Books of the Month September 2022

The American poet, Helen Hunt Jackson, is quoted as saying, “By all these lovely tokens, September days are here. With summer’s best of weather and Autumn’s best of cheer.” However, along with the weather and cheer, September is also a great time to enjoy some extra reading before the end of the year. That is exactly what our readers did when they selected the following books as some of their favorites this September.

Best Romance

Secrets Hidden in the Glass

by Cate Beauman

Secrets Hidden In The Glass is the first novel in the Carter Island Trilogy by Caste Beauman. The setting is Massachusett’s tiny Carter Island, where stained glass artist Callie Davis goes for a desperately needed vacation. Long, lazy days and pretty walks on the beach are just the remedies she needs from the pressures of her career and the complications of her life. However, the island is also home to Sheriff Nathan Carter, who is relieved to see the tourists bag their bags and return to the mainland after four endless months. The Sheriff is looking forward to the quiet days of Autumn, but things don’t turn out as he expected when he meets Callie and becomes involved in her life.

Best Action & Adventure

The Cursed Trip

by Akshay Chhugani

The Cursed Trip by Akshay Cchugani is inspired by actual events and features the story of a young boy trekking in the high-altitude mountains with his friends. The group plans their trip beginning at the Indian city of Noida with the intention of journeying to Gaumukh, the source of the holy river Ganga. However, despite their planning, it is a trip that would end up becoming their worst nightmare as they fight for survival. 

Best Mysteries & Thriller

The Honeymoon Homicide

by J. R. Mathis and Susan Mathis

The Honeymoon Homicide by J. R. Mathis and Susan Mathis is a small-town murder mystery featuring a unique sleuthing couple. It tells the story of Father Tom Greer, a Catholic Priest in a small town parish who is married to Helen Parr Greer, the Chief of Police. Helen is the one who solved the murder of Tom’s first wife and saved his life in the process. After falling in love, the two marry and have a wonderful honeymoon cruise, but has to return home to Myerton when a deacon is murdered. Tom has his hurting flock to tend to, while Helen has a killer to find. While The Honeymoon Homicide is the first book in the Mercy and Justice Mysteries series, it is also a sequel to the Father Tom Mysteries series. 

Best Biographies

Intense Lies

by Taree Brown

Intense Lies by Taree Brown is a true story of the injustice system and how it impacted a man named Tyler Montgomery. Tyler goes from having a thriving business, a strong relationship with his son, and a loving marriage to having to fight for his life after discovering that his wife is having an affair. Unfortunately, the “other man” is the State District Attorney and Tyler finds himself having to fight false criminal charges and navigate a corrupt legal system. The District Attorney himself orchestrates everything, and even though he is stripped of every possible hope, Tyler never ever gives up on trying to restore his name.

Best Children’s Book

Hailey Haddie’s Minute Mysteries

by Marina J. Bowman

Hailey Haddie’s Minute Mysteries by Marina J. Bowman invites children to solve supernatural crimes with the famous amateur detective. The book features 15 short stories for young sleuths, and each mystery is less than 400 words long. Children will have to use their deductive skills to tackle hidden clues, tricky puzzles, wacky suspects, and relentless riddles. Although each story can be read in about a minute, it might take a few more to solve the mystery. The answers are featured at the back of the book, giving children the opportunity to see if they got it right.

Best Young Adult

Puzzled

by P.J. Nichols

Puzzled is the first book in The Puzzled Mystery Adventure series by P.J. Nichols. This one-of-a-kind mystery adventure requires readers to solve the puzzles and riddles along with the characters. The protagonist, Pete, is an exceptionally clever junior high school kid who ends up having to save the world from a powerful supernatural being. The adventure gives Pete, who usually tries to hide his amazing talent for problem-solving from everyone in the cool group, a chance to shine.

Best Fantasy

Ravensblood

by Shawna Reppert

Ravensblood is the first book in the series of the same name by Shawna Reppert. It sees a dark mage named Raven having to risk everything and play a dangerous game of being a double agent to win a pardon. To succeed, he has to bring down his master William, the most powerful dark mage alive. Complicating matters further is his Guardian contact, Cassandra, who is his former love and the apprentice he once betrayed. This means Raven has to regain her trust as they devise a desperate plan to defeat William. 

Best Historical Fiction

The Man with Two Names

by Vincent B. Davis II

The Man With Two Names by Vincent B. Davis II is a novel about Ancient Rome and the first in the Sertorius Scrolls series. The story is set in Rome, 107 BC, where Quintus Sertorius just lost his father and could possibly lose his home. Quintus leaves his family behind to travel to Rome in order to secure food and protection after his rural village is stripped of its political status. Instead, he finds himself thrust into the middle of a bitter political war as he transitions from a countryman to a politician inside Rome’s bloodthirsty government. 

Best Horror

Blood Ever After

by Nick Jamieson

Blood Ever After is the first novel in The March of the Dead duology by Nick Jamieson. The protagonist, Tyler Nash, is just a typical young man with problems like being in love with a beautiful, intelligent girl named Charlotte. However, he also has other pressing issues to deal with when most of the world’s population perishes, and Tylar ends up alone in a zombie-ridden world. While trying to make it back to his parent’s house to see if they are still alive, Tyler discovers something lurking in the shadows is calling his name. 

Best Literary Fiction

Ocean of Love

by Helos

Ocean of Love by Helos is the story of Lenos, who is living his peaceful life in the Eden-like world of a little planed named Holon. However, Lenos heaves his heavenly life behind when an urgent request for help arrives from a remote planet called Earth after it becomes trapped in a cosmic anomaly. After embarking on his daring journey, Lenos has varied incarnations on Earth, spread over time and history. However, his struggles, romances, and adventures on the planet will eventually culminate in an event that will affect the destiny of the entire Universe. 

Best Science Fiction

Of a Strange World Made

by Anthony W. Eichenlaub

Of a Strange World Made is the first book in the Colony of Edge series by Anthony W. Eichenlaub. It is set on Edge, which is humanity’s bastion on the frontier of space and science. Ash Morgan is a biologist who plays fast and loose with the Edge’s ultra-strict governing AI, but things go wrong when she agrees to help a fellow colonist deliver a child. Unfortunately, not only will the birth exceed the precise population cap set by the colony AI, but the child is born very strange too. Matters only get worse when the mother descends into depression and madness, leaving Ash to deal with the consequences of their actions.

Best Paranormal

Crescent Calling

by Nicole R. Taylor

Crescent Calling is book one in The Crescent Witch Chronicles by Nicole R Taylor. Skye Williams travels to the tiny village of Derrydun in Ireland to claim her inheritance from the death of her estranged mother. However, upon arrival, her plans of selling her mother’s crystal shop and crumbling cottage change when she sees the hot Irishman she’s been crushing on turn into a fox. An even bigger shock is her discovery that she is a witch like her mother, and as the last of her coven, she might be the only one who can stop magic from dying out.

Best Non-Fiction

Manifest Your Miracle

by Shlomit Rozen

 

Manifest Your Miracle is an insightful autobiography by Shlomit Rozen that takes readers along on the journey of a woman fearlessly following her own destiny. Rozen not only shares her innermost emotions, desires, and thoughts but also shows readers how she was able to walk her truest path. Manifest Your Miracle covers everything from her time as an adventurous tourist who explored the exotic Indian subcontinent to how she built a new home of healing and enlightenment.