Seeking Spooky Love Stories for Halloween!
Looking for Halloween romance novels? So am I! For all that paranormals have been solid romance performers for decades now, and we get deluged with maple leaves and pumpkins if we so much as glance in the direction of a hobby store, Halloween as a holiday doesn’t get much genre love. While tagging books with Halloween content (visit our Halloween tag here!), I have been able to find some specifically Halloween stories. Generally speaking, though, us Halloween lovers are lucky to find characters going to a party, much less a full book dedicated to the spirits of our season.
Here are some Halloween romances that our reviewers enjoyed:
Her Halloween Treat by Tiffany Reiz: A funny, sexy relationship between a heroine staying at her brother’s cabins and the contractor working on fixing them up. I miss Harlequin Blaze!
The Cottage on Pumpkin and Vine: Our reviewer’s favorite story in this anthology was Jennifer Dawson’s Mesmerized By You, where friends become lovers at a magical bed and breakfast. (There’s only one bed!).
Jaded, Bearded, Wolfish by G.G. Andrews: A grumpy hero and sunshine heroine meet while playing werewolves at the local haunted house. Perfect for fans of a funny opposites-attract story.
You may also want to check out some additional tags. Even though these stories aren’t specifically Halloween-themed, they have a supernatural or spooky vibe certain to put you in a Halloween mood:
Tags: shifter romance, vampires, zombies, ghost, Angels, demon, witch, medium, psychic romance, gothic
Do you have any spooky or fall-themed books to recommend here? Is a Halloween romance a treat for you? Why do you think we don’t see many of them?
Although she is classified as a horror writer, what about Darcy Coates? She is a successful self-published author who was picked up by a couple of publishers. (You might have seen her print books on display in bookstores such as Barnes and Noble.) Many of her tales are romantic, although I don’t know if they all have HEAs. :(
House of Shadows and House of Secrets form two parts of a romantic Gothic.
Anything and everything by Simone St. James for those looking for serious spooky. If you haven’t yet read Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia that is a great romance/spooky story mix.
While not spooky, Hearts on Hold by Charish Reid is an autumn story that culminates in a Halloween party at the public library.
I’ve never actually liked Halloween- even as a kid. For me, October is an irritating time of year where the TV plays almost nothing but horror films, which I hate, and there’s a lot of creepy imagery in general. Okay, I admit that pumpkins, friendly ghosts, and even fuzzy spiders can be cute. Other than that, a lot of Halloween themed stuff- including literature- tends to range from mildly creepy to ghoulish to disturbingly demonic.
I’m sure a lot of my icky feelings arise from my upbringing, but any romances with more than a whiff of the occult are a hard no for me. But if there were more romances that took a cozier approach to the Halloween season with more of a focus on pumpkin patches and squash soup and other nice aspects of the season rather than horror and paranormal, I’d probably have friendlier feelings toward the idea of Halloween-themed romances.
I’m sure the dearth of Halloween romances compared to say, Christmas romances, is due to a lot of what I said above. Yes, there are definitely romance readers who love their zombies, vampires, ghosts, demons, witches, and so forth. But there are probably a lot more romance readers who find those themes totally unromantic- especially when you account for the large number of inspie readers who may find Halloween itself offensive. And even for some of us who don’t object to Halloween per se, a lot of the traditions surrounding the holiday are a turn off.
If anyone still has a copy of the BYRON database, it includes Halloween as a searchable item. A quick use reminded me of the old Charmed anthology, which included the first Harmony story from Jayne Castle, and several traditional Regency Romances.
The Harmony books are a comfort sf/fantasy read for me. I am definitely susceptible to the whole “my superpowers cannot be complete without you!”
Eve Silver wrote some excellent Gothic historical romances. There’s no specific Halloween connection but some of them were quite spooky. The first one is free (Dark Desires). Definitely NOT on the light side of spooky, but definitely romances.
FWIW Eve is a friend but her books are fantastic in my honest opinion.
I LOVE Eve Kenin (Driven is a terrific SF/dystopian road romance), but I actually don’t think I have read her as Eve Silver! That would be a good pickup for me!
Imagine that same energy in an 1830s British historical, where the “hero” might or might not be a killer.
(I’m still mad she wrote DRIVEN instead of me, that book is amazing)
I haven’t read that. It’s available on Amazon. I’m going to buy it! (We gave it an A back in the day.)
I am reading Driven now and am already super bummed she didn’t write more in this world. It’s amazing.
And her books are often on sale. Right now, Dark Desires is free and His Dark Kiss is 0.99.
Penny Reid’s book “Truth or Dare” begins on Halloween night as I recall. The heroine shows up to the small town party at the local school I think, or community center dressed as “Sexy Gandalf” because she thinks it’s ironic and funny. It’s part of the Winston series and it’s a nice read if you haven’t read it.
It’s in no way spooky however. When I am in the mood for Halloween chills I go right to romantic suspense and there is even “monster romance” if you are so inclined.
I think it’s a great time of year for Simone St. James books if you want genuine chills , or even Barbara Michaels and Susanna Kearsley if you want some milder romance with supernatural elements.
It would be fun with more Halloween-themed romance novels, even if just for the sake of variety. Just ordered Jaded, Bearded, Wolfish – I can see I’ve bookmarked it some time ago, but apparently never got around to actually buying it.
My recommendation for the season would be Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie. There’s no Halloween in it, but there are ghosts.
I read Jonty’s Halloween by Barbara Elsborg when it was released last month. It isn’t spooky, though, as it’s about putting on a Halloween event in a hotel. It’s a novella for fans of Jonty, who has featured in an earlier book (The Making of Jonty Bloom) and two other spin-off novellas, so probably wouldn’t work as a standalone. Jonty is one of my favourite MCs so I enjoyed reading a bit more about him and Devan.
I liked Jonty’s Halloween too but agree that it can’t stand alone. I feel Jonty in Russia has been the best of the Jonty novellas so far.
I’ve read quite a few in which Halloween is mentioned at least, but I don’t think any of them are books that couldn’t take place any other time. Honestly, though, Halloween is a complete “non-thing” for me; it’s never been a big thing in the UK, it’s just another day. It’s only in the last 20 years or so that the shops have seen it as a commercial opportunity and have started selling costumes and other related stuff that we Brits have probably become more aware of it. 5th November is a bigger thing for us.
When I was growing up, Halloween was mostly about trick-or-treating for kids, and the adults involved were pretty much there for the children. Back then no one worried about some of the safety issues and we pretty much walked the whole neighborhood on our own from about 7 or 8 years old (in a group of friends and siblings). As I got older,it seemed more and more that adults were getting into the celebrations sans children,but it still wasn’t the big consumer deal it is now. I’d say based on working retail the past decade that Halloween is becoming one of the favorite holidays for young adults in the US. It makes sense in a way. It’s a great excuse for a party with costumes and themed food and decorations.
How do you celebrate Guy Fawkes Day?
Guy Fawkes Day is also known as Bonfire Night. In our village, and no doubt in many others, wood, hedge trimmings and other suitable items for burning are collected for a couple of weeks on the village green. On the night, 5th November, a bonfire is lit with an effigy of Guy Fawkes on it. We have various little stands for mulled wine, cider, BBQ’d sausages in a bun and maybe a few other treats which we sell at a small price to raise funds for maintaining our Village Hall who organises the event. We go around with buckets to those attending to ask for “A penny for the Guy!” and the collection goes to village charities or groups like the Scouts, etc. After about one hour we then have a really good firework display and as the night gets colder, folk start off for home or, in some cases, head for the local pub. Lots of fun, same every year but much loved by all and we get a lot of people attending from local places that don’t have a bonfire.
I was born and raised in England, but haven’t lived there since the late 1960s. When I was a child, we would stuff old clothes with newspaper to create a “guy.” Then we’d go door-to-door asking for “a penny for the guy” (that was a penny in “old—pre-decimal system—money,” lol). We were supposed to buy fireworks with the money we got (back in those halcyon days of yore when kids could buy fireworks), but I seem to remember we ended up buying sweeties instead. And there would always be a huge neighborhood bonfire on the evening of November 5 as people threw in all their accumulated junk. By the way, Guy Fawkes allegedly tried to blow up Parliament—so it either does or does not makes sense that he is celebrated. One more fun fact: one of T.S. Eliot’s poems (The Hollow Men? The Waste Land?) begins with the phrase “A Penny for the old guy.”
I picked out Erin Sterling’s The Ex Hex from the list of books you were considering for review. It’s a delightful Halloween story on the lighter end of the spooky scale.
I second the recommendation for Jaded, Bearded, Wolfish. It is actually the 3rd of 4 Halloween romances written by G.G. Andrew (Crazy, Sexy, Goulish; Scary, Lovesick, Foolish; Jaded; and Geeky, Freaky, Clueless). All are novella length, quick and fun reads.