10 books everyone should read in 2026 | Books | Entertainment

With just a couple of days to go before the end of the year, avid readers will be looking back at everything they’ve read this year, before planning their reading list for 2026. Luckily, book lovers will be spoiled for choice in 2026, with many exciting new releases on the way.

Whether you’re a fan of fantasy, crime, literary fiction or romance, here are 10 books to look out for in 2026, with picks from both established and debut authors alike. And for more book news and reviews, subscribe to our free weekly newsletter, The Bookish Drop, on Substack.

1. Kin by Tayari Jones

From the author of An American Marriage, Kin follows Vernice and Annie, two girls born within days of each other who become inseparable throughout their childhood. They are united by a shared loss, with neither girl ever knowing her own mother.

Coming of age in the segregated America of the 1950s and 60s, fate leads them down very different paths. Vernice looks to the future, pursuing an education before marrying into an affluent family, while Annie becomes possessed by an all-consuming desire to find her absent mother. But when her search leads to danger, it’s Vernice who must risk everything to save her.

Kin publishes March 26.

2. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle – and has the Instagram account to prove it. Her charming farmhouse on her working ranch is artfully cluttered, her husband is a handsome cowboy and her sourdough boules are each more beautiful than the last. 

So what if there are nannies, producers and industrial-grade ovens behind the scenes? What Natalie’s followers don’t know won’t hurt them. 

Then, one morning, Natalie wakes up in a strange, horrible version of reality. The year appears to be 1805. Is this a hoax? A reality show? A test from God? One thing Natalie does know is that it’ll make a hell of an Instagram post. 

Yesteryear publishes April 9.

3. The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke

World-famous author Arthur Fletch is dead. His final novel, the most anticipated book in history, remains unfinished. But the ending won’t write itself. 

When six struggling authors are invited to Fletch’s private Scottish island and presented with the opportunity of a lifetime, the plot thickens: whoever writes a worthy ending will receive a game-changing book deal and two million dollars.

But why have they been chosen to attend? Who is behind the invitation? And how far would they go to secure a place on the bestseller list?

Evelyn Clarke is the pseudonym for writing duo V.E. Schwab (Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue) and Cat Clarke (Girlhood, Entangled).

The Ending Writes Itself publishes April 7.

4. A Dark Forgetting by Kristen Ciccarelli

The bestselling author of The Crimson Moth is back with a brand new romantasy this February.

No matter how far Emeline Lark runs, the song of the forest reaches her, luring her away from her dreams of the stage and back to her small town and its superstitions.

But every superstition is rooted in truth, and when her grandfather goes missing, Emeline will be forced to return to Edgewood and the forest beyond. 

There, even Hawthorne Fell, a brooding tithe collector, cannot dissuade her from her path—a path that will lead her into the court of the fabled Wood King himself—and into a bargain with the deadliest price. 

A Dark Forgetting publishes February 12.

5. The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez

In everyone’s life, there’s a split-second decision that can change everything. For Larissa, it came when choosing which guy to ride home with after a concert. That night, she had no idea she’d met the perfect man. She and Chris are great together, and for the first time, things finally feel easy.

But Chris isn’t the one who drove Larissa home all those months ago – Chris is her boyfriend’s best friend. All Chris wants is for Larissa to be happy. Standing by the sidelines is slowly killing him, but making a move would destroy someone else. And he’s just not that guy.

The Night We Met publishes March 24.

6. Innamorata by Ava Reid

Once there was an island where the dead walked the earth, and seven noble houses ruled by the arcane secrets of necromancy. A conqueror’s blade brought them low, burning their libraries, killing their lords and extinguishing their eldritch magic. 

But defiant against the new order stands the House of Teeth and its last living members: Marozia, heiress to the house, and her cousin Lady Agnes.

Though she has not spoken a word in seven years, Agnes is the true carrier of the House’s legacy, charged with her own orders. But while revenge burns in her heart, so too do stranger passions, with the connection between Agnes and Liuprand, the golden prince, threatening to poison the kingdom’s roots and tear the already shattered realm in two.

Innamorata publishes March 17.

7. Motherfaker by Anna Brook-Mitchell

Barri Brown has spent years slaving away as an English teacher. But with a distant family and a husband who has just vanished along with her life savings, she dreams of escape. The solution?

Barri dreams up a scheme to pretend she’s having a baby and use the paid year off work to start over somewhere new. All she has to do is blag it until she can disappear for good. 

But on a small island like Guernsey, it’s easier said than done, especially when a student discovers her secret and her fake pregnancy forces her to make genuine connections for the first time in years. It turns out scamming your way to a better life is harder when you start liking the life you’re trying to escape from. 

Motherfaker publishes February 26.

8. Homebound by Portia Elan

It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get out of Cincinnati. In the meantime, she has work to do: her uncle, the only person who understood her, has left her a half-finished game to complete. 

What Becks is coding will outlast her by centuries and shape the lives of a scientist, an astronaut and a desperate sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. 

It will connect these four pioneering women across time, vast oceans and far-distant planets and introduce them to a remarkable robot destined to gather together this disparate crew and bring them home.

Homebound publishes May 7.

9. Fruit Fly by Josh Silver

It’s been seven years since Mallory shot to fame as a literary sensation. But after years of struggling with writer’s block, she’s desperate to resurrect her career – and quickly. Enter Leo: a young, struggling addict sleeping under bridges and trading sex for survival.

Vulnerable and enigmatic, he’s exactly what Mallory has been looking for. But as she sets out to tell his story, dark secrets come to light that threaten to unravel more than just her career. How far will Mallory go to write the perfect story?

Fruit Fly publishes April 23.

10. The Someday Garden by Ashley Poston

Sophie Drear never expected to fall in love. But over a summer in Maine, she does: with the dazzling flowers, the towering hedge maze, and the enigmatic owner of Lilymoor House.