Gather your group chat and your snack list. These 2026 picks are built for debate and late-night texts. Think twisty thrillers, lush historicals, big-hearted love stories and dark comedies that beg for a moral poll. Get ready for a year of spirited reads and sharper conversations at your book club!
The Storm by Rachel Hawkins (1/6)
A true-crime writer and the woman once accused of a 1984 murder reunite at a crumbling Gulf Coast motel as hurricane season bears down. Gossip, money and salt-stung memories churn, leaving every alibi suspect and every narrator suspect. Rachel Hawkins layers timelines and motives until truth rips through like eyewall winds. Expect arguments about justice, blame, and who gets to tell the story—perfect fodder for spicy book club night.
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Dandelion Is Dead by Rosie Storey (1/13)
After her sister Dandelion’s sudden death, Poppy opens her dating app and finds messages from a stranger who never got the news. On impulse, she meets him—then can’t untangle grief from the new life her lie creates. Rosie Storey’s debut is witty, aching, and big-hearted, probing identity, consent and the shapeshift of mourning. Perfect for clubs that love “messy woman” fiction with teeth and a swoon you’ll argue about.
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My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney (1/20)
A woman returns from a run to find a stranger in her house who looks like her—and a husband insisting the stranger is his wife. Alice Feeney turns one seaside home into a hall of mirrors, moving between two women’s tangled pasts and a clinic promising to predict your death. Secrets breed nastier secrets until marriage, memory and identity blur. Your club will fight over who’s lying, truly period.
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Every One Still Here: Stories by Liadan Ní Chuinn (1/20)
These spare, electric stories follow people living in the aftershocks of violence—families in Northern Ireland, lovers, strangers and ghosts of history. Liadan Ní Chuinn’s debut is unsentimental and riveting, pairing political memory with intimate, everyday ruin. It’s a slim book that lands like a bell: you’ll want to reread, annotate and argue which story bruised you most. An ideal one-meeting pick with miles of conversation built in, truly indeed.
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Fireflies in Winterby Eleanor Shearer (2/10)
Nova Scotia, 1796: Cora, newly arrived from Jamaica, has never known cold like this. Agnes, hiding from a brutal past, has never risked love like this. When their paths cross in the frozen woods, survival and desire tangle. Eleanor Shearer writes winter with knife-bright beauty and crafts a love story asking what freedom costs. Historical fiction ripe for conversations about place, queerness, community—and who gets to call home.
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I’m Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home by Fergus Craig (2/10)
Meet Carol: former serial killer, freshly installed in a luxury retirement home and trying to behave. Then she discovers other residents may have bloody pasts, too. Fergus Craig’s dark comedy skewers true-crime obsession, class and aging while delivering gleeful twists and jaw-drop reveals. It’s wicked fun with sharp edges—and a surprising amount of heart. Perfect for clubs that like their cozies spiked and their moral debates delightfully messy, always.
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The Astral Library by Kate Quinn (2/17)
Alix Watson has always trusted stories more than people. Broke, book-obsessed and hiding in Boston Public Library’s vaulted hush, she slips through a secret door and into the Astral Library, a refuge where readers step inside the novels they love. Under the tutelage of a razor-wry Librarian—and with help from a charming costume-shop owner—Alix races through Austen salons, Holmesian alleys and Gatsby’s glitter to outwit a hunter targeting their sanctuary. If the Library falls, whose story ends: the Librarian’s, Alix’s or everyone’s?
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More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen (2/24)
Polly Goodman knows that she can tell her book club anything. She can spill the deepest secrets of her relationship with her mother, the students in her classroom, and even her IVF journey. There’s nothing off-limits. When the club gives Polly an ancestry test kit, she’s fully prepared to take it for the joke until her results match her with a total stranger. It has to be a mistake, but what if it’s not? As she delves deeper for answers, Polly is also faced with the possibility of loss striking her book club. In the cycle of love, loss, and new discoveries, Polly sees just how much all the love around her has changed her life.
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The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann (3/24)
Hours after the axe falls, Anne Boleyn wakes in a rough coffin, tucks her linen-wrapped head back on, and slips into London’s alleys with one aim: stop Henry VIII before he crowns Jane Seymour and imperils Elizabeth’s future. Disguised as a commoner and aided by a sharp-tongued prostitute who becomes confidante—and maybe more—Anne discovers the grit of the world she once ruled. Part Tudor thriller, part Arthurian quest, this audacious debut turns a punished “mouthy” woman into the architect of her own legend.
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The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez (3/24)
Abby Jimenez delivers a warm, high-stakes romance about friendship, fate, and the single choice that can reroute a life. A messy love triangle tests loyalty and timing, while career pivots, found family, and Jimenez’s signature banter keep the pages flying. It’s tender, funny and emotionally honest—the kind of novel that sparks “what would you do?” debates and text threads at midnight. Bring opinions and snacks; you’ll need both, truly.
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The Moonshine Women by Michelle Collins Anderson (3/31)
Prohibition, Ozarks: three sisters inherit their father’s back-hollow still and a ledger of enemies. Michelle Collins Anderson blends grit, lyricism and family drama as the women outwit revenuers, violent rivals and a past that won’t stay buried. Secrets, recipes and rules of the trade make for delicious detail, while questions of loyalty and power drive the plot. Your club will argue over the ending—and maybe Google cocktail recipes, too.
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The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang (6/2)
A grieving marine biologist is lured to a Maine island by rumors of a giant, glowing jellyfish and a friend who’s gone missing. Tessa Yang blends creature feature with meditative grief novel, asking what we owe our dead, our work and ourselves. Think book-club Jaws—less chum, more feelings. Expect fierce townie politics, science made human and a final act you’ll want to debrief over fries and a stiff drink.
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The Story Keeper by Kelly Rimmer (7/21)
After a terrible year, Fiona retreats to her family’s crumbling estate and finds a mysterious novel in her late uncle’s library. Its plot begins to mirror her own life—lost heirs, buried betrayals and a house keeping score. Kelly Rimmer braids timelines into a moody, modern gothic about inheritance and the stories families hide. Expect atmospheric chills, unreliable archives, and a juicy discussion about how we decide what’s true, together.
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