Play 2026 Book Bingo
Cozy Books to Read in the Fall of 2026
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.As the air turns crisp and the sun begins to set earlier, it’s the perfect excuse to spend more time curled up reading fall books. This autumn reading list invites us to slow down with a cozy blanket and a mug of apple cider or a pumpkin spice latte while losing ourselves in stories that mirror the season.
The Best Fall Books to Read This Year
Go as a River
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel transports you to 1940s rural Colorado and the home of teenager Victoria Nash. Despite her young age, she runs the household as the sole female in a family of troubled men. One day, she meets Wilson Moon, a mysterious young drifter who has been displaced from his tribal land. Their sudden and passionate connection is full of danger and secrets.
Victoria ends up fleeing to the harsh mountain wilderness in a small hut, where she struggles against impossible conditions. As the Gunnison River rises and threatens her homeland, she begins a quest to fight for all she has lost.
Thoughts on This Book
A large portion of this book is set during the fall peach harvest season and then into the looming winter months. It’s a great pick if you enjoy deep and descriptive, character-driven reads.
Book Club Guide Available
Don’t miss our entire book club guide for Go as a River, which includes discussion questions, food ideas, and so much more!
Behind Every Good Man
Book Summary
When 1960s housewife Beverly discovers her husband’s infidelity, she refuses to go along with the status quo and ignore it. When he threatens to take the house and kids, she’s ready to fight back.
As the daughter of a former senator and soon-to-be ex-wife of an incumbent’s campaign manager, politics is her strongest career option. Beverly boldly marches into the office of the young underdog opponent, Michael Landau, and demands a job. Her chutzpah, combined with her father’s reputation, earns her a trial run.
As if balancing this new job, her two young children, and her impending divorce weren’t enough, it seems her mother has moved in under the guise of helping with the kids. But Beverly knows there must be more to the story.
Why This Book Made the List
Fall is election season, making this book the perfect pick at this time of year. While it’s not a heavy read, this page-turning novel is deeper than you might expect based on its cover. It touches on the impact of race, religion, wealth, and gender on politics in the 1960s.
Don’t miss the author’s note – some of the side characters were based on real people!
The Witches of Santo Stefano
Book Summary
Investigative journalist Cassie Graves’s life crumbles when she discovers her husband’s affair. Then, researching her Italian ancestry, she uncovers an even bigger shock: her grandmother Gia’s cherished family stories are lies. The romanticized great-grandfather Giovanni may never have existed. Most alarming, her mysterious great-grandmother Violetta’s death certificate lists the cause as “stregoneria,” the Italian word for witchcraft.
Traveling to the centuries-old hill town of Santo Stefano to piece together her family tree, Cassie finds help from welcoming locals: accommodating Renzo, Dante, whose family history connects with hers, and ethereal Luna, a dream interpreter who gives Cassie a protective amulet. When Cassie discovers an old spellbook, she gets closer to unearthing long-buried secrets about a powerful female lineage and the haunting truth of who she really is.
What to Expect in This Read
Some reviewers refer to this book as Italian Practical Magic, so if you’re a fan of that movie, this could be a great pick! Some readers familiar with the author were disappointed that this book didn’t have as strong a gothic feel as her previous works, which could be a pro or a con depending on your preferences.
The Patchwork Players
Book Summary
Actress Julia Merchaud feels so fortunate to be starring in the historical drama, A Patchwork Life, which revived her career. The show has made stars of several of the young actors who are now eager to move on to other projects, and Julia is heartbroken to learn that the show will only air for one more season.
She shares the unfortunate news about the show with Summer Sullivan, one of the expert quilters who helped her prepare for her TV role. In turn, Summer also confides in her that the Elm Creek Quilt Camp is in financial trouble. Julia concocts a plan she thinks could be a win-win for everyone.
Julia persuades the cast and crew of A Patchwork Life to join her for a fall quilting retreat at a luxurious 19th-century mansion in Pennsylvania. She sells it as a creative and dynamic working vacation, but she secretly hopes that the bonding experience will convince the young actors to abandon their other plans and sign on for a few more seasons. But after several joyful days of quilting and camaraderie, Julia’s scheme takes an unexpected turn.
About the Series
This book is the most recent in the Elm Creek Quilts series. While you can certainly start at the beginning of the series if you prefer, readers (and the author) say that you can also pick up any one of the books out of order without feeling lost. However, keep in mind that while each story stands alone, some characters are consistent between books, so their current circumstances may be spoilers for earlier books.
Remain
Book Summary
New York architect Tate Donovan has recently been discharged from a psychiatric facility after battling acute depression and mourning the loss of his sister. On her deathbed, his sister revealed that she could see spirits still tethered to the living. She says it’s a gift that runs in their family, but Tate is struggling to accept it because it defies rational explanation.
Searching for a fresh start, he travels to Cape Cod to design his best friend’s summer home. Taking up residence in a historic bed-and-breakfast on the Cape, Tate meets Wren. They have an immediate connection, but he senses a darkness lurking behind her small-town facade. Tate is determined to unravel Wren’s past before time runs out.
Genre Notes
As you might expect based on the author duo (one best known for The Notebook and the other for The Sixth Sense), this novel is said to blur the lines between love and the supernatural.
Book Summary
Lenore returns home from Manhattan to Vermont to spend one final fall season on her family’s historic apple orchard before it’s sold. She always felt that her dreams were too big for her small hometown, but she’s finding it difficult to say goodbye to the place where she grew up, especially because it’s the same place that inspired her art. Reading entries from her late grandmother’s journal refreshes Lenore’s childhood memories, including her crush on the groundskeeper’s son.
Callan has always known exactly what his life would look like. He was raised in Whitbury, Vermont, with the clear expectation that he would take over for his father as the groundskeeper of French Hill Farm. But now that the orchard is about to be sold, his future is suddenly up in the air. The last thing he needs is the distraction of his best friend’s little sister showing back up in town. Lenore looks even better than he remembered, but she’s always been off limits.
What to Expect in This Book
This novel has all the cozy vibes you could ask for in a fall romance, from changing leaves in a nostalgic hometown to misty mornings and hot apple cider. Nonetheless, keep in mind that this book is more than just a light romance. It also deals with issues of generational trauma, grief, and self-worth.
Tell Me How This Ends
Book Summary
Thirty-two-year-old Henrietta once wanted to be a librarian, but now her work transcribing life stories for terminally ill patients is the perfect distraction from her own past. It typically allows her to separate fact from emotion, but when Henrietta meets 60-something Annie, who is both eccentric and terminally ill, she feels herself being drawn into Annie’s story.
When Annie reveals her sister’s mysterious drowning back in 1974, Henrietta begins methodically following the story’s loose ends. Annie, on the other hand, has long been afraid to look too closely into her murky memories of that terrible night. The push and pull between these two women will unearth a surprising emotional connection between them before it’s too late.
What to Expect in This Novel
Reviewers describe this novel as warm, heartfelt, uplifting, and even “cozy,” despite its serious subject matter.
The Academy
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Set over the course of one year at a New England boarding school, the mother-daughter writing duo of Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham introduces readers to an intertwined cast of characters inspired by Shelby’s lived experience attending a fancy boarding school in Rhode Island. Elin wrote the adult perspectives for the book (parents and teachers), while Shelby wrote key scenes from the student perspectives.
As students move in for the fall semester, America Today releases the newest rankings, and Tiffin Academy just jumped seventeen spots to number two. But how can that be when the dorms need to be renovated, the sports teams never win, and the students excel far more in their social lives than in their academics? On the other hand, Tiffin does boast a beautiful campus, small class sizes, and an acclaimed New York chef running the dining hall.
But something strange is definitely going on. One by one, scandalous items begin appearing on phones across the campus thanks to the new ZipZap app. It appears that everyone has something to hide – students and staff alike, from international influencer and resident queen bee, Davi, to Simone, to the young new history teacher and even the admissions director.
Read This Book If You Like…
This novel includes recognizable Dark Academia elements, but with a modern, ensemble-driven twist rather than the classic gothic-styled, brooding tone. Readers say that the mystery elements will keep you guessing, and that the story is perfect for fans of Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl, and Dead Poets Society.
If you enjoy novels set in the world of education, be sure to check out our full list.
A Time of Witches
Book Summary
After her mother’s death, Lilith Legare begins experiencing unsettling changes: animals seek her out, plants respond to her touch, and a mysterious birthmark tingles as recurring nightmares of being burned alive at the stake grow vivid. Searching for answers leads her from present-day Savannah to an English manor with a troubled history where the past begins to blur with the present.
In 1645 Suffolk, an educated, wealthy widow named Sybil Brantham faces accusations of witchcraft as suspicion spreads and her independent nature makes her a target.
What to Expect in This Book
Alternating points of view between two women separated by centuries, this novel blends historical fiction, family secrets, and magic in a story about silenced voices, betrayal, and women fighting to protect themselves.
Madeline Martin is the author of numerous other books that our readers have enjoyed, including The Librarian Spy and The Keeper of Hidden Books.
All the Colors of the Dark
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
All the Colors of the Dark crosses genres from literary fiction to mystery and even to romance as it follows the characters from their teen years in 1975 into adulthood.
In the small Ozarks town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family, Misty, is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy with one eye. Patch saves the girl, but this leaves heartache in his wake.
While Monta Clare was once a close-knit community, after this event, the town will never be the same. The trauma experienced by Patch, his friend Saint, and Misty will haunt them as they grow into adulthood. The trauma causes each character to make choices you may not agree with, creating many twists and a suspenseful vibe throughout the compelling story.
What to Expect in This Book
This novel is character-driven and is longer than your average mystery at 608 pages. However, the short paragraphs and chapters make the book feel faster-paced than you may expect.
A Brighter Flame
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Vale has long searched for a sense of belonging, and at twenty-nine, she was starting to hit her stride in the Pittsburgh bar she opened with her father, Bo. However, when a fire damages the bar and she learns the insurance hasn’t been paid, she’s back to square one.
Her grandmother, Iris, lets Vale return to her home in Philadelphia. However, she learns that her half-sister, Blythe, has already moved into the guest room amidst problems in her marriage. Everyone in the family brings their own complications, including Vale’s mother, Audrey, whom she hasn’t seen in years. This poignant novel is about family secrets, healing, and the hope of second chances.
The First Witch of Boston
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Margaret and her husband Thomas arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1646, eager to build a life in the New World with a child on the way. However, Margaret’s fiery personality is not well-regarded in the Puritan community. Soon, she is considered cunning and dangerous.
The unjust accusations even begin to affect the previously passionate and unbreakable love she shared with Thomas. Can their marriage survive Margaret’s trial for witchcraft?
Historical Context
This historical fiction novel is based on the true story and court records of Margaret Jones, the first person executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts, in 1648.
Before reading this book, be aware that, in addition to detailing Margaret’s trial and daily life in the colony, the author includes explicit details of her love life with Thomas. In addition to consensual scenes between Margaret and Thomas, the book includes more than one scene of rape.
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
While this book takes place on September 11, 2001, and the following days, it’s not the constantly devastating story you would expect. Instead, this heartwarming book recounts the experiences of countless passengers from some of the 38 planes that were unexpectedly diverted to Newfoundland – an island in Canada’s easternmost province – when US airspace was closed on 9/11. On that day, the small town of Gander, with a population of just 10,000, received more than 6,600 passengers from 92 countries. Ganderites, along with residents of the surrounding towns, opened the doors to the local churches, schools, and even their own homes.
Throughout this book, you’ll not only learn the personal stories of the passengers, but you’ll also learn a lot about life on this tiny, remote island and about the unexpected hosts who welcomed strangers from around the world with open arms and generous hearts.
Our Thoughts on This Book
We’ve both seen and loved the musical Come From Away, so we already knew some of the story, but we learned so much more from this book. The selflessness of the residents of Gander and the surrounding towns will warm your heart page after page. It is one of the most uplifting, faith-in-humanity-restoring books we’ve ever read. The audiobook, narrated by Ray Porter, is especially well done.
If you are looking for other books about September 11th, we have a full list of highly-rated and readable 9/11 titles.
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
94% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Looking for an eerie mystery that’s perfect for book lovers? This highly-rated debut novel follows a bookshop employee named Lydia, who ends up investigating the suicide of one of her bookshop regulars.
As Lydia delves into his past, she also uncovers a buried memory from her own violent childhood. This twisty crime thriller has a very creative puzzle element that will keep readers guessing.
More About This Book
Colorado-based readers will recognize the Bright Ideas bookstore as The Tattered Cover. The author was a bookseller at this Denver book institution during the 1990s and used the store as his inspiration.
The Once and Future Witches
Book Summary
Historical fiction meets magic and fantasy in this unique novel from the author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January.
The story centers around the Eastwood sisters – Juniper, Agnes, and Bella. They’ve been estranged from one another for most of their lives. But on the day of the equinox in 1893, the sisters all find themselves at the same suffragist rally in New Salem. Reunited, the sisters now fight for women’s rights, as well as the right to practice witchcraft.
Intermixed within this historical fantasy are a few well-known, real-life historical women from the Suffrage Movement, which lends a layer of realism to the fantasy elements.
Book Summary
Historical fiction meets magic and fantasy in this unique novel from the author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January.
The story centers on the Eastwood sisters – Juniper, Agnes, and Bella. They’ve been estranged from one another for most of their lives. But on the day of the equinox in 1893, the sisters all find themselves at the same suffragist rally in New Salem. Reunited, the sisters now fight for women’s rights, as well as the right to practice witchcraft.
Intermixed within this historical fantasy are a few well-known, real-life historical women from the suffrage movement, which lends a layer of realism to the fantasy elements.
Consider This Before Reading
This dark and moody novel is over 500 pages, so be sure to pick it up when you have the time to devote to it.
Take It From Me
Book Summary
Harper is a young author with one major bestseller under her belt, but now she’s in need of a career comeback. At her agent’s suggestion, she rents a house in New Canaan, Connecticut. Hiding her identity as an author from everyone she meets, Harper seeks to draw inspiration for a new novel about women in the suburbs.
Soon, Harper befriends her neighbor, an empty nester. It’s October, and Wendy’s son just moved away for college. She’s struggling with being all alone, but not just because she misses her son. Wendy is keeping a secret of her own—her struggle with kleptomania.
Our Thoughts on This Book
Angela was initially drawn in by the kleptomania/mental health focus of this novel, which was very well done. Ultimately, however, it was the intergenerational relationship element of this story that she enjoyed the most.
The Honeycrisp Orchard Inn
Book Summary
Ellie thought her career as a high-end event planner was going perfectly until she hit the worst twelve-hour period of her life. One night, her live-in boyfriend breaks up with her out of nowhere, and then the next morning, her boss fires her. Before she can begin to decide on the next steps, she gets a call from her mom asking if she’d be willing to come home and help plan their upcoming Harvest Festival. Her mom is shocked, but thrilled, when Ellie agrees.
She grew up at her parents’ inn, which is located on their friend’s idyllic apple orchard. The whole place is magical in the autumn, so the Harvest Festival is a great idea. But what Ellie didn’t know is that her childhood friend, Aiden, would be involved. And somehow her mom never mentioned that grown-up Aiden is VERY attractive.
Our Thoughts on This Book
Melissa already read and enjoyed this small-town romance, which brings fall vibes on nearly every page.
While the first 75% of the novel is a PG-rated Hallmark escape to the perfect town, there is an extended, steamy, open-door scene after that point.
If you enjoy fall romances and rom coms, be sure to check out our full list.
October in the Earth
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In Depression-era Kentucky, Del is the wife of the most celebrated preacher in Harlan County. She tries to lie low in her rigid life but can’t keep the status quo amid her husband’s infidelity. When a coal train comes through town, Del bravely jumps aboard in what she sees as her only chance for freedom.
As she travels across the country, she finds a new community among the other transient outcasts. Nomadic single mom Louisa quickly befriends Del and helps her learn how to live life on the rails. But the Depression is taking its toll, and desperate circumstances threaten their close bond.
The Witch’s Lens
Book Summary
While Petra’s husband is off fighting on World War I’s eastern front, she spends her nights roaming the city with her camera. Petra was born a witch, and she discovers that she can capture the souls of the dead on film. When Josef Svoboda begins recruiting a team of sorcerers to infiltrate the front lines, Petra’s supernatural skills do not go unnoticed. He needs her unique abilities to help identify the most dangerous enemy of all – the undead.
Venturing deep into the cursed Carpathian Mountains, the horrors Petra photographs are beyond anything she could have imagined. She wants to turn back, but not before she discovers her husband’s fate.
Geography & Genre Notes
The Carpathian Mountains span Central and Eastern Europe and are the subject of many myths and legends. The region is famously associated with Bram Stoker’s fictional Count Dracula, whose castle is said to be set in the Transylvanian Carpathians.
This unique novel is a mix of paranormal and historical fiction that’s perfect for fall reading in the lead-up to Halloween.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Book Summary
Jen is waiting up for her 18-year-old son to come home one night in late October. Through the window, she witnesses the unthinkable. Her son kills a man right there in the street outside their home and is taken into custody.
She goes to sleep that night, wishing it was all just a bad dream, and then she wakes up yesterday. The next day, she wakes up the day before yesterday.
Day after day, she wakes up another day earlier and has another opportunity to stop the murder if only she can figure out what caused her son to commit the crime in the first place.
Award Nomination
This time-loop book was a 2022 Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller.
A Fall of Marigolds
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries…and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made.
September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers, which was the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. But a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf may open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life.
Our Thoughts on This Book
Melissa chose this book during the first year of our Decades Reading Challenge, and since that time, nearly 100 of our readers have read it, with nearly all rating it highly. One reader states, “I really appreciated the juxtaposition of the fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers.”
Embers on the Wind
Book Summary
This book weaves together a haunting tale of past and present. In 1850 Massachusetts, Whittaker House was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Sadly, some people seeking freedom didn’t make it out alive – including Little Annie and Clementine.
More than a century and a half later, Whittaker House is now a vacation rental in the Berkshires. But many of those who visit the house are not there merely as tourists – they are contemporary Black women struggling to reconcile the legacy of slavery.
This haunted story is described as the perfect mix of history and paranormal suspense.
Thoughts on This Book
This is a short novel at just over 200 pages, but it covers a lot of ground – with many shifting points of view and storylines. If you prefer books written in a linear style, this one might not be a good pick for you.
HEADS UP: This book deals with many difficult topics, including rape and stolen babies.
Eliza Starts a Rumor
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Eliza is a suburban wife secretly struggling with a new, intense fear of leaving her house. She forces herself to go to the store in preparation for a visit from her college-age children. While there, she hears younger moms talking about a new local online forum for women. Eliza has run a similar group for years, but these strangers are calling her original group boring.
In a moment of desperation and weakness, Eliza starts a rumor about a new neighbor on her board to liven it up. But soon, the rumor has reached further than she expected.
Why This Book Made the List
This book is a great mix of comedy and drama about a group of neighbors overcoming their individual problems when they’re willing to share them and lean on other women.
Most of this book is set in the fall leading up to Thanksgiving, which ends up being the setting of a major revelation.
First Frost
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
It’s October, the temperatures are dropping, and the leaves are changing in North Carolina. Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture, Waverley’s Candies. She loves the way her specialty products heal others, but along the way, she’s losing herself.
Sydney Waverley has also lost balance in her life as she’s become singularly focused on having a baby. When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of the Waverley family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before. Along the way, romance is in the air.
About This Series
This magical realism romance is a follow-up to Garden Spells, but it takes place 10 years later. You need not have read Garden Spells in order to read and enjoy First Frost. However, if you’re planning on reading both, it’s better to enjoy them in chronological order.
First Frost was a Goodreads nominee for Best Fiction in 2015. You may also recognize the author from her 2022 hit Other Birds.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Weyward weaves together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, using a bit of magical realism along the way.
In 1619, Altha is awaiting trial after being accused of using witchcraft to murder a local farmer. She knows that she’ll need to use all her deep knowledge of the natural world if she wants to remain free.
In 1942, the world is at war. Violet longs for the education her brother receives in their grandfather’s crumbling estate, but as a girl, she’s not entitled to knowledge. Her mother was rumored to have gone mad, and the only connection Violet has to her is a locket and the word Weyward carved into the wooden floor.
In 2019, Kate is fleeing London in the dark and heading to Weyward Cottage. She inherited the ramshackle home with its overgrown garden from an aunt she barely knew. It’s given her the much-needed opportunity to escape her abusive boyfriend. However, she doesn’t know that the cottage has secrets dating back to the witch-hunts of the 17th century.
What to Expect in This Novel
While most readers rate this book highly, some have found the dark and atmospheric novel too heavy for their current state of mind.
Be aware that this book contains several themes that could be upsetting, including rape, abuse, stillbirth, and suicide.
One Two Three
Book Summary
The Mitchell triplets, Mirabel, Monday, and Mab, live in a small town with a terrible past of water-quality issues, which have led to numerous health issues.
Because the town has spent years in the national news, everyone is shocked when a new family decides to move in. When the family’s past connection to the town is revealed, it affects everyone, including all three sisters.
More About This Book
This novel was a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Best Fiction in 2021.
If you enjoy audiobooks, this one is well done, with different narrators for each sister.
Fall Book Club Books
The Echo of Old Books
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
97% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Ashlyn Greer is a rare-book dealer who loves the smell of old paper, ink, and leather. Old volumes appeal to all of her senses, including a sense the rest of us don’t have. She is gifted with the unique ability to feel the echoes of the books’ previous owners.
When Ashlyn discovers a pair of beautifully bound, unpublished volumes with no evidence of how they came to be, she gets wrapped up in a decades-old literary mystery. Each volume bears a curious inscription, as well as the emotional fingerprints of the authors, Hemi and Belle. The books tell conflicting sides of a tragic romance. The more Ashlyn learns about Hemi and Belle, the closer she comes to bringing closure to their love story, and to the unfinished chapters of her own life.
The Book Girls Say…
It’s perfect for book lovers and those who love a story within a story. This novel also delves into deeper historical issues, including anti-Semitism and the roles of women in society in the 1940s.
Alchemy of a Blackbird
Book Summary
This is a story of tarot cards and the way they impacted the dynamic female friendship between two now-revered real-life painters, Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. Both women began their careers as a muse for a man, but managed to become icons in their own right.
Remedios and her lover, a poet named Benjamin Péret, fled from the Nazis in Paris for Villa Air Bel, a safe house for artists on the Riviera. Along with Max Ernst, Peggy Guggenheim, and others, the two anxiously waited for exit papers to travel outside Europe. However, the longer they stay at the house, the more Remedios realizes that the others don’t see her as an artist, just as Benjamin’s beautiful inspiration. She begins to find refuge in a mysterious bookshop, where she stumbles into the world of tarot.
When Remedios and Benjamin finally receive the paperwork to travel, they head to Mexico and are reunited with fellow painter Leonora Carrington. Together, the women tap their creativity, stake their independence, and each finds their true loves. Tarot helps them discover their true subconscious and achieve success as Surrealist painters.
Keep This in Mind
The narrator changes throughout the book, so be sure to watch for the tarot cards at the start of each chapter. The name of the person retelling the story in the following pages is under each card.
Before She Finds Me
Book Summary
This psychological thriller features two strong female main characters who attempt to unravel a murder. Julia is helping her daughter Cora move into her new college dorm. While she is on campus with Cora, a tragic shooting occurs. Julia is able to get her daughter to safety, but she’s not sure if this was a random act.
Ren is an assassin and soon-to-be mother. Her husband, Nolan, is also an assassin, but they live by a strict set of rules. They only target the guilty while remaining dedicated to protecting the innocent and their own family. However, Nolan went rogue for his last assignment.
The story is told in the alternating viewpoints of Julia and Ren as they try to figure out who ordered the assassination at the college, and why.
The Book Girls Say…
If you enjoy the fall college setting of this psychological thriller, be sure to check out these other back-to-school themed books.
The Night Circus
Book Summary
The black-and-white striped tents appear overnight. There are no announcements or advertisements, and the circus – with its breathtaking amazement – is only open at night.
Two young magicians – Celia and Marco – have been trained since childhood by their two mentors. The Night Circus is the stage on which the two will compete for superiority, using all the powers they have been perfecting over the years.
What to Expect in This Book
This is a heart-wrenching love story with magical fantasy elements and memorable quotes throughout.
We also highly recommend The Magician’s Lie, which combines the historical fiction elements of Water for Elephants with the fantasy and magical realism elements of The Night Circus. In this novel, the country’s most notorious female illusionist is accused of her husband’s murder and has one night to convince a small-town policeman of her innocence.
If You Like This List, You’ll Love the Fall Challenge!
Our free self-paced reading challenge will keep you reading engaging books throughout the autumn season. To make it easy and fun, we include highly-rated book recommendations for each of the four fall reading prompts.
What Are Fall Books?
While both Book Girls always look forward to reading in our favorite season, we initially struggled to articulate our favorite types of books to read in the fall. So, we polled our Read with the Book Girls Facebook group! They helped us come up with a list of characteristics that make the best fall books. Of course, anything set in the fall was the easiest qualifier.
We also agreed that fall is a time for deeper reads after the lighter beach-read season. Thrillers, historical fiction with fantasy elements, and contemporary fiction with cozy fall vibes also made it to our fall reading list.
Our readers also recommend books with back-to-school themes and fall-themed romances and rom-coms. We have created stand-alone book lists for these themes, as well as a complete list of Fall Book Club Books.
Finally, the anniversary of September 11th, 2001, is a good time to read 9/11 books in remembrance of the lives cut too short that fall day.
More Fall-ish Authors
The list above includes our favorite cozy autumn books, along with the books at the top of our fall reading lists. However, there are a few other authors who consistently pen winners for this season. If you need more fall reads for your TBR pile, try Anthony Doers, Colson Whitehead, and Sally Rooney. Some even find fall the perfect season for romance novels by Nicholas Sparks.
More Fall-ish Authors
The list above includes our favorite cozy autumn books, along with the books at the top of our fall reading lists. However, there are a few other authors who consistently pen winners for this season. If you need more fall reads for your TBR pile, try Anthony Doers, Colson Whitehead, and Sally Rooney. Some even find fall the perfect season for romance novels by Nicholas Sparks.
Printable Version of this List
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More Autumn Book Recommendations
For even more cozy books to read in autumn, check out our other fall-themed book lists:
I’m constantly amazed at all you do for this website. Thank you so much. Because of your challenges, I am reading books that I never would have read before by authors new to me, some absolutely incredible.
Thanks for all the great monthly suggestions and commentary. I am a fan of Sarah Addison Allen and I think her books “First Frost” or “The Sugar Queen”would fit with the fall theme. She also has a new book being released on Aug 30, “Other Birds”.
Just read Into the Darkest Corner, based on your recommendation. I am a thriller lover and this one was excellent. You know what what is coming, but the author’s build-up is so well done that you remain on pins and needles waiting for it. Thank you for the title.
We’re so glad you enjoyed it!
The book about the people and what they did in Gander, Newfoundland was the most uplifting and best feeling ever. Those people and that country should have received the Nobel Peace Award.
I feel a strong sense of fall every time I read the first couple of chapters of A Wrinkle in Time. It’s cozy, mysterious, and there’s a hint of ripe apples in the air.
Oh, great suggestion!
So very happy to see West With Giraffes on this list! I’ve been recommending it to everyone since I read it in January – it and American Dirt are my favorite books of the last 5 years. This is the first time I’ve seen it on any of the bazillions of “lists” I read. Kudos!
Thank you for the list, I’ve added more books to my TBR list.
And, my gosh, Fall of Marigolds, so good, my favorite book this year! .
Too many good choices! My library request list just grew a ton. Thanks for the recommendations.