A Halloween Give Away!
With Halloween coming up this Friday, it felt only appropriate to have a give away of The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, my very first Halloween book.
In fact, it’s going to be Halloween week here on the website!
On Tuesday, we’ll have some fun facts about Halloween (or the lack of it) in the early nineteenth century.
On Wednesday, I’ll be reviving my favorite archived post about Halloween costumes.
On Thursday, we have another wonderful Pink Carnation Cookery installment from Christine. In honor of The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla: vampire cookies!
And on Friday, I’ll announce our winner!
Now, back to our contest! For the chance to win a copy of The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, here’s your question:
What’s your favorite Halloween reading?
One person will be chosen at random to receive a copy of The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla. The winner will be announced on Halloween….
Mist Over Pendle by Robert Neill…..it’s about the Pendle witch trials, and manages to mix romance, humour, mystery & murder into one brilliantly satisfying read. I re read this every October.
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Oooh, I’d never heard of it. Definitely adding it to my Halloween list.
Paula Brackston’s “The Witch’s Daughter” and Katherine Howe’s “The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane” are two of my favorite Halloween reads. Anne Rice’s “The Mummy or Ramses the Damned” is an all-time favorite that I read anytime of the year, but try to time out to be around Halloween. Would love to win a copy of “Midnight Manzanilla” for this year’s spooky read!
My favorite October reads are the books by Carrie Ryan, starting with “The Forest Of Hands and Teeth” The title is beyond creepy and the book is full of zombies, intrigue, zombies, trees, super strong zombies, survival, and more zombies! Excellent books!
it’s not romance, but Harry Potter (any of them) are favorite reads around Halloween. “There’s a troll in the dungeon!”
The ending of A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES by Deb Harkness. It takes place at Samhain/Halloween and it’s one of my favorite books.
I love reading some Edgar Allen Poe on Halloween – particularly The Tell Tale Heart or Masque of the Red Death!!
“An Inquiry Into Love and Death” by Simone St. James is perfect for Halloween! Currently reading Dracula for the first time and loving it!
I read Poe’s The Raven every year for Halloween. I usually read Katherine Howe’s The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, but this year I read Howe’s new book “Witches”. Both books are excellent!
Anything by Simone St. James is perfect for Halloween reading!
Anything Edgar Allen Poe or Stephen King. Can’t go wrong with a King horror story for Halloween! Sets the scary mood 🙂
Dracula! I love this old story so much!
I just finished a novel called the vanishing. It’s about a psychic, a haunted house, and the ghosts that live there.
“A Discovery of Witches” by Deborah Harkness is a great Halloween read. I just finished re-reading it yesterday. I never can make a book last more than a couple days!
I definitely love reading Harry Potter around Halloween, especially the Sorcerer’s Stone!
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan is a thrilling zombie series.
I always read The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe or Robert Lewis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe – and b.c Northanger Abbey satirises it.
Dracula definetly the count himself. I’m already making a date with him on Friday night.
The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons – good creepy fun =)
I’ve always loved a good witch story…going back The Witch Of Blackbird Pond. I also try to read The Crucible every year or so, and Halloween is a good time to do it. For a creepy read in a different mode, try The High Flyer by Susan Howatch. Great paranormal from a different point of view.
I don’t normally read scary stories now but I used to read goosebumps…. say cheese and die is pretty freaky!
The Spooky Old Tree by Stan and Jan Berenstain. 😉 Would really appreciate a “grown-up” Halloween book… 😉
I always try to read Turn of the Screw by Henry James around Halloween. It took me three times to read it before I finally started to appreciate how frightening it is. I read somewhere that someone has written an “modern” version of it, so I’ll have to try to get my hands on that. Also love Stir of Echos by Matheson. For short stories- you can’t beat “The Two Sams” by Glen Hirshberg.
I love to reread Dracula! This year I am reading Deborah Harkness’s All Souls Trilogy which I love!
Anything by Simone St. James! Right now I’m reading The Vanishing by Wendy Webb. It’s set in a large, haunted manor on a remote island. So far, it’s good.
I have so many! Favorite fantasy fiction is Poison Study
By Maria V. Snyder – Historical fiction Pink Carnation’s Blood Lily – YA Fantasy anything by Tamora Pierce or Rick Riordan
– and countless others – all of my books are my favorite!
Oh anything by Simone St:James! 🙂
Anything by Edgar Allen Poe is great for Halloween. “The Raven” always gives me a chill!
I enjoy Stokers “Dracula” and Shellys “Frankenstein.”
Its not fiction but it reminds me of Halloween: The Bewitching of Anne Gunter: A Horrible and True Story of Deception, Witchcraft, Murder, and the King of England by James Sharpe. An excellent read!
I have to admit, I’m not much of a “Halloween” reader. I have a very active “suggested” imagination… so basically, in my dreams, I am readily available to relive a book. The fricking Cask of Amontiado had me in nightmares for weeks!!
Of course, I’m thinking yours wouldn’t do that to me…
I just read and loved The Fall by Bethany Griffin which is a Poe retelling. Perfect creepy Halloween read. Though I agree with the poster above who suggested Harry Potter!
The Legend of Sleepy Hallow
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
“The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic” by Emily Croy Barker. Not a “scary” book but very fun and imaginative. Filled with magic, witches, wizards, and a dark fairy tale-like world.
The Shining by Stephen King!
Always Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It’s my favorite of the books and I always love rediscovering the world of magic with Harry.
Oooh… so many! Top ones that come to mind in past years; poison study series by Maria V. Snyder, Witches trilogy by Deborah Harkness and any HP.
I enjoy a good Gothic thriller any time of year, but for Halloween I would go back to Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt. It’s the first one I ever read and it’s still my favorite!
Rebecca!
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Since I live very, very near the little town, I make it a point to read the story about my local area every year 🙂
Can’t say I have a Halloween read. Maybe the Midnight Manzanilla will become it!
Edgar Allan Poe is my favorite creepy read! I do plan to add Simone St. James to my TBR list thanks to this site! And Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla of course!!
Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday, so I have lots of favorite Halloween readings — top of the list, though, is The Witching Hour by Anne Rice :).
I’m with you on the The Witching Hour – such a good book!!! I actually made my old book club read it for Halloween one year and everyone throughly enjoyed it!
I love Karina Halle, so I’m reading The Devils Metal. Her Experiment in Terror series is also good, which is about a ghost hunting crew
Poe (the black cat is my favorite) is usually my go-to for halloween but I just finished Rebecca by daphne de maurier & it was pretty spooky!
I’m not good at Haloween, because I really don’t like anything ghostly or scary. So I read an happy, daylight book such as a Mary Stewart: Madam, WillYou Talk? has lots of French hot sunshine!
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova…great novel and a different twist on Dracula.
A dark and broody Duke who lives in a somewhat haunted house. Can’t remember the name or author, I think it was in Cornwall, though.
My favorite is “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes
Mrs. Poe By Lynn Cullen
The Discovery of Witches trlilogy or Harry Potter
I’ve never had a Halloween must read before. It occurred to me last week, though, that it would be fun to reread Midnight Manzanilla about this time. Sounds like the start of a new tradition!
I’ve never read scary books.
Creepy Stories to Tell in the Dark
I’m not fan of anything too scary, but I try and read a few new Poe stories every year.
Deb Harkness books. “The Woman In Black”
Dracula and Harry Potter are at the top of my list for nostalgic and creepy Halloween reading!
My favorites are:
-Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough, one of the scariest, most atmospheric books I’ve ever read, and its sequel The Mark of Cain.
-Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan, the perfect modern Gothic English setting with amazing characters, magic, crumbling houses, and creepy goings on.
-Harry Potter of course.
I’m happy Manzanilla is a Halloween book! 🙂
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving.
Harry Potter
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.
In adding another vote for Katherine Howe’s “The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane.” This was crazy good and creepy! I highly recommend it.
i like to read the Harry Potter books.
Any of the Harry Potter books or the legend of sleepy hollow
Harry Potter! Rebecca is excellent too
Harry potter series!!!!
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Witches, vampires, demons, and ghosts…sounds like Halloween to me!
Frankenstein, Harry Potter, or anything by Poe.
I recently read The Dead Travel Fast by Deanna Raybourn and enjoyed it. Reminds me of the gothic stories I read in my teens and twenties!
Mine are The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie.
Anne Rice’s The witching Hour or Lestat.
Last year I read Dracula and Deanna Raybourn’s The Dead Travel Fast – loved them both.
This year due to recommendations here, I’ve read The Woman in Black, and two Simone St. James books – The Haunting of Maddy Clare and An Inquiry Into Love and Death – highly recommend all.
Since I have an autographed copy of Manzanilla thar I ordered from Word, don’t include me in the drawing.
Every year I start Harry Potter before Halloween and finish it before Christmas. I do have to say that I really enjoyed both the Physik Book of Deliverance Dane and The Witch’s Daughter. I saw lots of votes for those.
And I, too, started out with the Goosebumps series as a kid.
“The Historian” and some Harry Potter!
The Shining
We don’t do Halloween in Australia, but this year I am trying to get into the spirit as much as possible from this far away. My favourite is Bram Stoker. I have read Dracula and The Lady Of The Shroud so many times I have lost count. Recently I got my hands on a reprint of his Best Ghost And Horror Stories from Amazon. It has my favourite of his short stories from when I was at school, The Judge’s House, and many I haven’t read before. So on Friday night I will be scaring the hell out of myself reading the story again for the first time in several decades and watching my favourite ghost movie, The Uninvited, on DVD. I am really looking forward to it and will be thinking of you all celebrating a proper Halloween. Happy Halloween to you all!
Little Witch, by Anna Elizabeth Bennett. It’s a children’s book that my younger daughter fortunately loves as much as I do. And Too Many Pumpkins–a fabulous picture book for little ones.
Not many Halloween traditions in Australai – but if I want a spooky read I tend to reach for a Victoria Holt novel. My favourite is probably The Shivering Sands, for the way the suspense builds slowly by surely.
I love The Shivering Sands. Way back in the 70s it was one of the first “grown up” books I read and I saved my 50c a week pocket money for about a month to buy it. If only books were still $1-99!!
I agree with the others who mentioned Harry Potter books. However, I haven’t read M.M. yet…it may be my new favorite around Halloween!
Any book by Stephen King or my new favorite scary author Wendy Webb!
I would have to say that my favorite Halloween book is Frankenstein, but it isn’t what I usually read around this time. Usually around October, I start reading any book that is in a long series with a Christmas installment, like the Pink Carnation series, or Julia Quinn’s books. Sometimes others as well.
So I guess mine depends on what type of answer from the above you are looking for. This year, I am actually reading Dead Witch Walking, which thematically doesn’t fit with my Christmas oriented ones, but does fit Halloween.
MMmmmmmm, a good question. I’ve read a few over the years and I’m really sure. Perhaps ‘Picture of Dorian Grey’ and ‘Interview with a Vampire’. I do highly enjoy ‘The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla’. 😉
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is my first response. After I think about it for a while, The Tell-Tale Heart is an even better read for the spooky night.
Two favorites from my childhood- The Little Leftover Witch by Florence Laughlin and Little Witch by Anna Bennett. I have a very vivid memory of refinding the Leftover Witch at a used bookstore in Amherst some years ago and reading it while walking down Main Street because I couldn’t wait to get home.
Poe is a Halloween master, but I also enjoy Laurell Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry series of faeries and things that go bump in the night.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is my favorite Halloween read.
I love to read the Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie at Halloween time. Also, I recently read The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, which was very creepy!
I usually love to read either The Fall of the House of Usher or Rebecca at this time of year. Right now I’m reading The Dead Travel Fast by Deanna Raybourn.
As much as I love Halloween I’ve never been one for creepy stories but I always enjoy ones jammed packed with magic so the Harry Potter series or anything by Diane Wynn Jones are my picks!
Katharine Ashe’s Captive Bride!
Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie!
It’s hard to pick one but I do love Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla
A Season of Passage by Christopher Pike, truly petrifying book!
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow! Read and listened to it for the first time this October and fell in love (it also helped that Tim Mison, who plays Ichabod on the FOX show of the same name, was the narrator. He’s wonderful.)
Happy Halloween, Lauren!
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. I also like to read The Raven and The Fall of the House of Usher by Poe.
Right now, my favorite Halloween read is “Biscuit’s Pet and Play Halloween.” 🙂
I’m always looking for something just right. Fall is my favorite season. There isn’t anything that I always read at Halloween, to be honest. For some reason, I do start thinking about reading A Christmas Carol around this time of year, but don’t actually get to it until later in the season.
This year, I ordered a copy of The Collected Ghost Stories of E.F. Benson after reading about it here. I also picked up Dracula’s Guest (A collection of Victorian vampire stories),One Haunted Evening, and Pulse and Prejudice.
Old school…Irving’s Legend of Sleeoy Hollow and anything by Mr. Poe while watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and handing candy in shorts and flip flops!
The Shining. Ghost Story. Fall of the House of Usher.
Susan Hill – The Woman in Black
The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla is by far my favorite Halloween book! I absolutely loved it!
I just finished a favorite short story, The Monkey’s Paw, about a shriveled up relic that can grant the owner 3 wishes. But the wishes don’t come about as expected …