Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from When The Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy, which is out April 22nd 2025.

One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy’s father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.

As they attempt to evade the boy’s increasingly desperate father, Jess slowly comes to a horrifying understanding of the butchery that follows them—the boy can turn his every fear into reality.

And when the wolf finally comes home, no one will be spared.

Daddy is roaring. Howling. Destroying everything in the house—furniture, pictures on the wall, all of it—while he searches for the boy.

The boy is crouched inside the pantry. Hidden. For now.

Hardnoise, he thinks in his terror, flinching at the sounds of destruction. He’s seen Daddy angry plenty of times before . . . but not like this. This is so much worse than all the other times.

“How?!” Daddy demands in a deep, raspy voice. “Where?!” It sounds as if the words rip out of him, pulling bits of throat along the way. “Where . . . ind . . . I-i-t?”

The boy—who is only five years old and small for his age—shrinks farther inside the pantry. He thinks about disappearing completely, but knows he can’t. The thing he’s clutching to his chest keeps him moored to the world. The thing Daddy is raging about.

The book.

Lately, the boy had been sneaking out a window while Daddy took his afternoon naps. He knew it wasn’t allowed, that it’s Bad and Dangerous, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself. The call of the outside world was too great, and for all his rules and precautions, Daddy hadn’t yet realized the boy figured out how to open the window.

Daddy’s naps are always the same time and the same length every day, so the boy never went far on these walks. Usually, he just stood and looked around for a bit before scrabbling back inside. He looked at the other houses. At the cars driving by. The little rocks with bits of sparkle in them. The trees. A lizard. A stray cat. Things he’d seen or heard from the other side of the window, usually accompanied by Daddy’s dry, detailed explanations of what they were looking at. “So you never have to wonder,” Daddy always said.

But it was so much nicer to experience them. So much more exciting to wonder. A few days ago, the boy let himself walk down the block a little, and that’s when he’d discovered the tiny house. It was in a neighbor’s front yard: a tiny house on a short pole. The tiny house had a little glass door, and inside . . . was all books. If the boy could read, he still might not have known what the phrase Little Library meant, but he thought the teal calligraphic squiggles were pretty.

The boy didn’t own any books, but he’d seen plenty. Daddy liked to read.

Except, his books were all dull, uninteresting things. Flat colors, no pictures, blocks of tiny words inside. The boy had never seen books like these.

Some were soft and floppy, with glossy pictures on their covers. Some were sturdier, and their covers even slipped off, revealing the blank, hard covers the boy was more familiar with.

One book in particular stole his attention.

Old. Worn. Hardbound, but its peach-colored cover wasn’t blank; it had shiny gold lettering and pictures stamped into it. This book had been loved, the boy knew somehow.

The inside was also full of pictures. Beautiful, full-color, richly detailed pictures, some taking up one or even two whole pages. A boy and a girl finding a house made out of candy. A girl asleep in a bed full of flowers. Another girl with fish fins instead of legs. The boy didn’t understand any of these images—he’d never heard a fairy tale, had never seen a picture book—but he was captivated.

He didn’t know a book could ever be like this.

He’d been out too late—had sensed the time slipping away like a physical thing—so he hurried home with the book in tow, making it back into his room just in time before Daddy woke up. He hid the book, his book, under his mattress, peeking at it very rarely and very briefly, whenever he was certain Daddy wouldn’t catch him. He only looked at one picture at a time. Savoring it. Cherishing it. Trying to imagine the words that might go with such fantastical pictures. He didn’t even feel the need to sneak out the window anymore. The book was his window now.

Until one day he flipped to the wrong picture. A large, hulking wolf stalking through an endless forest. The wolf had oily dark fur, a long, pointy snout, pulling back to reveal rotting gums and massive teeth dripping with foamy drool. Its claws were massive, perfectly sharp and curly, and made for tearing into soft, little-boy flesh.

The picture scared the boy. Scared him in a way he’d never been scared before. He couldn’t shake it. He had to keep looking at it. It seemed to give a shape, a face, to every fear he’d ever had, as if this wolf had been waiting for him all along in the shadows.

Every time he looked at his book, he went straight to that picture. Compelled. Hypnotized. Like prey.

He was staring at it this morning, when Daddy caught him.

Daddy got so angry, seeing what the boy was doing. He began to yell and stomp and demand answers. He threw the book. He shook the boy. Which only scared the boy further.

And now . . .

Another howl tears through the silence.

“WHERE—?! STOP THIS!”

The boy hears heavy footsteps storm farther into the house, searching for him.

Go now, he thinks. Run.

Don’t, he also thinks. Stay hidden.

But Daddy will check the kitchen eventually. And when he does . . .

Remember the other boy!

That gets him moving. The other boy. His only friend.

The boy has to leave. At least for a little while. So Daddy can calm down. He carefully opens the pantry door. Daddy is gone, destroying other rooms in his search for the boy, but the devastation in his wake . . . The kitchen table, smashed into bits. The walls, ravaged and slashed. Holes punched in the plaster. Shreds of fabric everywhere.

For a moment, the boy is frozen, taking it all in.

The air is hot. Heavy. Smelling like food left burning on the stovetop. Like that time Daddy ruined dinner and got so mad and the boy got scared and—

More hardnoise from the other room—Smash! Crash! Howl! No time.

Still clutching his book, the boy tiptoes his way to the front door. Too many things on the floor to trip over and make noise. It takes all his balance and concentration to not—

Snap!

The boy inhales with a hiss. A framed picture. Daddy and Mommy smiling. The boy has stepped on the thin wood of the frame and cracked it.

The hardnoise in the other room stops.

Daddy. Listening.

The front door is suddenly yards away. Miles. Impossible to reach from here. Too late. The boy ducks behind the overturned coffee table. Makes himself small, as small as he can, and squeezes his eyes shut. Maybe if he can’t see Daddy, Daddy can’t see—

A hand closes over his ankle.

“FOUND YOU.”

The boy is pulled out and up. As if he’s insubstantial as air.

He opens his eyes to find himself dangling upside down, staring at eyes burning with senseless anger. Lips pulled back in a sneer. Breath as hot as an oven’s. Frothy drool seething between clenched teeth.

He barely recognizes the face.

No, no, no!

The boy squeezes his eyes shut again. He remembers another picture in his book. A hero, brandishing something long and sharp in the face of some firebreathing, scaly thing. In that desperate instant, the boy imagines he holds a similar weapon and brings his book down, hard as he can, onto the hairy arm holding him. He feels the solid resistance of bone.

Daddy yelps.

The boy hits the carpet in a tooth-rattling thud. He wastes no time, scrambles toward the front door, not caring how much noise he makes now. He doesn’t let himself worry that the door might be locked, or the knob too high, or his palms too slippery. Still holding the book under one arm, he wrenches the door open and sprints into the night. His bare feet slap against pavement and asphalt.

From inside the house, Daddy’s cries change from pain to anger again.

“GET BACK HERE!”

The boy ignores his father’s commands. He runs and runs. Daddy will be behind him any second, so he heads for back ways, through bushes and culverts, ignoring sharp gravel, hoping his small size helps him disappear.

“GET BACK HERE!”

Daddy’s voice, fainter now. The huge world, swallowing up sound the farther the boy runs.

But the memories of hardnoise still crash in his ears.

And the taste of fear never leaves his mouth.

The post Read An Excerpt From ‘When The Wolf Comes Home’ by Nat Cassidy appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

About At The Bottom of the Garden: A murderess becomes the guardian of two very unusual girls in this mesmerizing gothic novel from acclaimed author Camilla Bruce.

Sometimes, in life as well as in novels, a house isn’t just a house. It takes on a life and an identity of its own, colored by the memories of what has happened inside its walls, as well as the people who live there. Some houses become coveted treasures, others mausoleums for the dead. Some houses turn into traps, snaring the inhabitants inside. These special houses can be haunted, but sometimes their power comes from what they represent. Some of them shout loudly about how extraordinary they are, while others only show their true colors slowly and over time.

For instance, all the houses in all of my books – from hovels to castles – start out as a blueprint of my grandparents’ house. I don’t know when or why it happened, but I always begin with that specific house, the way that it looked in my childhood, then I add and subtract rooms as needed. All the kitchens in my work are incarnations of my grandmother’s kitchen, though, considering what kind of books I write, I’m not sure how happy she would have been about that. Since it became my go-to, her poor kitchen has seen a plethora of murder, ghosts and monsters, but also – to be fair – quite a few housekeepers, which I don’t think she would have minded all that much.

Clearly, to me, that house is the house. It’s what my mind turns to when told to invent a house. Maybe it’s a shortcut – an easy tool for a lazy writer’s brain – or maybe there is something deeper at work: I still dream about that house, a lot. Maybe it has put down roots in my subconscious and taken on a life of its own? Just a thought.

In my new novel, At the Bottom of the Garden, the special house is called Crescent Hill, and the antagonist, Clara Woods, is willing to cross quite a few lines to get her sticky mittens on it. It’s not quite a gothic mansion in size, but it does have the flair, with its carved wooden stairs, overgrown garden and collection of taxidermy animals. The outer walls are painted cyan blue. It also holds secrets – lots of them – which is the most important thing for a gothic house.

Here are some other novels with powerful houses that the characters are willing to fight, live, die – and even kill – for.

The September House by Carissa Orlando

Margaret’s house on Hawthorn Street is not like other houses. It is already inhabited when she and her husband, Hal, move in. There is a man in a cupboard; a pack of mangled kids; a mostly helpful housekeeper, and something – or someone – horrible lurking in the basement. Margaret doesn’t mind though. It is her house, and she means to stay. She has made a set of rules for co-habiting with the dead, and is convinced that as long as she doesn’t break them, everything will be fine. Then Hal suddenly disappears, causing her estranged daughter to come home, just in time for September: the house’s worst season, complete with bleeding walls and horrific screams in the night. Margaret doesn’t want her daughter to know what is going on, but is it possible to shield her? And what, exactly, happened to Hal? This house wears its secrets on its sleeves, but still keeps a few of them hidden. Maybe the biggest mystery of them all is where Margaret ends and the house begins, as the lines between them keeps blurring.

The Beloveds by Maureen Lindley

Ever since the day her younger sister, Gloria, was born, Betty Stash’s life has been ruined. Gloria is everything Betty is not: beautiful, radiant, kind and charming – honey to Betty’s vinegar and salt. Over the years, and without a second thought, she has taken everything from Betty, including her best friend and her husband to-be. Betty’s jealousy and resentment runs deep, but she has one card up her sleeve: Pipits, the family home, has always loved Betty back. She and the house have a special bond that nothing in this world can break. The house even talks to Betty through the walls. So when their mother dies, leaving the house to Gloria, who can blame Betty for being irked? Facing this final indignity, she takes up arms, deciding to fight for what is hers, and soon she has irrevocably crossed the line to the point of no return. This house is powerfully entwined with its person, both as a symbol and a source of love, and if you – like me – don’t mind a complex and unsympathetic protagonist, The Beloveds might just be your cup of tea.

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy

Ana and Reid are reeling from the difficult birth of their daughter, which left Ana in a wheelchair, when they catch an unexpected break: The two of them have won a lottery where the prize is an affordable apartment in the prestigious Deptford building, complete with stunning architecture and a view of Central Park. It almost seems too good to be true. Navigating new parenthood and Ana’s disability is hard, though. So hard that it takes a while for them to notice the strangeness lurking in the corners of their new home. The neighbors are pretty eccentric, true, and the gargoyles adorning the building are creepy – but you are willing to put up with a lot for the apartment of your dreams. There is no explaining away the needle-like marks on baby Charlie, though, or the sudden disappearance of visitors to their home. This house is like a hive, with many individuals living together in a complex structure. It is undoubtedly beautiful; an object of desire and the fulfilment of a dream. But what is truly hiding behind its delectable walls?

The Underhistory by Kaaron Warren

Pera Sinclair is the only survivor after her family home was the target of an attack by airplane. She has spent the years since trying to coming to terms with what happened, and also rebuilding Sinclair House into a perfect replica of the house that was lost. Every room of the house holds memories of the past, which Pera – now an elderly woman – gladly shares on the tours she offers in the building. During the last tour of the season, a group of escaped convicts appears and join the group, looking for valuables to steal. Pera realizes at once who they are, but must continue the tour as not to endanger the young children present. As the tour continues, the past and the present are woven together, while Pera prepares to protect Sinclair House – its secrets and memories – from yet another attack. This house is both a memorial and a mausoleum, keeping Pera’s past alive.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

No list of beguiling houses is complete without a mention of this classic. Without the existence of this novel, we might not have had so many other books about bewitching houses to enjoy. There is a reason why it’s still being widely read – I, for one, didn’t feel normal for a week after cracking its cover for the first time. Maybe it’s the setting: a group of sensitives of various flavors who come together to conduct an experiment, or maybe it’s Elanor: a protagonist that is so painfully sad and insecure that it’s impossible not to feel something for her. Or, maybe it’s just Hill House with its many – shifting – rooms, and the way it subtly seduces with a promise of belonging and home. Whatever the reason, this novel will forever hold the power to send chills down even the sturdiest of spines, and make you look twice (twice) at the shadows in your own home.

The post Houses To Die For appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

From another fantasy masterpiece by the popular Brandon Sanderson to a new novel by Andy Weir, the very author who wrote the best-selling novel turned film, The Martian. Also coming out this November is the sequel in Joe Zieja’s brilliant sci-fi spoof series, a collection of stories with a twist on classics such as The Wizard of Oz, and a magical tale where a djinn warrior is accidentally summoned.

Check out our picks and tell us in the comments below if you will be adding one of these reads to your booklist or if you have enjoyed reading one of them!

Into The Rolling Deep by Mira Grant | Goodreads

Seven years ago, the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a “mockumentary” bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a maritime tragedy. Now, a new crew has been assembled. But this time they’re not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life’s work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

Communication Failure by Joe Zieja | Goodreads

In this sequel to Mechanical Failure, Captain Rogers, despite his best attempts to do otherwise, has become the acting admiral of the 331st Meridan fleet. His first task: worrying. A lot. The rival Thelicosan fleet, under the influence of bad intelligence, a forbidden romance, and a communication officer with an eardrum injury, is about to break a two-hundred-year-old nonaggression pact. They have offered a vague, easily misinterpreted message: “We’re invading.” Rogers isn’t sure, but he thinks that’s probably bad.

Jade City by Fonda Lee | Goodreads

Magical jade is the lifeblood of the island of Kekon with the Green Bone warriors, including the Kaul family, using it to enhance their abilities and defend the island from foreign invasion. A new generation of Kauls vies for control of Kekon’s bustling capital city and they care about nothing but protecting their own. When a powerful new drug emerges that lets anyone—even foreigners—wield jade, causing the Kauls and the rival Ayt family to erupt into violence. The outcome will determine the fate of all Green Bones and of Kekon itself.

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson | Goodreads

In the third novel in the Stormlight Archive series, Dalinar Kholin’s Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost: The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world and awakens the subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with the fact that the newly kindled anger of the parshmen may be wholly justified. Dalinar realizes that if all the nations of Roshar can put aside Dalinar’s blood-soaked past and stand together―and unless Dalinar himself can confront that past―even the restoration of the Knights Radiant will not prevent the end of civilization.

Steal The Stars by Mac Rogers and Nat Cassidy | Goodreads

Dakota “Dak” Prentiss guards the biggest secret in the world—they call it “Moss.” It’s your standard grey alien from innumerable abduction stories and its spaceship crash-landed eleven years ago with a secret military base built around it for study. The day Matt Salem joins her security team, it’s love at first sight—which is a problem, since they both signed ironclad contracts vowing not to fraternize with other military personnel. Dak and Matt have only way to be together: do the impossible. Steal Moss and sell the secret of its existence.

The Two of Swords: Volume Two by K.J. Parker | Goodreads

A soldier with a gift for archery. A woman who kills without care. Two brothers, both unbeatable generals, now fighting for opposing armies. No-one in the vast and once glorious United Empire remains untouched by the rift between East and West, and the war has been fought for as long as anyone can remember. Some still survive who know how it was started, but no-one knows how it will end.

Artemis by Andy Weir | Goodreads

Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you’re not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. Smuggling helps when you’ve got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But it’s just the start of her problems, as she learns that she’s stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit riskier than the first.

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich | Goodreads

The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself, affecting every living creature on earth with woman after woman giving birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of humans. Thirty-two-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker is as disturbed and uncertain as the rest of America around her, especially since she is four months pregnant. Compelled to find her birth mother, Mary Potts, an Ojibwe living on the reservation, to understand both her and her baby’s origins. As Cedar goes back to her own biological beginnings, society around her begins to disintegrate, fuelled by a swelling panic about the end of humanity.

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty | Goodreads

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side, she’s forced to accept that the magical world is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass–a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound. When Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.

Valiant Dust by Richard Baker | Goodreads

Horatio Hornblower and Honor Harrington fans will find a new hero in Sikander North. He’s always had it easy until he joined the crew of the Aquilan Commonwealth starship CSS Hector. As the ship’s new gunnery officer and only Kashmiri, he must constantly prove himself better than his Aquilan crewmates, even if he has to use his fists. When the Hector is called to help with a planetary uprising, he’ll have to earn his unit’s respect, find who’s arming the rebels, and deal with the headstrong daughter of the colonial ruler all while dodging bullets.

The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen | Goodreads

It’s time to go back to—and beyond—the treasured tales you thought you knew: The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and many more. A girl blown away from Kansas returns as a sophisticate with unusual gymnastic abilities. A talented apprentice, forging her first sword, is suddenly left to the mercies of Merlin. Alice’s infamous nemesis has jaws and claws, but also lacks the essential: a sense of humour.

The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt | Goodreads

The shady crew of the White Raven run freight and salvage at the fringes of our solar system. They discover the wreck of a centuries-old exploration vessel floating light years away from its intended destination and revive its sole occupant, who wakes with news of First Alien Contact. When the crew break it to her that humanity has alien allies already, she reveals that these are very different extra-terrestrials… and the gifts they bestowed on her could kill all humanity, or take it out to the most distant stars.

The post November Book Releases: Fantasy & Sci-Fi appeared first on The Nerd Daily.