33 Books to Get Excited About in 2018
Your bookshelves are about to get a lot more stuffed.
Kick the year off with addictive YA fantasy novel The Cruel Prince, which tells the story of Jude, a mortal forced to live in the High Court of Faerie after her parents were murdered. Earning a place in the court is all she wants, but it won't come easily. Side note: YA author Leigh Bardugo highly recommends this one.
Set in 1920s India, The Widows of Malabar Hill follows lawyer Perveen Mistry as she investigates a strange will on behalf of the titular widows. Author Sujata Massey was partly inspired by the true story of Cornelia Sorabji, who was the first woman to study law at Oxford.
After their mother dies, sisters Miranda and Lucia must learn to exist without her — a task that proves difficult once Lucia begins hearing voices and making impulsive, life-changing decisions. As the older sister, Miranda feels compelled to rescue Lucia again and again, but discovers that it's hard to help someone who doesn't want it.
Following the success of Me Before You (turned into a movie in 2016) and the sequel After You, Jojo Moyes is back with Still Me, the next chapter in Lou's tale. In this one, Lou is settling in to life in New York City while juggling a new job and trying to keep a long-distance relationship alive.
After becoming one of the most outspoken voices in the fight against sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood, Rose McGowan will tell her full story in a new memoir detailing everything from her childhood in the Children of God cult to her experiences with Harvey Weinstein.
In her debut collection, Morgan Jerkins — who's written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and more — weaves personal experience with commentary on topics ranging from Black Girl Magic and Sailor Moon to feminism and sexuality.
It's basically impossible for two fictional characters to attend a wedding together and not start falling in love, but that doesn't make it any less fun to read about. In The Wedding Date, Alexa agrees to be Drew's last-minute date to his ex's wedding, and naturally, sparks fly.
After her husband Roy goes to prison, Celestial has to learn how to live without him and turns to her childhood friend Andre for comfort. But when Roy's conviction gets overturned and he returns home sooner than Celestial expected, all three people will have trouble adjusting.
In this emotional memoir, Terese Marie Mailhot recounts her experience growing up on the Seabird Island reservation and her personal battle with PTSD and bipolar II disorder.
Zadie Smith, author of Swing Time and White Teeth, returns with a new collection of essays called Feel Free. The book will include previously unpublished writing as well as essays like "Find Your Beach" and "Joy," both of which originally appeared in The New York Review of Books.
In this YA fantasy novel, Dhonielle Clayton imagines a place called Orleans where looks are valued above all else and women called Belles help others become beautiful. Camellia Beauregard wants to become the Queen of Orleans's favorite Belle, but she soon finds out that living with the royal family isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Akwaeke Emezi's debut novel Freshwater follows a young Nigerian woman named Ada, who struggles to reconcile her multiple selves after she moves to the United States to attend college.
In the fourth book of her Ravenels series, romance queen Lisa Kleypas will tell the story of Dr. Garrett Gibson, the rule-breaking female doctor who first popped up in Marrying Winterborne. The Ravenel in question here will be Ethan Ransom, an illegitimate Ravenel son who works as a detective for Scotland Yard.
In the first book in her new Reluctant Royals series, Alyssa Cole introduces Naledi Smith, a grad student who's just going about her business when she starts getting emails from a supposed prince claiming that he's her betrothed. Read an excerpt here.
The first novel in a forthcoming trilogy, Children of Blood and Bone sets up the world of Orïsha, which was full of magic until a ruthless king stamped it out. Now a young woman named Zélie will try to bring it back with help from a princess. (Read it now so you'll be an expert by the time it gets turned into a movie.)
Girls Burn Brighter, the debut novel from Shobha Rao, tells the story of Poornima and Savitha, two girls whose friendship is tested by distance, family, and various other obstacles.
Mallory Ortberg, cofounder of beloved website The Toast, puts her signature spin on classic fairy tales. (The book is adapted from her popular Toast column "Children's Stories Made Horrific.")
In this alternate history, zombies come to life during the Civil War and change the course of America. A new law requires black and Native American children to train as zombie slayers, which is what Jane McKeene is doing when she gets caught in a conspiracy involving missing families near Baltimore.
After releasing her debut novel The Clasp in 2015, Sloane Crosley returns to the form that made her famous in Look Alive Out There, her third collection of essays.
When her parents disown her, Hero de Vera moves to the Bay Area to live with her aunt and uncle, who know she's not interested in discussing life with her parents in the Philippines. Their daughter, however, has other ideas.
Known for The Song of Achilles, her prize-winning retelling of the Trojan War, Madeline Miller returns with Circe, her take on the myth of Circe, daughter of the sun god Helios.
After working at real-life tech companies like Tesla Motors, Anna Yen drew on her own experiences for this Devil Wears Prada–like account of one woman's journey through the boardrooms of Silicon Valley.
Known for writing a very under-the-radar series called Pretty Little Liars, Sara Shepard returns to adult fiction with The Elizas, a mystery about a writer named Eliza Fontaine. After Eliza is found at the bottom of a pool, she becomes certain that she was pushed and tries to find out who did it.
Between books like Prep, American Wife, and the Jane Austen–inspired Eligible, Curtis Sittenfeld is always a reliable choice when you're looking for a novel you can't put down. In April, she'll release You Think It, I'll Say It, her first collection of short stories.
You may have read a book or two about what it's like to suddenly become a royal, but what happens when you become the sister of a royal? Rachel Hawkins aims to find out in Royals, about a young woman named Daisy Winters who has to learn how to cope with newfound fame after her sister gets engaged to a Scottish prince. Read an excerpt here.
The prolific Roxane Gay (author of 2017's great books Difficult Women and Hunger) edits this anthology of essays about harassment and sexual violence, with contributions from actresses like Gabrielle Union and Ally Sheedy and writers including Lyz Lenz and Amy Burns.
In her first novel since 2013's National Book Award–nominated The Flamethrowers, Rachel Kushner tells the story of Romy Hall, a woman serving two consecutive life sentences in a California prison.
Following her hit novel Fates and Furies (which Barack Obama said was his favorite book of 2015), Lauren Groff returns with a collection of short stories titled Florida. The stories were inspired by her own move to the state, which she describes as a "strange and alien place if you come from the north."
From the same author who wrote the comprehensive Seinfeld book Seinfeldia, Sex and the City and Us is a history of how the iconic show came into being as well as an exploration of what made it such a lasting hit.
In her first novel, Lillian Li tells the story of the Han family, who own the Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland. When one brother decides he wants to leave the business for something a little nicer, other members of the family and Duck House employees have to keep it all together.
Ottessa Moshfegh, author of Homesick for Another World and Eileen, is back with My Year of Rest and Relaxation, a novel about a Columbia grad struggling to find happiness when she seemingly has everything.
After getting pregnant with her married boss's baby, Scarlett Chen moves to Los Angeles so the child will be born with American citizenship. Things don't quite go according to plan, though, and she ends up fleeing to San Francisco with a teenager named Daisy, who's in search of her American boyfriend.