With it getting darker that much earlier each evening and a definite chill in the air, it’s the perfect excuse to curl up with a good book – or several – and there are some incredible new books to add straight to the top of your TBR list this month.
From romantasies and fantasies to horror, a spot of sci-fi, and a new Jack Reacher novel, we’ve got you covered, whatever you’re in the mood for. Missed October’s roundup, or want to see more of my bookish recommendations? You’ll find them right here.
I've also found a brilliant 3 for 2 deal at Amazon that includes some of my top picks for the month, alongside a brilliant new Audible deal that you may find hard to resist.
Brimstone by Callie Hart
Release date: November 18
What if there was a way to save your loved one from pain and suffering? Well, Grace Walker’s debut novel posits that exact question. With her mother’s mind and memories starting to fade due to Alzheimer’s, Amelia signs them both up to take part in the world’s
first experimental merging process for Alzheimer’s patients. It will see her mother’s ailing mind be transferred into Amelia’s healthy body and their consciousness blended as one. I mean, what could go wrong?
They soon join a group of other partners participating in the merge. There’s teenage Lucas who plans to merge with his terminally ill brother Noah, Ben who will merge with his pregnant fiancée Annie, and Jay, whose merging partner is his unwilling addict daughter Lara. But as they prepare to move to the luxurious rehab centre for those who have undergone the process, they quickly begin to question what is going on and if everything is really as it seems. We love the sound of this one.
Exit Strategy: A Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child
Release date: November 4 (UK) - November 11 (US)
Fans of the Reacher books – as well as the hit Amazon Prime TV show of the same name – will no doubt be thrilled to know that there’s a new story dropping this month. And even though it’s the 30th book in the series, it’s still as thrilling and captivating as ever.
Jack Reacher will make three separate stops today, however, they weren’t all planned. He starts his day, like many of us might, in a coffee shop. He takes a seat in the corner, facing the door and other than a minor interruption from two of the customers, there’s nothing of note. That’s until a young man brushes up against him in the doorway as he goes to leave. Instinctively Reacher checks his pocket, but nothing is missing. Next on his list of errands, buying a new coat. Yet when he pulls out his cash to pay for it, he finds something new in his pocket. A handwritten note with a desperate plea for help. Impressed by their technique and intrigued by the message, Reacher makes it his mission to find out exactly what’s going on.
Fallen Stars by Imani Erriu
Release date: November 25 (US) - November 27 (UK)
The first in what will be a duology, Adrienne Young’s Fallen City transports us to the great walled city of Isara. And when a rebellion that has been brewing for one hundred years finally ignites and the city is thrown into complete chaos, our two protagonists find themselves on opposite sides of a holy war
Luca must carry on his family name, maintaining its presence in the Forum, while Maris faces a lifetime of service to a corrupt city after being raised within the inner workings of the Citadel as a Magistrate’s daughter. Yet, a chance meeting between the two will threaten the fate of the very city that is keeping them apart. Can they find their way back to one another? And why are they at the centre of a story the gods themselves are writing? Thankfully, we don’t have long to wait until we find out.
The Place Where They Buried Your Heart by Christina Henry
Release date: November 4
Just because Halloween is over for another year doesn’t mean that you have to forgo all things horror, and Christina Henry’s The Place Where They Buried Your Heart is a haunted house story like no other. We’ve all probably heard an urban legend, or two, when it comes to an abandoned house. But the old McIntyre place has a much more sinister history, and not just because it was the place where a father murdered his entire family and himself.
After Jessie dared her little brother Paul to go inside the ominous house, he never returned and his two friends, Jake and Richie – who he brought along with him – say that the house ate him. And with Jake emerging with his arm literally torn off, could the house actually be alive and an entity of its own? As Jessie grows up and finds herself unable to leave the street, Paul’s disappearance isn’t the only mystery to blight the house and she and her neighbours start to realise that a darkness is spreading from the house and there might not be a way to stop it. I just finished reading this and it had me hooked the whole way through.
The Same Backward as Forward by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Release date: November 6
Keeper - Movie Review