The coziest reading season has arrived so it’s time to plan your winter reading list!
My recommendations for the best books to read winter 2026 include recently or soon to be published historical fiction, romance, literary fiction, and mysteries/thrillers that I have already read or that are on my TBR for this winter.
Happy winter reading!
Note: I read across a lot of genres and I only choose books that I have already read or plan to read over the coming weeks for my book lists. If I haven’t yet read the book when I publish the book list then I include the blurb provided by the publisher and update the article with my own thoughts after I read it. I also make a conscious effort to try and include diversity in the books I choose to read. Some of the buzziest books of the season are on my lists but I hope I also introduce you to some titles that you might not have heard of otherwise.
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1. Kin by Tayari Jones
Setting: The American South (Louisiana, Memphis, Atlanta)
Annie and Vernice (nicknamed Niecy by Annie) are two motherless girls who are as close as sisters growing up together in the tiny town of Honeysuckle, Louisiana. Annie was abandoned as a newborn by her mother and raised by her grandmother and Niecy raised by her aunt in the wake of her mother’s death. The two girls are inseparable throughout their childhood and teen years but take different paths at eighteen when Niecy leaves for Atlanta to attend Spelman College and Annie runs away to Memphis to search for her mother but despite the distance and the change in their circumstances, the bond between the two remains unbreakable.
Kin is a beautifully written and compelling novel about self-discovery, racism and inequality, enduring friendship and found family set in the American South of the 1950s and 60s. Alternating narrative between Niecy and Annie, Kin introduces readers to two unforgettable young women coming of age in the U.S. at a time when racial segregation was still legal but the civil rights movement was underway. A captivating story of tragedy, resilience and what it means to be kin – this is a story that will stay with me.
2. The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
Setting: Boston and additional locations
Growing up in the foster care system, 26 year-old Alix Watson learned the lesson that, unlike people, books will never let you down. She works three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and her dreams of attending college are fading but each night she seeks refuge in the historic reading room of the Boston Public Library where she can escape into her favourite fantasy books and dream of far-off lands.
Then one day when her messy life seems that it can’t get any worse, Alix stumbles through a door at the BPL and meets the Librarian. The ageless Librarian is the guardian of the magical Astral Library where desperate and lost patrons can escape to new lives inside a book of their choice. But before Alix can escape into the pages of her new life, a threat emerges and she and the Librarian must work together to save the Astral Library.
I don’t usually read magical realism or fantasy but this was fun although there were some things that I didn’t love about it. I actually think it would have been better if it was a longer book and more time was spent in the book worlds that Alix and the Librarian visit. I enjoyed the glimpses of book worlds including Sherlock Holmes, Jane Austen, The Great Gatsby and more and I loved the message about the importance of books/reading and the need to stop book bans. I have loved all of Kate Quinn’s historical fiction novels and this was a bit of a change but overall an enjoyable read!
3. The Storm by Rachel Hawkins
Setting: Alabama
St. Medard’s, Alabama is famous for three things – the deadly hurricanes that have swept through over the years, the Rosalie Inn for having survived all of those storms, and a local girl accused of murder in the aftermath of Hurricane Marie.
In 1984, the Governor’s son, Landon Fitzroy, was killed during Marie and his teenage mistress, Lo Bailey, was charged with murder but acquitted following a sensational trial. Forty years later, Geneva Corliss, current owner of the the struggling Rosalie Inn, is relieved to receive a financial lifeline when journalist August Fletcher books an extended stay at the inn to conduct research on a book about Lo Bailey but is surprised when he shows up with Lo herself intent on clearing her name once and for all. As another monster storm makes its way toward St. Medard’s Bay, Geneva begins to realize that the truth of what happened to Landon Fitzroy might not be the only secret that Lo is keeping.
This is very slow burn and I wouldn’t really classify it as a thriller. It was a compelling enough story though and it kept me turning the pages to uncover the twists and discover what actually happened during those past hurricanes and how it all would be resolved in the present day timeline. Very atmospheric and an entertaining read!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a digital ARC for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
4. The Star Society by Gabriella Saab
Setting: Holland, Washington, DC and Hollywood
Two Dutch sisters separated by war are reunited in post-war America in this dual timeline historical fiction novel set against the backdrop of the Red Scare in Hollywood.
She has a new name and a new country and, by 1946, actress Ada Worthington-Fox is a rising star in Hollywood but only a few short years ago she was working for the Dutch resistance and had to flee the country after being released from a Gestapo prison. Ada’s twin sister, Ingrid, had escaped Holland at the time of the Nazi invasion and Ada had presumed her dead until she turns up on Ada’s doorstep. Ingrid is now working as a private investigator in Washington, D.C. and has been sent to Hollywood to investigate Ada and others in the entertainment industry with alleged ties to communism.
Inspired by Audrey Hepburn, this is a compelling work of historical fiction that encompasses a story of Dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation and the post-war Red Scare and investigation of so-called “un-American” activities and communism in Hollywood by Senator McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). There’s also an interesting storyline about Nazis who escaped accountability by emigrating to the U.S. after the war.
Historical fiction has been dominated by World War II in recent years and it was becoming difficult to find anything that felt original but I’m now finding more set in the post-World War II era particularly related to the Cold War which is a fascinating time period. This is the second historical fiction novel that I have read by this author and enjoyed both (the other was Daughters of Victory which follows two women from the Russian Revolution to the Nazi occupation of the Soviet Union).
5. Book of Forbidden Words by Louise Fein
Setting: England, Paris, and Long Island, New York
Rich historical fiction about banned books and censorship told from the point of view of three women across two timelines – two in 16th century Europe and one four hundred years later in post-war America.
Paris 1552 – Amidst a wave of book burning and heretic hunting, Charlotte Guillard, a widow and well-respected business woman, puts herself and her print shop at risk when former nun Lysbette Angiers shows up on her doorstep with a manuscript that she wants printed.
1952: Milly Bennett left England for an American soldier and now she’s a bored and lonely housewife trying to fit in with the other mothers and neighbours in her Long Island neighbourhood amidst the paranoia of McCarthy’s America. An ordinary housewife with a secretive past, Milly is intrigued when a former colleague turns up on her doorstep with a centuries-old manuscript written in code to decipher not realizing that by accepting this challenge she might be putting herself and her family at risk.
Inspired by the real-life encrypted Voynich manuscript, Book of Forbidden Words is compelling, meticulously researched historical fiction – I couldn’t put it down and raced through it in about 24 hours! The historical fiction aspects of the novel and the parallels between the two timelines are fascinating and it’s disturbing that many of these same issues of censorship and paranoia have reared their ugly heads once again in today’s political climate. This was the second historical fiction novel that I have read by this author and both were excellent (the other was The London Bookshop Affair)!
6. Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson
Setting: Germany; Philadelphia and Maryland, USA
A historical fiction novel inspired by the real life story of a woman who organized the adoption of biracial children (‘Mischlingskinder‘) in post World War II Germany. These mixed-race children, born as the result of relationships between German women and Black American soldiers, were rejected by German society and thousands were adopted by American families as part of the initiative known as the Brown Baby Plan.
There are three timelines and points of view in the novel which eventually intersect. 1948 – Ozzie is a young Black American soldier stationed in post-war Germany as reconstruction begins; 1950 – Ethel, a journalist and wife of an American soldier stationed in post-war Germany, can’t have children of her own and makes it her mission to help biracial babies left at a local orphanage; and 1965 – Sophia is a young Black girl who receives a scholarship to attend an elite boarding school in Maryland.
Keeper of Lost Children is a well-written, engaging and informative novel with an interesting historical perspective. I knew nothing about the plight of mixed race children in post-WWII Germany (and I expect in other countries as well) before reading this book and appreciated the history lesson. The story is poignant, the characters are compelling and I enjoyed all three timelines equally. The connection between these three characters might seem predictable from the outset but the author draws out the story in a most intriguing way. The only negative – although this book is more than 450 pages, I still felt like I wanted more!
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing a digital ARC of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
7. Liberty Street by Heather Marshall
Setting: Toronto and Huron County, Ontario, Canada
Publication Date: June 16, 2026 in the U.S. (February in Canada)
In this dual timeline historical fiction novel, Emily Radcliffe is working as an editorial assistant at Chatelaine magazine in Toronto in 1961 but aspires to be a hard-hitting journalist. When she receives a bombshell letter alleging abuse of the inmates at Mercer Women’s Prison, Emily convinces her boss to let her cover the story by going undercover in the prison. In the second late ’90s timeline, Detective Rachel Mackenzie is investigating the discovery of a mysterious unmarked grave containing female remains at a cemetery in Huron County, Ontario when she discovers a connection to the now-shuttered Mercer Women’s Prison.
Inspired by true events, Liberty Street is the best sort of historic fiction – a well-researched and incredibly compelling story which also educates and informs about Canadian history and the horrific treatment of women in this country in the not so distant past. It was interesting (and infuriating) to learn that there was a provincial law that allowed women up to the age of 35 to be imprisoned for a variety of non-criminal reasons (I’m a lawyer in Ontario and had no idea!). I also appreciated the role that Chatelaine magazine played to the story and the inclusion of real life figures such as journalist/editor Doris Anderson who was instrumental in having women’s rights enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Liberty Street addresses the treatment of women with mental health issues, incarceration, systemic injustice and the ongoing fight for women’s rights through a story with an unforgettable cast of characters. This is a gripping page turner and one of the best historical fiction novels that I have ever read. All three of Heather Marshall’s novels so far have been excellent and I’ll read anything she writes!
8. Sunk in Love by Heather McBreen
Setting: Hawaiian cruise
FROM THE PUBLISHER: Roslyn and Liam met nine years ago and have been the perfect couple ever since. Through every up and down, every milestone—from Liam’s residency to the publication of Roslyn’s debut romance—they’ve been each other’s rock. Until now.
Pulled apart by the untimely death of Roslyn’s mom and the undertow of grief, they’re now navigating the final wave in their marriage: divorce.
Heartbroken and unsure how to tell her family she’s called it quits with everyone’s favorite son-in-law, Roslyn keeps the impending split to herself. But when Roslyn’s grandparents ask if Liam can officiate their vow renewal ceremony aboard a Hawaiian cruise during their annual vacation, Roslyn needs to tell the truth or figure out a way to keep her secret. A week trapped at sea with her ex isn’t ideal, but neither Roslyn nor Liam want to rock the boat, so they concoct a plan—they’ll fake it.
After five years of marriage, they can figure out how to pretend for jungle hikes and mai tais, right? But when reality and make believe starts to blur, and old feelings begin to resurface, Roslyn and Liam have to decide whether it’s sink or swim for their marriage.
9. Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise
Setting: Ireland
Saoirse is an artist living on the coast in Donegal with her partner and two young daughters who has a secret that she has been hiding for almost a decade. Nine years earlier, 17 year-old Sarah Roy was on a flight from Boston to Dublin using a stolen passport when she met an Irish medical student who brought her to his family home in Dublin when he realized she has no place to stay. Now in 1999, Saoirse is happy in her personal life and her career as an artist is starting to flourish but, when she is awarded a prestigious art prize, journalists start asking questions about her background and Saoirse fears her new life is about to come crashing down around her.
Beginning in the early 1990s, Saoirse is a compelling dual timeline story about a woman hiding in Ireland from her American past. There is lots of drama with twists and turns that keep the pages turning, Saoirse is a memorable character, and the plot addresses some serious issues relating to trauma/abuse and healing through art. It’s a very well-written novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I was expecting it to be more literary given the blurb comparing it to Colm Tóibín and Claire Keegan.
Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
10. Missing Sam by Thrity Umrigar
Setting: Cleveland suburbs in the U.S. and India
One night after a party, married couple Samantha and Aliya get into a heated argument that results in Sam sleeping in the guest room. The following morning, Sam goes out for a run in their suburban neighbourhood by herself and doesn’t return home. When Ali, a Muslim-American, reports her wife missing, she finds herself under suspicion and subject to the scrutiny of the police, her neighbours, the press and an online mob headed up by one of Sam’s graduate students.
Alternating between Sam and Ali’s perspective, Missing Sam starts off as a the typical suspenseful thriller but then morphs into a story about family, relationships, the aftermath of a traumatic experience and an exploration of what it’s like to be brown and queer in America in the current political climate.
The novel starts in 2019 and takes place over several months weaving many issues into the plot including racism, bigotry toward the LGBTQ community in the US, and the polarization of online discourse. A trip to India in March 2020 introduces some of the culture there as well as the onset of the COVID pandemic. It’s a well-written novel that addresses many serious issues but it did feel a bit like it was a book that wasn’t quite sure what it was. Not my favourite by this author but I enjoyed reading it although I can also understand how a reader expecting a thriller might feel that the book loses its way in the second half.
11. Family Drama by Rebecca Fallon
Setting: New England, England and Los Angeles
This story of a popular soap opera actress and her family opens on a snowy beach in New England in 1997 with 7 year-old twins, Sebastian and Viola, watching as their mother’s body is tipped overboard in a Viking funeral and then shifts between timelines and perspectives from the mid-80s to the early 2000s.
While acting in a play about the Salem witch trials, Susan Byrne meets and falls in love with university professor Alcott Bliss in 1983. When Susan is later cast in a soap opera which films in LA, she opts to travel back and forth to California each week as her husband doesn’t want to give up his tenure track position. She tries staying home after they have twins but misses having a creative outlet so returns to the soap opera spending weekdays in LA and commuting home to her family in New England on the weekend.
Years after Susan’s premature death, Sebastian and Viola are entering young adulthood but have yet fully come to terms with the loss of the mother they hardly new. Sebastian uses his art to try and make sense of the past while Viola leaves the U.S. to attend university in England where she meets and falls in love with Orson Grey, a former colleague of her mother’s who is 20 years older than her.
This ambitious debut is a thoughtful novel about motherhood, family dynamics and grief that weaves together two timelines exploring the life of a woman torn between career and family and how her absence affected her kids. All of the characters are flawed but sympathetic to varying degrees – it’s impossible not to feel for the twins and their fractured family despite the fact that Viola’s relationship is uncomfortable to sit with. Well-written, melancholic, character-driven literary fiction – I enjoyed the read even though I never felt a strong emotional investment in the characters.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
12. Little One by Olivia Muenter
Setting: New York City and Central Florida
A decade after Catharine West abandoned the farm in Florida where she grew up, she has reinvented her life in New York City but has kept her past hidden from the few people she knows. That carefully constructed life is disrupted, however, when she receives a message from a charismatic journalist who wants to know if she’s the same Catharine who grew up in a cult in Central Florida.
Catharine’s first instinct is to ignore his questions but then it occurs to her that this journalist might lead her to her sister, Linna, who was the one person she hadn’t wanted to leave behind. Catharine’s past timeline takes place on the farm in Florida operated by her magnetic father over the final few months that she lived there as the once idyllic community transformed into something darker.
This has quite an interesting premise and it kept me turning the pages as I was intrigued by where the story was going although the conclusion was a bit of a letdown as I’m not crazy about loose ends or endings that are a tad ambiguous. The duaI timelines work together well and I enjoyed the slow reveal of what had happened on the farm before Catharine escaped. Well-written literary suspense (but I wouldn’t call it a thriller) – an enjoyable pageturner!
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for providing a digital ARC of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
13. So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder
Setting: New York, New Jersey, Cancun
Compared to The Big Chill, So Old, So Young is the story of a group of six college friends – Mia, Marco, Richie, Adam, Sasha and Theo – who get together at five parties over a period of 20 years. From a New Year’s Eve party in the East Village of New York City to a destination wedding, a 40th birthday party, and a suburban backyard barbecue, the group tries to maintain the friendships that once meant everything to them while the passage of time brings career changes, marriages, children, and the fracture of bonds that had seemed unbreakable.
This multiple point-of-view story follows a group of millenials from college through early middle age by catching up with them at five separate events over two decades. It’s an exploration and celebration of friendship and love and how time changes people over the years – a character-driven story with six main characters who are all complicated and relatable if not always likeable. Despite their flaws, I grew to care about each of them and was sad to say goodbye. A well-written, insightful and resonant novel that I expect will be one of my favourites of the year!
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
14. Fireflies in Winter by Eleanor Shearer
Setting: Jamaica and Nova Scotia
1796 – Cora is a free-born orphan who has recently arrived in Nova Scotia from Jamaica and is living in a community of her fellow Maroons of Trelawny Town near Halifax. During her first harsh winter, Cora meets another Black woman named Agnes who is a fugitive on the run from her former life and surviving on her own in the Nova Scotian wilderness. In a second time line which takes place months later there is a trial underway with the freedom of one of the two women in jeopardy.
A slow-moving yet compelling coming of age story about love, survival in a harsh climate, resilience, and the fine line between freedom and enslavement, this was one of my most anticipated books for 2026 because I loved the author’s moving debut novel River Sing Me Home so much. It didn’t quite live up to my expectations but I still thought it was an enjoyable read with beautiful descriptive prose, an atmospheric setting and memorable characters.
Fireflies in Winter is character-driven historical fiction that covers an interesting time period in pre-Confederation Canadian history. Prior to reading, I knew nothing about the history of the Jamaican Maroons who lived in exile in Nova Scotia from 1796-1800 until their resettlement in Sierra Leone was arranged and I would have been happy to have had more historical detail included in the novel. The story prompted me to do a fair bit of internet searching to fill in my gaps of knowledge while I was reading.
15. Railsong by Rahul Bhattacharya
Setting: India
Railsong opens in the fictional town of Bhombalpur in the state of Bihar, India at the time of the 1961 census when Charulata (Charu) Chitol, the child of a mixed caste marriage, is three years old. Her mother dies a few years later and Charu and her two brothers are raised by their railway worker/political activist father.
As a 16 year-old searching for freedom and independence, Charu flees on a cross-country train to Bombay where she lives with maternal relatives for a time while attending college before finding work in a shoe store and moving to a women’s hostel. Eventually she secures a position with the Indian Railways where she is known as Miss Chitol and builds a career beginning as a junior clerk and advancing through the system to become a welfare inspector investigating worker’s claims and fraud.
Spanning three decades (1961-92), Railsong is a heartfelt coming of age story about a complex young woman in a changing India in the latter half of the 20th century. Charu’s struggle for personal independence takes place against a backdrop of social and political upheaval in modern day India highlighting the inequality that exists both between castes and within the patriarchal society. Through Charu we observe the changing role of women in India’s workforce and the importance of Indian Railways as an employer. I enjoyed learning more about the history and geography of the country and Charu is a memorable character. Railsong is an interesting and enjoyable story although I did find it to be slow moving and the prose a bit awkward at times.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
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