Ah, fall.
The leaves are changing, football is in full swing, pumpkin-everything abounds, and the weather is cooler.
Which means it’s likely you’ll be staying indoors more and needing something good to read. Never fear, Liana is here! In honor of a new season, I’ve rounded up some fall reads you’ll want to cozy up with next to the fireplace soon!
**NOTE: While I try to read and recommend as much clean fiction as possible, know that I haven’t read all of these titles and can’t guarantee there isn’t explicit language, violence, or sex scenes in the titles listed below:
Contemporary: Sometimes, the unlikeliest friendship is the one that changes everything.
“Nixon Bliss thought I couldn’t speak without borrowed words, that my useless legs dangled because I was made of wood. It makes sense to me now, the way his eyes fixed on me when my father lifted me out of the car, eyes that couldn’t believe what they were seeing, an illusion as if a magician had pulled a Jew out of a hat instead of a rabbit. I had no idea Nixon wanted to be a ventriloquist, or that I was the spitting image of Jerry Mahoney, or that Jerry Mahoney was Nixon’s hero. My name is Isaac Harpey Mendelson, and I am a real boy.” Yes, Isaac Harpey Mendelson was indeed a real boy.”
Yes, Isaac Harpey Mendelson was indeed a real boy. Along with his best friend, Nixon Bliss, and a cast of childhood friends, they play in their New Jersey cul-de-sac at a time when life was much simpler. Yet beneath the surface, evil reared its ugly head.
Nearly six decades later, Nixon is now a recent widower and pastors a local church in the same neighborhood. During his summer sermon, he retells the story to his congregation of that iconic time and how it changed their lives.
Told with humor, compassion, and sentimentality, the chapters alternate between past and present. The engaging yet down-to-earth story of Harpey Mendelson will captivate you from the very first sentence.
Historical: Having lost her freeborn parents to a slave stealer at age six, tobacco-plantation fieldhand, Sunday Duval, is forever ruined for the hope of a lasting freedom. Resigned to her young son, July, as her only true happiness, Sunday is dismayed and angered by her husband Noah’s request to join him on the Underground Railroad. But her outraged dismay is only a prelude.
After using deceit to push Noah toward joining the Railroad alone, she finds herself brutally separated from July, locked into an all-male coffle, and bound for the Ohio River and all points South. But what awaits her in Vicksburg, Mississippi, is not only the War Between the States but a shocking revelation from her new master.
Will July and Noah forever be lost to her, or will a war she had never imagined offer her a chance she had labeled impossible?
Thriller: Can she calm a storm that only comes for her? Laurel Ashburn has a scarred past, filled with corruption and pain. After an injury overseas sends her home, she moves back in with her foster mother and to a town that hates her. Being home puts her on a path to find a missing friend. But when she’s attacked over and over, who will be willing to help?
Detective Dev Hollister traded in the big city for a slower pace and less crime in rural Arkansas. After rescuing Laurel from an attempted kidnapping, he finds himself intrigued with this headstrong and stubborn woman. While Dev’s job is to protect Laurel, he wants much more than to solve the case. He wants to give her a new life and a reason to stay. Laurel will have to push beyond her dark past to trust Dev with her life. But after losing so much, can Laurel survive one more storm?
SciFi: When Darkness Descends… Heroes Must Rise! CHRISTIAN FICTION collides with MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY ADVENTURE, and SPACE OPERA ROMANCE in this epic, faith and family-friendly adventure written to inspire readers of all ages! Frequently ranked as an Amazon Kindle Bestseller among Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, Talon’s Test and the Shield of Faith is the first exciting installment of the Talon Trilogy! Despite a checkered past, Knight Centurion Talon Vance has proven himself to be a hero of the highest order. But now an unprecedented challenge lies before him. Crown Princess Naomi, heir to her dying father’s throne, has been targeted for assassination by the evil General Mirkham Hesatan. Their desperate flee from persecution will take them from the perils of deep space combat to a desolate world full of exotic locales, treacherous environments, a ferocious flying monstrosity, and hostile natives of both human and alien origin. But the greatest test of all lies within the heart. With the fate of an entire Star Kingdom hanging precariously in the balance, our heroes will be forced to choose… between Duty and Desire.
Romance: From the bestselling author of The Convenient Groom and A December Bride (now beloved Hallmark Original movies) comes the third and final novel in the Bluebell Inn series!
When a mysterious man turns up at Grace’s family-run inn, there’s instant attraction. But she’s already got a lot on her plate: running the Bluebell Inn by herself now that her siblings and co-owners have moved on, getting her new store Blue Ridge Outfitters off the ground, and coping with a childhood event she’d thought was long past.
A gunshot wound has resurrected the past for secret service agent Wyatt Jennings, and a mandatory leave of absence lands him in Bluebell, North Carolina. There he must try and come to grips with the crisis that altered his life forever.
Grace needs experience for her new outfitters business, so when Wyatt needs a mountain guide, she’s more than happy to help. As their journey progresses, Wyatt begins opening up to Grace, and he finds himself drawn to Grace’s fresh outlook and sense of humor.
There’s no doubt the two have formed a special bond, but will Wyatt’s secrets bring Grace’s world crashing down? Or will those secrets end up healing them both?
Young Adult: After the sudden death of their parents, Jess Thomas and her sisters, Sly and Maggie, start creating a new life for themselves. But when Sly is accused of a crime she didn’t commit, the young sisters are threatened wit
h separation through foster care. Jess is determined to prove Sly’sinnocence, even at the cost of her own life.
Cole McBride has been Jess’s best friend since they were children. Now his feelings are deepening, just as Jess takes risks to protect her family. Can Cole convince Jess to trust him−and God−to help her?
Cultural Heritage: November 2 is a special day in Sicily. The Day of the Dead is considered an important festival, when children receive gifts from the dead and eat special bone-shaped cakes. Cemeteries are overcrowded with people walking in the lanes, placing flowers at gravesites, and lighting candles in their tombs. Many Sicilian tombs look like small houses: They contain a room, an altar, and marble-walled niches. Mario Chiaramonte goes to the cemetery on this day. Besides visiting the tombs of his relatives and friends, he strolls throughout the graveyard. On his walk, he stumbles on some special tombs. A few have an epitaph carved on the tombstone or above the altar. The tombs he visits house the bodies of a Mafia boss, a literary man, a poet, a nobleman, and more. Mario recalls the salient moments of their lives, and at the same time sees himself from a different detached perspective. Romance, adventure, life, death, the Mafia, good and evil, racism, and impermanence are themes throughout the novel. November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily is thought-provoking and captivating from beginning to end. November 2 is a special day in Sicily. The Day of the Dead is considered an important festival, when children receive gifts from the dead and eat special bone-shaped cakes. Cemeteries are overcrowded with people walking in the lanes, placing flowers at gravesites, and lighting candles in their tombs. Many Sicilian tombs look like small houses: They contain a room, an altar, and marble-walled niches.
Mario Chiaramonte goes to the cemetery on this day. Besides visiting the tombs of his relatives and friends, he strolls throughout the graveyard. On his walk, he stumbles on some special tombs. A few have an epitaph carved on the tombstone or above the altar.
The tombs he visits house the bodies of a Mafia boss, a literary man, a poet, a nobleman, and more. Mario recalls the salient moments of their lives, and at the same time sees himself from a different detached perspective.
Romance, adventure, life, death, the Mafia, good and evil, racism, and impermanence are themes throughout the novel. November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily is thought-provoking and captivating from beginning to end.
Disclaimer: If you purchase any of the books listed above, I may receive a small compensation.