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The Book Witch
by Meg Shaffer
She can hop into any novel, but she just can't stay there. Come along with the Book Witch in this magical and inspiring love letter to reading from the USA Today bestselling author of The Wishing Game. Meg Shaffer continues to surprise and delight me with each book she writes.--Laurie Gilmore, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Pumpkin Spice Caf Rainy March is a proud, third-generation Book Witch, sworn to defend works of fiction from all foes real and imaginary. With her magical umbrella and feline familiar, she jumps in and out of novels to fix malicious alterations and rogue heroes like a modern-day magical Nancy Drew. Book Witches live by a strict code: Real people belong in the real world; fictional characters belong in works of fiction. Do not eat, drink, or sleep inside a fictional world, lest you become part of the story. Falling in love with a fictional character? Don't even think about it. Which is why Rainy has been forbidden from seeing the Duke of Chicago, the dashing British detective who stars in her favorite mystery series. If she's ever caught with him again, she'll be expelled from her book coven--and forced to give up the magical gifts that are as much a part of her as her own name. But when her beloved grandfather disappears and a priceless book is stolen, there's only one person she trusts to help her solve the case: the Duke. Their quest takes them through the worlds of Alice in Wonderland, King Arthur, and other classics that will reveal hidden enemies and long-buried family secrets.
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Last Night in Brooklyn
by Xochitl Gonzalez
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY TIME, OPRAH DAILY, USA TODAY, PEOPLE, HARPER'S BAZAAR, LITHUB, BOOK RIOT, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS, AND MORE New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a captivating story about a young woman whose life becomes ensnared in her glamorous neighbor's secret past SPRING, 2007 At twenty-six, Alicia Canales Forten feels smothered by her future. She's in a long-distance relationship, living at home with her mother's beliefs, saving up for her wedding to a future doctor. But after Alicia ventures out one night in the neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, she finds herself lured by the siren song of youth and possibility that the striving crowd of creatives holds, and moves in. No one embodies this milieu more than La Garza, a larger-than-life, up-and-coming fashion designer whose epic house parties fuel neighborhood lore. La Garza's life, observed by Alicia from her apartment across the street, seems to hold the allure and fearlessness Alicia has never dared to imagine for herself. But when Alicia's wealthy banker cousin moves to the neighborhood, she finds herself increasingly drawn into both his and La Garza's precarious lives. Against the backdrop of a potentially life-changing presidential election and a looming once-in-a-generation fiscal crisis, Last Night in Brooklyn explores the dark compromise of the American Dream for people of color living, unknowingly, in the twilight of a cultural moment. It is a story about everything money can buy--and the destruction of what it can't.
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Japanese Gothic: A Gothic Dual-Timeline Novel of Ghosts, Hauntings and Redemption
by Kylie Lee Baker
New York Times Most Anticipated Book for 2026USA TODAY Most Anticipated Books of 2026Goodreads Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2026Book Riot Our Most Anticipated Books of 2026In this lyrical, wildly inventive horror novel interwoven with Japanese mythology, two people living centuries apart discover a door between their worlds.October, 2026: Lee Turner doesn't remember how or why he killed his college roommate. The details are blurred and bloody. All he knows is he has to flee New York and go to the one place that might offer refuge--his father's new home in Japan, a house hidden by sword ferns and wild ginger. But something is terribly wrong with the house: no animals will come near it, the bedroom window isn't always a window, and a woman with a sword appears in the yard when night falls.October, 1877: Sen is a young samurai in exile, hiding from the imperial soldiers in a house behind the sword ferns. A monster came home from war wearing her father's face, but Sen would do anything to please him, even turn her sword on her own mother. She knows the soldiers will soon slaughter her whole family when she sees a terrible omen: a young foreign man who appears outside her window.One of these people is a ghost, and one of these stories is a lie.Something is hiding beneath the house of sword ferns, and Lee and Sen will soon wish they never unburied it.
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Transcription
by Ben Lerner
From the most talented writer of his generation (The New York Times), a lightning flash of a novel that is at once a gripping emotional drama and a brilliant examination of the devices, digital and literary, we use to store--or to erase--our memories. The narrator of Ben Lerner's new novel has traveled to Providence, Rhode Island, where he is to conduct what will be the final published interview with Thomas, his ninety-year-old mentor and the father of his college friend Max. Thomas is a giant in the arts who seems to hail from the future and the past simultaneously and who reenchants the air when he speaks. But the narrator drops his smartphone in the hotel sink. He arrives at Thomas's house with no recording device, a fact he is mysteriously unable to confess. What unfolds from this dreamlike circumstance is the unforgettable story of the triangle formed by Thomas, Max, and the narrator, and an exploration of fathers and sons, male friendship and rivalry, and the challenges of parenting in a burning world. One of the first great novels about the early days of COVID, it is also a brilliant meditation on those technologies that enrich or impoverish our connection to one another, that store or obliterate memory. Full of startling insight, but written with the intensity of a s ance, Lerner shows us how the air is full of messages, full of ghosts. Ultimately Transcription demonstrates what only a work of fiction can record.
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The Subtle Art of Folding Space
by John Chu
The Subtle Art of Folding Space, is the exhilarating debut science fiction novel from Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author John Chu channels unhinged physics, generational trauma, and the comfort of really good dim sum. This isn't your usual jaunt through quantum physics. Most Ancipated Books of 2026--EsquireBest New Science Fiction of 2026-- New ScientistSci-Fi and Fantasy Books to Look Forward To In 2026--Literary Hub Most Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of 2026--Book Riot Ellie's universe--and this one--is falling apart. Her ailing mother is in a coma; her sister, Chris, accuses her of being insufficiently Chinese between assassination attempts; and a shadowy cabal of engineers is trying to hijack the skunkworks, the machinery that keeps the physics of each universe working the way it's supposed to. Daniel, Ellie's cousin, has found an illicit device in the skunkworks--one that keeps Ellie's comatose mother alive while also creating destabilizing bugs in the physics of this universe. It's not a good day. If she can confront her mother's legacy and overcome her family's generational trauma, she just might find a way to preserve the skunkworks and reconcile with her sister...but digging into her family's past is thornier than it seems, and the secrets she uncovers will force Ellie to choose between her family and the universe itself.
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Stay for a Spell
by Amy Coombe
A cursed princess must discover what her heart truly longs for in this charmingly cozy romantic fantasy for everyone who's ever lost - or found - themselves in a bookshop. Princess Tanadelle of the Widdenmar is disillusioned with life as a princess. She longs for real conversation, the chance to build a life of her own making, and uninterrupted reading time. During a routine royal visit to the town of Little Pepperidge, Tandy's dream comes true when she finds herself cursed to remain in a run-down bookshop until she unlocks her heart's desire. Certain that someone will figure out how to break the curse eventually, and delighted by the prospect of an entire bookstore of her own, Tandy settles into life among the stacks. She finds it easy to exchange balls and endless state dinners for teetering piles of books and an irritatingly handsome pirate who seems bent on stealing her stock. She even starts to believe she's stumbled into her very own happily ever after. There's just one, minor problem: as Tandy's royal duties go unfulfilled, her frantic parents start sending princes to woo her, each one of them certain their kiss will break the curse. After all, what more could a princess want but a prince?
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The Geomagician
by Jennifer Mandula
When a Victorian fossil hunter discovers a baby pterodactyl, she vows to protect him, with the help of a fellow scholar--her former fianc --in this enchanting and transporting historical fantasy. Scholarly and clever but still full of heart . . . Five baby pterodactyls out of five.--Heather Fawcett, New York Times bestselling author of the Emily Wilde series Mary Anning wants to be a geomagician--a paleontologist who uses fossils to wield magic--but since the Geomagical Society of London refuses to admit women, she's stuck selling her discoveries to tourists instead. Then an ancient egg hatches in her hands, revealing a lovable baby pterodactyl that Mary names Ajax, and she knows that this is a scientific find that could make her career--if she's strategic. But when Mary contacts the Society about her discovery, they demand to take possession of Ajax. Their emissary is none other than Henry Stanton, a distinguished (and infuriatingly handsome) scholar . . . and the man who once broke Mary's heart. She knows she can't trust her fellow scholars, who want to discredit her and claim Ajax for their own, but Henry insists he believes in the brilliant Mary and only wants to help her obtain the respect she deserves. Now Mary has a new mystery to solve that's buried deeper than any dinosaur skeleton: She must uncover the secrets behind the Society and the truth about Henry. As her conscience begins to chafe against her ambition, Mary must decide what lengths she's willing to go to finally belong--and what her heart really wants. Mary Anning, magic, politics, and a pterodactyl--with this intriguing mix, this delightful and clever book provides definitive proof that Victorian England needed more dinosaurs --Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop Book One of The Geomagician Duology
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Morsel
by Carter Keane
Carter Keane's Morsel is a delicious folk horror debut about learning to bite back when the world is determined to eat you alive. Lou did what the children of parents with backbreaking, poorly paying jobs are supposed to do: pulled up her bootstraps, went to college, and got an office gig with coworkers who won't stop talking about their multilevel marketing scheme disguised as self-betterment. When Lou accepts a property appraisal assignment in the rural hills of Ohio, she knows it's her last chance to save her job and keep making rent. But she quickly finds herself stranded in the middle of nowhere with a sabotaged truck, her dog, and someone--or something--stalking her through the ancient Appalachian woods. If she can't escape the woods in time, she'll see firsthand that her job isn't the only thing that wants to eat her alive. Morsel is The Blair Witch Project meets The Ritual, with a generous helping of The Menu, perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher, Cassandra Khaw, and Paul Tremblay.
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Yesteryear
by Caro Claire Burke
A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1855--where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel. A bold and biting satire, Yesteryear...will have you cackling and gasping right to the final page.--Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid series My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive. Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the heir to a political dynasty? What Natalie's followers--all 8 million of them--don't know won't hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They're sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn't simply living the good life, she's living the ideal--and just so happens to be building an empire from it. Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn't hers. Her home, her husband, her children--they're all familiar, but something's off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she's expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible. A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.
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The Take
by Kelly Yang
Maggie Wang, a broke young Asian American writer, needs a lifeline. Ingrid Parker, a veteran white Hollywood producer with her career on the edge, offers an irresistible deal: $3 million for ten experimental medical sessions promising to reverse her aging, using Maggie as a transfusion partner. For Ingrid, it's a chance to reboot her fading career. For Maggie, it's freedom--money to support her parents and finally finish her novel. What starts as a professional transaction exchanging blood quickly becomes a complex psychological dance. Maggie gains unprecedented access to Ingrid's hard-earned wisdom, while Ingrid sees in Maggie a potential protâegâe--and a weapon against an industry that's been trying to sideline her. As their relationship intensifies, they're forced to confront the harsh realities of race, age, and success. Who has the power to tell stories? And what are they willing to sacrifice to succeed?-- Provided by publisher.
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