9 June releases you need to read this month (Maggie Steifvater, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ashley Poston and more!)

June is my birthday month so I am totally unbiased in my belief that it is also the best month. The absolute best. A coincidence that some of the best and biggest authors writing at the moment are releasing new novels in June, some after years of no releases? I think not. It’s because June is the best month.

Like all months when I do these round-ups of new releases, some of these titles are most anticipated books for me, some are ones I’m merely curious about, and some are ones that I think you guys might want to know about. Of course, it’s not a complete list either, and as always, these are UK dates and correct at the time of writing (18 May).

‘The Listeners’ by Maggie Stiefvater (3rd June)

The Avallon Hotel offers unrivalled luxury in the wild Appalachian Mountains, its curative sweetwater washing away the troubles of high society. June 'Hoss' Hudson, a local girl turned general manager, has known its power since she first stepped through the century-old doors - and into the fold of the Gilfoyle family, the hotel's aristocratic owners.

But in 1942, the real world intrudes. War comes to the Avallon dressed in fine furs and government suits. Under the State Department's watchful eye, the Gilfoyle heir welcomes three hundred enemy diplomats and Nazi sympathisers. And June must play host.

As dark alliances and unexpected desires crack the Avallon's polished veneer, not every guest is who they seem. Not least Agent Tucker Minnick, listening for secrets through the hotel walls, whose coal tattoo threatens to betray his past and undo June. And more troubling is the secret she has guarded for years - that the mountain waters can harm as much as heal...

I adore Maggie Stiefvater and have since I first read ‘Shiver’ back in 2016 (I did have to check Goodreads, my memory really isn’t that great!) but I’m nervous about this one. It’s a historical novel set in wartime, two things that I usually actively avoid, but I trust Maggie and I’m tentatively excited for her to make me love a historical war novel.

‘The Ground That Devours Us’ by Kalla Harris (3rd June)

The world ended ten years ago.

Vampires showed up, took over, and turned the whole planet into their personal all-you-can-drink buffet. The president? Bloodsucker. The government? Bloodsuckers. My social life? Absolutely nonexistent.

But hey, at least I had one thing going for me—slayer training. My twin sister, Ripley, and I were about to go pro, officially joining the ranks of the last people on earth who actually do something about the whole “undead overlords” situation.

And then X had to show up. The vampire boogeyman. The worst of the worst. And instead of killing Ripley, like any decent monster would, he turned her. Now she’s technically a vamp, but something tells me my sister is still in there. Which means I can’t slay her.

What can I do? Break every rule. Lie to my friends. Strike a deal with the most dangerous vampire on the planet: X will protect Ripley from everyone else who wants her dead—like, really dead—until I can snag the cure for vampirism. The catch? Risking my own head to help him free his good-for-nothing BFF from the very slayers who taught me everything.

If I want Ripley back, I’m going to have to play nice with the thing that ruined my life. And the worst part? I think he’s enjoying this.

Vampires? Check. End of the world? Check. Sisters fighting for each other? Check. I just need it okay? It sounds like so much fun, and I really love the cover too!

‘Kill Creatures’ by Rory Power (5th June)

Last summer, Nan's three best friends disappeared into Saltcedar Canyon.

She's spent the year since grieving their loss and avoiding questions about what happened that night. Now, on the anniversary, she's ready to say goodbye, and so are the girls' families, who have reconvened to hold a memorial. But their vigil is interrupted by the shocking return of one of the missing girls alive. Everybody is overjoyed. Everybody, that is, except Nan, who was pretty sure they were dead.

After all, she's the one who killed them.

I loved ‘Wilder Girls’ and the mysteries, post-apocalyptic, body horror vibes mixed in with girlhood and I keep meaning to read their other releases and keep missing them! This, though, sounds right up my street so I definitely need to get my hands on it.

‘Atmosphere’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid (5th June)

In the summer of 1980, astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin begins training to be an astronaut at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond; mission specialists John Griffin and Lydia Danes; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer. As the new astronauts prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined and begins to question everything she believes about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

I love space, I’ve loved a bunch of TJR’s books, I love romance. ‘Atmopshere’ feels like it could put me back into TJR adoration after ‘Carrie Sotto’ didn’t do it for me. I’m really, really excited, and mentally preparing myself for the epic wait for the audiobook at my library…

‘Skipshock’ by Caroline O’Donoghue (5th June)

Set in a universe where time is a resource – coveted and exploited, the key to power and privilege – comes a dazzlingly inventive sci-fi fantasy romance by a bestselling Irish author.

Margo is on a train to a new boarding school when she slips into another dimension, passing from the height of Irish summer into the chill of an alien winter, from a 24-hour day to one that begins and ends in just six hours. From a stranger on the train – a travelling salesman by the name of Moon – she learns that New Davia is part of a world scarred by uprisings, travel bans and world sealings. Power is determined by time – who has it, who doesn’t, and who has the freedom to travel between time zones.

Can Margo find a way to get back home – or will she choose to stay in a world where her teenagehood is slipping away faster than ever before, but where she may have found the only person with whom she would choose to spend eternity?

I’m a big fan of Caroline O’Donoghue - her books, her podcast, her Instagram stories - so I was super excited when she announced an adult SFF novel having loved her YA fantasy trilogy. The early reviews of this have been absolutely glowing and I’m so ready.

‘Ordinary Love’ by Marie Rutkoski (12th June, ebook 10th June)

There's no such thing as an ordinary love story

When Emily catches sight of Gennifer Hall at a party, she is transported back to the moment they fell in love as teenagers. Their connection was electric, and they thought it was forever.

Twenty years later, Gen is an Olympic runner, the career she strived for, while Emily is living a picture-perfect life: Manhattan townhouse, two young children and a wealthy husband, Jack. But Jack's controlling behaviour is spiralling, and Emily has lost sight of who she once was.

Now, despite Emily's fracturing marriage and the pressures of Gen's career, they are drawn back together by a magnetic attraction. After years of heartbreak, missed chances and misunderstandings, will they finally get a second chance at first love?

‘Ordinary Love’ is a huge pivot from Rutkoski’s backlist of YA dystopia and fantasy and I’m so curious to see her writing translated into contemporary adult fiction. I love a good second chance romance and I already know I love her writing (The Winner’s Trilogy remains a standout of mid-2010s dystopia IMO) so I think this is going to be a winner.

‘Sounds Like Love’ by Ashley Poston (17th June)

Joni Lark wants to create the melodies that get stuck in your head…and your heart.

Her hometown has always given her surf, sand, and inspiration. But when her parents decide to close the family music venue, Joni’s life begins to fall off key – she couldn’t possibly write another song. Until a melody comes to her, half-formed, and with an imagined voice that she can’t forget.

But when the very real, very aggravating man behind the voice shows up in Vienna Shores – Joni can no longer deny their inexplicable telepathic connection.

To get out of each other’s heads, they’ll have to finish the song haunting them both. But there’s just one problem – they can’t agree on anything – and if they don’t change their tune, it might just end in heartbreak first…

I won’t lie to you, I don’t even really care what Ashley Poston’s books are about, I’m going to read them anyway.

‘The Original’ by Nell Stevens (19th June)

‘There was a painting my family set on fire. It burned to ashes, and then it came back.’

Oxfordshire, 1899. Grace Inderwick grows up on the peripheries of a once-great household, an unwanted guest in her uncle’s home. She has unusual skills and unusual predilections: for painting, though faces elude her; for lurking in the shadows; for other girls.
 
Then a letter arrives, postmarked Saint Helena. After years missing at sea, Grace’s cousin Charles is ready to come home. When Charles returns, unrecognisable and uncanny, a rift emerges between those who claim he is an imposter and Grace’s aunt, who insists he is her son. And Grace, whose intimate knowledge of forgeries is her own closely-guarded secret, must decide who and what to believe in, and what kind of life she wants to live.

I know I said earlier than I avoid historical fiction like the plague, but Nell Stevens is an exception. I adored ‘Briefly, A Delicious Life’ and her bibliomemoirs before that, so I already know I trust her to carry me through the past.

‘Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil’ by Oliver Darkshire (19th June)

In a tiny, miserable farm on the edge of the tiny, miserable village of East Grasby, Isabella Nagg is trying to get on with her equally tiny and miserable existence. Dividing her time between enduring her feckless husband, inadequately caring for the farm's strange collection of animals, cooking up 'scrunge', and crooning over her treasured pot of basil, Isabella can't help but think that there might be something more to life. So, while she's initially aghast when Mr. Nagg comes home with a spell book purloined from the local wizard, she soon starts to think: what harm could a little magic do?

As Isabella embarks on a journey of self-discovery with a grouchy cat-like companion, Darkshire's imagination runs wild, plunging readers into a delightfully deranged world full of enchantment, folklore, and an entrepreneurial villain running a magical Ponzi scheme.

Cosy, full of wit and Pratchett-ian footnotes, Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil is a book for those who can't help but find magic even in the oddest and most baffling circumstances; a story about claiming a new life and finding oneself - and also goblins, capitalism, and sorcery.

Weirdly, another book by an author of a bibliomemoir that I loved - ‘Once Upon a Tome’ - and this sounds delightfully strange and cosy.

What are you excited for in June?

Written by Sophie