November is here and autumn is well and truly upon us. This month there are 50 bundles of books to brighten up a gloomy day.

Creator of the ITV series ‘Victoria’, Daisy Goodwin brings us a richly magnificent novel of the young Queen in Victoria. In June 1837, the 18-year-old Victoria wakes up to find that she is Queen of the most powerful nation in the world. But will she be queen in her own right, or a puppet controlled by her mother and the sinister Sir John Conroy? Everyone wants her to get married, but Victoria has no intention of entering into a marriage of convenience with her cousin Albert. She would much rather reign alone with a little help from her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. He may be old enough to be her father, but he is the only man who believes that she will be a great Queen, and he knows how to make her laugh. A husband would only get in the way...

Bittersweet, funny and sad, The Hope Family Calendar by Mike Gayle is a novel about grief, love and family. Tom Hope is broken. Ever since his wife Laura died he hasn’t been the same man. Luckily however, his mother-in-law Linda is there to pick up the pieces and look after his two struggling daughters, Evie and Lola. But Tom gets arrested on the first anniversary of his wife’s death, and that is the last straw for Linda. She decides on drastic action, and in a final attempt to make Tom reconnect with his daughters, Linda leaves for Australia. Now, with two fast-maturing girls on his hands, Tom has to learn how to accept his responsibilities and navigate the newly discovered world of single fatherhood – starting immediately. While Linda finds her journey brings more than she bargained for, Tom suddenly discovers he has only himself to rely on.

Morgan McCarthy’s The House of Birds is a beautiful and bewitching story of love, war and second chances that will be adored by readers of Louisa Young and Virginia Bailey. When Oliver’s girlfriend Kate inherits a derelict house – and a fierce family feud – she’s determined to strip it, sell it and move on. For Oliver though, the house has an allure, and among the shelves of discarded, leather-bound and gilded volumes, he discovers one that conceals a hidden diary from the 1920s. So begins a quest: to discover the identity of the author, Sophia Louis. It is a portrait of war and marriage, isolation and longing and a story that will shape the future of the abandoned house – and of Oliver – forever.

Set against the stark, timeless beauty of northern Greenland, and fin-de-siècle New York and London, Stef Penney’s Under a Pole Star is a compelling look at the dark side of the ‘golden age’ of exploration, a study of the corrosive power of ambition and an epic, incendiary love story. It shows that sometimes you have to travel to the furthest edge of the world in order to find your true place within it. Flora Mackie first crossed the Arctic Circle at the age of 12. In 1889, the whaler’s daughter from Dundee – dubbed by the press ‘The Snow Queen’ – sets out to become a scientist and explorer. She struggles to be taken seriously, but determination and chance lead her back to northern Greenland at the head of a British expedition. Geologist Jakob de Beyn was raised in Manhattan. Yearning for wider horizons, he joins a rival expedition, led by the furiously driven Lester Armitage. When Jakob and Flora’s paths cross, it is a fateful meeting. All three become obsessed with the north, a place where violent extremes exist side by side: perpetual night and endless day; frozen seas and coastal meadows; heroism and lies. Armitage’s ruthless desire to be the true leader of polar discovery takes him and his men on a mission, the tragic outcome of which will reverberate for years to come.

 Visit Bookends website for author Q&As, reading group guides and insights behind some bestselling women’s fiction. Follow Team Bookends on Facebook and Twitter.