Spring reading season is just around the corner with so many amazing books that will be published over the next couple of months and I can’t wait to dive into them!
My recommendations for the best books to read spring 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 spring.
Happy spring 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. Love By the Book by Jessica George
Setting: London, England
Remy’s debut novel based on her three best friends was an instant bestseller but now she’s struggling to come up with an idea for a second novel at the same time as her friends have become less present in her life due to changing circumstances. Then an ill-advised one night stand further complicates her life leaving Remy feeling completely alone.
Simone is a passionate kindergarten teacher with a well-paying side hustle that helps her afford all the nice things in life but she’s so busy that there’s no time for a social life. Her close-knit family is all she needs but, when they cut her off after discovering the true nature of her work, Simone realizes how isolated she actually is.
When Simone and Remy bump into each other at a bookshop, it isn’t soulmates at first sight but they might be what each other is searching for.
Love By the Book is a heartfelt exploration of the importance of female friendship/platonic love. It has some great characters and I enjoyed how the author wrote Remy and Simone’s relationship like a romance with a meet-cute, tropes (grumpy/sunshine) and even a third act break-up. It’s slow-moving though and it took a while for me to get into the rhythm of the book – partly I think because there are long excerpts from Remy’s fictionalization of her friendship with Simone as she tries to work through her writer’s block which made the story a bit disjointed. I liked the author’s debut novel Maame better but overall this was still a good read.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
2. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
Setting: Melbourne, Australia
“It’s interesting to note that there are two groups of people who are rarely, if ever, suspected of murder. These groups are elderly women and little girls.“
Eighty-one year-old Elsie Fitzpatrick has been living on her quiet street in Melbourne for 60 years and avoids her neighbours for the most part until a new little girl named Persephone moves in across the street who is determined to befriend her. When a neighbour dies mysteriously and Elsie finds the body, however, her past as the notorious Mad Mabel resurfaces and suspicion falls on her once again.
Mad Mabel is a dual timeline story that alternates between the present day and Elsie’s childhood/teenage years. This is the first Sally Hepworth book that I have read and I thought it was an enjoyable pageturner. I would describe it as more literary suspense than thriller though – which is fine with me because I don’t like anything that’s truly scary!
Elsie/Mabel is not only a sarcastic curmudgeon with a kind streak that she tries to keep hidden but a resilient woman who has had a difficult life and you can’t help but love her. As her past is slowly revealed and the present plot advances, we get to know Elsie/Mabel and ask the questions – is she mad? and did she or didn’t she do what she has been accused of? There are a few twists but the story is less about plot than it is about Elsie/Mabel’s character. Overall quite a fun read!
3. Everyone In This Bank Is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson
Setting: Australia
While visiting a rural Australian bank to apply for a loan to open a detective agency, Ernest Cunningham and his fiancée find themselves in the middle of a bank heist and are taken hostage by a masked bank robber along with a priest, a patient and her caregiver, the receptionist, the bank manager, the security guard, a teenage boy, and a film producer. The doors are chained shut and nobody can get in or out so when someone in the bank is murdered then everyone is a suspect.
This spin on the classic bank heist is the 4th installment in the Ernest Cunningham series and is as much fun as the first three were! If you’re new to the series, the author (and Ernest) adhere to the rules for Golden Age Mysteries which emphasize fair play and require that clues be transparent so the reader has the opportunity to solve the mystery along with the detective. The fun quirk of this series is that Ernest addresses the reader to explain things along the way. Well-written, entertaining and witty, Everyone In This Bank Is a Thief is a thoroughly satisfying locked room (bank) mystery!
Previous books in the series are: Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, Everyone On This Train Is a Suspect, and Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (a holiday novella).
4. The Brink of Something Beautiful by Bobbi French
Setting: St. John’s, Newfoundland
Ruby is a recent widow grieving the loss of her husband but also feeling some guilt over his death as their’s was a marriage that she had never wanted. As Ruby considers how to begin again in middle age, her elderly mother who is in a care home with dementia makes a shocking revelation and Ruby meets a pregnant teenager named Maxine who she is determined to help whether Maxine wants it or not.
Set over the course of one winter in St. John’s, Newfoundland with Y2K looming on the horizon, The Brink of Something Beautiful is a heartfelt story of resilience, found family and female friendship. The subject matter is heavy but this is ultimately a hopeful story that handles intimate partner violence in a very sensitive manner. The authentic characters, the St. John’s setting and the storytelling are all so well done – the author’s debut novel, The Good Women of Safe Harbour, is one of my all-time favourite books set in Canada and I will read anything she writes!
5. A Far-Flung Life by M.L. Stedman
Setting: Australian Outback
Patriarch Phil MacBride, his wife, Lorna, and their three children, Warren, Rosie and Matt, are the current residents of Meredith Downs, a vast sheep station with a million acres of land in remote Western Australia, where the MacBride family have lived and worked for generations. In 1958, on an ordinary day on a lonely road, Phil swerves to avoid a kangaroo and the lives of the entire MacBride family are forever altered. The aftermath of this family tragedy reverberates through the following decades with the actions of one character resulting in a secret that becomes a burden to carry for a lifetime.
Spanning decades, A Far-flung Life is a story about the aftermath of a family tragedy that asks the question how do you go on living when you have done something that can’t be undone. It’s not possible to say much without spoiling the story but there are plot points which are uncomfortable to read. Storygraph lists a number of content warnings for anyone who wants to know prior to reading.
A well-written and thought-provoking story about grief, secrets, memories and forgiveness of self. The book has a very strong sense of place with the author’s writing bringing to life the vastness of the Australian Outback and its harsh and isolated beauty. This is a grim, heartwrenching story – slow at times, unbearably sad yet difficult to put down. I’m glad I read this but it won’t be for everyone as the premise makes for very uncomfortable reading at times.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
6. American Fantasy by Emma Straub
Setting: Cruise Ship sailing Miami to Bahamas
Annie, a recently divorced empty nester struggling with turning 50, had reluctantly agreed to go with her sister on a four-day themed cruise aboard the American Fantasy featuring the five members of Boy Talk, a famous nineties-era boy band that they had both loved when they were teenagers. When her sister has to cancel, Annie goes on the cruise alone and is assigned to share a cabin with a superfan veteran of several of these cruises. At first Annie feels out of place among the middle-aged women acting like lovesick teenagers but before long she finds herself caught up in the communal experience and befriending one of the members of the band who is going through a hard time himself.
As the cruise ship sails the loop from Miami to the Bahamas and back again, the story alternates between three perspectives – Annie, Keith who is one of the members of the boy band and Sarah the production manager. Not a lot of depth but still an enjoyable story about middle age and starting over after divorce filled with nostalgia about boy bands with a fun cruise ship setting – a book suited for summer beach bags!
7. Go Gentle by Maria Semple
Setting: Primarily New York City (also L.A. and Paris)
Adora Hazzard is a divorced Stoic philosopher living with her teenage daughter on the Upper West Side who is determined to live a life of the mind and believes she has discovered the secret to happiness – want only what you have. She relishes her carefully curated life living in the legendary Ansonia building where she has assembled a coven of like-minded women who plan to grow old together and working for an old-money New York family as a moral tutor for their twin sons. Until a chance meeting with a handsome stranger at the ballet upends her world with black market art deals, secret rendezvous and international intrigue and suddenly Adora finds herself wanting more.
I hadn’t read this author before and didn’t know what to expect – and never could have predicted this! Go Gentle is the chaotic and a bit zany story of a middle-aged woman and her madcap journey of self-discovery with some romance and philosophy thrown in. There’s a section of 80-100ish pages from Adora’s past detailing her experience as a young comedy writer in LA that is much more serious in tone than the rest of the book and feels out of place at first until the story all comes together. I liked the author’s writing style and loved Adora – I would not be disappointed if there was a sequel! This is an enjoyable read if you’re looking for a fun book that leans more toward the literary and don’t mind a bit of mayhem.
8. The Chambermaid’s Key by Genevieve Graham
Setting: Toronto, Canada
1929 – Roisin (Rosie) Ryan lives with her Irish immigrant family in a slum-like neighbourhood in downtown Toronto but believes she can work her way to a better life beginning with a position at the Dominion, a luxury hotel that will soon be opening in the city. Hired as a chambermaid by the kindly Mrs. Evans, Rosie is a diligent and conscientious worker who soon catches the eye of a charming waiter named Damian. Rosie finds it impossible to ignore her feelings for Damian despite warnings from Mrs. Evans to stay away from both him and a wealthy gangster who is the hotel’s most notorious guest.
2024 – While carrying out a routine post-renovation inspection at the historic Dominion Hotel, Bridget Kelly discovers a mysterious shipment of crates, a secret corridor and a long-buried clue to a decades-old murder but, as she tries to investigate, it soon becomes clear that somebody doesn’t want the truth to come to light.
There are two engaging timelines in this well-researched historical fiction novel inspired by the Royal York in Toronto – both with characters that felt authentic and relatable. The element of mystery and suspense blended with the historical fiction and romance kept me turning the pages and I loved the familiar setting of this Toronto landmark even though its history has been fictionalized.
I have read eight out of Genevieve Graham’s ten Canadian historical fiction novels and have loved them all. I know when I pick up one of her books that I’m going to enjoy a well-told story and also learn something new about Canada’s history and what life was like for Canadians at the time!
9. Last Night in Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez
Setting: Brooklyn, New York
FROM THE PUBLISHER: 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.
10. The Shock of the Light by Lori Inglis Hall
Setting: England and France
Twin siblings Theo and Tessa from Cambridge, England are both eager to do their part for the war effort despite the views of their pacifist father. In 1942, Theo has joined the RAF as a pilot and, unbeknownst to her family, Tessa has been recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). After undergoing an intense training period, Tessa parachutes into France where she joins a cell of the Resistance in Nazi-occupied territory. Two years later, Theo comes home but Tessa does not. Decades later in 2003, Edie, a PhD candidate researching female agents in the SOE, contacts Theo and works with him to uncover the truth of what actually happened to Tessa in France.
A well-written historical fiction debut, this novel has a different angle than previous World War II novels that I have read as it’s the story of two siblings – one a pilot and the other a spy. There’s a great deal of historical information woven into the story about the brave English women who became SOE agents and lost their lives serving their country, life in Nazi-occupied France, the Nuremburg trials and how gay men were treated at the time when homosexuality was illegal but mostly it’s a story about the unbreakable bond between two siblings and wartime love and loss.
11. Lake Effect by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
Setting: Rochester, New York
In Rochester, New York in 1977, Nina Larkin, mom to teenage daughters, Clara and Bridie, is gifted a copy of The Joy of Sex from a newly divorced friend forcing her to face the absence of intimacy in her marriage. Unbeknownst to Nina, Clara is falling in love for the first time just as her mother becomes involved with their neighbour, Finn Finnegan, risking the reputation of both families and completely unravelling seventeen year-old Clara’s world.
Years later, Clara is working as a food stylist in New York City but has never moved on from the scandal that upended her life in her senior year of high school. When she returns home to Rochester for a wedding all those old feelings rise to the surface resulting in her doing something that will turn their lives upside down again.
A well-written and enjoyable read, Lake Effect is a multiple POV family drama about the repercussions of an affair between neighbours in upper-middle-class Rochester in the ’70s and how it impacts the members of the two families. Told over three timelines, it’s a nuanced portrayal of messy family dynamics with flawed characters the reader can empathize with even when they’re making really bad decisions.
12. In My Tudor Era by Kate Bromley
Setting: England
Lily, a PhD candidate in Psychology from California, is visiting Hampton Palace on a trip to England with her friend, Zoe, when she passes out in the chapel, hits her head and and wakes up in Tudor England in the body of Catherine Howard. Lily soon learns that she has caught the eye of King Henry VIII which doesn’t bode well for her life expectancy so she needs to get back to the 21st century asap. Matters are complicated by the fact that she can’t stay away from a champion jouster named Simon while she’s also being pursued by a courtier who seems to think they’re secretly married and the king’s handsome groom.
A steamy romance with a fun time travel premise – this was a quick relatively enjoyable read but I have read a couple of the author’s previous books (Here for the Drama and Ciao for Now) which I liked much better.
13. The News from Dublin by Colm Tóibín
Setting: Ireland and various locations
The News from Dublin is a collection of 9 short stories – many published for the first time – one of which is more of a novella at over 100 pages. Quiet, insightful and beautifully written stories with varied settings including Ireland, the U.S., Spain and Argentina about the lives of ordinary people dealing with loss, despair, and grief.
I don’t often read short stories because they often leave me wanting more but I’ll read anything written by Colm Tóibín. My favourites in this collection were The Journey to Galway about a mother who receives word of the death of her fighter pilot son in World War I and must travel to Galway to inform his wife and children and Sleep which is about an Irish man living in New York City who suffers from horrible nightmares as he grieves the death of his brother.
14. The Name Game by Beth O’Leary
Setting: Fictional island in the UK
Charlie couldn’t be happier to take the job of farm-shop manager on the remote, wild Isle of Ormer. She’s grieving, a little lost, and in desperate need of a fresh start.
Jones has come out of a difficult breakup and is looking forward to some peace away from the noise of his city life. Moving to Ormer couldn’t have come at a better time.
But when Charlie Jones and, ahem, Charlie Jones both turn up at Ormer’s one and only farm shop, claiming to have been offered the role of manager, everyone is baffled. How could this have happened? And just who is the real Charlie Jones?
15. Wild People Quiet by Tara Gereaux
Setting: Saskatchewan, Canada
Torduvalle, Saskatchwan, 1946 – Florence Banks has created a beautiful life for herself in this small prairie town where she has been working as a secretary in an insurance office for the past 11 years. She’s a model employee and resident of the town, keeps an immaculate home filled with beautiful objects and her hair is the perfect shade of movie-star blonde because she’s meticulous about never letting her brown roots show. But one morning at the end of summer, Florence sees a group of Métis men hired for seasonal farm work and recognizes one who has a connection to her past that threatens to shatter her carefully-constructed life.
This dual timeline historical fiction novel set in a fictional small town in Saskatchewan (with flashbacks to the main character’s childhood and early adulthood) is a deeply personal novel. The author’s grandfather was Métis but when she was growing up her family told people they were French. As an adult, she sought to explore Métis history to better understand the decision her grandfather and others made to hide their heritage and also to reconnect to the Métis culture herself.
This is a gentle yet thought-provoking exploration of identity and the repercussions of one young woman’s decision to live her life as someone else. I also appreciated the history lesson woven into this novel as I didn’t know about much of what the Métis people endured during this shameful chapter of Canadian history. Tara Gereaux puts a very human face on the history by introducing us to characters living with the discrimination, mistreatment and pressure to assimilate and by showing the impact that government policy had on them.
Wild People Quiet is a beautifully-written, extraordinary story of one unforgettable woman finding her way back to her family and reclaiming her culture but also a story of the history, culture and resilience of the Métis people.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing an ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
16. John of John by Douglas Stuart
Setting: Outer Hebrides, Scotland
John of John is the coming-of-age/father-son story of a closeted young gay man coming home to the island where he grew up in the Outer Hebrides of northern Scotland. The date is never specified but it would appear to take place in the mid to late 1990s from references to cultural and historic events.
22 year-old John-Calum Macleod (known as Cal), a recent art school graduate struggling to find employment, is summoned home to the remote Isle of Harris by his father, John, because his maternal grandmother, Ella, is unwell. John, a sheep farmer, a weaver of tweed and a deacon of the Free Presbyterian church (a fundamentalist denomination that broke from the mainstream church), lives with Ella in her croft house although they have only just managed to keep the peace between the two of them in the years since her daughter moved out. As Cal begrudgingly resumes his life in the insular community, his relationship with his father is strained by their inability to understand one another and by the secrets that both are keeping.
A compelling literary fiction character study by Booker winner Douglas Stuart, this book is one that you must read slowly to savour the prose and sit with the storytelling. The book has an incredible sense of place achieved not entirely through descriptions of the harshness of the landscape but also by the way it makes the reader feel what it’s like to live in a remote conservative community such as this. The themes addressed in the novel include sexuality and identity, loneliness, religion and repression, father and son relationships, duty and family expectations and the struggle to live as one’s true self.
A moving, beautifully written story with unforgettable characters – I expect this will be one of my favourite books of the year.
17. The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
Setting: Massachusetts, United States
Artie Dam is a beloved highschool history teacher in a coastal Massachusetts community married to his wife, Evie, for more than 30 years and father to an adult son, Rob. Set around the election of 2024, Artie is lonely and disillusioned with the state of his country and contemplating suicide. While trying to come up with a way to kill himself that will appear accidental, he has a brush with death that makes him realize that he wants to live. Around the same time, a long-held secret is revealed to Artie and his life will never be the same.
The Things We Never Say is a bleak but moving exploration of the human condition that will make you think about many of the issues that Artie is grappling with. Strout’s prose is beautiful and evocative in its simplicity – both insightful and a pleasure to read. I found Artie’s personal struggle with political anxiety, disillusionment, and despair and his contemplation of free will to be quite relateable. The politics feels a bit too on the nose at times (provoking my own anxiety about the political state of the world) but I still enjoyed the read.
18. Daughter of Egypt by Marie Benedict
Setting: Egypt
In this dual timeline historical fiction, Lady Evelyn Herbert, daughter of Lord Carnarvon of Highclere Castle in England, works alongside her father and famed archaeologist Howard Carter as they search for the tomb of Tutankhamun in the early 1920s. While her father and Carter are focused on the “Boy King” of ancient Egypt, Lady Evelyn is obsessed with Hatshepsut and hopes that they will uncover her burial site. The second timeline follows Hatshepsut from the time that she is a young princess until she becomes one of the few female Pharaohs in ancient Egypt ruling for two decades in the 15th century BCE.
Inspired by the true stories of Hatshepsut and Lady Herbert, Daughter of Egypt is well-researched and well-written. I had only a passing familiarity with the story of Hatshepsut so appreciated learning some basic history of one the most successful female Pharaohs in ancient Egypt. It was also interesting to learn about the role that Lady Evelyn played in the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun as I remember the extensive news coverage when the “King Tut” exhibit came to North America in the late ’70s but I don’t recall learning anything about the involvement of this young woman. This is an interesting story and I enjoyed the read although there’s not a lot to appeal to anyone who doesn’t have an interest in ancient history in general or Egypt in particular.
19. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Setting: United States
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.
20. Hooked by Asako Yuzuki
Setting: Japan
Eriko is on the cusp of turning 30 and still living with her parents in her childhood home in Tokyo while working at a seafood trading company. Having no friends and an obsessive need for connection, Eriko becomes addicted to reading a lifestyle blog called The Diary of Hallie B, the World’s Worst Wife written by Shoko who describes herself as a laidback, unambitious stay-at-home wife. Using details from the blog, Eriko orchestrates a “chance” meeting with Shoko and initiates a friendship. She quickly becomes overly possessive, however, causing Shoko to withdraw and leading to dangerous obsession and stalking behaviour on the part of Eriko who will do anything to hold onto the best friend she has ever had.
Hooked is a dark and provocative character-driven story about female friendship and obsession – not sure what to really call it – a slow burn thriller?? black comedy? maybe weird girl lit?? The novel was translated into English this spring but was published in Japan in 2015 which makes some details of the story particularly related to social media to feel a bit dated – i.e. the blog comment section and starting a Twitter account. Disturbing and unsettling yet also a compelling read.
21. The Island Club by Nicole Harrison
Setting: Balboa Island, California
1956: Milly Kinkaid has recently moved from Hollywood to Balboa Island with her husband and two young children hoping for an improvement in their family life but her husband is more distant than ever. Sylvia Johnson and her husband have been pillars of the Balboa Island community for years and have recently opened The Island Club where members can play tennis, swim and dine but she fears losing everything after discovering that her husband’s decisions have put their family’s future at risk. Meanwhile Adele Lambert has been running from a shameful scandal for two decades but her identity is about to be exposed.
Set on Balboa Island off the coast of Southern California during the 1950s, The Island Club is a historical fiction novel about the friendship between three women each with a secret that threatens to unravel her life who bond over the game of tennis. This is a quick read with a glamorous setting that makes it feel perfect for summer beach bags!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
22. The Complex by Karan Mahajan
Setting: United States and India
Set in Delhi from the late ’70s to the ’90s, The Complex is about several generations of the Chopra family living in the sprawling apartment complex built by their revered patriarch, SP Chopra, who was one of India’s political architects. Several family members make an appearance in the novel but the focus is on SP’s son Laxman, the youngest of his 9 children, and two of SP’s grandsons, brothers Sachin and Brij, as well as their respective spouses, Gita and Karishna.
Sachin and Gita emigrated to the U.S. and live in Michigan for many years while Brij and Karishna are raising their sons in the complex. Laxman, also resident in the complex, is a mediocre businessman, a ruthless politician and a sexual predator who assaults and abuses family members. The novel is narrated retrospectively by a great-grandson of SP’s who is now a middle-aged man living in the apartment complex awaiting his father’s release from prison after serving a 25 year sentence for murder.
The reader is slowly drawn into the layers of this compelling family saga. It’s a character-driven novel that takes place against the backdrop of rapid economic and political change that post-Independence India was experiencing in the ’80s and ’90s including the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, anti-Sikh riots, protests of the Mandal Commission report, political instability in Punjab and Kashmir, the rise of Hindu nationalism and economic liberalization. Interesting, informative and well-written – this is the first book by this author that I have picked up and I enjoyed the read.
23. This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum
Setting: United States
Benny and Joy have been best friends for more than a decade and for the past four years have hosted a hugely successful comedy survival podcast about near-death experiences called “This Story Might Save Your Life”. In the midst of negotiations for a lucrative contract, Joy invites Benny over one night and tells him that she needs to take a break from the podcast and will explain why later. When Benny arrives the next morning for their recording session, both Joy and her husband, Xander, who produces the show are missing. Suspicion falls on Benny almost immediately and he launches his own investigation to clear his name and find Joy.
The story is told from two points of view/timelines and works really well with Benny’s narration in the present alternated with excerpts from the Joy-authored chapters of a memoir that they are co-writing providing the history of their relationship.
This debut novel is a “will they, won’t they” romance wrapped up in a mystery but I wouldn’t really classify it as a thriller. It is compulsively readable though and definitely kept me turning the pages to find out how it was all going to turn out. An interesting aspect of the story is that Joy suffers from severe narcolepsy which I don’t think I have ever read in a book before. I didn’t completely love the ending but this was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
24. The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn
Setting: Paris, France
FROM THE PUBLISHER: Physician Layla Bailey has spent over a year telling herself she’s moved on from a painful but amicable divorce from her college sweetheart. Staying friends with her ex seemed like the mature thing to do, but when Layla is invited to her former sister-in-law’s destination wedding in Paris—where Layla once spent her own romantic honeymoon—she knows her commitment to maturity might be her worst enemy…especially since her ex isn’t attending alone.
The only thing that could make the week more difficult is getting through it without the distraction of the wedding…. But when what Layla thought was a harmless conversation about the choices of her younger self leads to the bride getting cold feet, Layla finds herself facing down the groom’s mysterious, taciturn best man, Griffin, who will do anything to make sure this wedding happens.
Since she broke it, Griff demands she help him fix it. Going along with his plan to alleviate the engaged couple’s doubts seems like Layla’s best chance at maintaining a good relationship with a family she once called her own. But as she learns more about the past heartbreak that’s driving Griff to help his friend, she gets closer and closer to confronting the true depth of her own pain…while finding herself more and more willing to risk it all again for Griff.
25. Leave Your Mess at Home by Tolani Akinola
Setting: Chicago, Illinois
FROM THE PUBLISHER: The Longe siblings are really botching their parents’ American Dream.
Sola Longe, eldest daughter, estranged from the family, is secretly back home in Chicago for the first time in a decade. She’s a newly single and recently disgraced influencer trying to quietly put her life back together again. The other three Longe siblings aren’t doing much better.
Anjola is in love with her best friend, who just got engaged to someone else; Karen, a college junior and the baby of the family, is grappling with her sexuality and self-image; and Ola, the golden child with a baby of his own on the way, is questioning his marriage and how to raise a Black son in America.
Sola’s unexpected return sets them on a crash course towards each other, and when the four siblings find themselves together again at their Nigerian immigrant parents’ Thanksgiving table, a decade’s worth of secrets and a lifetime of resentments explode to the fore.
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