On the Shelf: October 2026

October's always a terrible month for me emotionally, so I'm really glad that books were there for me. There were so many good stories that got me out of my head and took me to other places. Like the Willow Creek ren faire in Jen DeLuca's sweet series closer, Well Versed, and Elizabeth Bright's Mercy River Ranch. And it doesn't matter if it's Antarctica, a kink camp, a BDSM club, or a kids' soccer game, if Adriana Anders writes it, I'll go. Her upcoming Stay-at-Home Dom is a perfect melding of contemporary rom-com and erotic romance. Perhaps a little bit more fraught are the journeys Shannon Chakraborty and Sabaa Tahir took me on, but you won't catch me complaining. After how The Tapestry of Fate ended, I'm primed for Amina al-Sirafi's next adventure. And Empire...? God, I could wax poetic about all six books in this continuity. Gorgeous prose, gut-wrenching emotional beats, and characters I invest in so deeply that I mourn if they die. Tahir always digs deep on the cost of war and how it impacts the most vulnerable. I'm hoping this isn't the end, because a few people definitely had more story ahead of them. Also? I never thought I'd be happy to see Elias Veturius get punched in the face. He had it coming.

The 17 titles I rattle off below brings my YTD total up to 210. Sorry not sorry. There are worse things I could be doing.

The Reading Rundown
Stay-at-Home Dom (out 1/26/27, contemporary romance, BDSM romance)
Bad Girls Make Good Liars by Sarina Bowen (out 2/2/27, suspense, for professional review purposes)
Long Time Coming by Elizabeth Bright (contemporary romance, romantic suspense)
Long Way Home by Elizabeth Bright (contemporary romance, romantic suspense)
The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty (fantasy)
Well Versed by Jen DeLuca (contemporary romance)
One for the Road by Elliot Fletcher (contemporary romance)
Empire by Sabaa Tahir (young adult fantasy)
Reliquary by Hannah Whitten (horror)

Backlist titles & rereads: Finishing Beverly Jenkins's Before the Dawn was my first act of reading this month and then I flowed right into another classic that I hadn't read before, Laura London's The Windflower. I'd always assumed it was very old-school and lacking in consent, but it ended up being chock-full of oddly wholesome pirates who basically adopted the "captive" heroine. I love when books surprise me! I also love when books are familiar, so I dove into my Kindle for rereads of Against the Wall, Heavy, and Scrap by Cate. C. Wells. Then it was back to Ms. Bev for some comfort and history lessons. I had to "break glass in case of emergency" twice in a matter of weeks, and Archer and Zahra from Winds of the Storm delivered just like Ryder and Leah before them. Then it was time to revisit Blue-Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas. And I capped off October with Lorraine Heath's The Earl Takes All after "Gorilla Twins" came up in online conversations multiple times. It's never a hardship to reread a favorite!

Currently reading: Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher.

On the wish list/TBR
Dive Bar at the End of the Road by Kelley Armstrong
Captive Traitor King by Brigid Kemmerer
The Lines We Cross by Ausma Zehanat Khan
The Blade and the Last Sacrifice by Elizabeth May
Wickhills by Premee Mohamed
It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo
Let's Kiss and Tell by Joss Richard