21 August Books We're Dying to Read

Michaela Carter's Further Out Than You Thought is an "erotically charged" novel that follows three 20-somethings during the 1992 LA riots. It's a "celebration of life and a haunting story of love, friendship, and one woman’s quest for redemption."

Out Aug. 5

The novel Season of the Dragonflies by Sarah Creech is a story about sisters and love with a touch of magic. It follows the women of a family who create perfumes with mystical powers in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Out Aug. 12

Colleen McCullough's epic coming-of-age romance novel Bittersweet follows two sets of twin nurses in 1920s and '30s Australia.

Out Aug. 19

Paulo Coelho's fantasy novel Adultery is about a successful 30-something wife and mother who is tempted by her high school ex-boyfriend, now a successful politician.

Out Aug. 19

Based on the true story of a "mysterious and controversial" World War I memorial at Harvard University, Allegra Jordan's historical romance The End of Innocence follows two students — on opposing sides — who fall in love on the brink of WWI.

Out Aug. 26

Susan Vreeland's historical romance Lisette's List is a love story set in 1937 Provence. It's described as "a woman’s awakening in the south of Vichy France — to the power of art, to the beauty of provincial life, and to love in the midst of war."

Out Aug. 26

Set on the coast of Ireland, Secrets of the Lighthouse by Santa Montefiore is a "hauntingly romantic novel" about two women — the ghost of a lighthouse and the woman who is falling in love with the widower.

Out Aug. 5

Martha Woodroof's charming, funny novel Small Blessings is about a small-town professor who discovers he has a 10-year-old son.

Out Aug. 12

Malcolm Brooks's Western historical fiction novel Painted Horses is set in 1950s Montana and is about a young archeologist who meets a former mustanger and war veteran when she arrives to work on a dam project.

Out Aug. 5

Maya Banks is back with the third book in her erotic romance Surrender Trilogy, Taking It All. "For a married couple taking steps to renew their marriage, the consequences of one single moment of inattention may come at a price the husband never expects . . ."

Out Aug. 5

Courtney Miller Santo's novel Three Story House is told in three parts from the perspectives of three women — cousins — who are renovating a historic Memphis house together as they "discover that their spectacular failures in love, career, and family provide the foundation for their future happiness."

Out Aug. 19

Radhika Sanghani's funny YA novel Virgin is about a 21-year-old woman trying to lose her V card. "Bridget Jones and Carrie Bradshaw, meet your wisecracking, vagina obsessed match."

Out Aug. 5

Set in 1943, The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan is a historical fiction novel about "the impossibility of love."

"In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Thai-Burma Death Railway, Australian surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his affair with his uncle's young wife two years earlier."

Out Aug. 12

Stephanie Perkins's YA romance Isla and the Happily Ever After is the third and final book in her Anna and the French Kiss series and follows a creative couple during their senior year in France.

Author Rainbow Rowell writes, "Stephanie Perkins's characters fall in love the way we all want to, in real time and for good."

Out Aug. 14

Jessie Burton's novel The Miniaturist is a mix of fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, and romance set in 17th century Amsterdam about a young new wife who hires a miniaturist artist to furnish a dollhouse-sized replica of her new home. Called "a magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth."

Out Aug. 26

Elizabeth Gaffney's post-WWII historical romance When the World Was Young follows a rebellious young woman in Brooklyn.

Out Aug. 5

Kresley Cole's paranormal romance Dark Skye is the 15th novel in her Immortals After Dark series. It's "a sultry tale of a mighty warrior scarred inside and out and the beguiling sorceress with the power to heal him — or vanquish him forever."

Out Aug. 5

The historical romance How the Scoundrel Seduces by Sabrina Jeffries is the third book in The Duke's Men series. The story follows an "investigator who sets out to find gypsies — and unexpectedly finds love."

Out Aug. 19

A. Meredith Walters's contemporary romance Lead Me Not follows a conservative, rule-following college student as she finds herself tempted by a handsome stranger who introduces her to the underground club scene.

Out Aug. 5

If you're looking for an erotic BDSM romance, you'll want to check out the San Francisco-set No In Between, the fourth book in the Inside Out series by Lisa Renee Jones.

Out Aug. 19

Kristen Proby's erotic Western romance Seducing Lauren is the second book in her Love Under the Big Sky series. "Life in Montana gets spicy when a woman and her divorce lawyer sign off the papers — and sign on to love."

Out Aug. 19