It’s nearly fall here in the northern hemisphere (though happy spring to y’all below the equator!). Leaves are turning, spices are pumpkining, candy is proliferating, and I can see holiday tinsel peeking at me from around the end of the aisle.
Recently I received a request for “cozy fall romance” recommendations, and another for “creepy, scary romance” recs, and then a few for Halloween, witchy, ghostly, haunted, or spectral romances. Then there’s Thanksgiving, both American and Canadian editions, which have a romance flavor of their own.
All of those are somewhat seasonal, aren’t they? They all fit within the idea of “Autumn Recommendations” whether your favorite thing about fall is the orange crunchy leaves, flannel, and crisp air (omg, farewell humidity already, buh-BYE) or the creepy-tastic candy-filled fun of Halloween and the increasing darkness after sunset, or the descending temperatures that make staying inside and reading (and feasting) so appealing.
So here’s what we’re going to do: build a massive Autumn Recommendation list because, well, why not? Whatever you think is the most autumnal romance, or the one that makes you think of fall, or the one you want to re-read (or read for the first time!) when the weather turns cool and the grass is leaf-crunchy, tell us about it. But there’s a challenge: you can only name one. JUST ONE.
I know, I’m terrible. But just one!
So, what is your Autumn Recommendation?
Ellen: I’m going to have to go with Kiss of Steel by Bec McMaster. Something about the combination of sexy vampires, steampunk, and Gothic-tinged mystery hits me with all of those spooky and atmospheric fall feels. I actually binged the entire London Steampunk series last fall and it was so satisfying to make tea and curl up in bed with those books while the air was getting crisp!
It’s difficult to describe, but there’s a ghostly sensibility and eeriness that permeate the entire story. I held my breath for most of the novel because I was terrified of what magical secret would be unearthed next. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the book is set during autumn; the season is referenced often and trees/dying leaves add to the overall haunted sentiment of the book (nature and the wooded environment are highly important to the story). I highly recommend it!
Shana: The first book I thought of was Asking for Trouble by Leslie Kelly. It takes place in an isolated haunted mansion in an atmospheric small town called Trouble. It was the first book I read by Kelly and left me a big fan. The heroine is trying to track down the story of the house, and the hero is the owner. It’s never truly scary, but there’s plenty of mystery, potential ghosts, and kissing in dark corners.
Our heroine and hero begin this competition without knowing the terms, nor what’s at stake. Things spin out of their control, and with their happily ever after apparently beyond the reach of all their love and magic…and you’ll have to read it to see what happens!!!!
Amanda: I moved to New England six years ago from Florida and have fallen in love with having seasons. Who knew leaves changed color instead of just dying!
Bittersweet by Sarina Bowen taps into my love of New England in the fall. It’s set in Vermont on a farm that produces cider. There is lots of talk about apples and farmer’s markets. It feels very much like a love letter to the season and to the area’s seasonal food favorites. I reviewed the audiobook version and I recommend it!
If I had to pick a single book that made me think of Autumn, it would probably be Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, which starts and ends in Autumn (and it’s an autumn that is so lovingly described, both in terms of how the woods and gardens look and how the weather feels – you can almost feel the dead leaves under your feet) and which has its most climactic moments at Halloween. It’s a lovely fairy tale retelling which spends most of the book being comfortable and full of people reading poetry and figuring out relationships and dealing with the occasional ghost or midnight piper, and then becomes quite creepy and disturbing towards the end when you realise what has really been happening.
What about you? What book makes you think of fall, or calls you to re-read when the seasons turn toward the cool and crispy?
What is your one (one!) Autumn Recommendation?
Lauren Connolly just put out a 99c short story called REMEMBERING A WITCH that’s all about reincarnation, witches, and the autumn equinox. It was wonderful and very seasonal.
(She’s a friend via Heaving Bosoms FB group)
First Frost by sara Addison Allen! Perfect for fall and so lovely
“Thanksgiving” set in historic Williamsburg,VA by Janet Evanovich is an oldie, but goody.
Mating the Huntress by Talia Hibbert. Deliciously Halloween-y.
Her Halloween Treat by Tiffany Reisz. The title says it all.
The Other Side of Midnight by Simone St James. Set in the 20’s. Heroine is a medium and hero is a psychic investigator. Wonderfully atmospheric.
The first book that popped into my mind was Cream of the Crop book 2 in Alice Clayton’s Hudson Valley trilogy. I don’t know why, I can’t recall if it takes place in the autumn, but there it is. Hot dairy farmer, hot romance and cheese.
Then comes my favorite Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic. If you’ve only seen the movie (which I have decidedly NOT), you need to read the source. It is exponentially better. Subtler, spookier and beautiful.
Also, Wild Ride from Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer and a completion she wrote with Anne Stuart and Eileen Dreyer, The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes. Three sisters with extraordinary gifts, three romances.
Autumn would also be a good time to start a series with a few books already out so you can binge on a rainy day, like today. Anna Lee Huber’s Verity Kent or Lady Darby mysteries are lovely. There is also Kelley Armstrong’s Rocton series which is very atmospheric.
And YES, to Sneezy’s rec of The Night Circus. Such a beautiful book.
First & Then by Emma Mills is a light, refreshing YA read. It has a very light romantic element, and it’s marketed as Pride & Prejudice meets Friday Night Lights. Nothing says “fall” more than football for me! If sports aren’t your thing though, it’s not heavy on the football.
The Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens. It’s full of creepy, kooky, spooky goodness + romance; the heroine is a cemetery restorer who can see ghosts. Start with “The Restorer”.
I just read and really enjoyed Alis Murray’s Love Spells for the End of the World, and it was a really sweet, frothy fun Halloween romance that’s perfect for any fans of Buffy or Charmed. (A witch and a witchhunter fall in forbidden love and have to save her witchy town over Halloween!)
The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope, a YA historical fantasy romance set in Tudor England. Like Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin which Catherine recommended, it’s a retelling of the Tam Lin legend, and the climactic scene takes place on Halloween.
R Cooper’s Familiar Spirits series (A Little Familiar, Holly & Oak, and Nothing More Certain) I think fits with the autumn theme. The books are about witches, wonderful seasonal food and crafts, and preparing for the changing seasons. I binge read them a few weeks ago and will be re-reading as soon as it gets below 80 here. Highly recommend.
Ammie Come Home by Barbara Michaels. Wonderful oldie with spooky Georgetown atmosphere, two love stories, and ghosts.
Love this idea! I think autumnal is my default setting, so it’s tough to narrow it down, but my number one choice would be:
Roan Parrish’s In the Middle of Somewhere (m/m) – set in a cabin in Michigan
My favorite Autumnal romance has to be “Her Naughty Holiday” by Tiffany Reisz (the 2nd book in her Harlequin Blaze “Men At Work” trilogy. RIP Blaze.) It is set during US Thanksgiving in the Mt. Hood, OR area, and features an older hero and heroine. Erick (the swoon-worthy hero) is nearly perfect – he knows how to respect boundaries, always has Clover’s (the heroine) back, and is a very supportive dad to his teenage daughter. [The first book in this series, “Her Halloween Treat” is also good.]
I find the Charlotte Holmes by Sherry Thomas to be very fall-is. Atmospheric, victorian! Which reminds me of Sally Lockhart series by Philip Pullman.
I second the recommendations for the first two in the Men at Work series by Tiffany Reisz mentioned above – I re-read them each year at the appropriate holiday! I also want to add in His Road Home by Anna Richland as a good (American) Thanksgiving rec.
Not strictly romance, but Tanya Huff’s Summon the Keeper feels very fall/Halloween to me, since it involves a witch in a slightly run-down old house trying to close the portal to Hell in the basement. She has a wonderfully fluffy cat companion, and the house is a B&B that comes with a hunky handyman. Once NYC finally gets the memo that IT’S FALL NOW and cools off a bit, I think I’ll get myself some cider and start a re-read.
I want to add a corollary to the Practical Magic recommendation. It is VERY different from the movie and if you’re like me and adore the movie, you probably won’t like the book. Honestly, I wish the screenwriters called the movie something completely different with a line about “characters based on Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic.” I would have appreciated the book more because I wouldn’t expect it to be like the movie. Everyone I know who has read the book agrees that it is the exception to “the book is always better” rule.
For spooky atmosphere (although not specifically fall books) I’d recommend the Mad Morelands series by Candace Camp. They’re Victorian paranormal romances. The first involves a haunted house and 12th Century ghosts.
Another book that makes me think of the fall is Dance Upon the Air by Nora Roberts, which is the first in her Three Sisters’ Island Trilogy. The book starts in the summer and ends on Halloween. That series is pure magic and one of the few that I will reread over and over again.
I recommend Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Paladin of Souls. It’s a wonderful, ghostly, deeply thought through romance set in a beautifully imagined medieval world. Wonderful heroine who is mature, has suffered a lot and deserves her HEA.
Venetia by Georgette Heyer starts with the heroine picking blackberries. As the story moves on the advancing autumn is echoed in the hero’s increasingly elegiac mood – the heroine of course is having none of that. One of her best.
I’ll second ClaireC’s recommendation above of His Road Home by Anna Richland. It’s a wonderful novella!
My one autumn book is “A Nice Girl Like You” by Alexandra Sellers, a Silhouette Yours Truly book from 1996.
Some books that I think of in the fall and that I have re-read with interest:
In the Fall by Jeffrey Lent, a meditation on slavery in the US presented as the story of three generations in Vermont and in the South, starting at the end of the Civil War. Always seems autumnal to me in tone.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I know it ranges years and seasons but it seems fall-like in tone. Clear sepia and elegiac.
The Wood Wife by Terri Windling. Not sure why since it’s in the desert, perhaps because it has to do with after/before life.
The Thief of Always by Clive Barker. Darker tone to the story and memories of snuggling in bed and reading this to my young girls as fall leaves blew by the windows.
The mention of Gothic made me think of Mary Stewart’s The Gabriel Hounds, possibly the spookiest of her romantic suspense tales. And it involves someone in costume, and someone with a horrible fear of cats!
Here are three books with the word “Autumn” in the title and although it has been awhile since I read them, I think that the season was the setting and part of the atmosphere of the book.
Autumn Bride, by Anne Gracie; It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas and That Autumn in Edinburgh by C.J. Ware. All three books are part of series and I read them in order, so I don’t know if they would hold up well as stand alone books.
Apples Should Be Red by Penny Watson is a Thanksgiving novella.
Now, I need to go through my kindle and see if I’ve missed any. Autumn is my favorite season — so I’m sure that there are a few others.
KJ Charles’ Magpie Lord series has magic and is very atmospheric, especially the first one. Though it takes place in spring the use of magic has made the old manor very cold, there’s a possible ghost, and general creepiness. And the flying birds on the covers always remind me of falling leaves.
His Road Home is a great Thanksgiving choice and is definitely on my keeper shelf!
I remember loving “A Nice Girl Like You”! I was thinking about it recently and wondering if it would hold up for me, but haven’t been able to find it in my stash of books. I may break down and buy the ebook.
I will add my voice to all the others recommending Her Halloween Treat (friends to lovers, blue collar Beta in the streets, alpha between the sheets hero and white collar heroine) and Her Naughty Holiday (set at Thanksgiving, kinda friends to lovers, another Beta hero). Both are Tiffany Reisz.
I had mixed feelings about All I Want for Halloween by Marie Harte – the heroine is tall and muscled and grouchy and takes no prisoners and loves to bake and owns a bakery and I found the chemistry with the hero to be great – so far, so awesome! But there is a very over the top evil ex in the hero’s recent past and there was one very questionable choice in the middle of the book around not using protection during sex that seemed very out of character – so if either of those turn you off, steer clear.
This got me in the mood for a good Autumn book re-read and during my kindle search, I found a few others. A Wicked Autumn, by G.M. Malliet, is more of a cozy mystery with romantic elements, set in the village of Nether Monkslip (seriously). The hero is the vicar, Max Tudor and a retired MI5 agent. The villagers are a motley crew and hijinks ensue. This is the first in the series, which are seasonal — one is entitled A Demon Summer. I think that the author is moving through a second round of the seasons, although I’ve only read the first 4.
I think that Suzanne Brockmann’s book about Jules and Robin’s wedding is set in the fall/early winter and includes both Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I can’t remember the title.
I believe that Robyn Carr and Shannon Stacy have books within their series that are set in the autumn, but I don’t remember which books. Jill Shalvis may have some autumn or Thanksgiving books too.
I second the rec for His Road Home.
@MaryK, When I finish this reread, I can send it to you. Maybe @SB Sarah can give you my email address if you haven’t yet bought a copy.
I’m happy to connect you – just say the word!
Thanks, that would be great!
Thank you Sarah. Mary, when you get my email address, you can send me your postal address and I will let you know when the book is on its way. I thought the book stood up well. There was some weird stuff at the end, which I thought was weird when I read it before. Not related to change in perception over 23(!) years.
Witch of Blackbird Pond has been my go-to autumn book for the last 20 years or so.
Every lead-up to Halloween I read “Prince of Darkness” by Barbara Michaels. It was the first book of hers I picked up (and a gateway to her other works as Elizabeth Peters). Spooky New England setting; occult activity; gradually intensifying suspense; excellent enemies-to-lovers transformation (and truly effective POV shift). Maybe a bit dated, as it was written in the late 1960’s…but mostly I think that adds to the mood.
@Scifigirl1986 in re Practical Magic – I really think it depends on which you were exposed to first – I read the book, loved it and was so excited for an adaptation with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock! I was deeply disappointed in the movie and greatly prefer the book.
Autumn reads: I just read “Briarly”, a m/m retelling of Beauty and the Beast which is the Beast and Beauty’s father, funny and very sweet – set in September and October
I’m a bit late to the game, but anything by Simone St. James or Wendy Webb is perfect for this time of year.
Both do excellent ghost stories with intriguing mysteries and sweet romances. The ghosts are so well written that I can only read them during daylight hours.
Simone St. James sets most of hers back in the past, often the 1920s, with complicated characters often trying to heal from trauma. The romance is subtle, but the deeper for it. Warning: _The Haunting of Maddie Claire_ is incredible, but also hard to read because of what happened to the ghost.
Wendy Webb’s books often have a combination of something happening now and something happening in the past.