Coming Soon – The Romances We’re Most Looking Forward to Reading in October 2021
I don’t know where the last month has gone, but it’s already time for AAR’s regular Coming Soon feature, this month looking ahead to the new books we’re most looking forward to reading in October. As ever, it isn’t a comprehensive selection, but hopefully there’s something here for everyone to enjoy. Do drop by and tell us what YOU’RE eager to get stuck into over the coming weeks!
Releasing 1st Oct
Releasing week of 5th Oct
Releasing week of 12th Oct
Releasing week of 19th Oct
Releasing week of 26th Oct
For any Tal Bauer fans (M/M romantic suspense), I just got notification today that he is releasing a new book on Oct 9! It’s called Never Stay Gone and it looks like it’s a second chance cowboy romance. It’s up for pre-order on Amazon. He’s an auto-buy author for me although this short notice is getting rough – I got about a week’s notice for his last book then 2 days for this one. At this rate, I’ll just get a notice for the next book that it’s out that same day!
I agree – it’s incredibly hard to keep up with all the self-published stuff because it often appears with no or very little warning! Thanks for the head’s up on this one. I haven’t read much Bauer yet (no time!!) but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read so far, so I’ll definitely check this one out!
I’m also planning to read Donut Fall in Love by Jackie Lau (Oct 26) (I like all her contemporary romances), Mismatched by Noelle Adams (Oct 12), The Cursed King by Abigail Owens (Oct 25) – sorry I didn’t get them on the list above!
Another one of my favourite authors that I’d missed……………………………
Aster Glenn Gray releases The Larks Still Bravely Singing on 4th October. It’s a m/m post-WW1 romance. I’ll read anything of hers after the glorious Honeytrap.
Yes, I saw that, too, but as we don’t always get info about self-published books (and they’re rarely offered on NetGalley) – and lead-times are shorter (I start preparing this post around a month before it appears) – some things do get missed. There have been a lot of new books Sep/Oct I really want to read/review, but I can’t cram any more into my October schedule, so that one might have to wait :(
Lily Morton has said in her Newsletter this morning that she has finished a book that will be released in October or November, depending on how long all the finalising takes. So it might just creep into October!
And as I’ve mentioned November…………. Alexis Hall is releasing a f/f cozy mystery/romcom on 9th November on Kobo only. Had to download the app yesterday so that I could preorder it!
From the books above, I am most excited about:
Sol by Con Riley – Con Riley’s books aren’t always the easiest for me to follow for some reason but the emotion in them is so good. I loved Charles (Learning to Love book 1) and I am intrigued by the storyline of Sol.
Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey – I don’t think I have ever read a book where the protagonists were window dressers. Sounds like a great holiday read!
Well Matched by Jen DeLuca – I loved Well Met (book 1) but thought Well Played (book 2) was only OK. This book will be the tiebreaker for whether I continue to buy from this author. I’m hoping I like it.
Beard in Hiding by Penny Reid – Penny Reid is an auto-buy author for me. This one stars Diane Donner, Jennifer Sylvester’s mother (from Beard Science). I didn’t particularly like Diane at the beginning but she has grown on me and I like that this will be a book where the main couple are in their 40s.
Total Creative Control by Joanna Chambers and Sally Malcolm – I love, love, love Sally Malcolm’s contemporaries and have read some holiday contemporary novellas by Joanna Chambers that I liked very much. I am so looking forward to this book.
Duke, Actually by Jenny Holiday – the hero from this book was introduced in her previous Christmas novel A Princess for Christmas and I think this book will be a good one to read around the holidays.
Other October books I am looking forward to:
Puck Drills & Quick Thrills by Eden Finley and Saxon James – this is the 5th and last in a M/M NA series about hockey players at a fictional East Coast university. The main characters in this book are actually a little older. One is a former NHL player whose parents died in an accident, leaving him the legal guardian of his 5 younger siblings. He gives up his career to coach hockey at the university. One of his players is having a hard time in a class, he goes head-to-head with the professor and sparks fly.
The Underdog by Briar Prescott – I can’t sing the praises of this author enough. The previous book in the series (The Dating Experiment) was one of my absolute favorites from this year. Her books are funny and emotional and I love her characters.
Boyfriend by Sarina Bowen – I always like her books and this is her addition to her Moo U series (World of True North).
Donut Fall in Love by Jackie Lau – it’s another of her books that centers around food and I am going to have major doughnut cravings after reading it.
Another month gone by already? Wow.
As for new releases, I am tentatively looking forward to the Harlequin Historical The Knight’s Maiden in Disguise by Ella Matthews. Shallow reason number 1, I love the cover. Beyond that, the plot of the heroine disguising herself as her late twin brother in order to support her younger siblings in the year 1331 is intriguing, but I have some reservations. Specifically, I hope it doesn’t fall into the trope of the hero magically sniffing out that the heroine is in fact a woman with all the requisite “Thank GOD!” vibes when he’s proven correct. Now that HH has been tiptoeing into more non-traditional narratives, I’m hoping for more of a queer vibe from the hero’s end. We’ll see how that plays out.
Other than that, I think I’ll chip away at my neverending TBR list in various genres. Right now, I am reading Remarkable Diaries, a DK book about diaries throughout history. It has a nice mixture of famous diarists and their far lesser known contemporaries around the world. The oldest diary ever found dates back about 4,500 years ago in Ancient Egypt. Fascinating stuff. I highly recommend it to any history fans who are visually inclined!
I’m not sure the queer vibe will extend to the historicals just yet,,,
The Woman at the Front sounds interesting though the author is unknown to me.
She’s written quite a few HRs in the more ‘usual’ time-settings (19th century) so this isn’t a debut. I’m reading it now, so watch this space!
I don’t think either book by Nora Roberts is a new release. The Awakening is a reprint of a book that she published last year. Book 2 of that series is due out next month. Rivers End was first published in 2010. It may be a reprint but it’s not on the list of 2021 reprints on Nora Roberts’ website.
You may right. Unfortunately however, the places we usually get the info (NetGalley and Amazon mostly) often don’t indicate reissues and unless you’re familiar with the author’s work (and I’m not, in this case) I don’t think to double check. Sorry, I know it’s confusing, especially if you’re looking forward to a new book from a favourite author.
Clare Connelly releases two new books during the first week of October: Her latest HP, CROWNED FOR HIS DESERT TWINS, an unplanned-pregnancy/sheikh romance, arrives October 1. Then on October 6, Connelly’s CHRISTMAS EVER AFTER, a second-chance/small-town romance, drops.
Ruth Cordello’s HE SAID NEVER, the second of her new Lost Corisis series, is scheduled for October 12. This one features a fake relationship.
Also arriving October 12 is CD Reiss’s MAFIA QUEEN, the third and final book in her DiLustro Arrangement dark mafia trilogy about a young Italian-American woman forced into an arranged marriage with an Italian mafia don. What I’ve liked about this series is how seriously it treats arranged marriages and their inherent power imbalances. The previous book (MAFIA KING) ended on a doozy of a cliffhanger, so I’m eager to see how things are resolved.
Ella James’s dark m/m stepbrother romance, WRATH, has been postponed a number of times since its original July release date. I’m hoping that the current release date of October 14 will be the day it finally arrives.
Sybil Bartel’s romantic-suspense, VICTOR, the second in her new Alpha Elite series, drops on October 25. In this one, the hero falls for the woman he has been hired to keep under surveillance.
Giana Darling’s DANGEROUS TEMPTATION arrives on October 26. This is the first book in either a duet or a trilogy (I’ve seen a reference to at least a second book) and is set in the multi-author Midnight Dynasty universe where two rival crime families love and hate each other in equal measure. DANGEROUS TEMPTATION features the guardian-ward trope, which I know isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m assuming the heroine will turn 18 before “anything” happens.
I should add that I have Caitlin Crews’s THE BRIDE HE STOLE FOR CHRISTMAS on my November TBR. Although, as you show above, the physical book is available on October 26, the ebook (which is what I will be reading) doesn’t arrive until November 1.
I have 4 of these preordered – both of Gregory Ashe’s, the Con Riley and the Joanna Chambers/Sally Malcolm.
I’m most looking forward to Ashe’s Relative Justice as it’s the start of a new Hazard and Somerset series. I really want to find out more about the doorstep bombshell!!!!!!!!!
I liked the MCs of GA’s Stray Fears, even though horror isn’t what I usually read, so will read more about them in Cascade Hunger. Hmmm, I’ll read horror if Gregory Ashe writes it in the same way as I’ll read paranormal if KJ Charles writes that!
The blurb of Sol by Con Riley sounds great – I had a binge of her books before reading Charles and I think she is now an autobuy author for me.
Anything by Sally Malcolm or Joanna Chambers is also an autobuy, so I’m really looking forward to Total Creative Control which they have written together.
A.J. Demas has the final book in the Sword Dance trilogy, Strong Wine, releasing on 14th October. I got the first book, Sword Dance, yesterday as it is free at the moment. I’m currently at 70% and finding it a great read. It’s set in a fictional ancient East Mediterranean world and the MCs are an ex-soldier with a knackered knee and a eunuch sword dancer/spy. I’m loving it so will probably read the rest of the trilogy.
A massive glut of late Sept books to review means I haven’t read the new GA yet, but it’s up next! I’ll be reviewing Sol and the Chambers/Malcolm and am really looking forward to them
I’m not familiar with the series you mention, but book 1 is free on Kindle right now, so I’ll give it a try – thanks for the rec!
Strong Wine is definitely the book I’m most looking forward to – this trilogy has been wonderful so far (reminds me of KJ Charles except set in an alternate Roman Empire world).
I had to buy the second book straight after reading the first, free, book, as I loved it so much! It’s a wonderful series and it was actually a KJC review that led me to it.