19 Must-Read New Book Releases from Berkley, an Imprint of Penguin Random House

An article about new book releases for the summer wouldn’t be complete without Happy Place by Emily Henry. This story is about a picturesque cottage in Maine where friends gather yearly to celebrate life and each other. What Harriet and Wyn, a couple for the last decade, fail to disclose to their friends is the fact that their relationship actually ended. Five months ago.

While the couple is dying to tell their friends about the breakup, the friends learn that the cottage will soon be sold, and they have one final week to spend in blissful ignorance of their daily problems. What’s a broken couple to do but pretend to date and let forced proximity guide the week’s agenda? A perfect summer read about friendships, love, and life.

Combine a cranky, secretive elderly woman with a 21-year-old desperate for a job, and you get The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise. Neither woman is excited about young Tanner moving in as a caretaker of Louise – especially once it is evident that Louise is up to something sketchy.

While it is possible for Tanner to ignore the locked garden shed, she is forced to look trouble in the face when Louise demands they vacate town immediately at 1 am one morning after a large jewelry heist. Coincidence? It depends on whose story you believe. This is one of the new book releases by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, that you won’t want to miss!

Every family has its issues. But in How I’ll Kill You, three sisters deal with more than most as two take on the role of serial killers. While Sissy, the third sister, is the cautious one, always looking for the best way to clean up after her sisters, she gets more than she bargains for when the girls move to Arizona.

Sissy’s sisters convince her to fall for Edison, a young widower, so that they can capitalize on his loneliness, kill him, and take his money. What Sissy doesn’t anticipate is falling head over heels for Edison. How can she save the man she loves without betraying her sisters? A list of new book releases for the summer wouldn’t be complete without a distorted thriller!

The first of a new series by Mark Lawrence, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, will surely capture the attention of fantasy readers seeking new book releases. In a magical library, a boy who has lived his entire life surrounded only by books meets a girl who is training to be a librarian. Once their worlds collide, stories begin to intertwine, and the truth begins to blur.

A GMA Book Club pick, River Sing Me Home, is one of the year’s new book releases that will have you glued to the pages. The joy of ending slavery in Barbados in 1834 quickly dies when the slaves is forced into apprenticeships and required to work six additional years. Rachel, a mom whose five children were sold into slavery, quickly decides to run.

The story of a mother who knows true freedom is finding her children; Rachel begins the impossible journey of traveling by river. She follows the stories of each of her children, which lead her through forests and across the sea. A harrowing and beautiful story you won’t forget.

Available in paperback on August 15th, Killers of a Certain Age explores deadly assassins’ retirement (however final). Four women who have worked forty years within a network of elite killers are sent on an extravagant vacation marking their retirement.

Almost immediately, the women realize that their retirement is instead a transition into becoming active targets and working together is the only way to survive. Strap on your seatbelt and buckle up for this action-packed thriller that easily makes this must-read new book releases list.

Not everything is as it seems in the glitzy and fierce world of riding in Girls and Their Horses, on the new book releases that will keep you reading until the end. Built around the Parker family, this story begins when Heather, the mom, signs her girls up for riding lessons. The family is new to California, and Heather yearns to give her daughters everything she never had as a child.

Heather quickly joins the ranks of the moms who gossip and drink wine during their daughters’ competitions. Everything seems harmless until truths start to bend, and ultimately, someone dies. This group of mean girls seems harmless…until they are not.

When a pathological liar begins unveiling details of a decade-old unsolved serial murder case, Sam Reeves, the psychologist on the other end of these admissions, takes note. When nothing happens after Sam anonymously reports the potential killer to the San Diego Police Department, Sam decides to launch an investigation of his own.

In Cold Blooded Loar, Sam butts up against Kit, an SDPD homicide detective, when both unearth new details in this cold case. Working together may be the best way to solve this manhunt but at what cost? And what will they find as they uncover the truth? One of the new book releases available in paperback this summer, this book will have you reading every last page.

Everyone needs a Vera in their life. That is, according to Vera. In Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, the reader meets Vera: a store owner in her 60s who lives above her tea shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown. While Vera lives her life by routine, that routine explodes the morning she discovers a dead man in her store.

Vera grabs a flash drive from the dead man’s hand before calling the police. She justifies her actions because surely she is the most competent person to solve this death, which is obviously murder. Vera’s list of suspects quickly grows as she inserts herself into the lives of every customer. Will her fondness for these customers get in the way of catching a killer?

Life as an adjunct professor of thermodynamics is not only taxing…it does NOT pay. Just ask Elsie Hannaway, as evident in Love, Theoretically, one of two new book releases from Ali Hazelwood. Elsie is forced to moonlight as a fake girlfriend to subsidize her meager income, which lends to some great dinner party stories.

The brother of Elsie’s latest faux dating gig turns out to be Jack Smith, an experimental physicist whose first published writing put the reputation of theorists everywhere into question. Making him Elsie’s arch-enemy. Elsie can’t control her irritability when Jack is in the room, which leads to rising temperatures. But is the heat between the two loathing or loving?

The second of the two new book releases by Ali Hazelwood is a collection of novellas featuring the best in STEMinist stories. In Loathe to Love You, one of three engineers of different disciplines is featured in each novella. But just because these stories are short in length does not mean they are short on steam. Or quippy dialogue. The quick pace is perfect for a day at the pool.

Happily ever after means something different to each couple. In My Lovely Wife, the bond between man and wife is twisted into a game of cat and mouse with a mutual love for murder. The couple takes “keeping the spark alive” to a whole new level in this pathological thriller, now available in paperback. After reading about this suburban family, you may never look at your neighbors the same…

Fern Brookbanks and Will Baxter met ten years ago and spent an incredible twenty-four hours sharing every aspect of their lives. Vowing to meet in the same spot the following year, Fern is anxious to rekindle the relationship. But Will can’t possibly feel the same because he fails to show up.

Nine years after the missed rendezvous, Will suddenly appears on Fern’s doorstep. But how can she possibly trust this near stranger? And is it conceivable that he is still the same man he was a decade prior? Meet Me at the Lake is a wonderful follow-up to Carley Fortune’s New York Times bestselling novel Every Summer After.

The Love Wager, by Lynn Painter, is one of Berkley, an imprint of Random House’s adorable new book releases of the rom-com genre. The heroine, Hallie Piper, finally commits to finding love after her final embarrassing morning-after encounter. Unfortunately for her, that encounter included Jack, a man who continues to pop to the top of her dating app options.

Once Hallie and Jack decide they are not romantically compatible, they settle on the next best thing: becoming one another’s wing-person in dating. They begin scheduling dates simultaneously, so each has a way out if the date goes sideways. After this arrangement continues with unsuccessful dating results, the two make a wager to see who will find love first. Win, win, right?

Penny Roundtree is determined to learn her craft by becoming a familiar to a witch. Unfortunately for her, witches and warlocks have long lives making familiar positions few and far between. Willem Sauer, a warlock with a shady past and limited magic-casting abilities, seeks a familiar to increase his spell potential.

When the two pair up as familiar and warlock, both parties can achieve their goals as long as they can get past their clashing personalities. After the two begin to get along, it is apparent that someone is targeting Penny. What the Hex is the perfect enemies to lovers lighthearted read that will have you smiling.

What better way to jump-start the Christmas season than to buy one of the new book releases, Lovelight Farms? If you are a fan of Hallmark Christmas movies, scroll no further. This first book in the Lovelight series has two friends fake dating. But what fake dating book is readable unless the characters eventually remove the “fake” part of it?

Stella Bloom loves Christmas. She loves it so much that when the Christmas tree farm she has frequented since childhood threatens to close, she enters a contest hoping to use the prize money on the farm. For her submission, Stella lies by stating she owns the farm with her boyfriend (which she doesn’t have) and that the farm is the perfect romantic holiday destination. Will Stella’s Christmas wish come true?

If you love to read fiction inspired by actual events, The Last Life is one of the new book releases you need to read this summer. In 1940, families across Europe feared the German invasion. For some, evacuating by sea was the best option.

Alice King boldly decides to help Britain’s children escape the war. At the same time, Lily Nichols, after losing her husband, enrolls her two children along with herself to evacuate to Canada from London via ship. When a torpedo hits the vessel carrying the children, leaving a single lifeboat afloat, Alice and Lily work together in the hopes of getting the boat to safety.

While Millicent Watts-Cohen realizes she doesn’t have a lot of friends, her social circle shrinks considerably when her elderly best friend dies. This is why Millie makes the decision to take three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash’s remains on a cross-country search for a woman Mrs. Nash fell in love with eighty years prior.

After Millie finds herself stranded at the airport without a flight after a computer glitch, she reluctantly accepts a ride with Hollis Hollenbeck, an acquaintance of her ex-beau. Forced proximity on a long car ride usually leads to one of two things: people who want to kill one another or forged fondness. The banter between Millie and Hollis will keep your attention and have you guessing the conclusion of Mrs. Nash’s Ashes.

One of the new book releases from Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House that is available on June 27th is The Seven Year Slip. Written by the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics, Ashley Poston takes the reader on the relationship journey of Clementine. Clementine has safeguarded her heart. So when she falls quickly for a man who exists seven years in the past, she is suddenly without a plan…but does this mean her love life has no future?