From Page-Turners to Heartbreakers: 20 Books to Watch in 2026
I loved doing a 20 for 2025 list last year, so I’m back with a new set of books I want to read in 2026. No pressure, no strict rules — just 20 books I’m excited to dive into. Below, you’ll find each book’s cover, a quick summary, and the rating I’m predicting before I even start reading. Let’s see how many I actually get through… and how close my guesses are!
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A dark‑academia fantasy that follows two Cambridge grad students who descend into Hell to try to save their deceased advisor’s soul — and confront ambition, rivalry, and the very nature of academia along the way. Blending mythic underworld lore with philosophical and intellectual beats, Katabasis combines humor, horror, and high‑concept worldbuilding as it turns a classic descent into a sharp commentary on scholarly life.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
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Lily wakes up on a remote desert compound with nineteen other contestants on a high-stakes reality TV show. To win, she must outlast her housemates in challenges for luxury rewards and essential supplies, all while navigating growing intimacy, desire, and danger. As the competition escalates, the line between playing the game and surviving it blurs — and the prizes come at a cost Lily never expected.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸
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In a small, hockey‑obsessed town on the brink of change, a youth team’s shocking act on the ice ripples through the entire community, forcing everyone to choose between loyalty, ambition, and what’s right. This powerful, character‑driven drama explores friendship, family, the price of dreams, and how a tight‑knit town handles its deepest conflicts.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
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On a remote, storm‑battered island threatened by climate change, a reclusive father and his children face isolation, secrets, and the sudden arrival of a mysterious stranger. Their fragile trust is tested as survival, family, and hidden motives collide in this tense, character-driven story about resilience, loss, and human connection.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸
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In a hidden Tokyo pawnshop where people trade away their deepest regrets for peace, Hana Ishikawa’s first day as owner turns into a quest when the shop is ransacked and her father vanishes. Joined by a curious physicist, she journeys through a magical, dreamlike world to recover what was lost, forcing her to confront love, choice, and the cost of the decisions we carry. Water Moon is a whimsical, character‑driven fantasy about memory, regret, and the power of letting go.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
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Seventeen‑year‑old Ari, still new to the vibrant Black community of West Hill, dreams of standing out in the town’s summer pageant — even if she might be the only biracial contestant. As she navigates first love, self‑doubt, and the bittersweet ache of belonging, Ari’s Aria celebrates young love, identity, and finding your place in a world full of jukeboxes, chocolate malts, and milestone moments.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
In the glittering, cutthroat world of elite figure skating, childhood sweethearts Kat and Heath rise from outsiders to Olympic stars, capturing the world’s attention with their fierce chemistry and rebellious style. A shocking scandal ends their partnership, and as a decade‑old documentary stirs the public’s obsession with their story, Kat finally tells the truth about ambition, betrayal, and the cost of love and legacy.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
When overworked book publicist Clementine inherits her late aunt’s mysterious NYC apartment, she discovers it slips through time — and suddenly finds herself falling for a charming stranger living there seven years in the past. As present and past collide, The Seven Year Slip becomes a magical, character‑driven romance about love, timing, letting go, and learning that the right person might appear exactly when you least expect them.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸
When Louise returns to her family’s Charleston home after her parents’ sudden death, she’s forced to team up with her estranged brother to clear out the house and get it ready for sale — only to discover it might be truly haunted. This darkly funny, character‑driven horror explores grief, family tension, and the eerie way the past can cling to both objects and souls as secrets and supernatural forces rise to the surface.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
When notorious hockey bad boy Evan Zanders meets Stevie, a no‑nonsense flight attendant, sparks fly despite their mutual annoyance. As road trips and late nights bring them closer, Mile High explores love, trust, and breaking down the walls we build around our hearts.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸
In this modern, stylish retelling of Greek mythology, Persephone arrives on Olympus and soon sparks an unexpected connection with Hades amid wild parties, gossip, and divine politics. Lore Olympus: Volume One blends romance, drama, and contemporary twists to explore love, power, and identity in a world where gods behave a lot like humans.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
In this meta‑horror thriller, six women who survived real‑life massacre events meet weekly in a support group long after the cameras stop rolling — until someone begins stalking and killing them one by one. The Final Girl Support Group is a suspenseful, character‑driven deconstruction of slasher tropes that explores trauma, survival, and the lasting scars left when the nightmare doesn’t end at the credits.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
Scarlett Dragna has always dreamed of the magical, immersive game known as Caraval — until she and her sister Tella finally receive an invitation and discover the stakes are real when Tella is swept into the game’s mysteries. Caraval is a dazzling, character‑driven fantasy where illusion and reality blur, testing love, courage, and the fierce bond between sisters as Scarlett races to save what matters most.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸
When homicide detective Vanessa Castro takes a fresh start in the seaside town of Seaside, Washington, an idyllic amusement park’s dark secrets soon threaten everything she’s worked for. Wonderland is a twisty, character‑driven thriller where disappearances, unsettling past crimes, and a sinister killer turn a beloved park into a chilling web of mystery, trust, and survival.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸
Meursault, an emotionally detached French Algerian, drifts through life until a senseless act of violence lands him on trial and forces him to confront the absurdity of existence. The Stranger is a classic, character‑driven exploration of alienation, morality, and the search for meaning in an indifferent world.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
In a tightly controlled society where officials decide everything — from careers to marriage — seventeen-year-old Cassia’s perfect match sparks unexpected questions when she falls for someone else. Matched is a character-driven, suspenseful dystopian story about love, choice, and the courage to challenge a world that demands conformity.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
When Clary Fray witnesses a murder in a New York nightclub that shouldn’t have happened, she’s drawn into the hidden world of Shadowhunters — human-angel hybrids who hunt demons. City of Bones is a fast-paced, character-driven urban fantasy about friendship, love, and discovering your true identity in a world full of secrets and danger.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸
Through her diary, Anne Frank chronicles life in hiding during Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, revealing the fears, hopes, and reflections of a young girl coming of age under unimaginable circumstances. The Diary of Anne Frank: The Critical Edition is a deeply moving, character-driven testament to resilience, humanity, and the enduring power of hope in the face of oppression.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
Twenty‑year‑old Violet Sorrengail is pushed by her powerful mother into the brutal Basgiath War College to train as a dragon rider, where survival means facing deadly trials, political intrigue, and fierce rivals. Fourth Wing is a soaring, character‑driven romantic fantasy about resilience, forbidden attraction, and discovering strength you never knew you had amidst fire and war.
Rating Prediction: 🌸🌸🌸🌸
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