Every season is reading season, but with the season of pumpkin spice, falling leaves, and cozy flannels right around the corner, it seems like the perfect time to curl up with a good book. Whether you fancy an alluring mystery or a charming coming-of-age, there is something for you! Here are some Autumn books that will make you forget your troubles and allow you to hide away in a different world for a little while.
Begin Again by Emma Lord
Andie transfers to a new school after her first semester at community college, moving to Blue Ridge state to get a degree in psychology. Andie is known as a “fixer” who focuses on solving other people’s problems, but when she arrives, everything falls apart. Her long-term relationship with her boyfriend starts to crumble, she can’t help her roommate find a major, and all of a sudden her cute RA Milo is everywhere – making her feel things she shouldn’t be feeling. Andie’s new college experience is filled with scavenger hunts, trivia nights, and new friends, but she also faces the challenge of finding her true self and dealing with her own problems so that she can move forward in life. This one is for all of us who feel a little lost this season or just need a heart-warming story about family, love, and the complicated process of growing up.Â
In this book you will find: a main character to root for, complex family life, the cutest group of friends, the theme of self-discovery, Taylor Swift references, an anonymous radio station, and probably one of the best love interests out there.Â
The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Avery Grambs doesn’t know why she was summoned to the reading of the will of billionaire philanthropist Tobias Hawthorne – a man she has never met. But when he leaves her virtually his entire fortune, she is thrust into a family that revolves around money, power, and puzzles. Forced to reside in Hawthorne House, filled with secret passageways and mysterious grandsons around every corner, Avery soon realizes she has to play the game in order to survive. Perfect for your dark academia Autumn, filled with charismatic love interests (plural) and puzzles that will keep you on your toes, The Inheritance Games is one you will not be able to put down.
It’s giving: riddles, love triangle, jilted family members, emotionally unstable teens, dangerous bad boy, mind games, and SHORT CHAPTERS.
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
Taking place at a dark academia esc boarding school in Illinois, If We Were Villains centers on a group of seven friends who revolve around one another and the immoral things they do. As tensions between friends grow and a seemingly unbreakable bond fractures into something dark and sinister, one of them ends up dead and one of them ends up accused. M.L. Rio uses references to Shakespeare and the allure of the theater as the backdrop as these characters navigate the chaos and drama that ensues. Relationships are tested, accusations are made, and above all, the search for the real truth begins. If you want a consuming book with an intricate plot and heart-stopping character development to curl up with on a rainy fall afternoon – you just found your next read.
Perfect for: Shakespeare lovers, theater lovers, murder story lovers, dark academia lovers, character driven story lovers, and book lovers in general.
Heartstopper: Volume 1 by Alice OsemanÂ
This graphic novel follows two characters at a British all-boys grammar school whose paths unexpectedly meet, and they are thrust into an unlikely friendship. Charlie Spring is an openly gay Year 10 overthinker, who is sat next to rugby star Year 11 classmate Nick Nelson in class. What starts as friendship quickly begins to bloom into something more, causing chaos and confusion for both Charlie and Nick. From rugby games and cute hangouts, to more serious topics about finding who you are and being confident in your relationships, Alice Oseman crafts a beautiful love story that you will quickly get invested in – and it’s a series! If your fall season is about growth, new beginnings, love, and change, Heartstopper is the fall Book for you. Plus, there are absolutely adorable falling leaf graphics.
Read this if you like: golden retriever characters, black cat characters, golden retriever and black cat couples, graphic novels, love stories, banter, Alice Oseman, and a diverse cast of supporting characters who will make you fall in love with them too.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Blue Sargent comes from a line of women who are all psychic, except for her, whose only “power” is the ability to amplify others. Every year she watches with her mother as people who are about to die walk past her, but this year is the first time one of them talks to her. She soon realizes he is one of the Raven Boys, the name for the boys who go to the local private school and who Blue has vowed to stay away from, knowing they will only bring trouble. But she can’t stay away for long. She falls into a group of four Raven Boys: Gansey, the leader who is searching for a magical place called the “ley line”, Adam, the brooding scholarship kid, Ronan, the one who is quick to anger, and Noah, the sweet quiet protector of the group. Blue knows Gansey is going to die soon – and she has also been warned her whole life that she will cause her true love to die. This book is for your spooky and paranormal-filled fall, bringing you on an alluring journey that spans four novels.Â
Warning: found family trope, ghosts, very atmospheric, a little romance but not too much, ideal for Halloween, privileged rich boys, a loner girl, and gallons of angst.
Enjoy reading, of any kind, this season!