‘Tis the Season to be… Scary?! The Best Spooky Romances for Halloween Season
It’s October – Halloween season in much of the world! – and the supernatural is as much a part of the season as pumpkins and candy corn. Monsters are also longtime staples of Romancelandia! In the mood for some spooky love stories? Check out some of our DIK favorites featuring some Halloween archetypes!
Zombies:
We do have books under our Zombies tag, but they’re books where zombies exist, not books where someone falls in love with a zombie. Those are out there, but we haven’t reviewed or DIK’d one that I know of.
Vampires:
NOTE: In addition to our vampire tag, you can search for “vampire romance” in our Power Search.
Beloved Vampire by Joey W. Hill
This book is natural. It is the highest compliment I can give to a book. It is naturally flowing – the plot, the emotional progression, the dialogue. Read Beloved Vampire, even if you think you’re sick to death of vampires. You won’t regret it. The story is so sensual, so romantic. I’m envious of the fact that I’ll never get that first-time excitement again.
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Sunshine, like the best fantasy, creates a completely recognizable, but at the same time, completely different world. It’s post-Apocalyptic, that is if the Apocalypse had sharp teeth and arrived in the dark to drain your lifeblood. It’s so amazingly and cleverly written that it’s hard to convey its scope and depth in the course of a few paragraphs. It (pardon the pun) sucks you in with its prose, its alternate reality, and its incredible heroine. Sunshine is, like most of us, a multi-faceted character whose personality isn’t quickly distilled. She is smart, funny, courageous, self-deprecating, and totally and uniquely her.
Ghosts:
Rock ‘N Soul by Lauren Sattersby
This is an unexpected gem; funny, emotional and sexy. Tyler Lindsey is a bellboy at a nice Boston hotel. He has an okay girlfriend, an okay apartment, an okay life. Then one day he enters a wealthy rock star’s suite with his room service, and finds the musician, Chris Raiden, dead on the floor from a heroin overdose. Tyler’s life changes from this point onwards. His girlfriend leaves him and he discovers he is haunted by the …world’s most narcissistic ghost.
Of Midnight Born by Lisa Cach (NOTE: This book has been republished as Phantom Bride)
Local legend has it that Serena murdered her husband and fell to her death on her wedding night. Serena is known to leave women alone but poses a threat to any male who sleeps on her castle’s grounds; this seems borne out when Alex climbs the castle tower to watch a tremendous meteor shower, glimpses Serena, and nearly falls to his death.
The Siren’s Dance by Amber Belldene
The Truss family lived in the Ukraine in the late 1960s when it was still under Communist rule. Anya, a ballerina in training, drowned while running from her family’s pursuers. She became a Vila, a nymph with power over the wind. In her ghostly form she is invisibly tethered to her tattered ballet shoe that sits on the riverbank where she drowned. Anya seeks her ballet master, a cruel and demanding man named Stas Demyan who broke her spirit. Sergey, a police officer, seeks the same man as Anya for his own reasons. Sergey is shocked to come face to face with a ghost. And not only is Anya a spirit, she is also a Siren, her voice and body ensnaring Sergey with her sexual power.
Witches:
Crystal Cove by Lisa Kleypas
Justine is a witch. She rarely practices magic and instead runs a bed and breakfast on San Juan island. When she discovers that a geas has been placed upon her which keeps her from falling in love, she becomes enraged and breaks the geas with no research as to the consequences of her actions. Since all high magic demands some sort of sacrifice the repercussions are huge. Enter the hero, Jason Black, a man born with no soul.
Morrigan’s Cross by Nora Roberts
This is the first title in the Circle trilogy. In the year 1128, on the isle of Eire, the vampire Lillith stole Hoyt’s brother by making him into a soulless blood sucker. Hoyt’s goddess Morrigan sent Hoyt forward to the 21st century to find allies for a great battle. One recruit is a human witch whom Hoyt saw in his dreams before traveling into the future: Glenna Ward, a hereditary witch with formidable powers of her own.
And let’s not forget stories with a spooky tone!
Gothic
NOTE: not all stories tagged “gothic” are romances. The review usually makes it clear.
Whispers in the Woods by Helen R. Myers: Paloma St. John escaped her evil scientist uncle and fled to an abandoned estate in the woods of northwest Maine. Before long, she begins to sense another presence lurking in the woods outside the estate. She is stunned when it makes telepathic contact with her, in the form of a single terse order, “Leave.” With nowhere to go, she can’t obey. Despite his best efforts to warn her away, Paloma finds herself drawn to the tortured soul she can feel beneath his harsh demeanor and is increasingly determined to know who and what he is.
At time of writing, his novel is available in used paperback only.
Want more supernatural love? Try some of our other tags: mermaid/merman, shifter romance, dragons, fairies, gods and goddesses, Angels, demon, medium
Got some favorites not listed here? Please share!
~ Caroline Russomanno
Jordan Price Castillo’s Psycop series doesn’t fit neatly into the categories above because 1) the MC is psychic, but he does spend quite a bit of time interacting with ghosts; and 2) there is a romantic arc over the series (but not every book is a romance).
Same with ZA Maxfield’s The Long Way Home (MC is psychic and ghosts are involved) except it is definitely a romance.
I don’t read much spooky romances or spooky books in general. I tend to have two types of reactions to them: 1. This is ridiculous, I can’t suspend my disbelief enough to take this seriously. 2. I actually buy the story and I end up frightened of my own shadow, unable to turn the lights out at night. And I have enough anxiety and sleeping problems without intentionally adding to either.
One book that does come to mind, though, which I really enjoyed and also had a haunted house and a ghost story as an integral part of the storyline, is The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller. (Cece already mentioned this!) It has a lovely, eccentric, heart-on-his-sleeve hero Sam, an inventor and professor who uses scientific means to study ghosts. And an equally lovely, more closed off and prickly heroine Alva who owns the house where Sam wishes to run his experiments and who initially thinks ghosts are nonsense. It’s set in the Gilded Age, and the secondary characters are wonderful too. This book is not something I’d recommend if you want to read something really scary but I found it eerie at times and at least one sequence was particularly chilling.
I am one of those people who are super brave during the day then scare myself stupid at night thinking about the spooky stuff I read while in bed with the covers up to my nose.
It’s interesting how nighttime and darkness have the ability to amplify the spookiness effect of the spooky stuff and make the kind of places, spaces and phenomenons scary that one would think nothing about during daytime. If I knew the book I was going to read had the ability to scare me, I’d never dare to read it at night, so there’s braveness in doing that too, at least from my point of view.
That’s so true annik. I think about it when the power goes out (happily rarely) during a storm and all the streetlights are out as well.
We have all become so accustomed to having light whenever we want it, on roads etc. that when the power is out it’s like going back in time. It makes me think of people traveling at night before these modern luxuries and how very dark it must have been and how everyone must have planned trips to make it to an inn or safety before dark.
‘There is something about the light of day that makes everything seem safer and more optimistic.
You’re so right. The way electric light (and electricity in general) enables the modern way of life is so integral that we don’t really even think about it. We use electric light both actively (the lights we turn on and off ourselves) and passively (streetlights, lighting of other public spaces both indoors and outdoors) so much that it’s hard to keep in mind what a luxury it indeed is. Unless, for a reason or another, we suddenly don’t have access to it anymore, like during the power failures you mentioned.
I’ve always been impressed how widely people managed to travel by land considering how much the available modes of transportation and being dependent on daylight, moonlight and terribly weak light sources slowed down the progress. Also, I find it interesting to think that even with the best possible light sources at use, it was still usually more or less dusky indoors especially after nightfall. Candles, light from a fireplace, oil lamps, gaslight – they just can’t compete in brightness with electric light, and they were dangerous besides. It’d be horrible to have a light source that might set your house on fire just like that – and the next thing you know, the rest of the city block is on fire too. I’ve also wondered about peoples eyes – all the reading that was done not to mention all the craftsmen and –women, for example, doing their work year after year in such insufficient lighting.
Sometimes, watching a historical TV series or movie I’ve wondered if it was a conscious decision not to pay much attention to the fact that the lighting situation was quite different from the current one back in the period they’re portraying. Some historical accuracy naturally has to be sacrificed lighting wise so that the footage isn’t murky to the point of unwatchable, but it is possible to give a strong impression of period accurate lighting and still make the footage aesthetically pleasing. It is of course a whole nother thing if it is a stylistic choice to ignore the period lighting altogether, but that’s something that is usually pretty easy to spot, I think.
I can think of two historical movies off the top of my head that used natural light for filming (but both are quite heavy and not “happy” by any means).
One is Barry Lyndon directed by Stanley Kubrick set in the 18th century. It even uses the heavy powdered makeup on people that was popular at the time. The other is The Witch which is an incredibly accurate but very dark horror movie set in 17th century Puritan New England. They both really show what it must have been like to live under those lighting restrictions. The lighting in the movies might have been chosen not just for accuracy but to also reflect the tones of the movies.
Fire was an incredible hazard and I’ve seen different sources argue about what was the biggest risk to women’s lives historically speaking. Some say childbirth and others argue fire. It’s crazy to think that pretty much all of Medieval London that existed up to that point was wiped out in the fire of 1666.
I think movies and books neglect the fact that a lot of buildings and things were designed to use natural light. They always show monks copying manuscripts in these dark rooms by one candle when they surely would have done their work by big windows in daylight and some scriptoriums didn’t even have walls at first, just a roof.
Even in the early 19th century when there were far more light sources available, things like surgical “theatres” were built with huge domes and windows so surgeries could be done using as much natural light as possible. There is one called the “Ether Dome” in my state that was built in 1821 that you can still visit.
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who sits and thinks about these things!
I didn’t even know that historical movies have been actually made using only natural light! How fascinating! I found clips of the Kubrick movie from Youtube and they were surprisingly pleasant to watch, no squinting required. My father is a movie enthusiast who has a huge collection of movies (and especially old movies) so I’m definitely going to ask if he might have this one when I talk to him next time. I don’t mind heavy or dark themes, but I still don’t think I’ll be able to watch The Witch – horror really isn’t my cup of tea. I did see enough footage on Youtube, though, to see what you mean and be impressed.
I am not surprised to hear that some argue that fire might have been an even greater risk to women’s lives than childbirth. Fire was such an essential part of everyday life since both lighting and heating depended on it in a way or another, and yet the devastation fire could cause was just terrible. Like The Great Fire of London in 1666 so devastatingly demonstrated, as you mentioned.
It’s impossible to say in how many productions I’ve seen a scene with monks copying or reading manuscripts by candlelight in what seems like the darkest possible room known to the human kind. Sure it makes a dramatic scene, but as you pointed out, it doesn’t have much to do with practicality or even facts.
The surgical theatre you mentioned sounds amazing and also makes so much sense – of course you’d want the place for things that require the utmost precision to be designed so that it’s possible to make the most of daylight there.
I live in a country where the late autumn/winter/early spring months are very dark. In the northern parts of the country the sun doesn’t rise at all for almost a month and even in the latitude where I live there are several weeks where daylight only lasts about two hours. The transition towards spring is slow and of course the autumn has been dark for a long time to get to the point where the day is actually that short, so we have a lot of darkness to slog through here. I can only try to imagine what it must’ve been like for people before the more advanced heat and light sources. No matter what time of the day, there wasn’t much natural light to use, it was cold, and lives had to be lived and work had to be done just the same. I reckon there were things that people simply didn’t do in the darker, colder months, but not everything could be postponed.
You’re certainly not the only one – I love pondering on things like this!
I hate it when people get all artsy with dim period light. Gives me terrible eyestrain.
That being said, one of the things I notice in period movies is that in so many shots of the protagonists walking through historical towns, you can see that the window glass is modern.
Huh, never caught the window glass before. Good point!
As for the lighting, I’m with you. I hate dark films. Not dark as in morose but dark as in “The screen’s so dark, I can’t see what the heck is going on!”
The worst case of that I ever experienced was in the last season of Game Of Thrones. There was one episode that had the climactic battle people waited eight seasons for and you couldn’t see anything it was so dark and fuzzy. It was like torture. “What’s going on? Where are the dragons?!”
I hadn’t thought about the glass but you’re right, older glass has a very different look and often wasn’t super clear. There are some that turned purple over time as well due to the composition of the glass.
Oh yes, having to squint during a film or series is awful. I do like it, though, when the filming crew has created an illusion that there’s only period lighting in use even though I, as a watcher, can still see everything and everyone much better than it could ever be possible if that was actually the case. So it’s not so much about accuracy, but making it feel authentic, I guess. It is not the easiest thing to achieve, I don’t think, but I’ve seen it done well many times. Then again, if it fails the resulting murk will be aggravating to watch.
I’ve also had problems with some contemporary movies and series when it comes to lighting. I mean, it only helps so much that the picture is all sharp and glossy if it’s also pitch dark.
That is such a good point about the window glasses – I’d never even thought about it!
I do not much like truly spooky stuff to read.
I refuse by now to read “women in peril” stories of a certain type, which excludes most thrillers.
And I do not enjoy horror at all.
So my one rec is from a very long time ago, and not a romance I guess, though there is a romance and a HEA.
To me, the very very best book that was super scary and had a romantic story in it was Barbara Erskine’s Lady of Hay. It is also a good time travel, and good historical.
I also loved her Kingdom of Shadows, but then, she got to be repetitive for me, in the way her characters and her moods were, and I ended my phase of scary.
But I still remember the extremely convincing scariness of those two books.
When I made these lists, I pulled books with monsters/characters we usually associate with Halloween. The books themselves may actually not be scary at all; they just happen to have a vampire in them. I’d use the review to determine whether or not the tone is right for you.
I remember reading Lady Of Hay back in the 80’s I think? I enjoyed the historical parts but I didn’t like the modern heroine and I vaguely recall the men were pretty abusive and awful. I bought it thinking it would be more of a “happy romance” not knowing the fate of the real historical woman when I picked it up. I also read Kingdom of Shadows (that’s the lady in the cage one) and I liked that one better even though there’s some pretty rough, and real stuff that happens in it as well. I remember wishing that the books were just straight historicals as those were the parts I enjoyed most.
I do agree that Lady of Hay had a very creepy vibe to it.
I think the historical Shades trilogy by Linda Fallon (apparently and AKA of Linda Winstead Jones) might qualify, though they are about a ghost hunter and might not qualify as romances by the usual one book per relationship criterion:
Shades of Twilight
1. Shades of Scarlet (2002)
2. Shades of Winter (2003)
3. Shades of Midnight (2003)
There was a contemporary Harlequin Blaze series by Kelley St. John some years ago with several variations on ghosts:
Sexth Sense
1. Kiss and Dwell (2007)
2. Ghosts and Roses (2007)
3. Shiver and Spice (2007)
4. Fire In The Blood (2008)
5. Bed On Arrival (2008)
6. Live and Yearn (2008)
I recommend The Forest of Hands a Teeth by Carrie Ryan for a Halloween read. It has adventure, intrigue, creatures, and a dash of romance.
I picked it up for the title alone.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth. (sorry for the typo the first time)
Jumping in on the recommends for Simone St. James. I am always on the lookout for good scary (but not gory) romance stories.
My all time favorite is Barbara Michaels who managed write eerie stories, some supernatural, some not, that never veered into anything gross and always had a theme of strong women before it was even fashionable to call them that.
Barbara Michaels’ connected “trilogy” starting with “Ammie Come Home” and finishing with “Stitches In Time” are some of her best works. For other spooky vibes by her try “Be Buried In The Rain” and “House Of Many Shadows”.
Susanna Kearsley’s first major book in the U.S. “The Shadowy Horses” was billed as “In The Spirit of Barbara Michaels” and is one of my favorites of hers and has a great romance as well as psychometry and a ghost.
Nora Robert’s Three Sisters Island Trilogy starting with “Dance Upon The Air” is one of my favorite comfort reads and IMHO the best of her “witch/magic” book series.
Linda Howard’s “Now You See Her” has an artist heroine who begins to not only see ghosts but paint murder scenes before they have happened.
Charlaine Harris’s short series (only four books) with heroine Harper Connolly who was struck by lightning and can now locate dead bodies (and tell how they died) starts with “Grave Sight.” It’s full of odd but interesting characters, one of whom got his own book series.
The Shadowy Horses is my favorite Kearsley book, in part because it did remind me of the Barbara Michael’s books I read as a teenager.
I absolutely loved that Robbie eventually grew up and got his own book (The Firebird). Although it made me feel really old when I realized how much time has gone by since I first read the Shadowy Horses.
I second the Grave series by Charlaine Harris too . . . as well as (at least the first few) Sookie vampire/shifter books.
Yes the Sookies started off great. I wish she hadn’t drawn that series out so much. I think her shorter ones work better although I did enjoy her Aurora Teagarden ones once I got over being mad at her years ago for a plot twist. She basically copied the same formula with the Sookie books. It’s how I predicted what she was going to do with that series.
Thank you for this list, Chrisreader! I ordered Susanna Kearsley’s The Shadowy Horses and Barbara Michaels’ Stitches in Time. Do you think it’s okay to read the Barbara Michaels’ trilogy out of order?
I think it you would still enjoy Stitches In Time on it’s own. You don’t need to know the supporting characters back stories to understand or appreciate Stitches. There is some back story from the previous books that are alluded to that may spoil the others a little bit if you read it first. Couples from the first and second books are in this book so you will know who ends up with who (not that it’s that big of a surprise for most of them) and what is behind the first mystery.
I hope you enjoy them! I think Stitches in Time is still very relevant in terms of the issues it addresses and the messages in it even though the book is decades old now. I really think Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters was a woman ahead of her time.
It’s funny, Michaels published the first book Ammie Come Home in the late 60’s, Shattered Silk the second book in the 80’s and Stitches In Time in the 90’s but it all pulls together nicely.
And I hope it’s not too late to say that these aren’t “hot” romances. In Michaels especially its even more subtle.
Thank you! I’m excited to get into it and I’ll have to see, maybe I’ll go back and read the rest. Strong spooky romances are tough to find. I’m definitely curious abut her influence on today’s gothic authors too. She wrote so, so many books!
Regarding steaminess, that’s fine. I mean, I have a ton of preferences for erotic content, but I knew when I ordered the book that it was older so it might be a kissing-only, closed door, or subtle romance and I’m mostly interested in it for its spooky/Halloween vibes.
I just wanted to thank you for reminding me about Sunshine. I read it when it was originally published, and the story stayed with me all these years. I remembered the baking and the early waking, and now I can’t want to revisit. McKinley is just such a lovely writer.
I don’t know if it counts as a romance but I remember loving The Ghost and Mrs. Muir when I watched the movie at a young and impressionable age. Not sure how closely the film follows the book.
I also agree that several of Simone St. James’ books work well for striking a good balance between genuinely spooky atmosphere while a romance unfolds.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is such a gorgeous movie (although I hate how many years she has to waste in it). Gene Tierney’s husband at the time Oleg Cassini designed her costumes in the movie and she looks beautiful.
I watched The Ghost and Mrs. Muir about 8 years ago, and remember thinking it was such a beautiful movie. Is it based on a book?
Yes, it is based on a book, but I haven’t read it. It also became a one-season sitcom in 1968.
For me, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (movie) falls apart in the second half. I loved the interplay between the ghostly sea captain and the widow Mrs. Muir, especially all the funny spooking action on the stuck-up relatives and the incident at the publishing house. But throwing in that smarmy love interest in the second half of the film just ruined it for me. It honestly felt like I was watching a second movie. I mean, it’s called The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, not The Ghost, Mrs. Muir, and Bulldozing Paramour. I think the film would have been immeasurably better if they maintained the banter and otherworldly romance dynamic between just the titular ghost and Mrs. Muir.
Yes, yes, yes. And I still don’t understand why the Captain though it was a good idea to disappear and leave her alone for half of her life? How was that a favor? The first half is fantastic, the second a drag.
It’s been awhile since I’ve watched the movie, so I can’t remember much about it. But I definitely enjoyed the banter between the ghost and Mrs Muir. I would probably agree with you both about the second half though, I am not a fan of random love interests being thrown into the mix.
Yes, I read the book a few years ago and liked it, but it does have some differences from the movie for sure.
Thank you! I might check out the book then, and see how it differs from the movie.
I just discovered that there is an audiobook edition. I think I’m going to give that a try when I’m finished with my current audio.
Thanks for letting me know! I have an audible credit, so I might give it a try as well:) Perfect for Halloween!
I haven’t read any romances specifically related to Halloween (I don’t read paranormal/shifter and have never been a fan of Halloween overall- not even as a kid) but I remember Charish Reed’s Hearts on Hold has a Halloween party at the public library where the hero works- complete with masks and costumes- as a major plot point near the denouement.
That’s a good recommendation for people who want a book that has Halloween elements without anything scary!
Aw, thanks! I probably wouldn’t mind Halloween so much if there was more emphasis on the cute (pumpkins, googly-eyed spiders, fun costumes) and less on the scary (as in gruesome horror films playing back-to-back on every dang channel throughout the whole frickin’ month. No thank you!)
Although, I have to say I’m not much of a holiday person in general. Halloween just happens to be at the bottom of my tolerance list.
One Halloween movie rec I have, however, is Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Anyone looking for something silly rather than something scary that parodies all the major horror characters of Halloween (Frankenstein’s monster, werewolf, Dracula, Invisible Man) might want to check it out. Fun fact: the original Count Dracula, Bela Lugosi, reprises his character here. Also check out Lon Chaney, Jr. as the werewolf. I always think it’s awesome when actors can loosen up and enjoy making fun of themselves and/or the iconic characters they’ve played. :)
I’m not a big fan of much paranormal/horror/supernatural, regardless of whether there’s a romance involved—but there’s an exception to everything and mine is Sierra Simone’s m/m vampire-priest short story, SANGUINE. It was in the AUSTRALIA anthology (a charity anthology from earlier this year where proceeds went to Australian wildfire relief—remember those days—when the wildfires seemed like the worst 2020 would throw at us?) and is hot, sexy, and romantic. Highly recommended.
For ghosts I like to recommend the books by Simone St. James.
Yes! Years ago when I asked for recommendations of spooky books, someone recommended The Haunting of Maddy Clare to me, and I have been a solid St. James fan ever since.
This isn’t a romance, but for anyone looking for a really spooky read I highly recommend Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions. It’s been a few years since I read it, but there are parts of it that still creep me out just thinking of them!
I finally read The Silent Companions last week, after seeing the review for it here years ago! I didn’t like it as much in the end, but I totally agree, it was legitimately terrifying!! I read it in one squirming sitting because I was convinced that if I put it down, I’d be too much of a scaredy cat to pick it back up again.
This is fantastic!! I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to scrounge up Halloween-themed or horror romances for the spooky season and I haven’t come across many of these titles. I can’t wait to see what everyone recommends! Here’s what is on my TBR & what I remember being festive.
TBR:
Jennifer Crusie’s Maybe This Time – saw this recommended as a contemporary romance retelling of Henry James’s classic horror novella, “The Turn of the Screw”.
Diana Biller’s The Widow of Rose House – Gothic historical romance with a haunting.
Talia Hibbert’s Mating the Huntress – monster hunter heroine, werewolf hero novella.
Non-romance novel supernatural/Halloween TBR: Holly Black’s The Coldest Girl in Coldtown (YA romantic fantasy with vampires), Justina Ireland’s Dread Nation (YA historical fantasy with zombies), Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth (adult sf/f with f/f necromancers).
What I’d Recommend: Kresley Cole’s Dark Needs at Night’s Edge has a ghost heroine, vampire hero, and Southern Gothic setting. I’m a huge fan of Simone St. James; her genre hybrids (mystery, romance, historical fiction, Gothic horror) are perfect for the season and brilliantly manage to be both romantic and spooky-scary.
Fun list! I figured out the twist in The Widow of Rose house because it mirrored the ghost in Barbara Michaels book “Vanish With The Rose”. I’m not sure if the title is coincidence or a tip of the hat to Michaels.
Thank you! I can’t wait to read The Widow of Rose House. My money would be on a tip of the hat, today’s Gothic authors seem exceptionally well-versed in the history of the genre.
The only human-zombie romance I know of is Bring Me To Life, by August Kert, where the heroine is a human trying to avoid the “farms” where zombies raise their next meals. The hero, of course, is a zombie.
Isaac Martin’s YA fantasy romance, Warm Bodies, has a similar premise: zombie hero, human heroine. I haven’t read the novel, but I’d recommend the charming film adaptation to anyone looking for a mixture of spooky horror and romance.
Oops, the author’s name is Isaac Marion.