December 2026 New Releases

 

 

 

 


 

December 1st
My Unfamiliar by Mara Rutherford
(Wednesday Books)
Perfect for fans of Allison Saft and Catherine Bakewell, a grumpy mage and a familiar matchmaker navigate their surprising connection in Mara Rutherford's newest cozy fantasy novel.

Winslow Green is known far and wide for her ability to match mages with the perfect animal familiar. Though she doesn't possess any magic, she has a knack for knowing what her customers need, even if they can't see if themselves.

Still grieving the tragic death of his last familiar, Bastian Triplehorn reluctantly seeks Winnie's aid in finding a new partner. She's determined to live up to her reputation, despite Bastian's excessive grumpiness.
Until the inexplicable happens: Bastian sparks a familiar bond with Winnie instead.

Impossible to deny, the two agree to help each other until they can solve the mystery of their connection. As Bastian and Winnie train for a royal mage competition that could solve all their problems-or ruin their lives forever-Winnie gets a taste of what it's like to have magic herself. And Bastian discovers that all of these unfamiliar feelings are a little like magic, too.


Words Spoken True by Anne Broyles
(Scholastic)
Award-winning author Anne Broyles weaves the lyrical story of fourteen-year-old Jane Bushyhead and her family's forced removal, upon threat of death, from their home in the ancestral Cherokee Nation. Based on a true story, this evocative, compelling account of the pain and hardships endured, as well as the love and courage summoned by the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears, is equal measures heartbreaking and hopeful.

Jane Bushyhead dreams of one day becoming a teacher. But everything changes when she and her family are forced from their ancestral Cherokee homeland by US soldiers at gunpoint. After months of imprisonment and uncertainty, Jane and her people are then ordered to march eight hundred miles to "Indian Territory" (modern-day Oklahoma) during one of the worst winters of the 19th century.It's a grueling journey--many of the Cherokee people are barefoot and unprepared for the freezing weather - and all go hungry as supplies dwindle and sickness abounds. Yet, Jane finds romance with a young man who has been adopted by the Cherokees and comfort within the loving embrace of her family.

As the dangerous journey unfolds, and Jane finds purpose in teaching and recording the stories of her people, she will be forced to bear witness as they perish from starvation, disease, and deadly hazards of the trail. Soon, Jane will have to face an impossible choice between love and her own family.

Award-winning author and enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, Anne Broyles brings the Trail of Tears to desperate, vivid life in this beautiful story about courage, community, memory, and love.

Vanishing Beauties by Becca Fitzpatrick (Simon and Schuster)
From the New York Times  bestselling author of the Hush, Hush saga, a dark urban romantasy that questions the true cost of beauty.

A teen beauty queen has vanished from Tea Kettle Island, and all evidence points to the girl’s ex-boyfriend, Sascha Sinner.

With a bounty out on Sascha’s head, seventeen-year-old Bunny decides to go after it – and him. But Sascha insists he didn’t do it, and wants Bunny’s help to prove his innocence. 

Her search for the truth takes her to the very edge of the island, into its darkly magical past, revealing secrets the town has tried to push down. There are devilish creatures haunting the woods, a handsome man at the centre of a cult-like following, and a hidden history of missing girls – a history that includes Bunny’s own mother.

Can Bunny figure out who, or what, is taking the girls of Tea Kettle Island, before she is lost herself? 

Rising Thunder by Neal Shusterman
(Simon and Schuster)
Discover Thunderhead’s origin—the fragile moment before the world changes forever and the hidden forces that set the storm in motion—in this long-awaited prequel to the New York Times bestselling and Printz Honor–winning Arc of a Scythe series by Neal Shusterman.

And of course, as every school child knows, December 2042 marks the end of the Age of Mortality.

What no one has ever fully understood is how the world reached that moment.

As death begins to seem optional, humanity looks for ways to bend the rules of existence. Twi-life centers begin storing the nearly-deceased, while eco-nihilists destroy civilization’s icons and threaten to end the human race entirely. Public opinion fractures. Systems strain. The world feels…unstable.

Behind the scenes, two powerful and diametrically opposed artificial intelligences set out to optimize, stabilize, and protect—each with its own idea of what that means. But in a world already tipping toward transformation, the consequences could be catastrophic.

Meanwhile, in an obscure online chatroom, a small group of teenagers from around the globe debate both the glorious and the terrifying prospects of the future, never realizing that they stand on a very literal cutting edge—and that their conversations, their choices, their very existence matter far more than they realize.

Because when humanity stands on the brink of immortality, someone must decide what survives…and what must be cut away.

December 8th

Teach Me to Prey by Jenni Howell
(Roaring Brook Press)
One heart for another. One life for another. And only her soul to pay.

Two years ago, Tara Corbane made a deal with a demon. Before each lunar eclipse, she must make a trade—a lover's heart offered as sacrifice to save her sister's. And with each offering, Tara fears she's becoming more and more like Thorn, the twisted but tantalizing demon she's sworn to hate.

Thirty days before the next eclipse, Tara heads to New Orleans, where her newest target awaits. But Rian Connach, the handsome heir to a real estate empire, is nothing like the others. He's single, for starters, and isn't out for love but vengeance. He's hot on the trail of the serial killer he blames for the death of his girlfriend. Whose heart was ripped out by none other than Tara herself.

As the eclipse draws near, Tara finds herself trapped in a game of cat-and-mouse. To save her own skin, she teams up with the broken and beguiling boy hunting her, all the while fighting her feelings for the demon whose secrets threaten everything she's ever believed about him, and herself. With Rian getting closer and closer to learning the truth, and Thorn warning of the gruesome consequences to come if Tara doesn't fulfill their bargain, time is running out to answer the ultimate

Is Tara the predator, or the prey?

Maker of Gods by Maria Z. Medina
(Wednesday Books)
In the swashbuckling finale to the Mistress of Bones duology, perfect for fans of The Bone Shard Daughter and Six of Crows, a necromancer and the God of Death must outwit the Gods themselves—or end the world trying

Necromancer Azul del Arroyo only wanted one thing: to steal her sister back from Death by reclaiming her sister's bones. But after inadvertently uncovering a plot to reawaken the gods and suffering a great loss, she feels further from her goal than ever.

In exchange for a chance to save her sister, Azul's only choice is to work together with Death, now in Enjul's body, to uncover an underground group set on finding the rest of the gods in the blood-red city of Bremón. And with his mysterious motivations, silver tongue, and magnetic interest in Azul, Death does not make it easy.

Determined to get revenge on the Faceless Witch, Nereida, the Count, and Esparza also find their way to Bremón to join Azul, only to discover that Death is not the only god who has already awakened...and the rest of the gods are not as merciful.

Lies, games, and gods collide in Maria Z. Medina's masterful follow-up to Mistress of Bones, where the only thing stronger than the divine is human will.

December 22nd
Drop Dead Handsome by Matthew Hubbard (Delacorte Romance) - moved from October 2026.

Alison Romig at Delacorte Romance has bought Matthew Hubbard's Drop Dead Handsome, about an outspoken senior who enters his high school's "Miss Spirit" pageant for his college essay, only to face sabotage. With the help of the nerdy but adorable student government president, he sets out to find the guilt while receiving a crash course in the pageantry of first love. Publication is planned for fall 2026; Katie Shea Boutillier at Donald Maas Literary Agency sold world English and audio rights.









December 31st

A Storm of Swallows by S.F. Williamson (HarperCollins)
- not yet added to Goodreads, moved from 2027. Title and release date announced on author instagram.


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