Hi, reading friends! I like to picture you all settling into the cooler weather, in fireside scenes with steaming mugs of hot drinks and piles of books all around. Whether that’s reality or not, today I’m offering a few reviews of some popular novels released this year that I read over the last four months. These books either made it onto the best seller list this summer or were highly anticipated from former best selling authors. I hope this post will help you find your next great read to add to those piles of books this fall!
I’ll start with my favorites.
First, Lady Tremaine, the book I would recommend most highly and widely today. This is a retelling of Cinderella from the point of view of the stepmother. I usually skip the recasting of villains, such as the movie Maleficent. I am a big fairytale fan, partly because of the good versus evil element that so many retellings like to blur. However! I loved Lady Tremaine. If you’re willing to let go of the original tale and let the author, Rachel Hochhauser, spin a new one, this book is really stunning. The historical setting is more accurate than most novels set in the Renaissance time period, the symbolism woven in with nature and dwellings is gorgeous, and the setting is atmospheric. To top it all off, the characters are layered and lovable. Cinderella is one of the best fairy tales, so it’s no wonder it lends itself to many adaptations, and Lady Tremaine is another to add to my favorites. As for content warnings, very few in this one for adults, though I would say preview it before handing it to your teens, as the villain is seriously villainous. Overall, 5 stars!
Next, The Calamity Club, the much anticipated second book by Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help. It’s hard to believe this is the first book Stockett has published since her huge hit of 2009…until you look at the length of this book! Like The Help, The Calamity Club is a historical novel that explores social justice themes for women in the South. This time, it features several women in Oxford, Mississippi in 1933 struggling with The Great Depression. Though on the long side (656 pages), I flew through it in a few days. Stockett writes with a warm, welcoming tone and her characters are pleasantly complex. I didn’t want to put the book down and leave the world inside its pages…at least for the first half of the book. The second half turns to the setting of a brothel, highlighting the difficulties of women making money in this time period. Though it is handled in a non-explicit way, about as gently as possible, I still wasn’t comfortable with it. However, if you liked The Help, you’ll probably like this one. 4.5 stars.
And here we come to Land. Full stop. Oh my goodness. Apparently, this book shattered me so much, I am reduced to sentence fragments to review it.
Land is my first book by Maggie O’Farrell, who is most famous for Hamnet. This book is rich, and gorgeous, and a bit confusing, and I loved it. The theme of vocation and its importance in family and the place you’re from was as moving as could be. I am not a crier…and I cried. Land is set mostly in mid-1800s Ireland, and follows various members of one Irish family from childhood to adulthood. There are also some flashbacks to ancient times, and I will be the first to admit that I am not completely clear on the meaning of the Celtic mysticism mixed in, and am possibly barely grasping the book as a whole, but it was still worth the reading, no question. And if you have any insight for me, please share! I would recommend this to anyone who likes to read novels. Also, if you are a parent, fair warning, it might rock you emotionally, but not in a tragedy involving children kind of way way, just in a parenting is so important and beautiful kind of way. I now have almost all of O’Farrell’s books on my to-read list. 5 stars.
Behind Five Willows is a highly anticipated Pride and Prejudice retelling that debuted as #1 on the NY Times Bestseller list, and I thought it was completely lovely. I would recommend this to any Jane Austen fan, especially if you like historical fiction. I’d call it more of a loose retelling of P&P set in Korea in 1792. I enjoyed it, learned a lot (which is important for a historical novel, if you ask me!), and would hand this to my teen daughters without hesitation. My only downside to this book is the ending is a bit rushed and the dialogue in the last 10% of the book feels forced. 4.5 stars.
Now that we have some rave reviews to fuel your potential to-be-read list, we come to some popular books that I would put on the “consider skipping this one” list. Of course, book reviews are very subjective, so as Levar would say, you don’t have to take my word for it.
Dolly All the Time is the best selling rom-com of 2026, unofficially (because rom-com isn’t a real category). With a coastal setting, a tried and true trope, and endearing main characters, this book has a lot going for it as far. I finally picked it up after reading a million rave reviews, BUT I mistakenly thought it was a “closed door romance,” and it wasn’t… I must’ve gotten my Instagram reviewers crossed, haha. I generally stick to “proper” romances (if I pick up a romance at all, which I usually don’t), and prudish as that sounds, it is important to me. So with that caveat, I will say this was a surprisingly thoughtful, tender book that I didn’t expect to highlight so much on my Kindle! However, I really didn’t like the romance content, so I don’t heartily recommend it. If you enjoy a rom-com book generally, this one will probably be a good one for you, but for me, 3.5 stars.
On to the very popular Whistler, Ann Patchett’s newest novel. Some books are written so well, with easy to read yet emotionally deep prose, but ultimately leave me feeling flat at the end. Mostly it comes down to a hopeless tone in the great theme of man’s search for meaning. These books are hard to review! As I finished this one, a story about 53-year-old Daphne’s childhood colliding with the life she lives in the present in NYC, I came to the conclusion that Patchett is simply not for me. The pervasive sadness and the feeling that the characters are wandering around in their lives, always a bit lost, gets me down every time. Still, a nod to the marvelously clear, tight, beautiful writing Patchett brings to all her work. I realize I am a worm criticizing a star here. If you enjoy Anne Tyler or Elizabeth Strout, you might just love this book. From me, it gets 3 stars.
This Book Made Me Think of You is the feel-good bestseller of this summer, with lots of similarities to P.S. I Love You, if you know it? (nod to Joyce of The Thursday Murder Club, IYKYK). It is sweet, maybe a bit overly sweet, and predictable in a comfy, Hallmark-ish way. It’s also rather high on strong language and adult content, but otherwise, it is a quick, light read. If it comes down to yes read or don’t read, I would lean towards a skip on it. 2.75 stars.
A Fortune of Sand is the first novel for adults by the amazing YA author Ruta Sepetys. I loved her other books, so I came to this one with high expectations and…there’s no sugar coating this…it was not good. The characters were unlikable, the dialogue was confusing, the setting and history didn’t flow well in the story, and it was a slog to get through. BUT! I can’t recommend I Must Betray You highly enough by this author though, so please put that one on your TBR. My husband, my teen son, my teen daughter, and I all read it separately, and each of us couldn’t put it down and learned so much about the Cold War! Also, A Fountain of Silence and Salt to Sea are brilliant, though difficult to read at times due to brutal but historically accurate content. So, read Sepetys! But skip A Fortune of Sand. 1 star.
Finally, here are a few audio book recommendations:
Miss Wolcott’s Ghost is the latest installment of the Inspector Gamache series, and it doesn’t disappoint. The whole series is one of my favorites to listen to on audio. Content warning for violence (they are murder mysteries, after all), and quite a bit of language.
What You Are Looking For is in the Library and The Tsubaki Stationary Store are two pleasant yet soul-searching books set in present day Japan. I found them both thoughtful and inspiring. The themes of struggling against loneliness in modern life as well as dedication to art and vocation are beautifully portrayed. The plots of both these books unfold slowly, but instead of getting bored, I felt calmed by the pace of life in them and the attention to detail I discovered the Japanese culture still embraces. One thing I have also loved about Japanese books translated to English is the respect people show for each other. With that important part of culture, I am wondering if a natural outcome of the respect for every single person around you leads to little cursing or reference to anything crude at all in literature? I am certainly no expert, but I did notice in these two books the tone is very polite.
And then there’s the Emma M. Lion series. If you are a woman between the ages of 20 and 50 on social media, you’ve probably heard of these. Emma M. Lion books are written as a journal by Emma chronicling her very unusual neighborhood, friends, and life experience in 1890s England. It is quirky and fun, and no review can do the reading experience justice. All I’ll say is they are deeeelightful books and the audio version of this series is an even better experience than the paper version (I have read both). And I’ll add these books are quite “clean” reads.
My library had these audiobooks either on Hoopla or Libby. If you need help navigating Audible to get your audio books, I’m not your girl, but I am sure there is a tutorial on that somewhere.
Now, I hope you find a great read in this list and have a wonderful fall!