New Book Releases 2024: Our top fiction picks by month

Buckle up bookworms. In terms of new book releases, 2024 has much to offer. This list will have your reading pile groaning with excitement and you might just need a bigger bookshelf.

Now there are a lot of highly anticipated books lists out there, but who has time to read them all, right? Realistically you cannot read every new book 2024 has to offer, you want to zero in on the best novels. So we’ll be exploring the publishing horizon for you, gathering together the most promising fiction titles, and curating a diverse selection of 2024’s new release books bi-monthly that’ll satisfy any reading appetite.

So, grab a steaming mug of your go-to beverage, and dive into our guide to the best books coming out this year. Get ready to discover your next favourite author, revisit old friends with fresh stories, and lose yourself in worlds you never knew existed. Happy reading!

Top New Book Releases 2024

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Upcoming fiction releases, March & April 2024

For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club, Kristen Perrin’s How to Solve Your Own Murder is a wonderfully engaging mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate… Now it’s up to her great-niece Annie to catch the killer. More details: Book | Audio | Full Review

Nova Jacobs (The Last Equation of Isaac Severy) is back with new novel The Stars Turned Inside Out. The discovery of a suspicious death at a famous Swiss physics laboratory sparks a mystery that merges science, philosophy, and the high-stakes race to unlock the fundamental nature of our universe. More details: Book | Audio

Lovers of Ninth House and Hell Bent can rejoice, Leigh Bardugo is releasing a new adult historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age. According to Booklist, The Familiar, is a romance with maddening chemistry, an artfully built world, side characters with their own deep backstories, and a plot full of dark twists and spiderweb connections. More details: Book | Audio

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue meets Life of Pi in this debut from Douglas Westerbeke, A Short Walk Through a Wide World. Described as a dazzling epic, it charts the incredible, adventurous life of one woman Aubry Tourvel as she journeys the globe trying to outrun a mysterious curse that will destroy her if she stops moving. More details: Book | Audio

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Cristina Henríquez (The Book of Unknown Americans) and her new novel The Great Divide, explores the intersecting lives of activists, fishmongers, laborers, journalists, neighbors, doctors, and soothsayers—those rarely acknowledged by history even as they carved out its course during the construction of the Panama Canal. More details: Book | Audio

In Xochitl Gonzalez’s Anita de Monte Laughs Last, a rising star in the art world is found dead in New York City 1985. Then, in 1998 outsider Raquel, an art history student becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, and finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist. More details: Book | Audio

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Sophie Wan’s debut Women of Good Fortune is a funny female-led heist novel set against a high-society Shanghai wedding. A reluctant bride and her two best friends, each with their own motives and fed up with the way society treats women, forge a plan to steal all the gift money on the big day. More details: Book | Audio

Tracey Garvis Graves’ new release The Trail of Lost Hearts is a life affirming journey where two lost souls, heartbroken thirty-four-year-old Wren Waters and psychologist Marshall Hendricks find each other in the wilderness, along with the unexpected courage to love again. More details: Book | Audio

More highly anticipated new romance novels in March & April 2024:

New fiction from Australian authors, March & April 2024

In her fiction debut The Work, Bri Lee explores the intersections between art, life, power and privilege. Lally has invested everything into her gallery in Manhattan and the sacrifices are finally paying off. Pat is a scholarship boy desperate to establish himself in Sydney’s antiquities scene. When they meet at New York’s Armory Show their chemistry is instant – fighting about art and politics is just foreplay. Find out more >>

Sanctuary is a new standalone thriller from bestseller Garry Disher (Consolation, Day’s End). Grace is a thief. She was taught by experts. But it’s a solitary life, always watchful, always moving. Grace walks into Erin Mandel’s rural antiques shop and sees a chance for something different. A normal job. A place to call home. But someone is looking for Erin too. Find out more >>

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New Books 2024, January & February

In Hannah Richell’s new novel The Search Party, a Cornwall glamping retreat turns deadly when a storm traps reunion guests, ignites old secrets, and one vanishes, forcing everyone to confront the darkness within and fight for their families. This multi-perspective thriller explores the fragile bonds of friendship and the desperate choices we make for those we love. Recommended for fans of Lucy Foley and Agatha Christie. More details: Book | Audio | Review & Book Club Questions

A literary collaboration from bestselling historical fiction authors Kate Quinn and Janie Chang, The Phoenix Crown, is set in 1906 San Francisco and follows two women, a soprano and a Chinatown embroideress. Their lives, intertwining with that of their patron, a charming railroad magnate with an extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques, are thrown into turmoil when an earthquake strikes and he disappears, setting them on a quest for justice. More details: Book | Audio | Full Review

In Gareth Brown’s debut fantasy novel, Cassie, a New York bookseller is gifted The Book of Doors, granting her the power to travel anywhere. Soon, she and friend Izzy embark on fantastical adventures, but others crave what Cassie now possesses. Suddenly they are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is, it seems, is Drummond Fox, a man with his own secret library who is fleeing his own demons. More details: Book | Audio

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a new historical novel with a speculative twist from Katherine Arden, bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale. In Flanders, Belgium late in the Great War, a soldier Freddie awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier. Meanwhile discharged combat nurse Laura searches for her soldier brother Freddie, believed dead despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise. More details: Book | Audio

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In 2010, Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair, Early Riser) published his cult-classic literary fantasy novel Shades of Grey, set in a world where social hierarchy is determined by your perception of colour. Eddie Russett is an above average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder by marriage to Constance Oxblood. That is until he falls in love with Jane, a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper. Now 14 years later he is releasing its highly anticipated sequel, Red Side Story. More details: Book | Audio

The Tainted Cup is the first book in a new fantasy adventure series from Robert Jackson Bennett. A high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Called in to investigate is Ana Dolabra and her assistant Din. His job is to act as his superior’s eyes and ears–quite literally, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home. More details: Book | Audio