Taylor Fenner's Blog

This week I’m linking up to WWW Wednesday hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words!

WWW Wednesday was created by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and was taken over by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. To participate answer the 3 W’s:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m deep in the spooky season now…

I started listening to this audiobook over the weekend and I’m enjoying it so far.

I could not put this one down! I attempted this author’s early work and wasn’t a fan but this one grabbed me from the start, leaving me in breathless anticipation of what was to come!

October pick for Kendall’s Kooky and Spooky Book Club. I devoured it in two days! Must read for those that love eerie forest horror!

Another fantastic spooky season read set in a fictional Wisconsin town in the early 2000s. This author is so great at writing nostalgia that brings you back in time!

I think this might be my next audiobook pick. Rachel Harrison is one of my auto-buy authors. I’m so jealous that one of my sisters got to meet her at Parnassus books in Nashville recently!

What are you reading and loving this week? Have you read any of these?

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released.

Dark Romance

eBook, Paperback, audiobook, 272 Pages

November 11, 2025 by Simon Maverick

This is not just a book. It’s an invitation. A contract sealed the moment you turn the page. If you choose to read, you choose to be seen. If you choose to follow him, he will hunt you. This story does not end when you close the book…

Cade Halloway was raised by the Order of the Covenant—a cult built on blood, sacrifice, and power. For years, he was their weapon. Until he discovered the truth.. his sister is their next offering. Cade is a hunter.. he tracks and eliminates the powerful and corrupt. A predator disguised as a savior, but he’s not here to save the innocent. He’s here to rip apart the monsters who hide in plain sight.

But something is watching him. An unseen force, a presence he can’t explain. A ghost in his world that he can’t see, can’t touch, can’t kill. A presence he can’t control… and the only thing he doesn’t want to lose.

You.

Are you sure you want to be haunted?

This sounds like a super interesting take. A dark romance where the anti-hero’s obsession is the reader? One of my book friends found this one and we’re both excited to read it!

Will you be checking this book out? What upcoming releases are you looking forward to?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and The Bookish and currently hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.

This was last week’s prompt but I fumbled posting last week and don’t vibe with this week’s TTT prompt.

Did you do this week’s prompt: Satisfying Book Series? What series did you pick? I think for me, it’s hard to find one series that each book hits it out of the park, especially long series. I feel like some books slump, especially in the middle of the series.

Adult, Urban Fantasy, Thriller, Folk Horror

eBook, Paperback, Audiobook, 380 pages

October 6, 2025 by Cabins Press LLC

“Doctor Sleep” meets “Sharp Objects” in this fast-paced Appalachian dark fantasy about a series of mysterious disappearances that lead to a small, isolated town in West Virginia.

Nellie, a 23-year-old college dropout, is scrambling to rebuild her life two years after her boyfriend went missing. Now at a standstill, she’s preparing to move back in with her mother, a prospect that fills her with dread. When two strangers approach her, claiming their sister vanished under similar circumstances, Nellie grasps a last connection to the love she once knew and a chance to find answers. She joins their search, following a fragile trail of clues into the heart of the Appalachian wilderness.

The further these desperate allies venture, the more the lines between reality and the unexplainable blur. The same shadows that stalked those before them now track their every step. The woods are hungry, and this time, Nellie could be next.

As they become entangled in generations of buried small-town secrets, Nellie questions whether they are closing in on the truth or being lured deeper into the dark.

Just in time for the spooky season, Into the Dark, We Go is the perfect read for those who love stories with atmospheric settings, strangers who take a trip to unravel a mystery, and supernatural elements.

Two years before the start of the story Nellie’s boyfriend vanished without a trace after a college football game. After being betrayed by her best friend, investigated by the police, and had her life turned upside down by the media, Nellie has dropped out of college, working two jobs to stay afloat while resisting her mother’s demands that she move home from Minneapolis to Cleveland, and just trying to stay under the radar when a brother and sister show up at the coffee shop where she works telling her their sister disappeared under mysterious circumstances similar to those that Nellie’s boyfriend did – in the same small West Virginia town where her boyfriend grew up. Together with the son of a psychic who also had ties to the town and who died there under mysterious circumstances Nellie agrees to accompany the siblings to her boyfriend’s small Appalachia town – a town founded by witches who massacred themselves not long after the town’s founding. 

When the quartet arrive in Black Water, West Virginia they can tell something is off. The locals are guarded and wary as they begin asking questions about their missing loved ones and the local sheriff wants nothing more than to drive them out of town. Sensing they’re onto something the group continues to dig – but they might have unearthed more than they bargained for as legends of witches, the occult, missing persons, and strange things in the woods lead them down a darker path – and if they’re not careful, one of them could end up being the next one staring back from a missing poster. 

I really enjoyed this book! It grabbed me right from the beginning as we alternate back and forth between events leading up to Lucas’s disappearance to Nellie’s journey to get answers. Black Water is eerie and atmospheric, its people eclectic and closed off. The characters are each beautifully flawed and you can feel the tension of strangers thrown together in close quarters for a common goal simmering right off the page. 

I found this to be a fast read – I finished it in a weekend. Some of the forest scenes reminded me of the Blair Witch Project which I loved and for some reason the road trip element gave me Supernatural vibes which made the experience even more enjoyable. 

I did feel the resolution wrapped itself up a little quickly but overall I really liked this book and would definitely read more by this author! 

4.5 of 5 Knives (Rounded Up)

Get your copy here.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

Hey Book Blogger Friends! How was your week?

Monday was my only day off work this week so I decided to cheer myself up with some book shopping and I definitely scored.

It’s also homecoming week at the high school which means teens have been out toilet papering… luckily we only got one call during my shift at the PD with someone annoyed about it.

My schedule is finally going back to normal with the end of the month this week and I’m so glad. I’m going to enjoy the next two days off just resting. I want to be more active and doing fun fall stuff but I’m just exhausted.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 22 September 2025

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Fall 2025 to-Read List

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Secret Haven

First Line Friday: 26 September 2025

Stacking the Shelves: 27 September 2025

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 29 September 2025

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Covers that Give off Fall Vibes

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Haunting the Hunter

Series Review: Aurora Teagarden Mysteries by Charlaine Harris

First Line Friday: 3 October 2025

Stacking the Shelves: 4 October 2025

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Reality. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual.

This week I went book shopping as a pick me up. It’s been a while since I took my time and explored Barnes and Noble and I added 4 books to my shelves and 2 audiobooks plus an audiobook I’d preordered released this week.

I saw someone on Bookstagram saying this was a really creepy read and decided to give it a try.

I’ve been catching up on this series and when I saw my local Barnes and Noble still had the deluxe editions I picked up the ones I didn’t have physical copies of yet.

I preordered this one a few months back and I can’t wait to see how this duology wraps up.

I looked at this one at Barnes and Noble and decided to get the audiobook since I had audible credits instead of buying the hardcover.

This was another book I picked up in audiobook to keep my book buying budget in check instead of buying the hardcover.

What books did you add to your shelves this week?

This week I’m joining First Line Friday. First Line Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Carrie @ Reading is My Superpower! So grab the book nearest you, your current read, or the book on top of your TBR stack and share the first line.

My pick this week is…

A woman discovers that not all monsters are her enemy—the opposite, in fact—in this new paranormal romance by Lana Ferguson, author of The Fake Mate.

Keyanna “Key” MacKay is used to secrets. Raised by a single father who never divulged his past, it’s only after his death that she finds herself thrust into the world he’d always refused to speak of. With just a childhood bedtime story about a monster that saved her father’s life and the name of her estranged grandmother to go off of, Key has no idea what she’ll find in Scotland. But repeating her father’s mistakes and being rescued by a gorgeous, angry Scotsman—who thinks she’s an idiot—is definitely the last thing she expects.

Lachlan Greer has his own secrets to keep, especially from the bonnie lass he pulls to safety from the slippery shore—a lass with captivating eyes and the last name he’s been taught not to trust. He’s looking for answers as well, and Key’s presence on the grounds they both now occupy presents a real problem. It’s even more troublesome when he gets a front row seat to the lukewarm welcome Key receives from her family; the strange powers she begins to develop; and the fierce determination she brings to every obstacle in her path. Things he shouldn’t care about, and someone he definitely doesn’t find wildly attractive.

When their secrets collide, it becomes clear that Lachlan could hold the answers Keyanna is after—and that she might also be the key to uncovering his. Up against time, mystery, and a centuries old curse, they’ll quickly discover that magic might not only be in fairy tales, and that love can be a real loch-mess.

And the first line is…

I never imagined that my death would come by way of a sheep avalanche, but as I watch the tumbling mass of floof barreling down the hill toward the stretch of road I am currently stalled on—it occurs to me that it would at least be a memorable way to go.

That definitely paints the picture to set the tone of this book.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released.

Romantic Suspense, Sparrow Falls Book 6

eBook, Paperback, audiobook, 494 Pages

October 21, 2025 by The PageSmith LLC

The first time I met Kyler Blackwood, he was a bruised and battered boy with fire in his eyes and nowhere safe to land.

Since the first time he kissed me, he was my best-kept secret, my quiet rebellion, my haven in the storm.

But fate forced us apart, making us pretend to be strangers because it hurt too much to be anything else.

Years later, time hasn’t dulled what we felt, has never erased the way we fit. And when Kye’s past collides with my present, everything shifts.

It’s a choice neither of us expected.
A bond that never really broke.
A line we were never meant to cross.

We tell ourselves it’s only temporary, that the arrangement is just a means to an end. But with each passing day, the lie feels more like the truth. And with each stolen touch, Kye feels more like mine. Because some things were never meant to be pretend.

And some dangers are closer than we ever imagined…

I feel like I’ve been waiting on this book since the beginning of the series when I picked up on the vibes and I’m so excited it’s finally almost here!

Will you be checking this book out? What upcoming releases are you looking forward to?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and The Bookish and currently hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.

Happy Fall! This week’s TTT is all about books on our Fall 2025 TBR. Here are mine…

What books are on your fall 2025 TBR? Did any of mine make your list? For the ones that are already released, have you read any of these?

This week I’m linking up to It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? Hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date!

#IMWAYR is a weekly meme started on J Kaye’s blog and now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

I’ve been binging a cozy mystery series lately, I just read a really fun paranormal romance, and I’m getting into all my spooky season reads…

I saw this one on Etsy and decided to check it out because I’m definitely in the mood for a fall read. I enjoyed it, although I think the miscommunication trope (which is not a favorite of mine to begin with) could have been avoided and the FMC kind of brought the fallout on herself. Totally avoidable. I would read more by this author though.

To be honest, the movie adaptation of this one is my least favorite of the movies – I usually skip it – and I felt the same way about the book. I keep feeling like the movies are way better but I’m more than halfway through the series and I plan to see it through.

Another installment that was just okay for me.

This was my favorite read from last week. I loved it from start to finish!

I’m almost finished with this one. I like it better than the previous two. It would make sense that this main character (the book version, not the movie version) would belong to a club called the “Uppity Women Book Club”

I borrowed this one from KU a while back and I’ve been waiting for the spooky season to read it!

What are you reading and loving this week? Have you read any of these?