Somehow, I got a bit confused about the order of topics and didn’t even realize this was the prompt for the week until I double checked! It’s a good thing I did, since I was struggling a bit to narrow down next week’s topic of books I’d recommend, so now I have some extra time to think. Instead, this week’s focus on fall vibes gives the perfect chance to mention a few more of the books that are on my fall TBR that I couldn’t fit in yesterday! My original plan was to search through my Goodreads list and find books whose covers screamed fall to me, but then I realized I had quite a few books that I already mean to read this fall that I’d been purposely waiting to read seasonally. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, when I think of fall vibes, I tend to think of books that are set in schools for back-to-school season, as well as thrillers or books with supernatural elements since I very strongly associate fall with Halloween. Covers that give me fall vibes tend to be ones with colourful leaves, dead branches, or that are mostly fall colours, especially orange or even red. It was actually a bit tricky to find books that give me fall vibes that I haven’t mentioned often before!
Top 5 Wednesday is a meme created by Gingerreadslainey on Youtube, and is now hosted by Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes. The official GoodReads group with the weekly topics can be found here.
1) Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
To be fair, I’m not 100% sure if I’ll be reading this one in the fall. I have it down as one of two options for a prompt, and the other is a book by one of my top priority authors. If not, I’m hoping to be able to squeeze this one in somewhere else instead since I still really want to read it. This book is about a woman named Laurel whose daughter Ellie disappeared ten years ago, when she was only 15. When Laurel meets a stranger at a cafe who sweeps her off her feet, she is shocked when she meets his nine-year-old daughter who looks exactly like Ellie. Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter, and meeting this other girl causes it all to come flooding back, leaving Laurel to figure out what really happened to Ellie. I might actually be better off waiting to read this one, since I watched a Youtube video not too long ago that went into some detail about the plot, and I heard some spoilers, although I’m not sure if it revealed everything. It was definitely a mistake to watch that before reading this book, since I love Lisa Jewell’s writing and her twists! I might be better off waiting to read this until I’ve forgotten the video, but I feel like that might take a long time and I still really want to pick this one up!
2) The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
I have had this book on my shelves for way too long, and it’s about time I finally read it! I was planning to include it on my list yesterday, but thought it might seem a bit too similar to The Shadows, at least in terms of my explanation. This book is about a man named Eddie whose is trying to put his past behind him. Thirty years ago, he and his friends would use chalk stick figures as secret messages for each other, until one day, one of those chalk men leads them to a dismembered body. Now, Eddie thinks this is all behind him until he gets a letter in the mail containing a single chalk figure and soon discovers that his friends got one too. They all assume it was just a prank, until one of them turns up dead, and Eddie realizes he needs to figure out what really happened all those years ago. I’ve owned a copy of this one for years since grabbing it as a library discard, but for some reason I’d never been that motivated to pick it up. I have no idea why, since it sounds like exactly the kind of creepy thriller that I love! It definitely gives me fall vibes because of the orange cover.
3) To Tell You the Truth by Gilly Macmillan
This is another one that I picked as fall vibes mostly because of the colour scheme of the cover, since nothing about the story itself necessarily relates to fall. It is about a woman named Lucy whose husband Dan suddenly goes missing, sparking her memories of thirty years ago when her brother Teddy also vanished. Her brother’s disappearance sparked Lucy’s interest in creating stories, and decades later, she has become a bestselling mystery author who must now work to figure out what happened to both Dan and Teddy, before she becomes a suspect herself. I love thrillers with unreliable narrators and that definitely seems to be the case in this one. I’ve only read one of Gilly Macmillan’s thrillers so far and I really enjoyed, so I’ve been looking forward to trying more. This one especially caught my attention because I tend to love characters who are authors, and I can’t wait to give this one a try.
4) I See You by Clare Mackintosh
I’m excited to read this one now that I’ve finally found my copy! I mentioned this one much earlier in the year as a book that had been on my TBR for way too long, but that was mostly because I literally couldn’t find it buried in all my stacks. Once I got some more shelves, I found it and made sure to put it somewhere easily accessible (and then proceeded to not read it yet). This book is about a woman named Zoe who sees a photo of herself in the classifieds section of the newspaper, with only an email address and a phone number included. When she shows it to her family, they are convinced it’s someone else who happens to look like her, but Zoe begins to notice that each day the newspaper is showing a different woman, and nearly all of those women end up on the news as victims of horrible crimes. Deciding that she might be the next victim, Zoe enlists the help of a police officer to uncover the purpose of the ad and figure out what’s happening before she ends up in the news herself. I absolutely loved the first book I’ve read by this author and I’ve been really looking forward to trying this one. Now that I’ve found my copy, there’s no excuse not to pick it up soon! I decided it gave me fall vibes because of the leaves scattered on the cover, although I’m pretty sure my version has a different cover.
5) The End of Her by Shari Lapena
I was originally going to pick Someone We Know by this author, but decided to go for this one instead because the cover seemed a tiny bit more “fall” to me somehow. I’m definitely planning on reading both of these books, and hopefully can read both before the end of the year. This book is her latest release about a couple, Stephanie and Patrick, who are adjusting to their new life with baby twins. When a woman, Erica, from Patrick’s past suddenly shows up and raises questions about Patrick’s late first wife, Stephanie is quick to defend him, despite Erica’s threats to go to the police. However, her belief in her husband begins to waver as the police start digging into her claims, and Stephanie is left to decide what to do and who to trust, especially to keep her daughters safe. I’ve really enjoyed the two other books that I’ve read by this author so far, and I’m looking forward to catching up on the rest soon.
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