Hers To Bear by C.D. Gorri
4 flames
Barvale might be home to one of the biggest Bear Shifter Clans in the entire continent of North America, but shhhh…it’s a secret!
“Crazy” Maisy Daniels couldn’t leave Barvale fast enough after high school. She’d earned that hated nickname after telling her classmates she’d seen a boy change into a Bear just behind the football field! A social pariah and the butt of every joke in her grade, it was no wonder she’d promised herself to never step foot in that godforsaken town again.
But when her dad has emergency surgery, who else can help? Maisy returns home to find things are a mess. The tractor is broken and there are only a few hours until the Daniels Farm Annual Haunted Halloween Hay Ride & Spooky Soiree begins. Unfortunately, the only repair shop open belongs to the bane of her high school days, Arthur Lance himself. It’s time for Maisy to just grin and bear it!
Arthur Lance just opened his third full service garage and automotive repair shop in his hometown of Barvale, New Jersey. Business was going great, but his Bear wasn’t satisfied with a job well done. The silly animal was still pining for the one who got away back in high school. Burying himself in work was the only thing he could do to keep his beast placated and his human side sane.
Maybe his fate is to be alone as punishment for hurting the only female he’d ever wanted? His Bear can’t stand the thought. He’s stuck at work on Mischief Night, when to his surprise he gets a frantic call from Maisy Daniels herself. Finally, Arthur has another chance.
Will Maisy accept him as her fated mate when he finally reveals the truth?
Spell of Snow by SJ Pierce
2 flames
Life can be a witch...
Six years ago, I discovered my powers - I can make flowers bloom. But in a world where anything magical is met with judgement and swinging from a rope, I have to be careful... until one day I wasn't. The Witch Hunters have been alerted, and now no one, including my loved ones, can save me.
My name is Rosanna Frey, Snow Queen of Ipswich, and this is my story.
Their Dragon Mate by Elle Boon by Elle Boon
5 flames
A Forbidden Love. A Bond Tying Them Together. A Secret That Could Destroy Them All.
She’s always taken the path less traveled. They’ve always barreled through roadblocks. Can they find a way to be together without losing themselves?
Lula’s a Fierce Dragon... She’s given bits of herself to others when she was sure she had no mate of her own, even knowing it would cost her life at some point.
Atika and Abyle, Twins with A Purpose... They lived to protect their clan, until their brother took over as alpha. Just as they think they can relax, they meet their truemate. A feisty dragon female who runs from them.
The Triad Bond... Their beast won’t be denied, but finding their little dragon proves harder than they’d anticipated. However, once they bond with her, there’s no denying the love they share. What they didn’t foresee was a stranger from Lula’s past coming for her and her mother.
Will the trio have a chance at happily ever after, or will the Dragon King who lost his greatest treasures demand back, or kill who stands in his way?
Get ready for an exciting return of some of your favorite characters in this stand-alone...sort of “wink” story. You just might hear from the Fey Queen, the bad boy alpha Kellen, and what would a reunionish story be without #dontlookdown aka Creed.
When Wendigos Prey by Nicole Zoltack
2 flames
Clarissa Tempest has dealt with plenty of bedlam in Bethlehem. There’s been a bit of peace now until she learns that a dear friend has died. Maybe now, she’ll face her fear and take her relationship to the next level because tomorrow isn’t a guarantee. But then, of course, there’s a body.
Gaves Files Case 2 by Thea Atkinson
2 flames
Training day is always hard. Imagine how bad it is on Devil's Night.
Call me Graves. Not just because it's my name, but because if you're a baddie of the supernatural type, I'm going to put you there. If I can't, one of my hunter partners will, and we'll die trying if we have to. If you're a new recruit who needs to be tested…you better believe the demons of this world will be happy to send you there.
Which is why I have to put this kid through the paces. He's slow. He's weak. Even worse, he's whiney. Just why the organization wants him tested is beyond me, but here I am on Devil's Night letting him duke it out with a miniature golem to prove he's worthy.
Except I'm clenching the spell he's supposed to use to de-animate the creature, so I really can't expect the kid to protect himself.
What else shouldn't I expect?
The gargantuan golem right on its heels. You know, the one we didn't make…
Malediction by Erzabet Bishop
4 flames
It’s witchcraft…
Nestled in the shadowy thoroughfares of Salem, Bridget has created a new life for herself. Saved from the noose by the mysterious Mr. Black during the witch trials, she runs Broomstix, a thriving curse worker and hex shop. Dangerous cravings thrust her back in harm’s way as evil stalks the streets. Will the allure of the forbidden be her curse or her salvation?
Alistair is a wolf caught between desire and duty to his pack. His Alpha goes missing and evidence of arcane magic and murder come a little too close to home. A chance encounter at a Halloween party brings his beast to the forefront and one night of passion leaves him wanting much, much more.
A war is brewing in Salem between the wolves and witch kind. When more deaths are found linked to rogue wolves, the two join forces. But wild magic reigns on Samhain and the moon may just have a mind of her own…
A Modern Day Witch Hunt by Gina Kincade & Kiki Howell
4 flames
Will fate reunite an immortal Watcher and a Witch in time to right a wrong and save the world from dark magic?
Kamillia, an author of paranormal romance, is accused of being an actual witch by an ambitious group of businessmen with a dark agenda. A man who resembles one of her fictional characters, an alpha male hero, randomly appears at her door offering her protection.
Luca is an immortal Watcher from the River of Light. Sent to Earth to help Kamillia, whose true heritage has yet to be revealed to her, Luca is caught off guard by the fighting spirit of the woman and the way his human body betrays him while in her presence.
When Kamillia is attacked, and all the lies she’s been told come to light, she and Luca are forced to join together. Despite numerous obstacles, they need to overcome the evil of many centuries blocking a portal under a mysterious church on the edge of town.
On Halloween night, she will have to face her past—as in a past life—in a big way. Only then can she return to what is left of her life, with or without this stranger who has captured her heart but cannot share her future.
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve
A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, and Reverse Harem Halloween Themed Collection
Collected Authors
Naughty Nights Press LLC
Unsanctified by Kat Parish
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Copyright: Kat Parrish 2020
Edited by: Kody Boye
Trigger warning: Several of the characters in this story are bullies, and enjoy tormenting those who don’t share their social status. The diverse cast of teenagers—seventeen to nineteen—are sexually active, use drugs, consume alcohol, and express themselves profanely at times. The main character’s desire to be accepted by her school’s “golden girls and boys” is pushed to the point where the reader may not be certain if what is going on in Alissa’s life is magic, or delusion, which may be problematic for some. Teen suicide figures in the finale. Finally, arachnophobes beware—this story contains many, many spiders.
Blurb
Alissa's life changed when she found the Codex of the Red Spider disguised as a discarded book on a dusty shelf in a forgotten corn
er of a small suburban thrift store.
The knowledge in the codex—transcribed straight from the goddess Herself—transformed every aspect of Alissa’s existence and gave her the life she’d always wanted, along with the boy she’d always coveted as well.
Life was good for Alissa, but on this Halloween, she will learn the goddess she serves is a fickle deity, and there's always a price to pay for her favor.
This coming-of-age short story set during Halloween is a cautionary tale reminding us to be careful what we wish for.
Chapter One
They hatch adders' eggs and weave the spider's web; He who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed a snake breaks forth.—Isaiah 59:5
“Hey, Lissa,” Callie Rhodes said as she sidled up to Alissa Novak in the hallway outside their first period English class. “Cute shoes,” she observed as she synchronized her steps to keep pace with the shorter girl. Callie had tried on the exact same pair of shoes at Metroshoe Warehouse, but they hadn’t flattered her long, narrow feet. Callie was a pretty girl, but she had big feet, a flaw her loser little brother was always happy to point out.
“Have you been borrowing my kicks again? “ he’d asked her once in front of Jay-Jay. “They’re all stretched out.”
She’d been mortified. Jay-Jay had thought it was funny. It was a good thing he was so cute, because even her mother thought Jay-Jay was dumb as a box of rocks. Her mother wasn’t one to mince words, at least not when it came to criticizing Callie, but Jay-Jay came from money; and since it was pretty clear Callie wasn’t college material, her mother had set her sights on marrying her off to the highest bidder.
“Face it honey,” her mother had said to Callie the first time a clerk had delivered the bad news that the shoes she’d had her heart set on did not come in a size nine-and-a-half. “You’ll never be a foot model.” Her mother had smirked while making her harsh appraisal, and even the clerk—a bored teenager who was working to buy her first car—was taken aback by her lack of maternal tenderness.
Callie had only been eleven at the time, and she’d been crushed. She hadn’t understood why it made her mother happy that she couldn’t get the cute pink shoes with the sparkly laces she wanted so badly.
Instead, Callie’s mother had bought her a pair of ugly high tops that had stupid daisies on a background of black and white checks. When Callie had objected to the substitution, her mother had slapped her and told her to be grateful she had shoes because some kids didn’t have feet.
Callie had started to cry because her grandma was missing a foot because she had something called die beesties, and missing feet were gross.
Her mother had felt bad, then, and had taken Callie to get ice cream before they went home—a double-dip of pralines ‘n cream and mint chocolate chip, which were Callie’s favorites. She forgave her mother for slapping her, but she threw the shoes into the back of her closet and refused to wear them unless her mother made a big fucking deal about it, and then she only put them on to make her shut up.
She’d hated those shoes so much that when they disappeared from her locker while she was showering after P.E., she was glad. Until the gym teacher called her mother to tell her that Callie needed her to bring another pair of shoes to school so she wouldn’t be walking around barefoot.
Callie’s mom had shown up with a pair of worn-out flip-flops that probably belonged to their maid. She’d yelled at Callie for being so careless, and Callie had started crying while everyone in the locker room pretended not to notice. After Callie’s mother left, Alissa had offered the other girl half a KitKat in silent sympathy, but Callie had knocked the candy out of her hand and told her to go away.
Callie’s reaction made Alissa glad that she’d stolen the shoes and thrown them into the big dumpster behind the gym. It made her happy to know that Callie’s mom was mean to her, because Callie was so mean to everyone else just because she had naturally curly blonde hair and big blue eyes that sparkled like she was a Disney princess.
Callie was a princess in real life. Alissa had seen pictures of her wearing pretty princess dresses and sparkly crowns she’d won just for being pretty.
Alissa wanted a crown of her own so bad her mother bought her one from a bridal store so she could pretend to be a princess too. Alissa still had the crown, but she’d stopped wearing it when she got old enough to understand that pretending to be a princess didn’t mean that she was one, not a real one like Callie.
***
Callie’s mother had been a minor beauty queen back in the day, and she’d pushed Callie into the kiddie pageant circuit almost as soon as she could walk. They’d both been featured on an episode of Toddlers & Tiaras, and Callie had a shelf full of trophies and tiaras in her bedroom, which Callie’s little sister called “the purple princess girlie room.”
Callie hated purple, although it was a good color on her. Her mother was the one who’d decorated the room, and she hadn’t taken Callie’s wishes into consideration. Callie’s favorite color was the burnt apricot of a sunset sky. She never wore it because her mother thought it was a garish, the kind of color only trailer trash would wear.
Purple was Alissa’s power color. She loved it, and it looked good on her, too.
Everything looked good on her these days, even olive green, which used to make her skin look like the flesh of a week-old steamed artichoke.
“Cute shoes,” Callie said again when Alissa didn’t immediately respond to her compliment, even though she was pretty sure the other girl had heard her the first time. Callie hated repeating herself, and if she’d been talking to anyone but Alissa, she wouldn’t have bothered.
“Thanks,” Alissa finally said in a distracted sort of way, well aware of the undercurrent of envy beneath Callie’s comment.
It wasn’t that she and Callie were BFFs, far from it. But their relationship had come a long way since that day in the locker room. Alissa had spent a lot of time being the invisible one in the room, and she noticed things that other people didn’t. She put things together. She made connections. For instance: she was apparently the only person who’d ever told Callie how much she thought her mother looked like the notorious Patsy Ramsey, mother of doomed beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey. Melinda Rhodes had the same short, poufy dark hair and immaculately made-up blue eyes.
“The resemblance is really startling,” Alissa had told Callie.
“You’re weird,” Callie had said in response, a sentiment she still harbored but no longer voiced out loud, not even with her closest friends. Because these days, no one dared say anything bad about Alissa.
JonBenet Ramsey had been murdered the year before Alissa was born, but she was fascinated by the case anyway. When Callie won the title “Miss Teenage Oklahoma” and was a runner-up in the Miss Teenage America” pageant, her mother had told everybody how thrilled she was. But Alissa knew better. She’d been studying the codex for a year-and-a-half by that time, and her spider soul could sense the venom in another’s heart.
Callie’s mom would gladly have strangled her daughter/rival just to preen in the sympathy being a mourning mother would engender, but she’d waited until it was too late, and now Callie was big enough to fight back.
That thought made Alissa smile inwardly. Callie’s parents were rich and beautiful, and Alissa’s parents were neither, but neither of them wished she were dead either.
Two years ago, if Callie had given her a compliment about her shoes, Alison would have been so thrilled that the golden girl even knew who she was that she would have immediately returned the pleasantry with one of her own, some extravagant bit of ego stroking meant to assure Callie that although she had feet the size of water skis, she was still the alpha girl of Wilma Mankiller High School. But two years ago, Callahan Rhodes couldn’t have picked Alissa out of a lineup filled with members of the Latin Kings despite having sat behind her in home room since they were both in seventh grade. If forced to acknowledge Alissa at all, Callie would have fallen back on the generic “hey” as a
greeting and left it at that. If asked, she would have sworn Alissa’s name was “Lizzie” or “Allie” or something, and she would have wondered why anyone would give a fuck.
But that was two years ago, before Alissa had found the codex that had changed her life.
***
Everyone suspects there are life hacks that make some people’s lives simpler and easier and just plain…better…than everyone else’s. Everyone suspects that somewhere there’s a book of secret knowledge that explains how the world works, and if you can just find it, you can have the life you want and deserve to have.
Everyone is right.
There is such a book, and Alissa had found it on a shelf of used books in a little thrift store shoe-horned into a strip mall anchored by a check-cashing place and a low-rent nail salon.
She’d been looking for a birthday present for her grandma, who collected plastic jewelry from the Sixties, and she’d snagged a necklace of powder-blue beads and some clip earrings to match. The beads were dirty, but Alissa planned to run everything through the dishwasher to remove the grime.
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