Add these books to your fall to-be-read list

PHOENIX — It’s fall, y’all!

Unfortunately, here in the desert, the start of fall is often just another day of the week with triple-digit heat lasting well into October. 

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But if you’re manifesting pumpkin spice latte season and dreaming of sweater weather, these books are for you. Here are six books that promise to make you feel like it’s cool enough outside to light that autumnal candle, curl up under a blanket, and enjoy your favorite hot beverage with one of these stories. 

Here are six books to add to your list this fall.

What if Nancy Drew had a Reddit account?

That’s the question Nikki Payne said she kept thinking about while writing her latest release, ‘The Princess and the P.I.’ 

Payne’s latest book is for romance lovers and true crime junkies alike who are looking for a new read this fall.

Fiona Addai is an amateur online sleuth with a mission to honor her late brother and reclaim his invention from the corporation that has claimed it as its own. But instead of getting justice, she gets accused of murder. 

When Maurice Bennett sees Fiona’s dilemma, something clicks: the jaded P.I. is suddenly thinking more about her case than the cases he failed to solve for the first time in quite some time. 

As the case heats up and the pair grow closer, it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore their chemistry. Will the biggest gamble of the case be trusting one another? Or will they crack the case and their hearts?

RELATED: A Reddit sleuth and a P.I. walk into… Bestselling author Nikki Payne’s latest book, ‘The Princess and the P.I.’

If you’re looking for a workplace romance full of sweetness and spice, Aurora Palit’s latest book is for you. 

Honey and Heat is Palit’s second novel and follows Cynthia Kumar, a successful and fierce woman working to be the heir to her father’s multimillion-dollar construction company. She has it all… until she doesn’t, and her father picks someone else to be his successor: none other than her one-night stand, Rohit Patel.

But when the company’s reputation is on the line, Cynthia and Rohit have to put their differences aside and work together. Will they be able to restore Kumar Constructions to its former glory? And what’s more important, their careers, or their possible happily ever after?

RELATED: Q&A with author Aurora Palit on her latest book, ‘Honey and Heat’

Everyone has embarrassing moments: forgetting what you’re supposed to say in the middle of a big presentation, or accidentally wearing your shirt inside out on a date. 

But very few people can say they have ranted about their breakup on a livestream spin class.

That’s the start of Jamie Harrow’s ‘Fun at Parties’ novel, a road trip romance and Harrow’s second book.

Fun at Parties follows Quinn Ray, an online cycling instructor who has a meltdown mid-livestream spin class after her breakup with another cycling instructor, who decides to take a road trip to clear her head and her heart. But when her old friend and secret crush, Nate Reed, asks to join so he can meet up with the pair’s mutual chaotic friend, Logan, Quinn’s journey goes from a quiet nature road trip to party hopping and chasing Logan across the country, all while wondering if she and Nate can really ever just be friends.

Will the pair make it to their final destination with their hearts intact? Or are they on a wild goose chase with love? 

As an added bonus, this book is great for readers looking for a softer transition from beach reads to PSLs for their TBR.

If you started watching Nora Ephron films and sorting through your sweater collection the moment the clock struck midnight on Sept. 22, ‘If It Makes You Happy’ by Julie Olivia is for you. 

Set in 1997, small-town Vermont, If It Makes You Happy follows Michelle, a big-time career woman going through a divorce and grieving the loss of her mother, as she heads to Copper Run to take over the bed and breakfast her mother used to run. People who run bed and breakfasts are warm, good at baking, and want to make friends—all things Michelle struggles with, and her attractive, single dad neighbor excels at.

As the days grow longer and it gets closer and closer to when Michelle is supposed to leave the inn for her sister and head back to Seattle, the pair wonder if their friendship—and their growing attraction—is nothing more than a fall fling, or if they could last all year long.

The book hooks readers with a Gilmore Girls vibe and keeps you turning pages for the flawed characters trying to find love.

If you’re not quite ready to get rid of your summer reads yet, check out Rhys Bowen’s latest novel, ‘Mrs. Endicott’s Splendid Adventure.’  Bowen has penned countless novels, from middle-grade chapter books to true crime and mysteries, and now, a sweeping tale of women finding themselves outside of the roles society has given them as wives and mothers.

Ellie Endicott is blindsided by her husband’s request for a divorce. In 1938, Surrey, England, Ellie finds herself suddenly faced with many choices. Where will she live? What will she do for money? Who is she, outside of her roles as a wife and a mother? 

Ellie decides her husband can keep the house—she’s taking the Bentley and driving to the south of France.

Flanked by her elderly friend Dora and her housekeeper, Mavis, the trio set off, ready to learn more about themselves, see the world, and maybe even find love along the way. They break down in a seaside town, rent a villa, make friends, and Ellie even finds herself drawn to Nico, a handsome fisherman. 

Her second act is just beginning, it seems, when the tides change and the threat of war looms. What she thought would be a new chapter is turning into quite the splendid adventure. 

Imagine being able to stay in the mountains of Colorado after a heartbreak. A cozy, beautiful home nestled in a welcoming, warm town. Warm cups of coffee and friendly conversation with others going through their own heartaches. 

That’s what the main character in Ellen O’Clover’s debut, ‘The Heartbreak Hotel,’ aims to provide. Louisa Walsh has a sunny disposition on life. She lives in a gorgeous home in the mountains of Colorado with her boyfriend, Nate. She has a loving, sometimes overbearing, older sister and a nephew she adores. Even after challenges in starting her career in counseling and her tumultuous childhood, she is happy. 

That is, until she takes on a new identity: the woman who was cheated on by her wealthy, rockstar boyfriend. 

But Louisa refuses to give up. Even with her life in disarray, she knows one thing for certain: the house she once shared with Nate is the only place she’s ever felt at home, and she’ll do anything to keep it. 

So Louisa creates the “Comeback Inn,” a place for the brokenhearted to heal and find solace—as well as a way for her to pay her rent and stay in the house—and hopes her reclusive landlord, Henry, will go for it. 

Not only does Henry say yes, but Louisa finds that Henry is not at all who she thought he was. Through hikes, impromptu dinners, and conversations over coffee, Louisa and Henry grow closer and closer. Will they be able to share their secrets and sadness with one another to build a new start? Or are they building a relationship on too rocky a foundation? 

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