Paperbacks to Look Out For in October 2026: Part One

The first batch of October’s paperbacks begins with the latest reissue from Daunt’s publishing arm, first published in 1968. In Elizabeth Jenkins’s Honey, Roland meets the titular thirty-year-old at a film premiere and is captivated, marrying her in 1962. All goes well until Roland’s sixteen-year-old son arrives. Already bored with married life, Honey sets about seducing him, but Brian seems surprisingly resistant to her charms. ‘Honey is a deliciously scandalous novel of seduction laced with irony, wit and decadence, as Jenkins explores lust, love and the pitfalls that come with clinging to the last dregs of youth’ says the blurb promisingly.

Caroline Palmer’s Workhorse is set in the fashion magazine world, not one that holds much attraction for me but I like the sound of the premise. Set in New York City in 2001, it follows an ambitious young editorial assistant held back by her lack of privilege until she meets a reporter with his own dreams who may or may not prove to be a useful ally. ‘As wickedly funny as it is darkly unsettling, Workhorse is an astonishing story of envy and ambition, set against the glamour and privilege of media and high society in New York at its height’ says the blurb. I’m hoping for a slice of undemanding entertainment in one of my favourite literary settings with this one.

Grace Murray’s Blank Canvas is set in a small liberal arts college in upstate New York. Charlotte’s announcement that her father has died over the summer vacation at home in Staffordshire elicits sympathy and attention from classmates who’d previously ignored her, particularly Katarina with whom she begins a relationship. As Charlotte continues to mire herself in deceit, her father decides to cross the Atlantic to see his daughter. ‘Introducing an outstanding new voice in literary fiction: a sensual, sharp, and utterly compelling campus novel about grief, reinvention, and the ripple effects of telling lies’ proclaims the blurb ambitiously. Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best enjoyed it. You can read her review here.

Heather Aimee O’Neill’s debut The Irish Goodbye sees three sisters reunited for Thanksgiving in their childhood home on Long Island two decades after the tragic accident that drove their brother to take his own life. Each of the three has been hiding something: Cait has never revealed her part in the accident; Alice’s career and marriage are both under threat and Maggie is planning to come out to their devoutly Catholic mother. ‘Far more than a family holiday will be ruined unless the sisters can find a way to forgive themselves – and each other’ says the blurb. I’m drawn to this one by the Irish American/Long Island strands, hoping it will steer clear of cliché.

Harriet Lane’s Other People’s Fun sees Ruth facing an empty nest and the end of her marriage while enduring a humdrum job. Her tedium is brightened by the reappearance of Sookie, confident, vivacious and keen to be Ruth’s pal after ignoring her when they were teenagers. ‘Unputdownable, funny, spiky and subtle, Other People’s Fun is a novel about modern life and the lies we tell our neighbours, friends, families and selves through the hall of mirrors that is social media’ says the blurb promisingly. I remember enjoying Her in my early blogging days.

That’s it for the first batch of October’s paperbacks. A click on a title will take you to a more detailed synopsis should you want to know more. If you’d like to catch up with new fiction, it’s here and here.