New Books Released in January 2026
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January has arrived, ushering in crisp, frosty days, the soft glow of winter light, and the ideal moment to refresh your reading list with some of the season’s most enchanting new releases. As winter settles across the United States, there’s no better way to welcome the new year than by immersing yourself in stories brimming with adventure, laughter, and heartfelt moments. Whether you’re bundling up for brisk outdoor walks, sipping hot cocoa by the window, or nestling into a plush blanket for a cozy indoor retreat, these January book picks will keep you captivated all month long.
A Diverse Selection of Must-Reads Awaits this September
The Book Guide’s editorial team curates a monthly list of popular new releases, drawing from top ratings across the board. Each preview spans a wide range of genres—from contemporary and historical fiction to mysteries, thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy, romance, horror, young adult, and nonfiction. This month, three standout titles are not to be missed.
December’s new releases present a captivating blend of psychological suspense, emotional drama, and hidden truths, ideal for the season’s introspective atmosphere. First, Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden delivers a tense psychological thriller centered on a woman receiving mysterious letters from “Debbie,” unraveling dark family secrets and escalating paranoia. McFadden masterfully builds a gripping narrative about deception and buried trauma, keeping readers hooked with relentless twists until the shocking end. Fans of heart-pounding suspense will be drawn into this dark tale of obsession and revelation.
Next, Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy explores a raw coming-of-age story of a young woman navigating a taboo relationship with an older man, grappling with power dynamics, self-worth, and breaking free from toxic cycles. McCurdy’s candid, introspective prose and unflinching honesty create deeply relatable characters in a narrative that balances heartbreak with empowerment. This memoir-like novel is a poignant examination of love’s complexities and personal growth that resonates with modern readers.
Finally, Woman Down by Colleen Hoover captivates with its emotional domestic thriller about a woman whose life unravels after a mysterious accident, exposing lies in her marriage and a web of betrayal. Hoover weaves a fast-paced tale of resilience, revenge, and unexpected alliances, blending pulse-racing suspense with raw vulnerability. This story’s mix of heartbreak and triumph makes it a perfect escape for winter’s chilling nights.
What to Read This January 2026: Best Book Releases.
January’s standout titles deliver a thrilling mix of passion, mystery, and wonder—perfect for cozying up as winter deepens or savoring those fleeting crisp days. Be sure to add these to your reading list for a memorable start to the year filled with adventure and discovery.
My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney
“My Husband’s Wife” by Alice Feeney is a gripping psychological thriller centered on Eden Fox, an artist who returns from a run to her new home, Spyglass, only to find her key doesn’t fit and a woman eerily identical to her claims to be the wife of her husband, Harrison. Six months earlier, reclusive Londoner Birdy, coping with a terminal diagnosis, inherits the same house from a long-lost grandmother and uncovers a clinic that predicts death dates, propelling her into a web of unraveling secrets and blurred truths. The novel masterfully weaves deception, obsession, and identity swaps in the seaside village of Hope Falls, keeping readers guessing about who is lying in this tale of one house, one husband, and two women.
Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden
Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden follows Debbie Mullen, an advice columnist for New England wives who dishes out sympathetic guidance on dealing with inattentive or abusive husbands. Her once-perfect life unravels after she loses her job, notices odd behavior from her teenage daughters, and uncovers her husband’s secrets via a tracking app she installed. Done playing the “bigger person,” Debbie takes her own column’s advice to extremes, seeking twisted payback against those who wronged her in this subversive psychological thriller blending dark humor, escalating tension, and shocking twists.
Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston
Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston is a gripping thriller centered on two women, Aubrey Price and Camille Bayliss, whose lives collide over dark secrets tied to Camille’s husband, Ben. Haunted by a tragic night from a decade earlier that claimed her parents, Aubrey suspects Ben holds crucial answers, while Camille grows wary of her husband’s controlling surveillance. They devise a risky plan: Aubrey impersonates Camille for twelve hours, allowing Camille to tail Ben undetected. Chaos erupts when Ben turns up murdered the next morning, leaving both women scrambling for alibis—but only one possesses an airtight one, unraveling a web of deceit across multiple timelines and perspectives.
Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy follows Waldo, a ravenous, impulsive 17-year-old high school girl in Alaska, who becomes obsessed with her married creative writing teacher, Mr. Korgy. Living with her neglectful, love-addicted single mother amid poverty and emotional chaos, Waldo pursues the forbidden affair, grappling with desire, class differences, power imbalances, and her own naivety. Startlingly perceptive and mordantly funny, the novel sharply dissects themes of loneliness, manipulation, and the messy quest for validation, drawing from McCurdy’s personal experiences with an older man during her iCarly days.
The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave
The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave is the sequel to The Last Thing He Told Me. Five years after Hannah Hall’s husband, Owen, vanished, she and her stepdaughter Bailey have built a new life in Southern California, bonding with Bailey’s grandfather Nicholas. Owen’s sudden appearance at Hannah’s art exhibition signals imminent danger from his criminal past, forcing them to flee and unravel hidden clues across locations like Paris. As a gripping thriller, the novel explores forgiveness, family loyalty, and high-stakes risks for a potential reunion.
The Storm by Rachel Hawkins
The Storm by Rachel Hawkins is a gripping gothic suspense novel set in St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama, a coastal town battered by recurring hurricanes. The story centers on Geneva Corliss, who struggles to maintain her family’s historic Rosalie Inn amid financial woes and an approaching storm, Hurricane Lizzie. When true-crime writer August Fletcher arrives with Lo Bailey—the woman accused decades earlier of murdering her lover, political heir Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984—long-buried secrets unravel through dual timelines, revealing tangled connections, betrayals, and the true events of that fateful night. As tensions escalate with the inn trapped by the storm, Geneva confronts shocking truths about her own past and the destructive power of hidden lies.
A Vow in Vengeance by Jaclyn Rodriguez
In A Vow in Vengeance by Jaclyn Rodriguez, twenty-year-old Rune Ryker, driven by the loss of her family to the Immortals, manipulates her selection into the Immortal Realms to seek revenge and uncover their whereabouts. She navigates the brutal Forge, a competitive academy teaching powerful tarot magic wielded by Immortal druids, where her rarest form of magic emerges, forcing her to cohabit with the ambitious Prince Draven, whom she cannot trust. This enemies-to-lovers romantasy blends dark academia, deadly schemes, and sizzling tension in a vivid world of betrayal and power struggles.
Woman Down by Colleen Hoover
“Woman Down” by Colleen Hoover follows Petra Rose, a once-successful author whose career crumbles after public backlash over her book’s film adaptation. Retreating to a remote lakeside cabin for inspiration, she encounters Detective Nathaniel Saint, who arrives with disturbing news and soon becomes her unexpected muse, blurring the lines between her fictional story and reality through intense “research sessions.” As their dangerous attraction deepens amid twists of obsession and deception, Petra confronts psychological manipulation and a shocking revelation that threatens her safety and sanity.
The Future Saints by Ashley Winstead
The Future Saints by Ashley Winstead follows Hannah, the grieving lead singer of an up-and-coming rock band, after the tragic death of her sister and band manager. As music executive Theo steps in to revive the group’s faltering career for a potential promotion, tensions rise with Hannah’s self-destructive behavior and her conflicts alongside surviving bandmates Ripper and Kenny. Amid the pressures of fame, viral success, and personal demons like addiction and loss, the band faces threats to their bonds, Theo’s ambitions, and their shot at stardom, all under intense public scrutiny.
The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams
The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams is a multi-generational novel spanning from 1917 to 1995, centered on seven generations of Black women in the Dupree family. In 1995, fourteen-year-old Tati seeks answers about her father from her secretive mother Nadia and grandmother Gladys, unraveling a lineage marked by a mysterious curse ensuring only daughters are born, originating from an enslaved ancestor who fought for freedom. The narrative traces key figures like Jubi, whose bid to pass as white falters with Ruby’s birth, Ruby’s passionate affair leading to another daughter, and pivotal events shaping Nadia’s life, exploring themes of generational trauma, resilience, love, and unbreakable family bonds amid secrets, pain, and survival..
The Poet Empress by Shen Tao
The Poet Empress by Shen Tao is a gripping epic fantasy set in the crumbling Azalea Dynasty, where famine ravages the land and poetry magic is a guarded privilege of the elite. Desperate peasant girl Wei Yin sacrifices herself as a concubine to the tyrannical Prince Terren to save her starving family and village, only to find herself entangled in a deadly web of palace intrigue and civil war. Forbidden from reading or writing as a woman, Wei secretly masters these arts to compose a lethal heart-poem—a spell disguised as love—that could pierce the prince’s magical protections and alter the nation’s fate. Through themes of survival, power’s corruption, and love’s brutal distortions, the novel delivers a poignant, morally complex tale of endurance amid cruelty.
Hollow by Celina Myers
Hollow by Celina Myers follows Mia Adair, a young woman working at a small-town bookstore, haunted by her faded childhood gift of speaking to the dead, which once brought her fleeting fame. Everything changes after a tragic car crash kills her and revives her as a vampire, forcing her to abandon her old life and choose between two rival clans—the Bellamy and Sutton families—locked in a centuries-old feud filled with ancient traditions, betrayals, and forbidden romances. As her supernatural ability resurfaces stronger than ever, Mia navigates love, loyalty, and danger to protect innocent lives and the only family she has left.
Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibañez
Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibañez is a lush adult fantasy romance set in 15th-century Renaissance Italy. It follows sculptress Ravenna Maffei, who enters a perilous competition hosted by the secretive, immortal Luni family in Volterra to win a boon that could save her brother. Desperate, she reveals her forbidden magical talent in a city where magic is outlawed, drawing the dangerous attention of the family, a power-hungry Pope waging war on Florence and witchcraft, and the seductive immortal Saturnino. Caught between familial loyalty, political intrigue, and enemies-to-lovers tension, Ravenna navigates deadly alliances in a world of whimsy, vampyres, and slow-burn desire.
We Who Have No Gods by Liza Anderson
We Who Have No Gods by Liza Anderson is a gothic dark academia fantasy novel. Vic Wood, a non-magical young woman, struggles to protect her magically gifted younger brother Henry after their mother’s disappearance. Their lives unravel when Henry is recruited by the Acheron Order, a secret society of witches battling supernatural monsters like Orcans, forcing Vic to infiltrate the witches’ academy at Avalon Castle amid rival factions and hidden threats.
A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James
“A Box Full of Darkness” by Simone St. James follows the Esmie siblings—Violet, Vail, and Dodie—who fled their haunted hometown of Fell, New York, after their young brother Ben vanished during a game of hide-and-seek nearly two decades ago. Plagued by eerie visions, ghostly encounters including a menacing spirit called Sister, and unexplained town tragedies like mysterious drownings and deaths, the siblings reunite when Ben’s ghost beckons them home to uncover long-buried truths. This atmospheric supernatural thriller blends grief, family secrets, and pulse-pounding horror as they confront the spirits and dark past threatening to destroy them.
Most Eligible by Isabelle Engel
“Most Eligible” by Isabelle Engel is a romantic comedy where journalist Georgia Rose joins the reality dating show Love Shack undercover to expose the producers’ shady tactics and secure her dream job. Complications arise when she discovers the host is Rhett Auburn, a country music star with whom she shares an unforgettable one-night stand from a year earlier. Amid backstabbing contestants, producer blackmail, and risky dates, Georgia struggles to hide her identity and mission while their genuine chemistry reignites, forcing her to choose between career ambitions and a second chance at love.
The Swan’s Daughter by Roshani Chokshi
In The Swan’s Daughter by Roshani Chokshi, Prince Arris faces a dire prophecy on the Isle of Malys: his bride is destined to kill him due to a poorly worded wish to a sea witch, granting power through the heir’s heart and hand in marriage. To navigate this curse, he hosts a tournament of brides at Rathe Castle, where eligible maidens compete amid schemes for love or power. A veritas swan named Demelza, whose song reveals truth, hides there and strikes a deal with Arris to vet the contestants, sparking an unlikely romance tangled with survival, bravery, and the pursuit of authentic love.
Vigil by George Saunders
Vigil by George Saunders follows Jill “Doll” Blaine, a spirit who guides the dying toward the afterlife with compassion, having performed this duty 343 times since her own death. Her latest charge is K.J. Boone, a defiant oil tycoon on his deathbed who refuses to regret his environmentally destructive life, insisting he improved the world. As otherworldly visitors—ghosts, animals, and victims—invade his final hours seeking reckoning, Jill grapples with her enlightened empathy, confronting her own lingering judgments amid chaos blending humor, moral ambiguity, and surreal reckoning.
Catch Her If You Can by Tessa Bailey
Catch Her If You Can by Tessa Bailey is the fifth installment in the Big Shots series, featuring a steamy marriage-of-convenience romance. Madden Donahue, a rising Yankees catcher, has long loved burlesque club owner Eve Mitchell, who secretly reciprocates but hesitates due to her loyalty to her best friend Skylar’s past claim on him and fears her controversial reputation will harm his career. When Eve suddenly takes custody of her sister’s twins and faces financial strain, especially after one child develops asthma, Madden proposes a temporary marriage for access to his health insurance, insisting it remain secret. As their platonic arrangement ignites into passion, Madden works to prove their bond is worth risking everything for, transforming their fake union into lasting love.
Twelve Months by Jim Butcher
Twelve Months by Jim Butcher is the eighteenth novel in The Dresden Files series, focusing on wizard Harry Dresden’s recovery in the year following the devastating Battle of Chicago. Devastated by profound personal losses and the city’s widespread destruction—including power outages and predatory exploitation—Harry grapples with grief, PTSD, depression, and the burdens of leadership while aiding rebuilding efforts. The story spans twelve months of emotional turmoil, strained alliances like his betrothal to vampire Lara Raith ordered by Queen Mab, tense White Council dynamics, and a mission to rescue his half-brother Thomas, culminating in poignant, bittersweet resolutions that emphasize healing and found family.
