Most Anticipated Reads in 2026 - Part 1

New year, new stories! If your 2026 resolution involves getting lost in a good book, you’re in for a treat. This year is shaping up to be a monumental one for literature, featuring high-stakes sequels like Laura Dave’s follow-up to The Last Thing He Told Me, and bold debut novels from beloved voices like Jennette McCurdy. Whether you’re craving the "Ghibli-esque" whimsy of Samantha Sotto Yambao’s The Elsewhere Express, a spine-tingling thriller from the "Queen of Twists" Alice Feeney, or a deep dive into the memoirs of icons like Liza Minnelli and Christina Applegate, the 2026 release calendar is packed with must-reads. At Booxies, we believe every great book deserves the perfect pairing, so grab your favourite tea (or wine!) and settle in as we break down the most anticipated reads of the year.

The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave

Publication Date: January 2026

A text from an unknown number. It's from Owen, Hannah's husband, who left her and his daughter Bailey without warning five years previously, and hasn't been seen since.

Hannah saw him the previous evening though and although they didn't talk or even acknowledge each other, she knows she and Bailey are in danger. And that they need to leave their home in Los Angeles – and run.

But why has Owen come back now?

As Hannah drives north up the Californian coast, along minor roads where she and Bailey won't be seen, she wrestles with this question as well as who can be hunting them.

Finally they come to an airport where they board a plane to Paris where Hannah has been told someone is waiting for them.

Paris, a special city where Hannah and Owen had honeymooned; where she hopes she and Bailey will be safe; and where her and Owen's enemies are plotting their revenge ...

Acclaimed author Laura Dave is back with an adrenalin-fuelled thriller you will never want to end. The gripping follow-up to the global bestseller, The Last Thing He Told Me.

Room 706 by Ellie Levenson

Publication Date: January 2026

Kate stretches her legs and turns on the TV while James washes away the traces of their morning. She watches in horror at the unfolding news: the hotel they are staying in has been taken under siege.

She should be making her way home, working on appearing normal, getting ready to re-enter family life with her loving husband Vic and their two adored children. Instead, she is trapped somewhere she shouldn't be, with a man she definitely doesn't love.

How will she begin to tell Vic what she is doing here? If her body is found, will it give up the secret of what she's been up to? She's been so careful hiding the evidence of her affair: write nothing down, leave no trace. Will he begin to understand why?

For now, Kate can only hide, take a deep breath, and reflect on the series of choices she's made that have brought her to this moment.

What will her marriage and her life look like, if she makes it out?

The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao

Publication Date: January 2026

A directionless young woman takes a magical train journey that will bring meaning to her life, but only if she can evade a dangerous stowaway and find her seat before time runs out…

Raya is a lost soul, going through the motions of life without a dream of her own.

One night, on her subway ride home, Raya’s thoughts wander too far. She wakes on the Elsewhere Express, a magical train that offers its passengers a sense of purpose, peace, and belonging. The train’s endless journey is a chance for Raya to reimagine her life – but only if she finds her compartment before time runs out.

On board, Raya meets a charming, handsome artist named Q and together they race to find their place on the train, through a boarding car carpeted in meadow grass and along a dining carriage where passengers picnic on lilypads.

But a mysterious stowaway has boarded with them, and with it a dark, malignant magic that threatens to destroy the train and everything in it. The closer Raya comes to uncovering the stowaway's identity, the nearer she draws to the ultimate question: what is her life's true purpose – and might Q be connected to it?

In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams

Publication Date: January 2026

Chef x Farmer
Brother's Best Friend
He Fell First
Friends to Lovers
Meddling Townsfolk

Madison Walker was determined to make it in the culinary world of New York. But with her dreams shattered, she returns home to Rome, Kentucky, where an unexpected chance to rebuild her life awaits her - a head chef position at a new farm-to-table restaurant.

The only catch? The job offer comes from the owner of Huxley Farm, her brother's best friend . . . and the last person she wants to work for.

James Huxley has always done what's expected of him in the family business -until now, when Madison's happiness is on the line. He's loved her quietly for years; she's never seen him as more than an annoyance. Now that she's back, he's determined to change that.

The one problem? His charming, wildly successful younger brother, Tommy, seems determined to win her over first.

When an unexpected disaster strikes on the opening night of their dreamy farm-to-table restaurant, and a long-simmering sibling feud reaching breaking point, Madison and James must face their biggest insecurities-and decide if love is worth the risk or if some dreams are safer left untouched.

Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy

Publication Date: February 2026

Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Hurting. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most of all? Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher.

Mr Korgy, with the wife and the kid and the mortgage and the bills, with the dead dreams and the atrophied looks and the growing paunch. She doesn’t know why she wants him. Is it his passion? His life experience? The fact that he knows books and films that she doesn’t? Or are they actually kindred spirits, sharing the same filter with which they each take in the world around them? Or, perhaps, it’s just enough that he sees her when no one else does.

Startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny, and keenly poignant, Half His Age is an incisive study of a yearning seventeen-year-old who disregards all obstacles in her effort to be seen, to be desired and to be loved.

My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney

Publication Date: February 2026

Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into, Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls, nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn't fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that the stranger is his wife.

One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying.

Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person's date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel, and as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.

My Husband's Wife is a tangled web of deception, obsession, and mystery that will keep you guessing until the last page. Prepare yourself for the ultimate mind-bending marriage thriller and step inside Spyglass - if you dare - to experience a story where nothing is as it seems.

Good People by Patmeena Sabit

Publication Date: February 2026

EVERYONE THINKS THEY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED . . .

The Sharaf family is the picture of success. They arrived in America as refugees with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. And now, after years of hard work, they live in the most exclusive neighbourhood, their growing family attending the most prestigious schools. Zorah, the eldest daughter, is the apple of her father's eye.

But when Zorah dies in an unthinkable tragedy, the family is thrust into the court of public opinion. There is talk that the Sharafs' happy household was anything but, and soon the veneer of the model immigrant family starts to crumble.

Those who knew her best - and those who never met her - all have an opinion on who Zorah really was, and what really happened to her . . .

Told through the chorus of voices surrounding the Sharafs, Good People is a riveting, provocative and unforgettable story of community, family and identity.

The Gambler by JP Pomare

Publication Date: February 2026

PI Vince Reid is visiting an old friend when he's offered a case he can't refuse: Why did a respected local woman open fire at a political rally, killing a promising young university graduate? It's easy money, he's told. A sure thing.

But as Reid delves further into the case, the stakes are higher than he imagined. There are invisible players pulling the strings. Will he walk away a winner or pay for the ultimate gamble with his life?

So Old So Young by Grant Ginder

Publication Date: February 2026

From Grant Ginder, the bestselling author of The People We Hate at the Wedding, comes a generation-defining novel that is part love story, part tragic comedy. Five parties over the course of twenty years bring six college friends together, exploring the ways we run from and cling to our friends in love, life, and death.

For Marco and Mia, Sasha and Theo, Richie and Adam, the one constant in life after college together has been change. New jobs. New cities. New spouses. New children. Through it all, one thing they thought would always stay the same is their friendship. But time has a way of breaking even the strongest bonds, and testing what we thought we knew. As Ginder wondrously weaves us through the lives of these characters, from the overcrowded apartment parties of their twenties to the destination wedding crippled by high expectations and dreaded exes of their thirties, fortieth birthday parties that ring in a new decade and new problems, and backyard barbecues with too many toddlers and not enough wine, So Old, So Young is a resonant, funny, and deeply moving novel about the growing pains of adulthood, and a celebration of how love can shift, stumble, and grow into something bigger than we ever could have imagined.

Symphony of Monsters by Marc Levy

Publication Date: February 2026

Set against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, international bestselling author Marc Levy’s new novel is a page-turning thriller full of courage, resilience, and love.

A mother’s love knows no borders, and her fight knows no limits.

Veronika, a nurse, returns home to find that her nine-year-old son, Valentyn, has disappeared. Overcome with a mother’s terror but fueled by relentless love, Veronika embarks on a perilous journey to find him.

At the same time, her fiercely independent teenage daughter, Lilya, sets off on her own reckless quest for her brother. Their searches are unknowingly aided by a reclusive hacker, a man indebted to Veronika who battles the conspiracy from the shadows. As the family faces unimaginable dangers, their fight for reunion becomes a testament to the enduring power of hope and courage against a monstrous, real-life plot that aims to erase a generation.

Hooked by Asako Yuzuki

Publication Date: March 2026

The unmissable new novel of friendship and dangerous obsession from Asako Yuzuki, the award-winning author of the global bestselling sensation Butter.

Eriko really wouldn't mind being savaged, if it was her best friend doing the savaging …

Eriko's life appears perfect – devoted parents, spotless apartment and a job in the seafood division of one of Japan's largest trading companies. Her latest project, to reintroduce the controversial Nile perch fish into the Japanese market, is characteristically ambitious. But beneath her flawless surface she is wracked by loneliness.

Eriko becomes fascinated with a popular blog written by a housewife, Shōko. Shōko’s posts about eating convenience store food and her untidy home are the opposite of the typical Japanese housewife’s manicured lifestyle. When Eriko tracks Shōko down at her favourite restaurant and befriends her, Shōko is at first charmed by her new companion. But as Eriko’s obsession with Shōko deepens, her increasingly possessive behaviour starts to raise suspicion. As Eriko’s carefully laid plans begin to unravel, how far will she go to hold on to the best friend that she’s ever had?

Beautifully translated by Polly Barton, Hooked is a thrilling and unsettling story of the line between friendship and dangerous obsession. A delicious exploration of food, loneliness and womanhood in contemporary Japan, Hooked brings together all the ingredients for which Asako Yuzuki is so adored.

This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum

Publication Date: March 2026

Lisa Jewell meets Taylor Jenkins Reid in this breathless debut thriller with the soul of an epic love story.

Benny and Joy like to say that they've been saving each other's lives since the moment they met . . .

Until the day Joy disappears and Benny is accused of her murder.

Best friends Benny and Joy host a beloved 'comedy survival' podcast, gleefully finding life-affirming humour in near-death experiences.

When Benny arrives at Joy and her husband's home one morning to record, he finds shattered glass and an empty house.

With Joy missing and the hours ticking by, not even their most devoted fans could guess the terrible secrets they have hidden from the world - and from each other.

If Benny wants to find Joy in time, and clear his own name, he'll have to solve the highest stakes survival story yet.

Whether you’re counting down the days until Asako Yuzuki 's Hooked or looking to lose yourself in the latest 'romantasy' epic, the best way to experience 2026’s top reads is with a moment truly carved out for yourself. At Booxies, we believe a great story deserves an even better pairing. If our curated collections don't quite match your specific 2026 TBR list, our 'Build Your Own' option lets you take the lead. You can hand-select the exact titles you’ve been dying to read and pair them with premium Australian treats from artisanal Koko Black chocolates to a relaxing bottle of local wine or a soothing Teadrop tea. Don’t just read the year’s most anticipated books; turn them into an experience designed entirely by you.