September was a big one. Twenty-seven books total, which might be one of the fullest month I’ve logged all year, and somehow twenty-six of them landed a rating instead of a DNF (Pandora’s Jar, I will finish you eventually, I promise). Audiobooks carried most of the month, eighteen of the twenty-seven, though the Kindle pile pulled its weight too, especially with ARC season in full swing. Ten ARCs this month alone. Ten! My queue barely noticed the dent.
What surprised me most wasn’t the volume, it was how many of these books actually earned five stars. Not the polite kind either. The kind where I’m still thinking about a book days later, or rearranging my whole week around finishing one in a single sitting (looking at you, Inferno Affair). Choosing the ones below was really difficult, but these are here because they truly deserve to be here. Cozy mystery still dominated the genre count, but fantasy and nonfiction both had a real showing this month too, and honestly the nonfiction reads might have been the sleeper hits of September.
Books of the month:
Killer on the Kelvin Explorer
📱📖 Read on Kindle 📃 306 pages ⏱ Duration: 5 hours Genre: Cozy Mystery 🏷️ Self-published by the author 📅 Released: September 9, 2026 (ARC)
A locked-train mystery that squeezes everything great about the Milverton series into one breathless 12-hour window, and it might be the best entry in the series yet. Addison and Mabel’s tag-team sleuthing carries the whole thing, and that New Zealand small-town atmosphere is as immersive as ever. Killer on the Kelvin Explorer takes everything great about the Milverton series and squeezes it into a single breathless 12-hour window aboard a steam train, and it works better than a fifth book in a series has any right to. Addison and Mabel’s tag-team sleuthing carries the whole thing, and the New Zealand small-town atmosphere is as immersive as ever. If you’re new to Milverton, start with book one. If you’re already hooked, clear your schedule for this one.
My Review | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert
If You Can’t Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury
🎧 Listened in audio 📢 Narrated by Geraldine DeRuiter (the author) ⏱ Duration: 10 hours Genre: Non Fiction 🏷️ Publisher: Crown 📅 Published: March 12, 2024
Went in expecting a book about restaurant kitchens and got a holistic, funny, furious look at food and gender instead, everything from her first food memory to the Mario Batali cinnamon-roll fallout. Did all ten hours in one sitting because DeRuiter’s own narration pulls you straight in. This isn’t the restaurant-kitchen book its title might suggest, it’s a much bigger, funnier, and more furious look at everything food touches, told through DeRuiter’s own life. The audiobook is narrated by the author herself, and it’s so engaging she finished all ten hours in one sitting. If you want nonfiction that’s relatable, unexpectedly hilarious, and impossible to put down, this is it.
My Review | Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
Other Favourites of the month
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
🎧 Listened in audio 📢 Narrated by Ann Marie Gideon ⏱ Duration: 8 hours Genre: Non Fiction 🏷️ Publisher: HarperCollins 📅 Published: June 15, 2021
Amanda Montell will absolutely wreck your ability to unsee cult behavior everywhere, from gym motivational posters to guilt-tripping group chats. This is less “here’s what cults are” and more “here’s how our whole world runs on cult logic,” and it’s fascinating start to finish. Cultish doesn’t just explain what cults are, it rewires how you hear everyday language, and you’ll spend days afterward spotting cultish patterns in your own life. If you’re even a little into human and societal psychology, this one’s unmissable. Mark the date, tell your friends, start a whole book club cult around it if you have to.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
Loose Lips (Ghostwriter Mystery #2)
🎧 Listened in audio 📢 Narrated by Eva Kaminsky ⏱ Duration: 10 hours Genre: Cozy Mystery 🏷️ Publisher: Recorded Books / A John Scognamiglio Book 📅 Published: January 21, 2025
A closed-cruise mystery that somehow tops an already-great book one, with Eva Kaminsky’s narration doing serious heavy lifting. The ending genuinely floored me, I had to sit in silence and just absorb it before I could keep going. This locked-room cruise mystery earns every bit of its hype, and the ghostwriter narrator (both the character and Eva Kaminsky reading her) makes the whole thing sing. The ending is genuinely unexpected enough to stop you mid-scene. If book one won you over, book two will wreck you in the best way. Get on this ship.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
Inferno Affair
📱📖 Read on Kindle 📃 201 pages ⏱ Duration: 2 hours Genre: Paranormal Romance 🏷️ Publisher: Becca & Standale Press (Self Published) 📅 Published: August 31, 2026
Went in braced for a genre I usually avoid and came out completely smitten. Rory is a heroine who’s actually smart on the page, her back-and-forth with Sebastian Morrow is the book’s beating heart, and the atmosphere is so vivid it’s disorienting to look up and realize you’re not actually there. Rory is one of those rare heroines who feels smart on the page, not just described as smart, and watching her go toe-to-toe with Sebastian Morrow is worth the price of admission alone. Two hours was not enough time in this world. If you want a clean, atmospheric, devilishly good read with a heroine who actually earns her genius résumé, add this to your TBR immediately.
Death at the Door (Ruby & Cordelia Mysteries #2)
🎧 Listened in audio 📢 Narrated by Petrea Burchard and Stefanie Kay ⏱ Duration: 10 hours Genre: Paranormal Cozy Mystery 🏷️ Publisher: Minotaur Books and Dreamscape Media 📅 Published: October 21, 2025
The second Ruby & Cordelia mystery brings in Cordy’s brother Ian, who reads so untrustworthy I get an actual skin-prickle every time he’s on the page. The narration has leveled up too, the two narrators sound closer and more in sync than they did in book one. The atmosphere is fabulous and the paranormal side of the story is spectacular. Then there’s Ian, who gives me a weird prickle on the skin every time he’s on the page, and I’m very curious how long he sticks around. The two narrators sound even closer together than they did in book one, and the next ARC is already queued up.
My Review | Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip
🎧 Listened in audio 📢 Narrated by Kelsey McKinney (the author) ⏱ Duration: 7 hours Genre: Non Fiction 🏷️ Publisher: Hachette Audio and Grand Central Publishing 📅 Published: February 11, 2025
A completely accidental pickup that ended up rewiring how I think about gossip entirely. The through-line that gossip works as protection when systems fail women turned a topic I thought was petty into a whole framework of power and storytelling. This is one of those rare nonfiction reads that hands you a completely new lens for something you thought you already understood, and once you have it, you cannot unsee it. Gossip stops feeling like a guilty pleasure and starts feeling like a hidden system of protection and storytelling running underneath pop culture the whole time. Genuinely one of the most unique concepts I’ve picked up all year. Obsessed doesn’t even cover it.
My Review | Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
ARC Spotlight
You’ll Love It Here — Natalie Sue
🎧 Audio | 10 hrs | Fiction | HarperCollins Canada Audio & William Morrow | 📅 Released August 11, 2026
Natalie Sue shifts from workplace friendships to a rental building full of neighbours who’ve never actually talked to each other, and it’s a full five-star win. Nasim Pedrad’s narration makes the whole building feel real. Add this to your TBR right now.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
The Names We Burn — Arthur Iverson
📱📖 Kindle | 350 pages | 4 hrs | Fantasy | Self-published | 📅 Released August 24, 2026
A dystopian world built on a genuinely sharp idea, your name IS your identity, and it can be revoked, gripping enough to cost a full night’s sleep. The line-burst formatting takes some adjusting to, but full closure with no cliffhanger sequel-bait is rare for the genre. Add this one to your TBR.
Bookshop.org | Goodreads | Fable
The Enchanted Atlas of Fortune and Fate — Ciara Blume
📱📖 Kindle | 446 pages | 6 hrs | Fantasy | Storm Publishing | 📅 Releases October 15, 2026
Book four in a series, but Tempest Glass carries it fine as a standalone-feeling entry. It’s a slow burn heavy on detail, but the road trip through small-town trivia competitions, Fortune the parrot included, grows on you. Mark your calendar.
My Review | Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert
A Murder at Midnight (Novel Detectives Mystery #4) — Ellie Alexander
📱📖 Kindle | 272 pages | Cozy Mystery | Storm Publishing | 📅 Releases October 13, 2026
A genuinely clever whodunit, the killer’s method caught me completely off guard, with the Novel Detectives crew’s character growth as the real draw. My one gripe: the police give Annie and Fletcher a bit too much free rein for it to feel believable. Add this one to your TBR.
My Review | Indiebookstores.ca | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Hardcover | Booktrovert
Eat, Drink, and Get Buried — Cleo Coyle
📱📖 Kindle | 400 pages | 3 hrs | Cozy Mystery | Berkley | 📅 Released September 22, 2026
Twenty-two books in and the Coffeehouse Mystery series still feels like coming home to family, with the mystery keeping me guessing more than expected. The found-family dynamic between Clare, Matt, Madame, and Joy is the real draw at this point. Add this one to your TBR, it’s already out.
My Review | Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
Murder in the Upper Crust (Deep Dish Mysteries #6) — Mindy Quigley
📱📖 Kindle | 304 pages | 4 hrs | Cozy Mystery | Minotaur Books | 📅 Releases October 27, 2026
The pizza descriptions alone are enough to send you hunting for takeout, and Delilah’s relationships with Sonja and Calvin keep deepening believably. But the chief’s role in the investigation never quite sold me, and the pacing sags mid-book. Add this to your TBR if you’re already a Deep Dish fan.
My Review | Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert
Home for the Homicides (Holly & Mark Mystery #1) — Elle Cosimano & Hannah Morrissey
🎧 Audio | 11 hrs | Holiday Mystery | Minotaur Books / Macmillan Audio | 📅 Releases October 13, 2026
The three-narrator audio performance is genuinely excellent, and Christmas Town is a setting worth revisiting. But the mystery took a back seat to constant innuendo that drifted the whole thing closer to erotica than cozy.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | Litsy
Dug Up — Shari Marshall
📱📖 Kindle | 159 pages | 6-7 hrs | Urban Paranormal Fantasy | Writing Sparkle Books | 📅 Released June 26, 2026
The mystery itself had real potential, but unlabeled POV switches and an untagged past/present timeline turned a 159-page book into a 6-7 hour slog. Wanted to love it as a self-published debut in a genre I’m a fan of, but the execution got in the way.
My Review | Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
The Little Shop of Gentle Magic (The Enchanted Thistle #1) — Jessica Rosenberg
📱📖 Kindle | 328 pages | 4 hrs | Fantasy | Storm Publishing | 📅 Releases October 20, 2026
The cozy magical-teashop premise the blurb promised barely shows up. What’s there instead is a relationship storyline with more red flags than I could get past.
My Review | Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert
Stats for the Month
- Total books read: 27 (26 completed, 1 DNF)
- DNF: 1 — Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths
- Total pages: 8,472
- Average rating: 3.92 ⭐ (across 26 rated reads)
- Format breakdown: 18 audiobook, 9 ebook/Kindle
- Genre breakdown: Cozy Mystery (10), Fantasy (7), Non Fiction (5), Contemporary Fiction (2), Paranormal Cozy Mystery (2), Urban Fantasy (1)
- ARC count: 10
Closing
That’s September in the books, pun very much intended. If you read any of these, or you’re planning to after this post, I want to know. Drop a comment and tell me which one’s going on your TBR first, or if you’ve got strong feelings about gossip as a form of protection now too. See you in October.
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