"It’s official: Summer, with its gloriously long days, warm weather, and blue skies, is upon us. While the season promises days spent soaking up the sunshine and taking part in outdoor activities, it’s also important to enjoy the quieter moments. For us, that means grabbing one of the new books we’ve been itching to read, turning up the air conditioning, and lounging on our couch for a couple of hours until we’re called to check another item off our summer bucket list.
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The books below are highly recommended by millions of readers on Goodreads (plus a few from my personal most-anticipated list), a place where book lovers rate and review what they read, create lists of their favorites (and not-so-favorites), and share their love of reading with people just like them.
From the porch of his home across the river, Charles Lamosway has watched Roger and Mary raising their only child, Elizabeth, from the day she came home from the hospital to her early 20s. But there’s always been something deeper and more dangerous than the river that divides him from this family and the rest of the tribal community. It’s the secret that Elizabeth is his daughter, a secret Charles is no longer willing to keep. Now it’s been weeks since he’s seen Elizabeth and Charles is worried. As he attempts to hold on and care for what he can, he becomes increasingly haunted by his past. Forced to confront a lost childhood on the reservation, a love affair cut short, and the death of his beloved stepfather—Charles contends with questions he’s long been afraid to ask. Is it his secret to share?
Publishing June 4.
Oklahoma, 1909. Eleven-year-old Olive Augusta Radley knows that her stepfather doesn’t have good intentions toward the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home as wards. When the older girl disappears, Ollie flees to the woods, taking 6-year-old Nessa with her. Oklahoma, 1990. Law enforcement ranger Valerie Boren-Odell arrives at a newly minted National Park. But no sooner has Valerie reported for duty than she’s faced with local controversy over the park’s opening, including the long-hidden burial site of three children unearthed in a cave. In this emotional and enveloping novel, Lisa Wingate traces the story of children abandoned by the law and the battle to see justice done. Amid times of deep conflict, Ollie and Val traverse the rugged and beautiful terrain, each leaving behind one life in search of another.
Publishing June 4.
There are things Chelsea Devantez probably shouldn’t be telling you. Many of them are in this book: Some are embarrassing (like when she tried to break her three-year spell of celibacy using a guide of seduction tips). Some are confessional and some are TMI (like that time one doctor misdiagnosed her as “pregnant.” Whoopsies!). Then there are things Chelsea really shouldn’t be telling you: like the time her biggest family secret was publicly outed, or about the drive-by shootings, and so on… Yet through it all, it’s the women in Chelsea’s life who kept her going. In I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This, Chelsea centers each story around a different woman who shaped her life, taking us on a tour of friends and strangers, fictional characters and celebrities, heroes and villains.
Publishing June 4.
As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet’s always known she’d have to make it on her own. So she enrolls at her local junior college, even though she can’t imagine how she’ll ever make a living. She’s still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor—and while the affair is brief, it isn’t brief enough to keep her from getting pregnant. Now, at 20, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed, and on the verge of eviction. She needs a cash infusion—fast. Margo begins to form a plan: She’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment and soon finds herself adapting some advice from her estranged father. Before she knows it, she’s turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?
Publishing June 11.
Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in food science. Her world is stable until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive frontman threatens to bring it all crumbling down. Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him. Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab windows. Their affair is secret, no strings attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies prevails. But the heart is a risky business—one that plays for keeps.
Publishing June 11.
Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies—good ones! But she’s also been the sole full-time caretaker for her kind-hearted dad. Now, when she gets a chance to rewrite a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates—her personal writing god—it’s a break too big to pass up. Emma moves to L.A. for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone—much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter—even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But… what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules—and comes true?
Publishing June 11.
Maya Hoshimoto was once the best art thief in the galaxy. For 10 years, she returned stolen artifacts to alien civilizations—until a disastrous job forced her into hiding. Now, she just wants to enjoy a quiet life as a graduate student of anthropology, but she’s haunted by persistent and disturbing visions of the future. Then she’s presented with a job she can’t refuse: find a powerful object that could save an alien species from extinction. Except no one has seen it in living memory, and she isn’t the only one hunting for it. Maya sets out on a quest through a universe teeming with strange life and ancient ruins. But the farther she goes, the more her visions cast a dark shadow over her team of friends new and old. Someone will betray her along the way. Worse yet, in choosing to save one species, she may condemn humanity and Earth itself.
Publishing June 11.
One July night, 10-year-old Ethan Marsh and his best friend, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up in a quiet and quaint New Jersey cul-de-sac. In the morning, Ethan was alone. Someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again. Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul-de-sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Ethan begins to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the mysterious woods that surround Hemlock Circle. The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.
Publishing June 18.
It’s the opening night of The Manor, and no expense has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests’ healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the “Manor Mule” cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen. And yet, just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And the whispers keep coming about an old piece of pagan folklore, the Night Birds, an avenging force that can be called upon to make right wrongs that elude the law. On the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. There’s been a fire. A body’s been discovered. Something’s not right with the guests. What happened on the grounds of the Manor the past 36 hours? And who—or what—is the cause?
Publishing June 18.
Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good book. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year, in search of a distraction. But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel… Because it is. This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story. Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book. Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.
Publishing June 25.
Sam and Elena dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence. Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming in the dark waters of the channel. When the bear turns up at their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it’s time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the desire to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger.
Publishing June 25.
Who invented reality television, the world’s most dangerous pop-culture genre? And why can’t we look away? In this revelatory, deeply reported account of the rise of “dirty documentary”—from its contentious roots in radio to the ascent of Donald Trump—Emily Nussbaum unearths the origin story of the genre that ate the world, as told through the lively voices of the people who built it. At once, gimlet-eyed and empathetic, Cue the Sun! explores the morally charged, funny, and sometimes tragic consequences of the hunt for something real inside something fake.
Publishing June 25.
Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her Appa’s affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying… yet enticing. In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is her mother’s obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family’s claustrophobic apartment. He’s arrogant and brags as if he deserves all of her mother’s fawning adoration. No, George doesn’t deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that. For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won’s hunger and her rage deserve to be sated.
Publishing June 25.
Early morning, August 1975: A camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any 13-year-old: She’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished 14 years ago, never to be found. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, author Liz Moore’s multi-threaded story invites listeners into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.
Publishing July 2.
In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher was kidnapped from his driveway. He is returned less than a week later, and the family moves on with their lives, comforted in the realization that their money is what saved them. But now, nearly 40 years later, it’s clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything, after all. Carl has spent years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband’s emotional health. Their three grown children aren’t doing much better: Nathan’s chronic fear won’t allow him to advance at his law firm; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything in order to numb his own terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she’s not a product of her family’s pathology that she has come to define it. They learn that the family fortune has dwindled to just about nothing, and they must face desperate questions about how much their wealth has played a part in both their lives’ successes and failures.
Publishing July 9.
Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boarding house in the heart of the nation’s capital. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss, whose facade of perfection covers gaping inner wounds; policeman’s daughter Nora, who finds herself entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Beatrice, whose career has come to an end; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene. Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties bring the women together, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the women must decide: Who is the true enemy in their midst?
Publishing July 9.
Enter a world ruled by Dragons…Anahrod lives only for survival, forging her own way through the harsh jungles of the Deep with her titan drake by her side. Even when an adventuring party saves her from capture by a local warlord, she is eager to return to her solitary life. But this is no ordinary rescue. It’s Anahrod’s past catching up with her. These cunning misfits–and their frustratingly appealing dragonrider ringleader–intend to spirit her away to the dragon-ruled sky cities, where they need her help to steal from a dragon’s hoard. There’s only one problem: The hoard in question belongs to the current regent, Neveranimas—and she wants Anahrod dead.
Publishing July 9.
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later. Fifteen years later, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. He is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy. Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for he is plagued with memories of a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return. Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they once called home—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.
Publishing July 16.
For all of Kat’s life, it’s just been her and her mother, Jamie—except for the 48 hours when Jamie was married and Kat had a stepbrother, Liam. That all ended in an epic divorce, and Kat and Liam haven’t spoken since. Now, Jamie is a jewel thief trying to go straight, but she has one last job—at billionaire Ross Sutherland’s birthday party. And Kat has figured out a way to tag along. What Kat doesn’t know, though, is that there are surprise guests at the dazzling Sutherland compound, Liam and his father—a serial scammer who has his sights set on Ross Sutherland’s youngest daughter. Kat and Liam are on a collision course to disaster, and when a Sutherland dies, they realize they might actually be in the killer’s crosshairs themselves. Somehow, Kat and Liam are the new targets, and they can’t trust anyone—except each other. Or can they?
Publishing July 30.
Welcome to the Grandest Game, an annual competition run by billionaire Avery Grambs and the four infamous Hawthorne brothers, whose family fortune she inherited. Designed to give anyone a shot at fame and fortune, this year’s game requires one of seven golden tickets to enter. With millions on the line, those seven players will do whatever it takes to win. Some of the players are in it for the money. Some for power. Some for reasons all their own. Every single one of them has secrets. Amidst it all is Grayson Hawthorne, tasked with a vital role in this year’s game. But as tensions rise and the mind-bending challenges push the players to their limits—physically, mentally, and emotionally—it soon becomes clear that not everyone is playing by the rules.
Publishing July 30.
The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men. The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed. The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive. But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world. She does not know this yet. But she will.
Publishing August 13.
Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym. In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, she begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.
Publishing August 20.