Happy October! It’s probably my favorite month of the year! And apparently Amazon agrees that it’s the perfect month, because this month they’re giving us TWO free Amazon First Reads. A lot of books on the list caught my eye, and I easily picked two I had to have. Check out my October 2023 Amazon First Reads recommendations below!
P.S. It’s in order of my personal interest 🙂
What I Actually Downloaded (Top Picks)
House Moms – Jen Lancaster
October reading seems to be filled with lots of spooky, mystery, and thriller reads, so this fairly light-hearted book piqued my interest!
Official Blurb
How fast can charity fundraiser CeCe Barclay’s unimpeachable society life come tumbling down?
One minute she’s speaking before Chicago’s glitterati. The next, her financier husband is wanted for embezzlement. Her assets seized and her fall mortifyingly public, CeCe grasps for refuge—and employment—as a sorority housemom at Eli Whitney University, her daughter Hayden’s alma mater.
Tasked with preparing a stately—but in CeCe’s estimation shabby—house for rush, CeCe isn’t the only one navigating a new life. Janelle Smith’s last experience as a housemother was at a Jersey strip club, where she witnessed a mob hit…
To keep her safe until trial, WITSEC finds her a new identity and a housemom position on Eli Whitney’s sorority row, where Janelle’s conflict mediation and tolerance for high estrogen levels make her a star employee. For Hayden, a barista at a hopelessly hip off-campus café, the goal is to flee everything Barclay: the money, the scandals, and the exasperating family nonsense. What next?
Though CeCe’s not ready to sell her Chanel bag, she’s open to reinvention. Hayden might even admit she needs help in her new independent life. And Janelle’s due for a personal triumph. But big challenges loom between the alabaster columns of Eli Whitney, unexpected and dicey enough to bring them all together—if only to keep them from falling completely apart.
Recipes For Second Chances – Ali Rosen
And you all know I always pick the romance. I’m loving the puns in the blurb! Second chance romance in Italy – yes!
Official Blurb
Stella Park is elated to celebrate her best friend’s wedding in the Italian countryside—and maybe she also needs this escape from her personal and her professional life. Writing recipes for a living isn’t all it’s cooked up to be.
But the revelry is short lived when she runs into the ex she hasn’t seen since she broke his heart ten years ago, Samuel Gordon. As her past gets propelled to the forefront, Stella tries not to question the choices she made a decade ago.
When Stella and Samuel keep getting pushed together during a weekend filled with delectable food, Indian and Italian wedding traditions, and unplanned detours in gorgeous locales, she attempts to ignore that maybe he really was the one that got away.
Playing it safe has always been Stella’s dependable rule book. But maybe Samuel is worth the risk—and perhaps some love stories just need more time to marinate.
Short Story (Romance)
The Lover – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A short (romance?) story by one of my favorite gothic horror/fable-inspired writers.
Official Blurb
Judith knows her sister, Alice, is the pretty one—but that doesn’t stop her from wishing for love. When a handsome and gentlemanly hunter appears in their village, seeking lodging from the cold, she believes her lover has finally arrived. He does, indeed, choose to stay—but as Alice’s husband, not her own. When another stranger comes out of the woods, looking every bit a vagrant, he offers Judith something mysterious and enticingly strange. Against reason and decency, she welcomes both men into her life, in different ways. As forbidden longings ensnare each of them, an unrelenting winter storm and an evasive wolf on the prowl have everyone on edge…and ravenous. By spring thaw, will any of their hungers be satisfied?
Historical Fiction
The Village Healer’s Book of Curses – Jennifer Sherman Roberts
This book sounds perfect for October! Mary sounds badass, Matthew sounds horrible, and I can’t wait to meet the stranger…
Official Blurb
Mary Fawcett refines the healing recipes she’s inherited from generations of women before her—an uncanny and moral calling to empathize with the sick. When witchfinder Matthew Hopkins arrives in her small village, stoking the fires of hate, he sees not healing but the devil at work. Mary’s benevolent skills have now cast her and her young brother under suspicion of witchery.
Soon, the husband of one of Mary’s patients is found murdered, his body carved with strange symbols. For Hopkins, it’s further evidence of dark arts…
When the whispering village turns against her, Mary dares to trust a stranger: an enigmatic alchemist, scarred body and soul, who knows the dead man’s secrets.
As Hopkins’s fervor escalates, Mary must outsmart the devil himself to save her life and the lives of those she loves. Unfolding the true potential of her gifts could make Mary a more empowered adversary than a witchfinder ever feared.
Women’s Fiction
City People – Elizabeth Topp
If you’re looking for something a little more serious and book club discussion worthy – I think this is a great pick!
Official Blurb
When beautiful and successful Susan Harris jumps from the roof of her apartment building, she sets a tremor through her New York City mothers’ group that forces them all to look at one another with new cynicism: How could this have happened right under their noses? To one of them? Between her death and the harrowing private school admission season on the horizon, these women are forced to explore the hard truths about themselves.
Vic, a single mom with literary aspirations, is shocked and confused by the unexpected death of her best friend.
Bhavna, a makeup executive, tries to process Susan’s death while sacrificing everything to get her son into the school of his dreams.
Kara’s sister died by suicide years earlier, so she’s been down this road before—or so it seems.
Penelope and Amy are navigating a business deal when Susan dies, but is it worth the toll on their families?
And how will Chandice, battling cancer, come to terms with Susan’s death?
For these women, the loss of a fellow mother forces them to reexamine who they really are while the futures of their children hang in the balance.
Mystery & Thrillers
All The Little Raindrops – Mia Sheridan
This book sounds dark so read with caution. But, hopefully it provides some closure to the story as well!
Official Blurb
It’s senior-year spring break, and Noelle Meyer and Evan Sinclair have been kidnapped. Neither knows why they were chosen, only that they share a tragic past: Evan’s father got away with killing Noelle’s mother, effectively ruining her family when the death was ruled an accident.
Despite the connection that should have made them enemies, the teens instead unite to face their other common denominator—their abductors. Noelle and Evan survive one sadistic circumstance after another, eventually making a harrowing escape. But every happy ending comes at a price…
Years later, Evan, now a private investigator, revisits the crime when he learns it may be ongoing. He reaches out to Noelle for help, and they discover that the answers lie with a man known only as the Collector. To close their case and solve the ones that followed, Noelle and Evan must unmask this mysterious spectator—the only man who knows enough secrets to take their captors down.
Lights Out – Elise Hart Kipness
A classic mystery thriller set in the sports world!
Official Blurb
Former Olympic athlete and sports reporter Kate Green isn’t sure how much more tumultuous her life can get. She’s been put on temporary leave from her job, then NBA superstar Kurt Robbins is killed and the prime suspect in his murder is none other than his wife…and Kate’s best friend.
Kate knows that Yvette’s marriage wasn’t exactly stable, but her friend is no murderer, and Kate is determined to prove it with her own investigation. While she tries to salvage Yvette’s life, Kate’s own continues to unravel. Her career is in limbo. Gossip columns speculate about her future. Her children are battling their own demons…
And her estranged father suddenly reenters her life as a detective assigned to Kurt’s homicide case.
As her worlds collide—exposing secrets, lies, and ulterior motives—Kate may have to choose between the games she can play and the one she might lose.
Farewell Thoughts
Let me know which books you grab or if you’ve read any of these – in the comments or over on Instagram! If you liked my October 2023 Amazon First Reads recommendations, I’d love for you to share this post!
