This week's new releases deserve celebrating, but this feels like the week to take a deep breath before a TON of exciting new releases in October.

Trad Wife by Sarah Langan 5/5 stars

Put this on your TBR if you liked the idea of Yesteryear, but it fell flat. This is also a horror take at the exposing of trad wife influencers.

Something Followed Us Home 4.5/5 stars

Put this on your TBR if you enjoy horror anthologies by marginalized authors (this is Latine horror).

The Radiance by Ayad Akhtar 4/5 stars

Put this on your TBR if you enjoy prose some people would call purple and stories that are a bit meta.

The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw 3.5/5 stars

Put this on your TBR if you enjoy contemporary fiction that exposes the hypocrisy of the evangelical church culture.

And a couple I didn't get a chance to read yet:

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee

I got declined for an ARC for this (rude...kidding!), so I'm glad my preorder is on it's way. I want to read this because it's an immigrant story of finding satisfaction by a rockstar author.

The Unhaunting by Micaiah Johnson

I want to read this because it's a haunted house story by one of my favorite science fiction authors. I'm excited what she will do in a different genre. Thankfully this preorder is on its way as well!

October is nearly here! Can't you feel it in the air? I know where I lived the heatwave finally cooled enough for fall to take hold.

Here's what I'm reading this week.

Nightjars by Michael Wehunt

After a horrible first date, Luke finds a disturbing Polaroid picture of himself as a child next to a dead body. As strangers begin leaving more and more polaroids of Luke, he starts to question things about himself...Including if he could be killing people as more and more bodies start showing up.

Worry Box by Chris Panatier

A family and their foster child move into a beautiful home. But as the family grows another child larger, and the adoption grows closer, Lailah's intrusive thoughts become more and more disturbing. Under pressure, things become tense within the house hold. And the girls keep swearing there's a ghost in the house...

I'm listening to this one on audio thanks to Libro.fm ALC

Affiliate link for the audiobook: https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=25361&awinaffid=3093079&ued=https%3A%2F%2Flibro.fm%2Faudiobooks%2F9781696623452

The Cages We Endure: A Woman Trapped Anthology

I'm reading the wonderful anthology I'm featured in. This anthology features so many talented voices in horror!

Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latine Horror

A horror anthology all written by Latine Horror Authors.

Hi friends! I'm experimenting with making this more of a weekly newsletter rather than just a review roundup. Let's see how it goes!

This was yet another busy busy week for me, which means not a lot of reading got done. I spent the start of the week recombobulating myself and our lives after traveling Fri-Sun for a wedding. But didn't we look cute!

Casey in a pink and white striped dress and her spouse Mix in a blue shirt and gray tie, reflected in a mirror.

On to the book reviews! Books marked with a * were gifted to me, and books marked with a ^ I was paid to read.

More Like Enemigas by Stephanie Hope* - This was so cute. The banter and snark were top notch. I take some issue with this being categorized as romance, though, since that was basically a subplot. I kind of wish that bit had been dropped and the story just focused on Isabella trying to figure out her family's secret. I loved the complicated web of love/hate relationships between the various family members. I also loved that Isa and Valentina's queerness was not an issue at all. Can we all agree, though, that it was kind of a dick move for Isa's dad to make her piece together clues to the family secret after his death?

Broken Healer by David M. Berry^ - A memoir by an emergency room doctor about getting addicted to opioids and how Suboxone saved his life. This was such an interesting story, but could have used some editing. I find that with self-published memoirs, authors often jump between several topics and sometimes even time periods within a single paragraph, and I have to reread things a few times to make it make sense. However, this was a good look at how even if you have all the privilege in the world it can still be hard to get your life back on track due to prejudices against recovering addicts.

Like I said, not a lot of reading got done this week. But I am about halfway through The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw* and am itching to talk about it, so you can look forward to that!

One good thing: I used to have this section in my old newsletter (RIP Tinyletter) and am bringing it back. One good thing this week is that I have been looking forward to Angry Harpy Polish's collection inspired by The Locked Tomb series, and it finally dropped this week. I rarely buy a full collection, but I simply had to. (Note: the collection is currently sold out but should be restocked on Monday, aka today.)

Seven beautifully sparkly and shimmery polishes.

I think that's all I've got for this week. Here's your weekly cat photo. Onward!

Teddy and Duke cuddling. Their faces are smushed together and the tips of their tails are touching.

You GUYS!

5 days ago, I said I would love to get to 1500 preorders before launch. We were at 1260.

I just got the update last night…. What Feeds Below has 1547 preorders!

I can’t freaking believe it!

We are 9 days from launch. Do you think we can hit 2000? Is that too much of a dream? Is there such a thing as two much of a dream?

If you’ve already preordered, THANK YOU!

If you’ve been posting and reposting our stories, thank you!

Can you convince a friend to preorder this week?

I think the ebook is still on sale (but I still highly recommend a physical trophy!)

This community is so powerful and this week has been such a great one :)

Thank you a million times.