Future Fiction #318 – Cover Reveals & Newly Discovered SFF Books

Welcome to Future Fiction, my reimagining of the Waiting on Wednesday meme! There are so many amazing new books coming out, that I can no longer pick just one. My goal with Future Fiction is to share at least three new books each week, a combination of recent cover reveals and books that I’ve recently added to my TBR pile. I’m still going to be linking up with Wishful Endings/Can’t Wait Wednesday, and I also want to give a shout out to Jill at Breaking the Spine for starting the original Waiting on Wednesday meme. I hope you’ll find some new books to add to your TBR piles, and as always, I look forward to hearing what YOU’RE looking forward to:-D


Today I have three unusual sounding horror/thriller stories, take a look:


One husband, well done.

When infamous chef, restauranter, and television personality Maria Capello’s husband died, the media circus was intense…and quick to cast the blame. Whispers claimed Maria murdered her husband to build her culinary empire on his bones, and that there was an all-too-grisly reason his body was never recovered. Yet for the past few decades, the Capello family maintained their stoney silence—until now.

Thea Woods has no idea why she was chosen to work with Maria on her sure-to-be-infamous memoir, but she doesn’t question her luck. Spirited away to the Capello’s rustic upstate farm, she’s soon embroiled in the mystery—and cut off from the rest of the world. It should be the job of a lifetime, but something’s not quite right with the close-knit clan, and Damien Capello isn’t the only one to go mysteriously missing over the years. As the true story of Maria’s past unfolds and the stench of rot hidden behind the kind coastal grandmother veneer rises, Thea finds herself trapped…and desperately afraid.

Because there are reasons why Damien’s body was never found…and why, in over thirty years, Maria Capello has never revealed the secret ingredient in her most famous recipe.

The Dead Husband Cookbook by Danielle Valentine. Releases in August 2025 from Sourcebooks Landmark. The sounds deliciously macabre! And I love this cover, which looks a lot like this cover. I’m excited to read an adult book from Valentine, and this will be a must read for sure.


Historical horror maven Alma Katsu turns her talents to the modern world for the first time, in this terrifying tale about an all-powerful family with an ancient evil under its thumb.

Imagine if the Sackler family had a demon at their beck and call.

The Berisha family runs one of the largest import-export companies in the world, and they’ve always been lucky. Their rivals suffer strokes. Inconvenient buildings catch on fire. Earthquakes swallow up manufacturing plants, destroying harmful evidence. Things always seem to work out for the Berishas. They’re blessed.

At least that is what Zef, the patriarch, has always told his three children. And each of them knows their place in the family—Dardan, as the only male heir, must prepare to take over as keeper of the Berisha secrets, Maris’s most powerful contribution, much to her dismay, will be to marry strategically, and Nora’s job, as the youngest, is to just stay out of the way. But when things stop going as planned, and the family blessing starts looking more like a curse, the Berishas begin to splinter, each hatching their own secret scheme. They didn’t get to be one of the richest families in the world without spilling a little blood, but this time, it might be their own.

Fiend by Alma Katsu. Releases in September 2025 from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. I’m in love with this cover, and I’m excited to read a more contemporary story by Alma Katsu. This sounds fantastic!


The new novel from the bestselling author of If We Were Villains and Graveyard Shift—a vivid and immersive tale of one woman’s reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood, and made her who she is

Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning—one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country—and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back—where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.

Hot Wax by M.L. Rio. Releases in September 2025 from Simon & Schuster. This is a little outside my normal genres, but I’ve seen so much praise for Rio’s other books, that I’d love to try this one. I’m not even sure if you can classify this under any one genre, it sounds pretty unique. I’m loving the music/band angle of the story, what do you think?


What do you think of this week’s Future Fiction picks? Let me know in the comments!

Posted February 12, 2025 by Tammy in Future Fiction / 32 Comments


32 responses to “Future Fiction #318 – Cover Reveals & Newly Discovered SFF Books

  1. Really interesting choices! The first one is enough to give me nightmares based on the cover alone! The Alma Katsu book sounds really good (although I keep adding her books to my TBR and then never reading them… I’ve only read one so far, and I didn’t love it). Hot Wax is giving me We Sold Our Soul vibes, although it probably has nothing in common with it other than the music aspect. Great picks!

    • Tammy

      I was thinking of We Sold Our Souls too. I really want to try Hot Wax, but I’ll wait and read a few reviews first.

  2. Barb @ Booker T's Farm

    I’m on board for all of these. I saw Hot Wax last week and actually forgot to hop over and add it to my Goodreads. Thanks for the reminder. Fiend does have a truly glorious cover doesn’t it?

  3. I added the first two of these when you mentioned them before in your coverless posts I believe. You’re right about the similarities cover wise between Dead Husband Cookbook & Nightbitch though. I’m not sure about Hot Wax (I’ll probably go for Villians first to try the author out) but I really hope it works for you. It’ll be interesting to hear more about what it’s like.

  4. VERY excited about Fiend also! I am also quite curious about the other two, but they are also a bit outside of my usual fare. Still, I will be keeping them on my radar! I hadn’t heard about Dead Husband Cookbook before, but now I definitely intrigued!

  5. Literary Feline

    Unusual is a good word for all of these–but they sound really good! I hope you enjoy them when you read them, Tammy!

  6. All the three of them sound unique!! And the first two sound just too intriguing to pass! They may not be my usual cup of tea, but the idea of the first one is brilliant and Alma Katsu is an author I enjoy, even if the books are outside my comfort zone!

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