A Basic Guide to June Releases
50+ Upcoming Releases Calling My Name
Hello book friends!
It’s that time of month where many of us our itching for the next batch of new releases. There’s nothing like starting a new month with a FRESH stack of books. Never fear for that’s where I come to the rescue. Today I’m bringing you a TON of June releases on my radar. I’ve read a handful already and I’ll share some basic thoughts on which ones I think you should prioritize based on your reading tastes. The rest of the bunch is divided by publishing date so you can keep track of when books hit shelves.
My hope is that you find at least one or two that get you excited for summer reading. I would love to hear what books are at the tip top of your to be read piles for June. Be sure to drop a title or two in the comments if I missed anything you think everyone should know about.
Happy reading!
The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark
Clark is three for three with me. The author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell does NOT disappoint readers with her latest page-turner. This well layered mystery really has it all. Multiple POVs that are equally compelling, unreliable characters, family drama, long buried secrets and a pulse-pounding ending! Don’t not skip this one.
Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of legendary horror author Vincent Taylor, famous not only for his novels but for being the prime suspect in the brutal slaying of his siblings. On the brink of financial ruin, Olivia reluctantly agrees to ghostwrite her father's last book, not realizing she will be forced to reckon with the ghosts that live at the center of her family.
Someone Knows by Vi Keeland
Keeland is a BIG time romance author but recently has ventured into the thriller genre (The Unraveling was widely popular in 2024). In my opinion this was even BETTER! Sensitive readers take note that this is a very dark book dealing with sexual assault and grooming (think My Dark Vanessa). If you’re looking for your next chilling and compulsive read then look no further. Prepare to avoid all responsibilities.
An English professor’s deadly past comes back to haunt her in this chilling and sexy thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Vi Keeland.
As a college English professor, Elizabeth looks forward to the start of each new semester teaching her creative writing seminar. At least until she reads chapter one of The Reckoning, a tale about a high school senior who has an affair with her teacher. To anyone else it would be the beginning of a great page-turner, but to Elizabeth it is the beginning of the end.
She knows this story. It’s all familiar because she lived it. The girl in the story was her best friend Jocelyn, and Elizabeth knows exactly how the story will end—with the professor dead. Because she was the one who killed him.
Someone knows what Elizabeth did twenty years ago and her secret is about to be exposed, but who is the mystery student submitting the chapters? In an effort to find out, Elizabeth returns to her Louisiana hometown where it soon becomes clear that no matter how many years have gone by, she can’t escape her past.
Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell
Best-selling mystery author is back and while I binged this upcoming release in two days, it is quite different from her other books. This is for those of you that love a good con-story, don’t mind despicable men and have patience for a story to come together. While I found it quite predicable the story really never lost my attention.
“Who are you? Who are you really?”
Nick Radcliffe is a man of substance and good taste. He has a smile that could melt the coldest heart and a knack for putting others at ease. He’s just what Nina Swann needed in her life after her husband’s unexpected death. But to Nina’s adult daughter, Ash, Nick seems too slick, too polished, too good to be true. Without telling her mother, Ash begins digging into Nick’s past. What she finds is more than unsettling…
“Because there are things that don’t make sense, and I’ve been so patient, so very patient…”
Martha is a florist living in a neighboring town with her infant daughter and her devoted husband Alistair. But lately, Alistair has been traveling more and more frequently for work, disappearing for days at a time. When Martha questions him about his frequent absences, he always has a legitimate explanation, but Martha can’t share the feeling that something isn't right.
“You know that’s mad, don’t you? I’m your husband. We know everything there is to know about each other.”
Nina, Martha, and Ash are on a collision course with a shocking truth that is far darker than anyone could have imagined. And all three are about to wish they had heeded the same warning: Don’t let him in. But the past won’t stay buried forever.
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
Marketed as Lord of the Flies meets Love Island. I would say that’s pretty accurate but as a REALITY TV junkie I would throw Perfect Match and Big Brother as strong comps as well. This debut left a very strong impression and gives a clear message on consumerism. Be sure to have some patience with the story as she throws you a bit to the wolves in the beginning. You’ll soon find yourself flipping the pages and desperate to know what the contestants will do to win.
Nothing to lose. Everything to gain. Winner takes all.
Lily—a bored, beautiful twenty-something—wakes up on a remote desert compound, alongside nineteen other contestants competing on a massively popular reality show. To win, she must outlast her housemates to stay in the Compound the longest, while competing in challenges for luxury rewards like champagne and lipstick, plus communal necessities to outfit their new home, like food, appliances, and a front door.
Cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave: why would she, when the world outside is falling apart? As the competition intensifies, intimacy between the players deepens, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between desire and desperation. When the unseen producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur. If Lily makes it to the end, she’ll receive prizes beyond her wildest dreams—but what will she have to do to win?
Addictive and prescient, The Compound is an explosive debut from a major new voice in fiction and will linger in your mind long after the game ends.
The Summer We Ran by Audrey Ingram
Does your past define your destiny? Told through multiple perspectives, rich with emotion and immersive dual timelines, The Summer We Ran weaves together a story of lost love, devastating secrets, shocking sabotage, and the painstaking decision two people must make in order to fulfill the futures they each desire.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.
A Family Matter by Claire Lynch
A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • A Most Anticipated Book of 2025: USA TODAY, Goodreads, and Today.com
A young wife following her heart. A husband with the law on his side. Their daughter, caught in the middle. Forty years later, a family secret changes everything in this “perfect” (Elin Hilderbrand) debut novel.
Meet Me At The Crossroads by Megan Giddings
From the award-winning, critically-acclaimed author of Lakewood and The Women Could Fly, a dazzling novel about two brilliant sisters and what happens to their undeniable bond when a mysterious and possibly perilous new world beckons.
Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady
Rivalry and romance spark when two bookstore managers who are opposites in every way find themselves competing for the same promotion.
I'll Tell You When I'm Home by Hala Alyan
The rich and deeply personal debut memoir by award-winning Palestinian American poet and novelist Hala Alyan, whose experience of motherhood via surrogacy forces her to reckon with her own past, and the legacy of her family’s exile and displacement, all in the name of a new future.
A Clean Mess: A Memoir by Tiffany Jenkins
The bestselling author of High Achiever chronicles life after addiction—the raw, the dark, and the hilarious—from setting out with nothing but a backpack to discovering her marriage was built on a shakier foundation than she’d ever imagined to staying sober when life fell apart.
Big Little Lies meets Tiger King in this fun and propulsive debut novel about three suburban women who, over the course of one summer, each use the growing hysteria around a big cat sighting to achieve their own agendas—some more sinister than others.
The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King
In this dazzling debut novel, a hidden and nearly forgotten magic—of Reforging pencils, bringing the memories they contain back to life—holds the power to transform a young woman’s relationship with her grandmother, and to mend long-lost connections across time and space.
The HIGHLY ANTICIPATED adult debut novel from #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING author Renée Ahdieh
“Fans of Crazy Rich Asians, Schitt’s Creek, and White Lotus will get more than their fix of backstabbing and danger. A delectable and drama-filled thriller.” —Kirkus (STARRED review)
The Dry Season: A Memoir by Melissa Febos
From Melissa Febos, the national bestselling author of Girlhood, comes an examination of the solitude, freedoms, and feminist heroes she discovered during a year of celibacy and a wise and transformative look at relationships and self-knowledge.
Set in Ukraine, an eccentric scientist breeding rare snails crosses paths with sisters posing as members of the marriage industry to find their activist mother. As Russia invades, they embark on a wild journey with kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-its-kind snail. This darkly comic novel explores survival, love, and the impact of war.
We Don't Talk About Carol by Kristen L. Berry
A dedicated journalist unearths a generations-old family secret—and a connection to a string of missing girls that hits way too close to home—in this gripping debut novel.
Notes on Infinity by Austin Taylor
A singular, extraordinary debut about Zoe and Jack, Harvard students who find themselves propelled into the intoxicating biotech startup world when they announce they’ve discovered the cure for aging. A different kind of love story where the thirst for achievement consumes and the stakes are forever.
So Happy Together by Olivia Worley
Unrelentingly twisty and utterly compelling, So Happy Together is an unputdownable, shattering read—a riveting blend of You, Riley Sager, and Promising Young Woman.
How To Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir by Molly Jong-Fast
From the political writer and podcaster, a ferociously honest and disarmingly funny memoir about her elusive mother’s encroaching dementia and a reckoning with her complicated childhood.
Confessions of a Grammar Queen by Eliza Knight
There are no female publishing CEOs in 1960's New York. And that is exactly what savvy, ambitious Bernadette Swift plans to change.
Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby returns with King of Ashes, a Godfather-inspired Southern crime epic and dazzling family drama.
With A Vengeance by Riley Sager
One train. No stops. A deadly game of survival and revenge.
In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson’s family. Twelve years later, she’s ready for retribution.
Welcome to Murder Week by Karen Dukess
In this delightfully funny and heartfelt new novel from the author of the “bittersweet page-turner” (The New York Times) The Last Book Party, an American woman travels to the English countryside when she discovers tickets her late mother had purchased for a murder mystery simulation in a small British town.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
This is a story about hunger.
This is a story about love.
This is a story about rage.
This is a story about life—
how it ends, and how it starts.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins—and in the propulsive spirit of Charles Portis’ True Grit—comes a hilarious, empathetic, and brilliantly provocative adventure through life in modern America, about a reclusive journalist forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.
A Most Puzzling Murder by Bianca Marais
Interspersed with riddles and puzzles that both Destiny and the reader must solve, A Most Puzzling Murder is a one-of-a-kind mystery that will leave you guessing and gasping until the very last page!
Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson
“A dazzlingly clever murder mystery, told backwards, asking the question: why would this loving wife murder her husband?”—Gillian McAllister, New York Times bestselling author of Famous Last Words and Wrong Place Wrong Time
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders comes an inventive, utterly propulsive murder-mystery in reverse, tracing a marriage back in time to uncover the dark secret at its heart.
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Prairie Fires comes a terrifying true-crime history of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond—a gripping investigation of how a new strain of psychopath emerged out of a toxic landscape of deadly industrial violence.
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
A teenage girl breaks free from her father’s world of isolation to discover that her whole life is a lie in this propulsive new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things and Watch Me Disappear.
I Did Warn Her by Sian Gilbert
A luxurious yacht, a gorgeous crew with secrets and rivalries...and murder! I Did Warn Her is a cunning locked room mystery set on a billionaire’s yacht, by the author of last year’s sensation She Started It.
Don't Open Your Eyes by Liv Constantine
In this twisted psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling co-author of the Reese’s Book Club pick The Last Mrs. Parrish, a woman is tormented by nightmarish visions of her future—and then they start to come true.
From the author of Once More We Saw Stars comes a gripping novel about four intertwined lives that collide in the wake of a mysterious tragedy. Set in a near-future world where the boundaries between human and AI blur, the story challenges our understanding of consciousness and humanity.
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel
Kristin Harmel, the New York Times bestselling author who “is the best there is at sweeping historical drama” (Kelly Harms, author of The Seven Day Switch), returns with an electrifying new novel about two jewel thieves, a priceless bracelet that disappears in 1940s Paris, and a quest for answers in a decades-old murder.
The Second Chance Convenience Store by Ho-Yeon Kim
In this million-copy international bestseller from Korea, the owner of a corner store takes in an unhoused man who does a good deed, a kind soul whose presence will transform the whole neighborhood—a heartwarming tale of community and redemption reminiscent of the bestselling novels of Matt Haig and Gabrielle Zevin.
The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick
From the New York Times bestselling author of the smash-hit The Measure—a runaway bestseller and a Read with Jenna TODAY Show pick—comes a stunning speculative story of healing, self-discovery, forgiveness, and found friendship.
Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston
A hitmaking songwriter and a bitter musician share a startling and inexplicable connection that they’ll do anything to shake, in the next sparkling, magical book from the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Year Slip and A Novel Love Story.
A darkly funny, razor sharp plunge into America’s most perfect town, where privilege, sex, scandal, and murder lurk beneath a flawless veneer, from #1 New York Times bestselling author James Frey.
A Promise to Arlette by Serena Burdick
With the scope of a saga and the heart of a thriller, this is an evocative historical novel following a married couple whose idyllic 1950s suburban life is threatened by the promises they made during World War II.
The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley
From the author of Oprah's Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller Nightcrawling, here is an astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle.
The Accidental Favorite by Fran Littlewood
From the New York Times bestselling author of Amazing Grace Adams comes a wryly resonant and deeply moving family dramedy investigating the question so many of us have asked ourselves: do my parents have a favorite?
Sunny Side Up by Katie Sturino
From body-acceptance advocate and MEGABABE founder Katie Sturino comes a heartwarming and hilarious debut.
What begins as celebration gives way to betrayal, shattering the trust between two families.
Happy Wife by Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores
A young woman must find her missing husband and prove her innocence in this twisty, unputdownable novel set in an ultrawealthy Florida community where looks can kill.
A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan
Over the course of one sunbaked summer vacation, a family is pulled into a web of mysteries that the younger daughter sets out to solve. A tense, page-turning debut of childhood, innocence, and evil.
Deep Listening by Emily Kasriel
Why do so many conversations leave us feeling unheard and disconnected? In Deep Listening, acclaimed BBC journalist, accredited executive coach, and mediator Emily Kasriel argues that it’s because we've forgotten how to truly listen.
The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club by Gloria Chao
In this laugh-out-loud murder mystery, three women dating the same man band together to get revenge, but when they discover his body, they'll need to solve his murder before they go down for it.
Remember to let me know what book(s) you’re most excited to read in June.
So many new titles! I have lots that I’m looking forward to. My poor TBR…
So many books! I'm excited for King of Ashes and The Compound as well as the new Frey. Also, not on your list, Amy Bloom's newest I'll Be Right Here. She doesn't get much attention but i love her writing. Happy June!