Choose a Halloween Costume, Get a Book Rec By Andie Divelbiss Choose a Halloween Costume, Get a Book RecIt’s finally (officially) fall! That means it’s time to start planning Halloween costumes. Will you lean spooky or sweet, trick or treat? Choose an option below to get a perfectly paired book recommendation for whiling away the days until the holiday arrives.Or, if you’re like me and believe that Halloween starts on October 1st and lasts the full month, pick as many costumes as you’d like and fill up your to-read list for the season.<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/tidesofmutiny">Tides of Mutiny</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/rebeccarode">Rebecca Rode</a>If you dream of sailing the open seas and commanding your own ship, this book is the perfect companion for your journey. Lane Garrow has a secret—one that could get her killed. In a world where female sailors are executed, sixteen-year-old Lane’s dream of being a ship’s captain seems impossible. Sea life is all she knows, and she wouldn’t give it up for anything, even if it means she has to hide as a captain’s boy to avoid being killed. But Lane’s carefully constructed world begins to crumble when an old pirate enemy comes after her father. And she begins hearing rumors that her father was once a pirate as well.Lane doesn’t want to believe her father could have a dark past, but she can’t help questioning everything she’s known. After all, Lane’s life at sea is built on lies—why couldn’t her father’s be, too?Then a mysterious prince shows up, and Lane finds her very survival tied to a boy who could destroy everything. With pirates, betrayal, and death threatening Lane and those she loves, she must now decide between the future she always expected and a prince with an unknown agenda who she finds herself falling for. Lane must either protect herself and find a way to live her dream, or risk everything for a world where her very existence is a death sentence.Maybe there’s a third option. After all, she’s never played by the rules before. Why start now?<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/sidelined">Sidelined</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/karabietz">Kara Bietz</a>If you’re a sports fan who enjoys some romance on the side(line), this is a must-read for fall.Julian Jackson has a short to-do list for his senior year at Crenshaw County High School in Meridien, Texas: football, football, and more football. He knows he’s only got one chance to earn a college scholarship and make it out of his small town, and keeping his head down, his grades up, and his cleats on the field is that one chance. And then Elijah Vance walks back into his life, throwing all of his carefully-laid plans into a tailspin.Elijah and Julian used to be best friends, maybe even on their way to something more than just friends. But three years ago, Elijah broke into the school to steal money from the coach’s office, and Julian was the one who turned him in. After that, Elijah and his family disappeared without a trace. And now he’s back, sitting at Julian’s grandmother’s kitchen table. But time and distance haven’t erased all of their feelings, and Elijah knows that he finally has a chance to prove to Julian that he’s not the same person he was three years ago. But with secrets still growing between them and an uncertain future barreling towards them, it may be harder to lean on each other than they thought.<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/bwitch">B*WITCH</a> by P<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/paigemckenzie">aige McKenzie</a> & <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/nancyohlin">Nancy Ohlin</a>If you and your coven plan to fly together on All Hollow’s Eve, you might find some inspiration in this mysterious and charming read.When the new girl in school joins a group of teen witches, she and her friends must team up with a rival coven to take down a mysterious killer.New girl and secret witch Iris just wants to get through her first day of school without a panic attack. The last thing she expects is to be taken in by a coven of three witches: soft-spoken Greta, thoughtful and musical Ridley, and fiery and spirited Binx. They may be the first witches Iris has met IRL, but their coven is not alone in their small northwestern town.The Triad is the other coven at their school. When the Triad’s not using spells to punish their exes or break up happy couples for fun, they practice dark magic. The two covens have a rivalry stretching all the way back to junior high.When tragedy strikes and one of their own is murdered, the rival covens must band together to find out who is responsible before it’s too late. Someone’s anti-witch ideology has turned deadly . . . and one of them is next.<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/ourwaybacktoalways">Our Way Back to Always</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/ninamoreno">Nina Moreno</a>If you’re missing summer and plan to reminisce about warmer days in your costume, this sun-soaked book is for you! Luisa (Lou) Patterson grew up across the street from Sam Alvarez in the small, quirky town of Port Coral. They used to be inseparable—spending every holiday together, shooting silly YouTube videos, and rescuing stray cats. But then middle school happened, including the most disastrous (and embarrassing) serenade ever, and Lou and Sam haven’t talked in the four years since. Sam is now the golden boy with plenty of friends, while Lou is an introverted romantic who’s happy playing video games and writing fan fiction. But it’s also the summer before their senior year, and life is knocking on Lou’s door.With her older sister having given up a scholarship to Princeton to have a baby and work at the local botanica, all of their mother’s expectations are now riding on Lou’s shoulders. She’s retaking her SAT’s, signed up for way too many AP classes, and her sights set on colleges with fancy names like Duke and Vanderbilt. But when she finds the bucket list she and Sam wrote together as kids, before Sam’s father was diagnosed with cancer, she’s shocked to see that she hasn’t accomplished any of the goals she’d set for herself. Go to a party? Nope. Pull the greatest prank of all time? Still no. Learn how to be a really good kisser? Definitely not.Torn between the future that her mother, sister, and younger self planned for her, Lou sets out to finish the list, and in a stroke of destiny or fate, Sam decides to tag along. Still trying to stay afloat amid the grief of losing his father, Sam himself is staring down a future that feels all too close, and is coming far too fast. But with the bucket list to guide them, Sam and Lou might just be able to find a way through the future, and also a way back to each other.<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/noneshallsleep">None Shall Sleep</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/elliemarney">Ellie Marney</a>If you’re an aspiring FBI agent, this thrilling novel will help you get in the right headspace for a killer costume. In 1982, two teenagers—serial killer survivor Emma Lewis and US Marshal candidate Travis Bell—are recruited by the FBI to interview convicted juvenile killers and provide insight and advice on cold cases. From the start, Emma and Travis develop a quick friendship, gaining information from juvenile murderers that even the FBI can't crack. But when the team is called in to give advice on an active case—a serial killer who exclusively hunts teenagers—things begin to unravel. Working against the clock, they must turn to one of the country's most notorious incarcerated murderers for help: teenage sociopath Simon Gutmunsson.Despite Travis's objections, Emma becomes the conduit between Simon and the FBI team. But while Simon seems to be giving them the information they need to save lives, he's an expert manipulator playing a very long game…and he has his sights set on Emma.<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/thecoldestgirlincoldtown">The Coldest Girl in Cold Town</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/hollyblack">Holly Black</a>If you’re looking to join the undead for Halloween, this novel might just infect you with the perfect perspective.Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/theothersideofperfect">The Other Side of Perfect</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/marikoturk">Mariko Turk</a>If you hope to dance your way through Halloween, let yourself be swept up in this touching and romantic novel.Alina Keeler was destined to dance, but then a terrifying fall shatters her leg—and her dreams of a professional ballet career along with it.After a summer healing (translation: eating vast amounts of Cool Ranch Doritos and binging ballet videos on YouTube), she is forced to trade her pre-professional dance classes for normal high school, where she reluctantly joins the school musical. However, rehearsals offer more than she expected—namely Jude, her annoyingly attractive castmate she just might be falling for.But to move forward, Alina must make peace with her past and face the racism she experienced in the dance industry. She wonders what it means to yearn for ballet—something so beautiful, yet so broken. And as broken as she feels, can she ever open her heart to someone else?<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/kingdomofthewicked">Kingdom of the Wicked</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/kerrimaniscalco">Kerri Maniscalco</a>If you’re looking to get in touch with your sinful side, search no further than this delicious tale of romance and vengeance.Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe – witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family’s renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin…desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister’s killer and to seek vengeance at any cost-even if it means using dark magic that’s been long forbidden.Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia’s side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women’s murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems… <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/thebonehouses">The Bone Houses</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/emilylloydjones">Emily Lloyd Jones</a>If you plan to wake the dead with your epic costume this year, you’ll love this chilling historical horror novel.Seventeen-year-old Aderyn (“Ryn”) only cares about two things: her family and her family’s graveyard. And right now, both are in dire straits. Since the death of their parents, Ryn and her siblings have been scraping together a meager existence as gravediggers in the remote village of Colbren, which sits at the foot of a harsh and deadly mountain range that was once home to the fae. The problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren, though, is that the dead don’t always stay dead.The risen corpses are known as “bone houses,” and legend says that they’re the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the deeply-buried truths about themselves. <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/daughterofsmokeandbone">Daughter of Smoke and Bone</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/lainitaylor">Laini Taylor</a>If you have plans to cover up with fur or feathers, this inventive series will introduce you to a whole new world of ideas.Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”; she speaks many languages — not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.When one of the strangers — beautiful, haunted Akiva — fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/daughterofsparta">Daughter of Sparta</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/clairemandrews">Claire M. Andrews</a>If you (like me!) enjoy dressing up as a rotating cast of Greek gods, goddesses, and figures of myth from year to year, pick up this book for a fresh take on some classic characters.Seventeen-year-old Daphne has spent her entire life honing her body and mind into that of a warrior, hoping to be accepted by the unyielding people of ancient Sparta. But an unexpected encounter with the goddess Artemis—who holds Daphne’s brother’s fate in her hands—upends the life she’s worked so hard to build. Nine mysterious items have been stolen from Mount Olympus and if Daphne cannot find them, the gods’ waning powers will fade away, the mortal world will descend into chaos, and her brother’s life will be forfeit.Guided by Artemis’s twin—the handsome and entirely-too-self-assured god Apollo—Daphne’s journey will take her from the labyrinth of the Minotaur to the riddle-spinning Sphinx of Thebes, team her up with mythological legends such as Theseus and Hippolyta of the Amazons, and pit her against the gods themselves.<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/horrid">Horrid</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/katrinaleno">Katrina Leno</a>If you enjoy a good old-fashioned phantom costume, this haunting contemporary horror novel is for you.Following her father’s death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor’s doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone . . . and more tormented.As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident “bad seed,” struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane’s mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won’t reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the “storage room” her mom has kept locked isn’t for storage at all — it’s a little girl’s bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears . . .Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more . . . horrid?<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/briarheart">Briarheart</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/mercedeslackey">Mercedes Lackey</a>If you’re going back to childhood stories for your costume inspiration, this feminist retelling of Sleeping Beauty is the perfect antidote to an enchanted sleep (or boredom) this fall.Miriam may be the daughter of Queen Alethia of Tirendell, but she’s not a princess. She’s the child of Alethia and her previous husband, the King’s Champion, who died fighting for the king, and she has no ambitions to rule. When her new baby sister Aurora, heir to the throne, is born, she’s ecstatic. She adores the baby, who seems perfect in every way. But on the day of Aurora’s christening, an uninvited Dark Fae arrives, prepared to curse her, and Miriam discovers she possesses impossible power.Soon, Miriam is charged with being trained in both magic and combat to act as chief protector to her sister. But shadowy threats are moving closer and closer to their kingdom, and Miriam’s dark power may not be enough to save everyone she loves, let alone herself.<a href="https://www.thenovl.com/thatdarkinfinity">That Dark Infinity</a> by <a href="https://www.thenovl.com/katepentecost">Kate Pentecost</a>If you love a dark, mysterious, and minimalist costume on Halloween, read this epic fantasy about an immortal monster hunter, a royal handmaiden, and the epic journey they take together.By night, the Ankou is a legendary, permanently young mercenary—the most fearsome sword for hire in all of the Five Lands, and its most abiding mystery. But when the sun rises, a dark magic leaves him no more than bones. Cursed with this cycle of death and resurrection, the Ankou wants only to find the final rest that has been prophesied for him, no matter the cost.When the kingdom of Kaer-Ise is sacked, Flora, handmaiden to the royal family, is assaulted and left for dead. Wounded, heartbroken, and the sole survivor of the massacre, Flora wants desperately to be reunited with the princess she served and loved. She and the Ankou make a deal: He will help Flora find her princess, and train Flora in combat, in exchange for her aid in breaking his curse. But it isn’t easy to kill an immortal, especially when their bond begins to deepen into something more . . .Choose a costume!
