Picks from the Bottomless List: October
October is here! It’s officially fall and we’re in the last quarter of the year. A new month means a new post with our Bottomless Picks!
Below are the books we loved the most in September and also new October releases we can’t wait to get our hands on.
Leave us a comment and tell us what books you can’t wait to read!
Seeing as I read Fortitude Smashed by Taylor Brooke twice this past month, I think it’s safe to say that this is my favorite in September. I’ve reviewed it here, and I don’t think I can say it any better than I did in my review, so just go and buy the book or get it from your library — but read it!
After scientists stumbled across an anomalous human hormone present during moments of emotional intimacy, further research created the ability to harness the direction of living energy and pinpoint when two lines will merge. Personalized chips are now implanted beneath the thumbnails of every infant, where glowing numbers count down to the moment they will meet their soul mate.
Fate is now a calculation.
But loving someone isn’t.
When Shannon Wurther, the youngest detective in Southern California, finds himself face-to-face with Aiden Maar, the reckless art thief Shannon’s precinct has been chasing for months, they are both stunned. Their Camellia Clocks have timed out, and the men are left with a choice—love one another or defy fate.
Goodreads | Interlude Press
Release Date: September 21st
There are a couple of books I’m very excited to get my hands on. First and foremost there is Off the Ice by Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn. I was a first reader for this, so maybe I am biased — then again I wouldn’t say I loved this book and that it’s amazing if it weren’t true. It’s an amazingly layered story featuring a gay professional hockey player and a Puerto Rican sociology professor – surrounded by an amazing cast of side characters.
Another story I’m really looking forward to is Changing Colors by Elyse Springer. We met Tony, one of the MC’s, in Heat Wave and I immediately liked him. I really liked the first two books of the series and am really excited to see what Springer has in store for us with the final book.
Tristan Holt is nothing if not pragmatic. Despite a flourishing career as a defenseman for the Atlanta Venom, Tristan knows he can’t play hockey forever. One day he’ll retire—if an injury doesn’t force him to hang up his skates first. His backup plan? Finishing his business degree. But he doesn’t count on a very inappropriate attraction to his standoffish sociology professor, Sebastian Cruz.
Sebastian is on the bottom rung of the Sociology Department at Georgia State. He has his sights set on tenure, and he can’t afford to be distracted, especially not by a sexy student with a body straight out of Sebastian’s dreams. No matter how much Tristan tempts him, that’s one line Sebastian won’t cross. At least not until summer classes end. After that, everything is fair game.
But Sebastian lives loud and proud, and Tristan is terrified of being the first out player in the NHL. Neither of them can afford to risk their hearts when they can’t imagine a happily ever after. The problem is, unlike hockey, when it comes to love, there are no rules.
Goodreads | Riptide Publishing
Release Date: October 30th
Tony Quinn has a knack for figuring people out. He likes labels, likes to be able to put everyone and everything in tidy boxes. As a theater director, it allows him to run a production without too much drama. But when he meets Gentry—“call me Gee”—in a bar one night, he discovers that some people aren’t so easily defined.
Gee Parnell is unlike anyone Tony has ever met before. He refuses to conform—to Tony’s expectations, or to society’s gender roles. He’s sexy and flirtatious, unapologetic and unashamed. And Tony isn’t sure he’s okay with that. So he breaks things off and escapes back into his well-ordered life.
But then an attack leaves Gee bloody and bruised, and Tony realizes that he isn’t ready to lose him. Not only is the passion between them off the charts, but Gee shows him a different way of understanding people. However, an exciting new job opportunity means that Tony has to decide between hiding his sexuality and his relationship with Gee, and his newfound appreciation for the color and beauty Gee brings to his life.
Goodreads | Riptide Publishing
Release Date: October 23rd
This is just a Fortitude Smashed kind of month!! I reviewed it over here, and I have to say, this book is stunning and so well crafted: I can’t recommend it more. I also loved, loved, loved The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths and Magic (which I reviewed here). It’s funny and sweet so creative — F.T. Lukens is a must read, one click author for me.
Desperate to pay for college, Bridger Whitt is willing to overlook the peculiarities of his new job—entering via the roof, the weird stacks of old books and even older scrolls, the seemingly incorporeal voices he hears from time to time—but it’s pretty hard to ignore being pulled under Lake Michigan by… mermaids? Worse yet, this happens in front of his new crush, Leo, the dreamy football star who just moved to town.
Fantastic.
When he discovers his eccentric employer Pavel Chudinov is an intermediary between the human world and its myths, Bridger is plunged into a world of pixies, werewolves, and Sasquatch. The realm of myths and magic is growing increasingly unstable, and it is up to Bridger to ascertain the cause of the chaos, eliminate the problem, and help his boss keep the real world from finding the world of myths.
I am HELLA excited for An Unsuitable Heir by K.J. Charles, which is the final book in the Sins of the Cities trilogy, which I have unabashedly loved so much. As soon as I got that ARC I re-read the first two in the series just to prepare myself and so I could really linger in this world Charles created. I am also really pumped to read Finding Home by Garret Leigh. I love her work, and this one looks like a great “curl up and don’t put it down” read.
A private detective finds passion, danger, and the love of a lifetime when he hunts down a lost earl in Victorian London.
On the trail of an aristocrat’s secret son, enquiry agent Mark Braglewicz finds his quarry in a music hall, performing as a trapeze artist with his twin sister. Graceful, beautiful, elusive, and strong, Pen Starling is like nobody Mark’s ever met—and everything he’s ever wanted. But the long-haired acrobat has an earldom and a fortune to claim.
Pen doesn’t want to live as any sort of man, least of all a nobleman. The thought of being wealthy, titled, and always in the public eye is horrifying. He likes his life now—his days on the trapeze, his nights with Mark. And he won’t be pushed into taking a title that would destroy his soul.
But there’s a killer stalking London’s foggy streets, and more lives than just Pen’s are at risk. Mark decides he must force the reluctant heir from music hall to manor house, to save Pen’s neck. Betrayed by the one man he thought he could trust, Pen never wants to see his lover again. But when the killer comes after him, Pen must find a way to forgive—or he might not live long enough for Mark to make amends.
Goodreads | Loveswept
Release Date: October 3rd
How do you find a home when your heart is in ashes?
With their mum dead and their father on remand for her murder, Leo Hendry and his little sister, Lila, have nothing in the world but each other. Broken and burned, they’re thrust into the foster care system. Leo shields Lila from the fake families and forced affection, until the Poulton household is the only place left to go.
Charlie de Sousa is used to other kids passing through the Poulton home, but there’s never been anyone like his new foster brother. Leo’s physical injuries are plain to see, but it’s the pain in his eyes that draws Charlie in the most.
Day by day, they grow closer, but the darkness inside Leo consumes him. He rejects his foster parents, and when Charlie gets into trouble, Leo’s attempt to protect him turns violent. When Leo loses control, no one can reach him—except Charlie. He desperately needs a family—a home—and only Charlie can show him the way.
Goodreads | Riptide Publishing
Release Date: October 9th
Queer Books Unbound 