41 Books Coming Out in 2020 That Need to Be on Your TBR Now

Lee Goldberg delves into the seedier side of Los Angeles in the crime novel Lost Hills. The book kicks off a new series about Eve Ronin, L.A.'s youngest female homicide detective ever. Eve's ready to use her first case to prove she deserves her badge by solving a murder and stopping a killer even though there are no bodies to be found at the grizzly crime scene she's called to.

Release date: Jan. 1

A Heart so Fierce and Broken is Brigid Kemmerer's sequel to her YA fantasy novel A Curse So Dark and Lonely. The curse on Emberfell is broken, but their troubles are just beginning. With the people questioning whether their prince is the true heir and whether forbidden magic has been released in their world, this series is just getting started.

Release date: Jan. 7

Isabel Ibañez's Woven in Moonlight is set to be a beautiful, dreamlike fantasy tale. Drawing inspiration from Bolivian history, the story focuses on Ximena, the stand in for the last remaining member of her people's royal family. Ximena is obligated to marry the usurper Atoc, but she has a plan to use her gift of weaving to lead a resistance from within Atoc's regime.

Release date: Jan. 7

Karen M. McManus's long-awaited sequel to One of Us Is Lying is almost here, and it sounds like One of Us Is Next is set to be a worthy follow-up. The students of Bayview High are being tormented by copycat gossip apps in the wake of Simon's death, and things quickly turn dangerous when one of the gossipers forces the students into playing a deadly game of truth or dare.

Release date: Jan. 7

Liz Moore's Long Bright River is at once a crime novel and story about sisters. Mickey is a cop who patrols the streets that her sister, Kacey, lives on. Kacey's addiction has left her homeless and estranged from her sister, but Mickey still worries about her every day. When Kacey disappears just as a string of murders begins, the case becomes personal for Mickey, who will stop at nothing to find her sibling.

Release date: Jan. 7

Melissa Albert returns to Hazel Wood in her follow-up The Night Country. Alice's escape from Hinterland isn't as simple as she hoped it would be. Even as she tries to leave the world of magic behind in New York, her grandmother's dark legacy continues to find her.

Release date: Jan. 7

Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White are teaming up for the sweeping historical novel All the Ways We Said Goodbye. Beginning in 1914 and carrying on through the '60s, the book follows three women: a widow, a resistance fighter, and an heiress whose lives are connected by the trauma of war and the grandeur of the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

Release date: Jan. 14

Black Mirror fans are going to love Megan Angelo's Followers. Roommates Orla and Floss want out of their unsatisfying jobs by any means necessary, so they turn to social media where the more horrible they are, the more followers they garner. In the future, Marlow is a government-backed celebrity whose life is on full display for viewers everywhere, but when she discovers a secret about her family, she's put on a path that will lead her to Orla and Floss — and a potentially devastating event that will change America forever.

Release date: Jan. 14

There aren't many plot details available just yet, but just knowing that Ransom Riggs is continuing Jacob's journey in The Conference of the Birds is reason enough to get excited about the fifth installment of the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. Who knows where this adventure will take Jacob, but it's sure to be packed with plenty of unexpected twists.

Release date: Jan. 14

Rom-com author Tessa Bailey's Love Her or Lose Her sounds like the perfect blend of heart and humor. Rosie and Dominic Vega's marriage needs a serious makeover, so the couple heads to marriage boot camp to reconnect and rebuild the foundation of their relationship. Of course, nothing is ever simple, so expect secrets and hilarious bonding exercises to crop up along the way.

Release date: Jan. 14

Adam Silvera's Infinity Son is a fantasy novel about the power of brotherhood. Brothers Emil and Brighton find themselves drawn into a war between Spell Walkers and specters that will test the boys' bond as the fight heats up.

Release date: Jan. 14

In Lucky Caller, Emma Mills continues her string of gentle YA romances with a story about a young woman named Nina who takes a radio broadcasting class her senior year. The class quickly becomes a headache as the students clash and internet rumors plague them, but despite the chaos, Nina might end up finding exactly what she needs as she bonds with her classmates.

Release date: Jan. 14

Tanen Jones's The Better Liar has all the makings of an explosive thriller. Dutiful daughter Leslie can only receive her inheritance if her estranged sister Robin receives hers. When Leslie tracks Robin down, she discovers her sister is dead. In desperate need of the cash, she enlists the help of a lookalike to pose as Robin and gets way more than she bargained for in the process.

Release date: Jan. 14

Set in the 1930s against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, Isabel Allende's A Long Petal of the Sea follows pregnant widow Roser and her brother-in-law Victor as they journey to Europe as refugees. As the years pass, their relationship deepens, as does their desire to return to Spain.

Release date: Jan. 21

Karma Brown's Recipe for a Perfect Wife traces the lives of two women in two different times. Alice is a modern day wife who discovers a vintage cookbook in the basement of her new house. The cookbook belonged to '50s housewife Nellie, who left notes in the margins hinting that her picture-perfect marriage was much darker than anyone knew.

Release date: Jan. 21

Rita Woods's debut Remembrance is perfect for fans of The Underground Railroad. Three women in different times hear of Remembrance, a safe place on the Underground Railroad that can offer sanctuary, but finding Remembrance is far from easy.

Release date: Jan. 21

In American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins is set to explore the migrant crisis through the eyes of a mother and son forced to flee their middle-class life in Mexico after their family is targeted by a drug cartel. Lydia Quixano Perez becomes a migrant, fighting to get her son to America in the hopes that they can start over there beyond the reach of the cartel, but along the way, she begins to realize that everyone is running from something with no clear idea of what exactly they're running to.

Release date: Jan. 21

Emma Lord's Tweet Cute could be this generation's You've Got Mail. Pepper's home life is complicated, but her family's fast-food business is booming thanks in part to her managing the chain's Twitter account. Meanwhile, her classmate Jack is infuriated when he finds out that Pepper's family stole his grandmother's grilled cheese recipe, and he starts a tweet war with Pepper that quickly goes viral. In public, these two hate each other, but what they don't realize is that they've been communicating on a private app where they're definitely, maybe falling in love.

Release date: Jan. 21

William Gibson's latest sci-fi must read is Agency, a book destined to make everyone give Alexa and Siri the side-eye. Verity is a tech guru whose relationship with a Silicon Valley billionaire led to her losing her job. When a shady company offers her the chance to test out a new digital assistant named Eunice, she quickly realizes the company has no idea how advanced the AI is.

Release date: Jan. 21

Therese Anne Fowler delves into the realities of racial tensions in America in her upcoming A Good Neighborhood. Valerie Alston-Holt is a professor and single mother to a biracial son. When a traditional family with new money moves in next door, tensions flare up as they clash over everything from historic trees to the burgeoning romance between their teens.

Release date: Feb. 4

In Phil Stamper's debut novel The Gravity of Us, two teen boys bond and fall in love when their parents are selected for NASA's mission to Mars. As buzz around the mission grows, one of the boys uncovers a secret that puts his father's job and his budding romance at risk.

Release date: Feb. 4

Libba Bray's spooky Diviners series concludes with The King of Crows. The Diviners must band together and head to Nebraska to stop the King of Crows and his army of the dead before it's too late.

Release date: Feb. 4

Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed team up for Yes No Maybe So, a story of activism and romance. Maya Rehman's Ramadan isn't going so great, but her mom has a suggestion: hit the streets to canvas for votes alongside a boy named Jamie. Jamie is psyched to be volunteering for his state's senate candidate, but he hates talking to people, which makes going door to door to talk to prospective voters daunting. Together, Maya and Jamie will learn the importance of activism . . . and grow a whole lot closer in the process.

Release date: Feb. 4

A move to a small coastal town in Maine kicks off a nightmare for the family at the center of Mary Kubica's The Other Mrs. Sadie and Will's next door neighbor is found dead in her home shortly after their arrival, and suspicion quickly falls on the newcomers. As Sadie becomes more and more obsessed with her neighbor's death, she gets closer to a dangerous truth.

Release date: Feb. 18

Sandhya Menon's fourth YA romance finds the author tackling boarding school life in Of Curses and Kisses. The contemporary Beauty and the Beast retelling follows Princess Jaya Rao, who is determined to make the brooding Grey Emerson fall in love with her so that she can dump him in retaliation for his family's treatment of her little sister. What Jaya doesn't count on is how much she'll genuinely like Grey, or the little matter that he has a secret curse that will doom him when he turns 18 hanging over his head.

Release date: Feb. 18

Sarah J. Maas is already a beloved YA fantasy writer, but in 2020, she's trying her hand at adult fantasy for the first time in Crescent City. The story follows half-Fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan and a fallen angel named Hunt Athalar. The mismatched pair are brought together by a murder that threatens the very fabric of their city and the lives of everyone who resides there.

Release date: Mar. 3

Thriller team Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen are back with You Are Not Alone, a book about a woman named Shay who decides to change her life after she witnesses an apparent suicide. Shay meets a pair of sisters who promise her that she'll never be alone again now that she's got them. But what do they want in return for their generosity?

Release date: Mar. 3

Only Mostly Devastated by Sophia Gonzales is Grease with a sweet romance between two boys who have the perfect Summer fling. However, Ollie was supposed to leave at the end of Summer, but due to his aunt's health, he's now staying in North Carolina, and he's about to realize that his vacation boyfriend Will isn't out to any of his friends.

Release date: Mar. 3

Carol Goodman's The Sea of Lost Girls will delve deep into the dark side of elite boarding schools. Teacher Tess gets a call from her 17-year-old son late one night that leads to her family being accused of murdering her son's girlfriend. But there's far more to the story, and Tess is determined to get to the bottom of the school's dark secrets in hopes of saving her son.

Release date: Mar. 3

Marie Lu is mixing historical fiction and fantasy together in The Kingdom of Back. Nannerl Mozart wants to be remembered as the greatest musician of her time, but her father wants her to focus on looking for a suitable husband. Meanwhile, her brother Wolfgang is a rising star in the music scene. When a mysterious man offers to make all of Nannerl's dreams come true — at a price — it may be too good of an offer to resist.

Release date: Mar. 3

Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy concludes with The Mirror and the Light. The book is set to chronicle the last years of Thomas Cromwell as he strives to build a better version of England even as he must confront the truth that King Henry VIII will turn on him eventually, just as he's turned on so many others.

Release date: Mar. 10

If you loved Hulu's The Act, then you need to check out Stephanie Wrobel's Darling Rose Gold. Rose Gold's mother spent years convincing everyone that her daughter was sick, but in truth, Rose Gold was never ill. Her mother, Patty, spends five years in prison for her crimes and then she comes home looking for forgiveness from her little girl. However, Rose Gold isn't so little anymore, and she's been waiting a long time for her mother's return.

Release date: Mar. 17

Beth O'Leary's The Switch Up has all the makings of a multigenerational romp. Eileen is on the verge of turning 80, and she's ready to fall in love again. Meanwhile, her granddaughter Leena's perfect London life is falling apart. The two propose a swap: Eileen will live in Leena's stylish London flat for two months while Leena regroups in her grandmother's small village of Yorkshire.

Release date: Mar. 19

Station Eleven author Emily St. John Mandel's next novel, The Glass Hotel, sounds just as sweeping in nature as her first. The lives of a bartender, a hotel owner, and shipping executive intertwine as Mandel guides us from the Canadian wilderness to the streets of Manhattan in a story of crime, ghosts, and the unexpected ways that people touch each other's lives.

Release date: Mar. 24

Sahar Mustafah's debut The Beauty of Your Face is set to be a searing but necessary read. Afaf Rahman is the principal of a Muslim school for girls in Chicago. When a school shooter radicalized by the alt-right attacks the school, the book journeys through Afaf's memories as the shooter progresses on his rampage.

Release date: Apr. 7

If you're obsessed with Wicked Saints, then here's some good news: the second book in Emily A. Duncan's trilogy, Ruthless Gods, is coming soon. The next chapter in this Gothic fantasy novel finds Nadya, Malachiasz, and Serefin all being pulled in different directions as something larger than them seeks to use the trio for its own gain.

Release date: Apr. 7

Nina Kenwood's debut novel It Sounded Better in My Head is already drawing comparisons to Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before. Natalie's whole world is turned upside down when her parents announce they're getting a divorce and her best friends start dating. With her vision of the future shaken to its core, a new romance will bring Natalie a fresh perspective on all of the changes in her life.

Release date: Apr. 7

Journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson's collection of essays All Boys Aren't Blue is a personal examination of what it's like to grow up as a black and queer young man. Johnson will cover everything from his first sexual experience to toxic masculinity in this can't-miss collection.

Release date: Apr. 28

Get excited World War Z fans, because Max Brooks is back with another inventive horror tale. Devolution chronicles Kate Holland's firsthand account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre. The story of woman versus big foot is sure to be a harrowing, can't miss book in 2020.

Release date: May 12

Suzanne Collins is returning to the world of Hunger Games with an untitled prequel set in Panem 64 years before the Hunger Games began. Not much else is known about the book just yet, but for fans of the Hunger Games world, this is one of 2020's most highly anticipated titles.

Release date: May 19

A thriller with a sci-fi twist, Terry Hayes's The Year of the Locust is set on board a warship that possesses a top secret cloaking ability. Luke Truman is the ship's junior officer who is in charge of testing the highly coveted technology, but he'll soon learn there are more secrets aboard the ship than he could have ever imagined.

Release date: June 1