There's no better time to be a bookworm than 2019. The number of must-read books that have hit shelves already is impressive, and there are still so many highly anticipated titles on the horizon. From Margaret Atwood's long-awaited follow-up to The Handmaid's Tale to Jasmine Guillory's third swoonworthy rom-com, the best is still to come this year. That makes figuring out which books should be at the top of your to-be-read pile no easy task — that's where this list comes in. When it comes time to drop a book (or four) in your beach tote this Summer, these are the 2019 titles to reach for first.
Historical fiction fans couldn't wait to get their hands on Julia Kelly's The Light Over London. Told across two different timelines, the book follows a modern-day woman named Cara, who comes across relics from the past that tell the story of a young woman who defied her fate in World-War-II-era London.
Emma Rous's The Au Pair has all the makings of your new favorite thriller. Seraphine Mayes and her twin brother, Danny, are haunted by the death of their mother. Shortly after their birth, she threw herself from a cliff, leaving her children with a lifetime of questions. Now Seraphine is an adult, and in the aftermath of her father's passing, she discovers a photo seemingly taken on the day the twins were born: but in the picture, her mother is smiling and only holding one baby.
Freefall is Jessica Barry's debut novel, and it garnered major buzz. Told from the alternating perspectives of an estranged mother and daughter, the novel chronicles their harrowing journey back to each other after a plane crash leaves one of them fighting for survival.
Gytha Lodge's She Lies in Wait is the kind of book that will keep you up at night turning the pages to see what happens next. In 1983, six friends go on a camping trip in the forest with a young woman named Aurora Jackson. Thirty years later, Aurora's body is found in those same woods, and the old friends have to confront the truth that one of them is a killer.
The premise of Taylor Adams's No Exit is not for the faint of heart. A college student is heading home on a snowy road when she discovers a child locked in the van next to her car. When she frees the child, she finds herself and the young girl in serious danger as they're pursued through the icy night by kidnappers.
Female spies, World War II intrigue, and a nugget of truth fuel the action in Pam Jenoff's highly anticipated historical drama The Lost Girls of Paris. Anyone with a love of WWII stories featuring lead female characters needs to put this one at the top of their must list.
First, bestselling author Sally Thorne brought you The Hating Game, and now she's back with 99 Percent Mine. Twins Darcy and Jamie inherit a rundown cottage that Darcy has little interest in, until her brother's best friend and her secret crush shows up to help with the house flipping project.
Master of young adult fantasy, Leigh Bardugo is continuing to expand her popular Grishaverse with King of Scars. This time the action focuses on the young King Nikolai Lantsov, who must embark on a perilous journey to destroy the dark magic growing inside of him before he can properly rebuild his struggling country.
Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give became a bestselling novel and a powerful film, and we might love On the Come Up even more. The book tells the story of 16-year-old Bri, an aspiring rapper whose family is facing an eviction notice when her rap goes viral for the wrong reason.
The queen of women's fiction, Sophie Kinsella, is back with another heroine you're destined to way relate to in I Owe You One. Fixie Farr runs her father's homeware business alongside her flaky siblings, but it's not exactly her dream job. A chance encounter with a stranger might just challenge Fixie to put herself first for once, and maybe even find love in the process.
The literary world could hardly wait to sink its teeth into Anissa Gray's debut novel, The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls. The book follows a trio of sisters who must band together when one of them faces arrest and public disgrace in their small community.
f you loved The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, prepare to fall for Taylor Jenkins Reid's newest novel, Daisy Jones and the Six. Set in the '60s and '70s, the book is told as the oral history of one of the era's greatest bands — their rise, their fall, and everything that happened in between.
Jillian Cantor, author of The Lost Letter, has penned a heartbreaking love story that will leave you sobbing in In Another Time. Set both before and after World War II, the novel follows a German bookstore owner, Max, and a violinist, Hanna, who fall in love. There's nothing Max won't do to protect Hanna, who is Jewish, from the rising Nazi regime, but when she wakes up 10 years later with no memory of what happened to her, readers will be left wondering exactly how far Max went to keep her safe.
Annie Ward invites readers to watch a marriage unfurl over the course of 16 nail-biting years in Beautiful Bad. The story of a woman who confronts her fears about her husband will end in murder, but the question is, whose?
Andrea Rothman's The DNA of You and Me garnered favorable comparisons to Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. The book follows an ambitious and bright young scientist who finds herself exploring whether she can follow her heart and succeed in her career at the same time.
In Bonnie Kistler's House on Fire, a blended family is rocked to the core when a drunk-driving accident leaves one of their children dead and the other in prison. Parents Leigh and Pete find themselves torn apart as Leigh mourns her daughter and Pete tries to find evidence to exonerate his son.
Not every YA novel has crossover appeal, but A.S. King's work seems to resonate across generations. It's fitting then that Dig is a multi-generational tale about five teenagers' day-to-day struggles to survive as their grandparents sit atop a fortune they refuse to share, no matter how dire things become for their adult children and grandchildren.
Alafair Burke is back for another domestic thriller that will explore the twisted web of family with The Better Sister. Two estranged sisters unite after one of them loses her husband — who also happened to be the other sister's ex.
Release date: Apr. 16
18 / 40
19The Murmur of Bees
Image Source: Penguin
Sofía Segovia is already a famed author in Mexico, and with The Murmur of Bees she's poised to become an international favorite too. Set firmly in the magical realism genre, this moving book follows the story of a child found under a bridge covered by a blanket of bees. Fortunately, he grows up with a loving family that takes him in and appreciates his unique gifts. With the Mexican Revolution as a backdrop, the novel traces the family's journey as their special child reveals he possesses the gift of seeing into the future.
Stephanie Evanovich's novels are the book equivalent of a warm hug, and she's serving a new one up just in time to keep you cozy on those long Winter nights. Under the Table is a modern take on My Fair Lady, which finds a woman taking on the project of rehabilitating a reclusive millionaire's image only to find herself falling in love with him.
In The Mother-in-Law, Sally Hepworth is set to weave a tale where even the narrator can't be trusted. When Lucy's mother-in-law is found dead, it seems as if she committed suicide, but there's more beneath the surface.
Did you love The Kiss Quotient? Good, because Helen Hoang is back with another charming romance in 2019: The Bride Test. The book follows a man on the autism spectrum and his well-intentioned mother who is determined to find him a wife.
Royal watchers, prepare yourselves, because this LGBTQ+ romance is destined to leave you swooning. Casey McQuiston's Red, White, and Royal Blue follows the son of the US president and the prince of England as their animosity toward each other turns into something more.
Release date: May 14
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24Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered
Image Source: Forge Books
If you're obsessed with Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff's podcast My Favorite Murder, then Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered is the one 2019 book that you can't miss. The podcast hosts are telling their own stories from battling eating disorders to addiction and how they learned to prioritize their own safety over a desire to be nice. Get to know the funny and relatable women behind the podcast sensation as they conquer a new medium with their buzzy new memoir.
Release date: May 28
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25These Witches Don't Burn
Image Source: Penguin
Witches are having a bit of moment thanks to The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling sounds like the perfect book to keep fans of the series busy until season three premieres on Netflix. Set in modern-day Salem, the YA novel follows an LGBTQ+ main character named Hannah, who is an actual witch. While she's usually busy dealing with regular teen problems like avoiding her ex-girlfriend and working a Summer job, a dark blood ritual signals that something wicked is heading her way and she'll have to face the darkness head-on to keep everyone she loves safe.
Release date: May 28
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26I'll Never Tell
Image Source: Simon and Schuster
Part thriller, part family drama, Catherine McKenzie's I'll Never Tell reunites the MacAllister siblings 20 years after the tragic murder of a young woman at their family's camp. The woman's murder was never solved, but each of the siblings knows more about that fateful day than they let on. Now that their parents have passed away, they have no choice but to solve the mystery if they want to sell the camp and move forward with their lives.
Suzy Krause's debut novel Valencia and Valentine is a warm and unexpected treat. The story follows two women at different points in their lives who appear to have no connection at first, but as their stories unfold it becomes clear that the 35-year-old Valencia and the elderly Mrs. Valentine's lives are intrinsically entwined.
Release date: June 1
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28If It Makes You Happy
Image Source: Swoon Reads
Early reviews of Claire Kann's If It Makes You Happy are hailing the YA novel as a body positive Gilmore Girls, and if that doesn't make you want to hit a pre-order button immediately, then nothing will. Set in a quirky small town called Misty Haven, the book follows Winnie as she deals with the never-ending obligations that come along with being crowned Misty Haven's Summer Queen right before she leaves for college.
Release date: June 4
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29Waiting For Tom Hanks
Image Source: Penguin
Do you wish life was more like a romantic comedy? So does screenwriter Annie Cassidy, the heroine of Kerry Winfrey's Waiting For Tom Hanks. All she wants is to meet her own Tom Hanks, but instead she gets a cocky actor who may or may not be her very real perfect match.
In England, a British celebrity is eager to land a major movie role. In Philadelphia, a recently divorced woman becomes more and more certain that she's meant to be with the handsome man on her television screen. If you're guessing things get complicated fast in Adam Foulds's psychological thriller Dream Sequence, then you would be right.
Megan Miranda made waves with All the Missing Girls, and now she's back with another thriller, The Last House Guest. Her new novel is rooted in a strong friendship between two women, and the drive the one left behind has to discover who murdered the other.
A skier's life changes forever after an accident forces her to start over in Andrea Dunlop's We Came Here to Forget. Her new life in Buenos Aires finds her forging new friendships and falling for a guy with secrets of his own.
Release date: July 2
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33The Wedding Party
Image Source: Penguin
Jasmine Guillory is quickly becoming the queen of the romantic comedy genre. If her first two books, The Wedding Date and The Proposal, wowed you, then The Wedding Party is sure to be an instant favorite. When a wedding forces Maddie and Theo together they find their mutual animosity turning into something more, even though they're both too proud to admit what's going on between them is more than just physical. Expect lots of heat, barbed comments, and swoonworthy moments with this one.
T. Greenwood is just waiting to make you cry your heart out with Keeping Lucy. Based on a true story, the novel follows a mother's journey to keep her daughter, who was born with Down syndrome, with her in the early '70s.
Release date: Aug. 6
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35The Turn of the Key
Image Source: Simon and Schuster
Ruth Ware is back with another gothic thriller designed to send chills down your spine. The Turn of the Key follows a woman who takes on her dream job as a nanny for a wealthy couple only to find herself in jail for a murder she didn't commit. She tells her story to her lawyer by writing it all down from her prison cell in hopes that he can help her reveal the true killer before she spends her life incarcerated for a crime she didn't commit.
Rainbow Rowell — author of Fangirl and Eleanor and Park — is back with the graphic novel Pumpkin Heads. The story about two teens' last night working in their beloved pumpkin patch is sure to be an Autumn favorite.
Release date: Aug. 27
36 / 40
37The Testaments
Image Source: Penguin
Decades after the publication of The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood is continuing the story of Gilead and its fall in The Testaments.
Release date: Sept. 10
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38The Starless Sea
Image Source: Penguin
Erin Morgenstern burst onto the literary scene with her hypnotic The Night Circus, and now she's back with The Starless Sea. This time, a graduate student named Zachary finds a mysterious book that appears to chronicle his own life story.
Lindy West is diving head first into the strange world of modern American culture to examine the things that divide us through a series of searing essays in The Witches Are Coming.
