The months before Christmas (yes – I said the “C” word!) are traditionally packed to the gills with new releases, and this November is exactly that – well, mostly. There is, as usual, a big concentration of new releases at the end of the month, but the previous week is empty of new romance titles – which just gives you an extra week for reading all those books you bought at the beginning of the month!
As always though, this is not a comprehensive list, and we love to read your comments telling us which books YOU’RE looking forward to reading, books which might be on this list, or which might not have been on our radar, so have at it!
Releasing week of 31st Oct 2022
Releasing week of 7th Nov 2022
Releasing week of 14th Nov 2022
Releasing week of 21st Nov 2022
**crickets**
Releasing week of 28th Nov 2022
I’m glad to see some promising domestic suspense and psychological thriller selections… :)
Top of my list will be the Alexis Hall and Freya Marske. Also interested in the Kennedy Ryan (which has fabulous book blurbs from Colleen Hoover, Emily Henry, Helen Huong and Talia Hibbert that read like they are commenting on this title and not Ryan in general). I normally don’t put much stock in those blurbs but four? From this range of authors? That is a lot of marketing support for this book.
Lily Morton just announced that she is releasing a novella on 11/20 called Vow Maker, which is the 4th in the Mixed Messages series and features the long awaited wedding of Dylan and Gabe! It’s available for pre-order now.
Looking forward to The Choice, the last of the Dragonheart Legacy trilogy by Nora Roberts….comes out November 22
Anyone know if Loretta Chase is still writing, and if so, when her next book is coming out? I’m going thru withdrawal pains.
I believe she’s still working on the final Difficult Dukes book, but there’s no sign of a release date yet :(
I look all the time. That book is one I am so excited for!
From the above releases, I’m looking forward to:
Raven Unveiled (Fallen Empire, #3) by Grace Draven—Love this series!
A Restless Truth (The Last Binding, #2) by Freya Marske—A Marvellous Light was a favourite read of 2021.
Leopard’s Scar (Leopard People, #13) by Christine Feehan
My TBR continues to grow and grow. :D
Other releases:
November 1
Miss Dauntless (Mischief in Mayfair #5) by Grace Burrowes—IMO #3 Miss Dignified was the best of the series so far.
Duke in a Box: Twelve Steamy Historical Holiday Novellas by Kate Bateman et.al.
Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell—MM SFF Romance
November 15
Heart of the Sun Warrior (The Celestial Kingdom Duology, #2) by Sue Lynn Tan
A Light in the Flame (Flesh and Fire, #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
The Widow by Kaira Rouda was the only book that vaguely interested me in this lot. Either genres not for me or outright cheesey stuff along with the usual silly glut of dukes.
I have two of these preordered:
His Last Christmas in London by Con Riley, who is currently one of my favourite authors.
Daniel Cabot puts down Roots by Cat Sebastian – I’ve really enjoyed the other books in this series.
For some reason, the publishers released the audiobook of Alexis Hall’s Paris Daillencourt Begins to Crumble a couple of weeks early in UK so I have already listened to it. I loved it, but suspect that it will be a Marmite book as Paris is a lot!
I noticed that – the book was originally supposed to come out on the same day, but got pushed back. I haven’t had a chance to get to the Cabots yet – I have the audio of Peter Cabot, but Cat Sebastian has been a bit hit and miss for me of late, so I haven’t made it a priority. I’ll be reading the Riley next!
Cat Sebastian has been hit or miss for me too – I didn’t like Kit Webb, so didn’t bother with its follow-up – but I really like her Cabot series. It’s set in the 20th century and features various members of a US political family. Peter’s book is sweet but I liked Tommy’s novella/short story best.
I think Sebastian’s Cabot series is my favorite thing that she’s written so far. (I love a 20th century historical). I really enjoyed both novellas in the series and was excited to learn that there was a third coming out. The Cabot series is one I return to over and over as a comfort read.
I’m also looking forward to Paris Daillencourt Begins to Crumble, A Restless Truth, Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell, and Rainbow Rowell’s short story collection Scattered Showers.
Too much wine! PD is About to Crumble.
There isn’t much coming out in Nov that I’m really excited about. I’ll read the Andrews and probably the Day, but not sure about anything else listed here. I haven’t started Sebastian’s Cabot series, so I may look into that. I haven’t loved Con Riley as much as some reviewers, but recently I’ve been thinking of giving her another go.
I think I might be in a book coma after so many great books/audiobooks being released in Sept and Oct!
Greg B. is narrating the Andrews, so I’m waiting on a review copy of that :) I read the Day over the weekend and just added my review, so watch for that later in the week.
By the way, if you’re looking for a book to put you into the Christmas spirit, I’d like to recommend Genevieve Turner’s COWBOY, KISS ME AT CHRISTMAS (part of her Cowboy Homecoming series of contemporary romances). It’s a cute Christmas novella with plenty of low-key humor that comes from understanding the romance tropes that the heroine Sasha loves (cowboys, enforced proximity, snowstorm, only one bed). However, Sasha soon discovers that driving her car into a snowbank during a blizzard, being rescued by taciturn cowboy Max, and having to share his tiny cabin while the snowstorm rages isn’t going to be the same as when these things happen in one of her beloved romance novels…or is it? Sasha & Max, snowed in through Christmas, warm up to each other as they decorate Max’s tiny cabin for the holidays and take care of a newborn calf. Incidentally, this is the second book I’ve read recently that features MCs snowbound with only one bed while caring for a newborn calf (the first was Rachel Ember’s completely different but equally good LONG WINTER). COWBOY, KISS ME AT CHRISTMAS will definitely put you in the holiday spirit.
I’ll just say cows are smelly…..
That is addressed in LONG WINTER, but I don’t think it is in the Turner book, lol.
:)
Cow barns are smelly, so the cows in them are, too. As individuals, they really aren’t, especially the babies. Years ago I dated a dairy farmer and enjoyed petting the calves. Pigs, horses, dogs…any animal kept groomed and in a clean place shouldn’t be smelly. Horses are literally my favorite smell in the world.
As of right now, I have very little on my November TBR, which is just as well given as I’m still trying to catch up with books from October.
NATURAL DISASTER by Skye Warren & Amelia Wilde (November 8) is the second book in their MMF Deserted Island trilogy about a man and a woman stranded on an island and their encounters with the island’s sole inhabitant, a hermit waiting for the end of the world.
FORGIVE ME FATHER by Garrett Leigh (November 14) is the next book in her m/m Rebel Kings MC series.
HIDING PLACES by Skye Warren (November 15) is part of her Rochester series inspired by JANE EYRE. This book involves two people who were secondary characters in the original trilogy.
New HPs from three of my favorite Queens of Angsty Heartache arrive November 29: Maisey Yates’s FORBIDDEN TO THE DESERT PRINCE (a woman falls for her betrothed’s brother); Caitlin Crews’s THE CHRISTMAS HE CLAIMED HIS SECRETARY (a virginal secretary agrees to pose as a billionaire’s mistress); and Jackie Ashenden’s THE MAID THE GREEK MARRIED (to escape a compound where she has been held in domestic servitude, a maid agrees to marry a wealthy widower).
COME BACK FOR ME by Ellis (Ella) James is scheduled for November 30. It’s a forced-proximity, age-gap, m/m romance set amongst fire fighters in Wyoming. However, there is very little about the book (the start of a new series) on Amazon right now, so I won’t be surprised if the publication date is postponed.
From the list above, I am most interested in:
Five Night Stand by H.L. Day – I have been reading more and more by this author and pretty consistently liking the books
The Christmas Leap by Keira Andrews – she does a good Christmas book every year
The Good Guy Challenge by Lauren Blakely – although I tend to like her M/M romances better than her M/F ones (this one is M/F)
Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian – I am loving the Cabot series
His Last Christmas in London by Con Riley – her first Christmas book? I’m there!
I am also looking forward to these M/M books:
11/1 Blitzed by S.E. Harmon – 3rd in the Rules of Possession series; sports romance
11/10 Seven Minutes in Kevin by DJ Jamison – 3rd in the Games We Play series; age gap romance
And these M/F books:
11/8 Princess and the Player by Ilsa Madden-Mills – NFL player and socialite meet at a masquerade ball
11/15 A Holiday Set-up by Noelle Adams – a Christmas novella with a nemesis-to-lovers trope
11/15 Untying the Knot by Meghan Quinn – marriage on the rocks, wife asks for divorce, husband has to win her back
I’m reviewing the Day and the Riley, so watch this space! I’m going to do the Andrews in audio for AudioGals.
I’ve ‘fallen out’ with SE Harmon. I’ve reviewed two books of hers recently in which she has written an author’s note saying the plot holes aren’t her fault so if they bother you, then don’t read the book. Huh? IMO, that’s disrespectful to readers and just lazy writing.
Wow! At whose feet does she lay the plot holes then? I loved the two books I’ve read by Harmon (STAY WITH ME and SO IN TO YOU), but a comment like that is just plain disrespectful and, unless she elaborates further on what she means, cruel to everyone else involved in the book’s production (editor, etc.).
I quoted the passage in full in my AudioGals review of The Spooky Life:
Then in book two of her Formcary series, she says:
What? It’s perfectly possible to write escapist, romantic adventure stories without littering them with plot holes!! I did, in fact, give that particular book a pass; not for any of those reasons, but because the first book wasn’t good (I did the audio and the narration was ‘meh;, too) and she hadn’t been able to make me care enough about the characters to want to find out what happened next. But to open by admitting you’ve written yourself into a corner and couldn’t be bothered to find a way out of it, or to make the story work another way… isn’t that what writers are supposed to do?
A good development editor will work with an author to help them do that – but blaming plot holes on editors and (probably unpaid) beta readers? No. We’ve all read books where there we find typos and grammatical errors which may have slipped through, those things DO happen. But plot holes are an entirely different matter.
Not the first time I’ve seen an author resort to “I took liberties with what is and what is not possible to tell the story I wanted to tell.”
If an author decides they want to tell a story where readers may be thrown out of the story’s world by glaring impossibilities or plot holes, that’s the author’s choice. But it’s not the readers’ fault when they’re unable to buy into the story.
Exactly this. I first came across that “disclaimer” in an historical romance in which the author was trying to excuse throwing things they didn’t like about the time period out the window. Needless to say, I never bothered reading them again.
See I think that’s different. I agree with Marian–if it doesn’t work for a reader, than it doesn’t work. But I’ve read lots of books that have taken liberties with a time or a historical figure and they’ve worked for me.
I think I didn’t take what she said in her forewords the same way. I took it more as be willing to suspend your disbelief. There were things in those books you mention that were pretty implausible but I still enjoyed the characters. I started reading her books after I read and liked her entry in the Heart2Heart vol 5 anthology. That was just a straightforward romance short story and I don’t recall any plot holes. I suspect these come up more in her books with a fantastical premise.
I think a willingness to suspend disbelief is what we all do when we read genre fiction, so I’m afraid I think it’s more than that. The books I’m talking about are indeed full of plot holes – and trying to excuse them in advance doesn’t do the author any favours. The very FACT she’s doing that shows that she’s aware of the problems but couldn’t work out how to fix them. Sorry, we’ll have to agree to disagree on this point.
I am totally with you on plot holes. To me, writing fiction means you are telling a story. You can take all the liberties you want with your prose but if you can’t make it coherent, that’s a problem.
This ^ exactly. I took it as suspend your disbelief because its fantasy. Shows that two people can read the same thing very differently.