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Readers' Most Anticipated Books of Summer
Welcome back, once again, to the perennial tradition of summer reading. Thanks to display-technology advances in e-book readers, you can bring entire libraries of books out into the bright sun. Instead of being indecisive on the couch, you can be indecisive in the sand. Progress! There’s no stopping it.
This year’s batch of summer books is especially rich and diverse, and occasionally quite weird. Look for new titles from celebrated authors including Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Taylor Jenkins Reid; buzzy debuts from Katie Gutierrez, J.M. Miro, and Gina Chen; and some intriguing wild card options concerning Colombian fortune-tellers, genetically designed posthumans, and 19th-century divorcée destination vacations.
As always, the books below are sorted by genre and largely determined by you, the loyal Goodreads regular. Titles are selected by tracking early reviews and crunching the numbers on how many readers are putting these books on their Want to Read shelves.
Be sure to add anything that catches your eye to your own Want to Read shelf, and let us know what you're reading and recommending in the comments.
Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of the National Book Award finalist Sabrina & Corina, returns with this multigenerational western saga about a sprawling Indigenous Chicano family in Colorado. Luz "Little Light" Lopez must fend for herself after her brother is run off by a white mob. When Luz starts experiencing intense visions of her homeland and genetic history, she realizes that someone has to keep these family stories alive.
Release date: June 7
Release date: June 7
Ace essayist Sloane Crosley (I Was Told There’d Be Cake) returns to the novel format with Cult Classic, which looks like good, weird fun. One of the summer’s most anticipated novels, the book is a kind of literary mystery-thriller, featuring a New York City heroine who may or may not be the target of a very contemporary, oddly romantic cult.
Release date: June 7
Release date: June 7
Nantucket summer read specialist Elin Hilderbrand is back with this intriguing story about a derelict hotel and the team of locals who try to restore it to glory. The glamourous Hotel Nantucket went into terminal decline around 1922, when a tragic fire killed a teenage chambermaid. Now a London billionaire is bankrolling a restoration and has hired a motley crew of staffers. Oh, and that chambermaid is back, ghostlike.
Release date: June 14
Release date: June 14
If you like your historical fiction with a dash of occult mysticism—who doesn’t?—then bookmark this fascinating departure from marquee author Ottessa Moshfegh (My Year of Rest and Relaxation). In a tiny medieval fiefdom, a little shepherd boy and an outcast midwife bring some very old magic to bear against a tyrannical lord and a hypocritical priest. Get ’em! Get ’em!
Release date: June 21
Release date: June 21
This innovative mystery from author Margarita Montimore (Oona Out of Order) centers on world-famous magician Violet Volk and her permanent disappearing act. Ten years ago, Violet vanished in the midst of her last public performance. Now her sister Sasha is trying to solve the mystery. But why is Sasha suddenly sleepwalking every night?
Release date: July 5
Release date: July 5
Winner of this summer’s unofficial Best Story Idea Premise, Jamie Ford’s foray into historical fiction/magic realism introduces poet Dorothy Moy, who’s worried that her crippling depression will be passed to her daughter. Through an experimental treatment, Dorothy connects with past generations of women in her Chinese family, including a World War II nurse, a little girl in San Francisco, and the first Chinese woman to set foot in America.
Release date: August 2
Release date: August 2
From the author of Daisy Jones & The Six, Carrie Soto Is Back chronicles the return of an elite tennis champion who comes back to the game six years after her retirement. At age 37, Carrie Soto is determined to cement her legacy as the greatest tennis player ever. In her way: a fierce younger rival, Carrie’s own aging body, and a troubled relationship with her father/coach.
Release date: August 30
Release date: August 30
One of the summer’s buzziest debut novels, More Than You'll Ever Know toggles between two timelines and stories. In the first story, set in the 1980s, international banker Delores Rivera leads a double life with families in Texas and Mexico. In the second story, a true-crime writer in 2017 investigates the murder of Rivera’s husband…by her other husband.
Release date: June 7
Release date: June 7
As the board game Clue taught us so long ago, the library is an excellent place for a murder. The latest from author Sulari Gentill (the Rowland Sinclair series) brings readers to a corner table in the Boston Public Library. A body has just been found, and police have locked down the building. Four strangers sit at a table. One of them is a murderer. The one with the candlestick, probably.
Release date: June 7
Release date: June 7
Superstar pseudonym Riley Sager (Final Girls) is back with another twisty thriller, this time concerning a widowed actress, a pair of binoculars, and a dangerous obsession. Casey Fletcher has been drinking-and-spying on the perfect couple in the house across the lake. When one of them disappears, Casey learns the dangers of drunken voyeurism. The hard way.
Release date: June 21
Release date: June 21
British author Ruth Ware works in the high classic mystery style of golden age crime writers like Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, and Dorothy L. Sayers. Her new whodunit begins in the tony environs of Oxford University, where vivacious young student April Coutts-Cliveden is murdered. Ten years later, her friend Hannah Jones discovers that the convicted killer may have been innocent all along.
Release date: July 12
Release date: July 12
A familial riff on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, the new mystery from Alice Feeney (Sometimes I Lie) also features a gathering of people who find themselves getting knocked off by a sinister killer, one by one. Only this time around, it’s a family affair. Daisy Darker’s entire family has reunited in a ramshackle island manor for Nana’s 80th birthday. Nana is the first to go, and it gets worse from there.
Release date: August 30
Release date: August 30
This debut novel from author J.M. Miro—the first of a trilogy—sounds like a kind of Victorian-era X-Men steeped in eldritch lore. Charlie and Marlowe are two teenage urchins with magical powers, traveling from London to Edinburgh to join other supernaturally gifted children known as the Talents. The world of the living and the world of the dead are about to collide, apparently. So heads up on that.
Release date: June 7
Release date: June 7
Winner of this summer’s unofficial Most Interesting Book Cover Image, Portland author Lidia Yuknavitch’s Thrust combines elements of science fiction and historical fiction in the tale of a time-traveling orphan tasked with saving the world. Young Laisve uses her powers as a carrier to move through time, recruiting allies from the past two centuries to combat 21st-century threats both political and ecological.
Release date: June 28
Release date: June 28
Pivoting off contemporary fears of genetic editing gone rogue, the sci-fi thriller Upgrade follows government agent Logan Ramsay after he’s accidentally exposed to a virus designed to manipulate his core genetic structure. With each passing day, Logan’s brain is getting better, stronger, faster—evolving in fast-forward toward a posthuman future. It’s scary because it’s plausible, and author Blake Crouch is so good with this stuff.
Release date: July 19
Release date: July 19
H.G. Wells’ 1896 classic, The Island of Doctor Moreau, gets a wicked reimagining in this latest scary story from author Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexican Gothic). In 19th-century Mexico, Carlota Moreau lives on a remote estate with her mad scientist father and his menagerie of human/animal hybrids. When a dashing young man enters the frame, all hell breaks loose. Call it historical romance horror.
Release date: July 19
Release date: July 19
Author R.F. Kuang’s cerebral brand of speculative fiction is enormous fun for nerds of sufficient intensity, and her new book looks amazing. In 1828, young Robin Swift—a Chinese boy raised in Britain—is recruited to study at Oxford, where he learns of England’s nefarious means of cultural hegemony via magic. Refusing to betray his motherland, Robin joins a new kind of student revolution. Power, brother.
Release date: August 23
Release date: August 23
Genre professional Paul Tremblay (The Cabin at the End of the World) returns to the horror game with this story of a very unsettling friendship. In the 1980s, a lonesome metalhead kid starts getting attention from one of the cool girls. She’s a little morbid, maybe, and knows a lot about digging up corpses. Then the real weirdness starts. Forty years later, it starts up again.
Release date: July 5
Release date: July 5
Homecoming can be very dark when your father is a serial killer. Vera's mother calls her back to the family home, a place full of secrets and a new tenant who seems focused on using her childhood for artistic inspiration. This new novel from genre-defying Sarah Gailey (Magic for Liars, The Echo Wife) is being described as spine-tingling, intense, and claustrophobic. Yikes!
Release date: July 19
Release date: July 19
More spooky fun from the vaults! This new horror story from T. Kingfisher (The Twisted Ones) is a fever-dream retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's 1839 classic, The Fall of the House of Usher. On tap: a crumbling mansion, a sinister lake, a perplexing disease, and a mycological nightmare of divergent fungal evolution. Mushrooms are scary. They just are.
Release date: July 12
Release date: July 12
This one looks incredible: River of the Gods chronicles the epic 19th-century expedition by British explorers Richard Burton (not that one) and John Hanning Speke to find the headwaters of the mighty Nile River. Author Candice Millard (Destiny of the Republic) finds a new way in to this old story by focusing on a third member of the party, largely forgotten by imperial history: East African guide Sidi Mubarak Bombay.
Release date: May 17
Release date: May 17
This ambitious tome from veteran author and journalist David K. Randall (Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep) pivots off the 1902 fossil excavation of Tyrannosaurus rex, everyone’s favorite Cretaceous carnivore. On the menu: intrepid paleontologists, Gilded Age robber barons, tricky politics at the American Museum of Natural History, and four-foot-long jaws with 12-inch teeth.
Release date: June 7
Release date: June 7
In the 19th century, women in unhappy marriages didn’t have a lot of options. But for some, freedom was found in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where progressive divorce laws made the small town a very specific kind of vacation destination. The Divorce Colony digs into the rich culture and history that developed in this particular time and place. Bonus trivia: Author April White is a historian and senior editor at the very cool Atlas Obscura.
Release date: June 14
Release date: June 14
Malaysian-born science writer Ed Yong is an elite-level journalist; he won a Pulitzer Prize last year for his reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic. His new book, however, has a gentler topic. An Immense World explores the many strange ways that animals perceive their surroundings, from dogs to bees to squids to turtles that can read the earth’s magnetic fields.
Release date: June 21
Release date: June 21
A unique kind of memoir, The Man Who Could Move Clouds is a journey into family history and (real) magic from award-winning author Ingrid Rojas Contreras (Fruit of the Drunken Tree). Born into a lineage of Colombian fortune-tellers and healers, Contreras’ life takes an odd left turn when a head injury prompts a bout of amnesia. In the foggy aftermath, Contreras investigates her family’s magical heritage.
Release date: July 12
Release date: July 12
Author and Today Show regular Isaac Fitzgerald has written about tattoos for grown-ups and pirates for kids, which is actually a good indicator of the range of themes offered up in his new memoir. Dirtbag, Massachusetts explores trauma and violence along with self-forgiveness and grace. Oh, and smuggling medical supplies into Burma.
Release date: July 19
Release date: July 19
Zalvidar is the world’s most famous Dragonador—think dragon + matador—and he’s just been gravely injured. It’s now up to his daughter Zarela to defend the family’s ancestral home. Author Isabel Ibañez (Woven in Moonlight) combines traditional fantasy with Bolivian culture to deliver a new take on the old dragon tale. Also: flamenco dancing.
Release date: May 31
Release date: May 31
Sequel to last year's YA fantasy Realm Breaker, this new installment continues the adventures of author Victoria Aveyard’s motley crew: a stalwart squire, an ancient sorceress, a rogue assassin, an obsessed immortal, and a magic-wielding pirate. Bonus trivia: Aveyard is also the author of the sprawling Red Queen fantasy series.
Release date: June 28
Release date: June 28
The usual palace intrigue goes insanely high-stakes when a morally ambiguous court prophet awakens a sinister curse that could wipe out an entire kingdom. Author Gina Chen’s fantasy debut, the first of a proposed duology, explores the intriguing idea of what happens when the kingdom’s official mystic prognosticator has trouble telling the truth.
Release date: July 26
Release date: July 26
In this third installment of The Inheritance Games series, mystery specialist Jennifer Lynn Barnes returns readers to the labyrinthine Hawthorne House, where every room poses a new puzzle, riddle, or conundrum. Teenager Avery Grambs stands to inherit millions if she can figure it all out, but a new stranger has arrived at the manse and all the rules have changed. No fair.
Release date: August 30
Release date: August 30
Christina Lauren’s new romance, Something Wilder, follows the fortunes of young Lily Wilder, who has inherited hand-drawn maps left behind by her father, a famous treasure hunter. Now a tour guide in the canyons of Utah, Lily finds herself on an adventure with old flame Leo Grady, who is still carrying a torch (possibly an actual torch) for Lily.
Release date: May 17
Release date: May 17
When bingo aficionado Aja Owens meets Walker Abbott, he’s just an irritant—the grandson of one of her elderly bingo buddies. Then the sparks start to smolder. This new romance from Jodie Slaughter keeps the mood light and also includes “a bingo-based sex pact,” which seems like a pretty interesting idea, actually. G-58? Hmm, how do I unclasp this?
Release date: July 12
Release date: July 12
The title of this sequel to the popular 2020 romance Boyfriend Material was kind of inevitable, really. Returning readers will find Luc and Oliver still together after all that business and now looking at the next step in their relationship. Author Alexis Hall summons that dilemma familiar to so many couples: All our friends are getting married. What do we do next?
Release date: August 2
Release date: August 2
Scientists need love, too. That’s the governing principle in Ali Hazelwood’s new “STEMinist rom-com” concerning neuroengineering expert Bee Königswasser and her crush/rival Levi Ward—he of the piercing eyes, muscled arms, and formidable intellect. Just because Bee understands how neurons work doesn’t mean she can control things when they fire up. Don’t overthink it, you two.
Release date: August 23
Release date: August 23
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May 25, 2022 10:52AM
I'm excited for The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith! (6th book in the Cormoran Strike series)
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Love on the brain sound exactly like the love hypothesis:(
I agree with Heather Caldwell, everyone of the Mystery/Thriller. I am ready.
Looking forward to Dirtbag, Massachusetts. Strange strange title! Oh, and Cult Classic!
Definitely looking forward to reading Upgrade and An Immense World
Added almost all the fiction books to my to read list 😧
I am truly intrigued by "The hoel nantucket", "daisy darker" and "Upgrade"!
Interesting list, but can't imagine why you neglected Craig Alanson's Match Game, coming out on June 7. I'll bet you $ that shortly after coming out, Match Game will be at the top of the Audible and Amazon charts.
I Added almost all of these to my want to read list 🤦🏾♀️ It’s gonna be a lit girl summer 🥰
Kristin wrote: "how is love on the brain ya?"It's not. You probably missed the transition to romance when scrolling ☺️
So happy to read more books this summer! Better than being in my college classes T-T if anyone has any good fantasy book recommendations I would love to read them
Not much exciting here, for me, but there's a couple nonfiction I'm gonna look at.When will "covers with dead animals" stop being a thing, though? Why was it ever a thing...
I am looking forward to The House Across The Lake by Riley Sager. I have enjoyed all of his books and hope to enjoy this one as well.
I am definitely MOST excited about Don’t Let Me fall my Kelsey Rae! I have never finished a book with as much haste!! It was soooo good!!
These all look brilliant - I'm also so excited to read Not Quite White from Laila Woozeer! Not Quite White Laila Woozeer
Anything by Candace Millard has been a solid read and a different way of looking at history. "River of the Gods" is high on my list.
Looking forward to ordinary monsters,something different
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. I've been reading quite a few books on animal senses and consciousness, so I'm really looking forward to this book. Will pre-order for myself but not my bookshop until I've read it.
I’m excited for the final book The Record Keeper by Charles Martin!
Definitely excited for Ordinary Monsters! It sounds terrifying but incredible 😆
Excited to read The Hotel Nantucket and Heartbreaker by Sarah Maclean
The It Girl sounds super interesting. Looking forward to picking that up at some point. Hopefully in a Waterstones special edition too!
Heather wrote: "I want to read every one of the mystery and thriller books, rain or shine it looks like a good reads summer."I feel the same!! Happy reading to everyone!!
Kristin wrote: "how is love on the brain ya?"It's under the romance category!
