Wondering what to read now? Here are all the hot new August 2023 book releases for you. I’ll let you know what I’ve read, what I can’t wait to read, and what’s getting all the attention this month.
In case you’re new to Booklist Queen, every month I cover all the hottest new book releases. I try to read as many new book releases as I can to give you an honest perspective on what to read and what to skip.
However, I realize that my to-read list might not exactly match yours. That’s why I’ve also included some of the most popular August 2023 book releases from your favorite authors.
Enough from me. Let’s get on to the August 2023 book releases so you can fill up your to-read list.
Top August 2023 Book Releases
The Connellys of County Down
Tracey Lange
After serving 18 months in prison on a drug conviction, Tara Connelly tries to rebuild her life. She moves back in with her siblings – a brother who’s a single dad trying to overcome a brain injury and a sister struggling with an intense need for a sense of control. Just as Tara feels like she might find love again, the cop who arrested her begins to hassle her and the family’s secrets threaten to unravel everything she has worked for.
Once I began The Connellys of County Down I could not put it down, staying up way too late to finish it. Lange builds a rich story about complicated sibling dynamics, each sibling damaged in their own way by their dysfunctional upbringing. Yet the unconditional love between them shines strong, bringing you to tears as they struggle to balance their desires with what is best for the family. With its emotional presence and deep themes, The Connellys of County Down would make an excellent book club book selection.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Celadon Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
My Rating:
Publication Date: 1 August 2023
Amazon | Goodreads | More Info
Good Bad Girl
Alice Feeney
Eighty-year-old Edith is busy hatching her escape plan from the nursing home. As Edith becomes friends with Patience, a nursing home employee, they try to solve a twenty-year child abduction and a recent murder. Yet, Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything and they are about to find they are connected in ways they never imagined.
Happiness Falls
Angie Kim
Twenty-year-old Mia isn’t particularly concerned when her father and brother are late coming home from a walk. Until her little brother walks in covered in blood. With autism and a rare genetic condition, Eugene can’t communicate what happened. Now Mia must race to find answers. Did her father walk away? Did something happen to him? And could Eugene be responsible?
Although I appreciated its deep thought-provoking themes, Happiness Falls is an extremely slow read that was difficult to love. Mia’s narration grated on my nerves and the philosophizing on happiness and communication drug the story out. However, Happiness Falls powerfully hits on the family dynamics of having a nonverbal sibling and the ableist views of society. While I didn’t particularly enjoy it as I was reading it, I’m glad I read it.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Random House Publishing Group through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
My Rating:
Publication Date: 29 August 2023
Amazon | Goodreads | More Info
None of This is True
Lisa Jewell
On her forty-fifth birthday, Alix Summers runs into Josie Fair, who happens to be her birthday twin. Soon Alix runs into Josie again, and Josie convinces Alix that Josie’s life would be a great subject for Alix’s podcast. As Josie manipulates her way into Josie’s life Alix unexpectedly finds herself the subject of her own podcast and must uncover Josie’s dark secrets to protect her family.
Despite its decent start, None of This is True lacked the tension I normally feel in Lisa Jewell’s thrillers. Jewell does an excellent job mixing after-the-fact documentary and podcast interviews into the plotline to keep you wondering how much of Josie’s story is true. Yet, I disliked Josie’s character so much that I struggled to stay engaged. Combined with the anticlimactic ending, None of This is True just didn’t work at all for me even though it’s getting rave reviews from other readers.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Atria Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
My Rating:
Publication Date: 8 August 2023
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After That Night
Karin Slaughter
Fifteen years ago, a night out with friends ended in a violent attack that changed Sara Linton’s life forever. Sara has finally remade her life; she’s now a successful doctor engaged to be married. When a young woman arrives at the ER after a brutal attack, Sara struggles to keep her alive. As GBI Special Agent Will Trent investigates, it becomes clear that this current attack is eerily similar to Sara’s.
Just Another Missing Person
Gillian McAllister
One day, twenty-two-year-old Olivia is spotted on CCTV camera entering a dead-end alley and never coming out again. When Julia is assigned the case, she dreads spending so much time away from her daughter while dealing with a frantic family. Yet Julia soon realizes that her family’s safety depends on framing someone else for Olivia’s murder.
California Golden
Melanie Benjamin
Against all odds, Carol Donnelly has broken the gender-barrier to become a legendary female suffer. Yet her daughters, Mindy and Ginger, struggle to deal with their unconventional childhood and their mother’s physical and emotional absence. As they grow up, their lives start to diverge. Mindy becomes a surfer and gets swept into celebrity while Ginger embraces the counterculture of 1960s California.
Book of the Month – August 2023
Receiving my blue box from Book of the Month Club is a highlight of every month.
Here’s how it works – each month, they pick 5 books and you get to choose one book or skip until the next month. If you want to add any extra books, then you get them at a discounted price.
Each month is usually a mix of new releases and advance copies of unreleased books. If you are interested in joining, right now you can use my Book of the Month Club affiliate link to get your first book for $5!
The August Book of the Month selections are:
See the Complete List of Upcoming Releases!
Reese’s Book Club August 2023 Pick
Tom Lake
Ann Patchett
In 2020, three grown daughters return to their family orchard in Michigan to isolate with their mother. They beg her to tell them about a story from her youth when she fell in love with famous actor Peter Duke while they performed together at the Tom Lake Theater Company. As Lara ponders her life, her daughters begin to wonder about their own choices.
GMA Book Club’s August 2023 Pick
Family Lore
Elizabeth Acevedo
Flor can predict the exact day anyone will die. So when Flor wants a living wake, her sisters and nieces willingly gather together. Confronted with the possibility of Flor’s death or their own, each sister and niece makes a decision about her life in this powerful story of a Dominican-American family. Although Elizabeth Acevedo is best known for her young adult novels, this GMA Book Club pick for August is being praised as a superb adult novel.
Read with Jenna’s August 2023 Book Club Pick
Summer Sisters
Judy Blume
Jenna Bush Hager is picking an old favorite as the perfect beach read about female friendships to end the summer. During the summer of 1977, Vix Leonard’s world changes forever when she is swept into a world of unimaginable privilege after she becomes best friends with Caitlin Summers. Even though they haven’t been close in years, Caitlin begs Vix to be her maid of honor at her wedding. Vix agrees, hoping to discover what caused the rift between them that summer long ago.
The Most Anticipated August 2023 Book Releases
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
James McBride
In the rundown Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, African-Americans and Jewish immigrants have lived side-by-side for decades. Moshe and Chona Ludlow are an integral part of the community. Moshe’s integrated theater and Chona’s grocery store provide a much-needed sense of community as the residents struggle to living in the margins of a white Christian society. When workers discover a skeleton at the bottom of a well in 1972, long-hidden secrets come to light as.
The Breakaway
Jennifer Weiner
Although her life isn’t fully together, Abby is excited to be newly engaged to her childhood best friend Mark, who she met at a weight-loss camp her mother forced her to attend. Yet, Abby still can’t seem to shake the memories of Sebastian, a one-night stand from years ago. When Abby leads a group bike ride from New York City to Niagara Falls, she is shocked when both her mom and Sebastian are participants. Now Abby must navigate the group while avoiding Sebastian and dealing with her years of body insecurities which she blames on her mother.
If you want to read about shallow characters talked about in depth, The Breakaway is the book for you. Meet plus-size cyclist Abby who cheats on her perfectly nice boyfriend with the hot ladies’ man Sebastian, who has slept his way through Brooklyn. All while she decides whether she should move in with that perfectly nice boyfriend who loves her. Add in the hot-topic issue of abortion rights for your side characters, for no other reason than Weiner wanted to make a statement, and you have a hot mess of a summer read.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Atria Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
My Rating:
Publication Date: 29 August 2023
Amazon | Goodreads | More Info
Dark Corners
Megan Goldin
In a sequel to The Night Swim, podcaster Rachel Krall returns to assist the FBI in investigating a case. Popular true crime podcaster Maddison Logan interviewed soon-to-be released serial killer Terence Bailey in prison and then disappeared. But Maddison Logan seems to only exist online. Going undercover at a popular influencer convention, Rachel discovers a fierce world of competitors and suspects that Bailey might have an accomplice on the outside.
While I loved The Night Swim, I didn’t feel like it needed a sequel. And I was wrong. Switching the series from a legal thriller to more of a detective mystery, Dark Corners can easily be read as a standalone novel. Early on, Goldin dedicates chapters to the serial killer’s perspective, so you already know he’s guilty. Instead, you are left trying to figure out how it all connects and hoping Rachel and Special Agent Martinez will solve it before it’s too late. Given the electricity between Rachel and the hot FBI Agent, I could easily see more Rachel Krall books coming in the future.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
My Rating:
Publication Date: 8 August 2023
Amazon | Goodreads | More Info
Out of Nowhere
Sandra Brown
Children’s book author Elle Portman is enjoying a rare night out with her two-year-old son at a Texas county fair when a gunman randomly opens fire into the crowd. Arrogant and selfish corporate consultant Calder Hudson goes from celebrating his latest victory to recovering from a gunshot wound. When Elle and Calder meet at the police station, they find themselves drawn to each other. But can their attraction survive the trauma of the event, especially since the gunman remains at large.
Gone Tonight
Sarah Pekkanen
Ruth Sterling and her daughter Catherine have always been a pair, just the two of them against the world. But Catherine is ready to move out and begin a life of her own and Ruth is desperate for her to stay. There’s a reason that Ruth has kept them on the move for years. As mother and daughter begin a chess match for power, danger lurks for both of them from without and possibly from within, as well.
Learned by Heart
Emma Donoghue
In 1805, fourteen-year-olds Anne Lister and Eliza Raine meet at the Manor School for young ladies, an English boarding school. Quickly tomboy Anne and orphaned heiress Eliza fall in love, a deep passionate affair that is strictly forbidden in their time. Deeply researched from Anne’s secret journal, Learned by Heart is a novel based on the true story of a forbidden love that shaped Anne and Eliza’s lives.
The Invisible Hour
Alice Hoffman
Mia Jacob feels like she has no hope left until she discovers a copy of The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic seems to perfectly describe life in the Community, an oppressive cult in Western Massachusetts that shuns contact with the outside world and considers books evil. Now Mia questions everything she has been taught and dares to break out of her confines to explore a greater world.
Vampires of El Norte
Isabel Cañas
Nine years ago, a monster attacked his true love and Néstor hasn’t gotten over it since. Except Nena survived, believing Néstor abandoned her, and has become a healer in Mexio’s war against the United States. When Nena and Néstor reunite, they must put aside their differences to face a monster that drains men of their blood.
Popular August Upcoming Releases
What August 2023 Book Releases are You Most Excited to Read?
What books can you not wait to get your hands on this month? Did I miss any August 2023 book releases that you are anticipating? As always, let me know in the comments!
More New Book Releases:
