Whether you’re dusting sand off the pages of your book or unearthing a novel from the dregs of your carry-on for a long-haul flight, summer is the most satisfying time to read. Among the books we’re most eagerly anticipating this summer, you’ll find modern bildungsromans, a steamy sports romance, juicy mysteries, picturesque escapes and more.
June
thriller
The Au Pair
by Teddy Wayne
An affair between a fading novelist and his family’s Norwegian au pair reinvigorates his creativity at a scandalous cost.
mystery
Blunt Instrument
by Amy Bloom
A disgraced academic moonlighting as a private detective arrives on campus to help solve the mystery of a professor who’s been clubbed to death with a bronze bust of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
thriller
It Could Have Been Her
by Lisa Jewell
When a woman trying to return a lost dog arrives at its owner’s ramshackle house, she realizes she’s been there before, unlocking old, traumatic memories.
historical fiction
Land
by Maggie O’Farrell
Ireland, 1865: Working for the British military’s land survey project, a man and his young son, Liam, document the aftermath of the famine that ravaged Ireland for nearly a decade.
Literary fiction
Lovers XXX
by Allie Rowbottom
Jude and Winnie, two young women in 1980s Los Angeles, navigate the sex, drugs and big dreams of the city’s underbelly.
romance
The Open Era
by Edward Schmit
The first openly gay man to compete in a Grand Slam tennis tournament is thrown off his game by his flirty rival, who is probably straight … unless?
beach read
Pool House
by Mary H.K. Choi
Moon, an unemployed actress, decides to save money by moving into her pool house with her wayward teenage daughter, Stevie. That is, until Adam, Moon’s former co-star — and Stevie’s longtime crush — comes to L.A. for a funeral, and they all move back into the main house, creating an odd new family dynamic.
crime novel
Red Sheet
by James Ellroy
Ellroy’s latest thriller follows the dope fiend turned detective Freddy Otash as he tries to keep Los Angeles from falling apart in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
beach read
The Shampoo Effect
by Jenny Jackson
Caroline Lash, who’s relocated to a seaside town in Massachusetts, soon falls for the local golden boy. But her beach bliss proves short-lived.
science fiction
The Sixth Nik
by Daniel Kraus
Sisilla, a 9-year-old on a mission to save a plague-infested planet, leads a ship called the Sickness across the galaxy, along with a mysterious crew.
literary fiction
Skin Contact
by Elisa Faison
In this novel, a grieving woman opens her marriage after the death of her mother. It goes mostly well — until her husband falls in love with someone else.
romance
The Someday Garden
by Ashley Poston
Hired to tend the grounds of a historical manor, Sophie keeps finding doors that lead her to a secret, magical garden. There’s a man trapped inside, and he needs her help to escape.
romance
The Summer Girlfriend
by Kristina Forest
A laid-off bookseller agrees to be a fake girlfriend after she meets the party-boy heir to a baked goods fortune who needs to bring a date to his family’s beach house. What could go wrong?
urban lit
Troubleman
by K’wan
The first fiction release from Questlove’s book imprint follows an ex-cop, Toussaint Batiste, who has returned to Philadelphia after a stint in prison. He wants to say goodbye to the man he used to be — the one people call Trouble — but his old life keeps pulling him back in.
DARK ACADEMIA
The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones
by Lex Croucher
Childhood friends Briar and Seb reunite at the Temple School of Thaumaturgy, an elite prep school rumored to be magical. Seb is no longer the sensitive boy he was when he first started attending the school, but its biggest villain.
literary fiction
Villa Coco
by Andrew Sean Greer
Hired by an eccentric 92-year-old baroness, an archivist takes up residence in a decaying Italian villa to catalog its art and antiques collection — and finds himself caught up in a mad tangle of houseguests, handymen and other quirky characters.
literary fiction
Whistler
by Ann Patchett
After a chance encounter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daphne and her former stepfather, Eddie, re-establish their relationship and reflect on the choices that separated them.
July
literary fiction
Beginning Middle End
by Valeria Luiselli
Reeling from a failed marriage, a mother takes her young daughter to Sicily, where they learn their family’s history.
heist novel
Cool Machine
by Colson Whitehead
The conclusion to Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy finds the furniture salesman Ray Carney and his partner in crime, Pepper, navigating midlife, a changing city and, as always, a dubious scheme or two.
Literary fiction
Country People
by Daniel Mason
When a Russian folklore scholar decamps to a college in Vermont with his family, he gets swept up in a local legend that may not be as fantastical as it sounds.
ROMANtasy
Dominion
by Jean Kwok
Inspired by Chinese mythology, this novel follows Rubi Morningtail, a refugee ribbon dancer, who attracts the attention of a dangerous warrior named Blake Axefire. Together, they must fight to reunite the four dominions that have divided the world.
Literary fiction
Famous Men
by Julie Buntin
A young woman named Will flees her small town in Michigan for New York to find Nathaniel, the poet who she thinks could be her father. There an artistic, intellectual world is opened up to her, until Nathaniel’s past starts to threaten her new life.
romantasy
A Forsaken Prophecy
by Stacey McEwan
In a sequel to the propulsive romantasy “A Forbidden Alchemy,” one of our favorite hidden gems of 2025, Nina and Patrick find themselves on the run amid a raging class war between the magically gifted Artisan elites and the exploited, magic-deprived Craftsmen.
thriller
Helpless
by Jessica Knoll
Faye and Henry, old flames, reunite on their college campus for a professor’s funeral, but a flirty drink date turns nightmarish when Faye wakes up in Henry’s secluded mountain cabin.
thriller
The Intrigue
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
In 1940s Mexico, a handsome con artist sets his sights on Perla, the spinster proprietor of a small-town boardinghouse. But it turns out she isn’t the straightforward target he envisioned.
romance
Just a Highland Fling
by Naina Kumar
After Neelu accidentally ruins her dad’s wedding, she finds herself on a Scottish road trip with her jilted father and Jacob, her bagpipe-playing hookup, as they attempt to find the vanished would-be bride.
family drama
Make Nice
by Ryan Effgen
After the three Pickford siblings decamp to a fancy hotel on Lake Michigan for some forced family bonding, the vacation quickly unravels.
beach read
Man Overboard!
by Kathleen Rooney
Patrick “Kick” Kilpatrick comes to in the middle of the ocean, not remembering if he fell or jumped off the cruise ship after overindulging at the open bar. As he treads water, he reflects on his memories and regrets.
literary fiction
Men in Love
by Irvine Welsh
The long-awaited sequel to Welsh’s pivotal 1993 novel “Trainspotting” follows the old friends Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie as they try to trade heroin for something new: love.
romance
The Missed Connection
by Tia Williams
When the casting agent Sasha Cruz meets her dream man on a flight to Europe but doesn’t get his number, she hires a handsome detective from her past to track him down.
cozy fantasy romance
Sea of Charms
by Sarah Beth Durst
When revolution comes to the capital, the stubbornly single sailor Marin and her old friend Dax strike a deal: Marin will let Dax join her crew if he agrees to pose as her boyfriend for the End-of-Harvest Festival back home.
family drama
Some People
by Parini Shroff
After a concussion, Malti needs to recover at home; her daughter Kavya is away at grad school, so her soon to be former son-in-law offers to monitor her. Over an awkward week, the two bond over the thing they have in common: how they have both hurt Kavya.
August
thriller
The Amateur
by Chris Bohjalian
When Mira Winston, an 18-year-old golf prodigy, drives a ball through a practice net and kills a caddie, a wealthy community mourns what seems like a terrible accident — until a detective starts questioning Mira’s story.
thriller
Big Little Truths
by Liane Moriarty
Ten years after a homicide investigation upended their lives in “Big Little Lies,” the ladies of sunny Australia grapple with middle age — and another unexpectedly sinister scenario.
thriller
The Blue Flame
by George Pelecanos
From “The Wire” writer comes the next novel in the Derek Strange series. This time, the private investigator finds himself embroiled in an especially dark case when he tries to confirm the alibi for an accused killer.
literary fiction
Etna
by Paul Yoon
An ex-military dog sets off on an odyssey across a battle-scarred country in hopes of finding his way home — if home still exists, that is.
thriller
Heart of Glass
by Jennifer Hillier
Twenty-five years after the murder of their best friend at a Washington carnival, two women must confront long-buried secrets when the killer recants his confession.
literary fiction
Range
by Dorthe Nors; translated by Caroline Waight
After an astrophysics professor craving solitude moves to a sparsely populated rural area, she finds it’s harder to get away from other people than she thought.
thriller
The Secret Dinner
by Raphael Montes
In Rio de Janeiro, four broke 20-somethings get embroiled in a jokey get-rich-quick scheme — catering exclusive dinner parties — that morphs into something much more sinister.
literary fiction
Take What You Can
by Naima Coster
This nuanced exploration of friendship and motherhood follows Val and Milly, who first meet — and bond — when they are the only Black students on a European study abroad trip.
literary fiction
A Tender Age
by Chang-rae Lee
Lee’s latest novel is a tale of almosts: a family of working-class immigrants almost living the American dream; an 11-year-old boy almost transitioning into adulthood and straddling the worlds of his doting Korean parents and a semi-feral gaggle of neighborhood kids.
fantasy Whodunit
A Trade of Blood
by Robert Jackson Bennett
The final book of the “Shadow of the Leviathan” trilogy follows Detective Ana Dolabra and her assistant, Dinios Kol, as they work to prove the innocence of the heir to one of the Empire’s most influential families, who has been accused of murder. If found guilty, he’ll be put to death, igniting a brutal war.
thriller
Tradwife
by Michelle Brandon
Charming, upscale Crystal Harbor is filled with families embracing old-fashioned gender roles. But when a husband goes missing, cracks appear in the community’s picture-perfect facade.
literary fiction
Under the Falls
by Richard Russo
Eighteen years after leaving Stone Mountain, the musician Tyler Sinclair returns to his hometown for a benefit concert, only to find that his dark past is closer to the present than he’d ever supposed.
thriller
The Women in White
by Sarah Pekkanen
In 1964, four female college students vanish after participating in a controversial psychology experiment. In the present day, Riley Bell gets a job caring for a widow named Betty, who turns out to be one of the missing women.
paranormal romance
World’s Okayest Oracle (Reluctantly) Seeks Demon
by Olivia Dade
Gwen is an oracle who gets a glimpse of a terrifying future after a group of zombies escape a compound. The only one who can help her save the world is a cute demon with whom she shares a complicated past.
The post The Novels Everyone Will Be Reading This Summer appeared first on New York Times.
