Growing up, I was always an avid reader. I was always in the library, trying to find something new and interesting that would satiate my hunger for words. In fact, I credit my love for reading as to why I went into the field of communications in the first place. When I went to college, however, I somehow got away from reading. I got busier, between school and my social life. It was something that made me sad, but every time I did sit down to read, I just couldn’t concentrate on what I was reading.
Recently, that has changed.
I have been reading almost nonstop. If I have any free time, you can usually find me curled up on the couch in the sunroom with my nose in a book or reading on my phone. My goal this year was to read 12 books -- one each month. I have read over 30! And there are so many more that I would love to get my hands on!
As the days get colder, the notion of curling up by the fire with a hot cocoa nearby seems more and more alluring. Cozy pants, cozy blankets, and a cozy book makes a cozy, happy me.
So, here is my reading wish list for the fall. I have compiled a list of ten (ish) books (or series) that I would like to have read by the end of the season. I’m not sure if I will get around to reading them all, as my life is significantly busier in the fall, but we’ll see.
I have heard raving reviews for this trilogy and I have finally given in and decided to read it. The three books -- Gild, Glint, and Gleam -- are available through Kindle Unlimited, which you can access through any device that supports the Kindle app.
Gild synopsis:
The Fae abandoned this world to us. And the ones with power rule.
Gold.
Gold floors, gold walls, gold furniture, gold clothes. In Highbell, in the castle built into the frozen mountains, everything is made of gold.
Even me.
King Midas rescued me. Dug me out of the slums and placed me on a pedestal. I'm called his precious. His favored. I'm the woman he Gold-Touched to show everyone that I belong to him. To show how powerful he is. He gave me protection, and I gave him my heart. And even though I don't leave the confines of the palace, I'm safe.
Until war comes to the kingdom and a deal is struck.
Suddenly, my trust is broken. My love is challenged, and I realize that everything I thought I knew about Midas might be wrong.
Because these bars I'm kept in, no matter how gilded, are still just a cage.
But the monsters on the other side might make me wish I'd never left.
Trigger warning: this book contains explicit content such as mature language, violence, and non-consensual sex.
Kingdom of the Wicked synopsis:
Two sisters. One brutal murder. A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself... And an intoxicating romance.
Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe - witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family's renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin... desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister's killer and to seek vengeance at any cost -- even if it means using dark magic that's been long forbidden.
Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia's side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women's murder on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems...
With the fifth and final book in this series being released later this month, I feel it is a great time to begin the series. This also I won't have to wait a year for the next book to come out.
The Kingdom of Runes series consists of five books: Oath Taker, Curse Breaker, King Maker, Light Singer, and Dark Bringer. These books are available for free with the Kindle Unlimited subscription.
Oath Taker synopsis:
Light magic is forbidden.
Dark magic spells death.
Haven has both.
After the Prince of Penryth saved her from captivity, seventeen-year-old Haven Ashwood spends her days protecting the kind prince and her nights secretly fighting the monsters outside the castle walls.
When one of those monsters kidnaps Prince Bell, Haven must ally with Archeron Halfbane and his band of immortals to rescue her friend.
Her quest takes her deep into the domain of a warped and vicious queen where the rules are simple: break her curse or die.
Lost in a land of twisted magic and fabled creatures, Haven finds herself unprepared, not just for the feelings she develops for Archeron, but for the warring powers raging inside her.
Her rare and forbidden type of magic may be their only hope... but mixing light and dark comes with a steep price:
Haven's soul.
Faced with impossible love, heartbreaking betrayals, and a queen intent on destroying the realm, only one thing remains certain.
Haven must shatter the curse or it will devour everything she loves.
What? A standalone novel and not a series? Yes, that does seem to be the case. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue has been on my to-be-read list for a long time, and fall seems like a great time of year to finally get to it. I have heard that if you enjoy the movie The Age of Adeline then you will enjoy this book.
Synopsis:
A life no one will remember. A story you will never forget.
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young women makes a Faustian bargain to live forever-- and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
Two standalone novels? I know, I know. I am just full of surprises. Not only does Girl, Serpent, Thorn seem to have a kick-ass, go-get-them-girl plot, but the cover is so the right combination of feminine and bad-ass to hit that sweet spot of me needing to read it.
Synopsis:
There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it's not just a story.
As the day of her twin brother's wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she's willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man who isn't afraid of her, whose eyes linger not with fear, but with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison.
Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming... human or demon. Princess or monster.
These Violent Delights synopsis:
The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.
A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang-- a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette's first love... and first betrayal.
But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns -- and grudges -- aside and work together, for if they can't stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.
The Last Magician synopsis:
Stop the Magician.
Steal the book.
Save the future.
In modern-day New York, magic is all but extinct. The remaining few who have an affinity for magic -- the Mageus -- live in the shadows, hiding who they are. Any Mageus who enters Manhattan becomes trapped by the Brink, a dark energy barrier that confines them to the island. Crossing it means losing their powers -- and often their lives.
Esta is a talented theif, and she's been raised to steal magical artifacts from the sinister Order that created the Brink. With her innate ability to manipulate time, Esta can pilfer from the past, collecting these artifacts before the Order even realizes she's there. And all of Esta's training has been for one final job: traveling back to 1902 to steal an ancient book containing the secrets of the Order -- and the Brink -- before the Magician can destroy it and doom Mageus to a hopeless future.
But Old New York is a dangerous world ruled by ruthless gangs and secret societies, a world where the very air crackles with magic. Nothing is as it seems, including the Magician himself. And for Esta to save her future, she may have to betray everyone in the past.
Synopsis:
Edward Fosca is a muderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike -- particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.
Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana's niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.
Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?
Onyx & Ivory synopsis:
They call her Traitor Kate. It's a title Kate Brighton inherited from her father after he tried to assassinate the high king of Rime.
Cast out of the nobility, Kate now works for the royal courier service. Only the most skilled ride for the Relay and only the fastest survive, for when night falls, the drakes -- deadly, flightless dragons -- come out to hunt. Fortunately, Kate has a secret edge. She is a wilder, born with forbidden magic that allows her to influence the minds of animals.
And it's this magic that leads her to a caravan massacred by drakes in broad daylight -- the only survivor Corwin Tormaine, the son of the king. Her first love, the boy she swore to forget after he condemned her father to death.
With their paths once more entangled, Kate and Corwin must put the past behind them to face this new threat and an even darker menace stirring in the kingdom.
Synopsis:
The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity, are the foremost secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation. Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person's inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality -- an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications. When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society's archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will. Most of them.
Have you read any of these books already? What did you think? What books are on your fall TBR list?
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