It is impossible for one person to read every book in the world. But here are a few books being released in June of 2023 that I think should be added to everyone’s TBR.
What do you think? Are any of these on our TBR list? Let me know in the comments below!
1. The Whispers by Ashley Audrain
Publish Date: 6 June, 2023
From the author of THE PUSH, a pageturner about four suburban families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens–and what is lost when good people make unconscionable choices
The Loverlys sit by the hospital bed of their young son who is in a coma after falling from his bedroom window in the middle of the night; his mother, Whitney, will not speak to anyone. Back home, their friends and neighbors are left in shock, each confronting their own role in the events that led up to what happened that terrible night: the warm, altruistic Parks who are the Loverlys’ best friends; the young, ambitious Goldsmiths who are struggling to start a family of their own; and the quiet, elderly Portuguese couple who care for their adult son with a developmental disability, and who pass the long days on the front porch, watching their neighbors go about their busy lives.
The story spins out over the course of one week, in the alternating voices of the women in each family as they are forced to face the secrets within the walls of their own homes, and the uncomfortable truths that connect them all to one another. Set against the heartwrenching drama of what will happen to Xavier, who hangs between death and life, or a life changed forever, THE WHISPERS is a novel about what happens when we put our needs ahead of our children’s. Exploring the quiet sacrifices of motherhood, the intuitions that we silence, the complexities of our closest friendships, and the danger of envy, this is a novel about the reverberations of life’s most difficult decisions.
Why I’m excited for it: Audrain’s novel “The Push” is still on my TBR. One day, I will finally get around to reading it. Until then, I can substitute “The Push” with a novel about a son who may have been pushed out of his bed room window. Dark humor aside, I am very invested in how Audrain navigates writing a story for the perspective for 4 unique families. Based on the current reviews, fans seem to be as impressed as they were with Audrain’s Debut novel so this sophomore novel is one you should be sure to read.
2. Where Echoes Die by Courtney Gould
Publish Date: 20 June, 2023
Two sisters travel to an isolated Arizona town to investigate its connection to their mother’s death, but uncover more than they bargained for in this supernatural thriller from the author of The Dead and the Dark.
Beck Birsching has been adrift since the death of her mother, a brilliant but troubled investigative reporter. She can’t stop herself from slipping into memories of happier days, longing for a time when things were more normal. So when a mysterious letter in her mother’s handwriting arrives in the mail that reads Come and find me, pointing to the small town at the center of her last investigation, Beck hopes that it may hold the answers.
But when Beck and her sister Riley arrive in Backravel, Arizona, it’s clear that something’s off. There are no cars, no cemeteries, no churches. The town is a mix of dilapidated military structures and new, shiny buildings, all overseen by a gleaming treatment center high on a plateau. No one seems to remember when they got there, and when Beck digs deeper into the town’s enigmatic leader and his daughter, Avery, she begins to suspect that they know more than they’re letting on.
As Beck and her sister search for answers about their mother, she and Avery are increasingly drawn together, and their unexpected connection brings up emotions Beck has fought to keep buried. Beck is desperate to hold onto the way things used to be, but when she starts losing herself in Backravel—and its connection to her mother— she risks losing her way back out.
In Where Echoes Die, Courtney Gould draws readers into a haunting desert town to explore grief, the weight of not letting go of the past, first love, and the bonds between sisters, mothers and daughters.
Why I’m excited for it: Another sophomore novel on the list, this time by Gould writer of “The Dead and the Dark” that came out in 2021. This book sounds so spooky and I love it. What more could you want from a Sapphic Paranormal Thriller? As I am typing this in April, I am so excited I decided to try my hand at requesting a copy on NetGalley. Hopefully I am approved. The current reviews show that people either love it, or hate it. But based on the other Book Bloggers I follow, I think I am going to love it.
3. Girls and Their Horses – Eliza Jane Brazier
Publish Date: 6 June, 2023
Set in the glamorous, competitive world of showjumping, a novel about the girls who ride, their cutthroat mothers, and a suspicious death at a horse show…from the author of Good Rich People
When the nouveau riche Parker family moves to an exclusive community in the heart of Southern California, they believe it’s their chance at a fresh start. Heather Parker is determined to give her daughters the life she never had—starting with horses.
She signs them up for riding lessons at Rancho Santa Fe Equestrian, where horses are a lifestyle. Heather becomes a “Barn Mom,” part of a group of wealthy women who hang at the stables, drink wine, and prepare their daughters for competition.
It’s not long before the Parker family is fully enmeshed in the horse world—from mean girl cliques to barn romances and dark secrets. With the end of summer horse show fast approaching, the pressure is on, and these mothers will stop at nothing to give their daughters everything they deserve.
Before the summer is over, lies will turn lethal, accidents will happen, and someone will end up dead.
Why I’m excited for it: I was never a “Horse Girl” growing up, but only because I was extremely allergic to them. If I wasn’t, I probably would have tried my hardest to let my parents ride equestrian. However, it would be “Farm Girl” Equestrian, not “Rich SoCal” Equestrian. Either way, this novel sounds like “Anna K” but with a thrilling twist.
4. The Only One Left – Riley Sager
Publish Date: 20 June, 2023
Bestselling author Riley Sager returns with a Gothic chiller about a young caregiver assigned to work for a woman accused of a Lizzie Borden-like massacre decades earlier.
At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope
Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.
Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life
It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.
“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead
As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.
Why I’m excited for it: I remember with Riley Sager’s debut Novel “Final Girls” came out back in 2017. It was one of the first Book of the Month club selections I picked. The big book drama at the time was surrounding Sager picking a nom de plume (aka pen name) that sounded gender ambiguous in order to boost sales. Sager, formally Tom Ritter, previously written 4 novels before “Final Girls”. 3 under their given name of Tom Ritter, and one under the pen name Alan Finn, to little reception from readers. Thankfully, Sager hit it big with “Final Girls” and has proved to be one of the top Mystery Thriller writers. This one is sure to follow suit.
NetGalley Selections Coming Out This Month!
Going Bicoastal – Dahlia Adler (4 Stars)
Publish Date: 13 June, 2023
“This is what it looks like when a brilliant high concept is executed to perfection. It’s got all the Dahlia Adler trademarks—romance, wry humor, specificity, and genuine emotional depth.” – Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Kate in Waiting and Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda
A queer Sliding Doors YA rom-com in which a girl must choose between summer in NYC with her dad (and the girl she’s always wanted) or LA with her estranged mom (and the guy she never saw coming).
In Dahlia Adler’s Going Bicoastal, there’s more than one path to happily ever after.
Natalya Fox has twenty-four hours to make the biggest choice of her life: stay home in NYC for the summer with her dad (and finally screw up the courage to talk to the girl she’s been crushing on), or spend it with her basically estranged mom in LA (knowing this is the best chance she has to fix their relationship, if she even wants to.) (Does she want to?)
How’s a girl supposed to choose?
She can’t, and so both summers play out in alternating timelines – one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the girl she’s always wanted. And one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the guy she never saw coming.
The Rachel Incident – Caroline O’Donoghue (5 Star)
Publish Date: 22 June, 2023
A brilliantly funny novel about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately trying to manage all three
“If you’ve ever been unsure what to do with your degree in English; if you’ve ever wondered when the rug-buying part of your life will start…if you’ve ever loved the wrong person, or the right person at the wrong time…In short, if you’ve ever been young, you will love The Rachel Incident like I did.” —Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times best-selling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.
When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife. Aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humor, The Rachel Incident is a triumph.
Those We Drown – Amy Goldsmith (5 STAR)
Publish Date: 27 June, 2023
An ocean-drenched, atmospheric horror debut! Liv’s best friend disappears on their first night aboard their dream semester-at-sea program—but is he really sick, like everyone says, or is something darker lurking beneath the water?
It should have been the trip of a lifetime.
When Liv lands an all-expenses-paid opportunity to study aboard the luxury cruise ship The Eos for a semester, she can’t believe her luck. Especially since it will offer her the chance to spend time with Will, her ex–best friend, who’s barely spoken to her since the night their relationship changed forever.
But as soon as she steps on board, Liv realizes just how out of her depth she is. With Will, with the rest of the Seamester students—including the brittle and beautiful Constantine, who may be hiding his own ties to the Eos—and most of all, with the Sirens, three glamorous and mysterious influencers who seem to have the run of the ship.
Liv quickly discovers that the only reason she was invited to join the trip is because another girl disappeared shortly after enrolling—and no one seems to know what happened to her. When further disappearances rock the ship and strange creatures begin haunting Liv’s dreams, she wonders: Is the Eos hiding a dark secret within its shadowy decks?
The truth will come at a price . . . only, how much is Liv willing to pay?
Read my Book Review HERE!
Are there any books coming out in June that you are looking forward too? If so, please comment and let me know!
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