Love at First Fright: 13 (ish) Novellas for Spooky Season
With Halloween quickly approaching, sometimes you just need a short little read to set the mood for the season. As someone who loves to use novellas as palette cleansers, I wanted to compile a list of 13 novellas that are perfect for your spooky season TBR’s. From erotic horror to monster smut to slashers to sentient hotels, there’s something for everyone.
Always check the TW on all these before diving in. Your mental health matters.
Mania by Naomi Loud (98 pages)
“Nothing is impossible inside the walls of the Ambrose Hotel.”
Mania by Naomi Loud is set in a spooky hotel where everything just seems a little…off. FMC has arrived here on a whim and quickly starts noticing strange things happening around, while Mr. Ambrose, the hotel’s manager, seems to be losing time himself. It’s very unclear exactly what is happening, leading to an unpredictable story with all the spooky vibes.
What you can expect:
A Sentient Hotel
Masked MMC
Unexplained loss of time
Near death experiences
Voyeurism
Available on KU: Yes
No Way Out and No Way Back by Santana Knox (110 pages, 147 pages )
“She’s so unhinged, and I’ve never been more in love.”
This is a two for one special. No Way Out is the first novella in this set. Camila goes to the annual corn maze in BFE Ohio and quickly things take a turn when she feels like she is being stalked by the scarecrow…or is it the other way around? Chaos ensues and things go places you’d never expect. No Way Back is a new release novella that also follows Camila as she goes to a haunted prison experience. Unfortunately for them, they just let in the scariest thing there. More chaos ensues.
What you can expect:
Masked man
Ohio as a TW
A psycho killer
Lukewarm necrophilia
A playlist consisting of only The Used songs
Available on KU: Yes
Her Halloween Desires by CC Monroe (72 pages)
“God left. The devil is here now, puppet, and his name is Theo. Enjoy the wicked.”
While this follows a couple from a full length novel, I read this as a standalone before the book and I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. Her Halloween Desires follows Hanna and Theo, a married couple, as she decides to reignite their chemistry in a fun way…a sexy party.
What you can expect:
A plus size FMC
A spicy spooky party
Rekindling of a marriage
OTT possessive MMC
Available on KU: Yes
Scream For Us by Molly Doyle (81 pages)
“I’m the villain, and I want you all to myself.”
What happens when a woman is confronted by three masked men at a Halloween party? Spicy times. Quinn uses this as an opportunity to live out her wildest fantasies. This is the first novella in an interconnected series, but the spice just hits.
What you can expect:
Masked Men
Why Choose
Lots of spice
“Touch her and die”
Available on KU: Yes
No Place to Hide by Harper Ashley & Wren Hawthorne (99 pages)
“Aren’t pretty girls supposed to be scared of monsters?”
No Place to Hide is set at a traveling circus and follows a local girl and a carnie. He gives her the night of her wildest dreams. And it was only supposed to be one night, but is that enough?
What you can expect:
Primal play
Creepy circus setting
Degradation
Blood play
Available on KU: Yes
Satan’s Affair by HD Carlton (140 pages)
“He looks at me like I’m insane. That hurts my feelings.”
Satan’s Affair follows Sibby and her Henchmen, as she portrays a doll at a traveling haunted house circus, but she has one important job, to get rid of bad people. This is twisty and her relationship with her men is one of a kind.
What you can expect:
Why Choose
Lots of Murder
A certain stalker ��
A twisty wild ride'
Available on KU: Yes
Slashed by Thalia Sanchez (156 pages)
“I welcome the version of me who finds solace in the arms of a killer.”
Slashed follows Sadie who always thought she could be a final girl, so she and her friends go to a haunted house attraction. There are more twists and turns then they could even expect as she starts to find herself being stalked by one of the scare actors…or is he an actor?
What you can expect:
A haunted house attraction
Masked MMC stalker
Twisty plot
Slasher movie vibes
Available on KU: Yes
Break the Glass by Jack Whitney (64 pages)
“I am the demon your body craves, the goddess of your nightmares, the chase your mind desires.”
Break the Glass is a short and smutty story that follows the urban myth about a woman trapped in a mirror that kills people when summoned. Imagine a story where one of the Winchester Brothers decided to hook up with a demon before killing them, and you’d get this. While it’s very short, the spice is perfect and it’s a great little spooky season read.
What you can expect:
Demon Hunter x Demon
Spicy Shadows
Plus size rep
Supernatural vibes
Available on KU: Yes
Mourning Wings by Nouha Jullienne (139 pages)
“Every waking moment is consumed by a singular purpose: revenge.”
This novella is a newer release and I was an ARC reader for it. I was obsessed with this sapphic romance and how it had a general err that something was off, but you couldn’t quite figure it out. It follows Valeria as she’s investigating what happened to her first love Camila, and ends up looking into a prominent family with some dark secrets.
What you can expect:
A secret society
Sapphic romance
A scary version of hide and seek
Mysterious family
A masked FMC
Available on KU: Yes
A La Folie by Nova Kane (124 pages)
“Lux is the incarnation of my haunting nightmare, and I never want to wake up.”
A La Folie follows Indie as she goes to a pop up circus in town, meant to allow you to play out your darkest desires. Indie is instantly enthralled with Lux, the ringleader, who is the epitome of morally grey. So Indie gives into her darkest desires…which is him.
What you can expect:
Masked MMC
Little Ketchup Packet
Morally grey characters
Blood and knife play
Available on KU: Yes
The Nightmare King by Kat Blackthorne (100 pages)
“Fall asleep and wait for me.”
The Nightmare King follows Lucy who wants nothing more than to be able to go to sleep, where she can meet the mystery man that finds her in her nightmares. Her dreams take many forms but nothing could separate her from him.
What you can expect:
Trauma
Slasher movie vibes
Nightmares
Masked man
Available on KU: Yes
The Dare by Harley LaRoux (109 pages)
“You wanted a dance with the devil, Jess. Well, now you have four.”
The Dare follows a popular girl Jessica as she ends up at a Halloween party with none other than the man she bullied, Manson Reed. She lost a game and now she has to play servant to Manson that gets her it into some interesting situations. This is a prequel novella to the Losers Duet.
What you can expect:
Degradation and Humiliation
Clowns
BDSM
Edging
Available on KU: No
Hollow by CM Nacosta (134 pages)
“Ichabod Crane was no stranger to the sound of a sloppy blow job.”
This one contains another two for one special as there are two separate stories. One is a MMM romance set in modern Sleepy Hollow, with a school headmaster and two members of the polo team. The other is a historical MF canonically adjacent retelling, following Karina Van Tassel, who has a terrible gift of seeing spirits and finds herself particularly interested in one of them.
What you can expect:
Lots of spice
Voyeurism
Headless men (yes, multiple)
Undead pining
Available on KU: Yes
If you have a favorite novella, please drop it in the comments!