1/12

Because it’s just too cold outside.

Looker by Laura Sims (January 8)

What happens when an established poet publishes a debut novel? While, when it’s New York-based Laura Sims, the result is Looker, a tense and shocking psychological thriller about a woman living unhappily without children who becomes obsessed with the famous actress with the seemingly perfect life (family included) who lives next door.

Read if you like: Psychological thrillers

Elsey Come Home by Susan Conley (January 15)

Ever since Elsey, who was once a renowned painter, moved to Beijing for her husband and became a mom to two girls, she spends much of her time drinking and full of worry, unable to balance between her different identities. When Elsey’s husband suggests she embark on a week-long mountain retreat, she goes in an effort to save her marriage. There, she befriends an another esteemed painter, Mei, and learns how to confront her pain and womanhood head on.

Read if you like: Contemporary fiction

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro (January 15)

In the spring of 2016, essayist and journalist Dani Shapiro submitted her DNA to an online service for analysis on a whim. The results changed her life: Shapiro discovered that her dad was not actually her biological father. Inheritance delves into family secrets and Shapiro’s quest to discover her identity.

Read if you like: Memoirs

Talent by Juliet Lapidos (January 22)

Anna is like many other graduate students: avoiding her dissertation however possible, spending her days eating Pop Tarts and wandering around New Harbor, Connecticut. When she meets Helen, the niece of a famous writer, Anna dives into her uncle's his personal notebooks but soon gets into sucked into Helen’s dubious schemes. 

Read if you like: Academic mysteries

99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne (January 29)

We devoured Sally Throne’s debut, the swoon-worthy rom-com The Hating Game, when it came out a couple of years ago, so obviously her second novel 99 Percent Mine skyrocketed to the top of our must-read-immediately list when we found out about it. Darcy’s been in love with Tom since she was a kid—only he’s off limits because he’s best friends with her brother. But when Tom shows up to help restore a cottage Darcy and her brother have inherited from their grandmother, Darcy wonders if maybe it’s time to take her chance with her longtime crush.

Read if you like: Romantic comedies

We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin (January 29)

When best-selling writer Roxane Gay recommends a book, as she has with Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s debut, we take note. We Cast a Shadow is set in a near-future city plagued by police violence. The satire-meets-family-drama is narrated by an unnamed African-American father who wants to protect his son, a biracial boy with a growing black birthmark, at all costs—even if it means a costly, experimental procedure that can turn him white.

Read if you like: Satire

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas (February 5)

After her searing and powerful debut The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas established herself as one of today’s most influential YA novelists. Thomas is finally back with her much-anticipated second book, On the Come Up, about 16-year-old aspiring rapper Bri who goes viral for all the wrong reasons.

Read if you like: Music

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James (February 5)

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the first book in the new Dark Star trilogy, is being described as award-winning author Marlon James’ African Game of Thrones. The epic novel follows Tracker, a hunter who breaks his own rules by teaming up with others in the search for a missing boy. But his mission soon turns into a fight for survival, and Tracker begins to wonder: who exactly is this boy?

Read if you like: Fantasy

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin (February 5)

Keep your phone handy while reading lawyer-turned-writer Tara Conklin’s latest—you’ll definitely want to call your mom or sister afterwards. The Last Romantics is a moving examination of family, following four siblings during the summer that changed their lives forever.

Read if you like: Family dramas 

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson (February 12)

We’ll admit: we’re eager to read any spy novel with a female protagonist. Lauren Wilkinson’s inspired-by-true-events debut American Spy finds Marie, an FBI agent, during the heart of the Cold War, when she’s tapped by the CIA to go undercover with a taskforce against Thomas Sankara, the charismatic, communist leader of Burkina Faso. The catch: she secretly admires Sankara’s work, and as she works on her mission, Marie begins questioning everything she believes in.

Read if you like: History and espionage

Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi (March 5)

Perdita Lee and her mother Harriet seem like your typical Brits—an average schoolgirl and a working mom. But their special gingerbread bonds them to Harriet’s charismatic friend Gretel, who mysteriously seems to have a hand in every good or bad thing that happens to the Lee family.

Read if you like: Fairy tales

More from Books