July New Fiction Releases
This July brings a fresh wave of unforgettable fiction. From gripping suspense and rich character dramas to harrowing adventures and finding love, these new releases belong on your radar. Browse the list, pick your favorite, and let your next great read find you.
Unfolding across 24 hours, this is a propulsive, funny and sharply observed novel about the absurd, frustrating, hilarious, precarious, bittersweet, sometimes astonishing challenge—literal, existential—of being a woman, a mother, a wife, a person for one single, entire day.
For weeks she has been saying it will be their special day. One last, perfect day with her children before she returns to work after maternity leave. What’s the worst that can happen?
A high-octane Mrs. Dalloway for our hectic times, Natural Disaster is “a thunderously good novel—the kind that makes you rock with laughter, shed a genuine tear, and immediately think of which friends you’re going to lend it to first.” (Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall)
When Imogen Bly’s mother suddenly passes away, she leaves her Seattle apartment and returns to Lake Blair—the picturesque Washington town where she grew up. After Imogen and her twin sister Amelia arrive, ready to pack up their mother’s home, strange things begin to happen, reminding Imogen of her long held feelings of dread surrounding her hometown.
Imogen enlists the help of her first crush, next-door neighbor Rory, to uncover the truth about her mother’s death and the traumatic event she experienced as a child. But is the boy who got away really the man with something to hide? Or is the suspicious neighbor in the house across the lake behind it all?
When Imogen’s own family’s tragedies lead her to question the disappearance of a local young woman the previous year, her persistent unease becomes terrifyingly real and suddenly nowhere feels safe …
In a yellow house perched on the crumbling edge of Massachusetts Bay, eleven-year-old Penelope Willows is living in the shadow of loss. Her father is gone, leaving behind only whispers and shadows, while her mother drifts further away each day, lost in her own grief. Left alone in a home that seems frozen in time, Penelope clings to her routines, counting everything she can—logs by the stove, soup cans in the pantry—hoping to hold the world together.
But this is no ordinary house. It once belonged to the poet Sylvia Plath, and her presence lingers in every corner, her ghost becoming an unexpected companion to Penelope. As the days stretch on, Penelope begins to hear the echoes of Plath’s poetry in the wind, feel her sadness seep into the walls, and see her ghost in the mirrors and empty rooms.
When Penelope’s mother begins to withdraw further into her own world, leaving Penelope more isolated than ever, the girl’s grip on reality starts to fray. Haunted by the absence of her father and the presence of a ghost, Penelope must navigate the treacherous waters of memory, madness, and the fear that she, too, will be lost to the abyss.
Trapped in an underwater cave, a group of academics must face a series of deadly, supernatural trials—each one demanding they confront their darkest sins—in this chilling aquatic cult horror debut from Megan Bontrager.
“Dark, bone-chilling, and utterly twisted.”—Deena Helm, author of Our Cut of Salt
Grad student Caro has no idea what she wants to do with her life, but when the opportunity arises to act as a research assistant on an anthropological expedition for her professor and lover, Edward Beck, she doesn’t hesitate.
Beck assembles a team of academics and professionals to study the ancient sea-based Cult of the Leviathan, and the expedition descends into the sea caves where the cult is said to have dwelt.
But when the cave entrance collapses, trapping them inside, the expedition will find they are not alone in the darkness. An ancient trial has been set in motion. One by one, the members of the expedition will be tested and forced to atone for their greatest sins . . . or die.
Months after the housing bubble bursts, newlywed Chicagoans Emma and Rachel move into a charming little house in a conservative Indiana college town, hoping for a fresh start after a painful miscarriage. As Rachel immerses herself in her new role as a tenure-track professor and bestselling novelist, adjunct Emma struggles in the shadow of her wife’s success. Desperate to build something of her own, Emma secretly pursues IVF, even as Rachel insists they wait to have children. The house, initially a symbol of new beginnings, becomes a refuge for Emma from the town she’s convinced is set against her—until strange occurrences make her question whether she and her wife are truly alone.
They aren’t.
Charlotte and Dirk, the former homeowners, are secretly living in the attic above Emma and Rachel’s attached garage. Dispossessed by the recession and anxious about her husband’s declining health, Charlotte listens to the interlopers below, and her resentment steadily grows. What starts as small acts of defiance—missing food, flipped breakers in the fuse box, subtle scratches in the furniture—soon becomes sabotage. But when her campaign to drive out the couple goes too far, Charlotte’s and Emma’s stories converge in an explosive climax that will reveal the lengths people will go to reclaim what they’ve lost.
An epic, unforgettable love story about a woman who takes a memory-erasing pill and the man she once loved who returns as a stranger, hoping to make her fall for him all over again—for fans of One Day and In Five Years.
“I loved The Good Parts. Loved the way I knew something life-altering was coming—yet it kept me guessing. Loved the characters, who burrowed into my dreams at night. And most of all, loved the reminder that what breaks us and puts us back together with all our hairline cracks is what makes us human.” —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author
She erased their past. He’s rewriting their future.
When Landon receives a letter from Rose—the woman he once planned forever with—he learns their love story is over. She’s undergone a radical memory-erasing treatment, leaving behind her grief, her past… and him. But Landon can’t bear to lose the love of his life. If she fell for him once, couldn’t she fall for him again?
Now living in Edinburgh, Rose’s world is a blank canvas, and she’s dating someone new. When Landon reenters her life as a stranger, they become fast friends, their lives entwining once more. But what Rose doesn’t know is that this new friend carries the weight of everything they once shared: their firsts, their marriage, and the heartbreak they barely survived. And when she starts exhibiting strange symptoms, it becomes clear their history isn’t gone—it’s just buried. And remembering could come at a devastating cost.
Told in alternating timelines—his from the present, hers from the past—The Good Parts is an achingly poignant story about the people we become across a lifetime, and the beauty of finding our way with what remains.
A woman returns to the mysterious lodge in the woods where she once worked, and to the inscrutable creature that bound her there, in this haunting Appalachian gothic horror from singular voice Jen Julian. Perfect for fans of Alix E. Harrow and T. Kingfisher.
“A mesmerizing and spell-binding tale, beautifully told, that you will not want to end. You, too, will never want to leave Deerhaven.” – Bitter Karella, author of Moonflow
This is the story of Moth, who earned her name working for the Winter Folk.
Every year, the mythical Winter Folk gather at a secret lodge, a place known only as Deerhaven.
Moth was a housekeeper there once. A trusted confidant of Mr. Oslin, the enigmatic master of the house.
But Deerhaven is dangerous. The rules are exacting. The consequences for break them are dire.
Moth has not been allowed back in decades. Still, she feels its call. She will finder her way back. She needs to see him again. No matter the cost.
“The Winter Folk feels like an Appalachian Spirited Away, blending the Blue Ridge with Studio Ghibli, teeming with haints, haunts, and monsters. Jen Julian crafts a tale that feels as if it has been handed down through generations of storytellers, a hauntingly evocative gothic for every campfire.” – Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Devil Inside
★ “Julian creates an emotionally rich blend of the mythical and the mundane in this dark, multigenerational Appalachian horror novel. The denizens of Deerhaven are delightfully terrible in myriad inventive ways, and the worldbuilding as a whole is beautifully executed. It’s an impressive feat.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
★ “An immersive blend of Appalachian gothic, portal fantasy, and dark fairy tale. Like Moth, readers will feel drawn to Deerhaven, whose labyrinthine mysteries aren’t easily solved. Fans of Stephen King’s Fairy Tale . . . will find their time in Deerhaven a bargain worth making.” – Booklist (starred review)
Humbled, but never defeated, he returns to his backwoods hometown, Cross Rivers, North Carolina, where his father was murdered.
He goes back to what’s left of his family and their small, struggling farm. He reunites with his best friend in the world—Taylor McCarter Webb, who is now married.
Then Silas is pulled into a deadly battle with the Southern Mafia who control drugs, trafficking and murder.
As the suspense crescendos, Silas follows one rule for survival: you don’t ride these country roads alone, or in the dead of night.
In this “riveting, deeply felt and empowering thriller” (Laura Dave) from #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, who “always delivers the fastest, twistiest reads” (Lisa Jewell), a woman risks her life to help her best friend find justice for a tragic crime–and realizes she has more power than she ever knew.
Julia Pritzker loves her new life as a wife and mother in beautiful Tuscany—except that she misses her best friend Courtney, back in the States. One night, Julia calls Courtney and reaches her as she’s arriving at her grandmother’s farm in Pennsylvania.
Then the unthinkable happens. A dreadful premonition overwhelms Julia moments before Courtney enters the house—and makes a heartbreaking discovery. Her beloved grandmother has been murdered, and the killer is escaping out the back door.
Julia flies home the next morning to support Courtney in her grief. The local police believe the murder was a botched burglary, but the women suspect something much more sinister and enlist hotshot Philly lawyer Bennie Rosato to assist. In addition, Courtney entreats Julia to trust her psychic intuition to point her to the missing pieces of this dark puzzle.
But in a town filled with explosive secrets, events take a deadly turn, and Julia becomes the target of a murderous conspiracy. She ends up fighting for her life, with no one to save her … but herself.
Only a blockbuster talent like Lisa Scottoline can tell this gripping and layered of a story, combining a woman’s search for truth with the revelation of her own empowerment, as well as the enduring strength and joys of female friendship.
When Lila Dixon gets a call that her mother has gone missing, she initially brushes it off—Mattie’s disappearances are a part of life, like earthquakes in their dusty California hometown. But this time the prime suspect is Lila’s larger-than-life father: the one-time baseball star, local hero, and fatal charmer John “Dix” Dixon.
Dix’s main accomplishment as a dad was finding new ways to disappoint his daughter, but even Lila knows he’s not behind this. And when they uncover a $250,000 deposit to Mattie’s bank account, and someone slips a threatening note under Lila’s motel door, they realize Mattie may be in real danger. Now they’re heading down a trail marked by unsavory Russian thugs, fat-cat farmers, and an unseen enemy who’s always a step ahead.
With crackling banter and characters that leap off the page, Get Lost is a thrilling and emotionally layered mystery. Justin Halpern tells a story that’s by turns hilarious and poignant: about fractured families, grudges that last a lifetime, and the unexpected ways we find our way back to the people we thought we’d lost for good.
“A tense whodunnit filled with so many laughs, so much heart, and so many characters you love that by the end you’ll wish they never found out whodidit.” —Phil Lord, co-director and producer of Project Hail Mary
Blair Kellermoon—blond, bubbly, former rom-com star—has always worried no one would take her seriously as a producer. And with her latest film project stalled indefinitely, she’s starting to think desperate times call for desperate measures. Enter bestselling author Jack Branksome: beautiful writer, awful person. Yet somehow he and Blair have become unlikely text-friends, despite his very public refusal to participate in her celebrity book club. And he’s confessed he’s dealing with his own nightmare: the hotly anticipated novel he can’t seem to write.
So Blair does something unthinkable: she invites him to stay at her pool house. Now they’ve become two misfits bonding over movie nights, cheesy pasta, befriending wild crows, and solving the mystery of the weirdly green pool. Blair was sure she knew exactly how her story would end. But Jack might be proof that it’s only just beginning …
Nineteen-year-old Nessa Thorne expects death when she volunteers for the Empire’s selection. Instead, she’s thrust into Confluence Academy, where students harness elemental magic and bond powerful beasts—from wolves to ancient dragons—forging themselves into the Empire’s most lethal weapons.
Students are branded by water, air, earth, or fire. But Nessa’s mark is different. A silver spiral—the mark of an unbound. It’s a power so dangerous that her kind were hunted to extinction centuries ago—or so the Empire claims. Nessa’s greatest threat may be the only other volunteer—Raith Hollow, a powerful fire affinity whose scorching gaze follows her every move and whose secrets could topple kingdoms.
Alliances are forged in blood, enemies circle like vultures, and forbidden desires close in. Death once seemed like release from her tragic past. Now it’s not an option. Nessa will embrace her terrible potential or watch everything she’s fought for burn.
At Confluence Academy, students leave as weapons … or they don’t leave at all.
Readers are already falling in love with Unbound!
“Wow! Oh wow! All the fun tropes we crave for in a Romantasy book that felt freshly unique.” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“If you enjoyed Fourth Wing, Zodiac Academy and other books similar… add this to your TBR stat!!! It is sooo good!” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“This book had me in a chokehold. Loved it all the way.” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“I’m actually giving this a 6/5 stars! Like I NEED THE SEQUEL NOW! Devoured and left no crumbs.” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
★ “An intricately developed alternate history. Offer Carrick’s excellent duology starter to fans of Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar or anyone looking for a new historical fantasy series.” –Library Journal (Starred Review)
In an alternate Spanish Golden Age, the Council of the Sea Beyond has risen to unrivaled power, exploiting the Otherworld’s most precious resources for their own gain. Estevan seeks to uncover their secrets, but he risks the exposure of his own: that he is a faerie, masquerading as a mortal.
The Hungry Girl is the human whose place he took. Lost among the fae and desperate to find some purpose for her existence, she leaps at the chance to help a group of Spanish explorers in the Sea Beyond … only to be horrified at the atrocities they commit.
A faerie pact has separated them—but only together can they bring down Spain’s worlds-spanning empire and save the homes they have both come to love.