7 Intriguing September Book Releases

So, I live in Hawaii. Fall is decidedly not in the air here, so please enjoy the crisping weather and the changing leaves for me! Ohio had gorgeous falls and I enjoyed all three we spent there; it was such a treat to curl up with a blanket, a book and some hot chocolate and be able to look out our huge set of living room windows at all the beautiful fall colors.

While September does not mean fall in Hawaii, it does mean a new crop of book releases, and there are a couple that have caught my eye. What September releases are on your radar?

Letters from Paris by Juliet Blackwell
Release date: September 6

From Goodreads: Abruptly leaving her lucrative job in Chicago, Claire returns home to care for her ailing grandmother. There, she unearths a beautiful sculpture that her great-grandfather sent home from Paris after World War II.

At her grandmother’s urging, Claire travels to Paris to track down the centuries old mask-making atelier where the sculpture was created. With the help of a passionate sculptor, Claire discovers a cache of letters that offer insight into the life of the Belle Epoque woman immortalized in the work of art. As Claire uncovers the unknown woman’s tragic fate, she begins to discover secrets -- and a new love -- of her own.

My thoughts: I love letters, I love books about Paris and I love this pretty cover, so this one's a no-brainer for me! (Though I do have to say the dual narrative historical fiction plot involving long-buried family secret is getting just a wee bit overused.)

Ninth City Burning by J. Patrick Black
Release date: September 6

From Goodreads: We never saw them coming. Entire cities disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving nothing but dust and rubble. When an alien race came to make Earth theirs, they brought with them a weapon we had no way to fight, a universe-altering force known as thelemity. It seemed nothing could stop it -- until we discovered we could wield the power too.

Five hundred years later, the Earth is locked in a grinding war of attrition. The talented few capable of bending thelemity to their will are trained in elite military academies, destined for the front lines. Those who refused to support the war have been exiled to the wilds of a ruined Earth. But the enemy's tactics are changing, and Earth's defenders are about to discover this centuries-old war has only just begun. As a terrible new onslaught looms, heroes will rise from unlikely quarters, and fight back.

My thoughts: I'm getting more and more into sci fi and fantasy, and this debut -- told from multiple perspectives -- definitely piqued my interest. Other than "Ender's Game" and a YA book I didn't like, I haven't read any books about aliens, so I'm interested to try out a different type of post-apocalyptic novel.

The Secrets of Wishtide by Kate Saunders
Release date: September 13

From Goodreads: Mrs. Laetitia Rodd, aged fifty-two, is the widow of an archdeacon. Living in Hampstead with her confidante and landlady, Mrs. Benson, who once let rooms to John Keats, Laetitia makes her living as a highly discreet private investigator. Her brother, Frederick Tyson, is a criminal barrister living in the neighboring village of Highgate with his wife and ten children. Frederick finds the cases, and Laetitia solves them using her arch intelligence, her iron discretion, and her immaculate cover as an unsuspecting widow.

When Frederick brings to her attention a case involving the son of the well-respected, highly connected Sir James Calderstone, Laetitia sets off for Lincolnshire to take up a position as the family’s new governess -- quickly making herself indispensable. But the seemingly simple case -- looking into young Charles Calderstone’s “inappropriate” love interest -- soon takes a rather unpleasant turn. And as the family’s secrets begin to unfold, Laetitia discovers the Calderstones have more to hide than most.

My thoughts: I'm all about mysteries set in Victorian England, and Laetitia Rodd sounds like just the kind of sleuth I could get behind! This is the first book in a new series.

Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein
Release date: September 13

From Goodreads: "Children of the New World" introduces readers to a near-future world of social media implants, memory manufacturers, dangerously immersive virtual reality games, and alarmingly intuitive robots. Many of these characters live in a utopian future of instant connection and technological gratification that belies an unbridgeable human distance, while others inhabit a post-collapse landscape made primitive by disaster, which they must work to rebuild as we once did millennia ago. "Children of the New World" grapples with our unease in this modern world and how our ever-growing dependence on new technologies has changed the shape of our society.

My thoughts: I'm fascinated by how technology and social media has so completely altered the world we live in -- and oftentimes not for the good, it seems -- so "Children of the New World" seems right up my alley.

Darktown by Thomas Mullen
Release date: September 13

From Goodreads: The Atlanta police department is forced to hire its first black officers in 1948. The newly minted policemen are met with deep hostility by their white peers and their authority is limited: they can’t arrest white suspects; they can’t drive a squad car; they can’t even use the police headquarters and must instead operate out of the basement of a gym. When a black woman who was last seen in a car driven by a white man turns up fatally beaten, no one seems to care except for Boggs and Smith, two black cops from vastly different backgrounds. Pressured from all sides, they will risk their jobs, the trust the community has put in them, and even their own safety to investigate her death.

My thoughts: I've not been feeling contemporary mysteries and thrillers lately, but this unique-sounding historical mystery caught my eye. I'm intrigued, too, by the race dimension. I just read the amazing "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi, and one of the vignettes was about a black man who's sent to do hard time in a coal mine just for looking at a white woman the "wrong" way in Alabama in the late 1800s (something that doubtless happened too many times to count, but that I had never thought about before), so I'm interested to see Mullen's take on white officers being forced to work with black ones. (Granted, the stories are separated by several decades, but I don't think a whole heck of a lot changed as far as race relations in the South go during that time.)

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan
Release date: September 20

From Goodreads: Nina Redmond is a librarian with a gift for finding the perfect book for her readers. But can she write her own happy-ever-after? In this valentine to readers, librarians, and book-lovers the world over, the New York Times-bestselling author of Little Beach Street Bakery returns with a funny, moving new novel.

My thoughts: Any novel that involves books, libraries, bookstores or publishing companies instantly catches my interest, and this one sounds like a delightful, feel-good story akin to "The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry."

The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst
Release date: September 20

From Goodreads: An idealistic young student and a banished warrior become allies in a battle to save their realm in this first book of a mesmerizing epic fantasy series, filled with political intrigue, violent magic, malevolent spirits, and thrilling adventure.

Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow. But the spirits that reside within this land want to rid it of all humans. One woman stands between these malevolent spirits and the end of humankind: the queen. She alone has the magical power to prevent the spirits from destroying every man, woman, and child. But queens are still just human, and no matter how strong or good, the threat of danger always looms.

My thoughts: This sounds a little bit reminiscent of "Uprooted" by Naomi Novik, one of my favorite reads this year. And that cover... every time I see it, it just sucks me in!