September Stories

September or Autumn settings in books often carry a charged atmosphere—summer is fading, routines are shifting, and the air feels restless with change. Stories set in this month tend to capture moments of transition: new school years, fresh starts, or the quiet melancholy of endings. Whether it’s the crispness of autumn creeping in or the lingering heat of summer, September settings frame narratives with a sense of possibility and reflection, making them perfect backdrops for tales of growth, nostalgia, and turning points.

Updated August 22, 2025
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To shape a dragon's breath
Blackgoose, Moniquill
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER . WINNER OF THE ASTOUNDING, NEBULA, AND LODESTAR AWARDS . FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS AND BRITISH FANTASY NEWCOMER AWARDS . "My favorite book of the year . . . a coming-of-age story that is cozy and hair-raising in equal measure."-Charlie Jane Anders, The Washington Post
All that is hidden
Bowen, Rhys
Paper Book
"Retired" detective and police captain's wife Molly Murphy Sullivan tangles with Tammany Hall in the next in Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles's New York Times bestselling historical mystery series. New York, Autumn, 1907: Former private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is...
The golden tresses of the dead : a Flavia de Luce novel
Bradley, C. Alan
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A finger in a wedding cake is only the beginning in this deliciously shocking mystery featuring Flavia de Luce, "the world's greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth" (The Seattle Times). Although it is autumn in the small...
Calendar girl. Volume three
Carlan, Audrey (Novelist)
Paper Book
Mia Saunders journey continues in the third wicked hot anthology of the Calendar Girl Series! In the next three months, Mia heads to Miami, Texas, and her hometown, Las Vegas. In July, she serves as the seductress in a music video to platinum selling hip hop artist Anton Santiago. Still...
An evil heart
Castillo, Linda
Paper Book
2024 SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD WINNER Chief of Police Kate Burkholder investigates the brutal death of a young Amish man in An Evil Heart, the latest installment of the bestselling series by Linda Castillo. On a crisp autumn day in Painters Mill,...
The raging storm
Cleeves, Ann
Paper Book
Ann Cleeves--New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows--returns with The Raging Storm, the extraordinary third installment in the Matthew Venn series. Fierce winds, dark secrets,...
Sharpe's triumph : Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803
Cornwell, Bernard.
Ebook
From New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell, the second installment in the world-renowned Sharpe series, chronicling the rise of Richard Sharpe, a Private in His Majesty's Army at the siege of Seringapatam. "The greatest writer of historical adventures today." ...
Falling man : a novel
DeLillo, Don.
Paper Book
There is September 11 and then there are the days after, and finally the years. Falling Man is a magnificent, essential novel about the event that defines turn-of-the-century America. It begins in the smoke and ash of the burning towers and tracks the aftermath of this global...
Twenty years later
Donlea, Charlie
Audiobook
Fans of Lisa Unger and Allen Eskens won't want to miss this thrilling new suspense novel from the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Girl Who Was Taken! Hiding her own dark past in plain sight, a TV reporter is determined to uncover the truth behind a gruesome murder decades after the...
The September Society
Finch, Charles
Paper Book
The sitting room looked as familiar as the back of his hand, and immediately Lenox took a liking to the young man who inhabited it. He saw several small artifacts of the missing student's life - a frayed piece of string about two feet long of the sort you might bind a package with, half of a...
Extremely loud & incredibly close
Foer, Jonathan Safran
Paper Book
ANew York Times Bestseller * NamedA Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post Book World, Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch,andRocky Mountain News   Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an...
Night over water
Follett, Ken.
Paper Book
KEN FOLLETT'S INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER- September 1939. England is at war with Nazi Germany. In Southampton, the world's most luxurious airliner-the legendary Pan Am clipper-takes off for its final flight to neutral America. Aboard are the cream of society and the dregs of humanity, all fleeing the...
Death by chocolate chip cupcake
Graves, Sarah
Paper Book
In the fifth Death by Chocolate Mystery by Sarah Graves, Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree and Ellie White, owners of the Chocolate Moose Bakery, are hired to cater a retired film star's party in what's rumored to be Eastport, Maine's most haunted house...   Jake and Ellie...
Three can keep a secret
Hilliard, M. E.
Paper Book
The library is no safe haven in this taut, tense mystery perfect for fans of Louise Penny and Elly Griffith's Dr. Ruth Galloway series. Greer Hogan is a librarian turned sleuth, an avid reader of crime fiction who possesses an uncanny knack for deduction-and now, she's drawn into...
The long flight home
Hlad, Alan
Ebook
The USA Today bestselling story of a time when hope truly was a thing with feathers... Inspired by fascinating, true, yet little-known events during World War II, The Long Flight Home is a testament to the power of courage in our darkest hours--a...
Autumn skies
Hunter, Denise
Ebook
From the bestselling author of The Convenient Groom and A December Bride (now beloved Hallmark Original movies) comes the third and final novel in the Bluebell Inn series! When a mysterious man turns up at Grace's family-run inn, there's instant attraction. But she's...
Lilac girls : a novel
Kelly, Martha Hall
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * One million copies sold! Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this remarkable debut novel reveals the power of unsung women to change history in their quest for love, freedom, and second chances. "Extremely moving...
Truly, madly, deeply : a novel
Kingsbury, Karen
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTELLER In love for the first time, a son's decisions about the future divides his family in this fearless and thought-provoking novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of life-changing fiction. When eighteen...
All that is mine I carry with me : a novel
Landay, William
Paper Book
A mother vanished. A father presumed guilty. There is no proof. There are no witnesses. For the children, there is only doubt. From the bestselling author of Defending Jacob. . . .   "Gripping . . . a masterly piece of writing."--The New York Times ...
The boy in the field : a novel
Livesey, Margot
Ebook
"[An] exquisite . . . whodunit. . . . But the real mysteries lie . . . compellingly with the characters who are witnesses to the crime. . . . quiet, observant . . . cinematic." --New York Times Book Review<...
Murder at Wakehurst
Maxwell, Alyssa
Paper Book
In the autumnal chill of Newport, Rhode Island, at the close of the nineteenth century, journalist Emma Cross discovers an instance of cold-blooded murder on the grounds of a mansion... Following the death of her uncle, Cornelius Vanderbilt, in September 1899, a somber...
The usual rules
Maynard, Joyce
Paper Book
It's a Tuesday morning in Brooklyn-a perfect September day. Wendy is heading to school, eager to make plans with her best friend, worried about how she looks, mad at her mother for not letting her visit her father in California, impatient with her little brother and with the almost too-loving...
Deacon King Kong
McBride, James
Paper Book
Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction   Winner of the Gotham Book Prize One of Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of the Year" Oprah's Book Club Pick New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
A fall of marigolds
Meissner, Susan
Ebook
A beautiful scarf connects two women touched by tragedy in this compelling, emotional novel from the author of As Bright as Heaven and The Last Year of the War. September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to...
The witching tide : a novel
Meyer, Margaret
Paper Book
Named a best historical novel of the year by The New York Times Book Review and "reminiscent of both The Scarlet Letter and Hamnet" (Jezebel), The Witching Tide is a powerful debut inspired by the true events behind a deadly witch hunt in...
The wolf and the watchman : a novel
Natt och Dag, Niklas
Paper Book
ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 "It's early to be pegging the year's best books, but The Wolf and the Watchman, Niklas Natt och Dag's stunning debut, is sure to be one of them." --The Washington Post "What's better than an ornate period piece...
My father's house
O'Connor, Joseph
Paper Book
From inside the Vatican, Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty makes a daring attempt to smuggle thousands of innocents out of Nazi-occupied Rome in this World War II "literary thriller of the highest order" (The Guardian), the first in a series by New York Times bestselling author, Joseph O'Connor...
Ocean state
O'Nan, Stewart
Paper Book
Set in a working-class town on the Rhode Island coast, O'Nan's latest is a crushing, beautifully written, and profoundly compelling novel about sisters, mothers, and daughters, and the terrible things love makes us do.  In the first line of Ocean State, we learn that a high school...
The September house
Orlando, Carissa
Paper Book
"Why run from a haunted house when you can stay and ignore the ghosts? Just when you thought you'd seen everything a haunted house novel could do, The September House comes along and delivers an eerie, darkly funny, and emotionally grounded book about the ghosts that haunt houses and...
Queen Charlotte
Quinn, Julia
Paper Book
Go beyond the original Shondaland series on Netflix, Queen Charlotte, with this lushly romantic Bridgerton prequel novel written by New York Times bestselling authors Julia Quinn and Shonda Rhimes as the marriage of Queen Charlotte and King George of England leads to an unexpected love...
A murderous relation
Raybourn, Deanna
Paper Book
Veronica Speedwell and her historian colleague Stoker are asked by Lady Wellingtonia Beauclerk to help with a scandal so explosive it threatens to rock the monarchy. Someone has bought an expensive jewel for the portieres of London's most expensive club, a gift that's traced to Prince Albert Victor....
Some murders in Berlin
Robards, Karen
Paper Book
This pulse-pounding, brilliantly twisting new historical thriller is a gripping tale that will leave you questioning everything. September 1943: Berlin is the heart of darkness--and the last place Dr. Elin Lund wishes to be. An expert in psychological profiling, she's...
Our darkest night : a novel of Italy and the Second World War
Robson, Jennifer
Audiobook
To survive the Holocaust, a young Jewish woman must pose as a Christian farmer's wife in this unforgettable novel from USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Robson--a story of terror, hope, love, and sacrifice, inspired by true events, that vividly evokes the most perilous days of World War II....
Chances are...
Russo, Richard
Paper Book
"[Russo's] first novel in ten years hits the ball out of the park. . . . You'll lap up this gripping, wise, and wonderful summer treat." --The Boston Globe "A cascade of charm. . . . Russo is an undeniably endearing writer, and chances are this story will draw you back to the...
Eternal
Scottoline, Lisa
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline offers a sweeping and shattering epic of historical fiction fueled by shocking true events, the tale of a love triangle that unfolds in the heart of Rome...in the creeping shadow of fascism. ...
Tell me everything : a novel
Strout, Elizabeth
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout comes a "stunner" (People) of a novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world. "Tell Me Everything...
Psycho by the sea
Truss, Lynne
Paper Book
In the latest installment of this charming and quirky series, a trio of detectives are faced with the arrival of an escaped criminal with an unlikely penchant for boiling the heads of policemen. It's September in the British beach town of Brighton, and the city is playing host...
Black river orchard : a novel
Wendig, Chuck
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A small town is transformed when seven strange trees begin bearing magical apples in this masterpiece of horror from the author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents. "This masterful outing should continue to earn Wendig comparisons to...
Such a perfect wife : a novel
White, Kate
Ebook
New York Times bestselling author Kate White returns with a gripping story about a true-crime reporter uncovering the secrets that lie beneath the surface of a placid small town, perfect for readers of Jessica Knoll, Alafair Burke, and Liv Constantine. Blonde. Beautiful. A loving mother....
The unquiet bones : a novel
White, Loreth Anne
Paper Book
A shocking discovery of human bones reopens an almost fifty-year-old cold case--and rips apart the lives of a group of friends--in a riveting novel by Loreth Anne White, the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling author of The Maid's Diary. When human bones are...
Our woman in Moscow : a novel
Williams, Beatriz
Paper Book
"A captivating Cold War page-turner." -- Real Simple The New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives returns with a gripping and profoundly human story of Cold War espionage and family devotion. In the autumn of 1948, Iris Digby vanishes from her London home with her...
Last year
Wilson, Robert Charles
Paper Book
Two events made September 1st a memorable day for Jesse Cullum. First, he lost a pair of Oakley sunglasses. Second, he saved the life of President Ulysses S. Grant. In the near future of Robert Charles Wilson'sLast Year, the technology exists to open doorways into the past--but not...
A sunlit weapon
Winspear, Jacqueline
Paper Book
In the latest installment of the New York Times bestselling series, a series of possible attacks on British pilots leads Jacqueline Winspear's beloved heroine Maisie Dobbs into a mystery involving First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.  October 1942. Jo Hardy, a 22-year-old ferry pilot, is...

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