Books Publishing This Week
Books Publishing This Week: October 27 - November 2
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It's a late October evening, and the air outside is crisp with the first whispers of winter. You settle into your favorite corner, perhaps an overstuffed armchair near a window or a cozy nook on the couch, wrapped in a blanket that’s as soft as it is warm. The day is fading, the golden light outside replaced by early darkness, reminding you that the season is shifting, drawing you into that long stretch toward winter.
But tonight, as the chill deepens, you’ve got something that promises warmth and comfort—a new book, carefully selected for this exact moment. There’s something special about starting a book in late October, isn’t there? It’s a time for transition, not just in the weather but in your mindset. You’ve begun to let go of the busy energy of summer and early fall. Now, you're ready for something slower, something that will accompany you into November with its shorter days and longer nights.
You hold the book in your hands, and there's an unmistakable sense of anticipation. You know this will be the story that carries you from one month to the next. It’s not just about the plot—although the premise intrigued you, the characters called out, and the setting felt like exactly where you wanted to spend the next few weeks. It’s about the ritual itself, the way this book will become part of your evening routine, a companion to the deepening nights.
As you crack open the cover, you can almost smell the pages—whether it's the fresh scent of a new book or the more familiar, comforting smell of a well-loved volume. You savor the opening sentence, letting the first few words anchor you into a world that’s not your own. You take a deep breath, knowing that this story, whatever it holds, will unfurl slowly, chapter by chapter, page by page, just as the leaves outside are falling one by one.
The wind outside begins to pick up, gently rattling the windows, but inside, you're nestled safely. It feels like the perfect moment to lose yourself in the words on the page, as though the outside world can wait for a while. The book pulls you in further, and soon the scenes within start to take shape. You can picture the characters, hear their voices, feel their dilemmas. The world of the story is building, and with each page you turn, you’re leaving behind your own reality for this new one.
This book will see you through Halloween’s quiet aftermath, when the costumes have been packed away and the candy bowls have been emptied. It will sit beside you during those first truly chilly mornings in early November, when you drink your coffee or tea, and the sky is still streaked with early-morning gray. It will be there on the days when you find a bit of extra time—maybe curled up on the couch in the afternoon, or those nights when you stay up just a little too late, unable to put it down because you simply have to know what happens next.
There’s something about these cooler, darker months that make stories feel even more immersive, like the outside world is shrinking and the world of your book is expanding. And as you read, you’ll find that the book and the season will become intertwined in your memory. Long after you've finished it, when the pages are turned and the story is over, you'll remember it as the book you started that late October night—the one that carried you into November, wrapping you in its words as surely as the blanket you’re wrapped in now.
So, as the evening deepens and the warmth of your home settles around you, you turn another page, knowing that this is exactly where you want to be. You’ve begun a journey, not just with this book but with the season itself. And as you move through each chapter, you know it will be the perfect companion to these quiet, cozy nights that stretch ahead, carrying you through autumn and into the heart of winter’s approach.
Scroll down to find out what you might be reading…
Huck and Loona by Emily Kilgore
Huck and Loona love spending time together in the Great Northwoods. From cloud-watching to fishing, the two want to do everything together. But when they realize they sometimes want to do different things, they worry that their friendship is over. Huck and Loona equips children to embrace their uniqueness and communicate with others to keep their friendships healthy.
Warrior of Legend by Kendare Blake
#1 New York Times bestselling author Kendare Blake returns to the world of the Aristene in this epic fantasy novel as a young member of the order faces down old loves and old foes. A must-read for fans of Victoria Aveyard and Shelby Mahurin.
The cost was steep, but Reed is officially an Aristene.
And not just any Aristene, but a Glorious Death, guiding only those heroes whose glory costs them their lives. It is a heavy burden, but to forget the prince she left behind, Reed throws herself into it, harvesting heroes at what some say is a reckless pace.
So when Lyonene is summoned to guide a princess to a glorious marriage, Reed sees an opportunity—a hero who isn’t fated to die—and they secretly arrange for Reed to go in her place. But instead of an easy mission she arrives to find chaos: an old enemy is rising to threaten the Aristene, and one of the princess’s suitors is Hestion, whom Reed still loves, and who may yet love her.
Reed has already given everything to the order. As oaths are broken and lives are lost, what more must she give to save her sisters, and herself?
The Witch of Wol Sin Lake by Lena Jeong
In the sequel to And Break the Pretty Kings, crown princess Mirae continues to unravel her tangled future in order to save her queendom—perfect for fans of This Savage Song and Six Crimson Cranes.
After her fraught journey to save her queendom, Mirae has finally cast the Netherking back into his dark cage in the Deep.
But his imprisonment brings her no peace—because in his final schemes, the Netherking managed to possess her beloved older brother, Minho, and it is his body that languishes in the Deep, tormented by his possessor.
Mirae is determined to free her brother and destroy the Netherking once and for all. But when the Netherking steals the all-powerful pearl of Seolla, all of Mirae’s careful plans are destroyed. She must set out once more to stop him, slipping in and out of the future with her divine powers as she races a path to the heavens itself.
When she discovers the truth about the Netherking’s intentions and learns that the only way to destroy him is with a sacrifice larger than she can bear, Mirae begins to doubt her free will and even the fate of the entire peninsula and the gods beyond.
Dark and thrilling, this action-packed sequel to And Break the Pretty Kings pulls readers deeper into its captivating world of lavish, fantastical magic and dangerous secrets, as Mirae faces overwhelming odds to save her queendom—and an impossible choice.
The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone by Randy Susan Meyers
Seven Children. Five Mothers. One idyllic commune. What could go wrong?
Annabel Cooper wants to save the world. Her story begins in 1964 with her journey to Freedom Summer in Mississippi, where the disappearance of her first love ignites a lifelong fight for justice. Years later, she, her husband, and four other couples form a Boston political collective where they live together with their children in a rambling Boston house. As the era's social upheaval intensifies, they move their children to a Vermont Eden, where they can remain safe from the world's threats; their parents continue their political work, taking turns traveling to Vermont to care for the children.
But not all danger comes from the outside.
Annabel's daughter, Ivy, yearns for normalcy, not the patchouli-soaked, natural-food-laden confines of Vermont. But mostly, she longs for Annabel's attention-until a cataclysmic event alters the course of all their lives and she learns the limits of her many mothers and fathers.
The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone delves into the intricate and nuanced dance of familial love and communal ties through the lens of sociopolitical upheaval from the 1960s to the present day, examining which sacrifices are worth the price.
A Very Bad Thing by J.T. Ellison
From New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison comes a taut thriller about one author at the pinnacle of her career, whose past threatens to destroy everything she has—and everyone she knows.
A great writer knows when to deliver a juicy plot twist. But for one author, the biggest twist of all is her own murder.
With a number of hit titles and a highly anticipated movie tie-in, celebrated novelist Columbia Jones is at the top of her game. Fans around the world adore her. But on the final night of her latest book tour, one face in the crowd makes the author collapse. And by the next morning, she’s lying dead in a pool of blood.
Columbia’s death shocks the world and leaves Darian, her daughter and publicist, reeling. The police have nothing to go on—at first. But then details emerge, pointing to the author’s illicit past. Turns out many people had motive to kill Columbia. And with a hungry reporter and frustrated cop on the trail, her secrets won’t stay buried long. But how many lives will they shatter as the truth comes out?
Drop Dead Sisters by Amelia Diane Coombs
Three sisters reunite on a family vacation and rekindle their relationship the only way they know how—by covering each other’s tracks in a real-life murder mystery not even they can figure out.
Remi Finch has spent the better part of her adult life avoiding family—especially her sisters. They just don’t click. Besides, her unconventional upbringing and major anxiety have convinced Remi that she can’t build a relationship with anyone. Period.
When her parents plan a family reunion camping trip to celebrate their anniversary, Remi’s willing to reconnect, if only because she doesn’t have a choice. But then a dead body turns up at their campsite, and their sisterly bonding kicks into high gear.
No one knows the whole story, but the Finch women are prepared to cover up the pieces before anyone tries to put them together. It’s a precautionary measure, probably unnecessary. Nobody else was there, so how could they have seen anything?
Between old grudges and new dynamics, a handsome park ranger, and a body that won’t stay hidden, Remi is about to learn that nothing strengthens family ties quite like crime.
A Tribute of Fire by Sariah Wilson
The fate of a cursed nation depends on a princess who must outwit a mortal enemy and outlast the trials of a death-defying ritual in a thrilling adventure by USA Today bestselling author Sariah Wilson.
Lia is the princess of Locris, a dying desert nation cursed centuries ago by an earth goddess―one still worshipped by the thriving and adversarial nation of Ilion. Every year, Ilion offers the goddess a sacrifice: two Locrian maidens forced to compete in a life-and-death race to reach her temple. In a millennium, no maiden has made it out of Ilion alive. This year, Lia is one of the hunted.
An education in battle gives her a fighting chance, but the challenges are greater than she feared: Lia’s beloved but untrained sister Quynh has been put in the path of danger. The winding streets of Ilion itself have been transformed into a labyrinthine maze of countless choices and dead ends. And if the risks weren’t significant enough, Lia is reluctantly drawn to the commandingly attractive Jason, an Ilionian sailor she loathes to trust and desires like no man before.
The tribute game is on. It’s up to Lia to lift the goddess’s curse, restore Locris to its former glory, and change the fate of every young woman destined to follow in her path.
