Welcome to my September 2026 Favorite Books post! This monthly post is where I share the 5 star books I’ve read so far each month. You can see the first half of my September reading here and I will share the rest of my September reads next week, on Thursday for the Share Your Shelf link up. There is still time this month, so if I read any further 5 star books, I will include those next week as well. The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. Click here for the links directly in my Amazon store front.
Title: The Time Traveler’s Wife
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Genre: Literary
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 9/9/03
Source: Owned
Why I Read It: Reread
My Rating: 5 Stars
This was reread number 3 or 4 for me of my favorite book. I’m happy to say that it has kept its place in my favorites as I prepare to read the sequel. The last time I read this was in 2009, so it’s been a while! This is a love story between Henry, who time travels, and Clare, who doesn’t.
“Henry DeTamble is a dashing, adventurous librarian who travels involuntarily through time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. Clare Abshire is an artist whose life moves through a natural sequential course. This is the celebrated and timeless tale of their love. Henry and Clare’s passionate affair is built and endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love.”
While reading this book, I had questions, which I wonder whether will be answered in the sequel. I loved reuniting with Clare and Henry. I realized that Clare’s story is told in order, mostly, which helped me keep track of what happened when. This book is actually quite sad, but I still love it.
Title: Hijacked By Goats
Author: Ann Braden
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books, 9/8/26
Source: PR For Author
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review / Book Tour
My Rating: 5 Stars
Hijacked By Goats by Ann Braden was a moving look at a young girl’s experience with OCD hijacking her brain and the ways she learns to cope.
“Josie arrives at Bryce Haven Psychiatric Hospital sure that she’s a bad person and a bad friend. She must be, because her brain constantly yells at her for not being good enough. It tells her she needs to be perfect or else she’ll be alone and miserable forever. She’s so overwhelmed with worries about bad things happening as punishment for her imperfections that she sometimes feels compelled to punish herself. Then, when Josie gets discharged and returns home, she’s forced to deal with Hal—the mean, smelly bully of a goat her dad is goat-sitting. Hal has a bad habit of climbing where he shouldn’t and refusing to get out of the way. When Josie’s therapist diagnoses her with OCD, describing it as a bully in her brain, Josie denies it. Surely her brain is just trying to be helpful . . . right? But eventually, she begins to see that her OCD bears a striking resemblance to Hal, so maybe she shouldn’t feel guilty about wanting to kick it out. With her therapist’s help and the support of her dad and friends, Josie might finally be ready to stand up to the bully in her brain.”
I loved this book at the way it showed clearly what it might be like to have intrusive thoughts and Josie’s need to punish herself when she felt she wasn’t perfect. I especially liked the friends she met, her dad, and her therapist.
Title: The Secret To Belonging
Author: Megan E. Freeman
Genre: YA Contemporary in Verse
Publisher: Atheneum Books For Young Readers, 9/15/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
The Secret To Belonging by Megan E. Freeman is a book told in verse about an unnamed main character who is invisible to her parents due to her brother’s struggles with addiction. When her parents use her college fund for her brother’s rehab, she decides to apply for a scholarship to spend her senior year in Norway.
“You are invisible in your own family. Your parents spend all their care and attention on your brother, who is addicted to drugs. Your dreams don’t matter to anyone but you. Your only ticket out is a college fund left by your grandfather—until your parents use it to pay for your brother’s drug rehab. Just when your future seems about to collapse, you are offered a lifeline: a scholarship to become an exchange student in a remote part of Norway. It’s an invitation to begin a new life in a new place with new people…a place where you might finally feel like you belong.”
I liked how the protagonist found belonging in a family and with friends in Norway, experiencing a typical teenage life. It was interesting that this is told in second person point of view and that the protagonist isn’t named, allowing the reader to connect to her feelings of invisibility.
Title: Return to Sender
Author: Stephanie Parente
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Dial Press, 7/28/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
Return to Sender by Stephanie Parente is about Violet, who has custody of her younger sister Phoebe after their father passed away. When a letter marked return to sender arrives at their apartment, Phoebe reads it and decides it needs to be returned to its writer. Violet and Phoebe meet Dex, who agrees to a cross country trip to deliver the letter to the woman it was written to.
“Violet is usually an optimist. But between her father’s sudden death and the overnight responsibility of caring for her rebellious teenage sister, Phoebe, she’s barely holding it together. Then Phoebe discovers a love letter, never delivered and returned to the sisters’ address, begging its recipient to give him another chance. Phoebe seems excited for the first time since their dad died, and Violet will do anything to keep that smile on her face. Together, they set out to find the letter’s author, hoping to rectify a derailed happily-ever-after. Despite Dex being rather abrasive (valid) and more than a little enigmatic (intriguing?), Phoebe talks him into a cross-country road trip to put the letter in the right hands. Violet is thrilled to see Phoebe thriving again. With every pit stop, they chip away at Dex’s moody exterior, and Violet realizes she might like what lies beneath . . . a lot. But what happens when they finally reach their destination—and Dex’s ex-girlfriend? Is what they’ve discovered on the road strong enough to make it back home?”
Note: don’t be like me and look at the book extras after the acknowledgements – there’s a bonus chapter there and reading the first line gave me a spoiler! I still loved reading this book. The tension between Violet and Dex was great, as well as their grumpy / sunshine dynamic. I loved the sister relationship and the way Dex bonded with Phoebe as well. I love a road trip story and the nod to the Poconos was fun for me!
Title: Trust Fall
Author: Lynn Painter
Genre: YA Rom Com
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 9/29/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
While I love Lynn Painter’s adult books, I wasn’t as sure about her YA reads. Well, I fell for Trust Fall from the first page! This is about Julia, whose family is left a mansion in New York City. They move from Nebraska to the city, with Julia and her twin brother Liam attending a fancy prep school. There Julia meets Damion, who is assigned as Julia’s tutor, but also happens to be the nephew of Julia’s family’s benefactor and he is wondering why he wasn’t the one left the mansion by his uncle.
“Julia is just a small-town girl from Nebraska who loves her peaceful life. But when her elderly next-door neighbor—who just happens to be a secret multi-millionaire—leaves everything to Julia and her family after his passing, Julia is swept away to live in a historic brownstone in New York City and attend an elite private school for the super-rich. It should be a dream come true. Wrong. Julia doesn’t fit in at her new school; worse, she’s failing. Enter Damion, the mysterious and handsome tutor who will get Julia back on track. Except Damion has a secret. He is the great-nephew of the man who left everything to Julia’s family. Damion doesn’t buy for a second that the person who was like a father to him would leave his home to strangers. And he’s determined to prove it. To uncover the truth, Damion schemes to earn Julia’s trust. Not an easy task with Julia unsure about this rich boy with a rebellious personality. But the more time Damion spends with Julia, the more his plan begins to backfire. Because he is falling for the enemy—and the enemy is falling for him. As Damion and Julia figure out where they belong, can they see past their differences and act on their feelings, or will the trust Damion has worked so hard to gain fall apart?”
This book has all the Rory starting at Chilton in Gilmore Girls vibes, plus it was pointed out that it also has 90210 vibes with the twins landing in the world of rich kids. Damion and Julia are enemies at first and their relationship was so fun and sweet. I loved how they met the real versions of each other, rather than the fronts they put on at school. Julia has social anxiety, which I thought was portrayed well. It was hard to read about the bullying she experienced! Overall, this was a wonderful fall read.
Come back next week for the rest of my September reads and the Share Your Shelf link up!
Do you have a favorite book you’ve read this month?
