The Everygirl’s Fall 2025 Reading Challenge

This is one of my favorite books set on a campus, and it’s perfect for fall. On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after 10 years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it. A decade ago, he was one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college. But the play spills dangerously into real life, and when one of them is found dead, the rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.

1984 may have been on your high school required reading list, but I think it hits even harder re-reading it as an adult. In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party.

If you want a book set in fall that’s equal parts romantic and emotional, this is the one for you. Prudence is content living in a charming tourist town, working at her father’s gas station, writing poetry, and caring for her mother with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. But she feels her world slipping further out of control. When the enigmatic wanderer, Milo, rolls into town, she can’t help but strike up an unlikely friendship with him, leading to a sexy agreement. But as their temporary arrangement blossoms into something deeper, they discover taking a leap together is something else entirely.

The Spellshop is the coziest fantasy book I’ve ever read, so it’s just the read to check off the cozy fantasy category. Kiela had spent the last 11 years sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks at the Great Library of Alyssium, preserving their magic for the city’s elite. But when a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she flees to her childhood home. Much to her dismay, in addition to a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor, she finds the town neglected and in a state of disrepair. Now she’s determined to find a way to make things right: by opening the island’s first-ever secret spellshop.

Not only does this one have apples on the cover, it also has apples in the title, so that should be some sort of bonus points. When a stranger named Savannah knocks on the seemingly perfect Stan and Joy Delaney’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend, they’re more than happy to give her the kindness she needs. If only that were all she wanted. When Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure—but all of them are reexamining their family history.

This one has apples in the title and is about a teacher, two birds, one stone! For Juliet Baldwin, teaching comes first, and nothing can stand in the way of bettering her students and achieving her goals, except, of course, technology. When Sam Ford—everyone’s favorite rambunctious teacher, baseball coach, and technology wizard—is moved to 7th grade, they butt heads more than they grade papers. But Juliet needs someone to help put together a video for her prestigious grant application. When Sam takes the reins, the layers are slowly peeled back, revealing much more than a charming smirk beneath his sexy beard.

Everyone’s favorite thriller author is back with a new fall release. Casey’s cabin in the wilderness is not built for the incoming hurricane. But she’s a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window. She’s young. She’s alone. And she’s covered in blood. When Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse. The girl has a dark secret. One she’ll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning.

If you can’t think of a book for a topic you’ve always wanted to learn about, you should definitely pick up this one. In 2019, John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient. In the years since that first visit, Green has become an advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the inequi­ties that allow this curable disease to also be the deadliest. John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world—and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.

This book about camping may have you wanting to cancel your upcoming trip with how thrilling it is. When Red Kenny’s RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, he and his five friends soon realize this is no accident. With eight hours until dawn, the six friends must escape, or figure out which of them is the target. But is there a liar among them? Buried secrets will be forced to light, and tensions inside the RV will reach deadly levels. Not all of them will survive the night.

This book is the ultimate fall rom-com, and you will eat up every line. Shelly is trying to get her life back together post-divorce, but taking over her mom’s dream bed and breakfast in Copper Run, Vermont, is proving to be harder than she thought. Especially with her charming, single dad, next-door neighbor Cliff, distracting her. But she’s only in town for three months, so why can’t she stop thinking about kissing her hot neighbor?

If you somehow didn’t read James with all the fanfare last year, it’s the perfect historical fiction for this challenge. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. They begin the dangerous journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive promise of the Free States.

Set in New York City, You, Again, follows Ari, a free-spirited, struggling comedian and ambitious Manhattanite Josh, who plans to take the culinary world by storm. They have absolutely nothing in common, except that they happen to be sleeping with the same woman. But years after they meet, a chance encounter leads to a surprising friendship. They find comfort in late-night Netflix binges, swiping through each other’s online dating profiles, and bickering across boroughs. Until one night, the boundaries of their platonic relationship begin to blur.

In this hometown return with a paranormal twist, Collins Cartwright is forced to go back home and, in doing so, finds out a developer is trying to buy her parents’ antiques shop out from under them. She’s also lost her job, is out of money, and the ghosts who have always been her companions have recently gone silent. When Brady Cooper agrees to let the elusive Collins stay in his spare room, he doesn’t know that she’s absolutely bonkers. But as they begin to get closer, the lines between them start to blur, leaving both of them—and the ghosts who have been pushing them together—wondering whether their temporary arrangement could be something more permanent.

Play Nice will win over even the biggest horror skeptics. Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. After Clio’s parents’ messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what the courts determined when they stripped her of custody after she went off the deep end. After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s writings, a sinister presence in the house manifests, threatening to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.

This may not be your ideal Halloween night, but it sure is an entertaining one. Jet is still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time. Until Halloween night, when she is violently attacked by an unseen intruder, suffering a catastrophic head injury. Doctors are certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a fatal aneurysm. As her condition deteriorates, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something: Jet is going to solve her own murder.

Ali Hazelwood is finally blessing us with another vampire book, and it’s just in time for our challenge. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made Serena Paris a target. As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander’s authority is so absolute. Only a fool would threaten his mate. Nothing will stop him from keeping her safe. But Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation.

The Late-Night Witches checks all the boxes: there are vampires, it’s a new release, and it features a small-town romance. It’s the perfect way to knock out multiple categories at once. With a wild younger sister, three unruly kids, and an absent husband, Cassie Beckett is really not looking forward to the witching month of October. At least the gorgeous, foggy Prince Edward Island is always quiet. That is, until the vampires arrive. She’s forced to come face-to-face with a lofty responsibility: rid the island of vampires, or let them win. Cassie must learn what it is to be a witch and how to fight for what she loves before time runs out.

Nothing says fall like dark academia, and Katabasis is the new dark academia release everyone is talking about. Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to work with Professor Jacob Grimes. That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault. Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him because even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.