Today’s prompt is to share books you’ve read that feel like October. Therefore, I’m going to share some books I’ve enjoyed that feel very autumnal somehow. They have that curl up and listen to the heavy rain outside with a hot chocolate kind of vibe. So here goes, in no particular order my 5 books that feel like October and their blurbs:
1. The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin
We have no need to protect ourselves from the bad sort because WE are the bad sort…
The year is 1831. Down murky alleyways, acts of unspeakable wickedness are taking place and London’s vulnerable poor are disappearing from the streets. Out of these shadows comes Hester White, a bright young woman who is desperate to escape these slums by any means possible.
When a chance encounter thrusts Hester into the beguiling world of the aristocratic Brock family, she leaps at the chance to improve her station in life. But whispers from her past slowly begin to poison her new existence, and lure her into the most sinister of investigations. As she finds herself dragged into the blackest heart of the city, little does she know that something more depraved than she could ever imagine is lurking…
Currently available at Amazon from £1.99
2. Cunning Women by Elizabeth Lee
Lancashire, 1620. Young Sarah Haworth and her family live as outcasts. They are ‘cunning folk’, feared by the local villagers by day, but called upon under cover of darkness for healing balms and spells.
Against the odds, love blossoms when Sarah meets Daniel, the local farmer’s son.
But when a new magistrate arrives to investigate a spate of strange deaths, his gaze inevitably turns to Sarah and her family. In a world where cunning women are forced into darkness by powerful men, can Sarah reckon with her fate to protect all she holds dear?
Currently available at Amazon from £3.99
3. 1989 by Val McDermid
1989. The world is on the brink of revolution and journalist Allie Burns is a woman on a mission.
When she discovers a lead about the exploitation of society’s most vulnerable, Allie is determined to investigate and give voice to the silenced.
Elsewhere, a ticking clock begins the countdown to a murder. As Allie begins to connect the dots and edges closer to exposing the truth, it is more shocking than she ever imagined. There’s nothing like a killer story, and to tell it, Allie must risk her freedom and her life.
Currently available at Amazon from £4.99
4. The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…
For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.
But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.
Currently available at Amazon from £0 if you have prime
5. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Although the above books were in no particular order, I’ve definitely saved the best until last. This atmospheric Gothic mystery/thriller is the best book I’ve read this year. It was one of those tales that leaves you unable to read anything else for days. It takes a while to digest it and you know whatever you read next will pale in comparison. Here’s the blurb:
Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the ‘Cemetery of Lost Books’, a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by Julian Carax.
But as he grows up, several people seem inordinately interested in his find. Then, one night, as he is wandering the old streets once more, Daniel is approached by a figure who reminds him of a character from the book, a character who turns out to be the devil. This man is tracking down every last copy of Carax’s work in order to burn them. What begins as a case of literary curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life and death of Julian Carax and to save those he left behind…
Currently available at Amazon from £3.21
Cover photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash