The Book of Autumn

De: Molly O'Sullivan

Narrado por: Piper Goodeve

For fans of Adrienne Young, Olivie Blake, Erin Sterling, Hazel Beck, and Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House, a spellbinding debut about ambition, privilege, second-chance romance, and ancient magic set at an enchanted school tucked among the red mesas of rural New Mexico, where a formidable pair of magicians are summoned to pursue an alleged killer.

Try as she might, anthropologist Marcella Gibbons can't escape the fact that she's a dimidium, one half of a formidable pair of Magicians, forever tied together to enable the other's powers. After a tumultuous final year at Seinford and Brown College of Agriculture (and Magic) in rural New Mexico, Cella felt more than a little uneasy about returning to the sun-drenched desert campus ever again. She'd cut ties with her other half—the charming and rugged rancher Max Middlemore—and sworn off Magic, academia, and heartache for good.

Until Max turns up at her door, grinning under his cowboy hat for one last favor. Something is shifting at her alma mater, something bigger than anyone understands. One student is dead. Another is floating midair in the infirmary, growling guttural nonsense and terrifying the staff. Their best, perhaps only, chance to intervene requires Cella and Max to work together. But the origins of the disturbances lie centuries ago. To unravel them, Cella will have to confront the truth about her past—and Max. Because she might be challenging a power she could never rival alone …

“Ancient magic, gruesome murder, a second-chance romance to die for, and a setting so vivid, you can feel the desert air on your skin and smell the horses. The Book of Autumn is a masterclass in contemporary fantasy: suspenseful, clever, and atmospheric.”—Genoveva Dimova, author of Foul Days

©2025 Molly O'Sullivan (P)2025 Recorded Books

Cella and Max are Dimidiums.

Once friends and loves, Max and Cella get asked to return to their college to solve a mystery. Each are magic wielders and together they amplify each other's powers. Cella has a lot of shyness and insecurities, and Max betrayed her. Weird in that the book is filled with footnotes, some from the main characters and some by secondary characters. Max and Cella work to figure out the magic used to kill one student and hex another. Time is of the essence before school ends and all the students go home for the summer. Convoluted as the backstory is hard to follow. Too much of the story I didn't understand. DNF

Interesting but not my favorite

3⭐️ 0🌶️ 4🎧

A dark academia book about an anthropologist who is part of a magical duo and must solve a murder steeped in classical Greek philosophy! As someone with degrees in both Classical Studies and Anthropology, I couldn’t start this book fast enough!

I was immediately intrigued by the premise and the unique take on the stupid of magic. I liked the dual timeline aspect of this book and how in the present we were watching Max and Cella struggle to not only work together after Cella ran away abandoning Max and Magic but also to solve the mystery of what is happening to students at the school. At the same time we get glimpses into their past and try to learn what split Max and Cella up and lead to her running away.

I was engrossed in this book, I finished it pretty quickly and I did enjoy the journey. But I found myself struggling at times trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. I feel like we didn’t get a solid explanation about why Max and Cella needed to be the ones running the investigation. Why did they need to do it when it was blatantly obviously neither of them has any I investigative experience except for magical research? There were times when I was frustrated because they struggled to put things together that were so obvious.

While I found the magical concepts in this book interesting, I can’t help but feel like there was a lack of magic being practiced in the book. It was all so academic and theoretical outside of what was going on with the possibly hexed murder suspect.

I would say this book was a romantic fantasy and not a fantasy romance or romantasy. I feel like the romance between Max and Cilla actually detracted from the story. Despite them being the two halves of a rare magical partnership, which should have given their story a fated mates element, I wasn’t rooting for them to get together at all. I usually find myself placing the blame for any relationships issues on tbr shoulder of the MMC (and trust me, I was plenty mad at things he did that were clearly done to hurt Cella as much as possible) but she was equally to blame. She couldn’t get past her own insecurities and was a terrible communicator.

All that being said, I really liked the concepts of this book and will definitely keep an eye out for any future books Molly writes.