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If you have been waiting for the bright sun of spring to brighten your day before diving into dark and creepy stories, then Happy Spring reading! Here are three books to get your horror reading started this season.
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Maria, The Wanted by V. Castro
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| February 2026; Titan Books; 978-1803366722 audio, ebook, print (352 pages); horror |
Maria is wanted by an Aztec trafficker, a cartel boss, the people she fights for and a devil she can't resist. Forced to leave her family, Maria travels across Mexico and becomes an unlikely enforcer of justice. An encounter with a violent vampire boss leads her to her creator, as well as ancient vampires and a deadly conspiracy. She now must fight for her survival as well as the survival of mankind.
In the beginning, Maria is a factory worker, and vampires randomly arrive to decimate the night shift; it's sheer chance that the vampire with them that was directed at her was disinterested in slaughter and turned her instead. It's a learning curve on her own, which takes up the first part of the book. She finds purpose in community, protecting those unable to fight off gang bangers or traffickers. The second half of the book involves a wider group of vampires that live scattered around the world. Some help humanity when they can, and live behind the scenes. Some are front and center, with various identities. The wider conspiracy is that of an apocalypse, with biblical connotation. It could be the end of the world if she allows it to happen.
Tonally, the two halves are very different. I enjoyed the vigilante vampire half much better than the biblical apocalypse half. It felt more grounded, and resonates with Maria's character more for me. As one of the downtrodden that vampires were ready to abuse, of course, she'd help those in need and find friends and community. I liked that message a lot. The second half is one that insists that, for all its faults and potential greed in individuals, humanity at large is worth saving. Another great message, just not presented in a way that I expected from the story.
Buy Maria, The Wanted at Amazon
Learning to Bleed by Cat Rector
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| March 2026; Indie; 978-1738304851 ebook, print (370 pages); horror |
Laurel and Spencer left Penny Harbor, and he promised to teach her how to control her new vampiric hunger. She can return when she's not a danger to humans, and his centuries of control should help. Instead, she keeps draining people and leaving corpses behind. This is because of her overwhelm in big cities, her queer reckoning and monstrous urges. How will she possibly be able to move on?
This is book two of the Vampires of Coal Dust series, following Coal Gets in Your Veins. Laurel begins this one grieving her old life; as much as it's not meant to be a permanent leavetaking, it feels that way. She has a hard time adjusting to being a vampire, making a mess of it. Coming from a small town, she isn't comfortable in big cities to start with, but with her insatiable hunger making her feral, it's literally a messy undertaking. In addition, she is coming to the conclusion that she's not straight, which is another layer of overwhelm. Spencer loves her and is doing his best to help her learn how to keep her impulses under control, but he doesn't know how to do it. They're both also dealing with the fallout of her prior abusive relationship, meaning Laurel can't trust Spencer truly loves her and doesn't feel comfortable letting anyone know when she feels out of control.
The coal monster from the first book had taken over the residents of Penny Harbor, and is still a presence within this book. We have snippets of lives in the town, which are not quite as miserable as they had been in the first one. Laurel and Spencer have to navigate the frustration of her poor self control, the lack of trust, and the worry that her presence isn't enough to make up for the losses that Spencer suffered over his vampiric lifetime. It's a lot of emotions to deal with, and Laurel's usual way to deal with trouble is to avoid it entirely. It allowed her to deal with her abusive husband, but now that she's in a safer place, that coping tactic widens a gulf between them. There are additional reasons for her silence that we discover in the final third, and we learn about a wider network of vampires and hunters that take out ferals. There's a detente of sorts at the end, which sets up the next story in the series.
Buy Learning to Bleed at Amazon
The Fortune Tellers of Rue Daru by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore
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| March 2026; Berkley; 978-0593952689 audio, ebook, print (416 pages); gothic horror |
Zina and her grandmother, Baba Valya, own a tearoom on rue Daru in Paris. Since Zina’s mother’s untimely death, they serve tea by day and perform séances for the Russian émigré community by night. Princess Olga and her brother soon arrive, searching for their father, the exiled Grand Duke, cousin of the last Tsar of Russia. Zina summons the Grand Duke, but he starts to haunt the shop, and he has information about her mother’s death. Zina delves into her family’s past, revealing secrets that threaten the lives Zina and her grandmother have worked so hard to build.
Zina had been kept in the dark about most of her family history. Her mother had died, but she didn't know the details about it, only rumors. It's a close-knit community, and the arrival of royals increased the whispers. The spiritual world is real, and Zina's natural talent at it was suppressed due the dangers inherent in letting the spirit wander during a séance. Olga insists on them, wanting to connect with her father and an inheritance to fuel a bid to be recognized as the Romanov heiress. She also knew Zina's mother, and between that and the ghost in the teashop, Zina tries to find out what happened to her mother and if the rumors about her were true. It sends her deeper into the police investigation, as well as the spiritual community to learn how to conduct a proper séance without losing control.
This book mixes invented characters alongside real ones from 1920's Paris. Russian émigrés converged on the city, and there had been a real Lenormand doing fortune-telling. If you've heard of Lenormand cards, that's her. The time period was heavy with spiritualism and the occult, but the heart of this story is family legacy and greed. The Grand Duke was obsessed with Zina's mother, Olga was obsessed with the legacy, and everyone held tightly onto the past. There's the truth about Svetlana and the Grand Duke revealed, and Zina had to grow up a little more. Her affinity to the occult is real and not something to hide from, and neither is the family history of life and loss. The Lenormand women in the book are strong and have survived much, making for a compelling story.
Buy The Fortune Tellers of Rue Daru at Amazon
Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and a golden retriever.
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