December 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases

It’s holiday season which means the December 2023 most exciting new book releases marks the last of the releases for this year. 2023 was a strong year from big name memoirs to incredible adaptations, and it’s ending with some fun new books that would also make for great gifts!
 
But if you can’t wait for these books, make sure to check out last month’s releases!
 

December 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases

December 5th

Raiders of the Lost Heart

by Jo Segura
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
It’s been Corrie’s life goal to lead an expedition deep into the Mexican jungle in search of the long-lost remains of her ancestor, Chimalli, an ancient warrior of the Aztec empire. But when she is invited to join an all-expenses-paid dig to do just that, Corrie is sure it’s too good to be true…and she’s right.
 
As the world-renowned expert on Chimalli, by rights Corrie should be leading the expedition, not sharing the glory with her disgustingly handsome nemesis. But Dr. Ford Matthews has been finding new ways to best her since they were in grad school. But as the dig begins, it becomes clear they’ll need to work together when they realize a thief is lurking around their campsite, forcing the pair to keep their discoveries—and lingering attraction—under wraps.
For Fans Of: Adventure Romance, The Mummy
 

Here in the Dark

by Alexis Soloski
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Vivian Parry likes the dark. A former actress, she now works as the junior theater critic at a major Manhattan magazine. Her nights are spent beyond the lights, in a reserved seat, giving herself over to the shows she loves. By day, she savages them, with words sharper than a knife.
 
Angling for a promotion, she reluctantly agrees to an interview, a conversation that reveals secrets she thought she had long since buried. Then her interviewer disappears and she learns―from his devastated fiancée―that she was the last person to have seen him alive. When the police refuse to investigate, Vivian does what she promised herself she would never do again: she plays a part.
For Fans Of: Psychological Thrillers, Hank Phillippi Ryan
 

Technically Yours

by Denise Williams
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Pearl Harris has learned the hard way to be careful in work and in love. When she is appointed acting director of OurCode, a nonprofit aimed at inspiring high schoolers to code, she has a chance to make lasting change for the organization, but a scandal has put their reputation at risk.
Cord Matthews fell for Pearl when they met in an elevator seven years ago. She’s just his type: smart, capable, and makes him laugh, but when she broke his heart, he decided love wasn’t for him.
 
After five years with no contact, their connection is immediate despite the many roadblocks in their way and Cord must consider breaking his ban on serious relationships. But going public with a romance between them might derail Pearl’s career and the progress she’s made at OurCode.
For Fans Of: Second Chance Romance, Sophie Cousens
 

Meet the Benedettos

by Katie Cotugno
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
A few years after a reality show skyrocketed them to pop culture fame, the five twenty-something Benedetto sisters are living together in their parent’s crumbling McMansion, almost broke and teetering toward rock bottom. Their fortunes brighten when Charlie Bingley, the dashing star of Captain Fantastic, moves into the neighborhood with Will Darcy, his best friend from Juilliard, in tow.
 
Lilly Benedetto, the sensible second oldest sister, is all too aware that her family is viewed as a spectacle. She usually doesn’t care what the world thinks because she faces deeper sorrows. And she most certainly does not have the patience for the likes of Will Darcy, a man plagued by his own private demons. But while the two clash at every turn, they can’t seem to stay away from each other.
For Fans Of: Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Jane Austen retellings
 

Perfect Little Lives

by Amber Brown, Danielle Brown
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Simone’s mother was murdered when she was thirteen. When her father was convicted, everything changed. Overnight, Simone went from living in a wealthy white neighborhood to scraping by.
 
Ten years later, Simone has given up on her dreams and lives a quiet life, writing book reviews and getting serious with her boyfriend. But with a true crime documentarian hounding her for a scoop and a surprise encounter with her childhood next-door neighbor, Hunter, the past seems set on haunting her. And after Hunter reveals that his father and her mother had a years-long affair, Simone is determined to find out who really killed her mother.
But is she so desperate for closure that she’ll risk imploding her carefully rebuilt life?
For Fans Of: Thrillers, Rachel Hawkins
 

The Other Mothers

by Katherine Faulkner
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
When a young nanny dies under mysterious circumstances near new mom Tash’s home, she is certain that this could be the story to relaunch her journalism career.
 
Meanwhile, she also needs to find a local playgroup for her son. Nearby is the gorgeous neighborhood filled with wealthy and friendly families, stunning houses, and lavish playdates. But when another young woman is found dead, it’s clear there’s much more to the community than meets the eye and the more Tash investigates, the more she’s led uncomfortably close to the mothers in her son’s playgroup.
 
Are these women really her friends? Or is there another, more dangerous reason why she has been accepted into their exclusive world? Who, exactly, is investigating who?
For Fans Of: Suspense, B.A. Paris
 

This Spells Love

by Kate Robb
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
When Gemma Wilde gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend, she reacts the way any reasonable twenty-eight-year-old would: by getting drunk with her sister, kooky aunt, and best friend, Dax, and performing a love cleansing spell to forget all about her ex. They follow the instructions, complete with an absolutely platonic kiss from Dax to seal the deal, and Gemma falls asleep in a margarita haze, thinking nothing of it.
 
But when she wakes up, she realizes that this silly spell has worked. Not only has she never dated her ex; her life looks completely different. To get back to her old life, Gemma must reverse the spell before the next full moon. That means she has one month to convince a now near-stranger, Dax, to become friends with her in order to get his kiss. But as Gemma carries out her plans, she finds herself falling for him, and begins to wonder whether she even wants to go back to the way things were…
For Fans Of: Paranormal Romance, The Ex Hex
 

The Engagement Party

by Darby Kane
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Emily Hunt went missing from her affluent liberal arts school on graduation weekend. Her body was found floating in a river, and a quiet loner who most people on campus really didn’t know committed suicide. A tenuous link—one text—bound the two dead students together and was enough for law enforcement to close the case. But they got it wrong and now someone is determined to set it right.
 
Twelve years later, college friends gather to celebrate an engagement over a long overdue getaway on a swanky private island in Maine—with only one way in and one way out. Sierra Prescott, invited as a guest and unconnected to past events, is the only person who soon senses not all is what it seems.
The tension in the air is ignited when they find a dead man in the trunk of a car with a note: time to tell the truth.
For Fans Of: Mystery Thrillers, Agatha Christie
 

The Fake Mate

by Lana Ferguson
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Only a year out of residency, her grandmother’s obsession with Mackenzie finding the perfect mate to settle down with threatens to drive Mackenzie barking mad. Out of options, it feels like a small thing to tell her grandmother that she’s met someone. That is, until she blurts out the name of the first man she sees and the last man she would ever date: Noah Taylor, the big bad wolf of Denver General.
 
With outdated stigmas surrounding unmated alphas that have people wondering if they still howl at the moon, Noah has been careful to keep his designation under wraps. It’s worked for years, until an anonymous tip has everything coming to light. Noah is left with two options: come clean to the board and risk his career—or find himself a mate. The chatty, overly friendly ER doctor asking him to be her fake boyfriend on the same day he’s called to meet the board has to be kismet, right?
For Fans Of: Paranormal Romance, Ali Hazelwood
 

December 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases

December 12th

Lest She Forget

by Lisa Malice
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
After surviving a car crash, a young woman wakes from a coma with amnesia, a battered face, and no identity. Horrific flashbacks and nightmares convince her psychiatrist that a repressed tragedy is the source of her memory loss. Her efforts to track down clues to her identity reveal a suspicious stalker following her every inquiry, hot on her trail for some dark reason. Her best defense against a forgotten killer is terrifyingly locked inside her head.
 
With more violence hitting the newspaper headlines, Kay races to stop the bloodshed, but everyone has deadly secrets to hide—even her—forcing her to choose between living a horrific lie or defending the truth with her life.
For Fans Of: Thrillers, Sarah Pekkanen
 

December 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases

December 26th

What Waits in the Woods

by Terri Parlato
bookshop.org // Amazon
When Esmé Foster left the Boston suburbs to become a professional ballerina, the future shimmered with promise. Eleven years later, her career has been derailed by an injury, and Esme knows it’s time to come back to Graybridge to help her brother care for their ailing father. But her return coincides with an unthinkable crime. Kara Cunningham, one of Esme’s high school friends, is found dead in the woods behind the Fosters’ house.
 
Esmé is shocked and grieving, but also uneasy. In her dreams, she still sees the man who showed up at the scene of the car accident that killed her mother—and told Esmé he was going to kill her too. Family and friends insisted the figure was a product of Esmé’s imagination, that she was concussed after the crash. But she and Kara looked alike, sharing the same petite build, the same hair color. Could Kara’s murder have been a case of mistaken identity?
For Fans Of: Suspense, Megan Abbott
 

On the Plus Side

by Jenny L. Howe
bookshop.org // Amazon
Everly Winters is perfectly happy to navigate life like a good neutral paint color: appreciated but unnoticed. That’s why she’s still a receptionist instead of exploring a career in art, why she lurks but never posts on the forums for her favorite makeover show, On the Plus Side, and why she’s crushing so hard on her forever-unattainable co-worker. When no one notices you, they can’t reject you or insist you’re too much.
 
This plan is working perfectly until someone secretly nominates Everly for the next season of On the Plus Side. Overwhelmed by the show’s extremely extroverted hosts and how much time she’ll have to spend on screen, she finds comfort in a surprising friendship with the grumpy but kind cameraman, Logan. Soon Everly realizes that he’s someone she doesn’t mind being noticed by. In fact, she might even like it.
For Fans Of: Contemporary Romance, What Not To Wear
 

The Weekend Retreat

by Tara Laskowski
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Every year, the illustrious Van Ness siblings—heirs to a copper fortune—gather at their luxury winery estate for a joint birthday celebration. It’s a tradition they’ve followed nearly all their lives, and now they are back with their significant others for a much-needed weekend of rest and relaxation, away from the public spotlight.
 
With lavish comforts, gorgeous scenery, and indulgent drinking, the trip should be the perfect escape. But it soon becomes clear that even a remote idyllic getaway can’t keep out the problems simmering in each of their lives. As old tensions are reignited, the three couples are pushed to the edge. Will their secrets destroy them, or will they destroy each other first? And who’s been watching them from beyond the vineyard gates?
When a torrential rainstorm hits, plunging them into darkness, the answers prove all too deadly…
For Fans Of: Thrillers, Sally Hepworth
 

Familia

by Lauren E. Rico
bookshop.org // Amazon
As the fact checker for a popular magazine, Gabby DiMarco believes in absolute, verifiable Truths—until they throw the facts of her own life into question. The genealogy test she took as research for an article has yielded a baffling result: Gabby has a sister—one who’s been desperately trying to find her. Except, as Gabby’s beloved parents would confirm if they were still alive, that’s impossible.
 
Isabella Ruiz can still picture the face of her baby sister, who disappeared from the streets of San Juan twenty-five years ago. Isabella, an artist, has fought hard for the stable home and loving marriage she has today—yet the longing to find Marianna has never left. At last, she’s found a match, and Gabby has agreed to come to Puerto Rico.
But Gabby, as defensive and cautious as Isabella is impulsive, offers no happy reunion. She insists there’s been a mistake. And Isabella realizes that even if this woman is her sister, she may not want to be.
For Fans Of: Familial Relationships
 

The Vacation House

by Jane Shemilt
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
PAXOS, GREECE
She vacation house is a luxurious getaway for a wealthy English family, windows open to sun and the sea, a sparkling swimming pool, and a verdant garden. One hot summer night, while the parents and their friends drink wine and amuse themselves, a young woman—the teenage daughter of the Greek caretaker—ventures for a walk on their private beach. Her life will never be the same again.
 
LONDON, ENGLAND, TEN YEARS LATER
Julia is the perfect spouse and mother. Slender, blonde, expensively dressed, she’s the classic “yummy mummy” of high cook, organizer, arm candy, and speechwriter to her influential husband. But behind her winning smile is a stifled woman trapped in a gilded cage, stricken with anxiety and perfectionism. When Julia meets Laurel, a therapist who promises to help her find fulfillment, Julia opens herself up to the hope of a different future.
 
BOUND BY THE PAST
What happened in Greece all those years ago that binds these two women together? And will uncovering the truth destroy everything… or set them free?
For Fans Of: Psychological Suspense, Ruth Ware
 

Happy Reading!!
~Alison

December 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases

 
Hi there! I’m Alison in Libraryland, and I’ll be here for all your book related needs. Many of you know me as the girl with the book recommendations. Don’t be shy! Ask me! If you’re looking for a good book or movie adaptation, let me help you find it. I’ll be here for all your literary needs. This is a book blog run on an obsession for shiny new books (just like this December 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases), worn-through old classics, and all attempts at moving those stories to the screen, just like this December 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases!

December 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases