The perfect beach reads for cozy season
If you live for books that are fun, fast-paced, and full of feels, you’re a Beach Reader at heart—no sand required. At Bookfinity, we know your ideal read is one that grabs you from page one and keeps you hooked straight through the final twist or swoon-worthy kiss.
This fall, we’ve rounded up the latest bingeable reads to keep your cozy-season TBR stacked. From romantic comedies with autumn/winter vibes to page-turning thrillers and heartwarming dramas, these picks are perfect for curling up with a blanket, a pumpkin-spiced something, and a story you just can’t put down. Sweater weather has officially met its match!
november New Releases
And Then There Was You
by Sophie Cousens
She's found the perfect man . . . There's just one big twist.
Stuck in a Production Assistant job and living at home with her parents after a painful breakup, thirty-one-year-old Chloe Fairway isn't where she wants to be in life. The last thing she needs is to face the people who once voted her "most likely to succeed" at her upcoming ten-year college reunion. And she definitely doesn't want to see her former best friend, Sean Adler, who is now a hotshot film director living the life Chloe dreamed of. Desperate to make a splash--and to save face in front of the man who might be the one that got away--she turns to a mysterious dating service.
Enter Rob, her handsome, well-read, and charming match, the perfect plus-one to take to her reunion. The more she gets to know him, the more perfect he appears to be. Could it be that this dating service knows her better than she knows herself? And can she overlook the one big catch? As Chloe reconnects with old friends, she begins to question everything she thought she wanted. Maybe, just maybe, revisiting the past is exactly what she needs to move forward.
Kooky Spooky Love: A Melody Bittersweet Novel
by Josie Silver
An up-and-coming ghostbuster and her motley crew tackle a devilish high-wire act, aided (or more often, interrupted) by her rakish ex and the sarcastic reporter she can't seem to shake--from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Spooky Love.
Maplemead Castle is crawling with ghosts, and the new owners need them gone. When Melody Bittersweet and the Girls' Ghostbusting Agency arrive on scene, they quickly identify the main troublemaker swinging from the chandeliers. A century ago, stunning trapeze artist Britannia Lovell plunged to her death in the castle's grand ballroom, and has continued to haunt it ever since. But did she really just fall, or was there something more to her demise?
Forced to work with Leo Dark, her scoundrel ex, and the infuriating, irresistible reporter Fletcher Gunn, Melody's investigative powers are under the strain of a heart pulled in two directions. She needs her team in top form, but her best friend Marina's cake pipeline goes AWOL, her assistant Artie's distracted by a giant sausage roll, and the pug Lestat is scared witless by a lion. Melody has her work cut out for her.
Somewhere, hidden in the castle, is a heart-breaking secret, but what will it take to find it? And is there a chance it could set Britannia free, or is she doomed to repeat her last fateful act forever?
Evensong
by Stewart O'Nan
"Stewart O'Nan has been one of the best chroniclers of the lives of American women." - Susan Straight
An intimate, moving novel that follows The Humpty Dumpty Club, a group of women of a certain age who band together to help one another and their circle of friends in Pittsburgh as they face the challenges of their golden years
The Humpty Dumpty Club is distraught when their powerhouse leader, Joan Hargrove, takes a bad fall down her stairs, knocking her out of commission. Now, as well as running errands and shepherding those less able to their doctors' appointments, they have to pick up the slack.
Between navigating their own relationships and aging bodies and attending choir practice, these invisible yet indomitable women help where they can. They bake cookies, they care for pets, they pick up prescriptions, they sit vigil by the sick, and most of all, they show up for the people they've pledged to help. In the face of death, divorce, and the myriad directions our lives can take, the Humpty Dumpty club represents the power of community and chosen family.
Weaving together the perspectives of the four cardinal members as they tend to those in need, Stewart O'Nan revisits beloved characters from his past work -- most notably Emily Maxwell -- to fashion a rich and moving novel that celebrates our capacity for patience and care. Vivid, warm, and often wryly funny, Evensong reminds us that life is made up of moments both climactic and quotidian, and we weather those moments with the people we choose to keep close.
The Christmas Stranger
by Richard Paul Evans
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Christmas classic The Christmas Box and the #1 Netflix movie The Noel Diary comes a powerful and thought-provoking holiday story about love, loss, and the mysterious workings of heaven.
Sometimes the universe sends us exactly who we need...
Three years after losing his family in a Christmas Eve accident, grief-stricken Paul Wanlass hasn't just given up on Christmas, he's given up on life. He can't imagine anything to keep him here--not his work as a computer repairman, not the residents in his Salt Lake City neighborhood, and certainly not the idea of connecting with someone new. When a stranger knocks on his door, claiming to be picking up a laptop, Paul allows him in--but discovers the man has a very different mission in mind.
Paul wakes the next morning unsure if his encounter with the stranger really happened or was just a dream-but when the stranger shows up again, Paul challenges him to give him just one reason to live. The stranger agrees to the challenge but warns Paul not to expect a path he would have guessed or chosen.
As the stranger promised, Paul's life takes a wild and fateful turn. A robbery connects him with a woman who has also lost the love of her life, and, in a seemingly unrelated incident, Paul rescues a young boy from bullying, only to find the boy needs a different kind of rescue. The twists leave Paul wondering what these people have in common, and why they were brought together. Who--or what--really is this Christmas stranger, and how will Paul find meaning once again?
October New Releases
A Ferry Merry Christmas
by Debbie Macomber
A delayed ferryboat brings people together in the best of ways during the holiday season in this enchanting Christmas novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber.
Avery and Reed Bond grew up sharing a close-knit relationship, weathering life's storms side by side. Even so, Avery often finds herself exasperated by her brother's relentless matchmaking, while Reed can't resist teasing his sister--after all, isn't that what siblings do?
Facing their first Christmas without their beloved Grams, the woman who lovingly raised them, Reed and Avery decide to spend the holiday together at Reed's home. However, their plans take an unexpected turn when the ferry Avery's traveling on stalls in the middle of Puget Sound, stranding its passengers and leaving Reed waiting a now undetermined length of time for her arrival. What is at first an inconvenience threatens to ruin the plans of a number of commuters, but Avery and Reed soon discover that this unforeseen delay might end up being be a perfectly timed blessing in disguise.
While stuck on the ferry, Avery meets a handsome sailor and witnesses a Christmas miracle that reignites her belief in the holiday spirit. Meanwhile, Reed runs into a coworker who's also waiting for a family member to arrive, and sparks a surprising and delightful connection.
In this tale of holiday magic, the Bond siblings find themselves taking a chance on love, proving that sometimes the best moments in life come when we least expect them.
My Beloved: A Mitford Novel
by Jan Karon
#1 New York Times bestselling author Jan Karon gives her beloved fans what they want for Christmas: a new Mitford novel.
When Father Tim's wife, Cynthia, asks what he wants for Christmas, he pens the answer in a love letter that bares his most private feelings. Then the letter goes missing and circulates among his astonished neighbors. So much for private.
Can a letter change a life? Ask Helene, the piano teacher who has avoided her feelings for a lifetime. Ask Hope, the village bookseller who desperately needs something that's impossibly out of reach. Or, if you'd like to know how a brush with death can be the portal to a happy marriage, Cynthia will tell you all about it.
In My Beloved, Harley gets an important letter of his own; a broken heart teaches the Old Mayor, Esther Cunningham, a lesson long in coming; and thanks to Lace and Dooley, readers get what they've been waiting for: Sadie.
Poignant, hilarious, and life-affirming, My Beloved sets a generous table for millions of readers who love these characters like family. With Karon's signature humanity shining through on every page, this is a season of life in Mitford you won't want to miss.
Remain: A Supernatural Love Story
by Nicholas Sparks - M Night Shyamalan
A one-of-a-kind novel that grapples with the supernatural mysteries of life, death, and human connection--an unprecedented collaboration between the globally bestselling author of love stories like The Notebook and the renowned writer and director of blockbuster thrillers like The Sixth Sense
The stunning hardcover of Remain features a premium dust jacket, beautiful endpapers, and a deluxe case stamped with replica images of the authors' signatures! These stamped "signatures" are reproduced in gold foil.
When New York architect Tate Donovan arrives in Cape Cod to design his best friend's summer home, he is hoping to make a fresh start. Recently discharged from an upscale psychiatric facility where he was treated for acute depression, he is still wrestling with the pain of losing his beloved sister. Sylvia's deathbed revelation--that she can see spirits who are still tethered to the living world, a gift that runs in their family--sits uneasily with Tate, who struggles to believe in more than what reason can explain. But when he takes up residence at a historic bed-and-breakfast on the Cape, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Wren who will challenge every assumption he has about his logical and controlled world.
Tate and Wren find themselves forging an immediate connection, one that neither has ever experienced before. But Tate gradually discovers that below the surface of Wren's idyllic small-town life, hatred, jealousy, and greed are festering, threatening their fragile relationship just as it begins to blossom. Tate realizes that in order to free Wren from an increasingly desperate fate, he will need to unearth the truth about her past before time runs out . . . a quest that will make him doubt whether we can ever believe the stories we tell about ourselves, and the laws that govern our existence. Love--while transformative--can sometimes be frightening.
A story about the power of transcendent emotion, Remain asks us all: Can love set us free not only from our greatest sorrows, but even from the boundaries of life and death?
The Irish Goodbye
by Heather Aimee O'Neill
In this debut, for fans of J. Courtney Sullivan and Mary Beth Keane, three adult sisters grapple with a shared tragedy over a Thanksgiving weekend as they try to heal strained family bonds through the passage of time.
It's been years since the three Ryan sisters were all together at their beloved family home on the eastern shore of Long Island. Two decades ago, their lives were upended by an accident on their brother Topher's boat: A friend's brother was killed, the resulting lawsuit nearly bankrupted their parents, and Topher spiraled into depression, eventually taking his life. Now the Ryan women are back for Thanksgiving, eager to reconnect, but each carrying a heavy secret. The eldest, Cait, still holding guilt for the role no one knows she played in the boat accident, rekindles a flame with her high school crush: Topher's best friend and the brother of the boy who died. Middle sister, Alice, has been thrown a curveball that threatens the career she's restarting and faces a difficult decision that may doom her marriage. And the youngest, Maggie, is finally taking the risk of bringing the woman she loves home to meet her devoutly Catholic mother. Infusing everything is the grief for Topher that none of the Ryans have figured out how to carry together.
When Cait invites a guest from their shared past to Thanksgiving dinner, old tensions boil over and new truths surface, nearly overpowering the flickering light of their family bond. Far more than a family holiday will be ruined unless the sisters can find a way to forgive themselves--and one another.
The Secret Christmas Library
by Jenny Colgan
A new holiday story set in the Scottish Highlands to warm booklovers' hearts by Jenny Colgan, New York Times bestselling author of Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop.
Mirren Sutherland stumbled into a career as an antiquarian book hunter after finding a priceless antique book in her great aunt's attic. Now, as Christmas approaches, she's been hired by Jamie McKinnon, the surprisingly young and handsome laird of a Highland clan whose ancestral holdings include a vast crumbling castle. Family lore suggests that the McKinnon family's collection includes a rare book so valuable that it could save the entire estate--if they only knew where it was. Jamie needs Mirren to help him track down this treasure, which he believes is hidden in his own home.
But on the train to the Highlands, Mirren runs into rival book hunter Theo Palliser, and instantly knows that it's not a chance meeting. She's all too familiar with Theo's good looks and smooth talk, and his uncanny ability to appear whenever there's a treasure that needs locating.
Almost as soon as Mirren and Theo arrive at the castle, a deep snow blankets the Highlands, cutting off the outside world. Stuck inside, the three of them plot their search as the wind whistles outside. Mirren knows that Jamie's grandfather, the castle's most recent laird, had been a book collector, a hoarder, and a great lover of treasure hunts. Now they must unpuzzle his clues, discovering the secrets of the house--forming and breaking alliances in a race against time.
A treat for booklovers and treasure hunters alike, The Secret Christmas Library serves up a delicious mystery with a hint of romance, and plenty of holiday spirit!
September new releases
The Secret of Secrets
by Dan Brown
The world's most celebrated thriller writer returns with his most stunning novel yet--a propulsive, twisty, thought-provoking masterpiece that will entertain readers as only Dan Brown can do.
Robert Langdon, esteemed professor of symbology, travels to Prague to attend a groundbreaking lecture by Katherine Solomon--a prominent noetic scientist with whom he has recently begun a relationship. Katherine is on the verge of publishing an explosive book that contains startling discoveries about the nature of human consciousness and threatens to disrupt centuries of established belief. But a brutal murder catapults the trip into chaos, and Katherine suddenly disappears along with her manuscript. Langdon finds himself targeted by a powerful organization and hunted by a chilling assailant sprung from Prague's most ancient mythology. As the plot expands into London and New York, Langdon desperately searches for Katherine . . . and for answers. In a thrilling race through the dual worlds of futuristic science and mystical lore, he uncovers a shocking truth about a secret project that will forever change the way we think about the human mind.
The Academy
by Elin Hilderbrand - Shelby Cunningham
From #1 bestselling author of The Perfect Couple Elin Hilderbrand, and her daughter, Shelby Cunningham: the irresistible, deliciously scandalous story of one drama-filled year at a New England boarding school.
It's move-in day at Tiffin Academy and amidst the happy chaos of friends reuniting, selfies uploading, and cars unloading, shocking news arrives: America Today just ranked Tiffin the number two boarding school in the country. It's a seventeen-spot jump - was there a typo? The dorms need to be renovated, their sports teams always come in last place, and let's just say Tiffin students are known for being more social than academic. On the other hand, the campus is exquisite, class sizes are small, and the dining hall is run by an acclaimed New York chef. And they do have fun--lots of parties and school dances, and a piano man plays in the student lounge every Monday night.
But just as the rarefied air of Tiffin is suffused with self-congratulation, the wheels begin to turn - and then they fall off the bus. One by one, scandalous blind items begin to appear on phones across Tiffin's campus, thanks to a new app called ZipZap, and nobody is safe. From Davi Banerjee, international influencer and resident queen bee, to Simone Bergeron, the new and surprisingly young history teacher, to Charley Hicks, a transfer student who seems determined not to fit in, to Cordelia Spooner, Admissions Director with a somewhat idiosyncratic methodology - everyone has something to hide.
As if high school wasn't dramatic enough...As the year unfolds, bonds are forged and broken, secrets are shared and exposed, and the lives of Tiffin's students and staff are changed forever. The Academy is Elin Hilderbrand's fresh, buzzy take on boarding school life, and a thrilling new direction from one of America's most satisfying and popular storytellers.
People Watching
by Hannah Bonam-Young
In this sexy and emotional romance from the acclaimed author of Out of the Woods and Out on a Limb, a small-town woman's journey to spread her wings intertwines with the arrival of an adventurous newcomer who brings out the best in her.
Prudence Welch has found solace in her introverted life in Baysville, a charming tourist town in Northern Ontario. Despite once dreaming of a life beyond its borders, she now finds contentment in her routines: working at her father's gas station, writing poetry, and caring for her mother, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease shortly after Prue's nineteenth birthday. But as her mother's condition worsens and her father's concerns about her own future intensify, Prue feels her world slipping further out of control.
Enter Milo Kablukov, an enigmatic wanderer whose beat-up van covered with ill-advised bumper stickers rolls into town just when Prue needs a change. It's all too easy to let go with him, and Prue can't help but strike up an unlikely friendship with Milo, which leads to a wild and sexy agreement between them.
Milo, a man of many adventures and countless stories, is not one to settle down. However, his brother's urgent need for help has brought him to Baysville, and now the intriguing Prue has given him more reason to stay--especially once they start spending more time together, their chemistry intensifying, and casual-sex lessons begin at Prue's request.
But as their temporary arrangement blossoms into something deeper, Prue and Milo discover that getting out of their comfort zones is one thing . . . taking that leap together is something else entirely.
The Christmas House: An Amish Christmas Novella
by Beverly Lewis
Beverly Lewis, the number-one bestselling author of Amish fiction, delivers a delightful Christmas novella of faith, romance, and heartwarming holiday traditions.
With the holidays approaching, Liz Lantz is dedicated to using her Hickory Hollow buggy tour business to share God's love with the Englisher tourists who visit her Lancaster County community. But when her father and brother are called away for a while, Dat finds a young Amishman to assist her on the tours in her brother's place, much to Liz's dismay. Regardless, the popularity of her Christmas House Buggy Tour means she could use the help, so as the countdown to Christmas begins, she works alongside Matthew Yoder, who quickly takes a genuine interest in the tour customers--and Liz.
As an Englisher family in Hickory Hollow expresses their festive spirit with a lavishly decorated house for the second year running, Liz's Amish community becomes increasingly concerned about attracting unwanted traffic and attention, and Liz wonders if there is any way to bridge the gap to help the new neighbors feel welcome. At the same time, she grapples with her growing feelings for Matt, whose position with her is only temporary. Can she find a way to bring harmony to Hickory Hollow in time for Christmas?
Beverly Lewis's homespun Amish romance will draw in readers who love family, small towns, and Christmas festivities. This charming holiday novella brings cheer and faith for the winter season.
Holly and Nick Hate Christmas
by Betsy St Amant
When a Christmas-hating woman's brother sets her up with a fellow Grinch and it backfires, she decides to out-Christmas her date by kicking off a festive battle of wills in this inspirational enemies-to-lovers holiday romcom.
Holly Sinclair has hated Christmas for as long as she can remember. Who names their Christmas baby Holly in the first place? She was teased mercilessly growing up. Holly Berry, Holli-days, Holly Jolly . . . not to mention the fact that her birthday is often totally overlooked amidst the season.
To make matters worse, instead of getting the promotion she was expecting, Holly's been downsized--which is just fancy holiday talk for fired. Now Holly has to go home single, unemployed, turning thirty, and only a tinsel strand of faith. Bah, humbug.
Holly's big brother, Ryan, has dragged his best friend, known holiday-hater Nick Kinsley, home with him. But when Holly discovers that Nick's here to be her pity date, she decides the best revenge is to play along . . . and Christmas like she's never Christmas'd before. Commence Operation: Naughty List. The fact that she's attracted to Nick is totally not the point. She'll teach him a lesson, one ho ho ho at a time.
The holiday grows more complicated when Holly and Ryan find out their parents asked all the siblings to come home for Christmas this year, but refuse to say why. The rest of the Sinclair siblings descend, each with their own sleigh full of secrets. Rumors spread as everyone tries to guess the reason for their parents' demand--and Nick turns out to have a secret of his own. Will this be a Christmas to forget? Or will Holly and Nick discover there is so much more?
Please Don't Lie: A Thriller
by Christina Baker Kline - Anne Burt
In this stylish, twisty thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline and award-winning author Anne Burt, a young woman heads to the Adirondacks with her new husband for a fresh start--but the past won't let her go.
Two years ago, Hayley Stone lost everything. First, her parents died in a devastating fire. Then, her sister overdosed, leaving Hayley alone and hounded by a media circus that turned her family's tragedy into tabloid fodder. When her new husband suggests a fresh start in the Adirondacks, the promise of anonymity in an isolated mountain town feels like salvation.
But the mountains hold darker secrets than she ever imagined.
Her once-loving husband grows distant and volatile. The widow down the road keeps spewing vague accusations. Not even their new friends--a free-spirited couple living on the property--can help Hayley shake the creeping sense that something is off.
As winter edges closer, Hayley discovers that her sanctuary is anything but safe. Trapped and isolated, she faces a terrifying truth: in trying to escape her past, she may have run straight into something far more dangerous.
Vianne
by Joanne Harris
Million-copy bestselling author Joanne Harris returns to the world of Chocolat with the long-awaited story of Vianne, which begins six years before she opens her scandalous chocolaterie in the small French village of Lansquenet.
Secrets. Chocolate. A touch of magic.
On the evening of July 4th, a young woman scatters her mother's ashes in New York and follows the call of the changing winds to the French coastal city of Marseille.
For the first time in her life, Vianne feels in control of her future. Charming her way into a job as a waitress, she tries to fit in, make friends, and come to terms with her pregnancy, knowing that by the time her child is born, the turning wind will have changed once again.
As she discovers the joy of cooking for the very first time, making local recipes her own with the addition of bittersweet chocolate spices, she learns that this humble magic has the power to unlock secrets.
And yet her gift comes at a price. And Vianne has a secret of her own; a secret that threatens everything...