Top 10 Book Releases October 2019

From YA to historical fiction to horror, there are so many great books coming out in October that it can be hard to keep track. Here are 10 books to add to your autumn TBR:

1. Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo 

At her hospital bed, Alex Stern is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride…Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

Leigh Bardugo is the bestselling author of multiple books set in the Grishaverse, including the Grisha trilogy and the Six of Crows duology. Her fans everywhere are super excited for the release of her first adult fantasy book - including me! I only discovered the Grishaverse in April 2019 after starting my Bookstagram page a few months prior, and I have never been so swept up into a fantasy world so quickly. As I talked about in my top bookish picks for Autumn, I'm hoping to finally read Crooked Kingdom before the release of Ninth House. 

2. The Beautiful - Renee Ahdieh 

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent, Celine soon becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's leader, Sébastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien's guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.
When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart.

There's been a dire shortage of new YA vampire novels in recent years - until now, with the release of this epic-sounding cross between Twilight and everything Anne Rice. I love vampire stories, and was such a Twihard when I was younger (who am I kidding - I still am) so this sounds right up my street. I have already mentioned this book in my top bookish picks for Autumn, but I'm just so excited to read it - the New Orleans setting sounds amazing. 

3. The Giver of Stars - Jojo Moyes 

When Alice Wright agrees to marry handsome American Bennett Van Cleve and leave behind her stifling life in England for a new adventure in Kentucky, she’s soon disenchanted by her newlywed status and overbearing father-in-law, owner of the local coal mine. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt's new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically. What happens to these women--and to the men they love--becomes a classic drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion.

Fans of Jojo Moyes are eagerly awaiting the release of her latest novel, following the story of five extraordinary women in Depression-era America. I've never read any Jojo Moyes, but I know how popular her books are, and I loved the Me Before You movie (although the ending killed me - I'm never getting over that!) so I really need to get round to some of her books. Maybe October is the month I finally will...?

4. Imaginary Friend - Stephen Chbosky 

Single mother Kate Reese is on the run. Determined to improve life for her and her son, Christopher, she flees an abusive relationship in the middle of the night with Christopher at her side. 
At first, it seems like the perfect place to finally settle down. Then Christopher vanishes. For six awful days, no one can find him. Until Christopher emerges from the woods at the edge of town, unharmed but not unchanged. He returns with a voice in his head only he can hear, with a mission only he can complete: Build a tree house in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again.
Soon Kate and Christopher find themselves in the fight of their lives, caught in the middle of a war playing out between good and evil, with their small town as the battleground.

 A literary horror from the bestselling author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower? Sign me up! This one sounds super creepy so it might be a good idea to save it for Halloween time if you like to match your books to your holidays (I love doing this - I think it's the perfect way to get in the holiday spirit!). 

5. The Fountains of Silence - Ruta Sepetys

Madrid, 1957. Under the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into Spain under the welcoming guise of sunshine and wine. Among them is eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson, the son of a Texas oil tycoon, who arrives in Madrid with his parents hoping to connect with the country of his mother's birth through the lens of his camera. Photography--and fate--introduce him to Ana, whose family's interweaving obstacles reveal the lingering grasp of the Spanish Civil War--as well as chilling definitions of fortune and fear. Daniel's photographs leave him with uncomfortable questions amidst shadows of danger. He is backed into a corner of decisions to protect those he loves. Lives and hearts collide, revealing an incredibly dark side to the sunny Spanish city.

No one does YA historical fiction quite like Ruta Sepetys, and her new book sounds as enigmatic and heart-wrenching as her others. I loved Between Shades of Gray when I was younger and I like that's she's chosen a bit more of a nice setting in fascist Spain for her new book, so I'll be keeping my eye out for this one. 

6. Into the Crooked Place - Alexandra Christo 

The streets of Creije are for the deadly and the dreamers, and four crooks in particular know just how much magic they need up their sleeve to survive.
Tavia, a busker ready to pack up her dark-magic wares and turn her back on Creije for good. She’ll do anything to put her crimes behind her.
Wesley, the closest thing Creije has to a gangster. After growing up on streets hungry enough to swallow the weak whole, he won’t stop until he has brought the entire realm to kneel before him.
Karam, a warrior who spends her days watching over the city’s worst criminals and her nights in the fighting rings, making a deadly name for herself.
And Saxony, a resistance fighter hiding from the very people who destroyed her family, and willing to do whatever it takes to get her revenge.
Everything in their lives is going to plan, until Tavia makes a crucial mistake: she delivers a vial of dark magic—a weapon she didn’t know she had—to someone she cares about, sparking the greatest conflict in decades. Now these four magical outsiders must come together to save their home and the world, before it’s too late. But with enemies at all sides, they can trust nobody. Least of all each other. 

From the author of To Kill a Kingdom, Into the Crooked Place marks the start of a gritty new YA fantasy duology. The description above reminds me of the blurb of Six of Crows, which is very exciting, because I love books which have multiple POVs drawn together in some epic fantasy arc. For me, the world-building and lengthy descriptions that fantasy books require can get a little boring, and having multiple POVs is a great way to switch it up and inject character development into the settings and narrative. 

7. The Grace Year - Kim Liggett

In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.
Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

Perfect for fans of the Handmaid's Tale, The Grace Year explores the often complicated and twisted relationships between girls as they turn into women. I've never actually read the entirety of The Handmaid's Tale, but from what I know about it, this seems very similar. I focused a lot of my degree on historical relationships between women and how women in a community function together as well as against each other (and the patriarchy) so I really like the sound of the way this explores those complex relationships. 

8. Twice in a Blue Moon - Christina Lauren 

Sam Brandis was Tate Jones’s first: Her first love. Her first everything. Including her first heartbreak.
During a whirlwind two-week vacation abroad, Sam and Tate fell for each other in only the way that first loves do: sharing all of their hopes, dreams, and deepest secrets along the way. Sam was the first, and only, person that Tate—the long-lost daughter of one of the world’s biggest film stars—ever revealed her identity to. So when it became clear her trust was misplaced, her world shattered for good.
Fourteen years later, Tate, now an up-and-coming actress, only thinks about her first love every once in a blue moon. When she steps onto the set of her first big break, he’s the last person she expects to see. Yet here Sam is, the same charming, confident man she knew, but even more alluring than she remembered. Forced to confront the man who betrayed her, Tate must ask herself if it’s possible to do the wrong thing for the right reason… and whether “once in a lifetime” can come around twice.

From the bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners and My Favourite Half-Night Stand comes a new heart-warming romance novel about first love and second chances. I've never read any Christina Lauren, and I'm not really into romance novels in general, but I love a good one every now and then when I need something light to read. I'll keep my eye out for reviews of this one and consider picking it up when I'm in the mood!

9. The Vine Witch - Luanna G. Smith 

For centuries, the vineyards at Château Renard have depended on the talent of their vine witches, whose spells help create the world-renowned wine of the Chanceaux Valley. Then the skill of divining harvests fell into ruin when sorcière Elena Boureanu was blindsided by a curse. Now, after breaking the spell that confined her to the shallows of a marshland and weakened her magic, Elena is struggling to return to her former life. And the vineyard she was destined to inherit is now in the possession of a handsome stranger.
Vigneron Jean-Paul Martel naively favors science over superstition, and he certainly doesn’t endorse the locals’ belief in witches. But Elena knows a hex when she sees one, and the vineyard is covered in them. To stay on and help the vines recover, she’ll have to hide her true identity, along with her plans for revenge against whoever stole seven winters of her life. And she won’t rest until she can defy the evil powers that are still a threat to herself, Jean-Paul, and the ancient vine-witch legacy in the rolling hills of the Chanceaux Valley.

I personally love a good witch story, and this one sounds amazing: betrayal, vengenace, and self-discovery set in turn-of-the-century France? Yes please. I've mentioned this before on my blog, but I did a lot of my degree on the early-modern witch crazes across Europe. Obviously, the 'witches' burnt in the seventeenth century weren't real, but this book sounds like it's drawn on the history of witchcraft and witch-hunting in its conception, which I love. Whether or not I get to this in October, I'll definitely be picking this up at some point over the next few months. 

10. The Never Tilting World - Rin Chupeco 

Generations of twin goddesses have long ruled Aeon. But seventeen years ago, one sister’s betrayal defied an ancient prophecy and split their world in two. The planet ceased to spin, and a Great Abyss now divides two realms: one cloaked in perpetual night, the other scorched by an unrelenting sun.
While one sister rules Aranth—a frozen city surrounded by a storm-wracked sea —her twin inhabits the sand-locked Golden City. Each goddess has raised a daughter, and each keeps her own secrets about her sister’s betrayal.
But when shadowy forces begin to call their daughters, Odessa and Haidee, back to the site of the Breaking, the two young goddesses —along with a powerful healer from Aranth, and a mouthy desert scavenger —set out on separate journeys across treacherous wastelands, desperate to heal their broken world. No matter the sacrifice it demands.

A cross between Frozen and Mad Max probably wasn't what anyone was expecting from a new YA fantasy duology, but it sounds awesome. I'm actually not the biggest fan of fantasy (which you wouldn't guess from this list, I know) but this even sounds amazing to me. I think what makes me enjoy a fantasy are complicated character relationships set against the world the author has created - this makes it possible for me to relate to/feel for characters that supposedly exist in an entirely different world to the one we know. And sisterly betrayal sounds super messy, which makes for great reading. 

Do you like the sound of any of these books? Will you be adding them to your October TBR? Or are there any other releases not covered here that you are excited for in the coming month?