Here it is! There are now more reasons to wish 2023 will end. Not only will it be graced with a new year, but 2024 will give book lovers some exciting books they can’t wait to get their hands on! We have thrills, we have chills, we have warmth, and we have laughs. There is something for every reader. So, get ready for your TBR pile to get bigger because you want to ensure these exciting new releases are on your radar!

We’re focusing on books from January to June, with some highlights for the end of the year.

---

January Releases

Anna O by Matthew Blake

Expected Publication Dates: January 2

What if your nightmares weren’t really nightmares at all?

We spend an average of 33 years of our lives asleep. But what really happens, and what are we capable of, when we sleep?

Anna Ogilvy was a budding twenty-five-year-old writer with a bright future. Then, one night, she stabbed two people to death with no apparent motive–and hasn’t woken up since. Dubbed “Sleeping Beauty” by the tabloids, Anna’s condition is a rare psychosomatic disorder known to neurologists as “resignation syndrome.”

Dr. Benedict Prince is a forensic psychologist and an expert in the field of sleep-related homicides. His methods are the last hope of solving the infamous “Anna O'”case and waking Anna up so she can stand trial. But he must be careful treating such a high-profile suspect–he’s got career secrets and a complicated personal life of his own.

As Anna shows the first signs of stirring, Benedict must determine what really happened and whether Anna should be held responsible for her crimes.

Only Anna knows the truth about that night, but only Benedict knows how to discover it. And they’re both in danger from what they find out. (Credit: Harper)

Somewhere In The Deep by Tanvi Berwah

Expected Publication Date: January 9

Seventeen-year-old Krescent Dune is buried under the weight of her dead parents’ debt and the ruinous legacy they left behind. The only way she can earn enough money to escape her unforgiving island is by battling monstrous creatures in an underground fighting pit.

After a fight goes terribly wrong, she’s banned from the pits. Now hopeless, she is offered a deal: in exchange for the erasure of her debts, she must join and protect a hunting party for a rescue mission deep within the mining caves beneath the island.

Krescent is determined to keep her head down and fulfill her role as the dutiful bodyguard, even though she is trapped underground with her childhood enemy and a company of people who would gladly kill her if they knew who her parents were. As they come across creatures she believed only existed in legends, it becomes clear they are in far more danger than she could have imagined.

But someone doesn’t want her to make it out alive. And she’ll have to figure out who before she’s left alone…in the dark. (Credit: Sourcebooks Fire)

Signed Sealed Dead by Cynthia Murphy

Expected Publication Date: January 4

True-Crime obsessed Paige, and her family, move across the Atlantic to her father’s eerie hometown, and it’s not long before she uncovers the town’s dark history – a string of unsolved murders and disappearances in the 90s.

And then notes start appearing at their dilapidated old home, about the secrets the house is keeping. The clues lead Paige to a diary concealed in the walls that belonged to one of the missing girls. Could this be the key to solving a quarter-of-a-century mystery, or will this make Paige the next target?! (Credit: Scholastic)

Confetti: A Colourful Celebration of Love and Life by Dean Atta and illustrated by Alea Marley

Expected Publication Date: January 18

One day, Ari discovers a piece of pink confetti under the sofa. She throws is up into the air and watches it helicopter down: a small, bright moment of celebration.

And before long, Ari discovers confetti in other places: at her birthday party; at the Pride parade; in autumn’s falling leaves; in the magical sprinkling of snowflakes. She finds that when you look around, life is full of celebrations, each moment bursting with colour and joy – just like a handful of confetti. (Credit: Hachette Children’s Group)

The Clinic by Cate Quinn

Expected Publishing Date: January 23

Meg works for a casino in LA, catching cheaters and popping a few too many pain pills to cope, following a far different path than her sister Haley, a famous actress. But suddenly reports surface of Haley dying at the remote rehab facility where she had been forced to go to get her addictions under control.

There are whispers of suicide, but Meg can’t believe it. She decides that the best way to find out what happened to her sister is to check in herself – to investigate what really happened from the inside.

Battling her own addictions and figuring out the truth will be much more difficult than she imagined, far away from friends, family – and anyone who could help her. (Credit: Sourcebooks Landmark)

• First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston (Expected Release Date: January 2)
• Midnight by Amy McCulloch (Expected Release Date: January 2)
• Rabbit Hole by Kate Brody (Expected Release Date: January 2)
• The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes (Expected Release Date: January 9)
• Breakdown by Cathy Sweeney (Expected Release Date: January 17)
• You Wouldn’t Catch Me Dead by Tess James-Mackey (Expected Release Date: January 18)
• Black Women Taught Us by Jenn M. Jackson (Expected Release Date: January 23)
• Twenty-Seven Minutes by Ashley Tate (Expected Release Date: January 30)
• The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland (Expected Release Date: January 30)
• Yours From The Tower by Sally Nicholls (Expected Release Date: January 30)

The Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh 

Expected Publication Date: January 16

Hurricane Harvey is about to hit Houston. Meanwhile, single mom Jia Shah is already having a rough week: her twelve-year-old son, Ishaan, has just been suspended from school for getting in a fight. Still reeling from the fallout of her divorce–their move to Houston, her family’s disapproval, the struggle to make ends meet on her own–now Jia is worried about Ishaan’s future, too. Will her solo parenting be enough? Doesn’t a boy need a father?

And now their apartment complex is under a mandatory evacuation order. Jia’s sister, Seema, has invited them to hunker down in her fancy house in Sugar Land, and despite Jia’s misgivings–Seema’s husband, Vipul, has been just a little too friendly with her lately–Jia concedes it’s probably the best place to keep Ishaan safe during the hurricane. With Jia’s philandering ex scrutinizing her every move, all too eager to snatch back custody of Ishaan, she can’t afford to make a mistake.

When Vipul’s brother and his wife show up on Seema’s doorstep, too, it’s a recipe for disaster. Grandma, the family matriarch, has never been shy about playing favorites among her sons and their wives. As the storm escalates, tensions rise quickly, and soon someone’s dead. Was it a horrible accident or is there a murderer in their midst?

With no help available until the floodwaters recede in the morning, Jia must protect her son and identify the culprit before she goes down for a crime she didn’t commit–or becomes the next victim. . . . (Credit: Dutton)

The Busy Body by Kemper Donovan

Expected Publication Date: January 23

“I tell other people’s stories for a living. . . . I nip and tuck their excesses, soften their hard edges, polish whatever an armada of editors and publicists deem unsightly till it sparkles.”

It’s a dream assignment. Former Senator Dorothy Gibson, aka that woman, is the most talked-about person in the country right now, though largely for the wrong reasons. As an independent candidate for President of the United States, Dorothy split the vote and is being blamed for the shocking result. After her very public defeat, she’s retreated to her home in rural Maine, inviting her ghostwriter to join her.

Her collaborator is impressed by Dorothy’s work ethic and steel-trap mind, not to mention the stunning surroundings (and one particularly gorgeous bodyguard). But when a neighbor dies under suspicious circumstances, Dorothy is determined to find the killer in their midst. And when Dorothy Gibson asks if you want to team up for a top secret, possibly dangerous murder investigation, the only answer is: “Of course!”

The best ghostwriters are adept at asking questions and spinning stories . . . two talents, it turns out, that also come in handy for sleuths. Dorothy’s political career, meanwhile, has made her an expert at recognizing lies and double-dealing. Working together, the two women are soon untangling motives and whittling down suspects, to the exasperation of local police. But this investigation–much like the election–may not unfold the way anyone expects . . .(Credit:John Scognamiglio Book)

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett

Expected Publication Date: January 23

Everyone knows the story of the Alperton Angels: the cult who brainwashed a teenage girl into believing her baby was the anti-Christ. When the girl came to her senses and called the police, the Angels committed suicide and mother and baby disappeared.

Now, true crime author Amanda Bailey is looking to revive her career by writing a book on the case. The Alperton baby has turned eighteen; finding them will be the scoop of the year. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected, and also on the baby’s trail.

As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realize that the truth about the Angels is much darker and stranger than they’d ever imagined, and in pursuit of the story they risk becoming part of it. (Credit: Atria Books)

Prima Facie by Suzie Miller

Expected Publication Date: January 30

This is not life, this is law…

Tessa Ensler loves her job. She’s worked her way up to being a top criminal defense barrister against all the odds, and fights to defend those pleading not guilty. Tessa believes in the law, believes in the system. Her quick-witted cross-examinations and intelligence in the courtroom see her clocking up win after win – including securing freedom for men accused of rape and sexual assault. Innocence until proven guilty is, after all, the bedrock of a civilized society.

But when Tessa is raped by a coworker, she struggles to find the strength to bring him to justice in the face of the barriers and opposition within that same system. Determined to have her day in court, Tessa is forced to confront the stark reality that the law was not written for victims, and that she is the one on trial. She fights on, even as her evidence is manipulated to make her look like a liar, even while she is retraumatized in the stand.

Based on the Olivier and Tony Award-winning play, Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie is an unforgettable story of what happens when a victim is asked to navigate a system that is not set up to accommodate the lived experience of sexual assault survivors. (Credit: Henry Holt & Company)

Wander In The Dark by Jumata Emill

Expected Publication Date: January 30

Amir Trudeau only goes to his half brother Marcel’s birthday party because of Chloe Danvers. Chloe is rich, and hot, and fits right into the perfect life Marcel inherited when their father left Amir’s mother to start a new family with Marcel’s mom. But Chloe is hot enough for Amir to forget that for one night.

Does she want to hook up? Or is she trying to meddle in the estranged brothers’ messy family drama? Amir can’t tell. He doesn’t know what Chloe wants from him when, in the final hours of Mardi Gras, she asks him to take her home and stay–her parents are away and she doesn’t want to be alone.

Amir never finds out, because when he wakes up, Chloe is dead–stabbed while he was passed out on the couch. And in no time, Amir becomes the only suspect. A Black teenager caught fleeing the scene of a rich white girl’s murder? All of New Orleans agrees: the case is open-and-shut.

Amir is innocent. He has a lawyer, but unless someone can figure out who really killed Chloe, things don’t look good for him. His number one ally? Marcel. Their relationship is messy, but Marcel knows that Amir isn’t a murderer–and maybe proving his innocence will repair the rift between them.

To find Chloe’s killer, Amir and Marcel need to dig into her secrets. And what they find is darker than either could have guessed. Parents will go to any lengths to protect their children, and in a city as old as New Orleans, the right family connections can bury even the ugliest truths. (Credit: Delacorte Press)

February Releases

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander

Expected Publication Date: February 6

Nine years ago, with the world’s eyes on her, Charlie Colbert fled. The press and the police called Charlie a “witness” to the nightmarish events at her elite graduate school on Christmas Eve–events known to the public as “Scarlet Christmas”–though Charlie knows she was much more than that.

Now, Charlie has meticulously rebuilt her life: She’s the editor-in-chief of a major magazine, engaged to the golden child of the publishing industry, and hell-bent on never, ever letting her guard down again. But when a buzzy film made by one of Charlie’s former classmates threatens to shatter everything she’s worked for, Charlie realizes how much she’s changed in nine years. Now, she’s not going to let anything–not even the people she once loved most–get in her way. (Credit: Minotaur Books)

The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C. L. Miller

Expected publication date: February 6

What antique would you kill for?

Freya Lockwood is shocked when she learns that Arthur Crockleford, antiques dealer and her estranged mentor, has died under mysterious circumstances. She has spent the last twenty years avoiding her quaint English hometown, but when she receives a letter from Arthur asking her to investigate–sent just days before his death–Freya has no choice but to return to a life she had sworn to leave behind.

Joining forces with her eccentric Aunt Carole, Freya follows clues and her instincts to an old manor house for an advertised antiques enthusiast’s weekend. But not all is as it seems. It’s clear to Freya that the antiques are all just poor reproductions and her fellow guests are secretive and menacing. What is going on at this estate and how was Arthur involved? More importantly, can Freya and Carole discover the truth before the killer strikes again? (Credit: Atria Books)

Sex, Lies and Sensibility by Nikki Payne

Expected publication date: February 13

Two sisters roll up their sleeves to run a dilapidated inn but must learn to work with the locals in this deliciously spicy novel inspired by Sense and Sensibility.

There’s never a good time to learn you are your father’s secret child–especially not at the reading of his will. With their father’s affairs laid bare and Nora’s sensible reputation in tatters due to a viral video scandal, she and her free-spirited sister have nothing left but a rustic inn in the middle of nowhere and each other. What’s more, they need to revamp the inn before Labor Day or they lose it all. Nora hasn’t even knocked the traveling dust off last season’s designer boots when she’s confronted with three problems:

1. She really should have watched more HGTV.
2. She hasn’t seen another Black person for miles.
3. A tall, dark stranger has already staked a claim on their property.

Native Abenaki eco-tour guide Ennis “Bear” Freeman has seen hapless tourists come and go. When he spots two pampered city girls at his unofficial headquarters, he expects them to catch a flight out of the inhospitable coastal Maine backwoods within a week’s time. But Nora, turns out, is made of sterner stuff. And as she rolls up her sleeves to breathe new life into the inn, she unwittingly reignites a flood of emotions inside of Bear that he had very intentionally suppressed.

Their connection is electric, their desire palpable. But Bear’s silence about his mysterious past might turn out to be the one thing that sends Nora packing. (Credit: Berkley Books)

Every Smile You Fake by Dorothy Koomson 

Expected publication: February 15

‘Please take care of my baby. But don’t try to find me. You’ll put him in danger.’

Profiler and therapist Kez Lanyon is shocked when she finds a baby on the backseat of her car, with an unsigned note asking her to take care of him.

Kez has a pretty good idea who the mother is – Brandee, a popular social media star with a troubled background, who once lived in Kez’s house. Brandee recently dropped out of the limelight and if the internet rumours are true, Kez knows Brandee’s life is in danger.

Kez is torn. Should she simply take care of the baby as she’s been asked, or should she risk her whole family by using contacts from her previous job to save this young woman? Time is running out for Brandee. Can Kez find her before it’s too late? This is the heart-stopping new novel from The Queen Of The Big Reveal. (Credit: Headline Publishing Group)

Where They Lie by Claire Coughlan

Expected publication: February 20

Some stories demand to be told. They keep coming back, echoing down through the decades, until they find a teller . . .

Dublin, 1943. Actress Julia Bridges disappears. She was last seen entering the house of Gloria Fitzpatrick, who is later put on trial for the murder of a woman whose abortion she facilitated. But it’s never proved that Gloria had a hand in Julia’s death–and Julia’s body has never been found. Gloria, however, is sentenced to life in an institution for the criminally insane, where she’s found dead a few years later from an apparent suicide, and the truth of what happened to Julia Bridges dies with her.

Until . . .

Dublin, 1968. Nicoletta Sarto is an ambitious junior reporter for the Irish Sentinel when the bones of Julia Bridges are discovered in the garden of a house on the outskirts of the city. Drawn into investigating the 25-year-old mystery of Julia’s disappearance and her link to the notorious Gloria Fitzpatrick, Nicoletta becomes immersed in the tangled underworld of the illegal abortion industry, stirring up long-buried secrets from her own past. (Credit: Harper Perennial)

• A Season of Scandal by Laura Wood (Expected Release Date: February 1)
• Things That Go Bump by Kathryn Foxfield (Expected Release Date: February 1)
• The Teacher by Freida McFadden (Expected Release Date: February 6)
• Out of Body by Nia Davenport (Expected Release Date: February 6)
• This Is How You Fall In Love by Anika Hussain (Expected Release Date: February 13)
• Medea by Elish Quin (Expected Release Date: February 13)
• Sunbringer by Hannah Kenner (Expected Release Date: February 15)
• Miss Austen Investigates: The Hapless Milliner by Jessica Bull (Expected Release Date: February 15)
• A Haunting In The Arctic by C.J. Cooke (Expected Release Date: February 27)
• Once Persuaded, Twice Shy: A Modern Reimagining of Persuasion by Melodie Edwards  (Expected Release Date: February 27)

Island Witch by Amanda Jayatissa

Expected publication: February 20

Set in 19th century Sri Lanka and inspired by local folklore, the daughter of a traditional demon-priest–relentlessly bullied by peers and accused of witchcraft herself–tries to solve the mysterious attacks that have been terrorizing her coastal village.

Being the daughter of the village Capuwa, or demon-priest, Amara is used to keeping mostly to herself. Influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British Colonizers, the villagers who once respected her father’s craft have turned on the family. Yet, they all still seem to call on him whenever supernatural disturbances arise.

Now someone–or something–is viciously seizing upon men in the jungle. But instead of enlisting Amara’s father’s help, the villages have accused him of carrying out the attacks himself.

As she tries to clear her father’s name, Amara finds herself haunted by dreams that eerily predict the dark forces on her island. And she can’t shake the feeling that it’s all connected to the night she was recovering from a strange illness, and woke up, scared and confused, to hear her mother’s frantic cries: No one can find out what happened. (Credit: Berkley Books)

All The Rage by Cara Hunter

 Expected publication: February 20

After being abducted and assaulted, a teenage girl somehow managed to escape from her captor. She is traumatized and needs to heal, but the police need her help to catch her assailant–information she clearly knows, but is unwilling to give.

Without the girl’s assistance, DI Adam Fawley’s investigation is at a dead end. When another girl vanishes under the same circumstances, he recognizes a disturbing pattern–and a link to something long buried in his past. . . (Credit: William Morrow & Company)

Tender Beasts by Liselle Sambury

Expected publication: February 27

Sunny Behre has four siblings, but only one is a murderer.

With the death of Sunny’s mother, matriarch of the wealthy Behre family, Sunny’s once picture-perfect life is thrown into turmoil. Her mother had groomed her to be the family’s next leader, so Sunny is confused when the only instructions her mother leaves is a mysterious note: “Take care of Dom.”

The problem is, her youngest brother, Dom, has always been a near-stranger to Sunny…and seemingly a dangerous one, if found guilty of his second-degree murder charge. Still, Sunny is determined to fulfill her mother’s dying wish. But when a classmate is gruesomely murdered, and Sunny finds her brother with blood on his hands, her mother’s simple request becomes a lot more complicated. Dom swears he’s innocent, and although Sunny isn’t sure she believes him, she takes it upon herself to look into the murder–made all the more urgent by the discovery of another body. And another.

As Sunny and Dom work together to track down the culprit, Sunny realizes her other siblings have their own dark secrets. Soon she may have to choose: preserve the family she’s always loved or protect the brother she barely knows–and risk losing everything her mother worked so hard to build. (Credit: Margaret K. McElderry Books)

The Escape Room by L.D. Smithson

Expected publication: February 29

Everything is a clue.
Bonnie arrives on a remote sea fort off the coast of England to take part in a mysterious reality TV show. Competing against seven strangers, she must solve a series of puzzles to win the prize money, but this is no game – and the consequences of failure are deadly.

No one leaves.
Under scrutiny from the watching public, the contestants quickly turn on one another. Who will sacrifice the most for wealth and fame? And why can’t Bonnie shake the creeping sense that they are not alone?

The only way out is to win.
When the first contestant is found dead, Bonnie begins to understand the dark truth at the heart of this twisted competition: there’s a killer inside the fort, and anyone could be next. If Bonnie wants to escape, she needs to win…

Are you ready to play? (Credit: Transworld Publishers)

March Releases

Last One To Die by Cynthia Murphy

Expected Publication Date: March 5

16-year-old, Irish-born Niamh has just arrived in London for the summer, and quickly discovers that girls who look frighteningly like her are being attacked.

Determined to make it through her Drama Course, Niamh is placed at the Victorian Museum to put her drama skills to the test, and there she meets Tommy: he’s kind, fun, attentive, and really hot! Nonetheless, there’s something eerie about the museum…As present-day serial attacker and sinister Victorian history start to collide, Niamh realizes that things are not as they seem. Will she be next? (Credit: Delacorte Press)

The Poison We Drink by Bethany Baptiste

 Expected Publication Date: March 5

Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her.

Then an enemy’s iron bullet kills her mother, Venus’s life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother’s killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.’s most influential politicians.

As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it’s hard to tell who to trust…Herself included. (Credit: Sourcebooks Fire)

This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan

Expected Publication Date: March 5

Soledad Barnes has her life all planned out. Because, of course, she does. She plans everything. She designs everything. She fixes everything. She’s a domestic goddess who’s never met a party she couldn’t host or a charge she couldn’t lead. The one with all the answers and the perfect vinaigrette for that summer salad. But none of her varied talents can save her when catastrophe strikes, and the life she built with the man who was supposed to be her forever, goes poof in a cloud of betrayal and disillusion.

But there is no time to pout or sulk, or even grieve the life she lost. She’s too busy keeping a roof over her daughters’ heads and food on the table. And in the process of saving them all, Soledad rediscovers herself. From the ashes of a life burned to the ground, something bold and new can rise.

But then an unlikely man enters the picture–the forbidden one, the one she shouldn’t want but can’t seem to resist. She’s lost it all before and refuses to repeat her mistakes. Can she trust him? Can she trust herself?

After all she’s lost . . .and found . . .can she be brave enough to make room for what could be? (Credit: Forever)

The Boy Lost In The Maze by Joseph Coelho

Expected Publication Date: March 5

Theo, a seventeen-year-old London schoolboy with a single mother, is desperate to track down the father who left them, whom he scarcely remembers. At school he discovers Greek mythology and the ancient story of Theseus, a fatherless son driven on a similar search. As Theo focuses on Theseus in a series of poems he composes, it becomes clear the two journeys echo each other in uncanny ways. Theseus must conquer his enemies–a psycho Cyclops, a tree-bending murderer, a monstrous pig–while Theo is tricked and double-crossed, confronting obstacles ranging from a search-agency scam artist to a depraved lawyer. Poet Joseph Coelho brilliantly interweaves the boys’ stories, following them through dangers, horrors, and false successes, revealing that Theo must be as resourceful and strong as his mythical hero. In a unique twist, readers are asked to take a role in picking which option the heroes should pursue when facing choices on their path to manhood. The two alternating stories, along with stories from the Minotaur’s perspective, fuse into one in a riveting climax, as the protagonists meet in the heart of the labyrinth. (Credit: Candlewick Press)

Louder Than Hunger by John Schu

Expected Publication Date: March 5

But another voice inside me says,
We need help.
We’re going to die.

Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books–the weird one, the outsider–and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears? A fictionalized account of the author’s experiences and emotions living in residential treatment facilities as a young teen with an eating disorder, Louder than Hunger is a triumph of raw honesty. With a deeply personal afterword for context, this much-anticipated verse novel is a powerful model for muffling the destructive voices inside, managing and articulating pain, and embracing self-acceptance, support, and love. (Credit: Candlewick Press)

• I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This: 18 Assurances on Grief by Clare Mackintosh (Expected Publication Date: March 5)
• What Happened To Nina? by Dervla McTiernan (Expected Publication Date: March 5)
• Trouble by Lex Croucher (Expected Publication Date: March 5)
• The Hunter by Tana French (Expected Publication Date: March 5)
• Black Wolf by Juan Gómez-Jurado (Expected Publication Date: March 14)
• Infamous by Lex Croucher (Expected Publication Date: March 21)
• The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill (Expected Publication Date: March 19)
• Kill For Me Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh (Expected Publication Date: March 19)
• A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian (Expected Publication Date: March 19)
• Wild Houses by Colin Barrett (Expected Publication Date: March 19)
• Leave No Trace by Jo Callaghan (Expected Publication Date: March 28)

Where the Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan

Expected Publication Date: March 14

Ireland, 1846 Nell is working as a scullery maid in the kitchen of the Big House. Once she loved school and books and dreaming. But there’s not much choice of work when the land grows food that rots in the earth. Now she is scrubbing, peeling, washing, sweeping for Sir Philip Wicken, the man who owns her home, her family’s land, their crops, everything.

His dogs are always well fed, even as famine sets in. Upstairs in the Big House, where Nell is forbidden to enter, is Johnny Browning, newly arrived from England: the young nephew who will one day inherit it all. And as hunger and disease run rampant all around them, a spark of life and hope catches light when Nell and Johnny find each other. (Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing)

Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Expected Publication Date: March 19

It’s like I keep stumbling into a dark room, searching for the switch to make things bright again…Sade Hussein is starting her third year of high school, this time at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school after being home-schooled all her life. Misfortune has been a constant companion all her life, but even Sade doesn’t expect her new roommate, Elizabeth, to disappear after Sade’s first night. Or for people to think she had something to do with it.

With rumors swirling around her, Sade catches the attention of the girls collectively known as the ‘Unholy Trinity’ and they bring her into their fold. Between learning more about them–especially Persephone, who Sade is inexplicably drawn to–and playing catchup in class, Sade already has so much on her plate. But when it seems people don’t care enough about what happened to Elizabeth to really investigate, it’s up to she and Elizabeth’s best friend to solve it.

And then a student is found dead.

As they keep trying to figure out what’s going on, Sade realizes there’s more to Alfred Nobel Academy and its students than she thought. Secrets lurk around every corner and beneath every surface…secrets that rival even her own. (Credit: Feiwel & Friends)

How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

Expected publication date: March 26

It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be.

In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?

As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune. (Credit: Dutton)

Day One by Abigail Dean

Expected Publication Date: March 26

A village hall, a primary school play, a beautiful Lake District town in England. Into this idyllic scene steps a lone gunman whose actions set off a train of events that will have devastating consequences for the close-knit community of Stonesmere.

In the weeks following the cataclysm, conspiracy theorists start questioning what happened. Two young people find themselves at the epicenter of the uproar: Marty, the town’s golden girl and daughter of a teacher killed that day, and Trent, whose memories of his brief time trying to fit into Stonesmere fuel his attachment to the conspiracies.

But what really happened at the Day One assembly? What secrets is Marty keeping and what blindspots does Trent miss? In this world where news travels fast, and videos and gossip travel faster, how does a community move forward together? (Credit: Viking)

How to Kill a Guy in Ten Ways by Eve Kellman

Expected Publication Date: March 28

US Publication Date: May 14

Are you on a date that doesn’t feel right?

Can’t shake that creepy guy at the bar?

Worried you’re being followed home?

Message M.

After one too many terrifying encounters, Millie Masters sets up a hotline for women who feel unsafe walking home alone at night: Message M.

But very quickly she realises that there’s much more to be done to help the women who call in. Because the men just do it again the next night, and the next, and the next…

And when her own sister is assaulted on a night out, the temptation to take the law into her own hands becomes too much to resist.

Because M can also stand for murder… (Credit: HarperCollins Publishers)

April Releases

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

Expected Publication Date: April 2

Lights. Camera. Lies.18-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.

But the case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agrees to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again.

Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And – could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . . (Credit: Delacorte Press)

The Black Girl Survives In This One edited by Desiree S. Evans and Saraciea J. Fennell

Expected Publication Date: April 2

Celebrating a new generation of bestselling and acclaimed Black writers, The Black Girl Survives in This One makes space for Black girls in horror. Fifteen chilling and thought-provoking stories place Black girls front and center as heroes and survivors who slay monsters, battle spirits, and face down death. Prepare to be terrified and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology. (Credit: Flatiron Books)

The Kill List by Nadine Matheson

Expected Publication Date: April 2

US Publication Date: August 6

He will come for them, one by one…

Five shocking murders
Twenty-five years ago, DCI Harry Rhimes arrested Andrew Streeter for the brutal murders of five young people. Streeter’s ‘kill list’ of victims was found in his home, and he was convicted of all five crimes.

A legacy under threat
Now, Streeter’s convictions are being overturned, as new evidence implies the original investigation was corrupt. No one is more shocked that DI Henley. Because this case is personal; Rhimes was her old boss, and he’s no longer alive to defend himself. But when the killings start up again, Henley must face the truth: Rhimes got it wrong twenty-five years ago.

A hunt for a killer
Henley and her team reopen the original murder cases, but they must put their personal feelings to one side. Because the real killer is still out there, and he’s working his way through a new kill list . . . (Credit: HarperCollins UK)

The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams

Expected Publication Date: April 9

In a small pocket of London, between the houses of No.77 and No.79 Eastbourne Road, lies a neglected community garden. It was a beautiful thing once, a little oasis in a bustling city for neighbors by day and the local foxes at twilight. Now it’s overgrown and neglected, an empty patch of greenery lost to time.

Once a sanctuary, the garden’s gate is now firmly closed. And that’s exactly how Winston at No.79 likes it – anything to avoid Bernice, who has moved in next door with her young son. Their houses may share the garden, but they’re not exactly neighborly.

But then a mysterious parcel drops on Winston’s doormat. It contains no note, only a bundle of photographs of the garden in bloom many years ago–vibrant with flowers, filled with people from every corner of the community. Is someone trying to tell them something? The seed of an idea is planted…

Somewhere out there, a secret gardener made a decades-old promise to keep the community’s spirit alive. Now it’s time for The Twilight Garden to come out of hibernation. (Credit: William Morrow & Company)

You’d Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace 

Expected Publication Date: April 16

The night after her father’s funeral, Claire meets Lucas in a bar. Lucas doesn’t know it, but it’s not a chance meeting. One thoughtless mistyped email has put him in the crosshairs of an extremely put-out serial killer. But before they make eye contact, before Claire lets him buy her a drink–even before she takes him home and carves him up into little pieces–something about that night is very wrong. Because someone is watching Claire. Someone who is about to discover her murderous little hobby.

The thing is, it’s not sensible to tangle with a part-time serial killer, even one who is distracted by attending a weekly bereavement support group and trying to get her art career off the ground. Will Claire finish off her blackmailer before her pursuer reveals all? Let the games begin . . .(Credit: Penguin Books)

• The Mystery of Locked Rooms by Lindsay Currie (Expected Publication Date: April 2)
• The Murder of Mr. Ma by SJ Rozan, John Shen and Yen Nee (Expected Publication Date: April 2)
• Made Glorious by Lindsay Eagar (Expected Publication Date: April 2)
• The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell (Expected Publication Date: April 4)
• Keedie by Elle Mcnicoll (Expected Publication Date: April 4)
• Black & Irish: Legends, Trailblazers & Everyday Heroes by Leon Diop and Briana Fitzsimons and illustrated by Jessica Louis (Expected Publication Date: April 9)
• The Gathering by C.J. Tudor (Expected Publication Date: April 9)
• One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole (Expected Publication Date: April 16)
• Kicked Out by A.M. Dassu (Expected Publication Date: April 23)
• Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack (Expected Publication Date: April 30)

A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh

Expected Publication Dates: April 23

They say the camera never lies. But on this show, you can’t trust anything you see.

Stranded in the Welsh mountains, seven reality show contestants have no idea what they’ve signed up for.

Each of these strangers has a secret. If another player can guess the truth, they won’t just be eliminated – they’ll be exposed live on air. The stakes are higher than they’d ever imagined, and they’re trapped.

The disappearance of a contestant wasn’t supposed to be part of the drama. Detective Ffion Morgan has to put aside what she’s watched on screen, and find out who these people really are – knowing she can’t trust any of them.

And when a murderer strikes, Ffion knows every one of her suspects has an alibi . . . and a secret worth killing for. (Credit: Sourcebooks Landmark)

Skandar and the Chaos Trials by A.F. Steadman 

Expected Publication Dates: April 25

Heroes and unicorns as you’ve never seen them before. The epic adventure continues.

The Island always wins…

Skandar and his sister Kenna are finally both at the Eyrie, but tensions are high.

To survive their third year of training, Skandar and his friends must complete a series of terrifying trials across the Island’s elemental zones. Friendships, allegiances and rider-unicorn bonds will be pushed to the limit – only the strongest will make it.

Meanwhile Kenna’s forged bond to a wild unicorn has left her alienated and alone. And when a terrible discovery puts the future of the Island in peril, all fingers point in one direction . . . As dark forces assemble, Skandar must decide how far is he willing to go – for Kenna, and for the Eyrie. (Credit: Simon & Schuster UK)

Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett

Expected Publication Date: April 30

Roach would rather be listening to the latest episode of her favorite true crime podcast than assisting the boring and predictable customers at her local branch of the bookstore Spines, where she’s worked her entire adult life. A serious true crime junkie, Roach looks down her nose at the pumpkin-spice-latte-drinking casual fans who only became interested in the genre once it got trendy. But when Laura, a pretty and charismatic children’s bookseller, arrives to help rejuvenate the struggling bookstore branch, Roach recognizes in her an unexpected kindred spirit.

Despite their common interest in true crime, Laura keeps her distance from Roach, resisting the other woman’s overtures of friendship. Undeterred, Roach learns everything she can about her new colleague, eventually uncovering Laura’s traumatic family history. When Roach realizes that she may have come across her very own true crime story, interest swiftly blooms into a dangerous obsession. (Credit: Scarlet)

May Releases

The Exes by Anam Iqbal

Expected Publication Date: May 2

When Karim and Zara meet, sparks shouldn’t fly.

They’ve got nothing in common: Karim – with his on-and offline clique, The Exes – is a globally renowned influencer. Zara is just a normal teen, trying to get into uni, and not bring shame to the family by getting distracted by silly boys.

Sparks do fly though. With Zara, Karim can finally let his guard down, while his glamorous world offers Zara an escape from her parent’s control. But someone has their eye on them – a secret gossip who’s been spilling truths about The Exes for years.

While Karim and Zara’s dates get swoonier, the blogger’s posts get more personal – and more threatening. (Credit: Penguin Random House Children’s UK)

Where She Was Me by Marlee Bush

Expected Publication Date: May 7

Twin sisters Cassie and Lenora are inseparable. Ever since that night, they’ve been on their own, and that’s how they like it. As the sole permanent residents of Cabin Two, their refuge on an isolated Tennessee campground, the twins manage to stay away from prying eyes, probing questions, and true crime junkies. The peace and quiet is almost enough to make them forget what happened all those years ago. Almost.

Until a teenage girl camping at the neighboring cabin goes missing, and the memories come rushing back. As the crime becomes ever more recognizable, each sister suspects the other knows more than she’s letting on.

Trapped in the isolating, claustrophobic wilderness, Cassie and Lenora must piece together the truth of what happened—and the sinister truth lurking in their own pasts—before it’s too late. (Credit: Poisoned Pen Press)

Blood at the Root by Ladarrion Williams

Expected Publication Date: May 7

Ten years ago, Malik’s life changed forever the night his mother mysteriously vanished and he discovered he had uncontrollable powers. Since then, he has kept his abilities hidden, looking out for himself and his younger foster brother, Taye. Now, at 17, Malik is finally ready to start a new life for both of them, far from the trauma of his past. However, a daring act to rescue Taye reveals an unexpected connection with his long-lost grandmother: a legendary conjurer with ties to a hidden magical university that Malik’s mother attended.

At Caiman University, Malik’s eyes are opened to a future he never could have envisioned for himself– one that includes the reappearance of his first love, Alexis. His search for answers about his heritage, his powers, and what really happened to his mother exposes the cracks in their magical community as it faces a reawakened evil dating back to the Haitian Revolution. Together with Alexis, Malik discovers a lot beneath the surface at Caiman: feuding covens and magical politics, forbidden knowledge and buried mysteries.

In a wholly unique saga of family, history and community, Malik must embrace his legacy to save what’s left of his old family as well as his new one. Exploring the roots and secrets that connect us in an unforgettable contemporary setting, this heart-pounding fantasy series opener is a rich tapestry of atmosphere, intrigue, and emotion. (Credit: Labyrinth Road)

Hunted by Abir Mukherjee

Expected Publication Date: May 9

You can’t save your kids. But can you stop them?

It’s a week before the presidential elections when a bomb goes off in an LA shopping mall.

In London, armed police storm Heathrow Airport and arrest Sajid Khan. His daughter, Aliyah entered the USA with the suicide bomber, and now she’s missing, potentially plotting another attack on American soil.

But then a woman called Carrie turns up at Sajid’s door after travelling halfway across the world. She claims Aliyah is with her son and she has a clue to their whereabouts. Carrie knows something isn’t adding up – and that she and Sajid are the only ones who can find their children and discover the truth.

On the run from the authorities, the two parents are thrown together in a race against time to save their kids and stop a catastrophe that will derail the country’s future forever. (Credit: Vintage Publishing)

 

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner

Expected Publication Date: May 14

In 1955, Vivien Lowry is facing the greatest challenge of her life. Her latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. The reviewers, however, are not as impressed as the playgoers and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Lowry’s last chance for a dramatic career. With her future in London not looking bright, at the suggestion of her friend, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien takes a job in as a script doctor on a major film shooting in Rome’s Cinecitta Studios. There she finds a vibrant movie making scene filled with rising stars, acclaimed directors, and famous actors in a country that is torn between its past and its potentially bright future, between the liberation of the post-war cinema and the restrictions of the Catholic Church that permeates the very soul of Italy.

As Vivien tries to forge a new future for herself, she also must face the long-buried truth of the recent World War and the mystery of what really happened to her deceased fiancé. Every Time We Say Goodbye is a brilliant exploration of trauma and tragedy, hope and renewal, filled with dazzling characters both real and imaginary, from the incomparable author who charmed the world with her novels The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls. (Credit: St. Martin’s Press)

Long After We Are Gone by Terah Shelton Harris 

Expected Publication Date: May 14

“Don’t let the white man take the house.”

These are the last words King Solomon says to his son before he dies. Now all four Solomon siblings must return to North Carolina to save the Kingdom, their ancestral home and 200 acres of land, from a development company, who has their sights set on turning the valuable waterfront property into a luxury resort.

While fighting to save the Kingdom, the siblings must also save themselves from the secrets they’ve been holding onto. Junior, the oldest son and married to his wife for 11 years, is secretly in love with another man. Second son, Mance, can’t control his temper, which has landed him in prison more than once. CeCe, the oldest daughter and a lawyer in New York City, has embezzled thousands of dollars from her firm’s clients. Youngest daughter, Tokey, wonders why she doesn’t seem to fit into this family, which has left an aching hole in her heart that she tries to fill in harmful ways. As the Solomons come together to fight for the Kingdom, each of their façades begins to crumble and collide in unexpected ways. (Credit: Sourcebooks Landmark)

• Enlightenment by Sarah Perry (Expected Publication Date: May 2)
• The Secret Library by Kekla Magoon (Expected Publication Date: May 7)
• Animal Tales from India: Ten Stories from the Panchatantra by Nikita Gill (Expected Publication Date: May 2)
• Queens of Themiscyra by Hannah Lynn (Expected Publication Date: May 7)
• Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan (Expected Publication Date: May 7)
• Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher (Expected Publication Date: May 9)
• She Left by Stacie Grey (Expected Publication Date: May 14)
• A Friend Indeed by Elka Ray (Expected Publication Date: May 14)
• My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen (Expected Publication Date: May 14)
• Boy Like Me by Simon James Green (Expected Publication Date: May 21)

The Last Murder At The End Of the World by Stuart Turton

Expected publication date: May 21

Solve the murder to save what’s left of the world.

Outside the island there is nothing: the world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched.

On the island: it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they’re told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn’t solved within 92 hours, the fog will smother the island–and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone’s memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer–and they don’t even know it.

And the clock is ticking. (Credit: Sourcebooks Landmark)

The Main Character by Jaclyn Goldis

Expected Publication Date: May 21

Reclusive, mysterious author Ginevra Ex is famous for her unusual approach to crafting her big bestselling thrillers: she hires real people and conducts intensive interviews, then fictionalizes them. Her latest main character, Rory, is thrilled when Ginevra presents her with an extravagant bonus–a lavish trip along Italy’s Mediterranean coast on the famed, newly renovated Orient Express. But when Rory boards the train, she’s stunned to discover that her brother, her best friend, and even her ex-fiancé are passengers, as well. All invited by Ginevra, all hiding secrets.

With each stop, from Cinque Terre to Rome to Positano, it becomes increasingly clear that Ginevra has masterminded the ultimate real life twisty plot with Rory as her main character. And as Ginevra’s deceptions mount, and the lies and machinations of Rory’s travel companions pile up, Rory begins to fear that her trip will culminate like one of Ginevra’s books: with a murder or two. In the opulent compartments of the iconic train, Rory must untangle the shocking reasons why Ginevra wanted them all aboard–and to what deadly end. (Credit: Atria Books)

Moonstone by Laura Purcell

Expected Publication Date: May 23

Following a scandal at Vauxhall pleasure gardens, Camille is sent away to her reclusive godmother, who keeps a strict watch over her and her own sickly daughter, Lucy. Camille must stay away from everything she has known until the scandal is forgotten, keeping strictly to the small farmhouse in the woods.

Away from the corsetry and curtsies of polite society, Camille finds herself surprisingly…free. She is also strangely drawn to Lucy, a pale, fragile girl who dreams of stars, but has never left the farm.

Yet as Camille and Lucy grow close and cross forbidden boundaries, the fine balance of their woodland home begins to shift: death stalks between the trees, claw-marks rake the doors and the moon rises to the song of a creature Camille has never heard before.

Camille begins to realise her godmother was holding more than unladylike behaviour at bay…(Credit: HarperCollins UK)

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli

Expected Publication Date: May 28

Ever since she was a child, Anuri’s life was chronicled and monetized by her influencer stepmother. Now an adult, she’s finally broken free. But when her stepmother starts preying on her young half sister, Anuri decides she must stop the cycle of abuse. Really Good, Actually meets City of Likes in a stunning page-turner about overcoming toxic family and reclaiming identity and, ultimately, hope. (Credit: Graydon House)

June Releases

Four Eids and a Funeral by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Adiba Jaigirdar

Expected Publication Date: June 4

These days, Said Hossain spends most of his time away at boarding school. But when his favorite hometown librarian Ms. Barnes dies, he must return home to New Crosshaven for her funeral and for the summer. Too bad being home makes it a lot harder to avoid facing his ex-best friend, Tiwa Olatunji, or facing the daunting task of telling his Bangladeshi parents that he would rather be an artist than a doctor.

Tiwa doesn’t understand what made Said start ignoring her, but it’s probably that fancy boarding school of his. Though he’s unexpectedly staying through the summer, she’s determined to take a page from him and pretend he doesn’t exist. Besides, she has more than enough going on, between grieving her broken family and helping her mother throw the upcoming Eid celebration at the Islamic Center–a place that means so much to Tiwa.

But when the Islamic Center accidentally catches fire, it turns out the mayor plans to demolish the center entirely. Things are still tense between the ex-friends but Tiwa needs Said’s help if there’s any hope of changing the mayor’s mind, and Said needs a project to submit to art school (unbeknownst to anyone). Will all their efforts be enough to save the Islamic Center, save Eid, and maybe save their relationship? (Credit: Feiwel & Friends)

The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron

Expected Publication Date: June 4

In the tumultuous town of Yáquimo, Santo Domingo, Jacquotte Delahaye is an unknown but up-and-coming shipwright. Her dreams are bold but her ambitions are bound by the confines of her life with her self-seeking French father. When her way of life and the delicate balance of power in the town are threatened, she is forced to flee her home and become a woman on the run along with a motley crew of refugees, including a mysterious young woman named Teresa.

Jacquotte and her band become indentured servants to the infamous Blackhand, a ruthless pirate captain who rules his ship with an iron fist. As they struggle to survive his brutality, Jacquotte finds herself unable to resist Teresa despite their differences. When Blackhand hatches a dangerous scheme to steal a Portuguese shipment of jewels, Jacquotte must rely on her wits, resourcefulness, and friends to survive. But she discovers there is a grander, darker scheme of treachery at play, and she ultimately must decide what price she is willing to pay to secure a better future for them all. (Credit: Atria Books)

Vengeance by Saima Mir

Expected Publication Date: June 6

Two years into running her organised crime syndicate in the north of England, Jia Khan stumbles on a notebook her father – the previous Khan – kept on arrival from Pakistan in the 1970s. And what Jia finds in the journal sends her deep into the family’s past. But once the sleeping dogs from those years are woken, they are set for attack.

Meanwhile, Jia struggles to control unrest amongst those that oppose her. Worst of all, Jia must unravel a puzzling but terrible warning – one of her staff lies brutally slain, his corpse displayed in her garden despite her sophisticated security… Could a traitor be part of her inner sanctum? (Credit: Oneworld Publications)

• The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood (Expected Publication Date: June 4)
• The Breakup Artists (Expected Publication Date: June 4)
• The Meiji Guillotine Murders by Futaro Yamada (Expected Publication Date: June 4)
• The Big Day by Aliya Ali-Afzal (Expected Publication Date: June 6)
• The Super Sunny Murder Club edited by Serena Patel and Robin Stevens (Expected Publication Date: June 6)
• That Night in the Library by Eva Jurczyk (Expected Publication Date: June 11)
• Jupiter Nettle and the Seven Schools of Magic by Sangu Mandanna (Expected Publication Date: June 11)
• One Of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon (Expected Publication Date: June 11)
• What You Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris (Expected Publication Date: June 18)
• The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley (Expected Publication Date: June 18)

The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

Expected Publication Date: June 18

There is only one way to travel across the Wastelands: on the Trans-Siberian Express, a train as famous for its luxury as for its danger. The train is never short of passengers, eager to catch sight of Wastelands creatures more miraculous and terrifying than anything they could imagine. But on the train’s last journey, something went horribly wrong, though no one seems to remember what exactly happened. Not even Zhang Weiwei, who has spent her life onboard and thought she knew all of the train’s secrets.

Now, the train is about to embark again, with a new set of passengers. Among them are Marya Petrovna, a grieving woman with a borrowed name; Henry Grey, a disgraced naturalist looking for redemption; and Elena, a beguiling stowaway with a powerful connection to the Wastelands itself. Weiwei knows she should report Elena, but she can’t help but be drawn to her. As the girls begin a forbidden friendship, there are warning signs that the rules of the Wastelands are changing, and the train might once again be imperiled. Can the passengers trust each other, as the wildness outside threatens to consume them all? (Credit: Flatiron Books)

Hey Zoey by Sarah Crossan

Expected Publication Date: June 25

43-year-old Dolores O’Shea is logical, organized, and prepared to handle whatever comes her way. She keeps up with her job and housework, takes care of her mentally declining mother, and remains close with her old friends and her younger sister who’s moved to New York. Though her marriage with David, an anesthesiologist, isn’t what is used to be, nothing can quite prepare her for Zoey, the $8,000 AI sex doll that David has secretly purchased and stuffed away in the garage. At first, Zoey sparks an uncharacteristically strong violence in Dolores, whose entire life is suddenly cast in doubt.

But then, Dolores and Zoey start to talk…and what surfaces runs deeper than Dolores could have ever expected, with consequences for all of the relationships in her life, especially her relationship to herself. Provocative, brilliant, and tender, Hey, Zoey is an electrifying new novel about the painful truths of modern-day connection and the complicated and unexpected forms that love can take in a lifetime. (Credit: Little Brown and Company)

Sleep Like Death by Kalynn Bayron

Expected Publication Date: June 25

Princess Eve was raised with one purpose: to destroy the Knight, an evil sorcerer who terrorizes Queens Bridge with his wicked magic. Her own unique magic—the ability to conjure weapons from nature—makes her a worthy adversary. Far too many of subjects of Queens Bridge have been devastated by the Knight’s trickery.

As she approaches her seventeenth birthday, Eve is ready to battle. But her mother Queen Regina has been acting bizarrely, talking to a strange mirror alone every night. Then a young man claiming to be the Knight’s messenger appears and shares a shocking truth about Eve’s past. Unsure of who to trust or what to do next, Eve must find the courage to do what she’s always done: fight. But will it be enough to save her family and her queendom? (Credit: Bloomsbury YA)

Trust Her by Flynn Berry

Expected Publication Date: June 25

Three years after they narrowly escaped the IRA’s worst punishment for informing, Northern Irish sisters Tessa and Marian Daly have built a new life in Dublin with their young children. Though Tessa is haunted by the abrupt and violent end to her old life, she does her best to immerse herself in the joys of Finn’s childhood and the rhythms of her new job at the Irish Observer. 

It’s a small island, though, and just as quickly as they disappeared, figures from the sisters’ past surface to drag them back into the conflict. Tessa is told she must track down her old handler from MI5, Eamonn, and attempt to turn him into an IRA informant, or lose everything.

Tessa’s reunion with Eamonn revives a host of feelings she has long attempted to bury. As their relationship intensifies and the pressure mounts, long-held secrets rise to the surface, and Tessa must navigate a treacherous landscape of shifting loyalties, all while trying to protect her beloved son. (Credit: Viking)

Under Your Spell by Laura Wood

Expected Publication Date: June 25

She wants three things. He isn’t one of them…

Dumped by her cheating ex, fired from her dream job, and about to lose her flat: Clementine Monroe is not having a good day. So when her sisters get her drunk and suggest reviving a childhood ritual called the Breakup Spell, she doesn’t see the harm in it.

But now Clemmie has accidentally ruined a funeral, had her first one-night stand, and she’s stuck with a new job she definitely doesn’t want—spending six weeks alone with the gorgeous and very-off-limits rock star, Theo Eliott.

He’s the most famous man on the planet. Her life’s a disaster. As their summer together turns into its own kind of magic, is Clemmie cursed to repeat the mistakes of her past—or will her future see all her wishes come true? (Credit: Atria Books)

Highlighted Releases Later In the Year

• The Midnight Game by Cynthia Murphy (Expected Publication Date: July 2)
• The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster by Shauna Robinson (Expected Publication Date: July 2)
• The Love Dare by Abiola Bello (Expected Publication Date: July 4)
• How to Die Famous by Benjamin Dean (Expected Publication Date: July 9)
• Bad Tourists by Caro Carver (Expected Publication Date: July 9)
• Babylonia by Costanza Casati (Expected Publication Date: July 11)
• Cabaret Macabre by Tom Mead (Expected Publication Date: July 16)
• The Wilds by Sara Pearse (Expected Publication Date: July 16)
• Queen B by Juno Dawson (Expected Publication Date: July 18)
• The Chamber by Will Dean (Expected Publication Date: August 6)
• The Trials of Lila Dalton by L.J. Shepherd (Expected Publication Date: August 27)
• The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (Expected Publication Date: September 3)
• The Examiner by Janice Hallett (Expected Publication Date: September 5)
• A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna (Expected Publication Date: September 10)
• Rani Choudhury Must Die by Adiba Jaigirdar (Expected Publication Date: November 12)

---

Please note that this blogpost includes affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you buy through them.

---