2026 is already off to a great start in the book world, and the AU Review’s resident bookworms have gathered together some of the reads they’re most excited to get stuck into in the first few months of the year. From rich fantasy and sci-fi reimaginings, to 1960s sitcom moms and famous female pirates, we’ve got you covered no matter what you fancy reading between now and March!
(Disclaimer: January somehow both flew by AND took age to get through, so you’ll have to forgive us for being a little late to the party with some of these releases!)
Meet the Newmans – Jennifer Niven
Pan Macmillan Australia| Pub date: 13 January 2026| Find a copy HERE
Emily: Surely I am not the only reader out there who is searching for that next read to satisfy the Lessons in Chemistry shaped hole in my life? I am quietly hopeful that Meet the Newmans could be just the thing. Jennifer Niven is better known for her work in the young adult sphere, but has turned her pen to writing about the story behind a fictionalised TV family, dubbed America’s favourite. The Newmans, Del and Dinah and their two kids, dominate the airwaves in 1964, but behind Dinah’s perfect Donna Reid-esque visage, she’s starting to crack. When the opportunity arises, she takes her future, and that of the show, into her own hands. It sounds like a sassy, technicolour dream.
How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder – Nina McConigley
Hachette Australia | Pub date: 20 January 2026 | Find a copy HERE
Annie: How indeed! This no-holds-bared story of sisterhood, growing up Indian-American, and yes, murder, promises to answer just that.
Tween sisters Georgie Ayyar and Agatha Krishna have decided that they need to kill their uncle. But it’s not their fault. It’s all because of the British. And Georgie is going to tell you why – in an explanation where the nostalgic trappings of her 80’s tweenhood entwine with cutting commentary.
Is This a Cry for Help? – Emily Austin
Atria Books| 13 January 2026| Find a copy HERE
Emily: Sadly, the human race is not yet at a point where we no longer need stories about the importance of… well, stories, and so a novel about a librarian who returns from stress leave only to be confronted with a wave of attempts by members of the community to get certain books banned sounds not only frustratingly familiar, but also like a damn good read. Emily Austin is known for writing quirky and surprisingly heartwarming books that veer a little towards the strange, so I am interested to find out what her take on the concept is.
Local Heavens – KM Fajardo
Allen & Unwin | Pub Date: 27 January 2026 | Find a copy HERE
Jess: The tagline for this book is ‘A cyberpunk reimagining of The Great Gatsby set in 2075 New York’. Need I say more. I’m on a bit of a sci-fi binge at the moment and clever thoughtful sci-fi is just what I’m looking for. Filipino-American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas, where he’s struck by the city’s contradictions – shining corporate towers casting bleak shadows over the slums of a crumbling middle class.When Nick meets alluring new-money Jay Gatsby, he falls for Gatsby’s frank charm and confident aura. But in a city where the wealthy flaunt tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death, surfaces aren’t all they seem – and as a corporate-sanctioned cyberspace hacker, Nick knows that no secret can stay buried forever. He’s the reason they don’t. And his latest assignment? Investigate Gatsby himself.
As Nick becomes entangled in the dark affairs of the elite – and the devastating fallout of their actions on the city’s most vulnerable – he must reckon with the limits of compassion and accountability across class and status. What takes precedence: Love, or truth? Heart, or soul?
Isles of the Emberdark – Brandon Sanderson
Tor Books | Pub Date: 3 February 2026 | Find a copy HERE
Annie: Sanderson’s brand (on) of richly-built fantasy worlds has made him massively popular in the last few years, but lately he’s been flipping the script and combining his in-depth magic systems with sci-fi tech and scale – to incredible effect. Isles of the Emberdark promises to continue that trend, as a stand-alone novel in his fantastical ‘cosmere’ universe, and I for one can’t wait to see it. Its genre-meshing premise, especially when executed by Sanderson, promises an enthralling read.
When invaders come down from the stars, a young man named Sixth of the Dusk does the only thing he can to protect his people: he sails away into the mystical emberdark, armed only with his wits and a collection of magical birds. But he’s not the only one in this strange realm. On her own quest is a dragon in human form and her rag-tag crew, and if the pair want to succeed they might just need to help each other, despite their differences.
This Book Made Me Think of You – Libby Page
Penguin Books | Pub Date: 3 February 2026 | Find a copy HERE
Emily: If there’s one kind of character a reader loves to relate to, it’s another reader. Libby Page’s latest novel follows a grieving wife who begins receiving books chosen for her- one a month- from the husband who passed away five months ago. A testament to the power of stories to help us through tough times, no doubt, but also, I imagine, a heartwarming story about community and about finding yourself in the pages of a novel. I hope I cry lots.
The Determined – Rachel Rueckert
Kensington Books | Pub Date: 24 February 2026 | Find a copy HERE
Jodie: Pirates Anne Bonney and Mary Read are facing the gallows. Imprisoned until they give birth, they speak with Captain Johnson, who is putting together a history of the era’s most notorious pirates. He wants to know their stories, and Anne and Mary are willing to share their tale – in exchange for a few things, of course.
I recently finished an ARC copy of The Determined, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Anne – impulsive and raging against the injustices she sees all around her – and Mary – calculating and logical – are the perfect foils for one another, and Rueckert blends what we do know about these two historical figures with her own inventions beautifully. If you’re a fan of well-researched historical fiction, pirate lore, or just women being, quite frankly, badass, you’ll not want to miss this
A Far-Flung Life – ML Stedman
Penguin Books | Pub Date: 3 March 2026 | Find a copy HERE
Emily: You might have forgotten the name ML Stedman, so long has it been between books, but it’s unlikely that you’ve never heard of The Light Between Oceans. A huge bestseller in 2012, it was adapted into a film starring Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender, and was set off the coast of Western Australia on a remote island where a lighthouse keeper overseas the point where the Indian Ocean and the Great Southern Ocean meet. But this isn’t about that blast from the past – it’s about arguably the publishing event of the year.
ML Stedman’s second novel, A Far-Flung Life is out this coming March and is set on a remote West Australian sheep station in the late 1950s. The only book that might be more long-awaited and hotly anticipated is the next offering from Donna Tartt, but since there’s no word on that yet, I’ll keep counting down my days for the Stedman.
Bitterbloom – Teagan Olivia King
Turner Publishing | Pub Date: 10 March 2026 | Find a copy HERE
Jodie: In a village plagued by mysterious deaths, Adelaide Thorn wonders if she is truly touched by the Devil.
Everyone – including her vicar father – believes Adelaide is responsible for all the village’s misfortunes. Plagued by visions and blackouts, she’s kept locked away, until even she is convinced she’s the one behind the tragedies that seem to stalk the villagefolk. But her visions are more than they appear, and Adelaide must venture into the Rowan Wood, the place where the lost souls go, to discover the truth behind what afflicts both her and the village.
I absolutely INHALED Teagan Olivia King’s horrormance Spit Back The Bones last year, so I’m very excited to see where she takes upcoming dark romantasy Bitterbloom
Hell’s Heart – Alexis Hall
Tor Books | Pub Date: 17 March 2026 | Find a copy HERE
Jess: Apparently I’m starting the year heavily attracted to sci-fi retellings of classics because my next most anticipated read is a queer speculative retelling of Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick. Earth is a ruin, and the scattered remnants of humanity scavenge what they can from the stars. Having long exhausted any conventional sources of energy, life in the solar system is now sustained by a volatile, hallucinogenic substance harvested from the brains of vast cetacean-like Leviathans that swim the atmospheric currents of Jupiter. Finding herself with no money and little to occupy her groundside, the narrator (“I”) takes a commission aboard the hunter-barque Pequod as it sets out in pursuit of these Leviathans. As the Pequod plunges ever deeper into the turbulent, monster-haunted atmosphere of the gas giant, the narrator begins to lose herself in the eerie world of Leviathan-hunting and the captain’s increasingly insistent delusions. The only thing that might keep her grounded is the bond she develops with Q, a woman from the wreck of Old Earth, whose skin is marked with holographic light and who remembers things others have lost.
And if all those still aren’t enough to tempt you, March also sees new releases from Kate Solly (The Paradise Heights Miniature Railway Bust-Up), Linda Martin (A Tale of Two Publishing Houses), Sasha Wasley (The Secret Society of Literary Marauders) and Natasha Lester (The Chateau on Sunset).
Thanks to Annie, Emily, Jess, and Jodie for their contributions!
