Nothing fits in a beach bag better than a paperback, so we rounded up the very best recent books that are getting a fresh format this year. From award-winners to bestsellers, if you’ve been holding out on these fantastic releases from previous years, 2026 is the time to get them in paperback.

The Doorman by Chris Pavone

Chicky Diaz is a doorman at one of the most famous and luxurious apartment buildings in New York City. Here he witnesses the secrets and scandals behind the residents’ glamorous lives. As tensions are rising within the city and within the building, Chicky breaks the biggest rule on the job. He’ll be carrying a gun. As threats both known and unknown approach, he’ll find himself at the center of enemies clashing, social tensions rising and secrets being revealed. 

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The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Bartz

Abby is returning to Isla Colel to try and make sense of the tragic accident that claimed her fiancé, Eszter’s life. An island resident claims he knows the truth about Eszter’s accident but he disappears before Abby can question him. Abby investigates further uncovering a deeper web of lies that leads her to think someone still on the island is the killer. 

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Our Last Vineyard Summer by Brooke Lea Foster

Betsy Whiting wants a summer with her boyfriend following the death of her father and her first semester of graduate school at Columbia. Instead her mother brings her and her sisters back to Martha’s Vineyard to sell their summer house. When she arrives on the island, she is navigating strained relationships, a complicated past, and what family legacy means. 

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The Wedding People by Alison Espach

Phoebe Stone is determined to spoil herself one last time at the Cornwall Inn. After dreaming of coming with her husband for years, she’s here by herself after his devastating affair. At the same time, the hotel is crawling with wedding guests and a meticulously organized bride prepared for any problems threatening to plague her wedding. What she didn’t plan for was Phoebe and their unlikely friendship.

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King of Ashes by SA Cosby

Roman Carruthers returns home after his father’s death to his little brother, Dante, in debt to real gangsters and his sister, Nevaeh, exhausted from running their family crematorium. When offering up money doesn’t solve Dante’s problem, Roman offers up himself. He uses his skills as a financial whiz while his siblings investigate what happened to their mother who disappeared years ago. 

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Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Two journalists, Alice Scott and Hayden Anderson, are on a small island off the coast of Georgia competing to write Margaret Ives’ biography. Margaret Ives is a former socialite heiress that has been hiding from the public eye for years. The problem is that Margaret is only giving partial stories to each of them and signing NDAs means they can’t swap notes. Who will Margaret choose to write her final biography and can Hayden and Alice become friends or… maybe more than friends inside this competition?

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Katabasis by RF Kuang

Alice Law wants to work with the greatest magician in the world, Jacob Grimes, so that she can follow in his footsteps. There is just a small hitch in her plans when he dies in a magical accident that may or may not be her fault. Her pursuit for magical greatness is not over though so she follows Grimes to hell. She’s not the only one with that idea. Alice’s rival, Peter Murdoch, is coming with her. They must navigate hell together in order to save Grimes and hopefully make it back. 

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Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Joan Goodwin is perfectly happy as a physics and astronomy professor at Rice University and she has a close relationship with her niece, Frances. However, when she sees an advertisement seeking women to join NASA’s Space Shuttle Program, she applies, shaking up her steady life. Much to her surprise, in the summer of 1980, Joan is picked and begins her training alongside fellow candidates that become her friends and family. Joan’s leap for mankind is also a step for herself into the romance, community, and connection she has been missing. 

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James by Percival Everett

For those that love the classics, James is a retelling of Huckleberry Finn told from Jim’s point of view. Jim, an enslaved man in the American South, has crafted a plan to escape so that he is not sold away from his wife and daughter. Meanwhile, Huck is running away from his violent, abusive father going so far as faking his death to escape. Their story together begins with a raft down the Mississippi River as they are trying to flee their dangerous pasts. 

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Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson

When Ebby Freeman was ten-years-old, she heard a gunshot and found her brother, Baz, murdered next to a shattered heirloom jar. The case was never solved and because the Freemans are one of the only black families in their wealthy New England community, their lives became the focus of public fascination and speculation. Years later, after a very public breakup, Ebby flees to France trying to leave her past behind. Instead she begins to process the trauma her family has faced and what that heirloom jar means to her family history.

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