Fall is my favorite season for so many reasons, one of which is that I finally get to break out my favorite clothing items: sweaters and boots. Of course, in NC, Fall is still a long time coming, but you know, pumpkin spice lattes are back! (I don’t particularly like them, but it’s one step closer to snickerdoodle hot chocolate being back on the menu so I’ll be less reliant on finding a worker who knows how to make it year round!) Anyway, what Fall also means is that there are some extremely exciting books coming out in the next few months. So let’s jump into my list of books I am so excited for!
Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore
Out on September 3, 2019, Bringing Down the Duke is Dunmore’s debut and I was fortunate enough to win an ARC from Goodreads and Berkley! I personally really enjoyed this one as you’ll see in my full review, which will be posted on release day. Essentially, this book follows our heroine who is on a scholarship at Oxford and that scholarship requires her to actively support women’s suffrage. The main focus of the book is on the suffrage movement, not so much Oxford, and so she encounters a grumpy Duke walking with a purpose and interrupts him (how dare she!) and then we’re off to the races. I really love watching buttoned up men come undone and that’s exactly what we have in this one. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!
Release Date: September 3, 2019
Well Met by Jen Deluca
My best friend went to SDCC and brought me back an ARC of this book too that is signed and personalized! She read it before sending it to me and absolutely adored it so that’s another endorsement for this Renaissance Faire romp. It’s also a hate to love trope between buttoned up English teacher Simon and go with the flow English lover, Emily. I also loved this one. I think Emily is such an interesting character. She dropped out of college to support her ex-boyfriend’s dream of going to law school and then he changed the deal on her. I think she’s just fascinating because we never really see that in romance. My biggest qualm with this book is that it is super white. Like, it’s weird because it’s just so noticeable? Setting that aside, the book itself was really, really lovely. Oh, CW though, Simon is struggling with grief about his brother’s death.
Release Date: September 3, 2019
Work for It by Talia Hibbert
September 3rd truly is an embarrassment of riches because we also get Work for It by Talia Hibbert, another hate to love book, this time a m/m. Talia’s first foray into m/m, though not (by a long shot) her first queer couple. This book is about a grumpy village outcast, Griffin, and Olu, who is a world traveling rich guy that we’ve met before. It’s also hate to love, so ya girl is realllllly excited.
Release Date: September 3, 2019
Archangel’s War by Nalini Singh
I just had to erase a very long string of exclamation points, because that’s how I really feel about this release. To be fair, that’s how I always feel about a Nalini Singh release. But truly, the end of Archangel’s Prophecy about destroyed me, so I’m beyond ready for the next installment in Nalini’s Guild Hunters series. Also, still looking for more information on whether Bluebell and Aedon are romantically involved. (I say yes, but I want it CONFIRMED. Also a book for them. PLEASE.)
Release Date: September 24, 2019
Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell
Look, RR is not necessarily the best person (doubling down on Eleanor & Park is a problem), so forgive me for being overwhelmingly excited about Wayward Son. I’ve been in RR’s mentions a few times a year asking about a sequel to Carry On since it’s release. And now we are FINALLY getting one. I could cry, I’m so excited. Also, the British copy has the most beautiful sprayed edges, I honestly can’t even handle it. This book continues to follow the adventures of Baz and Simon, who are basically a very, very AU Harry and Draco and ya girl is stoked about it.
Release Date: September 24, 2019
Aurora Blazing by Jessie Mihalik
Speaking of books I just want to leave a string of exclamation points about, this book is FINALLY so close to being in my hands and I want to cry. Polaris Rising is one of my absolute favorite books that I’ve read this year so I am beyond stoked for the sequel, with what looks like a second chance hate to love kind of situation? Or at least a bodyguard and guardee romance. And either way, I can’t freaking wait to read more about Bianca. Just basically, launch me into space because I need this book in my hands right now.
Release Date: October 1, 2019
American Love Story by Adriana Herrera
I’m going to have to counterbalance the odd amount of m/m I’ll be reading in this three month span of time with some sapphic reads, but I am really excited to read American Love Story, which features Patrice and this prosecutor from Ithaca. I am truly so excited to read this book because Herrera is so brilliant at crafting characters with full lives. I am continually impressed by the way she juggles such a large cast of characters, but it’s so realistic and similar to the way we as real life people live our lives. The community Herrera builds feels authentic and real, without overwhelming readers with a whole host of people we can never remember. Also, this release falls within Latinx Heritage Month, so if you haven’t tried Herrera, I would definitely recommend you pick her up now!
Release Date: October 7, 2019
The Art of Theft by Sherry Thomas
I loved The Hollow of Fear and was so excited with the direction I thought the series was going, and then I hit the last 50ish pages and now I’m more in an “If someone doesn’t give me this book right now, I am going to banshee scream for the next month and a half” kind of place. So I’m re-reading the series because WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING? I love this series and it caught me off guard how much I do because, honestly, it was just wildly unexpected given my slow (molasses slow) progress through the first 150 pages or so of The Study of Charlotte. Anyway, I love this series and definitely would recommend.
Release Date: October 15, 2019
Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren
I have an ARC of this, but I’m terrible and still haven’t read it yet even though I almost died when I got the ARC. But I assure you, I will have read this by release date so that you can have my full thoughts in a full review at that point. In the meantime, what I know is that the beginning of this book focuses on our love interests in high school (or at least high school age) and they fall in love and then fall apart. Then we revisit them years later and they are having a second chance at love, but one of them is particularly reluctant about it.
Release Date: October 22, 2019
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
In contrast to the above, I did not have the patience to wait on my ARC of Get a Life, Chloe Brown so I’ve already read and absolutely adored it. You’ll see my full review on release date or a few days before, I forget when I scheduled it. Regardless, Talia’s first Avon published novel still carries her trademark humor, real life characters, and sex scenes that will make you blush (or at least, they made me blush). Chloe Brown is a plus sized black woman with fibromyalgia and she’s maybe snapped at a few of her neighbors resulting in the building’s super really only seeing her in some of her worst moments. Red is a former artist serving as a super because he’s kind of hiding and healing from his prior life. When Red catches Chloe in a tree trying to rescue a cat, things sort of take a turn between them and he agrees to help her with her “get a life” list. If you need CWs, my Goodreads review does have the ones listed that I noted.
Release Date: November 5, 2019
Honorable Mentions
Beard with Me (9/16) and Beard Necessities by Penny Reid (11/4) – m/f, part of the Winston Brothers series, and featuring Billy and Claire FINALLY
Frost and Ice by Gena Showalter – m/f, paranormal romance, out September 17, 2019
No Judgments by Meg Cabot – m/f, hopefully you’ll have an ARC review of this posted around release day, September 24, 2019
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo – adult grimdark fantasy out on October 1, 2019
Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory – m/f, older characters, hopefully you’ll have an ARC review posted around release day, October 1, 2019
The Kingmaker by Kennedy Ryan – m/f, part one of All The King’s Men duet, no idea what it’s about, but who needs to know that when it’s Kennedy? Anyway, it’s out October 27, 2019
The Rebel by Kennedy Ryan – m/f, part two of All the King’s Men duet, out November 18, 2019
The Bromance Book Club by Lissa Kay Adams – m/f, marriage in trouble, new release from Berkley out on November 5, 2019Night of the Scoundrel by Kelly Bowen – m/f, historical out on November 26, 2019
And there you have it! Is there anything I’ve forgotten? Honestly, probably, so please tell me what you’re excited about below!
xx
firewhiskeyreader 