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Readers’ Most Anticipated December Books
At the beginning of each calendar month, ϻӮ’ crack editorial squad assembles a list of the hottest and most popular new books hitting shelves, actual and virtual. The list is generated by evaluating readers’ early reviews and tracking which titles are being added toWant to Readshelves by ϻӮ regulars.
Each month’s curated preview features new books from across the genre spectrum: contemporary fiction, historical fiction, mysteries and thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy, romance, horror, young adult, nonfiction, and more. Think of it as a literary smorgasbord. Check out whatever looks delicious.
New in December: Sharon Short blends historical fiction and true crime with Trouble Island. Julia Armfield updates Shakespeare with the horror story Private Rites. And Thea Guanzon explores the folklore of Southeast Asia in the fantasy sequel A Monsoon Rising.
Also on tap this month: writerly romance in New York City, 18th-century grave robbers in Scotland, and climate catastrophes in the not-too-distant future.
Add the books that catch your eye to yourWant to Readshelf, and let us know what you’re reading and recommending in the comments section.
Married couple Nate and Keru come from very different backgrounds. Keru’s parents are overeducated Chinese immigrants, strict and demanding. Nate’s family is rural and working class (they’re wary of his intellectual pursuits and his “foreign” wife). With optimism and courage, Nate and Keru decide to bring everyone together in not one but two extended family vacations. Readers with in-law issues should vibe with the latest literary expedition from Weike Wang, author of the much-admired 2017 novel Chemistry.
Struggling novelist David Alvarez is having one of those mornings. After an entirely pleasurable one-night stand, he’s awoken to find his date quiet and still and most assuredly dead. Panicked (and extremely hungover), David does the only rational thing: He calls his literary agent, Stacy, to help him piece together what happened—and maybe get his next book idea. Author Daniel Aleman’s adult fiction debut stitches together mystery plotting, queer romance, and some understandably dark comedy.
From the author of The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot, this uplifting romance follows the adventures of 90-year-old Eddie Winston and his quest to finally get his first kiss. Eddie teams with his young friend Bella, a grieving twentysomething who is determined to help Eddie finally find real love. Author Marianne Cronin offers a different kind of approach to the standard love story as she explores themes of intergenerational friendship and simple human kindness.
In the storm-wracked realm of Roshar, an ancient order of warriors known as the Knights Radiant must rise and take up arms once again. Insanely prolific author Brandon Sanderson returns with another installment in his sprawling Stormlight Archive series. Wind and Truth is the last of five books in the first sequence of a 10-book epic fantasy cycle, which is in turn part of Sanderson’s larger fictional universe.
Inspired by Southeast Asian folklore and culture, Thea Guanzon’s The Hurricane Warsseries combines romance and court intrigue with a new flavor of epic fantasy. A Monsoon Rising, book two in the series, follows the evolving relationship of Alaric and Talasyn, whose arranged marriage was supposed to end the land’s destructive wars. Are the two lovers secretly scheming against one another? Are they even more secretly lusting for one another? You see the dilemma. Also in the mix: an imminent magical apocalypse. It’s complicated!
If you like your climate change anxiety presented as radically updated Shakespearean drama, consider this intriguing novel from acclaimed London author Julia Armfield (Our Wives Under the Sea). A kind of speculative queer reimagining of King Lear, Private Rites follows three daughters of a mad architect in a world where love is treacherous and it never stops raining. Armfield leverages the traditions of literary folk horror (and water imagery) to conjure the ambient dread of slow-motion environmental catastrophe.
Set in the mean streets of 19th-century Edinburgh, A. Rae Dunlap’s Gothic horror novelpivots off the real-history weirdness of resurrectionists—grave robbers who supplied cadavers to Scotland’s first generation of anatomists and surgeons. When an ambitious doctor falls in with the wrongest of crowds, gangs of body snatchers compete to acquire corpses by any means necessary. Author Dunlap combines elements of horror, history, and true-crime fiction to deliver some era-specific dark academia.
More distant early warnings from the realm of speculative eco-fiction: In the year 2041, a desperate mother braves storms and wildfires on a cross-country trip to find her daughter. Forty years after that, another family seeks the remnants of humanity on what’s left of the planet. Set in the same world as her 2023 novel,Yours for the Taking, Gabrielle Korn’s latest offering expands the author’s dystopian vision of an ecosystem in terminal decline.
It’s a tricky situation: When renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Richmond Dougherty is killed by a fall down the stairs, suspicion falls on his young second wife, Addison, now a very wealthy widow. Addison is innocent, but that’s not the part that galls her. What really rankles is that Addison had every intention of killing her husband, but someone else beat her to it. Now she’s got to sleuth out the perpetrator of a crime she didn’t commit, but wanted to. Darby Kane (2020’s Pretty Little Wife) has the twisty details.
Historical mystery specialist Sharon Short returns to bookshelves this month with the standalone novel Trouble Island, named after a secret hideout in Lake Erie for gangsters and smugglers. In the icy winter of 1932, strange things are afoot concerning a crime boss, a doctor, a famous actor, a rival gangster, and two mafia wives with a secret. Bonus trivia: Short’s maritime riff on the locked-room mystery is based on actual events from her own family history.
With his new mystery-thriller,Alter Ego, author and industry veteran Alex Segura provides another adventure set in the surprisingly treacherous world of comic book publishing. A kinda-sorta sequel to his 2022 novel,Secret Identity, the new novel introduces visionary artist Annie Bustamante, who’s just been given the opportunity to revive a legendary superhero series: The Lethal Lynx! But there’s a dark secret lurking in the backstory of this particular character, and Annie’s about to find out what it is. The hard way.
If you’re in the market for a contemporary romance featuring a Peruvian American writer transplanted from Tennessee to New York City—well, we have good news. Author Katie Holt’s debut,Not in My Book, introduces romance novelist Rosie Maxwell, who is stuck in a writing workshop with her ex-crush, literary fiction snob Aiden Huntington. After their bickering gets out of hand, the instructor forces Rosie and Aiden to co-author a book that blends their preferred genres. When life imitates art imitating life, things get pleasantly hot.
Is there anything hotter than a handsome Scotsman in a kilt? We submit that there is not. Unless it’s a handsome Scotsman in a kilt with a breathtaking magical secret. The new paranormal romance from author Lana Ferguson (The Fake Mate) follows Keyanna “Key” MacKay as she reunites with her Scottish family under severely weird circumstances. There’s an ancestral curse in play, evidently, as well as a dark and brooding Scotsman named Lachlan Greer.
A 2021 ϻӮ Choice nominee, the YA science-fantasy adventure Iron Widow introduced a compelling new fictional universe featuring female pilots, giant robots, mecha aliens, and strong gender equity themes. Author Xiran Jay Zhao’s sequel novel finds our heroine, Zetian, challenging the entire misogynist superstructure of her society. Will she be a wise and principled leader? Or will she turn to the politics of fear and grievance? Bonus trivia: General consensus is that Zhao has the best author photo on all of ϻӮ. Really.
This YA horror adventure from author Courtney Gould (The Dead and the Dark) tells the story of five troubled teens stranded on a wilderness therapy trip gone very, very wrong. The counselors have gone missing, the supplies are rapidly dwindling, and then there’s the problem of inhuman entities flitting through the trees. Gould describesWhat the Woods Tookas “queer survival horror with a paranormal twist.” Recommended for fans of , , and .
Which new releases are you looking forward to reading? Let’s talk books in the comments!
Comments Showing 1-17 of 17 (17 new)
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The Resurrectionist, What the Wife knew and What the Woods took look pretty good!
Heavenly Tyrant, The Resurrectionist and What the Woods Took!!!
I have been waaaiting for heavenly tyrant since 2021, so excited!!Not in my book sounds so cute, going on my tbr
I’ve been waiting for Wind and Truth and I’m so happy I will finally read this one in a few days.
So excited for heavenly tyrant
I’ve read 1/4 of Wind and Truth thanks to an advanced copy and can’t wait for the rest!!!
Interesting list; I may give in and try: What the Wife Knewby Darby Kane; Or not!!
I'm looking forward to reading The Shadowed Land by Signe Pike. Loved the first two books on this new perspective on the Arthurian legend.
Looking forward to The Champagne Letters by Kate MacIntosh!
I can’t wait to read ‘I might be in trouble’ that’s a chefs kiss premise right there.
Mica wrote: "The Resurrectionist, What the Wife knew and What the Woods took look pretty good!"Funny, those are the main ones that stood out to me too!
Wow, these headers sound pretty interesting to me. Sounds like good books.
The Resurrectionist looks really interesting. My next Want to Read. Right now I’m reading The Bee Sting. Fantastic flow of storylines.
“If you like your climate change anxiety presented as radically updated Shakespearean drama…” lolz?!
Boy will I be happy when Jonathan Franzen writes the LONG awaited follow up to ‘Crossroads’…..
Look forward to seeing more faves.