A GOODREADS AND BOOK RIOT MOST ANTICIPATED ROMANCE OF 2026



A "sexy, swoon-worthy" romance about a woman with a rare neurological condition who agrees to fake-date the hot guy in her chronic pain support group--only to discover he's an Olympic snowboarder whose career-ending injury is as infamous as his dating history (Nisha J. Tuli, USA Today bestselling author of Not Safe for Work)



Your fake relationship shouldn't come with chronic feelings.



Skylar is done with offline relationships--especially romantic ones. Living with chronic illness means she's heard it all before: unreliable, high-maintenance, too much. She'd rather spend her free time in her online chronic pain support group, and lately, she can't help but notice Pike, the hot new guy with a penchant for broody poetry. When a chaotic night in the group forces her to pose as his girlfriend, she reluctantly agrees to keep up the charade in real life. Surprisingly, he's thoughtful, sweet, and--most importantly--doesn't flinch at the things that have scared others away.



Fake dating gets a lot more complicated when she discovers Pike isn't just some guy. He's a professional snowboarder whose career-ending injury is as infamous as his playboy past. He won't talk about that, though. He's fine. Really. But pretending to be in love with Skylar turns out to be the least depressing thing he's done in months. As they spend more time together, she starts to notice the cracks in his carefully crafted image, and for once, he doesn't mind being seen.



After all the bed-sharing and late-night talks, it becomes harder for both of them to pretend. But just as things start turning real, the paparazzi catch on, wanting the scoop on how everyone's favorite Olympic medalist is doing post-accident. Dating while disabled comes with challenges of its own, but public speculation and invasive questions are something else entirely. If their newfound feelings can't survive the spotlight, their not-so-fake relationship may be over before it ever truly begins.



"[An] extremely slow burn that pays off exponentially. The sex is super hot." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)



"This debut romance gives members of the disability community the HEAs they deserve." ―Book Riot

After a tragic mistake cost him everything, veterinarian Thatcher Hoyt is doing his best to start over in the high country of Colorado. He's gaining back his life, but he's missing one thing-his mail-order bride, who should have arrived well before Christmas.

Fleeing from her husband's murderer, Amelia Stone makes it to Breckenridge, Colorado, as a mail-order bride. When she's thrust into a wedding with her groom by an excited crowd, she hopes that this time she will have a respected place in the community and a happy home to give to her unborn baby.

Thatcher is relieved his bride has finally arrived, but it doesn't take long after the wedding for him to realize that many things about his new wife don't add up. When he and Amelia finally figure out there's been a bride mix-up, they've already started developing feelings for each other. But Thatcher's real mail-order bride is still on the way. Can they find a way to stay together before it's too late?

• Mail-order bride
• Marriage of convenience
• Mistaken identity
• Bride mix-up
• Forced proximity
• Pregnant widow
• Bachelor veterinarian

The inspirational themes in this book are light, and the romance is the primary focus. While the romance is sizzling and the kisses swoony, both the language and physical attraction are clean and wholesome.

In a radically fresh reading of Mary Magdalene’s story, a renowned scholar of mystical traditions sheds new light on the Divine Feminine as a force for change and healing.

For more than 20 years, Andrew Harvey has trained his fine scholar’s eye on sacred texts and mystical truths to illuminate the message of inspired activism that they hold. Today, we need this message more urgently than ever. In The Magdalene Revolution, Andrew takes a fresh, impassioned look at the story of Mary Magdalene and Jesus to distill its meaning for our world and show us how to embody this truth in our own lives.

On this transformative journey, Andrew invites you to:

 

• Examine how Mary Magdalene is presented in the New Testament—sometimes splendidly, but also absurdly and even dangerously
• Explore the truths revealed about her in texts such as the Gospel of Mary and other Gnostic gospels
• Undertake a radical reclamation of the Divine Feminine by recognizing Mary Magdalene as the bride to Jesus’s bridegroom—a female and co-equal Christ in her own right
• Experience a new paradigm of fully embodied divine and human love that each of us can live out in our daily lives

“We are in the time of the Second Coming,” Andrew writes. “The old story is dying, and a new story with Mary Magdalene’s and Jesus's love at the radiating center will be born.” In Mary Magdalene's great spirit of healing and transfiguration, this book offers you this new human story—together with sacred practices that will allow you not only to integrate its contents into your life, but to begin your own transformation.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Oprah Daily, Today, BookPage, Goodreads, and more

From the iconic crime writer who “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker) and has been called “incandescent” by Stephen King, comes the third and final book in the million-copy-bestselling Cal Hooper trilogy.

On a cold night in the remote Irish village of Ardnakelty, a girl goes missing. Sweet, loving Rachel Holohan was about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot. Instead, she’s dead in the river.

In a close-knit small town, a death like this isn’t simple. It comes wrapped in generations-old grudges and power struggles, and it splits the townland in two. Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has friends here now, and he owes them loyalty, but his fiancée Lena wants nothing to do with Ardnakelty’s tangles. As the feud becomes more vicious, their settled peace starts to crack apart. And when they uncover a scheme that casts a new light on Rachel’s death and threatens the whole village, they find themselves in the firing line.

“One of the greatest crime novelists writing today” (Vox) crafts a masterwork of atmospheric suspense that brings the story of one of her most beloved characters to a spellbinding conclusion.

Warm, insightful, and witty, the first book of advice from New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson—aka the Bloggess

Jenny Lawson is full of contradictions. She’s a celebrated author but battles self-doubt, paralysis, and anxiety. She’s an award-winning humorist but struggles with treatment-resistant depression. The questions people most often ask her are, “How do you do it? How do you keep going even when it feels impossible? How do you keep creating?” This book is her answer. 

In How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay, Jenny shares more than one hundred humorous, heartfelt, and genuine tools and tricks that she relies on to keep her going even when her brain isn’t working properly due to depression, anxiety, and ADHD. She also offers tips to stay passionate and focused on creative endeavors, especially when everything around you is saying to give up.

With chapters like “Wash Your Brain More Than You Wash Your Bra” (sleep, you beautiful human), “Working on Easy Mode Is Still Working” (asking for accommodations is okay!), “Celebrate Good Times, Come On!” (make it a habit to celebrate the good things), and many more, How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay is a balm and companion, reminding us all that we are not alone. It’s for anyone who struggles with self-doubt, guilt, motivation, and mental blocks and wants to rekindle their passion for creating. Funny, simple, empathetic, and full of hope, it will encourage you not to just survive but to find and curate joy in the face of difficult times.

From the diabetes experts at Mayo Clinic comes a new 3rd edition of this practical, comprehensive guide to understanding and managing your diabetes. VALUABLE NEW MATERIAL ADDED: New chapters on Using Technology to Manage Diabetes, Living Well with Diabetes, and Traveling with Diabetes provide additional resources and make this revised edition an even more comprehensive tool for patients.

Whether you or a loved one are living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, Mayo Clinic The Essential Diabetes Book is a practical manual for learning the ins and outs of the disease—why it develops, how it affects your body, how it’s treated, and what you can do to live well in spite of it. Each chapter delves into specific topics like how to monitor your blood sugar, how to incorporate healthy eating and exercise to lose weight, how to stay active and maintain a healthy weight, and how to get the most from your medications and treatment program.

The newly revised third edition also outlines the most up-to-date information on new medications, advances in insulin delivery, and the latest diabetes technology being used by medical experts. You’ll learn about different diabetes technology options and how they may benefit your diabetes management routine, as well as how to avoid the distress and burnout many diabetics face.

If you have a child with diabetes, there’s help for you too. You’ll learn how to recognize the key signs and symptoms of childhood diabetes, set your child up for a healthy future, implement new diabetes technology that works for you and your child, and support your child’s emotional well-being.

Diabetes is a serious illness—and it’s becoming increasingly common. But with the collective knowledge and wisdom of a team of Mayo Clinic experts provided in Mayo Clinic The Essential Diabetes Book, you can be on your way to not just managing your illness, but thriving.

A deer journeys through time, witnessing a resilient world transformed as humans struggle for control over nature.

Mother Nature struggles to maintain equilibrium in a changing world while fire, disease, logging, human displacement, and war repeatedly destroy forests of centuries-old trees. Split Toe, a deer chosen at birth for a unique education, travels through time to understand the interconnected workings of a Michigan forest. He meets humans along the way: Ice Age hunters who trap and kill a mastodon; Mukwoh, a young Ojibwe hunter who stalks Split Toe through swamp and forest; loggers clear-cutting Michigan's white pines; Edra, a woman advocating for the trees; Angus and Grace, pioneers who become a first generation of family farmers; scientists from the future studying the impact of nuclear radiation.

Split Toe witnesses two hundred years of conflict building between modern humans-who fight to control the natural world-and Mother Nature, who repeatedly reaches for balance. He wonders whether human ways will ultimately overpower Mother Nature, until he meets a boy who changes everything.

"The most famous stories of the Trojan War and its aftermath are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. But these were not the only tales of the war sung to ancient audiences by bards-there were others, now vanished but for echoes and fragments, collected in what has come to be known as the Epic Cycle. In SON OF NOBODY, one such tale is the Psoad: an epic that follows the son of a goatherd, Psoas of Midea, who leaves his wife and family to fight on the beaches of Troy. Psoas meets his doom, and the epic poem of his life is lost to time-until another man on a foreign shore, a Canadian academic studying at Oxford, discovers its relics thirty centuries later. A truly daring feat of imagination, SON OF NOBODY is a novel composed in two voices: the first, a series of fragments from antiquity that tell the story of Troy from a lost, alt-Homeric tradition; the second, the voice of a modern-day scholar, Harlow Donne, who assembles and comments on these fragments while navigating a conflict of his own. Obsessed with his discovery, Donne still can't seem to let go of his family's past-he weaves together the tale of uncovering ancient papyri, faded codices, and broken cuneiform tablets with memories of his daughter as a child and his wife before their separation. Donne translates and writes in the heartfelt modes of Aphrodite, goddess of love, and Ares, god of war, as the paralell stories offer a poignant glimpse into both the follies of failed relationships and of battle. SON OF NOBODY upends the regal perspective of traditional epics, and by grappling with questions of ambition, family, and responsibility in both the ancient and the modern worlds, it shows "that the past is never done with, that always there are parallels and returns and repetitions, always the song continues.""-- Provided by publisher.

A USA Today bestseller!

The Secret to Conflict-Proof Communication
· Build whole and healthy relationships that can weather life's storms
· Learn how to keep your heart open to those around you--even when you disagree
· From a licensed clinical psychologist 

There is a moment that repeats itself over and over again in your relationships--it's the moment you're triggered to flip from connection mode into protection mode. This moment is the unseen source of all disconnection and conflict. However, it happens so quickly and unconsciously most of us feel powerless to choose connection. The Road Less Triggered will empower you to:
· quickly disrupt your defensiveness
· turn inner turmoil into inner peace
· connect with clarity, curiosity, and compassion

Through a powerful blend of psychology, spirituality, real-world examples, and practical exercises, clinical psychologist Dr. Kelly Flanagan illustrates in actionable detail the process through which you can free your relationships from the patterns that imprison them. Can you imagine uninterrupted peace with your partner? Kids who leave home but also love to return? Friendships that deepen instead of dwindle? Ruptured relationships restored to their highest potential? A professional life freed from personal hang-ups? All those rewards and more lie just ahead of you, down the road less triggered.

Modern science meets ancient wisdom in a refreshing new guide to Ayurveda. Understand your body in a whole new way—boosting vitality, resilience, and longevity. Includes a 9-week reset program and 20 simple recipes to start your wellness journey.

Ancient is the new cutting edge—by combining the timeless principles of Ayurveda with modern scientific insight, we can achieve true mind-body wellness. Ulli Allmendinger, an herbalist and Ayurvedic healer, integrates traditional wisdom into daily life with practical guidance on topics like: 
 

• Resetting your circadian rhythm
• Optimizing digestion and metabolism
• Developing physical and mental resilience
• Determining your unique energy balance, or “prakruti”

At the heart of the book lies the Ayurvedic understanding of the three fundamental energies or “doshas”—Vata, Pitta, and Kapha—and their intricate interplay in governing the rhythms and functions of the body, mind, and spirit. Allmendinger, introduces a revolutionary new method of determining one’s Ayurvedic constitutional type, or “prakruti,” based on unchanging physical features rather than current imbalances or symptoms. This innovative approach empowers readers to embrace the positive, essential qualities of each dosha and learn to flow with life’s rhythms. 

Learn how to be your own “inner alchemist” by embracing these holistic practices, and optimize your physical, mental, and spiritual potential. Includes a comprehensive 9-week reset program, plus 20 easy recipes for breakfasts, soups, beverages, gut-healing tonics, teas, and simple lunch bowls.

From the author of The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven, an atmospheric novel about family, friends, and falling in love, as a young man tries to find purpose on a struggling Icelandic cattle farm



Growing up on his family's cattle farm in western Iceland, young Orri has gained an appreciation for the beauty found in everyday things: the cavorting of a newborn calf, the return of birdsong after a long winter, the steadfast love of a good (or tolerably good) farm dog. But the outer world still beckons, so Orri leaves his no-nonsense Lithuanian Jewish mother and his taciturn father, Pabbi, to attend university in Reykjavík.



Pabbi is no stranger to cycles of life and death, growth and destruction. He is pursued by the memory of a volcanic eruption and its aftermath, and so many years of hardscrabble farming have left their mark. Jaded, and no longer able to find joy in his way of life, Pabbi falls into a depression soon after Orri goes away to school. Orri, feeling adrift and aimless at the end of his first semester, comes home.



For the first time, Pabbi allows Orri to help him run the farm. Despite their conflicting attitudes, Orri and Pabbi must learn to work together. Meanwhile, Orri meets a kindred spirit on the internet: Mihan, a part-time student. Over time--and countless texts and phone calls--their connection deepens. By year's end, Orri must decide whether he wants to--or should--return to university, and what a future with Mihan would hold, if she'll have him.



With his signature blend of humor and tenderness, Nathaniel Ian Miller's Red Dog Farm is about the bonds forged and tested between family, friends, and lovers--and the act of building a home, together.

From Colm Tóibín, “one of the world’s best living literary writers” (The Boston Globe), comes a brilliant collection of nine short stories, many never-before-published, set across Ireland, Spain, and America—about the complexities of family, longing, loss, and love.

Celebrated as “his generation’s most gifted writer of love’s complicated, contradictory power” (Los Angeles Times), Colm Tóibín is a master of short fiction as well as the novel, able to summon an extraordinary intensity of emotion in a brief tale. The eleven stories transport readers across continents and eras.

In “The Journey to Galway,” a mother who has learned of the death of her son, a fighter pilot in World War I, travels to Galway to inform his wife and their three now fatherless children. “Sleep,” originally published in The New Yorker, explores the rift between two lovers as one of them cannot reckon with his grief and fear after the death of his brother. Death, again, is a central character in the title story, “The News from Dublin,” as Maurice Webster travels to Dublin to try to save his younger brother who is dying of tuberculosis. Maurice must petition the health minister for access to a new experimental drug, and this is the only hope.

Tóibín’s stories are rich with the complexities of family dynamics, the haunting pull of the past, and the quiet revelations that define our lives. His characters, whether navigating the aftermath of war, or forbidden love, or the desires of a girl in Catalan, or the quiet struggles mundane life, are rendered with illuminating, unforgettable empathy and insight.

The News from Dublin is an exquisite introduction to Tóibín’s short fiction for new readers who may have discovered Tóibín with the publication of Long Island, and a glorious new collection for longtime fans of this “achingly beautiful writer…with infinite compassion” (The Miami Herald).

American soccer legend Landon Donovan’s unfiltered account of his celebrated career, his battle with mental health, and his search for peace beyond the game.

Includes 40 full color photos! 

You may think you know Landon Donovan—but you don’t. As one of the most decorated players in US soccer history, he knows many recognize his greatest triumphs, but far fewer understand his deepest struggles. Behind the legendary #10 jersey and a dazzling career, he grappled with finding peace—both on and off the pitch. In this unflinchingly honest autobiography, Donovan shares his tumultuous journey through the rise of US soccer and his battles with depression.

Growing up as a twin in California, the son of an absent father and a single mother, Donovan was introduced to soccer at a young age by his half-brother Josh. By five years old, he was maniacal about playing—and winning—against players twice his age. When Donovan scored, he reveled in the attention he never received at home. Soccer offered him a golden ticket, and as soon as he could, he was off. From the US U-17 men’s national team to the 2000 Olympics to multiple World Cups, Donovan built an enviable career—winning six MLS championships, experiencing an epic stint with LA Galaxy where he played alongside David Beckham, and netting a historic extra-time winner against Algeria in the 2010 World Cup. His impact was so profound that when Donovan retired, Major League Soccer renamed its Most Valuable Player award in his honor. But even with all his achievements, peace was hard to find off the pitch. The US team’s loss at the 2006 World Cup haunted him and led to the first of three bouts of serious depression.

Landon is a must-read for soccer fans and anyone navigating their own mental health journey. More than a sports memoir, it’s a powerful testament to resilience, identity, and the pursuit of self-acceptance. Through his struggles and triumphs, Landon Donovan shows us that no matter where you start, becoming the person you want to be is always possible.

After discovering she's an heiress to a billion-dollar corporation, seventeen-year-old Liliana finds herself at a new boarding school where she must navigate secret societies and a deadly competition. Not to mention two handsome boys. 

The Reappearance of Rachel Price meets The Inheritance Games series in this new YA thriller from bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.

In the wake of her mother's death, Liliana Chamberlain's estranged (and very wealthy) grandparents swoop in. Or their lawyer does. Her grandparents aren't ready to meet her, but they want her to have the life her mother walked away from, starting with Westdale Academy, the elite boarding school her mother attended. It should be a Cinderella dream come true, but Lili has serious misgivings. Yet she doesn't have a choice, being under eighteen and dead broke.

Westdale Academy is a school of secrets as well as intriguing classmates, including Hollywood golden boy Theo Dubois and the mysterious Maddox Moreno. As she gets to know them all, Lili realizes there's more to the school than elite-level networking. Something deadly.

For the new girl at school, investigating the deaths of past students — including Maddox's own sister — is a very dangerous game. Do those deaths have something to do with why her mother fled Westdale at the cost of her inheritance?

When a fun night out turns bloody, Theo is the prime suspect, and Liliana must race against time to connect the past with the present and discover the truth behind her inheritance.

In an exciting and richly moving new standalone page-turner from New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels, an acclaimed photographer who has overcome her difficult past is suddenly faced with a test of all her courage and resilience.

In her award-winning wildlife photographs, Charlotte Gray captures all the beauty and wonder of the natural world. Far better to focus on breathtaking landscapes than to turn the lens on her own painful childhood and the uncaring mother she left behind in Florida. Piece by piece, Charlotte has built a new, independent life, one she’s eager to protect.

A chance encounter on assignment in Las Vegas sparks an intriguing relationship, and for the first time, Charlotte impulsively follows her heart. But along with love and fresh beginnings comes a trove of secrets about her new husband. And someone in his past is determined to upend Charlotte’s happiness by threatening what she cares about most. 

After everything she’s weathered, Charlotte is about to face the task of rebuilding her life yet again. But this time she’s doing it with hard-won strength, experience, and the wisdom to know when to forgive, when to let go, and how to walk into the sunshine and claim the support and love she deserves . . .