The seasons are changing, and as the leaves on the trees fall away so too do your TBR piles. Even if you’re a mood reader, it’s nice to have some book options you know you can count on. Whether it’s scary dark thrillers or warming stories about love, we’ve got the perfect recommendations for all your spooky, cozy, holiday fall reading needs.
Ski Weekend by Rektok Ross
On their senior ski weekend, the last thing Sam wants to do is hover over her brother and his frustratingly hot friend to keep them from getting into trouble. But boys become the last of her worries when their SUV crashes, and the six teens and the dog they brought are stranded in the mountains with little-to-no resources and quickly dropping temperatures. As her brother’s smashed leg makes him spike a temperature and get worse, Sam swears that she’ll keep him alive… no matter the cost.
These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall
After her recent client, Nadia, dies from apparent suicide, curio shop owner Mickie decides to honor her last wish and curate a digital scrapbook of the souvenirs Nadia had collected: a music box, hair clip, and key chain. Then she starts receiving threatening message to stop digging into Nadia’s past, and Mickie realizes someone else must care about Nadia’s trinkets, too. She commits to solving the mystery, which may mean crossing paths with a serial killer and intertwining her own past with Nadia’s.
When Sparks Fly by Helena Hunting
Avery Spark is too busy working on the hotel her family owns and spending time with her friends, sisters, and roommate Declan to even think about a relationship. But after a brutal car accident, Avery learns that you can’t ignore a spark. Declan, the indirect reason for the accident, commits to being her caretaker, and in their compromising positions the attraction they’ve refused to acknowledge becomes apparent. With Avery’s busy life and Declan’s avoidance of relationships, their love is fragile and in danger of being put out completely.
On Location by Sarah Echavaree Smith
After climbing the production ladder at TV’s top outdoor travel channel, Alia has finally nailed her dream inspired by her late apong’s passion for the outdoors: produce a series about Utah’s national parks. Nothing can break her focus, except maybe her newest crew member who also ghosted her two weeks ago, Drew. It’s not long before tensions are building and feelings come up, but then a rogue host threatens the whole shoot, and Alia must rely on Drew to help save the show.
The Mad Women’s Ball by Victoria Mas
It’s 1885, and the talk of the Parisian town is Dr. Chacot’s Lenten ball—the Madwomen’s Ball—a time for society’s finest to come gawk at the patients of Salpetriere Asylum. Only the patients are more like victims – most are just girls who have lost their way or were born from adulterous relationships and must be locked away out of family shame. One such patient is Eugenie, a 19-year-old who sees spirits. Her nurse, Genevieve, has motives of her own to help Eugenie escape, and together they seek to break down the walls of the asylum and gender.
Cold Snap by Codi Schneider
Village cat Bijou may have Viking ancestry, but for now she spends her energies running a quiet inn nestled in a remote village with her human Spencer and spacey assistant Skunk. Then Eddy, a handsome baker from California, comes along and shakes things up. While Spencer falls in love, Bijou and the rest of the town are upset, and then a murder/dognapping occurs to top it all off. Bijou finds herself at the center of a mystery that she’ll need to tap into her Viking heritage to solve and save her human.
All These Bodies by Kendare Blake
It’s the Summer of 1958, and a gruesome murderer is leading police on a trail of bloodless bodies. Only no one knows why the bodies are drained of blood, or who the killer is. But the investigation finally has a lead when Marie Catherine Hale, a diminutive fifteen-year-old, is found at the latest crime scene. Enter Michael Jensen, the town sheriff’s son and an aspiring journalist. When Marie stubbornly decides that she won’t talk to anyone except Michael about what she knows, it’s up to him to piece together the truth.
Beneath the Veil of Smoke and Ash by Tammy Pasterick
Eastern European immigrants Janos and Karina Kovac feel like they should be prospering in America in 1910, but instead the same problems continue to haunt them. Janos is exhausted from a decade of twelve hour shifts seven days a week at the local mill when he realizes that there are people at the mill that pose greater danger than the job itself. Meanwhile, Karina escaped being groped in the run-down ethnic neighborhood only to be expected to perform the duties of both housekeeper and mistress in the modern home of a mill manager. As panic and fear build into an explosive end, Janos must fight to save and rebuild his family.
White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson
Marigold thinks she’s finally escaped her ghosts by moving with her family from their small California town to the Midwestern city of Cedarville. But the picture-perfect home they’ve moved into has its own secrets, namely household items that vanish, doors that open on their own, lights that turn off, shadows that walk past room, voices in the walls, and a foul smell that only Mari notices. The real fear kicks in when Mari’s little stepsister, Piper, keeps talking about a friend who wants Mari gone – making her realize that try as you might, your ghosts will always haunt you.
Litani by Jess Lourey
Fourteen-year-old Frankie Jubilee feels like she’s been dropped into a nightmare when she’s taken to live with her estranged mother who she hardly knows. Right away she can feel something is off: in the small town of Litani, her mother warns her to stay away from the woods and the locals whisper about The Game. Determined to find out what’s going on, Frankie follows the bully girls who invite her to The Game, and when paranoia and hysteria erupt, she realizes she might be living among monsters.
After Perfect by Maan Gabriel
Gabriella thinks she’s living domestic perfection with her husband of sixteen years. But when he asks for a divorce and their last twenty years together crumbles just like that, Gabby realizes she’s got to stand on her own. Single for the first time since she was a teenager, she makes New York City her oyster, goes back to school, gets her first real job, and soon falls in love with creative writing professor, Colt. Seven years her junior, though, Colt has his own demons, and Gabby worries that she’s being set up for more heartbreak.
Trashlands by Alison Stine
In an apocalyptic wasteland of the future, Coral is a “plucker,” harvesting garbage and plastic (the new currency) in a dump alongside a strip club where the club’s violent owner acts as unofficial mayor. In this polluted hellscape, Coral desperately wants to save up enough to escape and rescue her child from the recycling factories where he’s forced to work. And she may just find her way out when a reporter arrives in Trashlands and, seeing Coral’s art, presents her with an opportunity to change her life.
Christmas in Peachtree Bluff by Kristy Woodson Harvey
The Murphy sisters know that when times are tough, they can always turn to their mother, Ansley. And their troubles are only beginning when oldest sister Caroline divorces her husband and leaves her daughter Vivi with Ansley in Peachtree Bluff while she clears her head. Add to that the “storm of the century” with Vivi’s recklessness and soon Ansley, her husband and Vivi are stranded in place while the sisters are separated from them in New York. Suddenly it’s the Murphy sisters who need to save their mother, and soon they must work together to rescue their family and their beloved town.
I Was Never the First Lady by Wendy Guerra
Nadia has relied on the proponents of revolution in the hopes for a better future after her mother left when she was ten years old. Instead, Cuba has stifled her rebellious and artistic desires, since the radio show she DJs is censored every night by the government. Then Nadia embarks east on a scholarship to study in Russia – and to find her mother and real father. As she learns more about her family, Nadia’s fate inextricably links to that of Celia Sanchez, an icon of the Cuban Revolution.
He Gets That from Me by Jacqueline Friedland
As a single mother also supporting her live-in boyfriend, Maggie is struggling to make ends meet while dreaming of a better future for her family. So, when she discovers an ad offering thousands of dollars to gestate a family’s baby, she feels like it’s an offer she can’t pass up. And after carrying a New York couple’s twin babies and handing them over, she’s able to earn her degree, snag an amazing job, and build her family. But there’s a catch when, ten years later, the fertility clinic calls for a follow-up DNA test.
Paper Airplanes by Tabitha Forney
Erin’s dream life changes forever when, while she’s drinking margaritas on a beach in Mallorca on September 11, she hears a plane crash into the World Trade Center – the building her husband Daniel works in. After haunting Ground Zero and surrounding hospitals and plastering the area with missing-person flyers, she finally accepts Daniel’s death. But Erin struggles to get her life together and sinks to rock bottom in a sea of pills and alcohol. Then she realizes it’s up to her to either let her life die with Daniel or find new meaning after happily ever after.
For All Time by Shanna Miles
Two teens have lived a thousand lives together and endured their same fate each time. Tamar has been a musician, a warrior, a survivor; Fayard a pioneer, hustler, and hopeless romantic. No matter what each lifetime looks like – whether it’s civil war or taking to the stars – their love story is tragic, without ending. When they finally learn what it’ll take to break the cycle, will Fayard and Tamar make the sacrifice?
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Will they or won’t they? In classic Sally Rooney style, this is the story of Felix and Alice, of Simon and Eileen. All four of them have trauma wounds that uniquely affect how each behave in relationships. As they rotate through the same cycles of self-sabotage that keep them from being happy, they contemplate love, sex, and the world, all while wondering if any of it matters or if all of it matters.
The Name Curse by Brooke Burroughs
At the trailhead of an Alaskan hike, two unlikely wanderers find frustration, then solace in each other. Bernie has felt stagnant since her father died, and although she’s not one for outdoors, she knows she needs a fresh perspective. Matthew, a struggling screenwriter, craves inspiration for a new project and to process the reappearance of his absent father. Dismayed at having to share a tent with their conflicting personalities, Bernie and Matthew then find empathy and perspective in each other – and maybe even other feelings, too.
It All Comes Back to You by Farah Naz Rishi
When Amira and Faisal announce to their respective siblings that they’re dating, the reactions couldn’t be more opposite. Amira’s sister Kiran has been overprotective over her ever since their mother died and wants to keep her family close together no matter what. Faisal’s brother Deen is relieved that Faisal has found a great girl to start over with – partially because he feels responsible for Faisal needing a restart in the first place. Oh, yeah, and Deen and Kiran also dated each other three years ago in secret. This, coupled with shadows in Faisal’s past that Kiran discovers, makes her determined to keep the lovebirds apart… But the chemistry between Deen and Kiran hasn’t exactly fizzled.
Ready to escape to nature with your new favorite read? Book your Getaway today.