On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see only a cosy ramen restaurant. And just the chosen ones - those who are lost - will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A junior at Standford and a student athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships - at least, that’s what she tells herself.

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible - for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

Summer won’t last forever. Sage Byrd has lived in the coastal town of Spunes, Oregon (not to be confused with Forks, Washington) her entire life. She’s learned to love her small world, with the misfit animals on her hobby farm, and her frienships with the town’s inhabitants. But when her 5-year relationship ends and her ex, town-golden-boy Ian, suddenly gets engaged, Sage needs a win - something that will convince everyone to stop pitying her all the time, and to put Ian in his place. The Festival of Spunes, the won’s annual summer competition, would be the perfect opportunity. She just needs a partner.

After a wild bet, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwich, and cuddle with a baby goat, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who’s ten years younger than her and as casual as they come - the complete opposite of sophisticated city-girl Alexis. And yet their chemistry is undeniable.

Gwen Jackson and Xander Thorne are both musical prodigies, but each has had very different paths to success. Xander was born into classical music royalty, while Gwen had a natural ear for music that was nurtured by a kind shop owner.

Blythe Hawthorn has never let anyone tell her what to do… and she’s not about to start now. Headstrong and passionate, she won’t be ruled by society, or by her overprotective father, and certainly not by the man she’s bound herself to, no matter how insufferable he is. She’s determined to be a thorn in his side for the rest of her days, even as he ensues that her life in his palace is anything but the decadent fairytale she imagined. But as Blythe discovers a new side of herself linked to his past, she’ll have to decide if she’s willing to let an unexpected spark ignite… and discover the real truth about who she is inside.

Sometimes you just need a short and intriguing story to boost you out of those worst of reading slumps and these three helped me immensely and hopefully can help you too if you’re stuck in a rut like me!

It’s been a challenging year full of changes (I hate change) but once again, reading provided the perfect escape. Here are some of the reads that pulled me through this year:

Inez Olivera traveled across the world to Egypt, seeking answers about her parents’ recent and mysterious deaths. But all her searching led her down a perilous road filled with heartache, betrayal, and a dangerous magic that pulled her deep into the past.

Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherwordly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, time traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line. Now Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca.

In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father is executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Dodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.

As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters - her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blook and leaves them for dead.

Winnifred “Win” McNulty has always been wildly independent. Not one to be coddled for her limb difference, Win has spent most of her life trying to prove that she can do it all on her own. And, with some minor adjustments, she’s done just fine. That is until she has a one-night stand with the incredibly charming Bo, a perfect stranger. And that one night changes everything.

Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her - the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Saga.

Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the unofficial steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story.

One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before: a fresh open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?

The leaves are turning, the air feels crisp, the word “pumpkin” can be seen or heard around 250 times a day, school is back in session, and it’s the perfect time to get lost in a moody and atmospheric book.

These books, as dark as they can be, uplift me in the best ways and I hope the following recommendations can do the same for you.

Bolivian Argentinian Inex Olivera belongs to the glittering upper society of nineteenth-century Buenos Aires, and like the rest of the world, the town is steeped in old-world magic that’s been largely left behind or forgottn. Inez has everything a girl might want, except for the one thing she yearns for the most: her globetrotting parents, who frequently leave her behind.

As a chart-topping country singer with a recent streak of bad press, it’s hard for Skylar Stone to find any peace. But she finds it in Rose Hill. With a little boy and a little girl who steal her heart just as thoroughly as their dad.

Evie Sage has never been happier to be the assistant to The Villain. Who would have thought that working for an outrageously handsome (shhh, bad for his brand) evil overlord would be so rewarding? Still, the business of being bad is demanding, the forces of good are annoyingly persistent, and said forbidding boss is somewhat… er, out-of-evil-office.