Fall is the perfect time to slow down and get lost in a good book. Whether you’re looking for something cozy, romantic, magical, mysterious, or a little spooky, this fall reading list has plenty to choose from.
I hand-picked each book to give you a mix of genres and stories for every kind of reading mood. You’ll find everything from fall romances and cozy mysteries to fantasy, thrillers, Gothic reads, and classics.
With so many different genres included, it’s also a great chance to try something you might not normally pick up. Choose a few that catch your attention and see where your fall reading takes you.
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Table of Contents:
Fall Romance Books
If you love a good romance with plenty of fall vibes, these books are perfect for your reading list. From small towns and cozy cafés to pumpkin patches and fall festivals, there’s plenty of romance to curl up with this season.
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- A Not So Fictional Fall — Savannah Scott
- Can’t Help Falling — Courtney Walsh
- Falling Slowly — Enni Amanda
- Autumn Sky — Jenna Starley
- Pumpkin Everything — Beth Labonte
- You Had Me at Pumpkin Patch — Anita Faulkner
- The Honeycrisp Orchard Inn — Valerie Bowman
- Something About September — Julia McKay
- Candy Apple Kisses — Amy Clipston
- A Love Like Pumpkin Spice — Hailey Frost
- Cozy Corner Bookstore — Nova Walsh
- Faking the Fall — Julie Christianson
- Pumpkin Spice and Not So Nice — Becky Monson
- It’s Different This Time — Joss Richard
- A Pack for Autumn — Emilia Emerson
- Fall Inn Love — Elise Kennedy
- The Heartbreak Hotel — Ellen O’Clover
- The Candy Apple Café — Donna Ashcroft
- The Bodyguard’s Fall — Cindy Steele
- The Hygge Holiday — Rosie Blake
- October Forever — Katie Cawood
- By Your Cider — Elser Moira
- The Cinnamon Spice Inn — Harper Graham
- The Maine Stop — Mollie Anderson
- Love at the Fall Festival — Belle Bailey
- A Fall to Remember — Ellie Alexander
Cozy Books to Read This Fall
Sometimes fall calls for a story that feels warm and comforting. This list is filled with charming bookshops, coffee shops, small towns, friendships, and fresh starts for those slower days at home.
- The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living — Louise Miller
- The Reading List — Sara Nisha Adams
- The Bookish Life of Nina Hill — Abbi Waxman
- The Collected Regrets of Clover — Mikki Brammer
- The Wishing Game — Meg Shaffer
- The Door-to-Door Bookstore — Carsten Henn
- How to Find Love in a Bookshop — Veronica Henry
- How the Penguins Saved Veronica — Hazel Prior
- The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley — Courtney Walsh
- Other Birds — Sarah Addison Allen
- The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie — Rachel Linden
- The Music of Bees — Eileen Garvin
- The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise — Colleen Oakley
- The Full Moon Coffee Shop — Mai Mochizuki
- The Bookshop on the Corner — Jenny Colgan
- The Bookshop of Second Chances — Jackie Fraser
- The Library — Bella Osborne
- The Cottage on Pumpkin and Vine — Kate Angell, Jennifer Dawson, Sharla Lovelace
- The Little Italian Hotel — Phaedra Patrick
- The Last List of Mabel Beaumont — Laura Pearson
- The Story of Arthur Truluv — Elizabeth Berg
- The Spellshop — Sarah Beth Durst
- Coming Home for Fall — Sage Parker
- The Four Seasons — Mary Alice Monroe
- A Fall of Marigolds — Susan Meissner
Witchy Books to Read This Fall
A little magic just seems to fit this time of year. This list has witches, spells, magical towns, and plenty of witchy romance mixed in for your fall reading.
- A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping — Sangu Mandanna
- The Ex Hex — Erin Sterling
- Cackle — Rachel Harrison
- The Nature of Witches — Rachel Griffin
- A Discovery of Witches — Deborah Harkness
- A Dark and Secret Magic — Wallis Kinney
- The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane — Katherine Howe
- The Witch’s Daughter — Paula Brackston
- The Witch’s Orchard — Archer Sullivan
- Small Town, Big Magic — Hazel Beck
- Enchanted to Meet You — Meg Cabot
- The Next Chapter Bookshop — Brooke Skie
- Impractical Magic — Emily Grimoire
- The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic — Breanne Randall
- The Witch’s Cottage — Emberly Wyndham
- Soul of the Witch — Deanna Chase
- The Enchanted Workshop — R.J. Cole
- Autumn of the Grimoire — J.L. Vampa
- Magical Melee — D. K. Bolton
- The Witches of Moonshyne Manor — Bianca Marais
- The Once and Future Witches — Alix E. Harrow
- The Witchfinder’s Assistant — Ruth Goldstraw
- Magic Touch — A. S. Fenichel
- Accidental Magic — Iris Beaglehole
- The Late-Night Witches — Auralaee Wallace
Fantasy Books to Read This Fall
Fall is a great time to escape into a completely different world. This list includes cozy fantasy, romantasy, magical adventures, and plenty of imaginative stories to get lost in this season.
- Uncharmed — Lucy Jane Wood
- Lemon Tea and Library Dragons — Emma St. Claire
- Magical Midlife Madness — K.F. Breene
- Tusks, Tails & Teacakes — T.L. Stone
- Must Love Scones and Secrets — Maisy Magill
- Love’s a Witch — Tricia O’Malley
- A Howl to Remember — Milly Taiden
- Assistant to the Villain — Hannah Nicole Maehrer
- The Fae’s Bride — R.L. Medina
- Legends and Librarians — Pandora Pierce
- The Wind and the Wild — Emily McCosh
- Cat Dragon — Samantha Birch
- When a Dragon Comes Courting — Claire Trella Hill
- The Baby Dragon Cafe — A. T. Qureshi
- Mandrake Manor — JP Rindfleisch IX
- The Mudpuddle Manual of Natural Magic — Ciara Blume
- Espresso Yourself — Lara McKenzie
- This Damsel Is Not in Distress — Tee Harlowe
- The Spellbound Cottage — Genevieve K. Thomas
- The Inn at Thistledown Hollow — Devon Yates
- How To Tame A Trickster Fae — January Bell
- A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic — J. Penner
- A Witch and Her Dragon —Emberly Wyndham
- The Bookshop and the Barbarian — Morgan Stang
- The Infirmary for Dragon Burns and Midair Mishaps — Elizabeth Hrib

Cozy Mystery Books for Fall
Fall and a good mystery just go together. From small-town secrets and amateur sleuths to bookshops, bakeries, and seasonal mysteries, these cozy reads bring plenty of clues without getting too dark.
- Fall for Murder — Kathleen Suzette
- Halloween Haunting — Lacey Carter
- Apple Pie a la Murder — Kate Bell
- Mystic Brews & Murder — Karen McSpade
- Murder at Cinnamon Falls — R. L. Killmore
- Magical Midlife in Glimmerspell — Addison Moore
- Motion in the Potion — Amanda M. Lee
- In the Company of Witches — Auralee Wallace
- Older, Wiser, Witchier — Lily Harper Hart
- Sprinkles and Sea Serpents — Danielle Garrett
- Murder With a Hint of Pumpkin Spice — Laura M. Drake
- The Bookshop Murder — Merryn Allingham
- The Lavender Lady — Faith Martin
- Halloween Hayride Murder — Linnea West
- A History of Murder — Brook Peterson
- Vanilla Bean Vengeance — Agatha Frost
- Murder in Aspen Notch — Kathleen McKee
- Thyme to Kill — Tegan Maher
- Four Leaf Felony — Tonya Kappes
- Marigolds and Murder — London Lovett
- Going Ghost — Dina Marie
- Autumn & Alibis —Jules Motschall
- Apple of Discord — Maisy Marple
- Apple Pies and Poisoned Lies at the Cider Falls Festival — Traci Hall
- Peril at Pumpkin Hill — Thea Cambert
Classic Books to Read This Fall
Fall is a great time to finally pick up one of those classics you’ve been meaning to read. Whether you want something mysterious, romantic, or a little darker, these timeless stories fit right in with the season.
- The Woman in White — Wilkie Collins
- Little Women — Louisa May Alcott
- Pride and Prejudice — Jane Austen
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow — Washington Irving
- The Count of Monte Cristo — Alexandre Dumas
- The House on Mango Street — Sandra Cisneros
- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day — Winifred Watson
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — Robert Louis Stevenson
- The House of the Seven Gables — Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Dracula — Bram Stoker
- The Mysteries of Udolpho — Ann Radcliffe
- A Room with a View — E.M. Forster
- The Blue Castle — L.M. Montgomery
- Excellent Women — Barbara Pym
- The Wind in the Willows — Kenneth Grahame
- Anne of Green Gables — Lucy Maud Montgomery
- The Call of the Wild — Jack London
- Charlotte’s Web — E. B. White
- Where the Red Fern Grows — Wilson Rawls
- Hatchet — Gary Paulsen
- Greatest Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Edgar Allan Poe
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — Betty Smith
- Gone with the Wind — Margaret Mitchell
- To Kill a Mockingbird — Harper Lee
- Old Man and the Sea — Ernest Hemingway

Dark Academia Books for Fall
Old libraries, secret societies, and mysterious campuses make dark academia a natural fit for fall. These books bring plenty of secrets, complicated characters, and darker stories to your fall reading list.
- The Things We Do to Our Friends — Heather Darwent
- The Temple House Vanishing — Rachel Donohue
- The Maidens — Alex Michaelides
- Black Chalk — Christopher J. Yates
- The Truants — Kate Weinberg
- The Bellwether Revivals — Benjamin Wood
- The Girls Are All So Nice Here — Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
- The Divines — Ellie Eaton
- The Academy — Elin Hilderbrand & Shelby Cunningham
- They Never Learn — Layne Fargo
- Pretty Vicious — Lexi Davis
- Half Truths — Claire Contreras
- Rival — Ketley Allison
- Dark Witch — Becky Moynihan
- Pretty Girls Make Graves — Steffanie Holmes
- Nightshade — Autumn Woods
- Nocticadia — Keri Lake
- Wicked Onyx — Debbie Cassidy
- Deathbringer — Sonia Tagliareni
- Blood & Betrayals — Alexis Rune
- An Arcane Education — Lyla Andrews
- Babel — R. F. Kuang
- Neverthorn — Shannon Mayer
- Spellcaster — Jaymin Eve
- The Burning Library — Gilly Macmillan
Thriller Books to Read This Fall
Cooler nights are a great excuse to pick up a book you can’t put down. These thrillers are packed with secrets, suspense, unexpected twists, and plenty of reasons to keep reading past bedtime.
- End of October — Lawrence Wright
- The Witch Elm — Tana French
- Eight Perfect Murders — Peter Swanson
- The Blue Hour — Paula Hawkins
- A Noise Downstairs — Linwood Barclay
- The Quiet Tenant — Clémence Michallon
- The Whisper Man — Alex North
- The Family Game — Catherine Steadman
- The Writing Retreat — Julia Bartz
- The Overnight Guest — Heather Gudenkauf
- The Last Word — Taylor Adams
- The Only Survivors — Megan Miranda
- The Woman in the Dark — Vanessa Savage
- The Perfect Child — Lucinda Berry
- The Golden Couple — Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
- The Night of the Crash — Jessica Irena Smith
- Shadow Falls — Wendy Dranfield
- Last Patient of the Night — Gary Gerlacher
- Room for Rent — Noelle W. Ihli
- The Crash — Freida McFadden
- Stranded — Sarah Goodwin
- Everyone Here Is Lying — Shari Lapena
- The Girl in the Hills — A. J. Rivers
- Those Empty Eyes — Charlie Donlea
- Dawn Girl — Leslie Wolfe
Gothic Books to Read This Fall
Old houses, eerie settings, and long-buried secrets give Gothic books a mood that fits the season. Expect haunting stories, family mysteries, and just enough darkness for your fall reading list.
- Mexican Gothic — Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- The Hacienda — Isabel Cañas
- Crowfield House — Monica McGuinness
- The Curse of Penryth Hall — Jess Armstrong
- Rebecca — Daphne du Maurier
- Happy People Don’t Live Here — Amber Sparks
- Japanese Gothic — Kylie Lee Baker
- The Secret Book Society — Madeline Martin
- Carmilla — Sheridan Le Fanu
- The House on Vesper Sands — Paraic O’Donnell
- The House Next Door — Anne Rivers Siddons
- The Silent Companions — Laura Purcell
- The Little Stranger — Sarah Waters
- The Death of Jane Lawrence — Caitlin Starling
- The Spite House — Johnny Compton
- The Cherry Robbers — Sarai Walker
- Plain Bad Heroines — Emily M. Danforth
- The Doll Factory — Elizabeth Macneal
- The Glass Woman — Caroline Lea
- The Daughters of Block Island — Christa Carmen
- The Madman’s Daughter — Megan Shepherd
- The House of Brides — Jane Cockram
- The Widow of Pale Harbor — Hester Fox
- The Secrets of Hartwood Hall — Katie Lumsden
- The Curse of Morton Abbey — Clarissa Harwood
Horror Books to Read This Fall
If you like your fall reading a little scarier, this section is for you. From haunted houses and supernatural scares to unsettling stories and darker twists, these horror books are made for spooky season.
- Thrall — Rebecca Mahoney
- The House of Last Resort — Christopher Golden
- How to Sell a Haunted House — Grady Hendrix
- The Eyes Are the Best Part — Monika Kim
- Manhunt — Gretchen Felker-Martin
- The Troop — Nick Cutter
- The Ruins — Scott Smith
- The Return — Rachel Harrison
- Come Closer — Sara Gran
- Harvest Home — Thomas Tryon
- The Twisted Ones — T. Kingfisher
- The Exorcist — William Peter Blatty
- Hell House — Richard Matheson
- Tell Me I’m Worthless — Alison Rumfitt
- FantasticLand — Mike Bockoven
- Maeve Fly — C.J. Leede
- The Suffering– MJ Mars
- The Reformatory — Tananarive Due
- Intercepts — T. J. Payne
- Between Two Fires — Christopher Buehlman
- The Little Woods — A. G. Mock
- The Shuddering — Ania Ahlborn
- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter — Stephen Graham Jones
- Port Luck — Timothy King
- The Haar — David Sodergren
Historical Fiction Books for Fall
Historical fiction is perfect for those fall days when you want to settle into a story and stay there awhile. From family stories and romance to mystery and unforgettable moments in history, these books offer plenty to get lost in.
- The Dollhouse — Fiona Davis
- The Book of Lost Names — Kristin Harmel
- The Last Bookshop in London — Madeline Martin
- The Jane Austen Society — Natalie Jenner
- The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir — Jennifer Ryan
- The Lost Apothecary — Sarah Penner
- The Clockmaker’s Daughter — Kate Morton
- The Secrets We Kept — Lara Prescott
- The German Girl — Armando Lucas Correa
- The Book Thief — Markus Zusak
- All the Light We Cannot See — Anthony Doerr
- The Invisible Bridge — Julie Orringer
- The Nature of Fragile Things — Susan Meissner
- Before We Were Yours — Lisa Wingate
- The Marriage Portrait — Maggie O’Farrell
- The Miniaturist — Jessie Burton
- The Essex Serpent — Sarah Perry
- The Girls in the Picture — Melanie Benjamin
- The Orphan Collector — Ellen Marie Wiseman
- The Book Club for Troublesome Women — Marie Bostwick
- The Nightingale — Kristin Hannah
- The Lion Women of Tehran — Marjan Kamali
- The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion — Beth Brower
- The Juniper Hotel — A. T. Butler
- The Briar Club — Kate Quinn

After putting together this list, my own TBR is definitely a little longer! With so many genres to choose from, there’s something here for just about every fall reading mood.
I hope this fall reading list helps you find a few new books to enjoy this season. Pick something from your favorite category or challenge yourself to try a genre you don’t normally read.

