Coming Soon – The Books We’re Most Looking Forward to Reading in November 2023
Heading into the back-end of the year and it’s time for a look ahead to the new books we’re most looking forward to reading in November. As always, we’re highlighting the titles we think are the best bets based on the information available – and we’re always pleased to know what YOU’RE most looking forward to reading over the next few weeks, so drop by and let us know in the comments.
Releasing Week of 6th November 2023
Releasing Week of 13th November 2023
Releasing Week of 20th November 2023
Releasing Week of 27th November 2023
I just read The Duke’s Rules of Engagement and loved it, so I’m excited to read the next in the series, A Lady’s Rules for Ruin by Jennifer Haymore. (I’m not sure AAR did a review of the first one)
FYI, Maybe Once, Maybe Twice is already out and available on Hoopla as well as Amazon. I borrowed the audiobook—not sure I will finish, tbh. It’s an interesting premise but it doesn’t quite come off.
I see that’s an October release. Thanks!
Apologies – the release date must’ve changed between my compiling the list and actually getting it posted!
Happens ALL the time!
Iron Flame (Empyrean #2) by Rebecca Yarros and A Power Unbound (The Last Binding, #3) by Freya Marske are at the top of my list too!! Keeping my fingers crossed for Milla Vane’s A Dance of Smoke & Steel in late November.
November 7 – Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends & Lattes, #0) by Travis Baldree – Fantasy
November 23 – Alessandra Hazard’s Straight Guys series (M/M) reeled me in. The angst!! Must read the next one called Just a Bit Captivated (Straight Guys, #14) – Contemporary Romance
November 28 – The Mystery Guest (Molly the Maid, #2) by Nita Prose – Mystery
I can’t believe I missed that JUST A BIT CAPTIVATED is scheduled for release! I love that series—even if many of the setups require a great deal of hand-waving (for example, the one where a working class boy met the son of the person 11th in line for the British throne in the park when they were kids—and they became life-long friends—um, what park was that??). I’ve consumed those books like candy. CAPTIVATED is not showing on Amazon yet, but I don’t think that’s unusual for Hazard’s books; it will probably show up the day before release. Thanks for the heads-up!
Personally, I am waiting eagerly for the Shinn – I loved 3 of the books in that series, and liked the 4th one ok (Jeweled Fire was very YA for me, too much going on, the others were good).
I am curious about the Laurell K Hamilton. I burned out on her a long while back, after loving the first 10 books of Anita Blake, and the first 5 or so of Merry Gentry – have her books gone back to good story (i.e. good mystery) or good personal development? I read a string of them still, hoping that it would get good again – but there was just a bigger baddie, new superpowers of the heroine, solved – and more sex with more people and no resolution ever, which got me bored. It was not even good erotica after a while, since her heroines keep guilting about all the sex, or having love crisis in the middle of it. which put me off.
I am skeptical on MJP, her last few books were not good enough, unfortunately, for me – too little relationship development, too much running around in the last 1/3, with kidnappings and villains, and last minute rescues, that did not add to the book and made it all kind of over the top.
I am most looking forward to And Then You by Briar Prescott. I have loved her books from the start but the first one in this series (Until You) was one of her absolute best works. I didn’t know Fearne Hill had a new book coming out so thank you for letting me know! She’s an auto-buy author for me.
November gets us deep into holiday novels and I am looking forward to several from some of my favorite M/M romance authors:
Holiday Heart Strings by N.R. Walker (4th in the Hartbridge Christmas series)
The Christmas Veto by Keira Andrews (3rd in her Festive Fakes Christmas series)
Grinch Kisses by DJ Jamison (start of a multi-author small town Christmas series)
I’m also looking forward to the Faster series – 3 M/M sports romances taking place in the world of Formula 1 racing. They are Off Track by Leslie McAdam, Close Quarters by Regina Kyle, and Apex by Victoria Denault. I was introduced to all 3 of these authors via the Vino and Veritas series (shared world/multi-author series taking place in Vermont). I have read another series about Formula 1 racing and the settings are very glamorous!
Interesting that there’s another F1 series coming out (I reviewed one of the Lights Out series earlier this year.) I’ll be reviewing the Prescott and the Hill, so watch this space!
Power search is super! I found the book immediately based on just the words lights out and caz – so nice!!
Yay! I haven’t managed to get around to reading any of the others in that series, but there are some good authors in the mix.
I have read 4 of the 6 Lights Out series. I like authors Charlie Novak (book 3) and H.L. Day (book 4) but wasn’t as familiar with the other 4 authors. Still, I started with the first 2 books because I like to read series in order. I liked book 1, thought book 2 was OK, liked book 3 a lot and thought book 4 was pretty good. The interesting thing about the series is although they are billed as standalones, there is some intermixing of characters as well as overlap of events. So it’s a richer experience to read them in order. I never got around to finishing the series but plan to do so someday! One of the main characters in book 5 is portrayed as a villain in the other books, which might be why I stopped there.
The Faster series has all authors I know and it is only 3 books so I anticipate reading them all :)
Thank you Manjari – that clarifies and allows me to dive into the book Caz reviewed better – good to know since I am not sensitive to overlaps as long as I do not spoil an overarching plot by reading series out of order.
Also, I look forward to your reviews!
Oh, I love formula one racing, I will have to look for these, thanks!
Several solid authors have releases this month but two on your list that jump out for me: Marske’s A Power Unbound – I’ve been waiting for this third installment! – and Mary Jo Putney with a new HR.
I had no idea Putney was still writing. Clearly I don’t follow her and I’ve missed the release of her most recent work. I can’t say that I adored everything I’ve ever read by her but she had several solid titles in the early 00s. It’s been a couple of years since AAR has reviewed her and the reviews were middling. Most of her recent titles have been novellas, although there was a novel earlier this year (an amnesia story). And this upcoming one is about a French countess hiding in England as a lady’s maid . . .
Anyone here at AAR still reading and consistently enjoying her work?
I’m reading and enjoying the Marske right now :)
I haven’t read MJP for years – the last book of hers I read (and reviewed here) was so bad I couldn’t believe it was written by the author of The Rake.
I do read Mary Jo Putney, and I liked some of her more recent books. And some I did not — sorry, but I don’t want a woman in breeches carrying a sword on the cover, or generally in the story, either — Once Dishonored, I’m looking at you.
I do like book series focusing on families or groups of friends who function as families, such as Mary Balogh’s Survivors series. The Lost Lords, a Putney series, fit my preferences, and I enjoyed the books. I particularly liked Not Quite a Wife, which can be read independently from the series, Like The Rake, the heroine is unconventional in ways that are unconventional. Unlike The Rake, the heroine has a more plausible situation.
Thanks to everyone for the feedback on MJP!
Oh yes! That cover!
I loved the cover as an image, looks great- colors and cocky pose look gorgeous- but it was historically ridiculous – should have been on a fantasy book. Really irritated me!!
For me, she joins a number of other authors whose best writing seems to be behind them. She’s no longer a must read for me and hasn’t been for a while, which makes me sad.
I’m looking forward to Sharon Shinn’s “Whispering Woods”, which Amazon says will be released on November 14th. Fingers crossed!
Skye Warren’s WHITE LIES (November 14) was postponed from its October publication date, and it’s possible this date will be changed too. WHITE LIES is the second book in Warren’s Cirque des Miroirs series about a woman who runs away from her abusive home and literally joins the circus (and falls for the circus’s enigmatic owner). The first book—RED FLAGS—ended on a anxiety-inducing cliff-hanger, so I’m eager to see how that gets resolved in WHITE LIES.
Ari Baran’s DELAY OF GAME (November 14) is the second in her Penalty Box series of m/m hockey romances. I really liked the first book, GAME MISCONDUCT, which read like a rougher, grittier version of HEATED RIVALRY, so I’m looking forward to the next installment which is a friends-to-lovers romance featuring two teammates.
Caitlin Crews’s latest HP, A BILLION-DOLLAR HEIR FOR CHRISTMAS, arrives November 28. When it comes to HPs, you either love them or you don’t. You know which camp I’m in. Based on the title, it will be no surprise that BILLION-DOLLAR HEIR features the unplanned pregnancy trope.
Another HP dropping November 27 is Jackie Ashenden’s HIS INNOCENT UNWRAPPED IN ICELAND, a marriage-of-convenience between a couple with “history”.
THE TROUBLEMAKER (November 28) is the sixth book in Maisey Yates’s Four Corners Ranch series of cowboy romances. This book features a friends-to-lovers relationship between two characters who have appeared in supporting roles in previous books in the series. And, of course, the hero is the town “bad boy”!
Willow Dixon’s BEST SERVED COLD (November 29) is the latest in her Crimson Club series of m/m romances featuring characters who dance at the title club. I don’t think I could beat the Amazon blurb for describing this book: “You can expect animosity to lovers, double bi-awakening, public fun, demi rep, mental health rep, found family, all the heat, tons of banter, reluctant feels, and two impulsive guys who realize that in some games, everyone’s a winner.” Oh, I am so there for this on
His Innocent Unwrapped in Iceland–I can’t even say that title without giggling. I hope she’s naked during the summer and not the winter!
You know I love HPs, but I sometimes think the editors throw a bunch of words (VIRGIN, INNOCENT, SURPRISE, SECRET, PRINCE, KING, DESERT, SHEIKH, MARRIAGE, CONVENIENT, HEIR, HIS, HER, SPANIARD, ITALIAN, FORGOTTEN) into a hopper and use the resulting random string of words to generate new titles.
Here in the UK, Iceland is a supermarket chain, so I had visions of a scantily-clad heroine wandering the frozen food aisles pushing a shopping trolley.
That makes me giggle even harder!
I still haven’t got round to reading Willow Dixon – their books are mostly N/A aren’t they? (Not really my bag.) Rec me a book of hers to start with :)
I liked, but didn’t love Game Misconduct (I reviewed it in audio for AudioGals) – it’s enemies-to-lovers, but not the same calibre as the Reid, IMO. I’ll probably give their new one a try.
Check Dixon’s Heroes at Home series (STRAIGHT BATTLE, BATTLE FOR THE TOP, BATTLE TO SURRENDER). They feature older MCs—at least one of every couple is a military veteran. One of the things I’ve liked about the Dixon books I’ve read so far is that they manage to avoid (or at least minimize) the “big misunderstanding” in the third act, plus she handles mental health issues with care.
Oh, yes -‘I had my eye on one of those in audio, but decided against it because I dislike one of the narrators. Audio is my preferred catch-up method; 95% of what I read with my eyes is for review and its difficult to squeeze new books in, so audio is generally a better option. I’ll put one of them on my “squeeze it in” list!
I’m definitely here for And Then You by Briar Prescott. The first book in the series, Until You is on my Best of 2023 list, so I’m hoping for another winner with this.
I haven’t read the second installment of the Freya Menske’s Last Binding series, but I’ll need to do that before going on to book 3, Power Unbound.
I’m intrigued by the description of Second Best Men by Fearne Hill. I like the way she writes, but don’t always like the some of her plot choices, if that makes sense. I still haven’t read any of her Nailed It! series. But for some reason I’m quite interested in this one.
The one I bought in 2021 and it’s coming next month is is ‘A Dance of Smoke and Steel’ by Milla Vane (expected November 28, 2023). Si we’ve been waiting years! for the third instalment in this Gathering of Dragons.
WAIT. What? For real?
Where did you see it? It’s not on any book sellers’ pages I can find.
I do see it on Edelweiss but no one has received a review copy, I don’t think.
I saw it months ago and in Goodreads it still says November 28, 2023. But you are right that for instance in Amazon does not appear. I reserved it in 2021 but now I don’t see it in my Amazon account.
Fingers crossed.
I’ve just seen that the audiobook is up at Audible with a release date of 1st December.
That’s true on Amazon too. Still waiting on book links, though.
I buy books for a public library, and my vendor website says the paperback is postponed. No new pub date that I can see. Sorry! Hope it gets updated.
:(
A few I’m looking forward to are The Good Part by Sophie Cousens, Check and Mate by Ali Hazelwood and Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (sequel to Fourth Wing).
I’m very interested in Iron Flame too.
Yes to Iron Flame! Everyone I know seems to be waiting for that one! I have an ARC for Check and Mate – guess I need to push that one to the top of my list!
I have liked Ali Hazelwood’s books but over time, I am starting to feel like her heroines are all very similar (scientists with poor communication skills and/or deep insecurities). However, Check & Mate is YA and features chess players, which I think could be interesting.
I really enjoyed Bride. Such a snarky heroine in all the best ways.
Bride has been on my radar. It sounds really different from anything she has written before and I love snarky main characters. Thanks for letting me know you liked it!