This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is the seasonal TBR, and aaah, there are so many choices! But there are a few books that I know are coming out which go straight to the head of the pile, for a start… and some books I’ve started that I want to finish, as well as books I got for my birthday. Let’s see!

1. After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine, vol 4, by Liu Gou Hua.
   I loved the first three volumes deeply, and I can’t wait for this one, coming out in early November. The happy ending seems assured, but I wonder what it’s going to look like exactly — and whether anything happens with Jiang Suizhou transmigrating back again…
2. Mistakenly Saving the Villain, vol 4, by Feng Yu Nie.
   I have no idea how this one is going to wrap up, and I’m very curious. Yue Wuhuan is, to put it it lightly, really not the sanest kind of person, and Song Qingshi seems set to enable him forever. If I recall rightly, this is coming out in October.
3. The Nightmare Before Kissmas, by Sara Raasch.
   I’ve been curious about Raasch’s work for a while, though not sure if it’d be my thing. Luckily, this one’s on Kobo Plus, so I can give it a shot with very little commitment. Given one of the characters is the Prince of Halloween, I’m gonna count it as a spooky season read, though I think it might lean more to the Christmas end.
4. The Toll, by Cherie Priest.
   Once upon a time, I had this to review on Netgalley. I never got round to it, but it seems like now’s the time to unearth it, to join the other creepy books I’ll be reading to theme with the Haunted Shelf readathon (signup info here).
5. Certain Dark Things, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
   This is another one I’ve had around for a long time that seems worth unearthing for the occasion! I really really wanted to read it at the time, and I’ve generally enjoyed Moreno-Garcia’s work; I’m not sure why it’s never risen to the top of my TBR before.
6. The Library After Dark, by Ande Pliego.
   This is a book I got for my birthday that seems to suit the season somewhat as well, though it’s more thriller than horror. I couldn’t help but be attracted by the promise of a story revolving around books, though… often books don’t live up to that promise, sadly.
7. A Trade of Blood, by Robert Jackson Bennett.
   I can’t believe I haven’t already got round to this one! I lost access to the Netgalley version through taking too long, because life got busy for a minute. I enjoy the series a lot, so I’m looking forward to it.
8. Kiss Slay Replay, by Rachel Harrison.
   I enjoyed one of Harrison’s other books (Cackle), so I got myself a couple more, including this one, for my spooky season TBR. It sounds from other people’s reviews like it’s pretty fun, so I’m looking forward to giving it a proper shot.
9. Harbour of Hungry Ghosts, by Eliza Chan.
   Somehow I’d forgotten about this one for a couple of weeks there (I think it didn’t get into my list properly), but I did receive a copy to review, so it’s high on my list of books to read now! It’s not strictly the Western tradition of ghosts, but I think it should work well enough with the theme I’m mostly leaning into with these.
10. Our Cut of Salt, by Deena Helm.
    This one sounds really fascinating, with a haunted house in Haifa that hasn’t been visited by the family since the Nakba… it also sounds like it’s likely to be pretty heavy, given the givens, but I’m hoping that it uses that to give plenty of weight to the horror as well. I’m a wuss, though, so hopefully it won’t be too scary!

Whether I’ll actually stick to this or not is always quite the question… but we’ll see!