The Best New Books to Read This Spring
Grab your coziest blanket and find your nearest shady tree, it's time to read.
Midweek Musings is a cozy mix of book recs, parenting wins (and fails), and fun activities for the whole family. Intentional updates I’d bring up at a playdate.
Hello, spring. The season of blooming flowers, picnic afternoons, and unhurried strolls. It’s that sweet spot before summer’s heat sends us running back to our fans and air conditioning, so why not make the most of it?
Spending time outdoors doesn’t have to mean action-packed adventures. Sometimes, it’s as simple as soaking up the sunshine with a good book in hand, whether that’s on your balcony, in your backyard, or, my personal favorite, under the shade of a big tree at your favorite park.
If you’re looking for fresh new reads to enjoy this season (or audiobooks to accompany a peaceful nature walk), this list is for you. These spring 2025 releases are perfect for those slow, sunlit moments.
Let’s get into it!
The Love We Found (The Light We Lost) by Jill Santopolo — The long-awaited follow-up to The Light We Lost a thrilling love story about the roles fate and choice play in shaping a life. It’s been ten years. In case you’re out there somewhere. In case you’re listening, I’m here. And I have so much to tell you.Lucy’s journey to uncover Gabe’s secret leads her to Dr. Dax Armstrong, a New Yorker in Italy working with an NGO. His broad shoulders and sad, intense eyes draw Lucy in. His touch reaches her in a forgotten place—one that no one has neared since Gabe. But her old life awaits, along with an earth-shattering decision—whether she and Darren should tell their son Samuel the truth about his father. How can Lucy move forward while she’s rooted in the past? Fate broke her heart once. Can finding new love set her free? Release date: Out now.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins — The newest Hunger Games installment follows Haymitch as he competes in the 50th Hunger Games. The Quarter Quell means twice as many tributes will compete, and when Haymitch Abernathy’s name is among those called, he’s ripped away from his dream of being with the girl he loves. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena. Release date: Out now.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones —If you love horror and historical fiction, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter needs to be on your shelf immediately. It’s a chilling historical horror novel tracing the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice. A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. Release date: Out now.
Heartwood by Amity Gaige — In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. Forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis vanished 200 miles from her final destination. She pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements. Beverly, the Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. A puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental. Release date: April 1st.
Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez — There’s no such thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes close. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the wrong thing. There’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong . . . unless he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date, Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and a relationship is impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. Only no amount of distance or time is enough to forget what’s between them. Release date: April 1st.
The Eights by Joanna Miller — For the first, Oxford University admits female students. Burning with dreams of equality, four young women move into neighboring rooms. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne, and Otto—collectively known as The Eights—come from all walks of life, each driven by their own motives, and are thrown into an unlikely friendship. Among the historic campus, the four women must navigate and support one another in a world in which misogyny is rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War don’t always remain dead. Release date: April 15th.
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry — Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. They’re both on Little Crescent Island to write the biography of Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied families of the 20th century. Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose who’ll tell her story. Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them. Release date: April 22nd.
Notes to John by Joan Didion — In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist. For several months, Didion recorded conversations with the psychiatrist in meticulous detail, describing the sessions in a journal she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Didion’s journal was crafted with the singular intelligence, precision, and elegance that characterize all of her writing. It is an unprecedently intimate account that reveals sides of her that were unknown, but the voice is unmistakably hers—questioning, courageous, and clear in the face of a wrenchingly painful journey. Release date: April 22nd.
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker — Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of murders and suicides in Chinatown. But none of that seems so terrible when she’s already witnessed her sister, Delilah, being pushed in front of a train. Before fleeing the scene, the murderer shouted two words: bat eater. Ever since Delilah was killed, Cora can’t be sure what’s real and what’s in her head. But she can’t ignore the dread in her stomach as she keeps finding bats at crime scenes or that all her recent cleanups have been East Asian women. Release date: April 29th
My Friends by Fredrik Backman — Most people don’t notice the three tiny figures in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. But Louisa is determined to find the story behind them. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their homes on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes and sharing secrets. Out of that summer emerges a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into Louisa’s care. She embarks on a cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Release date: May 6th.
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong — One late summer evening, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. He quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to transform Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community on the brink. Release date: May 13th.
Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle — Konstantin Duhovny’s father died when he was ten, and ghosts have been hovering around him ever since. Kostya can’t exactly see the ghosts, but he can taste their favorite foods. He discovers that he can reunite people with their deceased loved ones for the length of time it takes them to eat a dish that he’s prepared. To offer closure to grieving strangers, he enters a particularly fiery ring of Hell: the New York culinary scene. But catastrophe looms in the Afterlife. And the one person who knows Kostya must be stopped also happens to be falling in love with him. Release date: May 20th.
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane — A joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law. Macfarlane takes readers on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk stream a mile from Macfarlane’s house. Release date: May 20th.
The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig — Sybil Delling is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. People travel across the kingdom to learn their futures. Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. The knight, Rodrick, has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish, she has no choice but to seek his help. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god. Release date: May 20th.
Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood - Maya Killgore is twenty-three and still in the process of figuring out her life. Conor Harkness is thirty-eight, a successful biotech guy and her brother’s best friend. Any relationship between them would be problematic in too many ways to count. At Maya’s brother’s wedding, she and Conor end up stuck together in a romantic Sicilian villa for over a week. And as the destination wedding begins to erupt out of control, she decides that a problematic summer fling might be just what she needs. Release date: May 27.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab — Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532. London, 1827. Boston, 2019. Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots. One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild. And all of them grow teeth. Release date: June 10.
With a Vengeance by Riley Sager — Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family’s downfall in 1942 onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago. 12 years after her family was destroyed, she wants to confront the people who’ve wronged her and deliver them into the hands of authorities waiting at the end of the line. But Anna’s plan is derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. Someone else on board is enacting their own form of revenge—and they won’t stop until everyone else is dead. Release date: June 10.
There’s something special about spring reading. Fresh air, a warm breeze, and a book you can’t put down. Whether you’re looking for a gripping thriller, a heartfelt romance, or a thought-provoking literary gem, this season’s lineup has something for everyone.
Which of these spring releases are you adding to your TBR? Or do you have a favorite go-to book for reading outdoors? Drop a comment below, I can’t wait to chat!
The Second Act is an entirely reader-supported publication. Click here to subscribe or gift a friend a subscription here (if a friend sent you this —tell them thanks!). Anything you want covered? Questions? Reply with a comment below! You can also find me on Instagram. Please come say hi!
Can you do me a favor? If you like this, will you hit the heart ❤️ on the bottom of your email? I promise it helps!