May 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases

Between new stories from big name authors, thrilling debuts, and new additions to beloved series the May 2023 most exciting new book releases are an extra fun batch of books. Whatever you’re looking for, there is sure to be a book that will have you counting down to release!
 
But if you can’t wait for these books, make sure to check out last year’s May releases!
 

May 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases

May 2nd

Fall of the School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil #0.5)

by Soman Chainani
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Two brothers. One Good. One Evil. In exchange for power and immortality, they watch over the Endless Woods and rule the School for Good and Evil. Yet all School Masters must face a test. Theirs is loyalty.
 
But what happens when loyalty is corrupted? When the bonds of blood are broken? Who will survive? Who will die? And what will become of the school and its students? The journey that started a hundred years ago throttles towards its end.
For Fans Of: YA Fantasy, Chris Colfer
 

Best Men

by Sidney Karger
bookshop.org // Amazon
Max Moody thought he had everything figured out. He’s trying to live his best life in New York City and has the best friend a gay guy could ask for: Paige. But then Max’s whole world is turned upside down when Paige suddenly announces some huge news: she’s engaged and wants Max to be her man of honor. Max was always the romantic one who imagined he would get married before the unpredictable Paige and is shocked to hear she’s ready to settle down. But it turns out there’s not just one new man in Paige’s life–there are two.
 
There’s the groom, Austin, who’s a perfectly nice guy. Then there’s his charming, fun and ridiculously handsome gay younger brother, Chasten, who is Austin’s best man. As Paige’s wedding draws closer, Max, the introverted Midwesterner, and Chasten, the social butterfly East Coaster, realize they’re like oil and water. But can the tiny romantic spark between these two very different guys transform their best man supporting roles into the leading best men in each other’s lives?
For Fans Of: LGBTQ+ Romance, Casey McQuiston
 

The Last Word

by Katy Birchall
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Harper Jenkins is at the top of her game. A brilliant, determined journalist, Harper loves her job as Celebrity Editor at a newspaper’s glossy weekend magazine and has the best contacts in the business. But when her awful boss hires talented reporter Ryan to be the new Features Editor, Harper is furious. Because the two have met before: a decade ago, they were interns at the same publication, where they fell into a whirlwind romance…until Ryan betrayed Harper, and they never spoke again.
 
Thrown together in a busy newsroom, their dynamic is a disaster from the start. They clash over who’s writing what article, and fight over who’s going to which event. Yet as they’re forced to spend more and more time together, Harper realizes she may have misjudged Ryan and can’t help but feel a spark growing between them. But all is fair in love and magazines, and with the news that layoffs across the department are imminent, Harper is left to wonder: who will get the last word?
For Fans Of: Contemporary Romance, The Hating Game
 

Lying in the Deep

by Diana Urban
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
After being jilted by her ex-boyfriend and best friend, Jade couldn’t be more ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime—11 countries in 4 months, all from the luxurious Campus on Board ship—and to wedge an entire globe between her and the people who broke her heart.
 
But when Jade discovers the backstabbing couple are also setting sail, her obsession with them grows and festers, leading to a shocking murder. And as their friends begin to drop like flies, Jade and her new crush must race to clear her name and find the killer they’re trapped at sea with….before anyone else winds up in body bags.
For Fans Of: YA Mystery, E. Lockhart
 

May 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases

May 9th

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece

by Tom Hanks
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Part One of this story takes place in 1947. A troubled soldier, returning from the war, meets his talented five-year-old nephew, leaves an indelible impression, and then disappears for twenty-three years.
 
Cut to 1970: The nephew, now drawing underground comic books in Oakland, California, reconnects with his uncle and, remembering the comic book he saw when he was five, draws a new version with his uncle as a World War II fighting hero.
 
Cut to the present day: A commercially successful director discovers the 1970 comic book and decides to turn it into a contemporary superhero movie.
 
Cue the cast: We meet the film’s extremely difficult male star, his wonderful leading lady, the eccentric writer/director, the producer, the gofer production assistant, and everyone else on both sides of the camera.
For Fans Of: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction
 

Atalanta

by Jennifer Saint
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. But even then, she is a survivor. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing.
 
Although she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it. As she is swept into a passionate affair, in defiance of Artemis’s warning, she begins to question the goddess’s true intentions. Can Atalanta carve out her own legendary place in a world of men, while staying true to her heart?
For Fans Of: Mythology Retellings, Madeline Miller
 

Cassandra in Reverse

by Holly Smale
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Cassandra Dankworth has always had more than her name to contend with. But today is a new low. This morning, Cassie’s boyfriend breaks up with her. By lunchtime, she is fired from her PR job for not being a ‘People Person’. This evening, her ex turns up as if nothing happened, and Cassie is too relieved to ask questions. She’s just glad her longest ever romantic relationship (four months) is back on track.
 
Tomorrow, Cassie finds herself being dumped again. By lunchtime, she’s being fired. When Cassie realises she is gifted–or perhaps cursed–with the power to travel back in time, she has a chance to do things differently, but will things keep going wrong for her when she has infinite chances to get them right?
For Fans Of: Time Travel stories, The Midnight Library
 

This Is the Way the World Ends

by Jen Wilde
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
As an autistic scholarship student at the prestigious Webber Academy in New York City, Waverly is used to masking to fit in—in more ways than one. While her classmates are the children of the one percent, Waverly is getting by on tutoring gigs and the generosity of the school’s charming and enigmatic dean. So when her tutoring student and resident “it girl” asks Waverly to attend the school’s annual fundraising Masquerade disguised as her, Waverly jumps at the chance.
 
The Masquerade is everything Waverly dreamed of, complete with extravagant gowns, wealthy parents writing checks, and flowing champagne. But the evening takes a sinister turn when Waverly stumbles into a secret meeting between the dean and the school’s top donors—and witnesses a brutal murder. This gala is harboring far more malevolent plots than just opening parents’ pocketbooks. Before she can escape or contact the authorities, a mysterious global blackout puts the entire party on lockdown. And even if they manage to escape the Masquerade, with technology wiped out all over the planet, what kind of world will they find waiting for them beyond the doors?
For Fans Of:YA Thrillers, One Of Us Is Lying
 

Adrift

by Lisa Brideau
bookshop.org // Amazon
Ess wakes up alone on a sailboat in the remote Pacific Northwest with no memory of who she is or how she got there. She finds a note, but it’s more warning than comfort: Start over. Don’t make yourself known. Don’t look back.
 
Ess must have answers. She sails over a turbulent ocean to a town hundreds of miles away that, she hopes, might offer insight. The chilling clues she uncovers point to a desperate attempt at erasing her former life. But why? And someone is watching her…someone who knows she must never learn her truth.
For Fans Of: Thrillers, Sally Hepworth
 

May 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases

May 16th

Yellowface

by R. F. Kuang
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.
 
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song–complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
For Fans Of: Literary Fiction, White Ivy
 

The True Love Experiment

by Christina Lauren
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached. Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love.
 
Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.
For Fans Of:Contemporary Romance, Emily Henry
 

Seven Rules for Breaking Hearts

by Kristyn J. Miller
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Margo Anderson is sworn off commitment. Alongside her best friend, Jo, she runs a viral podcast featuring rules for hooking up without catching feelings. So when Jo surprises her by deciding to get married and taking up a sponsor’s offer to host an all-expenses-paid wedding trip on Catalina Island, they have the whole internet to answer to.
 
In a scramble for content to appease their disappointed listeners, Margo cooks up a social experiment: Break all her own dating rules, just to prove that it’s a bad idea. And she’s found the best man for the job in the groom’s best friend and her old high school nemesis, Declan Walsh. He may be easier on the eyes than Margo remembered, but he’s sure to be as smug and annoying as he was before—there is no chance Margo will ever catch feelings for him…until she does.
For Fans Of: Rom-Coms, Katherine Center
 

The Book Proposal

by K.J. Micciche
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Broke up with, broke, and with a vicious case of writer’s block, romance writer Gracie Landing is a hot mess. She can hardly be blamed for drinking one (or a few) too many cocktails when out with her besties in an attempt to cheer herself up. Sometime in the foggy wee hours, she recklessly emails her unrequited high-school crush, Colin Yarmouth, who is now a successful attorney harboring regrets of his own. When she receives an intriguingly friendly (not to say flirty) response, her acute embarrassment is overcome only by her fervent curiosity—what would a hottie like Colin be like as a grown up?
 
The two forge an unlikely friendship that’s unmistakably headed for more. Colin’s tales of his own woeful break-up become fodder for Gracie’s fertile imagination and her current work-in-progress takes off. With the deadline looming and her checking account dwindling, Gracie has no idea that borrowing Colin’s story could wreak havoc on her life, her career, and her own chance at happily-ever-after…
For Fans Of: Books About Books, Sophie Kinsella
 

May 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases

May 23rd

The Senator’s Wife

by Liv Constantine
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
After a tragic chain of events led to the deaths of their spouses two years ago, D.C. philanthropist Sloane Chase and Senator Whit Montgomery are finally starting to move on. The horrifying ordeal drew them together, and now they’re ready to settle down again—with each other.
As Sloane returns to the world of White House dinners and political small talk, this time with her new husband, she’s also preparing for an upcoming hip replacement—the latest reminder of the lupus diagnosis she’s managed since her twenties. With both of their hectic schedules, they decide that hiring a home health aide will give Sloane the support and independence she needs post-surgery. And they find the perfect fit in Athena Karras.
 
But Sloane slowly begins to deteriorate—a complication, Athena explains, of Sloane’s lupus. As weeks go by, Sloane becomes sicker, and her uncertainty quickly turns to paranoia as she begins to suspect the worst. Why is Athena asking her so many probing questions about her foundation—about her past? And could Sloane be imagining the sultry looks between Athena and her new husband?
For Fans Of: Psychological Thrillers, Alex Finlay
 

May 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases

May 30th

Beware the Woman

by Megan Abbott
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
Newly married and with a baby on the way, Jacy and her new husband Jed embark on their first road trip together to visit his father, Doctor Ash, in Michigan’s far-flung Upper Peninsula. The moment they arrive in the cozy cottage in the lush woods, Jacy feels bathed in love by the warm and hospitable Doctor Ash, if less so by his house manager, the enigmatic Mrs. Brandt.
 
But their Edenic first days take a turn when Jacy has a health scare. Swiftly, vacation activities are scrapped, and all eyes are on Jacy’s condition. At the same time, whispers about Jed’s long-dead mother and complicated family history seem eerily to be impeding upon the present. As the days pass, Jacy begins to feel trapped in the cottage, her every move surveilled, her body under the looking glass. But are her fears founded or is it paranoia, or cabin fever, or—as is suggested to her—a stubborn refusal to take necessary precautions? The dense woods surrounding the cottage are full of dangers, but are the greater ones inside?
For Fans Of: Thrillers, Caroline Kepnes
 

Girls Like Girls

by Hayley Kiyoko
bookshop.org // Amazon // Audiobook
It’s summertime and 17-year-old Coley has found herself alone, again. Forced to move to rural Oregon after just losing her mother, she is in no position to risk her already fragile heart. But when she meets Sonya, the attraction is immediate. Coley worries she isn’t worthy of love. Up until now, everyone she’s loved has left her. And Sonya’s never been with a girl before. What if she’s too afraid to show up for Coley? What if by opening her heart, Coley’s risking it all?
 
They both realize that when things are pushed down, and feelings are forced to shrivel away, Coley and Sonya will be the ones to shrink. It’s not until they accept the love they fear and deserve most, that suddenly the song makes sense.
For Fans Of: YA LGBTQ+ Romance, Heartstopper
 

Happy Reading!!
~Alison

May 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 May 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases), worn-through old classics, and all attempts at moving those stories to the screen, just like this May 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases!

May 2023 Most Exciting New Book Releases