Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For June, we’re looking at a compelling read set in 1990s Hawaii, closed-door Edwardian romance, contemporary romance inspired by Jane Austen, gripping suspense about a disappearing husband, two entertaining mysteries, literary folklore not-vampire historical horror, domestic suspense about inconvenient exes, and a plethora of nonfiction.
If you enjoy thoughtful women’s fiction:
Sara Ackerman’s The Shark House (2026)*
A marine biologist is summoned to investigate a number of shark attacks in 1998 Hawaii, and in the process, she unlocks her own deeply held trauma and grief. This is a beach read that would not be out of place in a book club. Born and raised in Hawaii, Ackerman excels at depicting the scenery and culture, and she presents well-drawn characters with a thoughtful environmental message in the process.
Recommended for fans of Patti Callahan Henry.
*Ebook also available on Hoopla.
If you love romance:
Chelsea Bobulski’s A Deal with a Debutante (2026)**
The first book in a projected series, it introduces Calliope Hart, an American heiress who is a big hit when she makes her social debut in Edwardian England. Despite her success, Calliope has no interest in the scene and can’t wait to return home. English earl Edward Chase sees her fortune as the answer to his own misfortune, though, and offers her a tantalizing deal–a personalized tour of the best of London in exchange for her considering his proposal. Calliope reluctantly accepts, and you can guess where this is headed. A Deal with a Debutante is a closed-door historical romance with a strong comedic element to it, so it is perfect for readers who like rom coms but not spicy content.
Recommended for fans of Evie Dunmore and Martha Waters.
**Ebook and audiobook also available on Hoopla.
Carolyn Miller’s Not Exactly Mr. Darcy (2025)
Also the start of a series, Pride and Prejudice is transplanted to a 21st century setting in this Christian romance. Olivia Bennett has left her job to care for her grandmother in her small English village. She occasionally also works at the local manor house for extra money, where she encounters the gruff gardener Liam Browne. Over time, she realizes he has hidden layers. Complications of the romantic variety ensue.
Recommended for fans of Pepper Basham, Julie Klassen, Carrie Turansky, and Sarah E. Ladd.
If you like suspense:
Rose Walsh’s The One Day You Were My Husband (2026)
In 2010, Carrie had her dream wedding day on a beach in Thailand with the love of her life Johan, whom she met a few months earlier. Everything is going perfectly until the festivities are interrupted by armed gunmen who take Johan away. The man she thought she knew refuses to speak to her, and she has to rebuild her life without him. Twelve years later, Carrie is a married mother, but when she finds out Johan has been released from prison, she can’t resist trying to finally get some answers about what happened that night on the beach.
Recommended for fans of Freida McFadden.
If you prefer mysteries:
Evelyn Clarke’s The Ending Writes Itself (2026)
If you like jaunty high-concept whodunits, try this new book from Evelyn Clarke, the nom de plume of writing team V.E. Schwab and Cat Clarke, who are both authors in their own right as well. Six struggling writers are invited to the remote Scottish island estate of mysterious, reclusive author Arthur Fletch. Once they arrive, they’re informed that Fletch is dead and they have 72 hours to write the last chapter and complete his final manuscript. The person who generates the best results will, of course, win but also have the chance to jump-start their career. What could possibly go wrong?
Recommended for fans of Agatha Christie, Beatriz Williams’s The Author’s Guide to Murder, and R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface.
Josi S. Kilpack’s Someone Is After LuLu Dupree (2025)***
If you like fun mysteries with a strong action component in them, you might enjoy this book, which is the first in a new series. Kilpack is best known for her historical romances, but this time, she is writing with a modern setting. LuLu has no memory of her past life after surviving a car wreck that gave her a traumatic brain injury. Rather than trying to relearn a life she didn’t remember, she decided to move to Sedona, Arizona, and start a new life over. It has worked well for her over the years, but now, someone is trying to kill her, and she will have to piece together the past she forgot if she wants to get out of this situation alive.
Recommended for fans of Richard Osman.
***Ebook and audiobook also available on Hoopla.
If you like unusual reads:
Anna Kovatcheva’s She Made Herself a Monster (2026)
To outward appearances, Yana is a professional vampire hunter, but really, she’s just a con artist. Nevertheless, she sees this as a vocation and even an honorable one, though it relies on less-than-honorable methods. And the little village of Koprivci needs all the help it can get. The villagers believe it to be cursed and blame all their misfortunes on the unfortunate Anka. But Yana finds Anka intriguing and also pities her and the strange, dysfunctional situation she lives in. Complications ensue.
Thanks to Julie for ordering this book after I requested it! This book blends gothic folklore horror vibes, historical fiction (set in 19th century Bulgaria), and feminist literary sensibilities, and it is a fascinating read with some really interesting, layered characters. I do feel a duty to inform you that if you are reading it hoping for actual vampires, you should look elsewhere. The monsters here are too human and perhaps all the more frightening because of it.
Recommended for fans of Ottessa Moshfegh’s Lapvona, Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, and Naomi Novik’s Uprooted and Spinning Silver.
If you need an audiobook:
Leodora Darlington’s The Exes (2026)
Natalie believes she has simple relationship goals. She just wants to meet “the one.” In the past, she has picked a string of duds, and her ex-boyfriends have the disconcerting habit of being disappointing and then dropping dead. She thinks she finally has a winner in her husband James, but he may not be all he seems. Will he end up dead too? Did she kill the others or is something else at work? You’ll have to listen to it to find out.
Recommended for fans of B.A. Paris’s When I Kill You.
If you love nonfiction:
Kevin Hazzard’s No One’s Coming: The Rogue Heroes Our Government Turns to When There’s Nowhere Else to Turn (2026)
Sadly, this is now a rather timely book again, but it chronicles the 2014 Ebola outbreak and particularly the effort to evacuate 2 sick Americans successfully and safely from Africa to the United States. As medical professionals debated what to do for the sick volunteers, they knew that only one group could do what seemed impossible–Phoenix Air. A ragtag group of pilots, physicians, and engineers, Phoenix Air is known internationally as the people you call when nobody else will respond.
Recommended for fans of gripping medical nonfiction.
Megan Kate Nelson’s The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier (2026)
If you enjoy learning about the American West, you might enjoy this book from acclaimed Western historian Megan Kate Nelson. In it, she explores the diversity of the 19th century West through a range of fascinating figures, spanning Shoshone Lewis and Clark guide Sacajawea to biracial fur trapper Jim Beckwourth to Santa Fe saloon owner María Gertrudis Barceló to aspiring Wyoming rancher Ella Watson to Chinese pioneer Polly Bemis.
Recommended for fans of Paul Andrew Hutton, Peter Cozzens, and Pekka Hämäläinen.
John U. Bacon’s The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald (2025)****
If you prefer more recent history, check this one out about the 1975 sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior during a horrific storm. The tragedy was immortalized in Gordon Lightfoot’s famous ballad, but the journalist who wrote this book interviewed over 100 people connected to the sinking to explore exactly what happened that fateful night.
Recommended for fans of Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea; David Grann’s The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder; Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the True Edge of Space; Erik Larson’s Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, and Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember: The Classic Account of the Final Hours of the Titanic.
****Audiobook also available on OverDrive.
If you enjoy this book, be sure to check out Bacon’s other excellent work on famous accidents. He wrote about the infamous 1917 Mont-Blanc explosion that devastated Halifax, Canada, in The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism. We have it in the system as an ebook on OverDrive.
Beverly Gage’s This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip through U.S. History (2026)
We’ll be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States next month, and this book is one way to mark the occasion. Written by a Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian, it chronicles a road trip that takes in significant places from throughout American history, including Independence Hall, Mount Vernon, and Los Alamos.
Recommended for fans of Nathaniel Philbrick’s Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy.
Rick Atkinson’s The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 (2025)*****
If you prefer historical nonfiction about the American Revolution as a way to mark the Semiquincentennial, then try this one, the second in a planned trilogy from military historian Rick Atkinson. It picks up nearly 2 years into the war, with Washington preparing to winter at Valley Forge and includes the battles of Brandywine, Saratoga, and Charleston. It also chronicles Benjamin Franklin’s diplomatic efforts in France at the same time.
Recommended for fans of David McCullough’s 1776, Ron Chernow’s Washington, and Joseph J. Ellis’s The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773-1783.
*****Ebook and audiobook also available on OverDrive.
We also have the first book in the series in the system. The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 covers the first critical twenty-one months of the Revolution, from early fighting at Lexington and Concord through Trenton and Princeton.
What’s your favorite new-ish books? What books are you buzzing about for 2026? Have you read any of these books? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on any of these items or to place them on hold.
Berryville Book Buzz 