Books Where Halloween Gets a Little Handsy
Look, Halloween is already kind of horny.
You put on a costume you would never wear on a random Tuesday, drink something with an unreasonable amount of cinnamon in it and suddenly making out with a man in a mask seems like a perfectly reasonable life choice.
And romance authors have noticed.
We’ve got hookups at Halloween parties. Pumpkin patch romances. Haunted-house employees getting considerably friendlier with the customers than their job descriptions probably allow.
And yes, there are still witches, vampires, demons and the occasional actual ghost.
It is Halloween, after all.
But nobody needs to be running for their life this time.
Mostly we’re here for costumes, pumpkins, haunted attractions, questionable decisions and books that make you want to light a fall candle and spend the rest of the night reading.
Preferably something where Halloween gets a little handsy.
Best Spicy Halloween Romance Books
WITCHY SMALL TOWN + ACCIDENTAL CURSE
1. The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones dealt with a broken heart the traditional way.
Vodka, bubble baths and putting a curse on her ex.
She didn’t think it actually worked.
Then Rhys Penhallow comes back to Graves Glen and it becomes increasingly obvious that maybe drunkenly hexing your ex-boyfriend wasn’t such a harmless coping mechanism after all.
If we’re starting a spicy Halloween romance list, The Ex Hex feels like the obvious place to begin.
Graves Glen goes all in on Halloween, Vivienne is a witch, Rhys is the extremely inconvenient ex she never quite got over, and their accidental curse starts causing magical chaos all over town.
But this isn’t a horror read.
It’s funny, witchy and basically built for reading in October with something pumpkin-flavored nearby.
Plus, there’s something deeply satisfying about accidentally cursing your ex and then being forced to spend a bunch of time with him trying to fix it.
Especially when he’s still hot.
Read this if you like: witches, second-chance romance, small towns, Halloween festivities, magical disasters and ex-boyfriends who unfortunately remain attractive.
WEREWOLF + MONSTER HUNTRESS
2. Mating the Huntress by Talia Hibbert
Chastity Adofo comes from a family of monster hunters.
Unfortunately, she’s never actually been allowed to hunt anything.
Then Halloween rolls around and she decides it’s finally time to prove herself by killing a werewolf.
Luke Anthony is the werewolf she picks.
He is considerably more excited about this development than she anticipated.
Mating the Huntress is exactly the kind of Halloween nonsense we’re here for.
Chastity is determined to finally make her first kill. Luke takes one look at the woman trying to murder him and essentially decides, Yep. That’s the one.
Excellent start to a relationship.
It’s short, funny and properly spicy, so you can knock it out in an evening without committing to an entire paranormal-romance universe.
And unlike some of our witchier picks, Halloween isn’t just a vague aesthetic here. The story actually takes place around Halloween, which makes it particularly good when you want something quick and horny for October.
Read this if you like: werewolves, monster hunters, Halloween novellas, fated mates, heroines with knives and men who find attempted murder strangely attractive.
HALLOWEEN PARTY + INSTA-LOVE
3. Halloween Hookup by Stacy Kristen
One Halloween night.
One party.
And one very attractive stranger who turns a casual night out into something considerably more interesting.
Sometimes I don’t need lore.
I don’t need a magical family tree. I don’t need to understand the political structure of the local vampire coven.
I just need two hot people to meet at a Halloween party and make some decisions.
Halloween Hookup understands this.
It’s a short, spicy contemporary romance with no actual monsters required. Just Halloween, instant attraction and the kind of meet-cute that gets considerably less cute once everyone’s clothes start coming off.
And I really like having books like this on the list because spooky season doesn’t always need to involve the supernatural.
Sometimes Halloween gets handsy all by itself.
Read this if you like: Halloween parties, insta-love, small-town romance, quick spicy reads and regular humans making October considerably more interesting.
WITCH + DEMON CAT
4. Spookily Yours by Jennifer Chipman
Willow is a witch.
Her cat, Damien, is actually a demon trapped in feline form.
Which is already a fairly significant thing for your pet to neglect to mention.
When Willow discovers the truth, she may be able to help break his curse and give him his human body back.
And, well. Things get considerably less appropriate for a cat-owner relationship from there.
Spookily Yours basically showed up wearing a tiny witch hat and demanded to be put on the list.
It’s short, cozy, spicy and packed with Halloween vibes without asking us to worry that someone is about to be brutally murdered.
Damien being Willow’s cat before becoming her love interest is also exactly the kind of ridiculous paranormal-romance premise I enjoy.
Because sure.
Why shouldn’t your cat secretly be a hot demon?
It’s cute, weird and extremely October—which is pretty much the entire assignment here.
Read this if you like: witches, demons, cozy paranormal romance, Halloween vibes, short spicy reads and cats with some fairly major secrets.
DEMON HUNTER BOSS + ROAD TRIP THROUGH HELL
5. I Hope This Email Finds You in Hell by Mackenzie Reed
Millie is just trying to survive her office job.
Then she walks in on her extremely hot boss performing an exorcism on one of their coworkers.
Apparently, he’s a demon hunter.
And when another coworker ends up trapped in Hell, Millie gets dragged along on the rescue mission.
Corporate really should have covered this during onboarding.
First of all, incredible title. No notes.
Second, nothing improves an office romance quite like discovering your boss has a secret side hustle fighting demons.
Millie and her boss end up traveling through literal Hell together, which gives us demons, exorcisms, forced proximity and the kind of workplace relationship that HR is absolutely not equipped to handle.
I Hope This Email Finds You in Hell is funny, spicy and supernatural without feeling like another generic witchy romance, and the whole journey-through-Hell setup gives us something completely different from the haunted houses and pumpkin patches elsewhere on this list.
Also, if I’m answering emails while demons exist, I’m quitting.
Immediately.
Read this if you like: demon hunters, workplace romance, forced proximity, road trips through Hell, paranormal rom-coms and bosses with significantly more interesting jobs than the one listed on LinkedIn.
WITCHY REVENGE + MAGICAL TOURNAMENT
6. Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper
Emmy Harlow left Thistle Grove years ago and has been perfectly happy keeping her distance from its magical drama.
Then she comes home for a traditional witchy tournament.
And discovers that the guy who broke her heart has also been screwing over two other women.
One of whom is the extremely attractive Talia Avramov.
Suddenly revenge sounds fun.
Nothing says cozy fall romance quite like returning to your magical hometown and discovering everyone hates the same man.
Payback’s a Witch gives us witches, a magical competition, family rivalries and a sapphic romance developing in the middle of a very satisfying revenge plot.
Thistle Grove is also exactly the kind of fictional town I’d want to visit in October. It’s witchy and atmospheric without everything being particularly scary, so this sits firmly on the fun side of our Halloween list.
And really, teaming up with a gorgeous woman to ruin the man who wronged both of you?
Healthy community building.
Read this if you like: witches, sapphic romance, magical competitions, revenge plots, small-town fall vibes and women discovering they could both do considerably better.
WITCH + ACCIDENTAL LOVE POTION
7. Hexed Up by Hannah Haze
Witch Holly Ashford is having a bit of a magical disaster.
An accidentally enchanted drink has landed in the hands of her extremely attractive—and extremely human—neighbor, Max.
And now he’s suddenly very interested in her.
Like, suspiciously interested.
Oops.
Nothing improves an awkward crush quite like accidentally dosing him with magic.
Hexed Up gives us witches, magical mishaps, a demon best friend and the increasingly complicated problem of figuring out which of Max’s feelings are real and which ones can be blamed on Holly’s spell.
It’s funny, properly spicy and packed with enough supernatural chaos to earn a spot on an October TBR without wandering into anything genuinely scary.
Plus, there’s something wonderfully embarrassing about being a witch and having your romantic problems caused by your own magic.
You’d think there’d be a spell for that.
Read this if you like: witches, accidental love potions, hot neighbors, magical mishaps, spicy paranormal rom-coms and spells going spectacularly off-script.
HAUNTED ATTRACTION + WORKPLACE RIVALS
8. Haunted Games by Elizabeth Dear
Avery agrees to go to a haunted attraction with her friends.
There, she has a very memorable encounter with one of the masked scare actors.
Fun Halloween hookup.
Except the man behind the mask turns out to be someone she already knows.
And doesn’t particularly like.
Haunted Games is another one that feels like it was written specifically for this list.
We’ve got a haunted attraction, a masked scare actor and two people who already know each other in real life without realizing who they’re getting involved with behind the mask.
Which is exactly the sort of logistical problem Halloween creates.
It’s spicy and playful rather than genuinely scary, and the masked-man element gives us a little slasher aesthetic without actually turning this into another horror romance.
Basically, if you’ve ever gone through a haunted house and thought one of the scare actors was suspiciously hot, Elizabeth Dear has decided to explore that for you.
Read this if you like: haunted attractions, masked men, workplace rivals, secret identities, Halloween hookups and scare actors who are doing considerably more than their jobs require.
HAUNTED HOUSE + MASKED SCARE ACTOR
9. In the Dark by Chelsea Curto
Olivia doesn’t particularly like haunted houses.
Which makes agreeing to go through one on Halloween weekend a questionable decision.
Then one of the masked scare actors takes a particular interest in her.
And suddenly being chased through the dark gets a lot more interesting.
This is for everyone who has ever gone through a haunted house, gotten chased by one of the scare actors and thought:
Okay, but what if he’s hot?
In the Dark takes that extremely specific Halloween thought and runs with it.
We’ve got a haunted attraction, a masked man, stalking, plenty of spice and the kind of Halloween fantasy where running away is technically part of the fun.
It’s darker than some of the cute witchy romances on this list, but it isn’t here to emotionally destroy us.
It’s here because apparently getting chased through a haunted house can be foreplay.
Halloween really does have something for everyone.
Read this if you like: masked men, haunted attractions, stalker romance, chase scenes, Halloween smut and scare actors who take audience participation considerably too seriously.
GRIM REAPER + GUARDIAN ANGEL
10. Grim Tidings by B.K. Borison
Darcy is a Grim Reaper.
Gabriel is a Guardian Angel.
Which means when Darcy decides she isn’t going to reap the soul she’s been assigned, Gabriel has some questions.
Mostly about why Death is suddenly interfering with the person he’s supposed to protect.
Apparently even the afterlife has workplace drama.
Darcy and Gabriel are quite literally working on opposite sides of the whole life-and-death situation, and neither is particularly thrilled about being forced together.
Unfortunately, they’re also attracted to each other.
Grim Tidings gives us something we haven’t really had anywhere else on this list: a Grim Reaper, a Guardian Angel and supernatural bureaucracy getting in the way of everybody’s plans.
It’s spooky without being horror, romantic without abandoning the supernatural weirdness and exactly the kind of book that feels right when October rolls around.
Also, after this many witches and vampires, I’m delighted someone from an entirely different supernatural department finally showed up.
Read this if you like: Grim Reapers, Guardian Angels, enemies to lovers, supernatural workplace drama, forbidden romance and discovering that apparently even Death has paperwork.
HALLOWEEN BOYS + PARANORMAL WHY CHOOSE
11. Ghost by Kat Blackthorne
Blythe moves to a town where Halloween isn’t just a holiday.
It’s basically a way of life.
Then she meets the Halloween Boys.
And it turns out the masks, monsters and things lurking around town aren’t all pretend.
Okay, we’ve been wholesome for a minute.
Time to get weird again.
Ghost is the first book in The Halloween Boys series, and this is very much our darker end of the Halloween list. We’ve got paranormal creatures, masked men, secrets and multiple love interests rather than one cute guy helping with the town pumpkin festival.
And it is spicy.
Very spicy.
But what really earns it a spot here is how completely committed the series is to Halloween. This isn’t a paranormal romance that we’re squeezing onto an October list because someone happens to have fangs.
Halloween is baked into the entire thing.
So if the cozy witch shops and pumpkin patches are starting to feel a little too wholesome, here’s your palate cleanser.
Read this if you like: why choose romance, masked men, paranormal creatures, darker Halloween vibes, very spicy books and towns that take spooky season considerably too seriously.
WITCH + ACCIDENTALLY SUMMONED DEMON
12. A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley
Mariel is a witch from an impressive magical family.
Unfortunately, she’s much better with plants than she is with spells.
Which becomes a problem when she accidentally summons a demon named Ozroth.
He’s supposed to collect her soul.
Instead, they end up pretending to date.
Accidentally summoning a demon is embarrassing.
Having to introduce him to everyone as your boyfriend because you can’t figure out how to get rid of him?
Much worse.
Mariel and Ozroth are forced to spend a lot of time together while he tries to convince her to give him her soul, and their fake relationship starts becoming inconveniently real.
This read is cozy paranormal romance rather than anything genuinely scary, with a magical small town, lots of witchy nonsense and enough spice to keep it firmly on this particular list.
Basically, Ozroth comes for Mariel’s soul.
Things do not go according to plan.
Read this if you like: witches, demons, fake dating, forced proximity, magical small towns and summoning rituals with unexpected romantic consequences.
GRUMPY NEIGHBOR + HALLOWEEN DEADLINE
13. Her Grumpy Neighbor Until Halloween by Eve Pendle
Holly needs somewhere to stay.
Her grumpy neighbor Logan has a spare room.
And whatever is happening between them comes with one very important rule:
It ends at Halloween.
Sure. That sounds like a plan that’s definitely going to work.
Once again, no witches! In fact, we’re talking billionaires!
I promise we can celebrate Halloween without accidentally summoning something.
Her Grumpy Neighbor Until Halloween gives us regular people, forced proximity and a relationship with an actual spooky-season expiration date.
Which, obviously, means nobody is going to develop feelings.
That would be terribly inconvenient.
It’s contemporary, open-door and a nice break between all our supernatural romances while still giving us a reason to specifically pick it up during Halloween season.
And I appreciate any romance where the characters establish a very sensible arrangement that even the reader knows they’re going to completely ignore.
Read this if you like: grumpy/sunshine, neighbors, forced proximity, temporary arrangements, contemporary romance and relationships with extremely optimistic expiration dates.
VAMPIRE ROOMMATE + SUSPICIOUSLY CHEAP RENT
14. My Roommate Is a Vampire by Jenna Levine
Cassie desperately needs somewhere affordable to live.
So when she finds an apartment with ridiculously cheap rent and a seemingly nice roommate named Frederick, she takes it.
Sure, he’s a little strange.
He dresses like he’s from another century. He leaves her bizarrely formal notes. And she never seems to see him during the day.
Totally normal roommate stuff.
I support ignoring red flags when the rent is cheap enough.
Cassie eventually discovers that Frederick is, unsurprisingly, a vampire who’s been asleep for the past hundred years and needs some help figuring out modern life.
Which gives us less Interview with the Vampire and more please explain what an emoji is to this confused Victorian man.
My Roommate is a Vampire is a silly, sweet and paranormal without getting particularly dark, making it exactly the kind of book you pick up when you want spooky season without actually wanting to be spooked.
And Frederick may be undead, but at least he can apparently offer below-market housing.
Honestly, keep him.
Read this if you like: vampires, roommates to lovers, fish-out-of-water romances, quirky paranormal rom-coms and ignoring suspicious Craigslist listings because rent is expensive.
PUMPKIN FARM + HALLOWEEN ROMANCE
15. In Her Pumpkin Patch by Alina Jacobs
Scarlett loves Halloween.
Which is convenient, considering her family owns a pumpkin farm.
Then a very attractive man enters the picture and gives her something else to enjoy about the season besides pumpkins, costumes and everything orange.
If there’s one setting this list absolutely needed more of, it’s the pumpkin patch.
In Her Pumpkin Patch isn’t trying to convince us that a random witch technically makes something a Halloween romance. We’re actually spending spooky season on a pumpkin farm with a heroine who genuinely loves Halloween.
That’s what I want.
It’s contemporary, spicy and unapologetically seasonal without needing anyone to possess magical powers or rise from the dead.
Although after this many books, I’m starting to think owning a pumpkin patch might be just as effective at finding a boyfriend as summoning a demon.
And considerably less paperwork.
Read this if you like: pumpkin patches, Halloween-obsessed heroines, contemporary romance, fall vibes, spicy seasonal reads and pumpkins being used for something other than decorative porch clutter.
CURSE BREAKER + HAUNTED CASTLE
16. Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan
Riley is a professional curse breaker.
Clark is an archaeologist who does not believe in curses.
Naturally, they end up together at a Scottish castle that is very much cursed.
And they immediately hate each other.
This should go well.
I love a skeptic being proven aggressively wrong.
Clark is convinced there has to be a rational explanation for what’s happening at the castle. Riley knows perfectly well that sometimes the explanation is simply: yep, cursed.
Their professional rivalry quickly becomes personal, then considerably less hostile in all the fun ways.
And while Do Your Worst isn’t specifically a Halloween romance, it absolutely passes the “would I want to read this in October?” test. We’ve got an old Scottish castle, supernatural happenings, an actual centuries-old curse and two people with enough sexual tension to haunt the place themselves.
Spooky season approved.
Read this if you like: curses, enemies to lovers, Scottish castles, forced proximity, supernatural mysteries and skeptics learning that maybe the witchy woman knows what she’s talking about.
WITCHY APPLE ORCHARD + GHOST HUNTER
17. Perfectly Wicked by Lindsay Lovise
Holly Celeste and her family run Wicked Good Apples, an orchard in Maine with a little secret.
They’re witches.
So when paranormal investigator Connor Grimm wants to film an episode of his ghost-hunting show on their supposedly haunted farm, letting him poke around isn’t exactly ideal.
Especially when Holly starts liking him.
Okay, Perfectly Wicked is the kind of witch book this list needs.
We’ve got an apple orchard. Cider. Family magic. A supposed ghost. And a hot paranormal investigator wandering around trying to prove that something supernatural is happening while Holly desperately tries to convince him that absolutely nothing supernatural is happening.
Sir.
You are on a witch’s apple farm.
Good luck.
It’s cozy and romantic but still gives us plenty of spooky-season atmosphere, and the orchard setting makes it feel properly autumnal rather than like a paranormal romance we threw onto the list because someone owns a cauldron.
Basically, if you want to spend October drinking cider, hunting ghosts and making questionable decisions with the paranormal investigator, start here.
Read this if you like: witches, apple orchards, ghost hunters, family secrets, cozy paranormal romance, fall atmosphere and men getting dangerously close to discovering the magic they’re specifically looking for.
SLASHER ESCAPE ROOM + WHY CHOOSE
18. Slash or Smash by Dee Garcia
In the town of Hollow Grove, Halloween isn’t really a one-day event.
It’s more like a lifestyle.
So when a Halloween escape-room attraction opens, going inside seems like a perfectly reasonable way to spend the night.
Then come the masked men.
Look, at some point we’re going to have to accept that haunted attractions are apparently excellent places to meet men.
Slash or Smash takes all the fun visual stuff from a slasher—masks, creepy rooms, men who look like they should probably be chasing you—and turns it into a spicy why-choose romance instead.
Which feels much more appropriate for this list than the actual horror one.
Hollow Grove is also completely obsessed with Halloween, so we’re not relying on a single costume party to carry the spooky-season vibes. The whole thing is unapologetically Halloween.
And frankly, if the choice really is slash or smash, we all knew which option this list was going to pick.
Read this if you like: masked men, why choose romance, haunted attractions, Halloween-obsessed towns, slasher aesthetics and choosing smash when running away was absolutely an option.
HAUNTED TOWN + ACTUAL GHOSTS
19. Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca
Cassie moves to Boneyard Key, a small Florida town that has built an entire tourism industry around being haunted.
Cute.
Except the ghosts are real.
And apparently one of them has opinions about Cassie’s new house.
Imagine moving to the adorable spooky town because you like the aesthetic and then discovering the locals weren’t exaggerating.
That’s Cassie’s problem.
Fortunately, there’s also Nick, the owner of the local coffee shop, who knows considerably more about Boneyard Key’s supernatural residents than she does.
This one is cozy, funny and genuinely paranormal without becoming scary. The ghosts are real and the haunting matters to the story, but we’re still firmly in the realm of cute small-town romance rather than please get out of that house immediately.
Basically, Boneyard Key is for everyone who has ever visited a touristy haunted town and thought, I could live here.
Apparently you can.
You just might have roommates.
Read this if you like: ghosts, haunted houses, spooky small towns, cozy paranormal romance, coffee shops and discovering your cute new house came with someone who is already dead.
ZOMBIES + SECRET VAMPIRE
20. Zomromcom by Olivia Dade
Edie is having a perfectly normal day when zombies breach the barriers protecting her town.
So she does what any decent person would do and tries to rescue her seemingly harmless neighbor, Max.
Except Max doesn’t need rescuing.
Because Max is a centuries-old vampire with a very large sword.
Well.
That’s useful during a zombie apocalypse.
I genuinely don’t know how we made it this far into a Halloween romance list without zombies.
Zomromcom fixes that rather spectacularly.
We’ve got a zombie outbreak, a secretly immortal neighbor, witches, werewolves, vampires and an actual conspiracy behind why the dead have suddenly started wandering around again.
But despite all the potential eating-of-humans, this is still a rom-com.
It’s weird, funny, properly spicy and basically looks like someone dumped the entire supernatural section into a blender and added sex.
It’s also currently sitting on my own TBR, because apparently “zombie rom-com where the hot neighbor turns out to be an ancient vampire” is all the information I personally require.
Read this if you like: zombies, vampires, supernatural rom-coms, secret identities, monster-filled worlds and discovering your neighbor is significantly older—and considerably better armed—than expected.
WITCH + MAGICAL FAMILY SECRET
21. Hot Hex Boyfriend by Carly Bloom
Delia Merriweather comes from a family of women who are absolutely convinced they’re witches.
Delia doesn’t exactly believe them.
Which would be fine if they weren’t actually witches.
Then Max shows up with a very important job: make sure Delia never discovers the truth about her family’s magic.
Naturally, he falls for her instead.
Imagine spending your entire life thinking the women in your family are just really committed to the witch aesthetic.
Then finding out they were right.
Hot Hex Boyfriend is another cozy, magical option for when you want your October reading to feel witchy without anyone being sacrificed to an ancient god.
There’s family magic, a curse, magical secrets and a romance developing with the man who is specifically supposed to keep Delia from figuring any of this out.
So he’s doing an excellent job.
It’s cute, autumnal and exactly the sort of low-stakes witchy chaos that belongs between our masked men and haunted houses.
Read this if you like: witches, family curses, magical secrets, cozy paranormal romance, fall vibes and men who are catastrophically bad at completing their assigned tasks.
WITCHY HOUSE + MAGICAL CHAOS
22. Hex Appeal by Kate Johnson
Essie Winters lives in a magical house with a group of witches.
Josh Henderson has just inherited a house nearby.
He has no idea magic is real.
Which makes meeting Essie—and everything that comes with her—considerably more confusing than your average new-neighbor experience.
At this point, I think we’ve established that moving somewhere full of witches is either going to get you cursed or get you laid.
Possibly both.
Hex Appeal gives us a wonderfully weird magical house, a whole collection of witches with different powers and one completely unprepared man trying to figure out what exactly he’s wandered into.
It’s quirky and cozy rather than dark, with plenty of magic and general supernatural nonsense to make it feel right at home on an October TBR.
And sometimes that’s all I want from a witchy romance.
A weird house. Some magic. A hot neighbor.
Carry on.
Read this if you like: witches, magical houses, quirky paranormal romance, cozy supernatural chaos, British villages and ordinary people discovering their neighbors are very much not ordinary.
MASKED MAN + PUMPKIN PATCH
23. Pounded in the Patch by Dana LeeAnn
Autumn wants one thing for Halloween:
To be chased through a pumpkin patch by a masked man.
Fortunately, she knows a guy.
And he is apparently very committed to making this particular Halloween fantasy happen.
Look.
You saw the title.
You know why we’re here.
Pounded in the Patch is short, extremely spicy and built around a Halloween fantasy involving a pumpkin patch, a masked man and a game of chase that is absolutely not intended for children.
There is no elaborate magical system to learn. Nobody needs to break an ancient family curse. We aren’t investigating the mysterious ghost haunting a quaint little inn.
We’re running through a pumpkin patch.
For sex reasons.
Sometimes a Halloween TBR needs range.
Read this if you like: masked men, primal play, chase scenes, Halloween smut, pumpkin patches and books that make absolutely no attempt to disguise why you bought them.
NEW ORLEANS + FAMILY CURSE
24. Spicy Little Curses by J.T. Geissinger
A skeptical reporter heads to New Orleans looking for a story.
There, he meets a tattoo artist whose family has been living with a very real curse.
He doesn’t believe in curses.
Yet.
First of all, if you’re going to set a supernatural Halloween romance somewhere, New Orleans feels like a solid choice.
Spicy Little Curses is another entry from the Scared Sexy collection, so it’s short, spicy and specifically designed to give us a little supernatural Halloween fun without requiring an entire series commitment.
We’ve also got one of my favorite setups: a man confidently insisting that supernatural nonsense isn’t real while standing directly in the middle of supernatural nonsense.
Good luck with that.
Add the family curse, New Orleans atmosphere and a tattoo-artist heroine, and this is exactly the kind of quick October read I want on this list.
Read this if you like: New Orleans, family curses, skeptical MMCs, tattoo artists, supernatural romance and short Halloween reads with actual spice.
SERIAL KILLER + SMALL-TOWN ROMANCE
25. Tourist Season by Brynne Weaver
Harper Starling is a gardener living in the picturesque town of Cape Carnage.
She also occasionally kills particularly awful tourists and buries them beneath her flowerbeds.
Nolan Rhodes comes to town looking for revenge.
Specifically, he intends to kill Harper.
This is going to get romantic somehow.
Okay, we’re ending slightly darker.
Tourist Season isn’t technically a Halloween romance, but a spicy romantic comedy about a murderous gardener hiding bodies beneath her flowers absolutely qualifies as spooky-season reading in my house.
Harper and Nolan are both keeping some fairly significant secrets, there’s a true-crime fanatic poking around town, and the whole thing manages to be murdery, funny and romantic at the same time.
It’s also the first book in the Seasons of Carnage series, so if you enjoy spending time with these two deeply questionable people, Harvest Season is waiting for you next.
Honestly, after 24 books involving witches, vampires, demons, ghosts and masked men, ending with the regular human woman burying tourists in her garden feels appropriate.
Happy Halloween.
Read this if you like: serial killers, dark romantic comedies, enemies to lovers, small-town murder, morally questionable heroines and gardeners with extremely effective composting methods.
WITCH + HAUNTED B&B
26. With All My Haunted Heart by Isabel Sterling
Ellie is a witch with a slightly unusual job.
She gets paid to haunt houses.
So when she’s hired to make a struggling bed-and-breakfast seem genuinely haunted, it should be a pretty straightforward gig.
Except the B&B might already have a ghost.
And its owner, Charley, is becoming considerably more distracting than expected.
Getting paid to fake-haunt a B&B sounds like an excellent seasonal side hustle.
At least until the haunting stops being fake.
With All My Haunted Heart gives us a witch deliberately causing paranormal chaos, an inn that may already have some supernatural problems of its own and a romance developing right in the middle of it.
It’s cute and spooky without losing the spice, and the whole setup feels made for October: an old B&B, ghosts, witchcraft and two women getting considerably more interested in each other than whatever is currently going bump in the night.
Honestly, if someone offered me money to haunt a B&B, I’d have considerably fewer questions.
Read this if you like: witches, sapphic romance, haunted inns, ghosts, spooky-season rom-coms, fake hauntings that become real and mixing business with pleasure.
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE + DISASTROUS FIRST DATE
27. Doomsdate by Laura Piper Lee
When Harlow agrees to a date with Ben, she’s hoping for a little romance.
Instead, the zombie apocalypse starts.
Which is a fairly significant complication for a first date.
Fortunately, Harlow is a doomsday prepper.
Unfortunately, Ben very much is not.
Okay, Doomsdate is a zombie romance.
And apparently Maisie has been preparing for exactly this situation her entire life.
Well.
The zombies. Maybe not the hot professor.
When their date goes spectacularly wrong, Maisie and Everett end up on the road together trying to reach safety. She knows how to survive the apocalypse. He’s considerably less prepared.
And somewhere between avoiding the undead and trying not to die, there’s also a frankly impressive amount of sex.
So yes, we already have Zomromcom on this list.
But Zomromcom gives us a vampire fighting zombies. Doomsdate gives us two regular humans whose first date accidentally becomes a zombie-apocalypse road trip.
Those are two completely different problems.
Read this if you like: zombie apocalypses, doomsday preppers, road-trip romance, disastrous first dates, lots of spice and women who really should have trusted their instincts and brought the taser.
So, What Should You Read First?
So, What Should You Read First?
Okay, but what if you don’t need 27 new books on your October TBR?
Fair.
If you want the classic cozy Halloween romance experience, start with The Ex Hex. Witches, curses, a small town that takes Halloween seriously and an unfortunately still-hot ex. It’s basically October in book form.
Want something newer? Try Grim Tidings, Perfectly Wicked or I Hope This Email Finds You in Hell. We’ve got Grim Reapers, haunted apple orchards and a workplace romance that escalates all the way to literal Hell.
If you came here specifically for Halloween smut, we’ve got you too. Halloween Hookup, In the Dark and, God help us, Pounded in the Patch understood the assignment.
For something darker, try Ghost, Slash or Smash or Tourist Season. And if you’d prefer your spooky season with actual monsters, Zomromcom, Doomsdate and Mating the Huntress have zombies and werewolves covered.
Personally, I’d probably start with The Ex Hex for peak cozy October vibes—or Zomromcom, because a zombie rom-com with a secretly ancient vampire is currently sitting on my own TBR.
But honestly?
Pick your poison.
Witches, ghosts, vampires, demons, zombies, masked men, serial killers or some guy waiting for you in a pumpkin patch.
Happy Halloween!
