Here’s another great roundup of books releasing this October. 7 of my most anticipated reads coming oh so soon! I might be chomping at the bit for some of these so if one catches your eye I promise you won’t be disappointed. Romance, fantasy, and a little bit of horror for the season.
This Shattered Tempest by Thea Guanzon
If you recently watched The Love Hypothesis movie and are dying for some more Reylo fan fiction look no further than this romantasy series that has completely consumed my life. After reading the first book in this series I immediately added it to my top ten fantasies of all time. Like someone erase my memory so I can read it all again! Enemies-to-lovers, dark and light magic, shadow daddy, dragons and incredibly lush storytelling. What’s not to love?!
Publisher Synopsis
The highly anticipated conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Hurricane Wars trilogy makes landfall— and as the winds of war sweep through Lir, Talasyn and Alaric must confront the truth of their hearts and decide whether duty or desire will lead them forward.
When the storm swallows the world, who will be left standing?
Throughout their political marriage, Alaric and Talasyn struggled to resist the undeniable pull between them, even as rising tensions forced them on opposite sides of a looming war. Hand in hand, they vanquished the cataclysmic threat of the Moonless Dark—and started to hope for a future together.
That hope is shattered when a devastating attack sets off a chain of events that tears them apart once more. Now, as two rival nations prepare for a final, decisive clash, the Master of the Shadowforged Legion and the last Lightweaver fight to find their way back to each other. But the odds are stacked against them, and time is running out…
Is love enough to rewrite destiny? Can a new beginning rise from the ruins of the past? Or are Alaric and Talasyn doomed to meet as enemies on one last battlefield? This explosive third and final book brings the beloved Hurricane Wars series to a stunning conclusion—where passion and power collide, and the fate of a divided world hangs in the balance.
Title Information
Release Date: October 6, 2026
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Series: Yes, Trilogy
Pages: 496
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy, Asian American, Fantasy – Dragons, Epic Fantasy
Bad Words by Ríoghnach Robinson
I cannot get enough of books about books and when THE Emily Henry writes this blurb there is no way I am going to miss out on this one. A book critic and an author in a true enemies-to-lovers and will-they-won’t-they romance that is sure to have you tearing your own heart out.
Publisher Synopsis
“A book that could only ever have been written by Ríoghnach Robinson, whose clear, clever voice and incisive social commentary elevate the book’s irresistible will-they-won’t-they romance to a once-in-a-lifetime read about truth, art, vulnerability, and all the sticky places they intersect. BAD WORDS LEFT ME BUZZING.” – EMILY HENRY, #1 New York Times bestselling author
A sharp and deeply felt debut about the connections that both inspire and undo us.
Parker Navarro’s debut novel was meant to define his career – until critic Selina Chan’s blistering review made it the flop of the decade. Four years later, his new book is his shot at redemption; for Selina, reviewing him again is a professional risk she can’t refuse. When her second takedown ignites a viral feud, both their fortunes shift overnight. But as the literary world feeds on their public sparring, a quieter dialogue begins – one that challenges everything they thought they knew about success, sincerity, and each other.
Both incisive and tender, Bad Words lays bare the costs of creation – the pull between ambition and integrity, the vulnerability of being seen, and the unexpected closeness that can grow in the space between critique and care.
“A genre-redefining romance that sets a thrilling new standard… Easily one of my favourites of the year, if not the decade.” – Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Full of blistering barbs, incisive takedowns and searing gazes, Bad Words is smart and propulsive.” – Mary H.K. Choi, New York Times bestselling author
Title Information
Release Date: October 6, 2026
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Series: No
Pages: 400
Genres: Fiction, Popular Fiction, Romance, Fiction – Books & Bookstores, Romance – Contemporary
As You Wake, Break The Shell by Becky Chambers
I’ve been craving a dystopian space novel since watching Project Hail Mary and this one checks all the boxes. A botanist and a pilot is the perfect opposites attract pairing. Did I mention its set in outer space? Aliens, secrets, and romance all in one perfect book!
Publisher Synopsis
Explore a universe of stubborn survival and found family, of persistent danger and quiet wonder in the first installment of a heartfelt new duology from Hugo Award–winning author Becky Chambers.
Life on the resource-poor planet of Fortune is challenging, but for its inhabitants, it’s home. For two of them, Signy and Cora, this home might no longer be enough.
Signy is a brilliant but reclusive botanist who bio-prints medicine from her small plant shop, often bending the rules to help those the system leaves behind. Her life is filled with the green of her store, the warmth of her one elderly friend, and the quiet determination to help others without putting herself in danger.
Cora is a rorqual pilot, one of the few with the unique ability to navigate the massive, living ships that connect the scattered settlements of their solar system. Her bond with her rorqual, Colibri, is profound—a connection that is both her greatest gift and a threat to her career.
It is that threat—the “mindbleed,” a dangerous side effect of her piloting—that brings her to Signy’s shop, and her appearance puts Signy in the danger she so fears. But it’s soon apparent it’s not just about losing her license—this delicate balance between risk and trust has the potential to change everything for them.
Told in an alternating timeline of their initial coming together and a not-so-distant future where they have found domestic bliss, this is a story harrowing and haunting, heartfelt and hopeful. Through a love story centered around survival, we are given a glimpse into the very best of what Becky Chambers does in her writing: explore what it means to be human, and what it means to come together.
Title Information
Release Date: October 16, 2026
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Series: 1 of 2
Pages: 480
Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Popular Fiction, Fantasy, Space Fantasy, LGBTQ+ – Lesbian, Multiple Timelines, Dystopian, Alien Contact, Cosy Fantasy
Rotten Heart by Kat Dunn
As an English Literature major you either love or hate Shakespeare but I sat proudly in the LOVE category. This Hamlet reimagining is provocative and ingenious. A Shakespearian horror perfect for fall.
Publisher Synopsis
“Feed this directly into my veins.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author
From the bestselling author of Hungerstone, an intoxicating and chilling gothic horror novel that reimagines Hamlet with a seductive sapphic twist—and where the only thing more dangerous than a family secret is a mother’s revenge.
Revenge me. For I am murdered . . .
Odette and her best friend, Cecilia, grow up between two grand homes, one in Hampstead and one in Suffolk, the ancient and imposing Herne House. Odette’s mother, Lydia, is almost parasitic in her neediness, but despite her, Odette and Cecilia come of age together—free to roam, to learn, and to love. When Lydia inexplicably sickens and dies, a dark veil falls. Odette’s father retreats to his study, while her aunt—the cold and cruel Claudine—increasingly takes charge of the household. Lost in grief and spiraling into madness, Odette disappears into the shadows, leaving Cecilia alone and with her affections tested. As Claudine is announced as Odette’s new stepmother, the girls reckon with this final betrayal, and a sinister presence awakens. To her horror, Odette realizes that her mother never truly left. She now haunts the manor, ready to drag long- held secrets into the light and exact revenge against those who thought her dead and gone. A visceral tale of grief and madness, Rottenheart exhumes the heart of Hamlet to tell a fearless queer love story laced with an unforgettable haunting, asking whether we can truly outrun our suffering, or if we are forever indebted to the vengeful dead.
Title Information
Release Date: October 13, 2026
Publisher: Zando
Series: No
Pages: 320
Genres: Horror, Literary Fiction, Horror – Romance, Shakespeare, LGBT- Lesbian
The Tarot Trials by Katee Robert
Tarot reading is my favorite tool of the trade and I was immediately intrigued by the title, then the synopsis had me adding this to my preorder list asap. I love a deadly trials trope but add magic and tarot and you’ve got yourself an incredible read.
Publisher Synopsis
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Dark Olympus series, this high-octane, fast-paced epic fantasy of tarot magic and deadly competition launches an explosive new series perfect for fans of V.E. Schwab and Carissa Broadbent.
DELUXE EDITION—featuring gorgeous stenciled edges, designed endpapers, a foil case stamp, and a detailed map!
The deck has always been stacked against her.
Kestrel has trained her whole life to compete in the Tarot Trials. Her mother won once, earning a place among the five ruling Cinque—then paid for it with her life, executed for alleged treason against the Minor Court.
But fortune favors the bold.
Now it falls to Kestrel to take up her mother’s mantle as Champion of the Moon, enter the Trials, and face her fate. If she can master her new powers of shadow and illusion, navigate the poisonous game of alliances and lies, and corner the fellow Champion who dealt the killing blow to her mother years ago, she may uncover the truth she’s seeking without losing her head… or her heart. But in the Trials, betrayal is a question of when, not if. And winning the game isn’t about what she must do to win, but who she needs to survive.
Title Information
Release Date: October 20, 2026
Publisher: Tor Books
Series: Yes
Pages: 400
Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy – Romance, Fantasy – Occult, Epic Fantasy
Lethal Kiss by Taylor Grothe
This cover alone would have me tearing this off the shelf! Absolutely stunning, seductive and possibly vampiric? Perfect for October mood readers who like their girls gay and their horrors bloody.
Publisher Synopsis
Something ravenous lurks below the marble floors of Preston University…
Marcella might be a monster, but she’s careful. After getting hired at Preston University, she intends to lay low and keep her meals discreet.
Trapped in the rat race of academia, all Lacie wants is to make tenure. This will be her year, and nothing is going to stand in her way.
That is, until bodies start dropping.
Marcella swears it isn’t her doing—as if she’d be that sloppy. Whatever’s killing their coworkers is older, and far less restrained. Lacie doesn’t know who to trust, but better the monster you know…
The deeper they dig, the more they’re drawn to each other… and the more something else is drawn to them.
After all, desire has teeth of its own.
Title Information
Release Date: October 20, 2026
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Series: No
Pages: 384
Genres: Horror, Romance, Popular Fiction, Horror – Supernatural & Occult, LGBTQ+ – Lesbian
A Court of Splintered Harmony by Sarah J. Mass
Did you really think you’d make it to the end of this fantasy girly’s list without the new SJM book? Absolutely not! I’ve read this series three times already and I have been waiting so long for another book that I was ready to weep when not one, but two new books were announced. Put in your PTO because this book hangover is about to be devastating.
Publisher Synopsis
Romance, danger, and intrigue await you in the breathtaking sixth book in the #1 bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series.
What was broken will be remade.
Deep in the heart of the continent, Koschei the Deathless is stirring. Though he’s been bound to a mountain lake for millennia, the insidious threat of his return now spreads across the Fae territories, attracting powerful allies hell-bent on reclaiming what was once theirs: the human lands.
The Night Court will not stand idly by while innocents are attacked. But with Prythian still piecing itself together in the wake of the devastating Hybern War, the task of uniting is proving more difficult by the day.
To make matters worse, those who rule and protect the Night Court are reeling from recent betrayals and revealed truths. The rifts dividing them seem insurmountable.
But to defeat Koschei’s creeping shadow, they must find a way back to each other and resurrect their former alliances. To survive, they must find a way to repair the splintered harmony all around them.
Title Information
Release Date: October 27, 2026
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Series: Yes
Pages: 352
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Epic Fantasy, Romantasy
Another list of my most anticipated reads is complete but if you didn’t find everything you’re looking for in one of these books check out some of my other lists and recommendations like 9 Must Read Horrors for Fall http://pennysbookshelf.com/9-must-read-horrors-for-your-fall-tbr/ or 9 Dark Academia Reads http://pennysbookshelf.com/dark-academia/.
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