Popular Book Releases: May 2026

By Graeme McGawApr 30th, 2026

May is always a fun month for book releases.

With Summer around the corner, we’ve got quite a few books that fall perfectly into that ‘Beach Read’ category.

The most anticipated book this month is The Divorce by Freida McFadden. This standalone thriller is on the most users’ TBRs this month, by a wide margin.

The second most anticipated is 26 Beauties, the 26th novel in the Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson.

Rounding out the Top 5, we have Ironwood by Michael Connelly, The Final Target by Nora Roberts, and The Last Mandarin by Louise Penny, co-authored with Mellissa Fung.

Other notable books include new standalones from Carley Fortune, Gillian McAllister and Debbie Macomber.

And there’s a lot of excitement over A Murder in Hollywood, an unpublished novel by Michael Crichton, written back in 1973.

Here are the most popular new book releases this month, based on the most-followed authors on Book Notification:

Author	Title	Series	Date
Neva Altaj	Frozen Heart	Perfectly Imperfect #12	May. 30th
Kelley Armstrong	An Ordinary Sort of Evil	Rip Through Time #8	May. 19th
Tessa Bailey	S'more of You	Summer Lovin' Collection #1	May. 26th
Olivie Blake	Clara & the Devil, Volume 1	Clara & the Devil #1	May. 5th
Carolyn Brown	Paint Me Happy	Novella	May. 5th
Grace Burrowes	A Gentleman of Modest Ambitions	Lord Julian Mysteries #12	May. 29th
Jim Butcher	Out Law	Novella	May. 5th
Jack Carr	The Fourth Option	The Fourth Option #1	May. 12th
Katherine Center	The Shippers	Standalone	May. 19th
Michael Connelly	Ironwood	Detective Stilwell #2	May. 19th
Patricia Cornwell	True Crime	Non-Fiction	May. 5th
Michael Crichton	A Murder in Hollywood	Standalone	May. 5th
Matt Dinniman	A Parade of Horribles	Dungeon Crawler Carl #8	May. 12th
Matt Dinniman	Dungeon Crawler Carl: Graphic Novel Vol. 1	Graphic Novel	May. 19th
Alex Finlay	The Anniversary	Standalone	May. 12th
Carley Fortune	Our Perfect Storm	Standalone	May. 5th
Matt Haig	The Midnight Train	Standalone	May. 26th
Michelle Heard	Possessive Enemy	Kings of Mafia #8	May. 4th
Michelle Heard	Vicious Devil	Kings of Mafia #9	May. 28th
Rachel Howzell Hall	Mist and Malice	Haven Thriller #2	May. 19th
Craig Johnson	The Brothers McKay	Walt Longmire #27	May. 26th
Sadie Kincaid	Made	Manhattan Ruthless #5	May. 28th
Ann Leckie	Radiant Star	Imperial Radch #5	May. 12th
Melinda Leigh	You Can Tell Me	Olivia Cruz #1	May. 12th
Stuart MacBride	Blood, Rust, and Steel	Roberta Steel #2	May. 21st
Debbie Macomber	Rainy Day Meet Cute	Standalone	May. 5th
Gillian McAllister	Caller Unknown	Standalone	May. 5th
Freida McFadden	The Divorce	Standalone	May. 26th
Seanan McGuire	Velveteen vs. The Consequences of Her Actions	Velveteen #5	May. 31st
Jenn McKinlay	The Summer Share	Standalone	May. 26th
Walter Mosley	Ghalen	Standalone	May. 26th
Sarah A. Parker	The Ballad of Falling Dragons	The Moonfall #2	May. 19th
James Patterson	26 Beauties	Women's Murder Club #26	May. 4th
Louise Penny	The Last Mandarin	Standalone	May. 12th
Blake Pierce	In Her Hands	Jenna Graves Suspense Thriller #12	May. 4th
Blake Pierce	Outside Humanity	Isla Rivers FBI Suspense Thriller #10	May. 8th
Blake Pierce	Say No More	Alison Payne Suspense Thriller #10	May. 11th
Blake Pierce	Go Silent	Kate Valentine #6	May. 13th
Blake Pierce	Forever Dark	Selena Raven FBI Suspense Thriller #1	May. 15th
Blake Pierce	Wrong Choice	Miles Sterling FBI Suspense Thriller #7	May. 16th
Blake Pierce	So Sinister	Faith Bold #31	May. 30th
Meghan Quinn	Rules for the Summer	Standalone	May. 5th
Nora Roberts	The Final Target	Standalone	May. 26th
Veronica Roth	Seek the Traitor's Son	The Burning Empire #1	May. 12th
L.T. Ryan	Cold Witness	Avril Dahl #4	May. 5th
L.T. Ryan	Collateral	Jane Cannon #2	May. 19th
L.T. Ryan	Silver Bullet	Stella LaRosa #5	May. 26th
Elsie Silver	Fever Dream	Emerald Lake #1	May. 19th
Nalini Singh	Archangel's Eternity	Guild Hunter #35	May. 5th
Kathryn Stockett	The Calamity Club	Standalone	May. 5th
Elizabeth Strout	The Things We Never Say	Standalone	May. 5th
Adrian Tchaikovsky	Terrible Worlds: Destinations	Collection	May. 5th
Martha Wells	Platform Decay	Murderbot Diaries #11	May. 5th
Eva Winners	Under the Albanian Sun	Under #1	May. 1st

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Graeme is the founder of Book Notification. Born in Scotland and now living in Canada, his lifelong love of reading began with Enid Blyton. He enjoys spy thrillers, psychological thrillers, light sci-fi, and anything to do with time travel. His favorite book is Replay by Ken Grimwood.

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