While reading shouldn’t be confined to a single season, fall is unofficially the time of year when you should definitely pick up a book if you haven’t already. Whether it’s a classic or romantasy, here are five books to add to your fall TBR. Keep reading for some jaw-dropping quotes and personal reviews of some of my favorite fall reads. Don’t worry, no spoilers here…
#1: My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney
Synopsis: Artist Eden Fox returns home from a run to her Cornish coastal house, Spyglass, only to find that her key no longer fits. A woman who looks just like her answers the door, and her husband, Harrison, claims that the woman is his real wife—leaving Eden locked out and questioning her own sanity.
Quote: “Everybody lies, and everybody dies. Those are two of the only things you can be certain of in an uncertain world.”
Review: This book left me in shambles. No one can be trusted, and your sense of reality is shattered as the story unfolds. The audiobook’s immersive narration gives literal chills. Am I even who I thought I was? Who knows at this point… Did the ending piss me off because of how dumbfounded I was? Yes. But that shouldn’t stop you from experiencing the journey I went through.
#2: An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister
Synopsis: An Academic Affair is a romance novel about two literature professors who go from bitter academic rivals to lovers.
Quote: “I had a doctorate in literary studies, but I did not have the words to explain what it felt like to be looked at to be perceived.”
Review: Nothing I love more than when two people who dedicate their lives to academia can’t find the words to express their love for one another.
#3: Bride by Ali Hazelwood
Synopsis: A paranormal romance novel about an arranged marriage between a Vampyre and a Werewolf that grows into a deep romance while uncovering a dangerous conspiracy.
Quote: “I would take anything she chose to give me—the tiniest fraction or her entire world.”
Review: Did I think I would be into a romance about alpha males, shifting, and knotting (please don’t look up what this means)? No. But this book really got me sweating in all different ways. Be aware that it’s a spicy book, of course; Ali Hazelwood is a queen in that area, but the stakes will have you flipping through those pages like there’s no tomorrow.
#4: The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Synopsis: A 1992 dark academia novel that follows an eccentric group of classics students at Hampden College in Vermont.
Quote: “I suppose there is a magnificent purity as well as a terrible beauty in the act of keeping a secret.”
Review: I haven’t read this book, and unfortunately, it’s been on my fall TBR for years. However, I’ve heard only great things about it. Described as eerie and tragic, this book is the perfect classic to add to your TBR, and hopefully, you’ll finish it before I do.
#5: A Court of Splintered Harmony by Sarah J. Maas
Synopsis: The sixth book in Sarah J. Maas’s bestselling A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) fantasy series.
Quote: “We are here,” the shadows whispered in his ear. “We are always here.”
Review: Since this book is unreleased, I have no review. But whatever Sarah releases, I eat up, and Azriel is my man, so I fear this book is already five stars, maybe even six.