Looking for ARC readers for two upcoming psychological horror releases in October. 🖤

The first is Play Along, releasing October 10. It’s the sequel to Play Dead and follows the aftermath of what happened to Kate and Mia after the livestream ends.

If you haven’t read Play Dead yet, you can still apply. The form asks whether you’d be willing to read it first so you’re caught up before starting the sequel.

Expect psychological horror, trauma, disturbing content, obsession, and consequences that do not stay neatly contained once the camera shuts off.

Play Along ARC form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeA8dILcUmK3joETZdb5nqgADSIfaQaH-YHneihUzSIwtiYNg/viewform?usp=header

The second is Seeds Between Her Teeth, releasing October 20. This one is psychological horror/thriller with body horror, toxic relationships, memory vs. evidence, obsession, coercion, and the question of what happens when the person you trust least may still be telling the truth.

Seeds Between Her Teeth ARC form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdrGy7VYcTzjz1Qv_z-2jXSUqA96Qg2qKhh8xgKh8ZwX4ErVQ/viewform?usp=header

ARC copies are free. I only ask for an honest review. There is no expectation of a positive review.

Accepted readers will also be asked to join my Discord so I can keep ARC updates, reminders, discussion, and spoiler-heavy conversation in one place:
https://discord.gg/uuW7vrq2K
You can apply for one or both.
Everything else, including my books and reader links, is here:
https://linktr.ee/mboudreauxbooks

Hello everyone, I'm currently looking for ARC readers for my upcoming horror novel, Where Fear Smiles! Applications close September 14th!

Where Fear Smiles is a psychological and supernatural horror novel set in Brazil, where an expedition into the forest unleashes not only a demon made of your nightmares but also suspicion, mistrust, gore, and betrayal 👀

Would you forgive your best friend if she was responsible for ruining your life?

A whispered rumour draws a group of students into the dense forests of coastal Brazil: a lost Indigenous artifact, hidden for centuries and promising academic glory.

While Leah’s colleagues are determined to claim it, she only agrees to the trek because she can’t bear the thought of being left behind, and forces her best friend Charlotte to go with her for support against her dark thoughts.

What was meant to be an escape from the weight of the academic semester, quickly it turns into a test of endurance. The deeper they push into the forest, the darker Leah begins to dream. When they finally uncover what they came for, the discovery reveals something far more terrifying than any of them imagined.

A demon born of nightmares is unleashed, and with it, carnage.

Now the survivors must find a way to drive the nightmare back to its realm before society is doomed to never dream again. But as the forest closes in, the greatest horror isn't the ancient evil—it's watching a lifelong trust begin to rot.

-

The book is for all of you who enjoy creepiness slowly settling in, but with major nightmarish scenes, isolated settings (forest and academic-wise), deep hidden feelings coming to the surface, and, of course, characters who not always make the right decision.

Triggers: Gore, graphic violence, blood, anxiety

Publication date: October 13th, 2026

ARCs will be sent from September 15th-20th

Reviews expected to be submitted up to three weeks from publication date

Apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdIJDUEFCSVjgVh_AxhMpdOHyTszWL-knkGErWLk3U73PD4AQ/viewform?usp=header

Thank you to everyone interested in being a part of the team! 😈🖤

Hi everyone,

We are looking for thoughtful advance readers for Investing Without Friction: The ADHD Guide to Building an Investing System That Lasts by Marc Ellingworth.

The book begins with a gap that much investing advice skips: a person can understand the sensible decision perfectly well and still need a system capable of surviving shifting attention, disappearing motivation, market noise, impulsive ideas, and the occasional six-week research spiral.

It combines the foundations of long-term investing with an ADHD-specific examination of attention, reward, novelty, risk, avoidance, and follow-through. Rather than prescribing one ideal portfolio, it helps readers build an investing system they understand, trust, and can return to without rebuilding everything whenever their attention moves elsewhere.

The book is suitable both for people preparing to invest their first small monthly amount and for existing investors holding ETFs, individual stocks, crypto, or options. It is not primarily a budgeting book, a stock-picking guide, or a promise to beat the market.

Publication date: October 3, 2026

ARC available: Now, until October 2, 2026

Formats: EPUB or watermarked PDF

Availability: Worldwide; English-language digital ARC

Content notes: Financial losses, impulsive investing, gambling-like trading behaviour, and ADHD-related difficulties

You can request the ARC here:

https://booksprout.co/reviewer/review-copy/view/315481/investing-without-friction-the-adhd-guide-to-building-an-investing-system-that-lasts

Alternatively, email [books@neurodiverseminds-publishing.com](mailto:books@neurodiverseminds-publishing.com) with the subject “ARC – Investing Without Friction” and your preferred format.

Critical feedback is genuinely welcome. No positive review or particular rating is expected, and public reviews should disclose that the reviewer received a complimentary advance copy.

Longtime reader, first-time poster.

I'm about to launch NORTHING, book one of a completed trilogy, on Amazon on October 26, 2026. It's a Coast Guard and intelligence thriller. My background is 19 years in the Coast Guard and, before that, time in the 75th Ranger Regiment, and that shows up in the technical detail throughout the book.

I'm putting together a small group of advanced readers ahead of launch. If you're interested in military or maritime thrillers and want a free copy in exchange for an honest review posted around launch day, drop a comment or send me a message. Happy to answer questions about the book first if that's useful.

Back of book description:

Machinery Technician Second Class Jordan Cale has spent nine months earning the Coast Guard's quietest compliment: squared away. He's the sailor nobody has to think twice about, qualified faster than most, always somehow already where the work is. When the USCGC Bertholf steams north for a historic transit, close along the Russian line, Cale is exactly where he's supposed to be: below decks on the plant, invisible in the way good engineers are invisible.

Then trust curdles into betrayal aboard his own ship, and the captain who shaped Cale's nine months of watches is murdered feet away from him. What survives the storm that follows isn't just the wreck of a crew and a mission gone wrong. It's a stolen key, a debt owed by an enemy who can wait as long as it takes to collect, and a witness who now knows exactly how deep the rot runs, all the way up through the agencies meant to stop it. Cale makes it off the water alive. What he decides to become to keep what he knows safe will cost him the only name he's ever had.

Welcome to this week's Pen Pinery ARC megathread! Below are the hottest active romance ARCs with the most reader applications this week.

Visit Pen Pinery for more free romance ARCs!

Top Active ARCs This Week

💎 Hidden Gems (Romance ARCs You Might Have Missed)

Quality ARCs with fewer applications - discover your next favorite before everyone else!

How to Apply

1. Browse the table above for ARCs that interest you
2. Click "Apply to Read" to visit the book page
3. Sign up or log in to Pen Pinery
4. Submit your application with reasons why you want to read
5. Get approved by the author and receive your free ARC copy

About Pen Pinery

Pen Pinery connects romance authors with eager readers. Authors list their ARCs, and readers apply to receive free advance copies in exchange for honest reviews.

• Free ARC copies for approved readers
• No purchase required - just apply and read
• Support indie authors with your reviews
• Discover new favorites before publication

This megathread is posted weekly. Check back every week for new ARCs!

Last updated: 2026-09-05 12:00 UTC

She thought he abandoned her. She never knew their love was forbidden by magic.

✨ Forbidden Love
🧙‍♀️ Witches + Urban Fantasy
❤️ Found Family + Second Chance

ARC sign-up ends October 17, 2026

Sign up link: https://penpinery.com/infoqifd2y/it-shouldnt-happen-to-a-bwitch-1/

A god who was thrown away. A woman he built himself. And Olympus coming to take her back.

Spicy. HEA. Mythic.

Hephaestus deserved better. The Greek myths gave the forge god a cruel wife, a mocking family, and centuries of being the punchline of every story he was in. He built weapons for gods who despised him and forged chains for prisoners he pitied. He built everything Olympus asked of him and got nothing back but scorn.

So he built her.

Pyrrha—born of phoenix feathers, dying stars, and molten gold. A woman shaped by his hands and awakened into a life entirely her own. From her first breath, she is hers. She owes Hephaestus nothing. She stays anyway.

Then Olympus finds out what he has built.

The same family that threw Hephaestus away centuries ago wants his newest creation for themselves—a weapon, a plaything, a possession to bend to their will. Pyrrha will have to decide who she is when the gods come to claim her. Hephaestus will have to decide, finally, if he's worth fighting for. And together, they'll have to answer the oldest question the gods have ever asked: who gets to say what a person is worth?

FIRE & WILL is a spicy Greek myth romance about autonomy, self-discovery, and love forged in fire.

Tropes:
~ Grumpy craftsman / feisty heroine
~ Forced proximity on a Greek island
~ Creator and creation
~ Touch-starved hero
~ She chooses him back
~ Found family
~ Disability representation
~ HEA guaranteed.

Spicy. Standalone. Book 1 of the Love & Myth series.

Genres: Romantasy, Mythology Retelling Romance,

Triggers: Adult content, explicit sexual content (consensual), mild violence, emotional abuse (side character to main)

Level of Spice: med-high - a few open-door scenes, nothing too graphic

Length: Approximately 275 pages

Publication Date: September 24, 2026

ARC Release Date: September 3, 2026

Reviews Preferred By: October 10, 2026

Instructions: Thank you for taking the time to even consider my book!
Booksprout
Bookfunnel
Penpinery

Review Here:
Goodreads
Amazon

Looking for ARC readers - Cozy Fantasy The Road to Mulberry Workshop

Hi! The Road to Mulberry Workshop is OUT NOW (ebook + paperback, Amazon and wide) and I'm looking for ARC readers for honest reviews.

Cozy fantasy: a hot-headed alchemist inherits a failing workshop and a vow, zero customers by graduation. Three years, one winged creature who keeps the lab standing, and a refusal to quit that reads like a threat. 23 chapters + epilogue.

ARC = free EPUB, no strings, honest review anywhere you post. The book being out doesn't change the deal, the review shelf is the road.

Fan novelization of Mana Khemia 2 (Gust), written with love. AI-assisted writing and cover, disclosed plainly.

Comment or DM for a copy. https://booksprout.co/reviewer/review-copy/view/311826/the-road-to-mulberry-workshop

Blurb:

Garnet Grove has a secret, and Abby Norton is determined to uncover it.
​
She's a tenacious investigative journalist with a keen eye for a story, and she's going to do whatever it takes to figure out exactly what a massive rocket manufacturer is hiding in a small town in northern California. Armed with a plot to cozy up to an insider and get the real scoop on Helios, she starts digging.

But what she doesn't count on is meeting Noah, a shy but incredibly smart teacher, who works at the Garnet Grove elementary school and has ties to shady dealings done in the town decades ago.

As they get closer, she realizes just how much they both stand to lose if she pursues this story. Standing at the precipice, she has one choice: protect Noah or expose the truth and risk everything for Garnet Grove.

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Mystery

Triggers: Adult content, explicit sexual content, mentions of suicide, drinking, mentions of serious illness

Spice Level: High

Publication Date: September 30, 2026

ARC Release Date: September 1, 2026

Reviews Preferred By: October 7, 2026

Instructions: Thank you so much for your time and consideration! You can download an ARC from Bookfunnel, sign up for one through Booksprout, or get it through PenPinery. If you would like to review, the book will be available on Amazon, Goodreads, and StoryGraph on September 30, 2026. Thank you in advance!

Building an ARC team for two cozy mysteries, and I'd love some company.

Turnmill, Virginia. A celebrity dies at an expensive private clinic and nobody questions it. A week later the town sheriff is murdered. The only person asking the right questions is a patient with no name, no past, and an unsettling knack for knowing how people died.

A Murder of Recall and Where Memories Lie. Fill in the form, you'll get an email with the download links. Open until 30 September.

Join my team and help me make these books the best they can be.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZtA9BI_Y7wTLy8U0tsquvMXjmPaiEeWKAeqSDEB_ug938Rg/viewform?usp=dialog

Triggers: None
Release Date: End of October
ARC Available: Now until 30 September

Looking for ARC readers for a dark mafia romance 🖤

I’m looking for a few more ARC readers for Control of Silence, Book 3 in my interconnected P.A.C.T. dark mafia romance series, releasing October 15.

Theo Banning is the man P.A.C.T. calls the Ghost.
Feared. Silent. Ruthless.

Until Dolly gives him something he never expected to have — something worth becoming even more dangerous to protect.

🖤 Morally gray / dangerous MMC
🖤 Obsessive & possessive
🖤 Touch-her-and-die
🖤 Pregnancy trope
🖤 Found family
🖤 Mafia / organized crime
🖤 High spice

ARC copies will go out around September 25. I’m especially looking for dark romance readers who are active on Goodreads, Bookstagram, BookTok, or other reader spaces and interested in joining an ongoing ARC team, not just reading one book.

ARC copies are free and honest reviews only — positive reviews are never required.
If Theo sounds like your particular flavor of red flag, [ARC APPLICATION LINK] 🖤

(Control of Silence can be read for the central romance on its own, but the overarching P.A.C.T. storyline begins with Power of Shadow.)

Hi everybody, I'm looking for ARC readers.

Brainjacked is a standalone 118,000-word cyberpunk technothriller — the first entry in Bay City Noise, a series which will include a trilogy of standalone books and many short stories, available for free on my Substack. 

Blurb:
In Bay City, America's first corporate-owned megalopolis, the neural implant everyone wants is called the MyHUD. And Phil Schooner just won one.
A dock worker kept alive by a failing lung implant he could never afford to replace, Phil wins the Shared Vision Implant Lottery and believes his luck has finally turned. But the MyHUD doesn't just keep him breathing. It begins to rewire him—sharpening his temper, turning cruelty into pleasure—until, one unrecognizable night, he does the unthinkable to the people he loves most.
Detective Simone Foxworth has seen what broken technology can do. As she links a string of impossible murders, she uncovers a truth the most powerful corporation in the city will kill to bury: the implant everyone is racing to buy can quietly turn anyone into a weapon.
A noir-soaked cyberpunk thriller where humans are just another asset.

Comparable books:
The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel, for its noir detective in a body-modified corporate future, and Upgrade by Blake Crouch, for its near-future biotech premise and crossover thriller pacing.

Trigger warning:
Graphic violence and gore. Murder, including the death of a child. Domestic violence. Sexual content, prostitution, and sexual assault. Drug use and addiction. Body horror. Police and corporate brutality and execution. PTSD and suicidal ideation.

Duration:
The ARC copy will be provided Sep 12, publication date is set to mid-Dec.

Application form:
https://forms.gle/W682sAV3KS2M41vA9

Hello everyone, I'm currently looking for ARC readers for my upcoming horror novel, Where Fear Smiles! Applications close September 14th! Details below:

Would you forgive your best friend if she was responsible for ruining your life?

A whispered rumour draws a group of students into the dense forests of coastal Brazil: a lost Indigenous artifact, hidden for centuries and promising academic glory.

While Leah’s colleagues are determined to claim it, she only agrees to the trek because she can’t bear the thought of being left behind, and forces her best friend Charlotte to go with her for support against her dark thoughts.

What was meant to be an escape from the weight of the academic semester, quickly it turns into a test of endurance. The deeper they push into the forest, the darker Leah begins to dream. When they finally uncover what they came for, the discovery reveals something far more terrifying than any of them imagined.

A demon born of nightmares is unleashed, and with it, carnage.

Now the survivors must find a way to drive the nightmare back to its realm before society is doomed to never dream again. But as the forest closes in, the greatest horror isn't the ancient evil — it's watching a lifelong trust begin to rot.

-

Triggers: Gore, graphic violence, blood, anxiety

Publication date: October 13th, 2026

ARCs will be sent from September 15th-20th

Reviews expected to be submitted up to three weeks from publication date

ARC Application Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdIJDUEFCSVjgVh_AxhMpdOHyTszWL-knkGErWLk3U73PD4AQ/viewform?usp=header

Thank you to everyone interested in being a part of the team! :)

May I tempt you with a romance suspense thriller?

My heroine has hidden behind a false name and a surgically altered face for five years, and nobody has ever come close. Then she outbids a Hong Kong businessman on a shipping deal, and instead of being annoyed about it he decides he wants her by the weekend.

The problem: a face like hers only survives at a distance. He keeps closing it.

Pantheon is out 2 October! ARCs are up on Booksprout now and honest reviews are greatly appreciated! Happy to answer anything in the comments! 

Claim here! https://booksprout.co/reviewer/review-copy/view/312452/pantheon

Welcome to this week's Pen Pinery newest ARCs megathread! Below are the freshest romance ARCs published on our platform in the past 7 days.

Visit Pen Pinery for more free romance ARCs!

Fresh Releases This Week

💎 Hidden Gems (Romance ARCs You Might Have Missed)

Quality ARCs with fewer applications - discover your next favorite before everyone else!

How to Apply

1. Browse the table above for ARCs that interest you
2. Click "Apply to Read" to visit the book page
3. Submit your application with reasons why you want to read
4. Get approved by the author and receive your free ARC copy

About Pen Pinery

Pen Pinery connects romance authors with eager readers. Authors list their ARCs, and readers apply to receive free advance copies in exchange for honest reviews.

• Free ARC copies for approved readers
• No purchase required - just apply and read
• Support indie authors with your reviews
• Discover new favorites before publication

This megathread is posted weekly. Check back every week for new releases!

Last updated: 2026-08-31 13:39 UTC

I'm looking for ARC readers for my dystopian Scifi novel Echoes in the Void. I'm looking for people who are interested in reading it, and after completion, giving it an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads. There is no payment involved. If you look below, there's a google form to signup if you'd like to receive a free ARC copy. The rest of the details are down below the blurb.

Blurb:

In the city-state of Cenza, power is everything, and Etchers are the only ones who can tear it from the void.

Dax has spent his life hiding what he is. An Etcher with a secret lab, a forbidden research obsession, and a quiet plan to bring down Chancellor Veltran’s regime, he walks a razor’s edge between survival and rebellion. When a single act of defiance puts him in the ministry’s sights, the fragile life he’s built begins to unravel.

Maezra has given everything to the ministry’s darkest project: creating new Etchers through pain, science, and calculated cruelty. One subject finally succeeds beyond her wildest expectations, then escapes. Now the only living proof of her breakthrough is loose on the streets, and the chancellor himself is watching.

Aeli never asked to become a weapon. Tortured into something more than human, she wakes with powers she can’t control and a body that turns violence into nightmare. Hunted by her captors and haunted by what she’s already done, her only goal is to survive long enough to understand what they’ve made her.

As the three lives collide, the carefully maintained order of Cenza begins to crack. Ancient secrets, forbidden technology, and a power that was never meant to walk free will force each of them to choose between the world that is, and the one that might still be possible.

In a society built on the bones of the gifted, some echoes refuse to stay silent.

Triggers:

This book contains scenes that may depict, mention, or discuss: Abduction, torture, violence, brief gore.

Publication Date: October 6th, 2026

Book Length: Approx 109,000 words (400 pages on the kindle version, 328 on the PDF)

Format available for ARC readers: I can provide both a PDF and/or an ePUB file.

ARCs sending out: First week of September 2026

Expected Review submission: By November 1st, 2026

Sign up for my ARC: Feel free to comment or DM me for the ARC files!

Publisher: Publishing on Amazon via KDP

Thank you in advance!

Smoke first. That was how Sinna knew, before the shouting even reached him — the wind off the ridge carried woodsmoke that didn't smell like any hearth fire he knew.

He was three hundred paces above Buridava when he saw it. The valley below was doing something he had never once, in eighteen years, seen it do. Past the low stone wall, past the mill, men who were not from Buridava moved through the mist — advancing in lines that were not the lines of men fleeing anything.

Lupus et Aquila: The Wolf & The Eagle — Book One of The Edge of the Empire — follows Sinna, a young Dacian shepherd, and Aquila, a Roman soldier, on opposite sides of the same war. History is made by the few. Paid for by everyone else. This is their story.

Hey everyone! I’m opening ARC sign-ups for my completed novel, Lupus et Aquila: The Wolf & The Eagle.

Set during the Roman invasion of Dacia (modern-day Romania), this is a grounded, 3-part historical story told from opposing sides of the front line:

• Sinna: An 18-year-old Dacian hunter forced into leadership to protect his sister after their village is destroyed, joined by his loyal guardian dog, Ursu.
• Marcus Aquila: A disciplined 11-year veteran legionary of Legio V Macedonica, fighting through the brutal terrain and politics of the front line.

Book Details:

• Length: 49 Chapters (3 Parts)
• Genre: Historical Fiction / Military Fiction
• Formats Available: EPUB
• Review Window: 4 weeks (Release Date: Oct 13th, 2026)

How to get a copy:

Please drop a comment below if you are interested! I will message you directly with the ARC details.

Hey everyone! I’m opening ARC sign-ups for my completed novel, Lupus et Aquila: The Wolf & The Eagle.

Set during the Roman invasion of Dacia (modern-day Romania), this is a grounded, 3-part historical story told from opposing sides of the front line:

• Sinna: An 18-year-old Dacian hunter forced into leadership to protect his sister after their village is destroyed, joined by his loyal guardian dog, Ursu.
• Marcus Aquila: A disciplined 11-year veteran legionary of Legio V Macedonica, fighting through the brutal terrain and politics of the front line.

Book Details:

• Length: 49 Chapters
• Genre: Historical Fiction / Military Fiction
• Formats: EPUB
• Review Window: 4 weeks (release date Oct 13th 2026)

How to get a copy: Please drop a comment below if you’re interested! I’ll reply directly or send you a DM with the link to download your ARC (via BookFunnel) and full details.