Check out these five popular adult titles that will hit our collection in October 2023. To see more titles, check out our new titles page.
Summaries provided by the publishers.
Let Him In, by William Friend, is a spooky novel about a certain "friend" who has worn out its welcome in the Hart House.
"Daddy, there's a man in our room..."
Alfie wakes one night to find his twin daughters at the foot of his bed, claiming there's a shadowy figure in their bedroom. When no such thing can be found, he assumes the girls had a nightmare.
He isn't surprised that they're troubled. Grief has made its home at Hart House: nine months ago, the twins' mother Pippa died unexpectedly, leaving Alfie to raise them alone. And now, when the girls mention a new imaginary friend, it seems like a harmless coping mechanism. But the situation quickly develops into something more insidious. The girls set an extra place for him at the table. They whisper to him. They say he's going to take them away…
Alfie calls upon Julia - Pippa's sister and a psychiatrist - to oust the malignant tenant from their lives. But as Alfie himself is haunted by visions and someone watches him at night, he begins to question the true character of the force that has poisoned his daughters' minds, with dark and violent consequences.
Whatever this "friend" is, he doesn't want to leave. Alfie will have to confront his own shameful secrets, the sad past of Hart House, and even the bounds of reality - or risk taking part in an unspeakable tragedy.
Release Date: October 3
Midnight Is The Darkest Hour, by Ashley Winstead, is a Gothic Southern thriller about a killer haunting a small Louisiana town, where two outcasts - the preacher's daughter and the boy from the wrong side of the tracks - hold the key to uncovering the truth.
A twisted tale of murder, obsessive love, and the beastly urges that lie dormant... even the God-fearing folk of Bottom Springs, Louisiana.
In her small hometown, librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider, even as her beloved father rains fire-and-brimstone warnings from the pulpit at Holy Fire Baptist. Unfortunately for Ruth, the only things the townspeople fear more than the God and the Devil are the myths that haunt the area, like the story of the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to steal into sinners' bedrooms and kill them on moonless nights. When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs is thrown into uproar - and Ruth realizes only she and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, have the power to comb the town's secret underbelly in search of true evil.
A powerful novel such as fans have come to expect from Ashley Winstead, Midnight is the Darkest Hour is an examination of the ways we've come to expect love, religion, and stories to save us, the lengths we have to go to in order to take back power, and the monstrous work of being a girl in this world.
Release Date: October 3
An actress and a perpetually single former boy-band member are reunited as costars on a steamy holiday film in this all new spicy rom-com by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone: A Holly Jolly Ever After: A Christmas Notch Novel.
Kallum Liebermanis the funny one™. As the arguably lesser of the three former members of the boy band INK, he enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame and then moved home, where he opened a regional pizza chain called Slice, Slice, Baby! He’s living his best dad-bod life, hooking up with bridesmaids at all his friends’ weddings. But after an old one-off sex tape is leaked and quickly goes viral, Kallum decides he’s ready to step into the spotlight again, starring in a sexy Santa biopic for the Hope Channel.
Winnie Baker did everything right. She married her childhood sweetheart, avoided the downfalls of adolescent stardom, and transitioned into a stable adult acting career. She even waited until marriage to have sex. But after her perfect life falls apart, Winnie is ready to redefine herself - and what better way than a steamier-than-a-steaming-hot-mug-of-cider Christmas movie?
With a decade of old Hollywood history between them, Winnie and Kallum are both feeling hesitant about their new situation as costars…especially Winnie who can’t seem to fake on-screen pleasure she’s never experienced in real life. She’s willing to do the pleasure research - for science and artistic authenticity, of course. And there’s no better research partner than her bridesmaid sex tape hall of fame costar, Kallum. But suddenly, Kallum’s teenage crush on Winnie is bubbling to the surface, and Winnie might be catching feelings herself.
They say opposites attract, but is this holly-jolly ever-after really ready for its close-up?
Release Date: October 10
The Leftover Woman, by Jean Kwok, is an evocative family drama and a riveting mystery about the ferocious pull of motherhood for two very different women.
Jasmine Yang arrives in New York City from her rural Chinese village without money or family support, fleeing a controlling husband, on a desperate search for the daughter who was taken from her at birth - another female casualty of China’s controversial One Child Policy. But with her husband on her trail, the clock is ticking, and she’s forced to make increasingly risky decisions if she ever hopes to be reunited with her daughter.
Meanwhile, publishing executive Rebecca Whitney seems to have it all: a prestigious family name and the wealth that comes with it, a high-powered career, a beautiful home, a handsome husband, and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores. She’s even hired a nanny to help her balance the demands of being a working wife and mother. But when an industry scandal threatens to jeopardize not only Rebecca’s job but her marriage, this perfect world begins to crumble and her role in her own family is called into question.
The Leftover Woman finds these two unforgettable women on a shocking collision course. Twisting and suspenseful and surprisingly poignant, it's a profound exploration of identity and belonging, motherhood and family. It is a story of two women in a divided city - separated by severe economic and cultural differences yet bound by a deep emotional connection to a child.
Release Date: October 10
From Jesmyn Ward comes a haunting masterpiece, Let Us Descend, about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War.
Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slavery markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.
Annis, sold South by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with spirits: of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.
From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes African American grief and joy into the very land - the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.
Release Date: October 24
