Today I’m sharing some of the August 2026 books on my radar. These are books that are releasing in August that I’m excited about, interested in reading, or just wanting to share with others. This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking on my link, I may receive a small commission.
The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian (8/4) – From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Midwives and The Flight Attendant: When a young woman, a golf prodigy, kills a caddy with a stray ball at the country club, the investigation of this freak accident reveals a dark and shocking tale of secret affairs, predatory men, and a teenager on trial.
1978: It is the first Thursday in August and temperatures are flirting with ninety when Mira Winston, eighteen years old, drives a golf ball from her tee toward the practice net near the clubhouse and caddy shack. The golf ball, weighing 1.6 ounces, tears through the net, traveling 150 miles per hour, and slams, with sickening force, into the temple of a high school junior named Kenny Foster, rupturing an artery and unleashing a torrent of blood. Kenny brings his hand to the side of his head, then topples onto his side. He’s dead before the ambulance even arrives.
In the wake of this terrible accident—and everyone, at first, agrees it was an accident—Mira looks for comfort in all the wrong places: In her lover, Theo Catton, a married man three decades her senior. In her mother, a well-kept woman with secrets of her own. In the dead caddy’s little sisters, girls bewildered by grief. But when the investigators look more closely at the torn net, when a detective recalls Mira’s history of recklessness, and when Kenny’s father spies Mira with her married lover, the affluent and mannered community turns on this once-promising young woman. A gripping story that takes the reader from the sun-soaked greens of a tony Westchester country club to the fluorescent-lit stand of a county courtroom, The Amateur asks: What happens when one small moment—a swing, a ball, a piece of string—changes the course of an entire life?
The Time Traveler’s Wife Collector’s Edition by Audrey Niffenegger (8/11) – The stunning new collector’s edition of the beloved modern classic that has captivated readers worldwide—now with gorgeous sprayed edges, four color endpapers, and never-been-seen bonus material.
Henry DeTamble is a dashing, adventurous librarian who travels involuntarily through time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. Clare Abshire is an artist whose life moves through a natural sequential course. This is the celebrated and timeless tale of their love. Henry and Clare’s passionate affair is built and endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love.
You’ll Love It Here by Natalie Sue (8/11) – NATALIE SUE’S WRITING IS: “For someone who needs a good laugh.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid • “A true delight.”—Glamour • “Wickedly funny.”—People • “Surprisingly sweet and totally made my day.”—Shelby Van Pelt • “So good and also so unexpected.”—Julia Quin
From the bestselling author of I Hope This Finds You Well comes a sharply funny, surprisingly tender novel about a woman stuck in place, her nosy neighbors, and the journey to find where she belongs—with all the heart of a grown-up The Breakfast Club.
Mona thought her living situation was bad… but the real mess is just beginning.
One day is all it takes for Mona’s life to implode. After years of climbing at her marketing firm, she was supposed to be getting promoted and finally moving out of her crumbling apartment building. Instead, she’s jobless, aimless, and still stuck in a space barely big enough for a yoga mat.
Then her eccentric landlady takes a tumble and asks Mona to step in as the building’s reluctant super. The deal is simple: help prep the place for sale, and she can secure the upgrade she’s been chasing. But that’s easier said than done when the neighbors treat “boundaries” as optional. There’s the shouting couple, the mysterious shut-in, a possible panty thief in the laundry room—and Sami, the relentlessly cheerful diner owner who keeps showing up with coffee and unsolicited ideas about community. As Mona gets pulled deeper into the building’s chaos—and closer to the people inside it—she’s forced to confront what, and who, she’s really been trying to outrun. Sometimes, the place you’re desperate to leave is the one that finally shows you who you are.
Wise, heartfelt, and laugh-out-loud funny, Natalie Sue’s sophomore novel is a story about burning out, starting over, and finding your people in the most unexpected places—perfect for fans of The Wedding People and Anxious People.
The Matchmaker’s Cottage by Kat Sloane (8/11) – A cozy fall romance wrapped in small-town charm reunites the owner of a bed-and-breakfast with her childhood sweetheart for a celebrity matchmaking scheme which has them both seeing stars.
Julia Schaeffer might run the most romantic little bed-and-breakfast in Upstate New York, but as far as that infuriating Ethan Duchamp is concerned, this older, wiser Julia has a strict “no vacancy” policy. Sure, she’s teetering on the edge of a financial cliff, and his half-baked plan to pair up his celebrity clients at her inn will undoubtedly be good for business…but how much forced proximity with the man who abandoned her is she supposed to take?
Ethan needs this to work. The dreamy, autumnal—and blissfully secluded—cottage from his childhood summers is the ideal setting for playing matchmaker to Hollywood’s next power couple. It’s the only way to save his PR career from the tabloid toilet. He knew that the inn and Julia’s warm, comforting homemade touch would inspire real feelings—he just didn’t expect them to be his. Again.
But as old wounds reopen, and their connection rekindles, Julia and Ethan are forced to confront the truths they’ve both tried to bury. In a town where nothing stays hidden for long, they’ll have to decide if they can rebuild what was lost—or if their second chance will be derailed by scars that have yet to heal.
Let’s Kiss and Tell by Joss Richards (8/11) – “Intimate, tender, and impossibly hot. This book sizzles!”—Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Golden Summer
A sex columnist and a news reporter realize a fake relationship can help them both professionally and personally—but they aren’t prepared for the real feelings that start to develop beyond the headlines—from the bestselling author of It’s Different This Time.
Lucy Reid is a sex columnist whose views on relationships aren’t exactly optimistic. She empowers readers to embrace their sexuality and challenge the idea that you need a partner to be happy—until her editor points out their audience is mostly coupled up . . . and maybe it’s time for something (or someone) new. To buy herself time, Lucy impulsively claims she’s started a new relationship she can write about. Enter Marshall Oakley.
Marshall is the new senior news writer at Lucy’s company. When they meet at a work event, he reveals his ex of nine years is getting married, and he needs a plus-one to keep his family off his back. They agree to fake date until the wedding—Lucy can write about finding “the one” before proving relationships don’t solve everything when they “break up”, and Marshall gets a no-strings date to convince his friends, family, and ex he’s moved on.
But as they spend more time together, the lines blur and each begins to reevaluate their views on love. As fear gives way to misunderstandings, can they find the courage to rewrite their story with a happily ever after?
Experiments in Offline Dating by Kat Mackenzie (8/25) – A sharp-witted enemies-to-lovers romcom about a podcaster who embarks on a matchmaking tour of Ireland and gets trapped with a grump who pushes all of her buttons.
Maya Davis is chronically terrible at dating. So much so that she’s turned her catastrophic dating experiments into a full-time job. Hellbent on dating “offline” for her second podcast season, Maya travels to Ireland to meet the world-renowned local matchmaker, and gets set up on a slew of horribly funny meet-ups that are exactly the type of comedy gold she was looking for.
At the town’s annual Matchmaking Festival, Maya wins a blind date with a surly local sheep farmer. But while she’s had every bad date in the book, nothing could have prepared her for the apocalyptic, full-body-cringe that is the worst date of her life!
All she wants to do is forget it ever happened, but when the mischievous matchmaker talks her into a whirlwind dating adventure, he fails to mention that it’s with the one person in Ireland that she just can’t stand – her blind date catastrophe!
Trapped together, Maya and Tadhg journey across picturesque landscapes and green countryside until their constant verbal sparring feels increasingly like chemistry. And the more time they spend together, the more Maya begins to wonder if perhaps she’s not so catastrophic at love after all.
Brimming with humor and delicious tension, this heartfelt travel romance is the perfect escape!
Will you add any of these to your to be read list?
