Fall is my favorite season! It’s the perfect season for curling up under a cozy blanket with a warm beverage and a good book. I love the fresh crisp mornings, the changing leaves, and pumpkin in everything!
I have been lucky to live in Maine for two summer and fall seasons. Growing up on the west coast, I never experienced fall colors like they have back east. It’s amazing! As is the sudden weather shift from summer to fall. You can see it in nature with the color shifts and smell it in the fresh cool air. I fell hard for autumn back there.
Where I live now, we may have a ways to go this year before we transition into fall. Judging by the amount of days hitting 100+ degrees in September. But I can still get into the fall mood with these books that capture my favorite atmosphere of autumn in New England.
Books Set in Maine with a Fall Atmosphere
The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson
I loved this psychological thriller by Peter Swanson. The Kind Worth Killing begins with two strangers meeting in at an airport bar and playing a game of truth. The man confesses about his troubled marriage and jokingly says he would like to murder his wife. The woman at the bar surprises him by offering to help.
This book reeled me in from that first chapter. It’s been compared to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. While I’m not sure those comparisons are spot on, I did enjoy the twists and turns as this story unraveled. It kept me on my toes and guessing the whole way through.
I like to read creepier books as the weather changes. This thriller takes place between Boston and a small coastal town in Maine which perfectly captures that stormy New England atmosphere.
Twisted Threads by Lea Wait
Heading in the opposite direction, this cozy mystery by Lea Wait takes place in a quaint town on the coast of Maine. Twisted Threads introduces Angie Curtis, who left her hometown where she was raised by her grandmother 10 years ago. As a little girl, her mother disappeared there. All these years later, when her body is found, Angie is called back home to answer questions regarding her troublesome childhood.
Cozy mystery series can be perfect for the fall. This one features a needlepoint shop as well! I love that the setting for this book is Maine. Wait wonderfully writes the fall atmosphere of a tiny coastal town. I really enjoyed this first book and look forward to reading more of the series.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Delirium is the first book in a young adult dystopian trilogy by Lauren Oliver. The series takes place in a future time where love has been declared a disease so the government forces everyone at age 18 to undergo a procedure that cures them of those emotions. Before she undergoes her treatment, Lena meets Alex, a boy from outside the city and begins to question if love is really something she wants to live without.
The setting for this series is Portland, Maine. While I enjoyed the first two books of the trilogy, I was very disappointed in the last book. Also here’s a warning for a difficult scene with an animal death in this book. It caught me off guard when I read it though it does further the plot.
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline is a historical fiction featuring dual timelines that follow two orphans. In present time, Molly lives on the coast of Maine and has a rough time in the foster system. To keep from being kicked out of her foster home, she takes on a community service position helping an elderly woman, Vivian, clean out her home. Nearly 80 years ago, as a young immigrant, Vivian was sent to the Midwest on an orphan train. The book follows Vivian’s past journey as memories and mysteries are brought into light in the present.
When I picked up this book for my IRL book club, I inhaled it. It is a very emotional and powerful story. Have some tissues ready. The contemporary story line takes place in Bar Harbor, Maine, the town I was lucky enough to live in.
Stories Set in Other Places that Still Capture Fall
The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
The Wicked Deep is Shea Ernshaw’s debut novel. Though it came out in March of 2018, I didn’t read it until October of last year. There was so much buzz around this young adult fantasy that I knew I wanted it to be one of my Halloween reads.
It takes place in the fictional town of Sparrow on the coast of Oregon. The town is haunted by its history. Two hundred years ago, three sisters were sentenced to drown in the harbor for witchcraft. Legend has it, at the end of every summer the sisters return and seek revenge by luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under. When a new boy, Bo, arrives to town just before the sisters’ return, outcast Penny decides she has to keep him safe.
The haunted atmosphere Ernshaw created around Sparrow, Oregon is the best part of this book and makes it perfect for a fall read.
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
All of Sarah Addison Allen’s books take place in the mountains of North Carolina, another region know for its fall colors. I have gushed in several posts about my love for Allen’s magical realism. Her books were previously mentioned in another fall book post, Perfect Paranormal Book Series.
Garden Spells is my favorite of her novels and follows the mysterious Waverley women with their unusual talents and legacy. One sister, Claire, has learned to control her power of infusing emotions into her cooking and now has a successful catering business. When her sister, Sydney, returns to town with her daughter Bay, Claire’s carefully controlled life gets turned upside down.
Throw in an apple tree with a mind of its own and premonition inducing fruit and you have a novel with the perfect vibes for a magical fall atmosphere read.
Still Life by Louise Penny
I read Still Life, the first book in Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series, at the beginning of the month and absolutely loved it. It may have been a case of the right book at exactly the right time, but this mystery series comes highly recommended from most of my bookish resources.
This first mystery is perfect to read in the fall because it begins in October right after Thanksgiving in Canada. The book takes place in a small mountain village called Three Pines. The town doesn’t appear on any maps, but those who stumble across it usually wind up finding their way back again.
Penny dedicates several passages to the magic, mystery, and beauty of Three Pines as the weather and nature transition to Fall. For me, she captured that atmosphere perfectly and it reminded me of New England with more mountains and no coast.
Do you read seasonally? What are your favorite books for fall?
