I love a summer beach read but fall will always be my favourite reading season. When the days grow shorter and the leaves start to fall, there’s nothing better than finding a cozy corner to curl up with a warm drink, a fuzzy blanket and a good book!
My reading recommendations for the best books to read fall 2026 include recently published or soon-to-be-published contemporary fiction, historical fiction, romance, and mysteries/thrillers that I have already read or that are on my own TBR list for this fall.
Enjoy your fall reading!
Note: I read across a lot of genres and I only choose books that I have already read or plan to read over the coming weeks for my book lists. If I haven’t yet read the book when I publish the book list then I include the blurb provided by the publisher and update the article with my own thoughts after I read it. I also make a conscious effort to try and include diversity in the books I choose to read. Some of the buzziest books of the season are on my lists but I hope I also introduce you to some titles that you might not have heard of otherwise.
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1. Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel
Setting: Locations including future Los Angeles, Greece and Paris
FROM THE PUBLISHER: Los Angeles, 2031: The first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw from the city, the Jacaranda trees blossom, and the curfew is finally lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate pass the gauntlet of bomb-sniffing dogs, the shanty towns, and the Red Cross tents as they walk across Silverlake to a party. The mood is ecstatic inside the apartment, people drink and dance, a woman wears a silver dress, pleated like tinfoil. And then: A shift. A bewildered twin, an uncanny doppelganger stumbles through the crowd and out into the night, and Kareem, the party’s host, vanishes into thin air.
As Ari Waker unravels the mystery of this inexplicable night, Emily St. John Mandel unfurls a story that takes us from a future America splintered by civil war to the seaside cliffs of Greece where weapons dealers hide in an elegant resort, and from the domed city of Paris to a colony on the moon. An unforgettable literary feat, Exit Party is a novel about the price of safety, the perils of the surveillance state, a requiem for a world not unlike our own, and a breathtaking story of resilience in the face of cataclysmic change.
2. Partita by Barbara Kingsolver
Setting: A farm in Tennessee and other locations
FROM THE PUBLISHER: Livia Cable has made her peace with her marriage and modest livelihood in the farm country where she grew up, until a shocking phone call from an old lover shakes her to the core. Decades earlier, this man knew her as Livia Bohusz, a music conservatory student estranged from her home and family, uncertain of anything except her passion for music and promise as an extraordinary pianist. His request, now, to see her again stirs up ghosts she’s kept at bay for a lifetime.
Shifting between past and present, Livia’s decision to meet or reject the reunion means confronting step by step, in memories framed as musical dances, the experiences of childhood loss, abandonment, self-immolating passion, and perilous attachment to a man who broke her belief in love and ruptured the course of her life.
3. Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus
Setting: New York City
Batter Gray, named for an exceptionally-talented family dog and raised by a historian father and a mother who is an expert on typesetting, has had a passion for poetry from a young age. Despite his parents’ hopes that he would launch a career in a more stable field, Batter heads to New York City as a recent college graduate with his “ear for poetry” and, after a stint working at The Gap, he lands a dream job with prestigious poetry journal Peck & Peck. Batter thought he had been hired for a Junior Editor position but is relegated to the basement copy room where he soon finds himself caught in the middle of a war between current Editor-in-Chief Salton Peck and his twin brother who had previously held the position at the head of the journal.
The incredible success of her debut Lessons in Chemistry is a hard act to follow but Bonnie Garmus has written a sophomore novel that is just as quirky and original as the first.
Set in the early ’80s in New York City, Peck & Peck is a charming coming of age story but there’s much more to it than that – it’s also a literary mystery, a satire, an appreciation of the importance of poetry and the arts in general and there’s even a bit of romance. It’s witty, there’s a cast of unforgettable characters who are flawed but loveable and, as in Lessons in Chemistry, there’s a dog who is an undeniable favourite. 400+ pages and a bit slow in the middle but still such a captivating story – I had no idea where it was heading throughout much of the novel but thoroughly enjoyed the delightful journey and the satisfying ending that pulled it all together!
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
4. The Barman of the Ritz by Philippe Collin
Setting: Paris, France
Inspired by real events, this historical fiction novel is an international bestseller that was originally published in French and has now been translated into English.
Frank Meier is the head barman at the glamorous Ritz Hotel which remains open during the Nazi occupation from June 1940 through to the Liberation of Paris in August of 1944. Frank was born Austrian and learned the barman trade in New York City as a young man before returning to Europe and fighting for France in the Great War. Prior to the occupation of Paris, Frank counted patrons Hemingway, Fitzgerald and the other artistic types that frequented his bar among his friends but now he’s serving up conversation along with his famous cocktails to the Nazi elite. Frank, however, has a dangerous secret that he must hide at all costs – he is Jewish.
This is a well-researched and compelling historical fiction novel about life in occupied Paris and the choices that ordinary people had to make in very difficult circumstances. The story is told in the third person, however, interspersed in the narrative are fictional excerpts from Frank’s diary which provide insight into his thoughts. Frank is a fascinating and morally ambiguous protagonist. Is he a collaborator? Could his efforts to help other Jews be described as part of the resistance? This is a thought-provoking read that will prompt readers to consider the choices they might make in similar circumstances.
There are a lot of characters in this novel with several pages at the front of the book listing them all. I had some trouble keeping the Nazis straight so appreciated having the list as reference. At the end of the book there are also photos of the real people featured in the novel and information about what happened to them post-war which was quite interesting.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing an ARC of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
5. The Undercover Bookshop by Katherine Reay
Setting: The Cotswolds, England
The Undercover Bookshop is the story of an observant young woman who loves detective novels and gets caught up in a real life spy drama in post World War II England.
Recently moved from London to a small village in Oxfordshire, Gemma Brown settles into the community making friends and catching the eye of a handsome young constable while also using her love of mysteries to organize a small bookshop in the general store and a village book club. Gemma is also determined to learn how to bake and convinces Mrs. Beurton, the village’s star baker and subject of much gossip, to give her lessons. As the lessons progress, however, Gemma starts to suspect that Mrs. Beurton might be up to no good.
Is Ursula Beurton a spy or is Gemma’s imagination getting away with her? With Peggy, her new best friend and faithful sidekick, Gemma is compelled to investigate and get to the bottom of this mystery herself.
The novel takes place primarily over the winter of 1950 in a small village in the English countryside (although there is a prologue and epilogue set decades later in 1991). I was drawn to this because it’s set in that interesting time period post-World War II when recovery from the war was ongoing and the Cold War era and the perceived threat associated with the Red Scare was in its early stages.
Before reading this book, I hadn’t heard of Ursula Kuczynski Beurton who was an actual German woman who spied for the Soviet Union during the ’30s and ’40s before fleeing England for East Germany in 1950 where she later wrote about her espionage activities under the pen name Ruth Werner. I enjoyed this fictionalized account of the circumstances surrounding her escape to East Germany as I love reading historical fiction where I learn something and which inspires me to do some further reading!
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse for providing a digital ARC of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
6. Solace in Winter by Mary Lawson
Setting: Small town in Northern Ontario, Canada
FROM THE PUBLISHER: It is deep winter, 1969. As the Vietnam War drives young men north across the Canadian border, widower Jack’s quiet life is overturned by two accidents that happen on the bend in the road into town. First comes a dog in a bad way. Next a draft dodger, seriously injured, lying in the snow. Suddenly, Jack’s cabin is busy with a growing cast of characters—and all the baggage, dreams and desires they’re carrying.
The atmosphere chills when Jack’s daughter Sally drops by one day and doesn’t like what she sees. What Sally does next changes everything, for everyone but herself.
This exquisite snow globe of a novel is a refuge, a story of connection and moral complexity set in the beloved world of Mary Lawson’s bestselling, prize-winning Crow Lake, The Other Side of the Bridge, Road Ends and A Town Called Solace.
7. Stations by Louise Kennedy
Setting: Ireland
FROM THE PUBLISHER: In 1980s Ireland, Róisín and Red bond as only two precocious and disaffected teenagers can. Soon he is privy to the secret source of her shame and anger: the father who’s abandoned her and her mother to their damp house and never-ending strife. But what does Róisín know about why Red avoids going home to his own posh parents and house—the house he soon flees forever?
When a Christmas visit to her father reveals the devastating truth of his new life in London, Róisín tracks down Red and moves into his Pimlico squat. But the path he is now on is a disturbing one, and gradually they drift apart. And yet the great, never-consummated passion of her youth remains a visitation upon the years that follow. Will Róisín ever stop longing for Red? Will she ever learn to let someone else love her—or learn to love herself?
8. American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee
Setting: Southern California
FROM THE PUBLISHER: In schools and churches, hotel rooms and nail salons, law firms and fried-fish shops; in cramped, dingy apartments and luxury, gated communities, the men, women, and children in American Hagwon struggle to find satisfaction and meaning in a world that seems to grow less forgiving with each passing year. Once comfortably middle class in Korea, John and Helen Koh and their three children―Bo, DH, and Mido―find their lives upended, first by a shocking betrayal by John’s oldest friend, then by the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Desperately striving to regain their footing, they leave Seoul for Sydney and eventually settle in Southern California―where new vistas of opportunity open up for the children as their parents, strangers in a strange land, must adjust to a new life in which their experience and education mean little, and they set their sights on whatever it takes to provide for their children’s futures. The Kohs, their friends, relatives, and even their foes move in and out of each other’s lives as they navigate new courses across the years, always nursing the almost all-consuming faith that education will lead the next generation to success and security.
In American Hagwon, Min Jin Lee has crafted an unforgettable, panoramic novel where the smallest of gestures can have enormous repercussions, where the bonds of family and of memory twist and fray but rarely break, and where willful self-sacrifice―for the benefit of loved ones and even strangers―is a kind of prayer.
9. The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon
Setting: Ireland
The Pirate Queen is the epic story of Grace O’Malley (Gráinne Ní Mháille in Irish), a legendary warrior from 16th century Ireland whose father was The O’Malley, chieftain of his clan. Grace is beautiful and headstrong with a passion for the ocean and taught to sail as a young girl even though it goes against expectations. When she comes of age, her father marries her off against her will to Donal O’Flaherty, the brutal future chieftain of another clan, but, after raising her family, Grace returns as a widow to lead the O’Malley fleet of ships that controls trade on the Irish seas.
This is a well-written, thoroughly researched and richly imagined historical adventure about an Irish woman that most readers will not be familiar with – a slice of Ireland’s history from the perspective of one woman who was a fierce leader who defied expectations.
It’s a rollicking tale of adventure and I thoroughly enjoyed it but it does require focused reading. The story is told in three alternating time periods inspired by the Celtic Trinity knot and representing three stages of Grace’s life (Maiden, Mother and Matriarch) and the non-linear structure with three separate timelines can be a bit confusing to keep straight. (Lawhon suggests in the author’s note that anyone who wants to read it a second time do so chronologically). There are a lot of characters as well so I referred to the family tree at the back of the book a lot as well as to the glossary of Irish words.
This one is for readers who enjoy compelling historical fiction based on real life heroines who have been consigned to the margins of history, appreciate exhaustive research and don’t mind a large cast of characters.
10. The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw
Setting: United States
FROM THE PUBLISHER: From the moment Scharisse Freeman ditched her humble roots and married a megachurch pastor fifteen years her senior, she’s been labeled too brash and too “of the world” by church folks who grudgingly accepted her into their fold, and too holy by her estranged childhood bestie Petra. Schar doesn’t have many allies, but that hasn’t stopped her from building an enviable business empire spanning books to clothing to branded products, and living the comfortable life her husband’s power affords her.
On the eve of her 40th birthday, Schar gets the final bit of validation she’s always dreamt of: a coveted invitation to participate in the First Lady USA pageant. This is her chance to be accepted by the other pastors’ wives—First Ladies—who are “like Jesus’ disciples if they had been a group of mean girls.” Finally, blissfully, the ice between Schar and the other First Ladies begins to thaw.
But as the pageant nears, a sensational scandal breaks with Schar at its center, and her carefully curated life implodes. Schar faces down shame and terrible secrets from her childhood and is reminded that in the eyes of the church, optics can matter more than the truth.
Unflinchingly funny, frank, and splendidly unruly, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman exults in the luscious, messy pleasure of finally feeling free.
11. The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies by Kate Westbury
Setting: Oxford, England
1951 – The Honourable Ginevra Bishop, daughter of a viscount, is following in her late mother’s footsteps by beginning her studies at Oxford University and eager to prove that she’s more than just a debutante. Her brooding classmate Sidney Braithwaite grew up in a mining village and is trying to free himself from traumatic war memories. After the death of a professor, the unlikely duo of Ginevra and Sidney are recruited by the British Security Service (MI5) to help them track down a Soviet spy operating on campus.
This debut novel is a fun historical mystery and espionage story set against the backdrop of post-WWII Oxford University in England with a hint of potential romance between the two main characters. I loved the Oxford setting and both main characters, the mystery kept me guessing and it ends with a bit of a tease that this could be the start of a series which I’m hoping is the case.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a digital ARC of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
12. O Now! by Niall Williams
Setting: Small fictional village in Ireland
Publication Date: November 10, 2026
FROM THE PUBLISHER: Mossie Crowe, known as “Ganga,” is that rare man who is beloved by everyone who knows him and is particularly cherished by his best friend, Bat. On one ordinary October day, Bat interrupts their usual evening tea to ask Ganga why God created the earth. But when Ganga passes away that night, Bat finds himself at a loss, without his friend and without an answer to his question. Over the next days, as all of Faha comes to care for and honor the body of the man they loved, Bat begins a new journey towards understanding life, death, and love.
A tender exploration of life’s many meanings, O Now! is a perfect gift for readers who loved Niall Williams’ previous Faha novels and features an all-new essay from Niall exploring Faha’s creation and legacy.
13. The Newer World by Sebastian Barry
Setting: United States
Set in the United States in the 19th century, this is the story of Tennyson Bouguereau, a Black man born into slavery who has recently been freed. The story begins with Tennyson living on a farm in rural Tennessee with his twin sister Rosalee and a few others. Following the Civil War, Confederate sympathizers take control of his region of the state and Tennyson flees to Nashville to attend a recently established religious school for Freedmen. While there, he joins a choir and tours the U.S. and abroad, develops a friendship with another choir member named George, and falls in love with a woman named Minnie. In the final part of the book, Tennyson and George join the army and are sent to the American West to fight the Apaches.
The Newer World is a sweeping narrative of a formerly enslaved man telling the story of his life over the course of several decades following the Civil War in the U.S. The Confederacy lost the war and those who were enslaved are free, however, the way they are treated in the South doesn’t change much. In beautiful, lyrical prose, Tennyson narrates the story of his personal hardships which mirrors the collective story of racism, violence and trauma endured by Black Americans in the American South before, during and after the Civil War.
This is the first book that I have read by Sebastian Barry and I hadn’t realized that it is the third in a historical fiction trilogy set in the United States. I thought it was fine as a standalone but I understand that much of the first quarter of the book is a quick summation of events of the previous two books where Tennyson was a minor character and it might have been better to have read them first.
14. Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason
Setting: A small unspecified city
37 year-old Sophie loves her job working as a tech person at a literary festival but her life has otherwise fallen apart in recent months. She’s separated from her husband who callously told her to move out of their home while she was in the shower and now she’s living in a dingy flat that he owns. The collapse of her marriage meant an end to fertility treatments as well as her dreams of being a mother and she has been avoiding her best friend.
Reading is the only thing that brings her solace and Sophie becomes obsessed with a famous author – devouring her books, listening to her on podcasts repeatedly and having imaginary conversations with her. Sophie begins to think of the author as a friend and even falls in love with her a bit. Then a last minute cancellation leads to the author arriving to headline the literary festival where Sophie works.
A touching and insightful story about a lonely and isolated woman who, in the midst of a breakdown, becomes thoroughly invested in a parasocial relationship with a famous author. It’s a beautifully written and compelling read about heartache and the power of connection and, although the ending was a bit of a letdown for me, I quite enjoyed the book.
15. Something About September by Julia McKay
Setting: Fictional small town north of Toronto
Rebecca Macintosh, a literature professor at the University of Toronto, takes a month-long leave of absence to return to her small town and deal with her late grandmother’s run-down diner and apartment which have been closed up over the year since her death. There are some necessary renovations that need to be done before she can list the property for sale and the only available contractor is Cort Adams, the star football quarterback who she had a crush on in high school who’s now the devoted single father to a young son.
This is a sweet second chance romance set in a charming small town north of Toronto. A light read where not much happens but with cozy fall vibes that are idyllic.
16. The Queen of Roses by Julia Kelly
Setting: California
FROM THE PUBLISHER: 1960: Frustrated reporter Theresa Johnson’s life changes when she receives a phone call from a Miss Pearce who claims her obituary about one of Pasadena’s last great hoteliers is wildly inaccurate. Seeking the truth, Theresa drives to the mysterious Rosewood House nestled high in the Altadena foothills. Even more intriguing than the house’s beautiful garden is Miss Pearce’s proposal that Theresa help her settle old scores by writing her biography.
1903: Beautiful but haughty, Adele Pearce is reluctant to leave the London Season and her last hope of a proposal. When she arrives in California, she discovers the startling truth of why her mother has called her there: her father has squandered his fortune and Adele must marry a wealthy American to save the family.
Stifled by expectation as Pasadena’s newest doyenne, Adele’s only comfort is Rosewood House and the beautiful garden she creates with the help of taciturn gardener Alexander Macalister. However, as Adele’s feelings for Alex flourish, a fire ignites in the San Gabriel Mountains above Rosewood House, threatening everything Adele holds dear, while in 1960, Miss Pearce learns that history has a terrible habit of repeating itself.
17. Switzy by Emma Cline
Setting: On a plane over the Atlantic, London, France, Zurich
Retired executive David Hastings, accompanied by his assistant Cody, is on a private plane en route from his home in the U.S. to an appointment in Zurich. He’ll be making two stops along the way – the first in London to visit his adult daughter from whom he is largely estranged and then across the border from Switzerland in France to make amends with a friend from his boarding school days who he hasn’t spoken to in decades.
David has amyloid plaques on his brain and carries a notebook where he tries to keep track of what he needs to remember but no longer recognizes his own handwriting and, over the course of his final days, fragments of memories from his past intrude on the present.
Longlisted for the Booker Prize, Switzy is a moving stream of consciousness-style narrative that gives readers access to the inner monologue of a man with dementia over the final days of his life as he travels to a facility in Zurich for an assisted death. Hastings has reached the stage of his illness where he needs assistance navigating daily life but the procedure has to be done while he is still sufficiently lucid to consent. The author captures the disorientation that those with Alzheimer’s presumably feel and it’s very unsettling as a reader to be in the thoughts of someone whose mind is failing. It’s unbearably sad and also difficult to contemplate being in the same situation oneself yet still a captivating read.
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18. Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley (Agatha Christie)
Setting: The Swiss Alps
High in the Swiss Alps, accessible only by a single, winding railway, stands the luxurious Grand Alpine Hotel known for spectacular views and exclusive skiing. The hotel’s guests include a British politician and his society wife as well as a notorious movie star and others including a polite, unassuming woman from an English village watching from the shadows. When a body is discovered and a blizzard cuts off access to town, it will be up to Miss Marple to connect the clues before the killer strikes again.
Approved by Agatha Christie’s estate, this new Miss Marple mystery is narrated from the point of view of several characters. It’s an enjoyable “closed room” mystery and, like Agatha Christie’s novels, I had no idea who had done it. It is a bit slow moving as the murder takes place in the book’s prologue but then the plot goes back two days and doesn’t catch up to the time of the murder until almost halfway through the book. Once the first murder has happened then the plot begins to move much faster and the mystery is more compelling as a result. I also would have appreciated more Miss Marple on the page but overall this was a good read and the author did a great job of channelling Agatha Christie.
19. The Birthing Tree by Amanda Peters
Setting: Nova Scotia
FROM THE PUBLISHER: Born under the shadow of a birthing tree sacred to generations of Mi’kmaq women, Aliet Paul grows up outside a small Nova Scotia town with her fierce, loving grandmother Kiju. Her mother died bringing Aliet into the world under that very tree; her father remains a mystery no one will name. Aliet’s childhood is shaped by seasonal apple pickers, the medicinal wisdom of the old ways, and the quiet, steadfast presence of John, a boy who becomes her anchor.
But the world beyond their community is changing. Traditional midwifery is condemned, prejudice deepens, and when the wrong person witnesses a birth, the consequences are disastrous. As Aliet comes of age, she navigates love, loss, and a personal tragedy that veers her from the path her grandmother wanted for her. She becomes a nurse trained in modern medicine, yet she carries Kiju’s teachings close, tucked beside memories of the tree that once welcomed new life.
Years later, when the call comes that Kiju has died, Aliet returns home to a crumbling house, a community scattered, and a past she thought she’d outrun. As Aliet restores the house room by room, something inside her stirs awake: the threads of her lineage, the old ways of her grandmother, and the mystery of her own bloodline.
As Aliet digs to uncover who her family really is, each revelation pulls her deeper into a web of long-guarded silences, dangerous loyalties, and generational wounds that refuse to stay buried: Someone knew the truth about her mother’s final moments. Someone knew what happened in the orchard all those years ago. And someone wants the past to remain undisturbed.
Spanning decades of loss and reclamation, this sweeping yet intimate novel follows one woman’s journey to protect the land, the traditions, and the memory of the women who came before her—and to decide which parts of her inheritance she will carry into the future.
20. The Survivor’s Guild by Gabriella Saab
Setting: New York City
In 1912 two women from very different backgrounds board the Titanic sailing to New York City. Nabiha (Bea) Nohra is travelling to the U.S. to find work and earn the money necessary to bring her family from Lebanon to join her. Marguerite Ashby is sailing home to New York to celebrate the engagement to an English Lord that will secure her new-money family’s place in New York’s “society” which favours old money.
When the Titanic sinks, Bea saves Marguerite’s life and after the two women are pulled aboard a lifeboat, a small baby boy is handed into their care. Upon arrival in New York, Marguerite returns to her parents’ home with the baby and Bea as his nanny and the two women work together to form a charitable committee with the goal of locating the baby’s family as well as aiding other survivors of the Titanic disaster.
An enjoyable historical fiction novel set during the Gilded Age in New York City about the unlikely friendship between a socialite and a new immigrant which is told from the alternating perspective of the two main characters. It was interesting to read about what life might have been like for the survivors of the Titanic disaster once they arrived in the U.S. although it’s more about the status of women and the limitations they faced at the time, class differences and the hardship faced by new immigrants with a bit of society drama and romance thrown in.
21. Experiments in Offline Dating by Kat MacKenzie
Setting: Ireland
FROM THE PUBLISHER: Maya Davis is chronically terrible at dating. So much so that she’s turned her catastrophic dating experiments into a full-time job. Hellbent on dating “offline” for her second podcast season, Maya travels to Ireland to meet the world-renowned local matchmaker, and gets set up on a slew of horribly funny meet-ups that are exactly the type of comedy gold she was looking for.
At the town’s annual Matchmaking Festival, Maya wins a blind date with a surly local sheep farmer. But while she’s had every bad date in the book, nothing could have prepared her for the apocalyptic, full-body-cringe that is the worst date of her life!
All she wants to do is forget it ever happened, but when the mischievous matchmaker talks her into a whirlwind dating adventure, he fails to mention that it’s with the one person in Ireland that she just can’t stand – her blind date catastrophe!
Trapped together, Maya and Tadhg journey across picturesque landscapes and green countryside until their constant verbal sparring feels increasingly like chemistry. And the more time they spend together, the more Maya begins to wonder if perhaps she’s not so catastrophic at love after all.
22. Music Against the Night by Yiyun Li
Setting: Ireland, India, England, France, and Russia
FROM THE PUBLISHER: In Dublin, as the eighteenth century nears its end, a young musical virtuoso comes of age. John Field, an awkward and sensitive child, is preternaturally gifted, and his family has visions of him becoming the next Mozart. His talent takes him far―to England, France, and then Russia, where he becomes a famous pianist and composes dreamy, languorous melodies that enchant the night air. John calls them nocturnes, but the prodigy who immortalizes them is Chopin.
Oceans away in Pondicherry, in French India, Adelaide Percheron has a startling rise of her own. Orphaned at a young age, she is raised by her imperious, enterprising grandmother. Her cousins give her the name Percherette, an impish reminder that despite their shared relations, Adelaide is not one of the crowd, owing to her parents’ differing ancestry. Without a connection to aristocracy or the luxury of riches, only marriage seems to offer prosperity―until she sets her sights on a pianoforte. Driven by her secret love of music and a desire to see the world, Percherette engineers her exodus, escaping to Paris and later to Moscow, as Napoleon’s army sets out to conquer the continent.
23. The Foreign Correspondent’s Wife by Jenna Helwig
Setting: Paris, France
Kasia (Kat) Kelly is living in post-World War II Paris with her husband Charlie who is a well-known foreign correspondent with a large American newpaper. Kat is fiercely independent and a former reporter herself who was forced out of the profession by the old boys’ club when men returned to the U.S. from fighting overseas and is now attending culinary school in Paris. When one of her fellow students is found murdered, Kat and Charlie soon find themselves embroiled in the case and Kat can’t help but conduct her own investigation.
I enjoyed both the setting and the time period of this historical mystery and the mystery itself kept me guessing. The pace might be a tad slow for a mystery but I didn’t mind as I enjoyed the historical aspect of the book on what was happening in Paris during the period following the war as life slowly started to return to normal. This is a debut novel and I’m not sure if it’s intended to be a standalone but it could make for a fun historical mystery series.
Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing a digital ARC of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
24. Dodge City by Patrick deWitt
Setting: Cross country road trip – Los Angeles to New York City
Lee Clarke receives a draft notice after expulsion from UCLA for hitting another student results in the loss of his deferment status. Wanting no part of fighting in the Vietnam War, he decides that the only reasonable option is to flee to Canada. Lee sells his possessions to fund his journey and agrees to drive a brand new Jaguar to the East Coast for a car-delivery service and then will continue on to Montreal from there. Leaving his girlfriend behind in L.A., Lee hits the road with a bag full of pills on a circuitous route that has him making stops in Washington State, Montana, Minnesota and New York City to visit his father, mother, brother and sister saying his goodbyes to his family, his country and the life he has known.
Set in 1967, Dodge City is a wry yet melancholic story of a young man on a draft-dodging cross-country road trip fueled by amphetamines. It seems like it would be a classic road trip novel but it’s really more about family and relationships – Lee thinking about his decisions, his relationships, and the life he’s leaving behind and attempting to reconnect with the dysfunctional family that he has been avoiding for the past few years.
I liked the premise of this book and it was enjoyable but I didn’t love the writing style particularly the dialogue. It was my first time reading this author and I’m not sure this book was for me, but definitely worth reading.
25. Whale Harbor by Mary Beth Keane
Setting: Ireland, England, Montana and New York
FROM THE PUBLISHER: 1960s, Ireland. In the wake of tragedy, a father makes choices for his eleven grieving sons. The older brothers will emigrate to England for work, while the younger ones will stay behind. The second eldest, Macdara, is offered a job on a Montana cattle ranch and sets off. His spirited younger brother Rian begs to come along and Mac promises to bring Rian to America as soon as he’s old enough. But then one day Mac gets a call that Rian has gone missing. His disappearance will haunt Mac and his family across decades.
Spanning lifetimes and continents, Whale Harbor is “tender, immersive, and exquisitely written” (Florence Knapp, author of The Names) with award-winning author Mary Beth Keane’s signature wit, eloquence, and attention to the emotional resonance of family, brotherhood, and the choices that echo across generations.
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