Welcome to my October 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 October 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: Hollow Bones
Author: Jodi Picoult
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Ballantine Books, 9/15/26
Source: Purchased
Why I Read It: Favorite author
My Rating: 5 Stars
Jodi Picoult is back! After a disappointing experience with her previous book, I was so happy to love this one. It is about Molly, who runs the emergency preparedness department in RI. She is married to Jesse, the brother from the book My Sister’s Keeper. Her mother had gone to a doctor’s appointment on 9/11 and never came home. We get both Molly’s story as well as her mother’s in this book.
“On September 11, 2001, when Molly Fitzgerald was only two months old, her mother went to an appointment at the World Trade Center and never came home. Her father and the stepmother who raised her couldn’t have loved her more, but she still grew up with a healthy dread of disasters. Now an adult, she runs the Rhode Island Department for Emergency Preparedness, mapping out ways to save lives during storms, epidemics, and airplane crashes. She and her husband, Jesse—a police polygraph expert with his own history of crisis—have found a love that is a solace in a dangerous world. But then the unexpected upends their new marriage, leading them both to question everything they thought they knew.”
This book is full of twists – but I expected a few of them based on things I read about the book and things the author shared when I went to her event! With a wonderful look at women’s health issues, specifically post-partum psychosis, and the relationships between mothers and daughters, I really enjoyed reading this one!
Title: Now That We Don’t Talk
Author: Rachel Pologe
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Berkley, 10/20/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
It is so exciting that there are multiple Jewish books coming out this winter and Now That We Don’t Talk by Rachel Pologe is the first. This is about Norah who hasn’t spoken to her high school best friend and crush Henry in nine years. Now they are both back home for Hanukkah and their moms are together. Norah’s father died when she was still in high school and while she’s happy for her mother, she still has a lot of hurt around that time period, leading her to fear love and commitment. When she and Henry reconnect, it comes with a good deal of angst!
“Norah Gold is a bolter. She avoids emotional situations at all costs, doesn’t do meaningful relationships, and when things get a little too real, she runs. She hasn’t let herself fall in love in nearly a decade, not since her whole world fell apart when her dad suddenly passed away. Desperate to escape a friends-with-benefits situation gone clingy, she returns home to Chicago for the holidays. Her one goal? Avoid Henry Cole, the boy who blew up her life and broke her heart back in high school. Easier said than done when she discovers that their mothers are dating and insist on celebrating the holidays together. A decade later, Henry Cole is all custom suits and condescension. He is order to her chaos and absolutely insufferable about it. When Norah and Henry get snowed in together and learn just how serious their moms’ relationship is, they call a truce to make it through all eight nights of Hanukkah without setting each other on fire. As they begin to rediscover the foundation that made them so close growing up, Norah is desperate to keep her distance—the last thing she can handle is reopening decade-old emotional wounds. But even though they’ve tried to escape the past, Norah and Henry have unfinished business too pressing to ignore. Can Norah shake off her deep-seated impulse to bolt, or are they destined to flame out just like they did as teenagers?”
Norah and Henry hurt each other in the past and they need to get past that hurt to be together. They kind of still act like the ages they were when they were best friends! I was dying to find out what happened to separate them back then. I loved this story and will definitely read more from this author in the future!
Title: How To Walk a Dog
Author: Joanne Levy
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Publisher: Union Square Press, 10/20/26
Source: PR for Author
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 5 Stars
How To Walk a Dog by Joanne Levy is about Asher, a boy with ADHD who asks lots of questions and especially wants to know why his best friend Gilly is mad at him. When Gilly gets her period unexpectedly at school, Asher doesn’t understand why it’s embarrassing. He decides to do his school passion project around ending the shame.
“Asher Abrams has his ADHD under control―most of the time–even if he asks a lot of questions, can be forgetful, and is often impulsive. But he’s also creative and clever and fearless when it comes to standing up for the people he loves. Like his best friend, Gillian Benjamin. At least, she used to be his best friend until last summer when they had a huge fight, one that he’s never quite understood. After he catches her shoplifting in the grocery store, Asher learns that Gilly’s life has changed dramatically; her mom has disappeared, leaving her and her dad with nothing but a pile of debt. When Gilly’s period arrives unexpectedly at school, she is bullied. Asher is determined to normalize periods so no one gets shamed about this natural part of life. It doesn’t bother him that he’s a boy talking about the stigma around periods–that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Asher convinces Gilly to help film a movie about periods for his school passion project. When their silly PSA goes viral will their newly healed friendship be able to handle the attention?”
I loved how Asher approached life and how he came to understand Gilly and her experiences better with his family’s support. The two bond with a dog named Teddy, who was a great side character as well. The doodles and sketches included added to Asher’s narrative, helping the reader to get to know him further. I really liked that Asher’s support for Gilly went well and their friendship improved throughout the book. With great neurodiversity representation as well as Jewish representation, this was a great middle grade read!
Title: Meet Me In Paris
Author: Kristin Harmel
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Gallery Books, 7/28/26
Source: Gift
Why I Read It: I like her books
My Rating: 5 Stars
Meet Me in Paris by Kristin Harmel was on my highly anticipated reads list even though I knew it was not her typical historical fiction. This is a Love Actually style story with 7 featured couples and their love stories. It is about losing and finding love, finding oneself, and seeing people for who they are.
“Julia Glover has brought her twenty-three-year-old daughter, Piper, to Paris for the first time—but they know it will also be their last trip here together. Julia is dying, and as the mother and daughter desperately try to make memories together as the clock ticks down, the world opens up around them. Piper meets a cute French waiter, who might just understand her better than anyone she’s ever met, and Julia meets a man at a dive bar and struggles with how to tell him the truth about her future. Rock star Jackson Quick’s glory days are behind him. He had a handful of hit songs thirty years ago, but he hasn’t toured in a decade. This week, he’ll launch his reunion tour in Paris, the city where it all began. But he wants more out of life than being defined by fame. When he meets a woman who finally sees him for who he is at his core, the ground shifts beneath his feet. Henry McGee has been writing hit songs for decades—including Jackson Quick’s biggest hit, City of Light. But his secret is that every love song he’s ever written is for a woman named Celeste, whom he loved a lifetime ago, when they were both teenagers in Paris during World War II. He has spent eighty years believing she died—but when a letter arrives telling him the opposite, he’s on the first flight to France. Can he break through the haze of her dementia, using the songs he’s written all these years, to remind her of who they once were to each other—and to tell her he came back for her? Henry’s granddaughter, Melody, has just discovered that her husband of twenty years, Gilles, a French cosmetics executive, is having an affair. When she confronts him, he tearfully apologizes and begs her to forgive him. But can she? And, perhaps even more importantly, does she want to? Or is there a different kind of life out there for her if she chooses to be alone? These intertwining stories—plus several others—unfold over a few breathtaking spring days, as an unforgettable group of Americans in Paris must find their way to their own versions of happily ever after in the City of Light.”
Some of these stories were sad – Julia has cancer and Celeste has dementia, Melody is facing the end of her marriage, etc. I thought this was a sweet read with plenty to keep me interested and hoping for the characters to get their happily ever afters.
Title: Romantic Hero
Author: Kirsty Greenwood
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Berkley, 6/16/26
Source: Swap
Why I Read It: Loved her previous book
My Rating: 5 Stars
Romantic Hero by Kirsty Greenwood was another highly anticipated read for me because her previous book was one of my favorites the year I read it. This one was just as lovely! It is about Gertie, an author who has writer’s block. Somehow she manages to conjure River Oakley from her book series and he agrees to help her win back her ex, hoping this will send him back to his real life.
“Gertie Bickerstaff writes happily-ever-afters for a living. . . . Or she did, until her own love life fell apart. Now her ex is thriving, her deadline is looming, and she can’t write a single word. The last thing Gertie needs is more drama—like waking up to find a confused and rugged cowboy on her sofa. And not just any cowboy, but River Oakley, the villain from her unfinished novel. Somehow very real . . . and very shirtless. River wants to go home. Gertie wants her life back. So they strike a deal: he’ll use his cunning ways to help her win back her ex, she’ll finish the novel, and, surely, he’ll return to whatever world he rode in from. But as River Oakley proves to be so much more than just the bad guy, Gertie has to choose: the ending she thought she wanted . . . or the plot twist she never saw coming.”
I loved how River corrected Gertie on her assumptions about him as a minor character in her book series – and I thought she should have written about him! I also loved how the magical realism in this book made sense if you let it! The book kept me smiling and was funny with great side characters including Gertie’s neighbor and her dog, and I loved that River helped Gertie see herself as she should be seen.
Come back next week for the rest of my October reads and the Share Your Shelf link up!
Do you have a favorite book you’ve read this month?
