Welcome to an incomplete and skewed new releases list geared towards the publications I am most excited to read from 2026. Stay a while, see if any of the novels below pique your interest and join me on another exciting year of reading and discovery! Don't forget to stop by later to see which novels I took the plunge and read and if they're worth a read or not!
Please Note: The brief book descriptions on this post are the publisher's description.
~ January Releases ~
~ February ~
~ March ~
~ April ~
~ May ~
~ June Releases ~
Release Date: 23 June 2026
Publisher's Description: Reeling from a very recent divorce, Frankie has moved into a glamorous London neighborhood. This is a new chapter in her life. She's decided to put down roots with the beautiful Persian cat she left her marriage with named Blue.
But little niggles with her perfect new life start to grow and when Blue returns one night from slipping into places he shouldn't, Frankie’s concerns solidify. Two words are roughly scratched into his collar: HELP ME. Unsettled and unwilling to ignore the incident, Frankie roots out an old unused "Cat Cam" collar. What slowly begins as a voyeuristic fascination with her neighbors and the secrets they're hiding soon turns into a perilous quest for the truth that threatens to bring untold terrors to her doorstep.
My Pre-Review: I have read two works by Catherine Steadman and neither drew my fancy; I initially began this pre-review stating I had never read her works before, which was a blatant lie lol - but that's how much of an impression her works have left on me. Taking that into account, I'm not sure which category Nine Lives will slot into, but I do anticipate a light-hearted read that I will enjoy during consumption and subsequently forget within two weeks.
When James Golden’s twin brother, Johnny, dies in a tragic accident, she senses the loss before the call arrives. Their bond was more than the average sibling relationship - they had a connection she couldn't explain.
Returning to Hawthorne to settle her brother's affairs, James is forced to confront the ghosts of her pasts, including Micah - the only man she's ever loved and the only one who knows the truth about what they endured. But the deeper she digs into Johnny's life, the more James realizes her twin brother had been keeping secrets. Dangerous ones.
As James unravels the mystery of her brother’s final days, she must decide: how much of the truth is worth bringing to light - and what’s better left buried?
~ June ~
~ July ~
~ August Releases ~
Release Date:4 August 2026
Publisher's Description: In 1926, five women disappeared from a remote island in Vermont. Now, one hundred years later, it’s happening again.
Struggling actress Marin Keane is shocked when she lands a role in a major motion picture about the unsolved mystery of New Avalon, an island on sprawling Lake Faraday in Vermont. She’s even more surprised when she learns that the role requires a weeklong research trip to that very spot.
Because New Avalon isn’t your ordinary island. A century ago, it was a commune for spiritual mediums—until they all vanished in 1926. The only trace of them was five dresses hanging from the branches of an old oak tree in the middle of the island, one for each missing woman. Some locals say they simply left. Others think they were murdered. But the prevailing opinion, thanks to a diary left behind by one of the vanished, a young woman named Daisy Rue, is that a séance gone wrong conjured something supernatural that took them all one by one.
Not long after arriving, Marin and her castmates, including legendary actress Violet Wright and white-hot director Ronan Peters, begin to realize all is not right with New Avalon. They hear strange noises in the night and notice mysterious symbols left behind by the island's previous occupants. And after a sudden health emergency leaves Marin, Ronan, and the other actors stranded on the island, the disappearances begin again.
Is it the work of someone trying to derail the movie? Or is the island’s alleged supernatural past catching up with the present? As fear and suspicion mount, Marin turns to Daisy’s diary, hoping it holds the key to figuring out what really happened to the women of New Avalon—and how to keep the island’s terrible history from repeating itself.
My Pre-Review: Absolutely stoked for a new Riley Sager release. I have read all of his works and have overwhelmingly found myself enjoying them. I like how a large portion of his works incorporate a supernatural element and as a reader (or at least for me), it's only at the end when you are able to discover if this supernatural entity actually had a role in the mystery or if you've been hoodwinked! I think The Unknown will follow similar patterns of allusion to the supernatural with the mystery having a more mundane answer than real-life witches, and that will be the fun of the novel, figuring out the truth behind the disappearances and what truly happened on Lake Faraday.
~ September ~
~ October ~
~ November ~
~ December ~