The calendar may have forced us back to work and school, but we’ll always have books to help us get away! Here are some upcoming releases we can’t wait to lose ourselves in:

1. The Winters by Lisa Gabriele (Oct. 16, Viking). Paying homage to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, The Winters revolves around the world of excess and luxury that is the Hamptons. After a passionate romance, a young woman marries wealthy politician Max Winter, a recent widower and father. But things aren’t as beautiful as they seem at the lavish Asherley estate. And in the background looms the overwhelming presence of Max’s late wife, Rebekah.
2. The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain (Oct. 2, St. Martin’s Press). The year is 1970, and when war widow Carly Sears receives the news that her unborn baby has a heart defect, it seems nothing can be done. But Hunter, Carly’s physicist brother-in-law, tells her that perhaps there is. What happens next shakes up everything she thought she knew and believed.
3. Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly (Oct. 9, Grove Atlantic). Jane Campbell hates confrontation, which is why she always lets husband Leon handle difficult situations while she raises their two young children and focuses on her job. But one day, Leon is viciously attacked in their driveway. With her husband now in a coma, Jane is determined to find out who did this…and why.
4. We Were Mothers by Katie Sise (Oct. 1, Little A). Cora O’Connell has found the journal of her friend Laurel’s daughter, revealing an astonishing illicit encounter. Hours later, Laurel is frantic: Her daughter is missing. Over the course of one weekend, two families will endure a crisis that threatens to expose a much bigger web of secrets.
5. Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty (Nov. 6, Flatiron Books). Nine people are gathered at a remote resort called Tranquillum House. Some came to lose weight, others to gain perspective about their lives, and still others for secret reasons. Amidst the luxury, pampering, mindfulness, and meditation, obstacles arise that will challenge everyone during their 10-day stay.
6. White Dancing Elephants: Stories by Chaya Bhuvaneswar (Oct. 9, Dzanc Books). A page-turning collection dealing in unexpected ways with issues like love, lust, racism, violence, and discrimination. In one tale, a woman grapples both with joy at being pregnant and guilt over knowing the father is her best friend’s husband.
7. Cherry Blossoms by Kim Hooper (Oct. 30, Turner). Jonathan Krause plans to quit his advertising job and, when his money runs out, end his life. But first, he wants to visit Japan, a trip he was meant to take with his girlfriend. While in a Japanese-language class ahead of the journey, he meets Riko, a Japanese woman with different reasons for returning to her homeland.
8. The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland by Nicolai Houm; translated by Anna Paterson (Oct. 23, Tin House Books). Jane is an American novelist with an awful case of writer’s block. One day, she wakes up alone in a tent in the mountains of Norway during a snowstorm. She has no food and no way to contact anyone. How did she come to find herself fighting for survival?
9. When Winter Comes by V.A. Shannon (Oct. 30, Kensington Books). Mrs. Jacob Klein lives a happy life, surrounded by a loving husband and children. But she never speaks of how she came to California, or that horrible year of 1846 when she left Cincinnati in the company of the Donner Party.
10. A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult (Oct. 2, Random House). A shooting at an abortion clinic is aggravated when the gunman takes everyone inside hostage. Soon, police negotiator Hugh McElroy will feel his world shift when he receives a series of texts from his 15-year-old daughter, a patient inside.
11. One Day in December by Josie Silver (Oct. 16, Crown Publishing). When Laurie and Jack glance at each other through the foggy windows of a bus, Laurie is instantly smitten but knows she won’t ever see the man again. That is, until her best friend, Sarah, introduces Laurie to her new boyfriend: Jack.

Adriana Delgado is a freelance journalist whose reviews of independent and foreign films have appeared in Cineaction magazine, on Artfilmfile.com, and elsewhere. She also works as an editorial news assistant for the Palm Beach Daily News (aka, “the Shiny Sheet”) and contributes to Library Journal.

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