It’s like I blink, and the month is gone. Is your life like that? Now it’s almost time to write about my favorite books of October, and I’m just getting to my September post. But life isn’t slowing down any, so I’m saying, “Better late than never.”
The Best Books of September 2022
I read 13 books (My lucky number!) in September. Of those, I gave six of those books perfect grades — one nonfiction and five fiction. My reviews are below.
All Good People Here
If you listen to Ashley Flowers’s podcast, Crime Junkie, you know she’s a storyteller, so it’s no surprise that her debut fiction novel, All Good People Here, is fabulous. But it does seem she borrowed some plot concepts from true crime. Specifically, the JonBenet Ramsey case.
The book is about the murder of a beautiful 6-year-old little dancer, January Jacobs. January’s murder haunts the small town of Wakarusa, Indiana, and everyone has a theory about who killed her, probably because the case was never solved.
Margot Davies knew January better than most, even though she also was only 6 when the girl died. She lived across the street, and January was her best friend. Now Margot, a journalist, has returned home to care for the ailing uncle who raised her. But as soon as she returns, another little girl goes missing. Can Margot help find her and solve January’s murder?
How Are You, Really?
I don’t like to reread books. There are just too many amazing books out there, so many so that I get sad thinking about how I’ll never get to read everything I want. But I’m going to read Jenna Kutcher’s book, How Are You, Really? again. I listened to the audiobook and need a physical book to highlight and ponder. That’s a downside of listening to audiobooks. You never know when you’ll want to dig deeper and even own the book for reference.
You may know Jenna from her podcast, Goal Digger. It’s pretty freakin’ fabulous, but this book is so much better. It’s about trusting your instincts, putting yourself first, and doing what’s really important for you to live your best, most authentic life. I don’t know if it’s motivational or self-help, but it’s worth reading either way. I love a little inspiration.
It Ends With Us
Partner abuse isn’t an easy subject for a book, but Colleen Hoover handles it beautifully in It Ends With Us. She helps the reader understand the whole “Why doesn’t she just leave” stereotype by giving a candid look into some of the myriad of reasons that women stay in abusive relationships.
Rylie Kincaid doesn’t usually do relationships. Maybe there’s a reason for that. When Lily meets the gorgeous neurosurgeon, she tries so hard not to fall in love. After all, she knows from the beginning that Rylie is married to his work, doesn’t want a relationship, and there’s no future to expect between them. But then the unexpected happens. Rylie falls for Lily as hard as she falls for him. They look like the perfect couple. And most of the time, they are. But when they aren’t, things are terrible, and Lily is afraid she’s repeating the cycle of abuse her mother experienced with her father.
Love and Other Words
Mark this one down as a book I didn’t want to read and didn’t want to love. I can only say that, once again, TikTok made me do it. Book Tokkers couldn’t stop raving about Love and Other Words, so I reluctantly decided to give it a go. Let me tell you that I ugly cried. It was that brilliant.
Macy Sorensen is a pediatric resident with a fiancé, living a good life. Then she runs into Elliot Petropoulos, her first love.
The rest of the book is the super sweet story about how she grew up and fell in love with the nerdy boy who lived in the house next to her and her father’s weekend house on the lake. It also unravels how Macy and her father tried to cope after her mother’s death and how Elliot helped her deal with the grief.
The whole book you’re left wondering what tore the soulmates apart. Why didn’t they end up together? And when you find out, it’s devastating.
Even if romance novels aren’t necessarily your thing, chances you’ll love this book are great.
Never Lie
Freida McFadden is quickly becoming one of the authors I read everything from. I don’t adore everything she writes, but I give many of her books perfect grades. If she writes it, I’m gonna read it from here on out. Never Lie has more twists and turns than a rollercoaster ride.
Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist, vanished without a trace four years ago. Her boyfriend was the most obvious suspect in her disappearance and people assume she’s dead, even though they never found her body.
Dr. Hale’s gorgeous home is on the market. When newlyweds Tricia and Ethan go to look at it, they stuck because of a massive snowstorm. But something is literally hiding in the house. Maybe more than one thing. And the couple being stranded there seem to increasingly seem like less of an unfortunate accident and more like someone’s plan.
The Inmate
Another Freida McFadden book, The Inmate had my attention from the beginning.
Brooke Sullivan is a nurse who’s having difficulty getting a job is the small town she grew up in. She recently moved back to raise her son in her parents’ house after they passed and left it to her. So she’s relieved when she gets a job at the prison, even though the many who tried to kill her in high school is housed there.
It doesn’t take long for Brooke to run into Shane. The inmates don’t like him much, and he’s injured a lot. Brooke isn’t supposed to tell the inmates under her care anything about herself. And she certainly has a secret to keep from Shane. She’s raising their son, and he doesn’t know the boy exists.
But the more Brooke is around Shane, the more she starts to wonder if she was right when she pointed to finger at him for the crime. There was a lot of confusion that night. Could it have been someone else who attacked her? If it was, it’s her responsibility to get Shane free. After all, she’s the one responsible for putting him behind bars.
Happy Reading!
There they are, my favorite books of September. I hope you find something on the list to read and love. I’m always thrilled to have a reading month where I love that many books. It doesn’t always happen, and I sadly followed it by dropping a handful of books at the beginning of October.
As always, happy reading!
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