Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading this Spring
5 Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading this Spring
There is something about spring that makes the idea of a fresh stack of books feel especially exciting. As the days grow longer and the world slowly wakes up again, it feels like the perfect season to discover new stories, revisit favorite authors, and finally dive into the books that have been patiently waiting on your TBR pile. Spring reading has its own kind of magic—whether it’s a novel you bring along to a sunny park bench, a story you savor during a quiet morning with coffee, or a book you stay up too late finishing because you simply can’t put it down.
Each season, I like to look ahead at the books I’m most excited to read, and this spring’s list is filled with an especially wonderful mix of genres and voices. From highly anticipated new releases to thought-provoking literary fiction and page-turning stories that promise to keep readers hooked, these are the books currently at the top of my reading list. If you’re looking for fresh spring book recommendations or simply hoping to add a few new titles to your TBR pile, these are the books I’m most looking forward to reading this spring.
New in 2026:
Society Women by Adriane Leigh
From Adriane Leigh, the USA Today bestselling author of The Influencer series, comes a riveting psychological thriller about power, betrayal, and the haunting legacy of family secrets filled with diabolical turns and shocking twists.
Family Lies by Karen Rose
The fourth nerve-shattering installment of the San Diego Case Files from New York Times bestselling author Karen Rose sees Kit McKittrick’s sister caught in a maelstrom of deadly family secrets.
As an infant, Kit McKittrick’s foster sister Akiko was abandoned at a firehouse. Now 32, Akiko has received an unsettling phone call from a woman who says that she knew her birth mother but refuses to divulge any details except in person. Akiko is nervous but also thrilled at the prospect of finally learning about her blood relations.
Kit has a bad feeling about this and insists on accompanying Akiko to meet the woman. Sure enough, as they stand on Mary Sherman’s doorstep, shots are fired and Kit is hit...and inside the house is a corpse: Mary Sherman herself.
Although she’s on medical leave and forbidden to work the case, Kit cannot rest. With police psychologist Sam Reeves, she undertakes a covert investigation into the mysterious Mary Sherman. Was she Akiko’s birth mother? Why did she reach out after all these years? And who had a motive to kill her?
As more bodies pile up, Kit starts to put together the pieces of the frightening puzzle that is Akiko’s birth family, and she’ll come to wonder whether some secrets should stay buried after all.
Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell
#1 New York Times bestselling author Rainbow Rowell returns with a breathtakingly honest novel about a woman who lost everything — and isn't sure she wants it back.
Everybody knows that Cherry's husband, Tom, is in Hollywood making a movie . . .
Almost nobody knows that he isn't coming home.
Tom is the creator of Thursday—a semi-autobiographical webcomic that's become an international phenomenon.
Semi-autobiographical. That means there's a character in this movie based on Cherry . . . "Baby."
Wide-hipped, heavy-chested, double-chinned Baby.
Cherry never wanted this. No fat girl wants to see herself caricatured on the page—let alone on the big screen. But there's no getting away from it. Baby looks so much like Cherry that strangers recognize her at the grocery store.
While her soon-to-be ex-husband is in Los Angeles getting rich and famous and being the Internet's latest boyfriend, Cherry is stuck in Omaha taking care of the dog he always wanted and the house they were going to raise a family in . . . and wondering who she's supposed to be without him.
Cherry had promised to love Tom through thick and thin.
She'd meant it.
One night, Cherry decides to leave all her problems, including Tom's overgrown puppy, at home. She ventures out to see her favorite band play her favorite album . . . and someone recognizes her from across the room.
Russ Sutton knew Cherry when she was a young art student with a fondness for pin-up dresses and patent leather heels. Before Tom.
Russ knows Cherry. He likes Cherry.
And best of all . . . he's never heard of Thursday.
Tender, funny, and utterly human, Cherry Baby is Rainbow Rowell's richest, most surprising—sexiest—novel yet.
This Song Is About Me by Melissa de la Cruz
A reporter strives to discover the reason behind a superstar’s disappearance in an enthralling novel about the mysteries of love and success by a New York Times bestselling author.
It was a night to remember. Ryan Holding, the most famous pop star in the world, won every music award imaginable at the industry’s highest event. She exited the stage to thunderous applause…then disappeared off the face of the earth.
Six years later, her social media accounts remain untouched. Her band has broken up. Her Malibu estate sits quiet. And billions of obsessed fans still ask: Whatever happened to Ryan Holding?
Amid theories, suspicions, and rumors, reporter Elyse James wants the truth about the girl who poured her heart into every song she wrote. As Elyse searches through the stories of Ryan’s life, from those willing to talk―her best friend, a childhood teacher, and Ryan’s first love among them―a portrait of a flesh-and-blood icon begins to emerge. So do clues to a mystery that has captivated the world.
Did Ryan disappear to find herself? Or did someone deliberately make Ryan disappear? The answers are the stuff of legend.
Chasing the Clouds Away by Debbie Macomber
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber comes an uplifting story of an unforgettable chance encounter between a successful yet jaded businessman and a woman who sees—but also expects—the best in everyone, sparking an unlikely romance that challenges their assumptions about generosity, trust, and the gifts of unforeseen love.
Maisy Gallagher has her own dreams, but when her father passes away, she selflessly sets them aside to help her family. Despite knowing it was the right thing to do, she can’t help but wish for the road not taken.
Chase Furst, the hardened heir to a financial empire, is on the other hand primarily focused on his own life and on his work as a bank executive. His childhood was marred by his mother’s struggle with addiction, and left him cynical and emotionally distant.
But then Chase meets Maisy, a beautiful woman full of optimism and kindness who can see past his defenses. To his surprise and annoyance, she offers to help him during a time of need, and declines his offer of payment. Instead, she asks him to pay it forward—and not with money or a quick fix, but through an act of true selflessness. At a loss, Chase doesn’t know where to begin.
The Island Club by Nicola Harrison
1956: On idyllic Balboa Island, just off the California coast, life seems peaceful and welcoming. But when the lives of three women begin to unravel in shockingly different ways, an unlikely friendship—and the game of tennis—may be the only thing that can save them.
Milly Kinkaid's plan to fix her crumbling marriage seems to be falling apart before it even begins. She believed that moving her young family from Hollywood to Balboa Island might entice her increasingly distant husband to come home earlier after work. Instead, he's barely coming home at all.
Society matriarch Sylvia Johnson and her husband have been pillars of their community for decades, and have just recently begun a new business venture: The Island Club, a place for members to swim, play tennis and dine in style. But when she learns that he has been risking their financial security and putting their family's future in grave danger, she's not only poised to lose the club, but the entire community she holds dear.
Meanwhile, standoffish loner Adele Lambert's entire world is on the brink of being destroyed if the dark secrets of her past and her hidden identity is revealed. Twenty years ago, she ran from a shameful scandal and left behind the only thing she ever loved. Now, terrified that the anonymity she's spent decades guarding will be exposed, but desperate to stay afloat, she risks everything to return to the game that brought her to her knees all those years before.
Set against the sun-drenched beaches of Balboa Island, with its prim and proper 1950s facade, The Island Club is a story of love, loneliness and the lies we tell ourselves—and what can be gained when the truth is finally revealed.
Summer State of Mind by Kristy Woodson Harvey
“Queen of the beach read,” (Cosmopolitan) New York Times bestselling author Kristy Woodson Harvey returns with a heartfelt escape to coastal Carolina.
After the worst day in her professional life, burnt-out NICU nurse Daisy Stevens runs to Cape Carolina, North Carolina, looking for a new life—and possibly new romance. On her first day at her “simpler” job, high school baseball coach Mason Thaysden discovers an abandoned baby, sending ripples through the entire tight-knit town of Cape Carolina.
Mason is still struggling to reconcile the scars of the injury that kept him out of the big leagues, stuck in his hometown, and searching for a way out. This newcomer and the child they’ve saved together might be just the motivation he needs to stay put. Sparks fly as Mason acquaints Daisy with Cape Carolina, introducing her to his friends and family, including his batty Aunt Tilley, who is looking for relief from long-buried family secrets and her own fresh start.
But as Daisy becomes increasingly attached to this abandoned child, and begins facing her own demons in the process, a startling discovery is made that threatens to rip the entire town of Cape Carolina apart, placing Daisy, Mason, and Tilley in the center of the storm. In a novel that proves that “Kristy Woodson Harvey is (the) go-to for elevated beach reads” (People), they will each learn that with love, understanding—and a community theater production of Hello, Dolly!—sometimes life conspires to bring us just exactly where we belong.
A Founding Mother by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
In time for the 250th Anniversary of the birth of the United States comes a sweeping, intimate portrayal of Abigail Adams—wife of one president and mother to another—whose wit, willpower, and wisdom helped shape the fledgling republic. A stunning historical novel with modern-day implications from the New York Times bestselling authors of America’s First Daughter and My Dear Hamilton.
In the heart of revolutionary Boston, Abigail Adams raises her children amid riots, blockades, and the outbreak of war. While her husband, John Adams, rises from country lawyer to nation-builder, often away for years at a time, Abigail builds her own independence—managing their farm, making lucrative investments, amassing savings, battling plague and loss, and defending their home. Unafraid to speak her mind, she famously offers fearless political counsel, urging John to “remember the ladies” in the new government. Through it all, she becomes his most trusted confidante and indispensable ally.
When peace is secured, Abigail steps onto the world stage—exchanging ideas with Thomas Jefferson in the French countryside, navigating court life as the wife of the Minister to Great Britain, and presiding over the parlor politics of the early American republic in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. Even after her husband’s presidential administration, she continues battling political foes and working behind the scenes to advance her family, secure independence for the women in her life, and ensure a better life for the next generation of Americans.
From war-torn streets to the chandeliered halls of power, A Founding Mother is the unforgettable story of a woman ahead of her time—one whose voice, vision, and valor still resonate powerfully today.
The Girl in the Lake by Lauren Oliver
A young girl who claims to remember a past life draws a psychologist into a decades-old mystery in a haunting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver.
Kate Willis, consultant for the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, is tasked with interviewing six-year-old Henley Haskell about the girl’s alleged past-life recollections. The evaluation also marks a return for Kate to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and to troubling recollections of her own.
Here, twenty-four years ago, Kate’s friend Becca McGuire vanished from her bunk at a now-shuttered summer camp and was never seen again―presumably drowned in Lake Sauquamet. But the mystery of her disappearance is only deepening. Because Henley’s memories of her “other life” are ones that could only belong to Becca.
For Kate, Henley’s recurring, suffocating nightmares, and her disturbing illustrations of places she has never been, seem to spell out the unbelievable. Somewhere, somehow, the truth about what really happened to Becca is locked inside this little girl. As Henley’s uncanny memories surface, so do old secrets―each one drawing Kate inexorably back to that terrible long-ago summer by the lake.
The Final Target by Nora Roberts
A young author becomes the object of a fan’s desire—and rage—in the gripping thriller by the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Hidden Nature.
He showed up at Arden Bowie’s debut author appearance with a copy of her novel and an eager smile. He showered her with compliments and got her autograph. Then he came to her next event. And the one after that.
Dustin was just an aspiring writer who wanted advice, Arden reassured herself. But after giving in to one of his incessant invitations and chatting with him over coffee, she discovered that ignoring her inner alarm bell had been a terrible mistake…
An introvert at heart, Arden had long craved solitude—but now, after a harrowing assault, she finds herself hiding behind locked doors and startling at every sound. And her relief at his imprisonment is tempered by anxiety when Dustin’s wealthy mother helps to get him a paltry five-year sentence at a psychiatric facility.
Arden decides to write a new story for herself, moving to a tiny Oregon town and befriending Gideon, an ex-LAPD detective. But while she learns to thrive, Dustin remains his delusional, twisted self, as fixated as ever and now seething with anger. He still believes Arden's purpose on earth is to serve and please him. And his job is to protect her. But who will protect her from him?
Brighter than Before by Courtney Walsh
Life has a way of changing your path--and Claire Karadec certainly didn't plan on a fork in the road in her forties.
After a painfully public discovery shatters her marriage, along with her picture-perfect, country club life, Claire finds herself suddenly single and faced with a blank page for a future. On that page she writes a simple list that reads like equal parts dare and daydream--Move to a new city. Make a real friend. Get a job I love--and she vows to accomplish every single one.
Before she can talk herself out of it, she takes a step of faith, puts her old life in the rearview mirror, and leases an apartment in Chicago, the city that has always had her heart. This one step sends Claire on a journey of self-discovery, giving her the courage to conquer her fears, one checklist item at a time, and showing her that life can be a whole lot brighter than she imagined.
She rediscovers a love for baking, stumbles into new friendships, and even allows her daughter, Minnie, to create a dating profile and choose her dates for her. Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, is Miles, the charming, off-limits neighbor whose kindness makes it hard to remember why he's off-limits at all.
Between late-night journaling, disastrous first dates, great big lessons and priceless small victories, Claire learns to quiet the voice telling her she wasn't enough and listens to the one that asks the harder question . . .
What do I really want?
As old expectations loosen their grip, Claire discovers that belonging isn't a place you're invited to--it's a life you build one brave choice at a time. And the sweetest things often show up when you finally get out of your own way.
From New York Times bestselling author Courtney Walsh comes a witty, warm, and uplifting novel about second chances, found family, and the courage it takes to become yourself--perfect for fans of Annabel Monaghan and Sarah Adams.
New in 2019:
5 Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading this Spring
When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton
This is the next book by Chanel Cleeton, a prequel of sorts to Next Year in Havana, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick. Click here to read my review and click here for my author interview with Chanel Cleeton.
5 Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading this Spring
Park Avenue Summer by Renee Rosen
I absolutely loved Windy City Blues by Renee Rosen. I am so excited that her next book features Helen Gurley Brown, the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine for 32 years.
5 Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading this Spring
Drawing Home by Jamie Brenner
Described as Gilmore Girls meets Christina Baker Kline’s A Piece of the World, I think this will be a great spring read for any art lover.
5 Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading this Spring
The Night Before by Wendy Walker
I could not forget Wendy Walker’s last book, All is Not Forgotten. It haunted me long after I finished reading it.
5 Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading this Spring
Summer Hours by Amy Mason Doan
Described as Commencement meets The Graduate, I think this will be a perfect read on vacation sitting by the pool or lounging on the beach.
