Keep in mind these releases below are only the ones that caught my eye/interest! There are plenty more but perhaps didn’t stand out or for one reason or another or they aren’t for me at this time.
The Blue Moon Café & 24-Hour Occult Emporium by Lexie Sharabianlou
debut – queer – cozy
Publisher Summary:
A magical witness protection program, a town in need of saving, and a sorceress-in-training . . . oh, and the human woman she’s not supposed to fall for. The Blue Moon Café has a little bit of everything (except, you know, decent coffee).
In the tiny town of Pine Hollow, barista and fledging sorceress Talula Smith runs The Blue Moon Café & 24-Hour Occult Emporium, aka the worst coffee shop in town. The café’s horrible reputation hides its true purpose: providing new identities and safe passage to at-risk magical beings while keeping humans far, far away. That is, except for town local Dahlia. Dahlia’s devastating dimples, addiction to Talula’s cocoa recipe, and keen observation skills keeps the smitten barista scrambling to ensure that her magical abilities (or, lack thereof) stay a secret.
But when big game hunters start preying on magical beings, her powerful sorceress mother is called away to track them down, leaving Talula and her barely-there magic in charge of The Blue Moon. With the impending Samhain festival to organize, magical refugees to help, half of the town turning against her, and her ever-growing feelings for Dahlia, Talula’s magical destiny feels further away than ever. But as the hunters set their sights closer to home, it’ll be up to Talula to master her craft, trust her heart, and bring her magical and human communities together . . . before she loses everything she loves.
About the Author (per Edelweiss):
Lexie Sharabianlou earned her Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh. She has sold cupcakes, taught high school English Lit, and written audio tours for zoos. By day, she’s a copywriter for a makeup company (yes, she gets to name the makeup). By night, she writes stories about magic, food, and falling in love. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tell your dog she says hi. The Blue Moon Café & 24-Hour Occult Emporium is her debut novel.”
Website: lexieshar.com
Bluesky: @lexieshar.bsky.social
Publisher Note: We were so won over by Blue Moon and Sharabianlou’s lovable characters, exquisite world-building, and delightful fall vibes that we scooped up her second seasonal cozy fantasy romance, to come in September 2027.
COMPS:
Spells, Strings, and Forgotten Things
Randall, Breanne
The Honey Witch
Shields, Sydney J.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Mandanna, Sangu
My thoughts: Doesn’t that sound nice? And in this time where the synopsis is happening in real life, I need a cosy something to hold onto hope that things will get better, people are fighting back…
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The Halls of the Dead by S. M. Hallow
debut – queer – gothic
Publisher Summary:
A queer, gothic horror romance set in a necromancy-tinged London, sure to entrance fans of The Death of Jane Lawrence and Mexican Gothic.
London, December 1849
Irene Shallcross Haley has dedicated her life to necromancy, a forbidden, reviled art that is passed along through sentient grimoires bound in human skin. With her undead husband St. John—a marriage of kindred spirits and platonic convenience—she has been protecting the knowledge of generations of witches that came before her. Like any magic, it has come at a cost: her reputation, her relationship with her sister, and her soul. But when Irene’s love, Agnes, is hanged for witchcraft, Irene refuses to let Agnes be one more thing that is taken from her.
A true resurrection has not been achieved in two thousand years, but Irene is determined. With the help of St. John, Irene bangs on the doors of the Halls of the Dead, demanding the third part of their triumverate back…or did she? Because the Agnes that awakens comes with both a hunger for raw flesh and a malignant ghost tied to her soul.
Necromancy is the art of saying no—no, I won’t let you go; no, I won’t let you be destroyed—and Irene’s work is not yet done. She must find a way to bring Agnes back to her true self, she must navigate her feelings for her resurrected lover as well as St. John, and she must do all of this without catching the attention of Sir Silas Underhill, the man who sentenced Agnes to death.
Death is not the end of love. But Irene may realize it can actually be the beginning.
About the Author:
S. M. Hallow’s short story “How to Stay Married to Baba Yaga” was included in the Locus 2023 Recommended Reading List and anthologized in The Year’s Best Fantasy Volume 3, edited by Paula Guran. Other short work can be found in Baffling Magazine, Seize the Press, Taco Bell Quarterly, and We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2023. Her novella, How to Survive This Fairytale, was published in January 2025 and received a special edition in Rainbow Crate, a book box exclusively for queer books. The Halls of the Dead is Hallow’s debut full-length work.
COMPS:
House of the Beast
Wong, Michelle
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride
Chokshi, Roshani
House of Hunger
Henderson, Alexis
Juniper & Thorn
Reid, Ava
Mexican Gothic
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia
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