As an avid bookworm, and someone who works in the book industry, reading is a big part of both my personal and professional lives. So, of course, I’m constantly on the hunt for new and interesting books to read, and boy, is 2026 NOT going to disappoint! 

From practical guides to health, to delicious new romantasy, to unforgettable narratives — the first few months of 2026 are packed with exciting and unputdownable reads. So keep on reading to see what’s coming up, and preorder YOUR most anticipated reads from your favourite local bookstore. 

JANUARY

Something to Hold Onto by Kate Robson

Kate Robson’s Something to Hold Onto is a practical and supportive guide for whenever life feels overwhelming. Full of warm and supportive advice, and tools to help you better your mental and emotional health, in this book Robson uses out-of-the-box images and prompts to help you reframe your thinking. In Something to Hold Onto, Robson’s expert advice gives readers the strategies they need to navigate discomfort and adversity. It’s an empowering guide that shows how listening to your inner voice and small acts of self-care can help you fortify your mind and cultivate a fulfilling life.

 

Dragon Cursed by Elise Kova

Elise Kova’s upcoming Dragon Cursed is the perfect romantic fantasy book for fans of Fourth Wing. Since the dragons emerged, there’s only one human city left standing — Vingard. But the hellfire from above is nothing compared to the threat from within, because there’s no fate worse than becoming dragon cursed. Slowly, excruciatingly, you transform into a mindless beast, destroying everything and everyone you love. Any of us could be tainted. And any of us could be caught and killed by the authorities… who could be next?

Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy

Actor and author Jennette McCurdy is back with her fiction debut. Half His Age is a thrilling, sad, and funny novel about sex, consumerism, class, desire, rage, power, and the lengths we’ll go to in order to get what we want. Waldo is ravenous. Horny, impulsive, lonely, and hurting, the thing she wants most is Mr. Corgi. Her creative writing teacher, with the wife, kids, mortgage, and bills. She doesn’t know why she wants him — is it his passion? His experience? The fact that he knows things she doesn’t? Or is it because he sees her when no one else does?

Discipline by Larissa Pham

Larissa Pham’s Discipline is an incredible and tense fiction debut, following a young woman, Christine, who is on tour for her novel, a revenge fantasy based on a real-life relationship gone bad with an older professor. Now, on the road, she’s seeking answers on life, love, and art, through intimate conversations with strangers, friends, and past lovers. But when her old professor, the antagonist of her story, reaches out after years of silence, Christine is forced to reckon with what it means to lose the control of the narrative she wrote just so she could regain control. When her former professor invites her to his cabin, deep in the woods, what she encounters might change everything. 

Good Guys by Sharon Bala

Sharon Bala’s Good Guys is an unputdownable thriller about the dark side of philanthropy. Claire Talbot is the publicist for an NGO that funds international aid projects. After decades of work, she’s burnt out and hungry for the opportunity to use her PR skills for good, only the NGO is on the verge of bankruptcy. In a last-ditch effort to try to keep them afloat, Claire arranges for an A-List actress to volunteer at one of their orphanages overseas. When the actress decides to adopt a baby, and promises a huge donation, it seems like Claire has saved the day. But after a journalist digs into the company, revealing a shocking crime, Claire and her colleagues must reckon with their complicity, and the ways their work might have harmed the very people they have been trying to save.

How to Lose A Goblin in Ten Days by Jessie Sylva

Jessie Sylva’s How to Lose A Goblin in Ten Days is a cozy fantasy romance following halfling, Pansy, and goblin, Ren, who each think they’ve inherited the same cottage. They decide to make a bargain. They’ll live in the house together, and whoever is driven out first will forfeit their ownership. Soon, however, the two begin to develop feelings for each other, and when the cottage and their communities are threatened, they must learn to trust each other and band together.

See You at the Summit by Jordyn Taylor

Jordyn Taylor’s See You at the Summit is a heartfelt and charming new romantic comedy that follows one bi woman’s messy journey after coming out. Simone Whittaker has spent the first three decades of her life pretending to be straight. But when the girl she never quite dared to call her girlfriend walks away, she decides she doesn’t want to live in fear anymore. Her coming-out post goes viral, and her new job at Toronto’s Rainbow Museum will give her a fresh start. That is, until her first day of work, when she ruins a project designed by the museum’s gruff and annoyingly hot carpenter, making her his number one enemy. When they’re forced to take a work trip to the Whistler Pride and Ski Festival together, Simone is determined not to let a grumpy straight guy ruin her first Pride, but the sparks between them are becoming hard to ignore. Dating a guy, and being mistaken for straight weren’t a part of Simone’s coming-out-plan, and she’s only just starting to explore her identity. What if claiming one part of herself means erasing the other?

FEBRUARY

Queen of Faces by Petra Lord

Petra Lord’s Queen of Faces follows Anabelle Gage, who is trapped in a male body that’s rotting from the inside out. In Caimor, where the magical elite buy and swap designer bodies like clothes, Ana can’t afford to escape her tattered form, so when she fails the entrance exam to the prestigious Paragon Academy, her last hope of earning a new body implodes. As the clock ticks down, she’s forced to use her illusion magic to steal a healthy body before her own kills her. Unfortunately, she’s caught by none other than the headmaster of the academy, who poses an ultimatum: face execution for her crime, or become a mercenary for him. Revolution is brewing, and the rich and powerful will stop at nothing to take down the rebels and their leader. Lush, dark, and fascinating, with a unique premise, this is a book about identity and magic, full of social commentary and high stakes.

Fearless Choices by Brandi Leifso & Eliza Robertson

Brandi Leifso is the founder and CEO of Evio Beauty Group, and her memoir serves as an inspirational guide to help you move from surviving to thriving. She created Evio when she was twenty-one, living in a shelter, and has since grown it into a thriving cosmetics brand. As she’s built her business, and her life, she’s made countless choices — some good, some bad. But that’s the thing about choices — there’s always another one. This is a book about how to find the courage to follow your vision, how to stand for something, and how to simplify even the trickiest of situations into a series of choices, helping you reclaim your power.

The Fourth Princess by Janie Chang

Janie Chang’s The Fourth Princess is a gothic story, set in China in 1911, following two young women who live in a once-grand Shanghai mansion, facing danger as their secrets come to light. Lisan is thrilled when she’s hired as the secretary to the wealthy American, Caroline, who is the new mistress of Lennox Manor. However, the manor has a dark past, and soon Lisan’s childhood nightmares resurface with more intensity. Adding to her unease is the young gardener Yao, who both entices and disturbs her. Newly married Caroline is excited about life in China with her husband Thomas, hiding away from the shadow of a past tragedy. But soon, an unwelcome guest attends one of her parties, claiming to know secrets she can’t afford to have exposed. At the same party, Lisan is approached with questions about her family that she can’t answer. As both women’s pasts and secrets are threatening to come to light, the manor itself seems to have a hold on them.

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett

Heather Fawcett’s Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter is a cozy new fantasy about a woman who runs a cat rescue in 1920s Montreal. Agnes Aubert lives a meticulous and organized life — just the way she likes it. She’s the proud, Type-A manager of a much-needed cat rescue charity, and has devoted his life to finding homes for lost cats. But after she’s forced to move the cat shelter, she learns that her new landlord is using her charity as a front for an internationally renowned and disreputable magic shop. Owned by the self-absorbed, disorganized, and unfortunately handsome Havelock Renard, the shop, and its notorious owner, draw magical clientele from all over the world, and Agnes’ charity offers the perfect cover for illegal magics. When an enemy from Havelock’s past surfaces, the magic shop — and more importantly, the cat shelter — are in jeopardy.

The Astral Library by Kate Quinn

Kate Quinn is back with The Astral Library, a fantastical adventure for anyone who has ever wished they could live inside a book. Alix Watson has learned one thing from her childhood in foster care: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to try to make ends meet, every night she takes refuge in the reading room of the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favourite stories. One day, she stumbles through a hidden door, and meets the Librarian — the ageless and acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape into new lives… inside their favourite books. The Librarian takes Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges, threatening everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Alix and the Librarian flee from back alleys of Sherlock Holmes, to champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby, as danger draws even closer. But who is their enemy trying to destroy? Alex, the Librarian, or the library itself?

And Now, Back to You by B.K. Borison

B.K. Borison’s And Now, Back to You was described to me by a friend as a “perfect rom-com”. It follows two competing meteorologists, Jackson and Delilah, who have had their fair share of run-ins over the years, usually resulting in disaster. While Jackson thrives on routine, organization, and the comfort of his radio booth, Delilah loves spontaneity, and adventures out in the field. When they’re both partnered — against their will — in order to cover the snowstorm of the century, they soon find themselves scrambling, trying to figure out how to work together. Delilah offers to help Jackson rediscover his fun side, if he can help her ace their assignment, and soon the unlikely partners become friends, and perhaps a little something more?

Kin by Tayari Jones

Tayari Jones’ Kin follows Vernice and Annie, two daughters without mothers who were raised in small-town Louisiana. They’ve been neighbours and best friends since childhood, but fate has dealt them both vastly different hands. Raised by a fierce aunt who is determined to give her a stable home after her mother’s death, Vernice leaves town at eighteen, joining a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women, and marrying into an affluent family. Annie, abandoned by her mother as a child, is fixated on filling the hole of her absence, setting off on a journey through adversity, love, and adventure. This is a story about mothers, daughters, friendship, and sisterhood, as well as the complexity of being a woman in the American South. This is an emotional, poignant, and powerful work of literary fiction.

MARCH

Ramin Abbas has Major Questions by Ahmad Saber

Ahmad Saber’s debut, Ramin Abbas has Major Questions, is a queer coming-of-age story about a gay Muslim teen who has to choose between being true to himself, or his faith — and soon realizing that they might not be as separate as he thought. Ramin is a Pakistani-Canadian senior in a top high school for Muslim teens, and he’s spent his whole life constantly trying to meet everyone’s expectations. But Ramin’s heart wishes for something (or someone) different…the strong, athletic captain of the soccer team. But being gay is definitely not allowed, and Ramin is desperate to graduate, and escape to school in New York, where maybe he can be himself. When Ramin finds out his graduation is in jeopardy unless he joins the soccer team, he’s living his nightmare. Tempted by his long-time crush, while being blackmailed by a bully – Ramin’s only ray of light is his new friend Omar. Sweet and caring, Omar’s family believes in a different, kinder Allah, and Ramin soon finds himself considering his fate more deeply. This was a heartfelt and poignant story about faith, love, joy, and queer identity.

Innamorata by Ava Reid

Ava Reid’s Innamorata is a gorgeous and atmospheric gothic fantasy about necromancy, vengeance, and a love that consumes. Once, there was an island where the dead walked the earth, and seven noble houses were ruled by the arcane secrets of necromancy. Until a conqueror brought them low, burning their libraries, killing their lords, and extinguishing their magic. But the House of Teeth still stands, defiant against the new order, with its last living members — Marozia, the heiress to the house, and her cousin, Lady Agnes. Though she hasn’t spoken a word in seven years, Agnes is the true carrier of the House’s legacy, and she has her orders. She must recapture the secrets of death magic, and avenge her family. To do so, she arranges the betrothal of her beloved cousin Marozia to Liuprand, the heir to the conqueror’s throne. While revenge burns in Agnes’ heart, soon, something else burns there too… a passion for Liuprand — a passion that’s both treasonous and powerful.

Hooked by Asako Yuzuki (Translated by Polly Barton)

In Asako Yuzuki’s Hooked, we follow Eriko, whose life looks perfect from the outside — but underneath the surface is an all-consuming loneliness. She’s never been able to hold onto a real friend. Enter Shoko, a popular lifestyle blogger whose work Eriko follows obsessively. When Eriko orchestrates a “chance” encounter with Shoko, the two women strike up an unlikely connection, and Eriko starts to believe that she might have finally found what she’s looking for. But soon her fascination starts to turn into a fixation, and both women find themselves pushed to breaking points they didn’t see coming…

Starside by Alex Aster

Alex Aster’s Starside is a romantasy story in a world where swords wield magic, and power is claimed, not inherited. Hundreds of years ago, a brutal war split the land in two. Starside is the land of magic and immortal descendants of gods, living in a power-rich paradise. Stormside is where mortals fight for scraps of that magic. Every fifty years, the gates between them open, and fifty challengers are allowed to journey across Starside, on a deadly quest to access a pool of magic that could grant their deepest desires. Everyone has their own reasons for entering, but Aris’ is simple: revenge. When she was a child, a goddess set fire to her village, killing her family, and now, she’s not after the gods’ magic, she’s after their heads. But first, she must survive the Culling — the king’s deadly competition to choose his fifty challengers. The deadly competition is just the first of many trials ahead of her.

APRIL

The Wicked Sea by Jordan Stephanie Gray

Jordan Stephanie Gray’s The Wicked Sea is a romantic fantasy following the Mermaid Zephyra, who dreams of freedom after years of abuse from a dangerous captor. She’s on the run, and she’s shed her tail and grown legs, hiding herself on land in the merrow-loathing kingdom of Mortia. But her freedom is short-lived when she’s caught and sentenced to death by the brutal warlock, Arion Stone. Arion is as beautiful as he is deadly, and he’s interested in punishing the merrow who he views as evil. He’s grown as powerful as he can, and at great personal cost, which can only be remedied by the heart of the God of Death, which was long lost to a fabled kingdom under the sea. So Arion offers Zephyra an offer she can’t refuse: he’ll spare her life if she helps him find the heart. Without another option, she agrees, starting a journey that entangles their souls and desires in a magical bargain. But soon Zephyra’s past is beginning to catch up to her, and they must learn to fight together if they want to survive.

The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke

Evelyn Clarke is the pen name of authors V.E. Schwab and Cat Clarke, who joined forces to write this propulsive new mystery. Arthur Fletch is one of the world’s most famous novelists, and he’s a bit of a reclusive genius. When he invites six struggling authors to his private island for a retreat, they are shocked to arrive and find that he’s dead… and his last book is unfinished. His agent and editor have brought these authors here to compete to finish his story, and to sweeten the deal, they’re offering to help the lucky author who wins jumpstart their own career. The catch? They only have 72 hours to finish the story… and getting to the end might just kill them. 

The New Perimenopause by Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Dr. Mary Claire Haver is currently one of the best-known authors and voices in the field of menopause and perimenopause, and her latest book, The New Perimenopause, aims to shed light on and revolutionize our understanding and treatment of perimenopause. Told through a combination of scientific evidence and lived experience, this book provides you everything from checklists of questions to ask your doctor to the very latest research. This book aims to help remove the mystery around hormonal changes and perimenopause,  and help you take charge of your own health. 

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Ameema Saeed (@ameemabackwards) is a storyteller, an avid bookworm, and a curator of very specific playlists and customized book recommendations. She’s a book reviewer, a Sensitivity Reader, a book buyer at Indigo Books & Music, and the Books Editor for She Does the City, where she writes and curates bookish content, and book recommendations. She enjoys bad puns, good food, dancing, and talking about feelings. She writes about books, big feelings, unruly bodies, and her lived experiences, and hopes to write your next favourite book one day. When she’s not reading books, she likes to talk about books (especially diverse books, and books by diverse authors) on her bookstagram: @ReadWithMeemz