The Autumn Reading Edit: Our Guide to the Season of Endings and Beginnings

Alchemised by SenLinYu

Spice: 🌶️,5/5
Tropes: dark academia, forbidden love, grief, obsession, tragedy.
Written in: Third person P.o.V.
Trigger Warnings: Check here!

Alchemised follows Helena, a gifted but emotionally closed-off scholar, and Lancaster, a man consumed by secrets, ambition, and the kind of darkness that never lets go. Set in an elite academy where intellect is currency and obsession runs deep, their paths collide in a story that blurs the line between love and destruction. What starts as a study in control becomes a descent into ruin, a love that feels inevitable, but never safe.

Don’t be fooled, Alchemised is not a romance book. It’s really not. It’s painful, it’s real, and it’s deeply impactful. You won’t meet two characters more cursed or more relentlessly failed by fate than Helena and Lancaster. I can’t stress this enough: read the trigger warnings before going in. There are many, and this isn’t a story to take lightly. But it’s one that will stay with you for years, the kind of book that changes how you look at love, grief, and what it means to survive something you shouldn’t have had to. With its release in the last week of September, it couldn’t fit the season more perfectly. Because, as I said, in autumn something always ends, and something always begins.

Crash Test by Amy James

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 Tropes: self-destruction, found family, slow recovery, MxM. Written in: single P.o.V.

Crash Test follows Travis and Jacob, a couple in a secret relationship, trying to navigate both the pressures of professional racing and their own internal struggles. When their relationship falls apart early in the story, the two spend most of the book apart, battling personal demons, media scrutiny, and the fear of being seen in a world that demands silence. Set in the world of Formula One, the story explores masculinity, identity, and what it means to fight for love in an environment that doesn’t make space for it.

I might be a little biased here because if there’s one thing I love besides reading, it’s Formula One. So, I was really excited to get into this one. It might not be the most emotionally heavy book on this list, but it carries something important. It’s a story that pushes against sexual discrimination in hyper-masculine fields like F1, a space that, to this day, still feels untouchable. Ralf Schumacher remains the only openly gay figure in the entire F1 community, first as a driver and now as a reporter, which says a lot. Overall, this is a strong romance that left me equally frustrated and rooting for more. You want to shake them, make them talk, make them see each other, and when they finally do, it’s a relief that feels earned. Their happily ever after doesn’t come easy, but that’s what makes it feel real.

Wild Card by Elsie Silver

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Tropes: small town, age gap, forbidden love, emotional healing, family dynamics.
Written in: dual P.o.V.

Sebastian “Bash” Rousseau (39) has his life turned upside down when he discovers he fathered a child at fifteen, a son he never knew existed. That son, Tripp, is now twenty-four, privileged, and still figuring himself out. While Bash is trying to process decades of lost time, he meets Gwen Dawson (27) during a layover in a snowed-in Vancouver airport. She’s everything he isn’t: grounded, open, full of light, and their connection is instant. What starts as unexpected chemistry quickly turns into something deeper, the kind of brief, out-of-time encounter that lingers long after. But months later, when Bash finally meets Tripp’s girlfriend, the universe delivers its cruelest twist: it’s Gwen. The woman he hasn’t been able to forget.

When I heard that Elsie Silver’s last book in the Rose Hill series would be an “ex-boyfriend’s dad” trope, I was immediately excited. Not because it’s a trope I actually read often (hell yeah, I do), but because I knew Silver would deliver it in the best way possible, and she did. This might be one of the lighter reads on this list, but that doesn’t make it any less meaningful. There’s something about small-town love stories that always carry a specific fall energy, the kind that feels familiar and a little nostalgic. This is the book you pick up when you’re drinking hot chocolate under your favorite blanket, when you want to smile to yourself a little. It’s soft, it’s easy to love, and it stays with you. Bash and Gwen’s story is complicated, uncomfortable, and deeply human. Their chemistry is undeniable, but it’s the restraint that makes it hurt in the best way. Silver doesn’t rush them; she lets them feel it, sit with it, figure it out. And honestly, that makes it even better.

Also, did I mention Bash is an aerial firefighter? Yeah. Enough said.

Please Don’t Go by E. Salvador

Spice: 🌶️🌶️,5/5
Tropes: grief, healing, sports romance, black cat x golden retriever, slow burn.
Written in: dual P.o.V.
Trigger Warnings: Check here

This book follows Josie as she navigates the loss of her mother and tries to find purpose in the aftermath. When she meets Daniel on one fateful Christmas Eve, something shifts. From that night on, the two form a bond neither of them expected. Despite Josie’s best efforts to push him away, Daniel stays. He’s persistent, he’s caring. But what Josie doesn’t realize at first is that Daniel is carrying grief of his own. Please Don’t Go is what happens when two broken people find each other at the right time, even if they’re not ready for it. It’s a story about loss, connection, and how love can quietly weave itself through the mess of healing.

Please Don’t Go opens on a heavy note, which can be unsettling at times, so please check the trigger warnings before reading. But once you do, you’ll find a story that’s deeply human and surprisingly hopeful. It’s one of those perfect fall books; quiet but full, the kind that pulls you out of a reading slump. I love a good black-cat girlfriend x golden-retriever boyfriend trope, and this one nails it. Josie is the kind of character who never asks for help, who takes care of everything because she has to, and maybe, without realizing it, wants someone to do the same for her once in a while. Daniel becomes that person. Some parts are tough to read. You watch Josie make progress, but you don’t see Daniel’s grief until it almost catches up with him, almost. This book hurts, but tenderly. It’s about endings that make space for beginnings, the kind of story that fits exactly where autumn lives.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Spice: 🌶️/5
Tropes: coming of age, friendship, mental health.
Written in: letters. Trigger Warnings: Check here

The Perks of Being a Wallflower follows Charlie, a quiet, introverted teenager starting high school while dealing with the loss of his best friend and the weight of his own mental health struggles. Told through letters he writes to an unnamed “friend,” the story unfolds as Charlie finds a connection with a group of older students, most notably Patrick and Sam,  who introduce him to late-night drives, music, and, most importantly, the feeling of being seen.

It’s cliché to say this, but The Perks of Being a Wallflower really is the autumn book. There’s something about rereading it as an adult that hits harder;  the things you missed the first time suddenly feel louder. The way Charlie writes about his friends, the parties, the mixtapes, the quiet... It’s all nostalgia wrapped in something deeper. I read this book for the first time when I was 17, and I can't tell you how many times I've reread it since then. I always think of this book as a time capsule: every time you open it, you find a different version of yourself inside. It’s tender, it’s strange, and it’s still one of the most honest depictions of growing up I’ve ever read. Read it again this fall. You’ll understand it differently now.

Say You Swear by Meagan Brandy

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Tropes: football romance, love triangle (somewhat), friends to lovers, heartbreak + healing.
Written in: Multiple P.o.V.s

Ari is in love with her brother's best friend; everyone knows it, including said brother's best friend, Chase. For years, it's been him: the golden boy, the one she thought would always choose her. But when everything falls apart, Ari's left standing in the wreckage, realizing that love isn't always enough. Then she meets Noah Riley, the quarterback with something to prove and a past he doesn't like to talk about. He's patient where Chase was reckless, steady where she's breaking. What starts as friendship turns into something harder to ignore. But just when Ari starts to believe she's allowed to be happy, her past collides with her present in the most painful way.

It took me a little while to get into Say You Swear. The book follows freshly turned eighteen-year-olds who, at times, feel older than they are, and maybe that's why it felt distant at first. But once I settled into it, I realized it's less about age and more about experience. I say this as someone who hates love triangles, hates them, but for Noah Riley, I'd read it all over again. He's the kind of character who makes patience feel magnetic. He listens, he shows up, and he never takes up more space than he should, yet somehow he's in every line. Ari feels real in the ways that matter. She's emotional, inconsistent, and most importantly, she's honest. The kind of girl who's trying to be okay without really knowing how. Her strength is never in her loudness; it's in her trying. It's a long read, heavy in moments, frustrating in others, but that's exactly why it works. Say You Swear isn't about perfect timing or clean endings. It's about the quiet, unglamorous kind of love that shows up when you've finally stopped expecting it to. The kind that doesn't ask you to forget your pain, just to believe there's life after it.

Whispers of A Shadow by Monty Jay

Release Date: TBA, confirmed for 2025
Genre: Gothic romance, suspense, emotional thriller

Excerpt:
I tilt my head. "You still high?"


He doesn’t look it. No red-rimmed eyes, no twitch in his hands. But with Ezra, you never know until it’s too late.


I watch him as he shifts against the doorframe, the movement pulling his shirt taut across a chest broader than I remember.

Veins run like blue lightning beneath the ink on his forearms.


He gives me the barest shake of his head before he speaks.


"You still mine?"


If there’s one thing Ezra Caldwell has always had, it’s the goddamn audacity...

Keep Me Never by Meagan Brandy

Release Date: November 4, 2025
Tropes: football romance, angsty slow burn, broken golden boy

Blurb:
On the outside, it looks like I’ve got it all together. I’m killing it on the football field, pushing harder than ever before and breaking league records.

But on the inside, I’m a mess — the pressure of the game too much, the betrayal from someone I trusted weighing me down with every breath.

I’m drowning and there’s no one to pull me up.

Until her.

I tried to stay away, to keep my distance so I wouldn’t ruin us both, but I was powerless against her.

She’s everything I didn’t know I wanted and more than I could ever deserve.

That right there is how I knew I couldn’t keep her, but that didn’t stop me from falling in love with her.

Just when I think maybe I’m becoming the man I want to be, my world comes crashing down around me, and I’m faced with a choice that has the power to break us both.

Suddenly, I’m right back where I started.

I’m the guy with nothing to give — and she’s the girl who deserves the world.