We started this list as a purely speculative watchlist when publishers were still cagey about their 2026 slates. Now that we're midway through the year, some of those TBAs have become confirmed titles with actual pages you can read. Others are still incoming. We've updated accordingly.
This is a living document. We track publisher catalogs, author newsletters, adaptation announcements, and BookTok pre-release buzz to keep this as current as possible. Check back — it changes.
🐉 Fantasy
Fantasy in 2026 is operating at peak hype. The Empyrean series has a dedicated fanbase that treats every new release as a cultural event. Sanderson remains the most prolific author in the genre by a significant margin. Meanwhile, romantasy shows no signs of slowing down.
Empyrean #4 — Rebecca Yarros
The fourth installment in the dragon-rider romantasy series that has dominated BookTok since Fourth Wing landed in 2023. Yarros's pacing is relentless — political cracks deepen, training sequences are physically brutal, and the romantic tension operates on a slow burn that rewards readers who commit to the whole series. If you haven't started yet, now is exactly the right time to begin before the finale arrives.
Check price →Cosmere Project (TBA) — Brandon Sanderson
Every Sanderson release is a community event. His Cosmere universe — an interconnected web of fantasy worlds and magic systems — rewards long-term readers with lore payoffs that can take years to set up. Whether this is a Stormlight entry, a Mistborn continuation, or a standalone, the Sanderson audience will pre-order the same day it's announced. If you're new to the Cosmere, start with The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) while you wait.
Check price →ACOTAR Universe Project — Sarah J. Maas
Maas publishes at a pace that makes other fantasy authors look leisurely. Her ACOTAR universe combines fae politics, found-family dynamics, and romance that ranges from sweet to explicit depending on which corner of Prythian you're visiting. Any new entry in this world arrives pre-loaded with a passionate audience and near-guaranteed bestseller status. The world has enough loose ends to sustain at least two more books.
Check price →New Novel — N. K. Jemisin
Jemisin is the only author to win three consecutive Hugo Awards for Best Novel — an achievement that puts her in a category entirely her own. Her fantasy is deeply invested in questions of power, oppression, and survival, but it's never didactic: the story always comes first. Her narrative experimentation (the second-person narration of the Broken Earth trilogy, for instance) challenges what literary fantasy can do. A new Jemisin novel is simply one of the best things that can happen to a reading year.
Check price →Grishaverse Project — Leigh Bardugo
Any return to Ketterdam — the corrupt port city at the heart of the Six of Crows duology — would be instantly essential. Bardugo writes morally grey thieves and con artists better than almost anyone working in YA or adult fantasy. Her plotting is theatrical and her character work is precise. The shadow of Kaz Brekker looms over every subsequent Grishaverse entry, which is both the problem and the appeal.
Check price →🚀 Science Fiction
Sci-fi in 2026 is riding the wave of the genre's mainstream crossover. Project Hail Mary proved that hard-ish science fiction can go viral on BookTok. Murderbot has an HBO adaptation in development. The audience for smart, propulsive sci-fi is larger than it has been in years.
New Novel — Andy Weir
Weir's formula is deceptively simple: put a brilliant, self-deprecating problem-solver in a catastrophically bad situation and watch them science their way out. The Martian, Artemis, and Project Hail Mary each executed this formula with increasing sophistication. His books are the best argument that technical accuracy and page-turning pace are not opposites. Whatever he publishes next will almost certainly go straight to a streaming service within eighteen months.
Check price →Murderbot — Martha Wells
SecUnit — a part-human, part-robot security construct who has hacked its own governor module and just wants to watch TV dramas — is one of the most beloved characters in recent sci-fi. The Murderbot Diaries have won every major award in the genre. Each entry follows the same basic structure: corporate malfeasance, an introvert who reluctantly becomes heroic, dry humor, and genuine emotional depth hiding behind deadpan narration. You can start with any novella in the series.
Check price →Red Rising Universe — Pierce Brown
The Red Rising series is the most underrated space opera of the last decade. Brown writes political intrigue, brutal combat, and found-family dynamics at a scale that makes the books feel cinematic even without a film adaptation. The fandom is fiercely loyal and grows with every new entry. The series rewards readers who commit to the full arc — the payoffs in later books only land if you've lived through the earlier losses.
Check price →💕 Romance
Contemporary romance is having the best moment in its publishing history. Emily Henry made it mainstream. Ali Hazelwood made it STEM-cool. Talia Hibbert made it inclusive. The genre is producing some of the sharpest character writing in fiction right now.
New Novel — Emily Henry
Henry's novels don't just hit bestseller lists — they define what readers mean when they say they want "smart romance." Her characters have interior lives that feel real, her banter has genuine wit, and her emotional payoffs land because she earns them through specific, accumulative detail rather than manufactured drama. Beach Read, People We Meet on Vacation, and Book Lovers all delivered. Whatever she publishes next is a safe buy.
Check price →New Novel — Ali Hazelwood
Hazelwood turned a very specific niche — STEM academics falling reluctantly in love — into a bestseller template. Her heroines are actually good at their jobs, her rivals-to-lovers tension is clean and fun, and her books read fast without feeling shallow. The Love Hypothesis launched a wave of academic romance that shows no signs of cresting. Her 2026 entry will almost certainly deliver the same reliable pleasures.
Check price →New Project — Talia Hibbert
Hibbert's Brown Sisters trilogy set the standard for joyful, inclusive contemporary romance. Her books are funny in a way that makes you laugh out loud in public, emotionally scaffolded so you actually care about the outcome, and warm in a way that never tips into saccharine. She writes neurodivergent characters, fat characters, and Black British characters with specificity and love. Any new Hibbert project is worth clearing your schedule for.
Check price →🔎 Thriller & Mystery
The thriller genre is producing extraordinary literary fiction right now. Tana French elevated the police procedural into something approaching tragedy. Richard Osman made cozy crime mainstream. The divide between literary thriller and literary fiction proper has all but dissolved.
New Novel — Tana French
French is the finest prose stylist working in crime fiction. Her Dublin Murder Squad novels feel less like mysteries and more like extended examinations of how people convince themselves of things — the stories of detectives who solve cases at enormous personal cost. The atmosphere in her books is so dense it feels physical: wet Irish streets, the particular quality of light in an interview room, the texture of a lie being told. A new French novel is a genuine literary event.
Check price →Cormoran Strike — Robert Galbraith
The Cormoran Strike series — written by J.K. Rowling under a pen name — is one of the most consistent pleasures in contemporary crime fiction. Strike is a veteran-turned-private-investigator; his cases are knotty and procedurally satisfying. The slow-burn partnership dynamic between Strike and Robin Ellacott is the real engine of the series, and Rowling/Galbraith is patient with it in a way that rewards readers who stick with the whole sequence.
Check price →New Thriller — Riley Sager
Sager has built a reliable thriller brand around nostalgic settings — old summer camps, creaky haunted hotels, isolated cabins — combined with modern reveals that subvert genre expectations. His books read fast, land twists that feel earned rather than gimmicky, and scratch a very specific itch for readers who want a sophisticated page-turner without literary pretension. His 2026 entry will almost certainly follow the pattern: evocative setting, unreliable narrator, a twist at the three-quarter mark that recontextualizes everything.
Check price →📘 Nonfiction
Nonfiction in 2026 is dominated by two trends: science-backed wellness books targeting the growing audience for evidence-based self-improvement, and narrative business/history books that read more like thrillers than traditional business writing.
Protocols — Andrew Huberman
Huberman Lab has grown into one of the most-listened-to science podcasts in the world on the strength of actionable, rigorously sourced information about sleep, focus, fitness, and recovery. A companion book translating those protocols into a readable reference format would have an enormous built-in audience. The nonfiction market for evidence-based habit and performance frameworks is as strong as it has ever been — and Huberman is its most credible current voice.
Check price →New Project — Eric Jorgenson
Jorgenson's The Almanack of Naval Ravikant became one of the most-shared business books of the early 2020s by distilling high-leverage thinking into short, quotable frameworks. His approach — curating and synthesizing rather than writing from scratch — produces books that function as reference texts, not linear reads. Any new project from Jorgenson will likely apply the same editorial philosophy to a new thinker or subject domain.
Check price →How We Pick (and How to Track)
Our 2026 watchlist is built from four sources: major publisher catalogs (Macmillan, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette), author newsletters and social media announcements, adaptation news that signals a book is in active production, and BookTok/Bookstagram pre-release buzz from ARCs.
The best way to track releases yourself: add authors to your Goodreads follow list (you'll get automatic notifications), subscribe to their newsletters, and set up Amazon price alerts or wishlists for pre-orders. Publishers typically announce major titles at BookExpo (spring) and at fall sales conferences (September–October). Indie darlings often surface on social first.
We update this page when firm dates and titles are confirmed. Some of the TBAs above will stay TBA through 2026; others will become confirmed titles with covers and blurbs. Either way, the authors on this list are worth following year-round — not just because they have 2026 books coming, but because their catalogs are already worth your time.
Already Out in 2026?
If you're reading this and some of these have already published, check our blog for the full reviews. We write about these as they land. Some of the "TBA" entries above will have moved to confirmed-and-reviewed by the time you read this.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the most anticipated fantasy books of 2026?
- Top fantasy picks for 2026 include the fourth Empyrean book by Rebecca Yarros, upcoming Cosmere projects from Brandon Sanderson, and anticipated releases from Leigh Bardugo and Sarah J. Maas. All four authors have massive, loyal audiences and generate significant pre-release buzz regardless of what the actual titles are.
- Which romance novels are most anticipated in 2026?
- Emily Henry, Ali Hazelwood, Talia Hibbert, and Chloe Liese all have anticipated 2026 projects. Emily Henry's novels in particular generate immediate bestseller status on announcement — her books have crossed over from romance readers into general literary fiction audiences in a way very few romance authors manage.
- What big thriller releases are expected in 2026?
- Tana French, Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling's pen name for the Cormoran Strike series), and Riley Sager are all expected to release new thrillers in 2026. French in particular is a literary event — her novels are reviewed in literary magazines, not just crime fiction journals.
- How do you track upcoming book releases?
- The best methods: add authors to your Goodreads follow list for automatic notifications, subscribe to author newsletters, check publisher catalogs in spring and fall, and follow BookTok and Bookstagram for early ARC reactions. Publishers also maintain "coming soon" pages on their websites that list confirmed upcoming titles 6–12 months out.
- When do publishers announce 2026 book release dates?
- Most publishers announce titles 6–18 months ahead of release. The main announcement windows are spring (March–May) for fall releases and fall (September–November) for spring releases. Some major titles — particularly series conclusions or celebrity-adjacent books — get announced 18 months or more in advance to build preorder momentum.