Books on My Fall 2024 Possibility Pile

I have long given up on TBRs in favor of Possibility Piles: these magical hoards of books that contain all the inevitable potential and excitement of fresh, unread books. Unlike a TBR, Possibility Piles have no real structure or limitations; they exist in the same perfect liminal chaos in which most of us bookwyrms live our lives. Which is why they’re so perfect.

It absolutely has nothing to do with my inability to commit to lists and my extreme procrastination towards anything that remotely appears to have a deadline. No, of course not. I’m just an optimist who happens to be a fan of possibility and an eschewer of rules. Also, a filthy mood reader, which makes sticking to a TBR really freaking difficult when the mood inevitably shifts mid-season.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is books on my Fall 2024 Possibility Pile: featuring way too much adorable romance, magic (mostly the inadvisable sort), and, of course, lovable villains.

I always enjoy making these Possibility Pile posts, because it’s fun to look back in six months and identify all the obviously fantastic books that I totally failed to read. What can I say? I’m an absolute pro at making lists of books I want to read and less good at crossing things off them.

The Ex Vows

Estranged exes must stick close together to save their best friend’s wedding after a string of disasters in this swoony and steamy second-chance romance.

Georgia Woodward lives by her lists, none more so than the one about her ex, Eli Mora. It’s full of the ironclad dos and don’ts they’ve been following since she returned to the Bay Area after their cataclysmic breakup five years ago.

With the wedding of their mutual best friend, Adam, looming, and them about to step into their roles as best woman and man, Georgia’s never needed it more. She refuses to threaten their tight-knit friend group with her messy—and still very present—feelings. The rules on that list will keep her cool, calm, and compartmentalized.

What’s not on her list? Eli arriving from New York with a new rule-breaking attitude or the all-inclusive venue burning to the ground, leaving the bride and groom in dire straits. Nor does she anticipate Adam asking her and Eli to help him make a miracle happen. Together.

As Georgia and Eli rush up to Napa Valley to pull off the perfect wedding, their old chemistry comes back in technicolor. Somewhere between cake tastings gone wrong, disastrous DJ auditions, and Eli’s heated attention, Georgia starts recognizing the man she fell in love with before. And if she lets herself break her rules, she might find what they’re building isn’t the something old that ruined them—it’s a chance at something new.

Jessica Joyce is an author I discovered last year when I read You, With A View. Which is weird, right? Me, reading (and enjoying) romance? Feels weird just to say it. What I loved so much about Joyce’s work, though, is that the romance is so accurate! There’s attraction and all the obvious pitfalls of it, but when it comes to the relationship itself, the misunderstandings are relatable and handled thoughtfully. Miscommunications are one of my least favorite tropes in romance, and Joyce skirted that beautifully with her first book. So what can I say? I’m super excited to pick up her next book, which looks like it’ll be another heartwarming romance.

First Lines:

The Last Dragon on Mars

Keep your eyes down and your feet moving, or this planet will rust you.

That’s what Lunar Jones tells the other kids at the relocation clinic. All of them were born on Mars, a planet that never wanted people in the first place. With resources scarce and hope even scarcer, it’s easy to get distracted looking up. After all, their ancestors descended from the stars.

Martian history always starts with Earth. The first astronauts discovered that space was already occupied. Not by little green men or flying saucers. It was full of dragons. One for every moon, every planet, every star. When humanity discovered that Earth’s dragon had sacrificed herself to make their home planet habitable, they set their sights on Mars. If one dead dragon could breathe life into a world, why not create another one? Mankind won the war that followed, but with one catch. As the dragon died, he whispered a curse over Mars. The first settlers found their crops wouldn’t grow. Animals hunted them. Storms raged endlessly. It took three generations to figure out the truth: Mars was doomed.

Lunar knows all the old stories about dragons and space, but no one up there’s planning to help him or his crew. Instead, he focuses on scrapping valuable gear that the storms uncover in the war zone. Until one day, a salvaging run goes wrong. Desperate to find shelter, Lunar goes underground in a restricted zone. What he finds there, buried in the Martian dust, might just be the only hope left for a dying planet.

Scott Reintgen is a go-to author whose work I will always read. He’s proven himself time and time again. This one, though? Well, it doesn’t hurt that there’s a fierce-looking dragon on the cover! Y’all know I’m a sucker for dragons (obviously). A dragon that uses his last breath to curse humanity? Even more convincing. These are my kind of dragons. The whole plot sounds incredibly interesting, so I look forward to digging into it!

First Lines:

Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend

Vacation Checklist:
Pack swim trunks.
Apply sunscreen.
Survive the apocalypse?

Professional underachiever Dan Foster is finally taking a vacation. Sure, his life has been average at best, and yeah, he’s never quite lived up to his potential. But after a few Miller Lites in paradise with his girlfriend, Mara, things are starting to look up.

Then the sun explodes.

With the island resort suddenly plunged into darkness (he really should’ve sprung for the travel insurance), Dan’s holiday goes from bad to worse when elite guests stage a coup and commandeer supplies. As temperatures drop and class tensions rise, revolution begins to brew on the island, and Dan accidentally becomes a beacon of hope for the surviving vacationers. But when one six-person plane is discovered that could get them back to the mainland, Dan realizes he has a choice to make.

Does he escape the island with Mara? Or does he stay and fight to become the most unlikely hero of the end of the world?

I knew, before even finishing the synopsis, that this book seems to have been written just for me. What gave it away? The apocalypse? The tongue-in-cheek sarcasm? The obvious cynicism of the main character? I’d say a little bit of all of the above. I’m not sure what to expect from this one, except for a good time. And really, what more could you ask for in a book?

First Lines:

The Spellshop

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.

I might have read this already . . . except I was on vacation when it was processed at my library, and a staff member ninja’d her way to it before me. So alas, I’m just sitting here biding my time. I’ve heard such amazing things about this book and its cute/cozy fantasy setting, not to mention the fact that it involves librarians. And I can’t help but read books about librarians. Also, can we take a minute to just appreciate the opening of the book, which immediately makes me interested?! I want to know more!

First Lines:

How to Become A Dark Lord and Die Trying

Groundhog Day meets Guardians of the Galaxy in Django Wexler’s laugh-out-loud fantasy tale about a young woman who, tired of defending humanity from the Dark Lord, decides to become the Dark Lord herself.

Davi has done this all before. She’s tried to be the hero and take down the all-powerful Dark Lord. A hundred times she’s rallied humanity and made the final charge. But the time loop always gets her in the end. Sometimes she’s killed quickly. Sometimes it takes a while. But she’s been defeated every time.

This time? She’s done being the hero and done being stuck in this endless time loop. If the Dark Lord always wins, then maybe that’s who she needs to be. It’s Davi’s turn to play on the winning side.

This is another that was highly recommended by a coworker . . . but another coworker sneakily swooped in and grabbed it before I could! Django Wexler is sometimes hit or miss for me, but I’m always willing to try their work again. Especially when it comes highly recommended. This sounds very similar to books I’ve absolutely loved lately (ie. Dreadful and Assistant to the Villain), which gives me a lot of hope about how much I’ll enjoy this one. Especially with those opening lines. I am HOOKED.

First Lines:

The Secrets of Underhill

Nick Sixsmith has spent her whole life on the road. The daughter of a traveling arborist, she and her mother move from town to town, caring for the ironwood groves the communities rely upon. When a dangerous blight takes hold of these magical trees, they must journey to the city of Mistwood—her mother’s hometown—for answers.

Nick can’t wait to explore the prosperous city of Mistwood and all it has to the bustling markets and workshops, neighborhoods built under a roaring waterfall, and the vast ancestral grove of ironwood trees. But dark secrets simmer beneath the surface as people start to disappear, and tensions rise in the city.

As the mystery grows, Nick and her new friends must follow the trail where it leads underground, to a strange, enchanting world called Underhill. Only then, among the roots of ancestral grove, will Nick find a way to save her new home and the ironwood trees.

I’m going to be painfully honest: I hadn’t even heard of this book until I received an ARC at a recent conference. But you know what? As soon as I got my grubby little hands on it, I knew I wanted to read it. The cover is an interesting blend of pretty and ominous, which fits with the blurb. I’m definitely a fan of magical trees and dark secrets. Plus, I feel like I haven’t read enough middle grade lately, and this is something I want to rectify!

First Lines:

A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching A Killer

Sometimes it takes working with the dead to start living.

Kathy Valence is forty-two, mid-divorce, and pregnant with her ex’s baby. She’s also a modern-day grim reaper employed by S.C.Y.T.H.E. (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences), but frankly that’s the easiest part of her life right now. Or at least it was, until her latest client’s soul goes missing.

When she finally tracks down seventeen-year-old Conner Ortiz, he angrily denies he died of natural causes, despite what his file says. He insists that someone at S.C.Y.T.H.E. murdered him, and he demands Kathy find out who and why.

Kathy has only forty-five days to figure out what happened to Conner and help him move on before the boy’s soul is doomed to roam the Earth as a ghost forever. She’s forced to rely on the help of her retired mentor, her almost ex-husband—and some sneaky moves by Conner himself. This is the wildest case of her career. . .and one wrong move could cost Kathy her job, not to mention her life.

Listen. Does that title alone not instantly make you curious about this book?! This sounds like a very unique cozy mystery. One that I am more than happy to explore. After all, it sounds like a wild ride! The opening lines also immediately have me curious to learn more. Though, if I’m honest, ever since reading Terry Pratchett, I have a major soft spot for books featuring grim reapers in some way, shape, or form.

First Lines:

A New Lease on Death

Ruby Young’s new Boston apartment comes with all the usual perks. Windows facing the brick wall of the next-door building. Heat that barely works. A malfunctioning buzzer. Noisy neighbors. A dead body on the sidewalk outside. And of course, a ghost.

Since Cordelia Graves died in her apartment a few months ago, she’s kept up her residency, despite being bored out of her (non-tangible) skull and frustrated by her new roommate. When her across-the-hall neighbor, Jake Macintyre, is shot and killed in an apparent mugging gone wrong outside their building, Cordelia is convinced there’s more to it and is determined to bring his killer to justice.

Unfortunately, Cordelia, being dead herself, can’t solve the mystery alone. She has to enlist the help of the obnoxiously perky, living tenant of her apartment. Ruby is twenty, annoying, and has never met a houseplant she couldn’t kill. But she also can do everything Cordelia can’t, from interviewing suspects to researching Jake on the library computers that go up in a puff of smoke if Cordelia gets too close. The roommates form an unlikely friendship as they get closer to the truth about Jake’s death…and maybe other dangerous secrets as well.

I received an ARC for this by pure happenstance. While it’s got mixed reviews so far, I’m looking forward to trying it myself, because this book sounds amazing. A ghost and a living teaming up to solve a murder (and, you know, maybe forging a friendship along the way) is exactly the sort of book I need in my life!

First Lines:

The Act of Disappearing

Julia White is struggling: her bartending job isn’t cutting it and her first book has sold hardly any copies. She’s broke, barely able to make ends meet while drowning in her late mother’s medical bills and reeling after a one-night stand with her ex-boyfriend, who’s now completely ghosted her. Enter Johnathan Aster, world-renowned photographer, with a proposal: he has a never-before-seen photograph of a woman falling from a train bridge, clutching what appears to be a baby. And he wants Julia to research the story.

Alternating between present-day Brooklyn and Kentucky as it enters the 1960s, the story unfolds as Julia races to find answers: Who was the woman in the photograph? Why was she on the bridge? And what happened to the baby? Each detail is more propulsive than the last as Julia unravels the mystery surrounding the Fairchilds of Gray Station and discovers a story more staggering than anything she could have imagined.

I had the pleasure of getting to attend an author talk by Nathan Gower recently. His book was already on my radar, but this really just solidified my interest in it! Gower read us the opening, and ooof, does that first scene pack a punch! Hearing that and the story behind Gower’s inspiration for the book has me all sorts of curious to dive into it! (Also, if you get a chance to see Gower talk, you should do it! He’s delightful.)

First Lines:

What If? 2

The millions of people around the world who read and loved What If? still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. Planning to ride a fire pole from the moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing. Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone’s freezer door at the same time? Maybe it’s time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics. Want to know what would happen if you rode a helicopter blade, built a billion-story building, made a lava lamp out of lava, or jumped on a geyser as it erupted? Okay, if you insist.

Before you go on a cosmic road trip, feed the residents of New York City to a T. rex, or fill every church with bananas, be sure to consult this practical guide for impractical ideas. Unfazed by absurdity, Randall consults the latest research on everything from swing-set physics to airplane-catapult design to clearly and concisely answer his readers’ questions. As he consistently demonstrates, you can learn a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances.

Filled with bonkers science, boundless curiosity, and Randall’s signature stick-figure comics, What If? 2 is sure to be another instant classic adored by inquisitive readers of all ages.

I discovered Randall Monroe’s What If? book entirely accidentally when I found it in the bookstore of a science museum I visited on vacation. I knew immediately that it was a book written just for me. (My parents and husband can confirm that I ask waaaaay too many questions, most of them the random variety.) I haven’t quite finished the first one yet, but I have loved every minute of it. Monroe knows how to write something that’s both scientific and funny as heck, making the whole thing a truly enjoyable reading experience. So obviously I’m going to be checking out the second book!

First Lines:

The Serpent and the Wolf

All her life, Vaasa Kozár has been sharpened into a blade.

After losing her mother—her only remaining parent—to a mysterious dark magic that has since awakened within her, Vaasa is certain death looms. So is her merciless brother, who aims to eliminate Vaasa as a threat to his crown. In one last political scheme, he marries her off to Reid of Mireh, a ruthless foreign ruler, in hopes that he can use her death as a rallying cry to finally invade Reid’s nation. All Vaasa has to do is die.

But she is desperate to live. Vaasa enters her new marriage with every intent to escape it, wielding the hard-won political prowess and combat abilities her late father instilled in her. But to her surprise, Reid offers her a deal: help him win the votes to rise in power, and she can walk free. In exchange, he will share his knowledge about the dark magic running through her veins—and help keep it at bay.

This proposal may be too good to refuse, yet Vaasa and Reid’s undeniable attraction threatens to break the rules of their arrangement. As her brother’s lethal machinations take form, everything is at stake: Vaasa must learn to trust her new husband, but how can she, especially when their perfect political marriage begins to feel like the real thing?

This was another random conference find. Hadn’t heard of this book before (because I live under a rock, apparently), but it instantly grabbed my attention. It seems to promise maybe more steam than I’m interested in, but slow burn and enemies-to-lovers are my favorite romantasy tropes, so I couldn’t help myself!

First Lines: