October is the best time to curl up with a gothic read.

I yanked out my plastic pumpkins and fake leaves today. You know what that means? My autumn decorating is finished, satisfying my inner Martha Stewart, and now I'm free to cozy up in a blankie and read, read, read.

My personal favorite genre for this time of year is gothic, which is perfect for a gloomy fall afternoon. So, each Friday in October, I'll be recommending a suspenseful title that maybe you might like to read. Today's kick-off is one of my own, a tale set in the middle of England, just outside a small village, in a vicarage…where the vicar has gone unexplainably missing. Here's a blurb for A Heart Deceived (only $3.82 on Kindle):

Miri Brayden teeters on a razor's edge between placating and enraging her brother, whom she depends upon for support. Yet if his anger is unleashed, so is his madness. Miri must keep his descent into lunacy a secret, or he'll be committed to an asylum—and she'll be sent to the poorhouse. 

Ethan Goodwin has been on the run all of his life—from family, from the law…from God. After a heart-changing encounter with the gritty Reverend John Newton, Ethan would like nothing more than to become a man of integrity—an impossible feat for an opium addict charged with murder. 

When Ethan shows up on Miri's doorstep, her balancing act falls to pieces. Both Ethan and Miri are caught in a web of lies and deceit—fallacies that land Ethan in prison and Miri in the asylum with her brother. Only the truth will set them free.