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With so many great books on the horizon in 2020, I thought I'd share with you just a few that I'm absolutely dying to devour.
I started trawling through the upcoming 2020 book releases, taking notes of everything that I'm absolutely itching to read. Unfortunately my short list wasn't particularly short (it was, in fact, out of control), so I've decided to share with you a list of what I consider to be some of the most amazing books being released in early 2020.
Thriller
17 March 2020
The cover of Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel is just stunning. And the story line intriguing...
Rose Gold Watts believed she was sick for 18 years.
She thought she needed the feeding tube, the surgeries, the wheelchair....
Turns out her mum, Patty, is a really good liar.
After five years in prison Patty Watts is finally free. All she wants is to put old grievances behind her, reconcile with her daughter - and care for her new infant grandson. When Rose Gold agrees to have Patty move in, it seems their relationship is truly on the mend.
But Rose Gold knows her mother. Patty won't rest until she has her daughter back under her thumb. Which is inconvenient because Rose Gold wants to be free of Patty. Forever.
Thriller
18 February 2020
Mary Kubica is a well established bestselling author of thrillers. Her novels have some pretty big twists and I'm very much looking forward to guessing and second guessing my way through her latest book The Other Mrs.
Sadie and Will Foust have only just moved their family from bustling Chicago to small-town Maine when their neighbour Morgan Baines is found dead in her home. The murder rocks their tiny coastal island, but no one is more shaken than Sadie.
But it’s not just Morgan’s death that has Sadie on edge. And as the eyes of suspicion turn toward the new family in town, Sadie is drawn deeper into the mystery of what really happened that dark and deadly night. But Sadie must be careful, for the more she discovers about Mrs. Baines, the more she begins to realise just how much she has to lose if the truth ever comes to light.
Science Fiction
14 January 2020
Followers by Megan Angelo has very strong Black Mirror vibes, with government appointed celebrities and insane obsessions with celebrity and social media.
Orla Cadden is a budding novelist stuck in a dead-end job, writing clickbait about movie-star hookups and influencer yoga moves. Then Orla meets Floss—a striving, wannabe A-lister—who comes up with a plan for launching them both into the high-profile lives they dream about. So what if Orla and Floss’s methods are a little shady—and sometimes people get hurt? Their legions of followers can’t be wrong.
Thirty-five years later, in a closed California village where government-appointed celebrities live every moment of the day on camera, a woman named Marlow discovers a shattering secret about her past. Despite her massive popularity—twelve million loyal followers—Marlow dreams of fleeing the corporate sponsors who would do anything to keep her on-screen. When she learns that her whole family history is based on a lie, Marlow finally summons the courage to run in search of the truth, no matter the risks.
Followers traces the paths of Orla, Floss and Marlow as they wind through time toward each other, and toward a cataclysmic event that sends America into lasting upheaval. At turns wry and tender, bleak and hopeful, this darkly funny story reminds us that even if we obsess over famous people we’ll never meet, what we really crave is genuine human connection.
Mystery
7 January 2020
A bunch of different media have named Long Bright River one of the most anticipated books of 2020. Liz Moore is said to have walked the line between literary fiction and thriller with this novel, which explores the question of nature versus nurture.
In a Philadelphia neighbourhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.
Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit--and her sister--before it's too late.
Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate.
Historical Fiction
14 January 2020
Three authors have weaved together the separate tales of three women and their fated connections to the Ritz Hotel, Paris, in this historical novel.
All the Ways We Said Goodbye is set to be devastatingly heartbreaking, but I'm also very intrigued to read the finished product of the intersecting work of three authors.
France, 1914. As war breaks out, Aurelie becomes trapped on the wrong side of the front with her father. A conflicted and forbidden love with a German blossoms, but betrayal will shatter them both, driving Aurelie back to Paris and the Ritz— the home of her estranged American heiress mother, with unexpected consequences.
France, 1942. Raised by her indomitable, free-spirited American grandmother in the glamorous Hotel Ritz, Daisy Villon remains in Paris after France falls to Hitler. Daisy agrees to act as a courier for a forger known only as Legrand, who creates identity papers for Resistance members and Jewish refugees. But as Daisy is drawn ever deeper into Legrand’s underground network, committing increasingly audacious acts of resistance for the sake of the country—and the man—she holds dear, she uncovers a devastating secret . . . one that will force her to commit the ultimate betrayal, and to confront at last the shocking circumstances of her own family history.
France, 1964. For Babs, her husband, Kit, was the love of her life. Yet their marriage was haunted by a mysterious woman known only as La Fleur. On Kit’s death, American lawyer Drew Bowdoin appears at her door, hired to find a Resistance fighter turned traitor known as La Fleur. Curious to know more about the enigmatic La Fleur, Babs joins Drew in his search, a journey of discovery that that takes them to Paris and the Ritz—and to unexpected places of the heart. . .
Contemporary Fiction
3 March 2020
Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman is a quirky, funny and touching novel about marriage in middle-age.
Judy never intended to start wearing the dog. But when she stumbled across her son Teddy’s old baby sling during a halfhearted basement cleaning, something in her snapped. So: the dog went into the sling, Judy felt connected to another living being, and she’s repeated the process every day since.
Life hasn’t gone according to Judy’s plan. Her career as a children’s book author offered a glimpse of success before taking an embarrassing nose dive. Teddy, now a teenager, treats her with some combination of mortification and indifference. Her best friend is dying. And her husband, Gary, has become a pot-addled professional “snackologist” who she can’t afford to divorce. On top of it all, she has a painfully ironic job writing articles for a self-help website—a poor fit for someone seemingly incapable of helping herself.
Mystery
14 January 2020
The Tenant is being hailed as an edge-of-your-seat thriller. It certainly sounds like a book that can be devoured in just one sitting.
When a young woman is discovered brutally murdered in her own apartment, with an intricate pattern of lines carved into her face, Copenhagen police detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner are assigned to the case. In short order, they establish a link between the victim, Julie, and her landlady, Esther, who’s a bit too fond of drink and the host of raucous dinner parties with her artist friends. Esther also turns out to be a budding novelist—and when Julie turns up as a murder victim in the still-unfinished mystery she’s writing, the link between fiction and real life grows both more urgent and more dangerous.
But Esther’s role in this twisted scenario is not quite as clear as it first seems. Is she the culprit—or just another victim, trapped in a twisted game of vengeance?
Memoir
11 February 2020
I love to break things up with a memoir now and then, and this one promises to be a doozy!
A naive and idealistic twenty-two-year-old from the Midwest, Adrienne Miller got her lucky break when she was hired as an editorial assistant at GQ magazine in the mid-nineties. Even if its sensibilities were manifestly mid-century—the martinis, powerful male egos, and unquestioned authority of kings—GQ still seemed the red-hot centre of the literary world. It was there that Miller began learning how to survive in a man’s world. Three years later, she forged her own path, becoming the first woman to take on the role of literary editor of Esquire, home to the male writers who had defined manhood itself— Hemingway, Mailer, and Carver. Up against this old world, she would soon discover that it wanted nothing to do with a “mere girl.”
But this was also a unique moment in history that saw the rise of a new literary movement, as exemplified by McSweeney’s and the work of David Foster Wallace. A decade older than Miller, the mercurial Wallace would become the defining voice of a generation and the fiction writer she would work with most. He was her closest friend, confidant—and antagonist. Their intellectual and artistic exchange grew into a highly charged professional and personal relationship between the most prominent male writer of the era and a young woman still finding her voice.
Contemporary Fiction
30 January 2020
Emma Jane Unsworth's book Adults is being likened to Fleabag, so you know you're in for something brutally honest and hilarious.
Jenny McLaine's life is falling apart. Her friendships are flagging. Her body has failed her. She's just lost her column at The Foof because she isn't the fierce voice new feminism needs. Her ex has gotten together with another woman. And worst of all: Jenny's mother is about to move in.
I'm so excited to read this one!
Contemporary Fiction
6 February 2020
If you don't know Marian Keyes, she is an Irish author, whose books have been hitting international bestseller lists for decades. She's funny, her protagonists are relatable, and there's always a sharp little edge to her books that give them a little something more than what you might expect.
They’re a happy family, the Caseys. Under the surface, though, conditions are murkier. Some clash, others like each other far too much… As family secrets start unravelling, they find themselves wondering if it’s time – finally – to grow up?
Here's the full list of the 11 amazing new release books coming in early 2020, with links on where you can pre-order these babies:
After more book recommendations? Check out my summer reading list here.
What new release books are you excited to read in 2020? Comment below or contact me here, I'd love to hear from you! Don't forget to subscribe at the bottom of the page to stay up to date with my book recommendations.