Fall is just around the corner and that means sweater weather, changing leaves, pumpkin spice everything and curling up with a good book to enjoy the change of seasons! And, fortunately, there are so many excellent Fall 2025 book releases to choose from!!
My recommendations for the best books to read Fall 2025 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 TBR for this fall.
Happy 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. Wreck by Catherine Newman
Setting: Western Massachussets
Publication Date: October 28, 2025
FROM THE PUBLISHER: If you loved Rocky and her family on vacation on Cape Cod, wait until you join them at home two years later. (And if this is your first meeting with this crew, get ready to laugh and cry—and relate.)
Rocky, still anxious, nostalgic, and funny, is living in Western Massachusetts with her husband Nick and their daughter Willa, who’s back home after college. Their son, Jamie, has taken a new job in New York, and Mort, Rocky’s widowed father, has moved in.
It all couldn’t be more ridiculously normal . . . until Rocky finds herself obsessed with a local accident that only tangentially affects them—and with a medical condition that, she hopes, won’t affect them at all.
2. The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner
Setting: London, England
A disturbed young man breaks into Alice Rathbone’s upscale home in London while she is hosting a playdate with two other families. He grabs a large kitchen knife and heads toward the room where Alice’s nanny and the children are watching television and Alice kills him when she panics and hits him over the head with a barstool.
Alice is cleared in the investigation but can’t move on as she is drawn to the mystery of who her intruder really was – even in the face of disturbing online comments, mysterious phone calls telling her all is not as it seems, and small items disappearing from her home. As her perfect life unravels, Alice continues to dig until she uncovers a trail of dark secrets leading close to home.
Told from multiple points of view, The Break-In is a twisty, suspenseful pageturner and I could not put it down. This is Faulkner’s third psychological thriller centred around mothers in various London neighbourhoods (Greenwich Park and The Other Mothers were the first two) and I’ve enjoyed all three – and am definitely looking forward to whatever comes next!
3. And Then There Was You by Sophie Cousens
Setting: England
Publication Date: November 18, 2025
FROM THE PUBLISHER: Stuck in a PA job and living at home with her parents after a painful breakup, thirty-one-year-old Chloe Fairway isn’t where she wants to be in life. The last thing she needs is to face the people who once voted her “most likely to succeed” at her upcoming ten-year college reunion. And she definitely doesn’t want to see her former best friend, Sean Adler, who is now a hotshot film director living the life Chloe dreamed of. Desperate to make a splash—and to save face in front of the man who might be the one that got away—she turns to a mysterious dating service.
Enter Rob, her handsome, well-read, and charming match, the perfect plus-one to take to her reunion. The more she gets to know him, the more perfect he appears to be. Could it be that this dating service knows what she needs better than she knows herself? And can she overlook the one big catch? As Chloe reconnects with old friends, she begins to question everything she thought she wanted. Maybe, just maybe, revisiting the past is exactly what she needs to move forward.
4. The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell
Setting: England
Tess Bright and Hugh Balfour are playing the leads in an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and are filming on location in England. It’s the role of a lifetime for Tess who is trying to revive her career and also honor her mother who was the biggest Jane Austen fan but things aren’t going so well on set with Hugh, a serious British method actor with several BAFTA nominations who scoffs at Tess’s Teen Choice awards.
Sparks fly between the two in the worst possible way when they suffer an electrical shock during a thunderstorm while in costume and wake up in a field in Jane Austen’s era. Two hundred years in the past and with only each other to rely on, Tess and Hugh have no choice but adlib their way through Regency England trying to find their way back to the 21st century without changing history.
This is a fun enemies to lover romance with a time travel element that was a creative twist – I love anything Jane Austen so this was right up my alley! There’s one spicy scene that I thought was a bit cringe but apart from that is was an enjoyable read.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sending a digital ARC of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
5. Deeper Than the Ocean by Mirta Ojito
Setting: Canary Islands, Cuba, New York, Key West
Publication Date: November 4, 2025
One hundred years after the shipwreck of the Valbanera, known to history as the “poor man’s Titanic,” Mara Denis gets an assignment to report on the Canary Islands, where, she has been told, her ancestors lived before they moved to Cuba. Unexpectedly, she discovers that the grandmother her mother cherished was listed among the dead of the Valbanera, years before Mara’s mother was even born.
This fateful twist changes everything Mara thought she knew about her family and herself, and sends her on a quest to find the truth about her family. If her great-grandmother is a ghost, who is she and where did she come from?
6. The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin
Setting: London, England
London 1895 – Three women receive a mysterious invitation to afternoon tea at the home of the elusive Lady Duxbury (a thrice-widowed countess whose husbands’ met untimely deaths) – Eleanor Clarke, a devoted mother married to a wealthy tyrant; Rose Wharton, the American wife of an aristocrat struggling for acceptance in London society; and Lavinia Cavendish, a 19 year-old with an artistic soul who wants her family to accept her for who she is.
Lady Duxbury proposes that her guests join her in forming a secret book society and invites them to borrow books from her extensive collection and to meet regularly at her home. Over the following months, the four women develop a deep friendship as they share their love of reading as well as their secrets.
Told from multiple perspectives, this was a captivating historical fiction novel about four women from varied backgrounds who are all frustrated with the limitations placed on them by society and by the controlling men in their lives.
A story about friendship but also about the institutionalized misogyny and the woeful lack of rights for women in Victorian England with a particular emphasis on the practice of labelling women as hysteric and committing them to asylums to get them out of the way.
It’s an enjoyable and informative read – just don’t expect light historical fiction about a ladies book club as this is a much darker look at the subjugation of women in the 19th century.
7. The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes by Chanel Cleeton
Setting: Boston, Havana, London
London, 2024: American expat Margo Reynolds is renowned for her talent at sourcing rare antiques for her clients, but she’s never had a request quite like this one. She’s been hired to find a mysterious book published over a century ago. With a single copy left in existence, it has a storied past shrouded in secrecy—and her client isn’t the only person determined to procure it at any cost.
Havana, 1966: Librarian Pilar Castillo has devoted her life to books, and in the chaotic days following her husband’s unjust imprisonment by Fidel Castro, reading is her only source of solace. So when a neighbor fleeing Cuba asks her to return a valuable book to its rightful owner, Pilar will risk everything to protect the literary work entrusted to her care. It’s a dangerous mission that reveals to her the power of one book to change a life.
Boston, 1900: For Cuban school teacher and aspiring author Eva Fuentes, traveling from Havana to Harvard to study for the summer is the opportunity of a lifetime. It’s a whirlwind adventure that leaves her little time to write, but a moonlit encounter with an enigmatic stranger changes everything. The story that pours out of her is one of forbidden love, secrets, and lies… and though Eva cannot yet see it, the book will be a danger and salvation for the lives it touches.
8. Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Setting: Lagos, Nigeria
Publication Date: November 4, 2025
When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief, fostered and fanned by the entire family, that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps in all ways, including that tragic end.
There is also the matter of the family curse: “No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace…” which has been handed down from generation to generation, breaking hearts and causing three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof.
When Eniiyi falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family’s history. As several women in her family have done before, she ill-advisedly seeks answers in older, darker spiritual corners of Lagos, demanding solutions. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak? Or can she break the pattern once and for all, not only avoiding the spiral that led Monife to her lonely death, but liberating herself from all the family secrets and unspoken traumas that have dogged her steps since before she could remember?
9. We Had a Hunch by Tom Ryan
Setting: Massachusetts
A pageturning mystery that asks a simple question: what happens when your favourite teen sleuths grow up?
Twenty-five years ago, Edgar Mills, Massachusetts had two sets of teenage sleuths – twin sisters Alice and Samantha VanDyne who helped their father Sheriff VanDyne to break up a drug smuggling ring and Joey O’Day who used his computer skills to expose an online grifter. As their reputation for solving crimes grew, the three teens became a media sensation and the pride of Edgar Mills but then a series of brutal murders rocked the small town and a miscalculation by the VanDyne twins led to the murder of their father and Alice’s boyfriend. The killer, Bruce Phillip Kershaw (aka The Janitor) was captured but Edgar Mills and the crime solving teens would never be the same.
Twenty-five years later, Edgar Mills is shaken by a copycat murder and Kershaw offers to provide information to the police but only if he can talk to the teen detectives who put him away.
This was a fun read about three former teen detectives who reunite to solve a new crime while confronting their pasts and mistakes they made. Perfect for a reader like me who was a huge Nancy Drew fan growing up! A well-plotted small town mystery with more than a few surprising twists that caught me completely off guard – I still wasn’t quite sure whodunnit until the last couple of chapters! The ending has a set up for a sequel and that’s okay because I will definitely be reading it!
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing an ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
10. Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun
Setting: Camino de Santiago, Portugal and Spain
Thirty-five year-old Sadie Wells needs to shake things up in her life so when her sister is injured, Sadie agrees to take her place on a tour walking the Camino de Santiago across Portugal and Spain.
On the flight to Europe, Sadie, an inexperienced traveller, downs three glasses of wine before the plane hits severe turbulence. Convinced she’s about to die, she blurts out to her seatmate, Mal, that she thinks she might be a lesbian. Sadie is embarrassed but thinks she never has to see Mal again until she arrives in Portugal and discovers that they’re in the same tour group and will be spending the next two weeks together.
A charming sapphic romance about two women who get to know each other while walking 200 miles across Spain and Portugal that includes a fair bit of self-discovery as both Sadie and Mal are figuring out what they want and learning that it’s never too late to live their authentic selves. Both of the main characters are likeable as are their tour mates and I loved the European adventure – it almost made me want to add the Camino to my travel bucket list!
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
11. Heart the Lover by Lily King
Setting: United States
In this two part story, we are introduced to the narrator in the fall of her senior year of college when she meets Sam and Yash in an English Lit class. She is a gifted writer but is intimidated by the two guys who are not only the golden boys of the English Department but also living in a professor’s stately home while he is on sabbatical at Oxford. She is not named but the guys welcome her into their world of intellectuals and refer to her as Jordan in reference to a character from The Great Gatsby (and readers don’t learn her name until the very last page of the book).
‘Jordan’ soon finds herself caught up in a love triangle of sorts – dating one but falling in love with the other. Graduation comes and goes and choices are made that will alter the three lives forever. The second half of the novel jumps forward about 25 years and ‘Jordan’ is now a successful novelist when unexpected news brings the past crashing back forcing her to confront the decisions made by her younger self.
I absolutely loved this book – one of my favourites so far this year! It was deeply affecting – I was gutted and sobbing by the end of the book – and it also made me nostalgic for my own late ’80s university experience as this trio was in their senior year the same year that I was. The writing is raw and beautiful and the story an insightful exploration of friendship, love and loss, life and death and what really matters.
This is the first book that I have read by Lily King and now that I realize it’s related to her previous book Writers & Lovers I need to read that as well!
Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
12. The Guest in Room 120 by Sara Ackerman
Setting: Honolulu
A captivating dual timeline novel set at Honolulu’s iconic Moana Hotel inspired by the real-life unsolved murder of a prominent American philanthropist.
1905 – Jane Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, fearing for her life after an attempted poisoning in San Francisco, travels to Honolulu with two staff members to stay at the Moana Hotel in Room 120 but, as fate would have it, the island is not as safe as it seems.
1905 – Iliahi Baldwin, a young Hawaiian woman who has recently started working at the Moana strikes up an unlikely friendship with Mrs. Stanford leaving her devastated when the unthinkable happens.
2005 – 100 years later almost to the day, bestselling author, Zoe Finch, is under pressure from her publisher to hand in her next novel and is desperately in need of inspiration. She makes a last-minute decision to travel to Honolulu for a writer’s conference at the Moana Hotel, registers under an assumed name and checks in to Room 120. As a powerful storm slams the island, Zoe starts having terrifying nightmares that seem strangely real and enlists the help of mystery writer Dylan Winters to help figure out what happened in her room in 1905.
This historical fiction novel based on the story of Jane Stanford’s mysterious death had me hooked from the get-go and kept my attention throughout as I raced through to the finish. Told from three points-of-view, Jane’s, Zoe’s and Iliahi’s journal entries, it’s a mystery with some supernatural elements and a bit of a romance storyline as well. Another enjoyable novel with a beautiful Hawaiian setting from Sara Ackerman!
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing a digital ARC of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
13. Little Movements by Lauren Morrow
Setting: Vermont
Layla Smart, a thirty-something Black choreographer, has been “living medium” but now she’s ready to take a chance at making her dreams come true. She has accepted an offer for a 9 month residency at Briar House, a prestigious arts institute in rural Vermont, and will be leaving behind her life in New York City to work on creating a transformative piece with a small group of dancers. Her husband, Eli, who works in IT but was once an aspiring filmmaker, is staying behind in Brooklyn and while outwardly supportive seems to be resentful of her opportunity.
Prior to arriving in Vermont, Layla hadn’t really thought about the fact that Briar House had primarily worked with white creatives in the past or that the institute was located in a predominantly white part of the state. She has always wanted to create art for art’s sake insisting that her choreography was about the movements but it’s made clear in Layla’s first meeting with the institute’s director that she is expected to dig into her people’s history to reflect the “Black experience” and create work that will become part of the canon of Black dance. When one of her four BIPOC dancers abruptly quits after the first day, it becomes apparent that there might be more going on behind the scenes than she anticipated that will make it more difficult for her to accomplish her goals.
Little Movements is a thoughtful, touching and insightful novel about the world of dance and creative fields in general. It’s a slow-paced journey of self-discovery as Layla finds her path as an artist and comes to terms with what she wants personally and from her relationships. The storyline also shows the racism and micro-aggressions faced by a Black woman in a creative industry where people of colour aren’t adequately respresented on the boards of arts organizations or in decision-making roles within those organizations. Overall, a well-written, enjoyable debut novel!
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing a digital ARC of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
14. The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O’Neill
Setting: Long Island, New York
It’s been years since the three Ryan sisters were all together at their beloved family home on the eastern shore of Long Island. Two decades ago, their lives were upended by an accident on their brother Topher’s boat: A friend’s brother was killed, the resulting lawsuit nearly bankrupted their parents, and Topher spiraled into depression, eventually taking his life. Now the Ryan women are back for Thanksgiving, eager to reconnect, but each carrying a heavy secret. The eldest, Cait, still holding guilt for the role no one knows she played in the boat accident, rekindles a flame with her high school crush: Topher’s best friend and the brother of the boy who died. Middle sister, Alice, has been thrown a curveball that threatens the career she’s restarting and faces a difficult decision that may doom her marriage. And the youngest, Maggie, is finally taking the risk of bringing the woman she loves home to meet her devoutly Catholic mother. Infusing everything is the grief for Topher that none of the Ryans have figured out how to carry together.
When Cait invites a guest from their shared past to Thanksgiving dinner, old tensions boil over and new truths surface, nearly overpowering the flickering light of their family bond. Far more than a family holiday will be ruined unless the sisters can find a way to forgive themselves―and one another.
15. Town & Country by Brian Schaefer
Setting: Fictional town in Upstate New York
Publication Date: November 4, 2025
The trendy rural town of Griffin has become a popular destination for weekenders and the city’s second homeowners, but now a congressional race in this swing district is highlighting tensions between life-long residents and new arrivals. The campaign pits local pub owner and town supervisor Chip Riley against the wealthy young carpetbagger Paul Banks, challenging the social and political loyalties of their families and friends with lasting repercussions.
Diane Riley, Chip’s wife, is a religiously devout real estate agent who feels conflicted about selling second homes—including to Paul and his much older husband, Stan. Their elder son, Joe, is grieving the recent overdose death of his best friend and spiraling into drugs himself, while their younger son, Will, is a newly out college student seduced by the decadent lifestyle of Paul’s circle.
Meanwhile, Stan Banks uses the race to give purpose to the pain of losing a loved one to AIDS, even as he begins to doubt Paul’s readiness for office. And within their growing fraternity of city transplants, Eric Larimer finds unexpected connection with a local farmer that opens his eyes to the region’s complexity as Leon Rogers, still reeling from a divorce, becomes increasingly desperate to infiltrate the Banks’s exclusive crew.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing a digital ARC of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
16. The Ferryman and His Wife by Frode Grytten
Setting: Norway
Publication Date: November 18, 2025
Nils Vik wakes up on November the 18th and knows it will be the day he dies. He follows his morning routine as voices from his past echo in his mind, and looks around the empty house one last time, before stepping onto his beloved boat.
His dog, dead these many years, leaps aboard with him, and then the other dead begin to emerge – from the woods along the fjord, from each of the ferry stops along the route, from his logbook full of memories and quotations and jotted-down notes about the weather conditions. The people from the past accompany him now, prodding him, showing him what he might have missed before, as he waits for his Marta, his late, remarkable wife, to finally join him on the boat again.
17. Lauryn Harper Falls Apart by Shauna Robinson
Setting: Virginia, United States
After a misunderstanding at work, Lauryn Harper is demoted from the company’s DC headquarters to a small satellite office in her hometown Greenstead, Virginia – the town that she thought she had escaped for good. Greenstead is down and out but was once a thriving community before the industrial accident caused by the company that Lauryn now works for.
Lauryn arrives in Greenstead with a plan to get back in her boss’s good graces as soon as possible but, after meeting the handful of officemates who had also been banished and reconnecting with a childhood friend that she hasn’t spoken to in more than a decade, she agrees to lead this group of misfits in reviving the town’s fall apple festival as a fundraiser for the community centre.
The incident that leads to Lauryn’s return to Greenstead is a bit ridiculous and her plan to retire at age 40 is incredibly unrealistic but once you get past that then Lauryn Harper Falls Apart is a cute story. It’s a story of second chances (friendship not romance) and self-discovery with fun fall vibes – perfect for anyone looking for a lighthearted seasonal read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing a digital ARC of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
18. A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
Setting: Kolkata, India
Publication Date: October 14, 2025
In a dystopic Kolkata beset by flooding and blight, Ma, her two year old daughter Mishti, and her elderly father Dadu are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in the home he has been building for them in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After procuring long-awaited passports and visas from the consulate, they pack their bags for the flight to America. But in the morning, they awaken to discover that Ma’s purse, with all the treasured documents within it, has been stolen.
19. Songs of Love on a December Night by David Adams Richards
Setting: Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada
Publication Date: November 4, 2025
When Jamie Musselman’s father is found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot, it doesn’t take long for rumours and suspicions about Jamie to swirl through Miramachi. Why was Jamie also shot that night? Why was money discovered under his pillow? Was it true, as some of the boys at his school claimed, that Jamie possessed a cruel nature and had even once been spotted killing robins?
As the years bend on, Jamie continues to maintain his innocence, but few others, aside from his fiancée, Gertie, believe him. Including the police, who finally arrest him. Including the judge, who convicts Jamie of murder.
But nothing is ever as it seems in Miramachi, a place where vanity, resentment and crimes of opportunity are forever brewing, and unlikely alliances are continually being formed. In the weeks before the murder, a self-proclaimed revolutionary had returned to Miramachi after being expelled from university; a career criminal falsely claiming Indigenous heritage had been released from jail; and a hapless bully of a father—Gertie’s father—had discovered there was money in the Musselmans’ home, kept in the very study where Jamie’s father was found dead. Is there more to the story than the townsfolk believe?
20. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Setting: United States and India
When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that served only to drive Sonia and Sunny apart.
Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India. She fears that she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world.
21. Mona’s Eyes by Thomas Schlesser
Setting: Paris, France
Fearing that his granddaughter, Mona, might lose her sight permanently after an unexplained episode of blindness, Henry decides to take her to see great works of art so she can commit them to memory. Over the course of the following year, he picks Mona up after school each Wednesday and they visit the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay and the Centre Pompidou (which Parisians refer to as the Beaubourg) to view and discuss a single masterpiece. 52 weeks and 52 works of art.
Each chapter weaves together Mona’s story with the art lessons including what is happening in Mona’s life with her family, doctor visits and school as well as a detailed description of the week’s work of art followed by Henry and Mona’s discussion. It’s a heartwarming story about the special bond between a granddaughter and her grandfather but, over the course of the year, Henry also provides Mona (and the reader) with an overview of five centuries of art history.
This is a beautiful story and well-written but it’s unlikely that this book will appeal to anyone who doesn’t already have an appreciation of art. I enjoyed it but it was a slow read – partly because I paused to look up a photo of each work of art so that I could view it while Henry and Mona were discussing it. (The edition of the book that I borrowed from the library didn’t include photos of the masterpieces Henry chooses but it seems some do and it would have made for a smoother reading experience if I hadn’t been pausing to google during each chapter.)
22. Listen by Sacha Bronwasser
Setting: Paris and the Netherlands
Publication Date: November 11, 2025
In 1989, twenty-year-old Marie jumps at the chance to work as au pair in Paris—even though it means dropping out of her prestigious art program in the Netherlands. The city, the language, and the complicated French family she works for all quickly overshadow the turmoil and pain she’d been reckoning with in school. Even as her experiences with the family in Paris begin to echo the troubles left in the Netherlands, Marie pushes on.
Years later, during the 2015 attacks in Paris, Marie is shocked to recognize her former teacher, and the main reason she fled the Netherlands, pictured in the aftermath of the attacks in the exact arrondissement where her previous employers live. The past she believed she’s untethered from turns out to be be a knot still capable of constricting tightly around her. Can she face Paris—and what she ran away from to get to Paris—and finally disentangle herself from her past?
23. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
Setting: England
2014: At a dinner for close friends and colleagues, renowned poet Francis Blundy honors his wife’s birthday by reading aloud a new poem dedicated to her, ‘A Corona for Vivien’. Much wine is drunk as the guests listen, and a delicious meal consumed. Little does anyone gathered around the candlelit table know that for generations to come people will speculate about the message of this poem, a copy of which has never been found, and which remains an enduring mystery.
2119: Just over one hundred years in the future, much of the western world has been submerged by rising seas following a catastrophic nuclear accident. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost. In the water-logged south of what used to be England, Thomas Metcalfe, a lonely scholar and researcher, longs for the early twenty-first century as he chases the ghost of one poem, ‘A Corona for Vivian’. How wild and full of risk their lives were, thinks Thomas, as he pores over the archives of that distant era, captivated by the freedoms and possibilities of human life at its zenith. When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the elusive poem’s discovery, a story is revealed of entangled loves and a brutal crime that destroy his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well.
24. Venetian Vespers by John Banville
Setting: Venice, Italy
1899. As the new century approaches, struggling English writer Evelyn Dolman—a hack, by his own description—marries Laura Rensselaer, daughter of an American oil tycoon. Evelyn anticipates that he and Laura will inherit a substantial fortune and lead a comfortable, settled life. But his hopes are dashed when a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, just before the patriarch’s death, leads to her disinheritance.
The unhappy newlyweds travel to Venice to celebrate the New Year at the Palazzo Dioscuri, ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo. From their first moments in the mist-blanketed floating city, otherworldly occurrences begin to accumulate. Evelyn’s already jangled nerves fray further. Where has Laura disappeared to? How to explain the increasingly sinister circumstances closing around him? Could he be losing his mind?
25. It’s Different This Time by Joss Richard
Setting: New York City
Reeling from the cancellation of her hit TV show, June Wood has nothing left to lose when a mysterious email lures her back to the New York City brownstone she once called home before she moved to Los Angeles. Thanks to a clause in the former owner’s will, she and her old roommate, Adam Harper, now own the multi-million dollar property—or at least they will in a month, once all the paperwork is signed.
Four weeks, then June can return to her life in LA and forget about New York City and everything she left behind. Sure, the fact that June and Adam are estranged and haven’t even spoken in five years, and that their friendship didn’t exactly end on good terms might complicate matters, but this is an opportunity of a lifetime.
As the autumn leaves fall around them, through shared meals and late-night conversations, old wounds and long-buried sparks resurface, and it becomes strikingly clear: June and Adam have unfinished business. Confronted with the consequences of their choices years before, they must now navigate the minefield of their past the best way they know how: together. Second chances are always a risk, but maybe, if they get it right and are finally honest with each other and with themselves, it could be different this time.
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