A new year means new exhilarating reads that saturate your email, Instagram, and Goodreads feed! I’ve asked some bookish friends, consulted my favorite book blogs, and done a bit of research to build my own comprehensive “2020’s Most Anticipated Reads” list, so you don’t have to!

This list is pretty inclusive with books ranging from all ends of the literary spectrum; contemporary lit, thrillers and mysteries, historical fiction, books based on true stories, books by favorite authors of mine, debut authors, Chicago-based stories and a little love story thrown in there. I’m pretty excited about this year of reading and this list is packed full of goodies that I cannot wait to devour.

Let’s just dive right in, shall we?

THE BOOK OF TWO WAYS by Jodi Picoult – released 9/22
“Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein. She’s on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband, but a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong”. Go here for the overview.

AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins – released 1/21
While extremely controversial for many things I’m not sure even make sense to me yet, this book is Oprah’s Book Club pick. When books have so much controversy surround them, it only makes me want to read them more. Stay tuned for my opinion… go here for the overview.

THE LIES THAT BIND by Emily Giffin – released 6/23
“In the irresistible new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All We Ever Wanted, a woman is falling hard for a man she’s just met when he disappears without a trace on 9/11″. Go here for the overview.

BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN by Diane Chamberlain – released 1/14
“North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher’s life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself serving a three-year stint in the North Carolina Women’s Correctional Center”. Go here for the overview

UNSPEAKABLE THINGS by Jess Lourey – released 1/1
“Inspired by a terrifying true story from the author’s hometown, a heart-pounding novel of suspense about a small Minnesota community where nothing is as quiet—or as safe—as it seems”. Go here for the overview

DARLING ROSE GOLD BY Stephanie Wrobel – released 3/17
MAJOR Gypsy Rose vibes and I’m so here for it! “For the first eighteen years of her life, Rose Gold Watts believed she was seriously ill. She was allergic to everything, used a wheelchair and practically lived at the hospital. Neighbors did all they could, holding fundraisers and offering shoulders to cry on, but no matter how many doctors, tests, or surgeries, no one could figure out what was wrong with Rose Gold”. Go here for the overview.

UNTIL I FIND YOU by Rea Frey – released 8/11
“In Until I Find You, celebrated author Rea Frey brings you her most explosive, emotional, taut domestic drama yet about the powerful bond between mothers and children…and how far one woman will go to bring her son home”. Go here for the overview.

YOU WERE THERE TOO by Colleen Oakley – released 1/7
“Acclaimed author Colleen Oakley delivers a heart-wrenching and unforgettable love story about a woman who must choose between the man she loves and the man fate has chosen for her in a novel that reminds us that the best life is one led by the heart”. Go here for the overview.

SAINT X by Alexis Schaitkin – released 2/18
“Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears on the last night of their family vacation at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X. Several days later, Alison’s body is found in a remote spot on a nearby cay, and two local men – employees at the resort – are arrested”. Go here for the overview.

ALL THE WAYS WE SAID GOODBYE by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White – released 1/14
“The New York Times bestselling authors of The Glass Ocean and The Forgotten Room return with a glorious historical adventure that moves from the dark days of two World Wars to the turbulent years of the 1960s, in which three women with bruised hearts find refuge at Paris’ legendary Ritz hotel”. Go here for the overview.

LADY CLEMENTINE by Marie Benedict – released 1/7
“New from Marie Benedict, the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room! An incredible novel that focuses on one of the people who had the most influence during World War I and World War II: Clementine Churchill”. Go here for the overview.

THE JANES by Louisa Luna – released 1/21
“On the outskirts of San Diego, the bodies of two young women are discovered. They have no names, no IDs, and no family looking for them”. (this is book #2 in a series but can be read alone without #1). Go here for the overview.

FOLLOW ME TO GROUND by Sue Rainsford – released 1/21
“A haunted, surreal debut novel about an otherworldly young woman, her father, and her lover that culminates in a shocking moment of betrayal—one that upends our understanding of power, predation, and agency”. Go here for the overview.

 EVERYWHERE YOU DON’T BELONG by Gabriel Bump – released 2/4
“In this alternately witty and heartbreaking debut novel, Gabriel Bump gives us an unforgettable protagonist, Claude McKay Love. Claude isn’t dangerous or brilliant—he’s an average kid coping with abandonment, violence, riots, failed love, and societal pressures as he steers his way past the signposts of youth: childhood friendships, basketball tryouts, first love, first heartbreak, picking a college, moving away from home”. Go here for the overview.

MY DARK VANESSA by Kate Elizabeth Russell – released 3/10
“Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer”. Go here for the overview.

AFTERLIFE by Julia Alvarez – released 4/7
“Afterlife is a compact, nimble, and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust, it asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including—maybe especially—members of our human family?”. Go here for the overview.

GODSHOT by Chelsea Bieker – released 4/7
“A truly epic journey through girlhood, divinity, and the blood that binds and divides us, it is a feminist magnum opus of this, or any, time”. Go here for the overview.

ALL ADULTS HERE by Emma Straub – released 5/5
“When Astrid Strick witnesses a school bus accident in the center of town, it jostles loose a repressed memory from her young parenting days decades earlier. Suddenly, Astrid realizes she was not quite the parent she thought she’d been to her three, now-grown children. But to what consequence?”. Go here for the overview.

ALL MY MOTHER’S LOVERS by Ilana Masad – released 5/26
“When Maggie’s mom, Iris, dies in a car crash, Maggie returns home only to discover a withdrawn dad, an angry brother, and, along with Iris’s will, five sealed envelopes, each addressed to a mysterious man she’s never heard of”. Go here for the overview.