, romantic world of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, Our Strange Duet allows Christine Daaé to take center stage to tell her own story: fierce, emotional, and unforgettable.
The Gods Will Sing Our Song
Autumn Krause
September 1, 2026
A divine favor can change everything.
1942. War rumbles across the world, gods stir in the wind, and two star-crossed souls are set on a path that will change them forever.
Seventeen-year-old Ren Hamada is defined by his troubled past, while Violet Aratani only worries about keeping her straight-A grades. They have little in common beyond the old magic that thrums in their family relics—until the US government forces them out of their homes simply because they’re Japanese American. In a barbed-wire world where everything seems upside down, the magnetic pull between them is the only thing that makes sense.
But there’s more than just desert dust swirling in the air. A god walks among them, his mortal form tethered to the camp, and only Violet and Ren can free him—an act that would earn them an immeasurable reward. Yet with tensions rising and their lives on the line, is even a divine favor enough to save them?
The Passing of the Dragon
Ken Liu
September 8, 2026
Ken Liu, author of the Nebula and Hugo Award–winning The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories—his second short story collection and the basis of the groundbreaking anime Pantheon—returns with a bold new anthology.
Thought-provoking, heartbreaking, and wonderous are some of the many ways the tales in this collection will engage readers, from the titular story about a painter who fears she’s failing as an artist to the twelve other examples of captivating science fiction. Ken Liu continues to delight and challenge your perceptions as one of the most accomplished and lauded American short story writers of our time.
The Exorcism of Faeries
J. L. Vampa
September 8, 2026
The first in a haunting dark academia romance series about a graduate student studying botany in Dublin who falls for her professor of morbid anatomy, as they are drawn into a deadly plague threatening their world—perfect for fans of Ninth House and An Academy for Liars.
A strange affliction is haunting the good people of Dublin. It roots beneath the skin—blooming, entangling—before claiming its victims. No one knows how it started. No one can find a cure.
Atta Morrow has spent years pursuing the truth behind the plague. A graduate student at Trinity College, her covert research has grown into a quiet obsession that could cost her more than her academic future. When Atta’s latest risk catches the attention of Sonder Murdoch, Trinity’s infamous but brilliant morbid anatomy professor, she gains an unexpected ally—and a dangerous temptation.
Together, they dig deeper into the mysteries plaguing Dublin. But as their research blurs with folklore, Atta and Sonder must confront secrets older than science before the city, and they, are consumed.
The Palace Beneath the Sea
Lauren Wiesebron
September 15, 2026
The acclaimed author of House of Frost and Feathers returns with a sweeping, lyrical novel inspired by a mermaid folktale filled with exploration, love, adventure, and magic.
A GREAT LOVE. A MYSTERIOUS KINGDOM BENEATH THE WAVES. A DEVASTATING BETRAYAL.
A doomed love story created the city of Ys, it’s fitting that another one would end it . . .
Nolwenn is sure that her life’s purpose is to defend her beloved coastal city of Ys as a lighthouse keeper. But when a dangerous, unnatural tide threatens Ys, the queen instead tasks Nolwen with collecting enough rare seasilk to shield the city from the deadly monsters who lurk deep beneath the waves.
Determined to fulfill her task, Nolwenn recklessly puts her life in danger, only to be attacked by the very creatures she’s trying to defend her city against. She’s saved by Morvan, a member of the korrigez people, with the torso of a human and the tail of a fish. Against her will, Morvan drags her deeper into the ocean to the coral palace of Below-Ys. Although Nolwenn is terrified and homesick, Below-Ys is also strange and beautiful…as is Morvan. The more time Nolwenn spends below the surface, the less she is sure she wants to leave.
As danger draws ever nearer to her homeland and Ys remains precariously unprotected, Nolwenn must decide between her heart and her home.
Exit Party
Emily St. John Mandel
September 15, 2026
The award-winning, bestselling author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility returns with a breathtaking novel of doubles, shadow worlds, and fractured timelines as a man disappears from a glittering Los Angeles party, and a woman—a gunrunner, an art collector, an operative of the State—searches for answers.
Los Angeles, 2031: The first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw from the city, the Jacaranda trees blossom, and the curfew is finally lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate pass the gauntlet of bomb-sniffing dogs, the shanty towns, and the Red Cross tents as they walk across Silverlake to a party. The mood is ecstatic inside the apartment, people drink and dance, a woman wears a silver dress, pleated like tinfoil. And then: A shift. A bewildered twin, an uncanny doppelganger stumbles through the crowd and out into the night, and Kareem, the party’s host, vanishes into thin air.
As Ari Waker unravels the mystery of this inexplicable night, Emily St. John Mandel unfurls a story that takes us from a future America splintered by civil war to the seaside cliffs of Greece where weapons dealers hide in an elegant resort, and from the domed city of Paris to a colony on the moon. An unforgettable literary feat, Exit Party is a novel about the price of safety, the perils of the surveillance state, a requiem for a world not unlike our own, and a breathtaking story of resilience in the face of cataclysmic change.
Deadly Little Lessons
Danielle Valentine
September 15, 2026
Luminary is more than just a school. It is a test of moral fiber, strength of will, and human resilience.
Lia Michaels can pick any lock and break into most computer systems. But a life of delinquency has her bouncing between foster homes and juvie. So when she applies to Luminary Prep, a new experimental school created to challenge academic conventions, Lia is surprised by the acceptance letter that follows.
With state-of-the-art technology, fancy cafeteria food, and a campus that looks like a painting come to life, Luminary seems to be the break Lia needs. That is, if she can excel in class and be one of only five students who will be allowed to graduate.
But classes at Luminary are . . . odd. And dangerous. There is a death-trap obstacle course in Physics, a Chemistry exam with explosives, and guillotines in Political Science. As students keep vanishing, one by one, Lia starts to wonder if it’s not that five students will graduate—but that only five will survive.
Ashes at the Altar
LaDarrion Williams
September 15, 2026
(Book 3)
Malik Baron has learned a lot since he first came to Caiman University: History is power. Family is more than just blood. You can’t escape your past. And magic always comes with a price.
But nothing he’s been taught could have prepared him for what this semester will bring. Even after he risked it all to trap the evil spirit Marinette that has been possessing his mother, her power continues to grow. And with her and the Bokors still at large, the cracks in the magical community have reached a breaking point. Just as Malik begins to get to know his father’s family, the Bonclairs’ power is challenged, leaving him to decide where his loyalties lie. And it’s not just the future of Caiman at stake, but the very magic that runs in his veins.
In the propulsive and emotional conclusion to this powerful trilogy, the future and the family Malik has fought so hard to build and protect is in greater danger than ever. But with the power of ancestors and the strength of his loved ones behind him, can he fight for what the world has always said is impossible for a Black boy like him—a happy ending?
Strangebrew Apothecary
Rustin Lovewell
September 22, 2026
Legends & Lattes meets The Lost Apothecary in this debut adventure fantasy following a potion maker who must hide her powers under the cover of a crew of conmen, only to lean on each other for comfort, safety, and even love.
When Ellastaria Strange joins a ragtag crew of con artists and serpent-oil salesmen, she’s just trying to escape the slow death of poverty, not sell fake cure-alls in dinky rural villages. Yet Ella harbors a dangerous secret. Unlike her crooked co-workers, she’s the real thing; an apothecary with supernatural abilities, hiding from a world fearful of such powers, covertly helping people when she can.
Ella’s life of deceit takes a terrifying turn when her team swindles the wrong town and Ella accidentally reveals her true nature to fanatics with no tolerance for the supernatural. On the run from obsessed vigilantes, Ella and her crew find refuge with a beer brewer who wants nothing to do with crooks or occultists, and his starry-eyed sister who wants in on all of it.
For any hope of a future, the scrappy misfits must band together, embrace what makes them outcasts, and trust in each other’s talents—no matter how strange.
The Dreamless
Jen Williams
September 29, 2026
(Book 2)
Jen Williams stuns in a heartrending sequel to The Sleepless that is as romantic as it is deadly.
Will Lucian pursue chaos and power?
Will Artair choose isolation, or will he choose to walk out into the wider world?
And Elver, perhaps, has the hardest choice of all.
After being sacrificed yet again at the hands of Mother Maura, Elver has returned from the dead even more jih than human. A strange new power simmers beneath her skin alongside a warning from the Queen of Serpents: though she’s been granted another chance at life, someday soon, Elver will be called from the land of mortals.
Now that Artair knows the spirit with whom he shares a body, Lucian, is an ordinary human, the two have formed an uneasy truce. While they attempt to wield their shred of Maura’s stolen power—the only thing keeping her from ascending to full godhood—they’re also confronted with feelings for Elver that are impossible to deny.
But Maura is out for revenge. As dangerous new alliances brew among the Twelve, Elver, Artair, and Lucian must set out to find the only being in existence capable of killing a god. And Elver will need to decide once and for all with which of the Sleepless her poisoned heart lies.
Beyond the Graves Waits Mist and Sea
Kathleen Kaufman
September 29, 2026
A marine biologist’s search for an undiscovered species of octopus leads her to an isolated island where long-buried memories rise like specters from the deep, intent on dragging her darkest truths to the surface…
From the author of The Entirely True Story of the Fantastical Mesmerist Nora Grey, this hauntingly evocative novel is perfect for fans of Emilia Hart’s The Sirens, Sarah Penner’s The Amalfi Curse, and Adrienne Young.
Twenty nautical miles off the coast of Boston lies Bell Island, shrouded in fog, mystery, and legend. Historically a refuge for women fleeing the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials in the 1600s and a way station on the Underground Railroad for runaway slaves in the 1800s, the island is isolated and rumored to be haunted by spirits and . . . other things.
It is to Bell Island that microbial biologist Harper Hafdóttir ventures in search of evidence of a new species of octopus, Thalassa, possibly lurking below the swirling water’s surface. Along with her equipment, and her luggage, Harper carries with her the burden of past trauma and vivid, recurring dreams.
Swept up in unexplained phenomena ranging from increased seismic activity and a boat-capsizing rogue wave to encounters with island creatures that defy explanation, Harper looks to the island’s venerated if mysterious mayor for answers. Lady Loreana Bell comes from a single matriarchal line that has ruled the island for 400 years—and seems to have been expecting Harper’s arrival.
It is within the walls of Bell Manor—its gothic grandeur matched only by the intensity of Harper’s deja vu—that she discovers the 1690 journal of a young woman in the grips of a religious cult. As a tsunami threatens the island, Harper finds herself on the verge of a revelation that will ultimately unlock the mystery of her haunted dreams and disclose her true purpose on Bell Island . . .
The Lost Spectacular
Zoe Duhaime
September 29, 2026
Both magical fable and a tender love story, The Night Circus meets The Midnight Library in this dazzling ode to the life-changing power of books, as childhood loves-turned-rivals chase each other through the stories that shaped them, leaping through classic literature and famous paintings and private letters and family dinners, until all that’s left is to confront the grief they’ve been running from…and decide whether they might face it together, instead.
Everything you love must leave you.
Noon Bonaventure and Munro Forrest weren’t always rivals chasing each other through the pages of books. They grew up listening to stories from Munro’s grandmother and arguing over their favorites. But then one night, they discovered the Spectacular, a mysterious, ever-changing festival glittering with everything lost: lone pearl earrings and apple orchards, abandoned first drafts and shipwrecks, a skyful of umbrellas. This Spectacular, found only by invitation or in the pages of misprints, is the most precious thing in the world. In its wake, stories settle. Noon has always been the sort to move on with grace, and Munro goes into the business of never letting go—their divide starker than ever after a misstep abruptly closes the door on what could have been.
Now long estranged yet forever drawn to one another, Noon and Munro’s differences have defined their ways of life. Munro, an ambitious museum curator, vows his next exhibit will trap the Spectacular and return its lost treasures, while Noon, queen of cat-and-mouse, has been chosen as the next captain of the show.
As opening night for Munro’s exhibit draws closer, he and Noon will have to stop running and finally agree on how their story ends—and perhaps, find a way to start again.
Baldur’s Gate 3
T. Kingfisher
September 29, 2026
The roguish charlatan Astarion will free himself from a centuries-long fate of servitude or die (a second time) trying—in this decadently dark fantasy adventure by award-winning author T. Kingfisher.
You’re too pretty to die.
Astarion Ancunin was supposed to be a magistrate, not a vampire spawn. He was supposed to serve the law, not the vicious vampire lord Cazador Szarr. And he was supposed to drink fine wine, not rat blood. Alas—the city of Baldur’s Gate cares little for what’s supposed to happen.
Though he has been powerless to resist his master’s bidding, haunting the nighttime streets to fetch warm blood, Astarion has never surrendered his hope. One day, this nightmare must end. He just has to find out how.
When the vampire lord announces a twisted competition for his favor, an opportunity presents itself in the form of a rare prize . . . and an unlikely alliance. The blood of a dead god is buried deep beneath Baldur’s Gate, and, to get it, Astarion will need the help of a handsome Aasimar paladin named Hahn den Suriel.
There are just a few problems. Astarion is not supposed to trust his fellow spawn. He’s not supposed to go out into the city for his own ends rather than the vampire lord’s. And he’s certainly not supposed to strike a deal with a stranger whose golden eyes can snare even a blackened, undead heart.
But the city of Baldur’s Gate cares little for what’s supposed to happen.
